Chapter 102

"Dos Fleur," As Robin crossed her forearms to form X-like shape, two arms sprouted from many marines that jumped towards Prominence, "Clutch!"

*Crunch* *Crunch*

Many bone-crunching sounds were heard simultaneously, as those sprouted arms instantly broke the marine soldiers' necks, causing them to drop lifelessly, into the water.

In midst of the chaos, Cavendish was seen to be vanishing from ship to ship with incredible speed. As he passed by, many marine soldiers fell with a slash on their back.

"Watch your surroundings! It's the Pirate Prince!!" Someone within the force cried, as all the marine soldiers tensed up and looked to their left and right.

*Clang*

At the next moment, Cavendish found himself surprised, as his sword was blocked by the sword belonging to another man.

"Ho, who are you?" Cavendish asked with interest, as their swords struggled to overcome one another.

Eventually, the man had to jump back with clenched teeth, as Cavendish's strength quickly overwhelmed him,

"I'm Captain T Bone! I won't let you slaughter any more of my men!!"

Cavendish squinted his eyes hearing this, "Only Captain? I expected Rear Admiral."

T Bone didn't speak any further, but charged at Cavendish with his sword pointing towards the latter.

"Right Angle Flash: Bone Soir!!" As T Bone swung his sword, a wave of rectangular cut was sent forth to Cavendish.

*Swoosh*

Cavendish blurred away from his position as T Bone's attack passed through the scene and cut through the section of the marine ship.

"Last time, along with my laugh... I felt that naming my techniques as One Sword Style and Two Sword Style felt... too bland!!" All of a sudden, from the behind of T Bone, Cavendish began to sprout nonsense, causing T Bone to stare at him questioningly, "Along with my newfound laugh, I now have a clear idea of what their true names should be!!"

With his eyes glaring at Cavendish, T Bone raised his sword and positioned is behind his back, before slashing with strength.

"Right Angle Flying Bird: Bone Odori!!!"

A beam of sword wave rushed out of his sword and rapidly flew towards Cavendish, who smiled maniacally.

The other marine soldiers stared at Cavendish fearfully, as the atmosphere began to turn cold and ominous.

*SWOOSH*

Immediately after, T Bone found himself surprised, as Cavendish suddenly disappeared and his attack was extinguished out of its existence.

"Beautiful Sword: Vent Rosé." All of a sudden, Cavendish's calm voice was heard from his behind, and T Bone's eyes widened. Lowering his sight, T Bone found a large gash on his midriff.

"How..."

*Thud*

With a final moment of disbelief, T Bone lost his consciousness and fell down on the deck powerlessly.

"C-Captain T Bone!!" One marine soldier said in shock, and Cavendish watched as many of them began to step forward, protecting the unconscious T Bone with their swords pointing at him—even though their legs were shaking in fear.

"E-even if we were to die here..." Another marine soldier stated with a gulp, "We won't let you lay another finger on Captain T Bone!!"

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

With the sudden noises resounding throughout the battlefield, Cavendish momentarily turned his head to the source of the sound, and frowned as he noticed the cannonballs that were flying towards Prominence.

Instantly jumping up from the ship he was currently situated in, Cavendish slashed his sword numerous times,

"Beautiful Sword: Ouragan Rosé."

Instantly, the countless number of cuts began to appear around the cannonballs, and they were diced into dust before having gotten a chance to explode.

Landing back on the Prominence, Cavendish inspected their current situation. Robin and Farul were preventing any marine soldiers from boarding the ship, and Alfred was invading the other marine ships just as he was.

"This is getting annoying." Cavendish muttered to himself as the left side of his face began to morph into Hakuba's facial expression. Raising his sword, Cavendish was about to unleash his techniques on the marine ships in front of him, however,

"Can't let you do that."

Cavendish hurriedly moved his sword to his side to block spear-like ice before it managed to stab him.

*CLANG*

With the ringing sound of metal, the ice spear shattered into pieces.

Kuzan was sitting on the rail of Prominence, right next to Cavendish.

"...How come you are here?" Cavendish growled in a low tone, while trying to locate Carmen and Dan.

Kuzan shrugged, "It isn't that hard, really. One relies on fruit too much, and the other is simply inexperienced with it. Just a slight tip-over, and-"

Stopping his speech midway, Kuzan tilted his head slightly,

*PAZZZZZZZZ*

The intense beam of blue-coloured lightning passed through where his head previously lied.

"Black Mask, huh? Guess you are stronger than I thought." Kuzan said while scratching the back of his head as he located Dan, who was standing with ripped clothes and a bleeding hole on his left shoulder.

"Aokiji." Robin spoke out with a hint of nervousness in her tone, "What are you doing here?"

Kuzan shifted his eyes to Robin, who was glaring at him cautiously.

"Trust me, Nico Robin. I didn't want to come either." Kuzan said as he yawned, "I was on my cycle break, enjoying the rest, and Sakazuki had to pester me all of a sudden. Annoying."

In the next moment, Carmen and Dan made their way to Prominence by transforming themselves into their respective elements. They were found with numerous injuries on them, but their determined gazes showed that their fighting spirits didn't die.

Facing off against four members of the Grimheart pirates at once, Kuzan casually placed his hand on his chin, "You know, I was gonna, uh, what was it again? Hmm... I forgot."

Then, at the next moment,

<F*** you, get off of me!!>

A strange voice was heard out of nowhere, before the deck that Kuzan was standing on, bent upwards, causing him to bounce up in the air, away from the Prominence.

""""...Huh?"""" Carmen, Dan, Cavendish, and Robin expressed their stupefaction, unable to comprehend just what happened.

Prominence sat in silence as Kuzan and the Grimheart pirates stared at each other in confusion, with the occasional booming sounds from the neighbouring marine ships heard due to Alfred and Farul's endeavours.

__________________

*BOOOOOOOOOOM*

Rowan found his mouth slightly parting as he witnessed the power behind Garp's punch, which he barely managed to dodge.

"An energy...?" Rowan muttered to himself, trying to understand the mechanism behind Garp's newfound ability.

'It almost scraped me, even though Garp's fist was far away from me.' Rowan thought grimly, 'Energy, flow... wait. Don't tell me-'

Rowan couldn't think any further, as Garp, with a wide grin, once again propelled himself towards Rowan with his glowing Haki-imbued fist cocked back.

"Bwahaha, it's time to up the game, is it not?!" Garp laughed, "Take this, Marco Fist!!"

Rowan clenched his teeth,

"Sonic Step!!"

With the combination of Soru, Bounce force, and his physical strength, Rowan vanished from his spot, narrowly dodging another punch from Garp.

*BOOOOOOOOOOM*

A large rock ahead of them got decimated into dusts and a huge volume of water rose in shock.

"Gaban Fist!!!" Garp shouted as his left fist thrusted forward towards Rowan, who used Sonic Step to evade it once more.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOM*

The air roared and gushed towards the place Garp punched, signifying how much force was behind his attack.

However, to Rowan's horror, Garp's attacks until now were nothing. As Garp got into another posture for a punch, Rowan instinctively knew,

'I won't be able to dodge this one.'

With a wild disposition of Garp in display, Rowan took a deep breath. 'I'm going to have to do it.'

Reaching for his face, Rowan grabbed his blindfold, momentarily lifted it up and back down at a blinding speed, analyzing Garp's reddish glow in an instant moment.

"Eh?" Garp momentarily halted and tilted his head, "What's the point of doing that? peekaboo?"

He didn't seem to care or notice the amber-coloured glow in Rowan's eyes, since he was more focused on Rowan's Haki-imbued arms.

Rowan's muttered to himself as he slowly lowered his posture, "So that's it. I finally understand—the flow and emission of Armament Haki are what you are doing. I've already done those before with bullets."

*Swooosh*

Upon Rowan's command, the spiritual energy began to flow around his arms, and eventually, a bright golden energy-like substance manifested around his already-Haki-imbued arms, in a similar fashion to Garp.

"Oh, you can do emission as well?!" Garp exclaimed with widened eyes, before he frowned in mild anger, "You held back against me?!!"

Rowan's Observation Haki warned him of an upcoming danger, as he sighted Garp clenching his cocked back fist,

"You brat, pay the price for not respecting the old!!!" Garp remarked as he thrusted his fist forward, "Linlin Fist!!!"

Rowan clenched his right fist as hard as possible, which was now covered with the emission of Armament Haki, before blasting his fist forward,

"Twenty-Five Layers Convergence, Fifty Hit, Entropic Imbuement: Juggernaut Drive!!!!!!!"

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

The whole sky shook as the exploding noises thundered across the whole area. Even the battle nearby the G-8 momentarily stopped upon hearing the soul-shivering uproar that boomed due to the collision between two individuals.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

From Rowan's fist, a consecutive bounce force blasted off, surprising Garp.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

Garp found himself beginning to be pushed back.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

"Heh, there we go, why not do this sooner?!!" As Rowan and Garp began to accelerate in Rowan's favour, Garp shouted with a jovial grin as he cocked back his free left fist.

Although hidden behind the blindfold, Rowan's eyes glowed intensely from mustering as much strength as possible behind his fist, "F****** die already!!!!!!!"

"O-ooohh!" Garp exclaimed comically as he was sent propelling backward before he could throw his left fist, with the incredible bounce forces consecutively crashing onto him.

*BOOOOOM*

The large ripples of water arose as Garp crashed back into the water, and those waves began to travel to G-8, where the whole mass of marines and the Grimheart pirates were clustered.

"Garp-san, are you serious?" Kuzan said in a dumbfounded expression while in midair, before reaching his hand out towards the rapidly travelling wave,

"Ice Age!!"

A short strand of ice began to expand from Kuzan's hand, and upon coming in contact with the water, the whole wave instantly froze.

"...Dude." Dan commented as he held onto his bleeding shoulder, "He's a monster."

"This is ridiculous." Carmen snarled with her right arm limp due to having been broken, "How can flame lose against ice?"

_______________

*Clang* *Clang* *Clang*

Carina frowned in displeasure, upon her strikes having been blocked by Jonathan effortlessly.

"Your fruit is certainly versatile." Jonathan stated calmly.

*Clang*

With his sword, Jonathan blocked another knife of Carina, who flashed from his front to his back, before instantaneously slashing her Haki-imbued knife once more,

*Clang* *Clang*

Jonathan, with notable reflex, managed to parry all of her attacks without much trouble.

"However, your Haki is lacking short."

Just when Jonathan noted, a crack appeared in the middle of Carina's Haki-imbued knife, before shattering into pieces.

"Still, being able to use Haki for a crew as new as you, surely is an incredible feat." Jonathan said as his eyes shifted to his right and raised his sword up,

*Clang*

Jonathan blocked yet another strike from Carina, who pulled out a new knife from her pouch.

Having expected Jonathan's successful defence, Carina's eyes sharpened as she instantly flashed a countless number of times around Jonathan at a blinding pace,

"Flash Style: Hundred Blades."

*Clang* *Clang* *Clang* *Clang* *Clang*

At the next moment, Jonathan moved his sword at an inconceivable speed, with the sharp noises of metals colliding against one another filling the whole surroundings.

Flipping backward, Carina swiftly landed on her feet.

'Damn, I have to ditch this marine officer somehow.' Carina thought to herself as she shifted her eyes to her left and right.

"Quite incredible, but-" Jonathan spoke up impassively, before his cheek parted open slightly, revealing a cut made by Carina.

Bringing his hand up to his cheek, Jonathan exclaimed with a raised eyebrow, "Oh?"