Chapter 66 - War of the best: retreat (12/?)

On the battlefield.

Luffy who was battling a vice admiral with the help of Blamenco, saw how Ace was saved and was coming towards them.

He finally smiled a little. He had been extra tired from all the events that happened today for him. And once he saw Ace, he regained a bit of vigor, and reentered the fight against the vice admiral. Granted the rank was high for the current him, but with the help of this commander he had been able to make use of his abilities to take down many marines, and this vice admiral was soon going to join them.

****

With Whitebeard.

He couldn't help but let out a content boisterous laugh as he punched the air sideways with both arms, and broke the air releasing shockwaves that cleared the area near him, and made the admirals and Sengoku retreat a bit.

'Ian you… have really done as you said…' Whitebeard couldn't help but remember the time when Ian told him to leave it to him.

He started focusing again and pressuring the two admirals and Sengoku even more, so that they would not stand in Ian's way. He even started paving the path for his sons to retreat as he took the normal marines in even more numbers. Whitebeard was not known for his strength for nothing… any attack of him broke the surroundings into rubble as it knocked out a lot of marines just from the shockwaves…

****

With Sengoku.

'Damn it all…' He was furious. Nothing was going on right for them at this war. Ace was free, and all of them were kept on edge, if even one of them lost focus Whitebeard would take that chance and deliver a devastating attack to them. It had already happened to Akainu who had blood all over his face from one attack he took.

If the admiral was not known for his stamina and resilience, he would already be unconscious.

Sengoku was already in his transformed form. As he ate the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Buddha.

The main strength of this fruit is that it allows the user to transform into a giant, living, golden Buddha, gaining an extreme boost in strength to match his size. In this form, Sengoku's limbs grow out of proportion, giving him abnormally large arms and relatively tiny legs. His entire body takes on a solid gold hue; in addition to a full and hybrid transformation that are available to all Zoan Devil Fruit users, he can use palm thrusts to launch powerful shock waves.

He attacked Whitebeard with the strategy of him being the defense, while the two admirals would take the offense, but Whitebeard easily kept up with his strength and even dealt blows that managed to hurt him despite his increased defense. All in all he was struggling in this fight. And any attack of them at the retreating pirates was stopped by Whitebeard. He even was furious as he punched Akainu who had been gunning for Ace, until he had troubles breathing…

Sengoku wanted for Garp to join them, as that way he felt they might stand a chance, as he knew how strong Garp really was. Even if Ian had knocked him out, Sengoku knew that it was just Garp who underestimated him. But Garp had no plans to join in this fight, as he allowed the marines to take him on a stretcher.

Which only served to annoy him even further. But he understood the reasons of why he had done so.

And now Ace was free and all the pirates was starting to retreat. All due to that Ian. He was starting to believe that the person who had been stopping their attacks from earlier was him too. He wanted nothing but to go dispose of him right now… but the circ.u.mstances didn't allow him. He was starting to feel that they will lose this war.

****

Unlike in the anime however, Ace was not so stupid as to be provoked by Akainu, as he knew that what he was yelling from afar was just stupid, as such he continued running with Ian until they joined Marco. He had been caught as he had ignored his pops words after all. He even saw how Whitebeard dealt Akainu a blow that satisfied him…

Ian reached Marco, and told him to take care of Ace as he goes to help the old man.

"Oi, Marco, make sure you keep Ace and Luffy safe as you retreat. I will go help the old man now as we buy you time" Ian said and didn't wait for any response as he started running at the direction of the old man.

Marco was joined by his fellow commanders as they were retreating. He gave a nod of thanks at Ian as he knew with how strong he was his help to Whitebeard was more than enough.

Not even a minute had passed and Ian had joined the old man, and was already attacking at Akainu with his sword at hand coated in Haki as he kept releasing Sword slashes at him and the surrounding Marines trying to follow the retreating pirates.

Sometimes he vanished only to appear attacking Kizaru from the back making dodge quickly, and sometimes he would be attacking Sengoku who was huge in size, in his legs and joints… his combination attack with the old man left them no chance to breathe at all.

Soon after the pirates surrounding Marco and Ace passed the mark where Ian and Whitebeard were fighting at. Once they did, the old man and Ian started using attacks that dealt wide area effects, like the old man using his weapon to attack in an arc filled with Quake power and Ian using his sword to release massive flying sword slashes.

After the last attack both parties separated for a bit and Whitebeard took this chance.

"Listen well!! Whitebeard pirates!!" He yelled in a voice that was loud enough to be heard all around.

"This is an ORDER as your captain!!" He added after a second of silence. "Retreat into the new world right now!!" Although the majority of them were retreating behind Ace, he said his order for them all to go. And what was more was that he was saying this for them to understand that he will only join them later.

"Don't worry about this old man, you have my promise that I will join you later" He then c.o.c.ked his arms as he delivered an enormous quake into the city of Marineford that made it start to crumble…

"Go!! You guys!!" he finally yelled.

Some were not okay with this, including ace and Marco, but at his final yell they reluctantly followed his order as they kept running.