Chapter 58

Grandline, Paradise, Long Ring Long land

Aokiji, despite his otherwise lazy appearance had a sharp mind, often forgotten by his many enemies that he had fought over the years in his service under the marines and the world government.

And said sharp mind tried to figure out why this young man seemed so dangerous to him. Yes, he possessed haki but that wasn't rare once you took a look at the upper echelon of the grandline. Sure, it was rare to find one in Paradise, but that was about it. So why was it, that this young man was able to make him cautious? Him, an admiral?

"Mamama, not so hasty young man. I didn't come here today to fight. You know, and all that." Aokiji drawled in his usual tone, as if nothing in the world could excite him anymore.

"And anyway, to challenge and attack the world government directly isn't a very smart move. Especially not from a rooky, ya know." Aokiji spoke, sticking his little finger inside his nose, searching for the biggest treasure in the whole grandline. One Piece! Just kidding hehehe...

"If you say so... Now shut it and lets fight!" Azul spoke, growing bored of the salmon he had just received from the admiral bringing a rare tick to the admirals forehead.

"As you wish." Aokiji spoke, exhaling white mist from his mouth as his body began to frost over and crack from the splintering of the dropping temperatures that surrounded him, freezing the ground in his perimeter along with himself, preparing himself for the battle that was to come.

Azul though came out of his stance making Aokiji frown a little and spoke:

"Nearly forgot. Gimme a second..." and with that Azul disappeared from his position to reapear directly behind Robin before lifting her into the air with the usual yelp of surprise before disappearing once more, setting her down on top of the flying lambs deck, after which he smiled at her calmly and disappeared once more, leaving for Aokiji before setting himself down into his battlestance once more. "Now, where were we? Oh yes. I was about to rip you to shreds!" Azul said, grinning and growing in height, fur sprouting all over his body while his apendages began to burn brightly, heating the air up around himself, making the oxigen shimmer under the heat he was producing. After he had grown to nearly 5 meters in height he began to shrink once more, becoming more compact and his flames gained in intensity.

"Second form: forming the beast!" Azul spoke in a deep growling voice before hopping into the air to avoid possible attacks that Aokiji could unleash from freezing the ground.

Not waiting for his opponent to attack first, Aokiji formed spears from thin air, sending them hurdling at his target, while he himself rushed forwards at a different angle, trying to blindside his enemy. Azul dodged the spears that wistled past his ears, never letting his opponent out of his eyes before rushing forwards with a rush of blistering heat accompanying him, throwing a quick straight kick at Aokiji's stomach, who swiftly swirled to the side, attempting to grab onto the leg, which he succeeded in though came to regret due to his hand melting on contact, before he let go and jumped back into the distance, reforming his melted hand.

'No freezing on contact it seems...' Aokiji thought while dodging claw strikes left and right, sometimes ducking below a blistering kick that nearly burned his hair off, splitting his focus between his haki, to telegraph and read his opponents intentions, which wasn't easy at all due to his opponents blurred contenance, obviously knowing how to mask his intentions well enough and thus making the fight even harder for the admiral.

After ducking after a kick for his head, Aokiji went on the offensive himself, trying to deliver a hit to Azuls head, which he avoided by bending his head back slightly backwards, but with that actions stretched his stomache and enabled Aokiji a freezing punch straight into Azuls solar plexus, which left him weezing for air for a second, all the while having to dodge kicks from the admiral that smashed the ground into pieces or froze the earth on contact. After regaining his breathing Azul opened his minds eye as wide as possible and was able to predict a punch from the admiral that was aimed at his liver which Azul blocked, bringing elbow down in a guard before his upper body and used the momentum of the admirals advancement to smash his own elbow into the admirals temple and followed up by extending his lower arm, ripping with his fire and haki enhanced claws through the admirals face, causing said man to howl in pain from the four claw marks that now adorned the tall mans face from his cheek to the nose.

Jumping backwards, Aokiji tried to slow the bloodflow on his face by cooling the temperatur around the wound down to the lowest point and succeeded to a point. The problem though was the depth of the wound. At the deepest point the wound had already been cauterized, and thus left a cut on the mans face, no matter how well the rest of the wound was mended together in the future, making the admiral growl in anger.

"You'll pay for that!" He snarled, only receiving a bloodthirsty grin in reply, before rushing his opponent once more, awakening his devilfruit powers, making snow fall from the heavens and cooling the whole island down to a freezing point until the whole island was covered in a faint sheen of frost, which steadily grow in density.

Azul meanwhile was preparing for one hell of a tough battle after feeling the temperature of the whole island drop below zero and came to understand that somehow Aokiji had caused the powers of his devilfruit to skyrocket, making him a much tougher opponent than he already was.

Focusing his strength inwards, Azul began to increase his inner fires density and strength, causing more and more of his body to ignite into flames, as if the fire from his legs and arms climbed up his arms to reach his head as a goal in competition. Last but not least he unleashed his conquerors haki on the surroundings, which exploded outwards in a shockwave, making Aokiji's eyes widen in shock.

'He possesses conqueror's haki and can even control it? F.u.c.k! No more playing around! This just grew alot more dangerous...' Aokiji thought to himself with sharpening focus, now fully in battle-mode.

As he was rushing forward towards his opponent, accompanied by chunks of frozen ground that levitated around him and reformed under his will into sharp weapons to kill his enemy on his command, a sharp intrusion struck Aokiji straight in his mind, like an invisible spear that tore through his logias protective shell, impacting his spirit directly, making Aokiji cry out in pain at the mental attack, and caused him to cough up a mouthful of blood while stumbling back in pain, holding his head all the while.

Azul, after forming his conqueror's haki into a lethal weapon to pierce the admirals defenses to make him vulnerable for a longer time, sprang into action immediately while his thrusting steps ignited the frozen grass beneath his feet, before after being left alone once more freezing over, rushing towards his enemy.

Seeing the admiral in considerable pain, Azul brought both of his claws to his c.h.e.s.t and crossed them with the claws pointing towards his opponent.

With a roar Azuls eyes brightened due to the rush of power that his devilfruit supplied him with, while he focused more and more heat in his claws until they became blistering white from heat alone, producing such heat that no snow or ice made it into his immediate vicinity before melting away swiftly.

Growling for all to hear with a penetrating voice Azul disappeared with a sonic boom caused from the displaced air and the splittering ground behind him to appear right above Aokiji, who's eyes widened in horror, now realising he was unable to dematerialize fast enough, if at all before feeling a searing pain errupt on his right shoulder, cleaving right through like a hot knife through butter, only just stopping at his ripcage.

"Ashes to ashes, Dust to dust!" Azul intoned while cleaving through Aokiji who roared in pain to the heavens, before a gigantic boom splintered the ground of the island with an enormous shaking ecompanying it.

Azul meanwhile jumped back while transforming into his humanform, sweat running down his forehead and upperbody, soaking the beginnings of his trousers which were torn at some points from the intense fighting. Panting he collapsed on one knee, having exhausted most of his mental and physical energy while fighting the admiral for all this time, as he just now realized that the sun was beginning to set in the horizon. The fatigue finally catching up with him, Azul collapsed backwards, only now realizing that Robin had come rushing towards them as the last clash had ended, and caught him before he hit the ground. Closing his eyes in contentment Azul finally fell asleep to recover from the toll of the hardfought battle.

Robin meanwhile was shocked to see the state Aokiji was in, after she had caught Azul and checked if the enemy was still a threat, but found out he wasn't. Hell, she couldn't even tell if he was still breathing from his looks. His right shoulder was limply hanging from the rest of his upper body, still attached but cauterized so heavily that it probably need to be amputated, if he was still alive that is.

Still, she was too cautious to attempt to drive a knife through his heart. Who knows what kind of reflexes a monster like him still had!

Shoving the mental image of Aokiji out of her mind, she sprouted a few more arms to help carry the unconcious Azul back to the flying lamb as he was in no condition to travel on his own, let alone carry her.

After settling him inside and Chopper checking him over, the crew decided to swiftly depart from the island, not wanting to risk another admiral showing up, no matter how unlikely it seemed. And so they set sail for water 7.

Aokiji was in horrible pain, not being able to feel his right arm and shoulder at all he was to afraid to take a look in fear of what he would find but knew he had to do something as he would die otherwise. His opponent had left as it seemed so he nestled his transpondersnail out of his pocket, surprised that it had survived their fierce confrontation, calling the imergency hotline for highranking members of the marines and was promptly received.

"This is admiral Aokiji speaking. I am located on Long Ring Long land, a small island in Paradise, and am in need of immediate medical help, due to having sustained mortal wounds which may cause my demise if not treated soon enough. I will try to slow my heartbeat down with my devilfruit so I will not bleed to death but please. Hurry the f.u.c.k up!" Aokiji ground out in a pained voice, shocking the receiving end to no end at what the admiral had just told her. After waking up from her stupor the marine captain at the other end immediately send word to the higher ups who rushed to send the nearest marine ship to the admirals help. Who could possibly have caused such wounds to an admiral in Paradise? About this incident alot of questions were asked, but all of them needed to wait until Aokiji was treated and they could get whoever was responsible for this grievous insult to the marines and the world government!