30 Chapter 30: Show of Skills

Third Person's PoV:

"RAI....KEN!!" Josh pushed his body forward into the air and drew his left arm backward, his hand firmly locked into a fist and punched into the air.

At that moment, it was as if the heaven itself was trembling. The previously calm and undisturbed sky suddenly started changing.

Dark clouds loomed above everyone as the mighty roar of the fist made of lightning charged towards Mihawk.

The Raiken is a technique Josh thought of when he was still in training. Basically, Josh charged his fist full of concentrated electricity and send it hurling towards his enemies.

In the shape of a fist, the Raiken is about the size of a small ship like the Going Merry. Within the fist are millions of densely packed voltages of electricity. Even someone like Mihawk wouldn't get away without receiving damage if left unprotected.

Josh got the idea for it when he thought of Ace and his moniker of 'Fire Fist' which derives from his technique called 'Hiken'.

Mihawk smirked. He found it odd that he was doing that so often ever since meeting the Strawhat pirates. His deliberate attempt at riling up the brat had worked perfectly. As a master swordsman, how could he not know the true intentions of his opponent?

Crouching slightly and his feet firmly planted on the shell of the turtle, Mihawk arched his sword back and made preparations for his counterattack.

Mihawk stared fearlessly at the raging fist that was directly headed his way. With inhuman speed, he swung the Yoru vertically, creating a flying slash that was colored green.

The two opposing forces soon clashed right in the middle and battled for dominance for a few seconds before the outcome was clear.

The winner was obvious. Although the Raiken was an immensely powerful move, it isn't as highly concentrated as Mihawk's attack.

The flying slash released by Mihawk cut through Josh's Raiken and continued moving all the way through to the clouds and made a big gash appear right in the sky.

This entire scene made Luffy and the others speechless and left them gobsmacked.

"W-What just happened?" Usopp asked with a shaky and slightly high pitched voice. His mouth wouldn't close no matter how much he wanted it to.

Looking to the side at his companions, Usopp saw that they were in an even bigger shock, especially for Luffy as his mouth was hung open the widest....or itcould just be because of his devil fruit.

"I got it. Josh threw a lightning punch and that hawky ossan cut it...and the sky." Luffy said after calming down. His expression was filled with clarity as if he just solved the mystery of the century.

"Like he said, what just happened....?"

Gently, Josh fell back down to the shell due to the laws of gravity. His expression didn't show any disbelieve as he expected it to happen.

"I knew it wasn't gonna be that easy.." he said out loud.

"Hmph. It'll take more than that to injure me." Mihawk replied cooly. His face stoic as always. It was as if the emotions he showed previously were nothing but an illusion.

'Alright, I already knew that he could cut through my long ranged attacks...how about I try these?' Josh said mentally as he prepared himself to try out another tactic.

The reason Mihawk was able to cut the Raiken before it even reached him is due to several reasons. Not only was the technique itself a giant target, it was also slow enough for Mihawk to leisurely launch a counterattack.

What would happen if Josh's attacks were smaller, faster, and more in number?

With that thought in mind, Josh put away the gun in hisright hand back to it's rightful place and prepared his other "guns".

Bringing out both of his hands in front of him, Josh pointed one finger out from each hand and his thumbs facing the sky.

It looked just like a kid's imitation of holding a gun, which left the spectators confused.

Josh already learned his lesson from the first time he tried to shoot at Mihawk with the seastone gun. His problem was the accuracy. The only way Josh knew how to make up for it is by shortening the distance between himself and the target and shooting more bullets, hoping they would hit the bullseye.

Fortunately or unfortunately for Josh, the distance between himself and Hawkeye was short enough to make up for his lack of accuracy. However, this also means that Josh is in danger of attacks from Mihawk.

"Raigan" Josh commanded. Just as he said this, electricity started coiling itself all over both of his arms as if it was a serpent wrapping itself around its prey. The tips of his index fingers were brightly glowing in yellow and the sound of electric currents could be heard.

With a distinct yet indescribable sound, bullets made of yellow lightning continuously shot out from the tips of his fingers in pairs.

Each bullet was highly concentrated, small, and faster than the Raiken. Although the destructive capabilities of the Raiken was much higher than a hundred of Raigans combined, it was much more effective against a single, powerful opponent. One can think of the Raiken as an AOE attack from a video game.

Mihawk prepared to defend himself. He was someone who enjoyed a challenge very much. This was part of the reason he let Zoro live after he challenged him to a life and death duel. Mihawk saw potential in Zoro so he would let that potential grow until Zoro was strong enough to face him.

Each bullet was still clumsily shot, but they were more accurate than the ones Josh fired with the gun. This is mainly because it was all shot from his fingers, so the control was much easier.

Mihawk dodge a bullet with a simple shift of his body while blocking another with Yoru. Unlike normal bullets, he couldn't deflect or redirect them. After all, these were bullets made of electricity.

Mihawk continued to dodge and block the rain of yellow balls. After awhile, he realized that something was wrong. The feeling was very subtle yet it kept on increasing with each bullet he came in contact with. Mihawk's sight fell on Josh and he noticed the victorious smirk Josh had on his face.

On the other side, Josh continued raining bullet after bullet. Never giving Mihawk the chance to come closer to him...or at least he hopes to. He wasn't skilled enough to keep someone like Mihawk restrained for long and he knew that.

His purpose for using the Raigan was one that he thought out before executing. Josh initially wanted to stun Mihawk once the swordsman blocked one of his bullets with Yoru. Giving him the chance to continue hitting him with more bullets and stacking the damages.

Imagine his surprise when he saw Mihawk acting as if he didn't even notice the thousands of electric currents running through his body. It was then that he realized, the electricity wasn't very effective. This baffled him to no end at first.

'Was your ancestor a rock!?' He screamed mentally. But then, he noticed something. It was very minuscule, but with the help of observation Haki, Josh was able to tell that Mihawk's movements were slowing down a bit.

Josh had an epiphany at that moment. 'This monster must've trained his body to the point of being able to resist electricity...or he's using Haki to protect himself.' he thought.

However, the effects slowly took shape, and the nerves all over Hawkeye's body started to become more and more sluggish, causing his reaction time and movement to be slowed down.

Mihawk wasn't worried one bit. This situation would be deadly for a lot of powerful people in the Grandline, but he was different. As soon as Hawkeye saw a gap within the bullets, he took that to his advantage and launched another flying slash. This time it was horizontal.

Josh accidentally made a mistake due to his negligence and carelessness. He felt elated that his move was working against his opponent and his guard slipped for a moment.

The master swordsman noticed that immediately and made his own attack, dispersing all of the incoming bullets with a single slash that kept going forward.

Mihawk could've easily gotten out of the trap if he used a bit more of his strength, but decided not to since there was an easier way.

Josh immediately bent his upper body backward and narrowly avoided his nose being cut off. Just as he was about to sigh in relief, Mihawk suddenly appeared in front of him and kicked him right in the stomach.

Josh went flying all the way to the edge of the turtle shell, coughing intermittently.

"Shit..I should stop getting distracted...ugh." Josh said as he struggled to get up. The kick was infused with haki so it was able to make physical contact with him.

"You are doing much better than before. Let's continue." Mihawk said as he once again dashed towards the blonde.