145 Marco vs Kuzan

The marine Captain stared gobsmacked on the observation deck as strong winds assaulted the prow of the ship. A strong wind had begun to brew as the Vice Admiral had taken to the floor to bring the mysterious man into custody.

He could barely follow along with the fight as the two figures clashed, the ground beneath their feet cracked as the met in a thunderous clash. The Vice Admiral was faster, but the mysterious man seemed to know his move's inside and out.

He saw through every fake, and stabbed easily through the Vice Admiral's guard. And when the Vice Admiral advanced with his trusty fists, the other man seemed to fade away returning instantly at another spot from where he would stab dangerously.

While the Vice Admiral did not bleed, his sheered clothes alongside his frustrated expression made it clear that he was feeling anything but joy at the way that the fight was going.

"Captain! Word from Vice Admiral Sakazuki! he located Vice Admiral Borsolino who is in desperate need of medical aid. The two are making their way to the ship as we speak!" A man in the control room bellowed out as he held a pale and small snail in his palm.

It was a baby Transponder snail that was most commonly used for retrieval missions like these. One would be in the hands of the field agent while the other would remain in the control room, ready to connect the two creatures if there was even a single sign of danger.

"What about Vice Admiral Kuzan?" The captain asked as he glanced around him. Anxiousness in his voice as he fidgeted around. He was seriously unqualified in the situation at hand and it was really showing.

While the ship held a massive force that was the four Vice Admirals there was not a single Rear Admiral that the headquarters could possibly re assign on such short notice. After all most marine bases in the Grand line and the New world would be headed by the Rear Admirals. The single Commodore that the ship housed had also unfortunately been wounded in the conflict prior and was currently resting in the barracks. Thus, it had fallen to the Captains to give orders on ship, and boy were they nervous!

"No word from the Vice Admiral as of yet, but sir Sakazuki did say that there were signs of battle at the place that Borsolino was found that indicated conflict!" The man with the transponder called out.

"Contact the Vice Admiral for a brief overview of his situation!" the captain briskly ordered before going back to fidgeting and gaping at the scene that he was witnessing.

***********

Kuzan breathed in sharply as he glared at the blue phoenix that had been steps away from kicking his head off from its actual place on his neck.

The creature's maddening attack reminded him of the time that he had been posted at south blue where there was a species of pelicans that dive bombed anyone that invaded their territory. The locals of the area called them 'brave birds' for their violent charge, and Kuzan could now testify that there was nothing brave in the suicidal rush that his avian foe employed.

The trees around them had been pretty much flattened in the conflict as the two raged at each other's throats. Hints of ice did mar the tracked and cratered ground, though not a speck of the frigid substance could be seen on his enemy's sapphire plumage.

Kuzan growled darkly as he brought the ice sword in his hand in an 'x' shape in front of his chest. Only barely holding himself from being thrown barrelling through the air.

As annoying as it was to admit it, it was a fact that he lost out to his enemy in terms of Haki, especially Armament. After all his devil fruit wasn't really conducive to close combat.

A low caw could be heard from the birds beak as it came to a stop mid air, its talons splayed before it as it spit venom at him through its gaze.

Instantly Kuzan lunged, his ice capping the ground in a fine frozen rink of sorts before immediately turning the sultry air a bone biting cold.

He was a Logia, he refused to play by the other side's rules. A massive boulder shot through the ground as the phoenix took to the air, jumping to a position at a higher altitude then the frigid caps could touch.

Kuzan jumped atop the icy mountain tops as he splayed his hands forward, a hail of bullets racing through the air at his enemy.

A ray of light shot through the hail as a clawed foot raced towards him. A small smile finally came upon his face as he tapped his foot. The boulder he had been standing on now had a slide!

As he gracefully slid down the smooth icy surface he brandished his hands again, the few ice boulders that still remained instantly shattered into a storm of sharp icy daggers.

This had been his plan, or well, a lucky occurence! To draw his foe in before assaulting them with a sheer mountain of tiny yet deadly jagged ice shards.

The phoenix swished backwards as it narrowly avoided the first shard that had been aiming for its head, before with a helpless cry it rose back into the air.

"So, what do you say? You can't get near, and I can't reach as far, so shall we call a truce?" Kuzan called out as he leisurely brought his hands to his nose.

The bird huffed in anger before bursting into flames in the sky. A blaze of blue brightened the sky for a second, before a much smaller figure dropped through the protective shard layer.

As soon as Marco made it through he transformed once again, zooming at the Vice Admiral at a speed that he had never anticipated.

While all this took quite a while for Kuzan to comprehend, the humanoid figure had already returned invading his personal space aggressively as a volley of punches shot towards his face, transforming back and forth between the deadly but blunt fist to the equally deadly but much sharper talon.

Kuzan growled again as he dodged, twisting and turning as he attempted to control the battle. But where his opponent had first dodged, now he headed right through!

And as Kuzan twisted out of the way of a particularly rabid charge, he was suddenly surprised by a;

'Pere pere pere pere...'