Chapitre 361: 360 Crew Training - Second Round
Encouraged by everyone, Marco regained his composure. He realized he had underestimated the enemy, but it wasn't intentional; it was just his character.
Marco is relatively lazy by nature, and is not very keen on fighting, but now that these are all over, he plans to adjust some of his mentality.
To strengthen their combat skills, the other commanders practiced against each other. As for Benjamin, after a day's time, Whitebeard arranged for him to engage in actual combat.
But this time, there were no spectators. Whitebeard intended to keep Benjamin's strength a secret, so only three people were present: Benjamin, Kuzan, and Whitebeard.
Facing Kuzan, Benjamin felt very heavy in his heart. He was nervous, knowing he was facing Kuzan in good condition. Unlike Jinbei and the others who faced a weakened Kuzan before, Benjamin knew he was at a slight disadvantage.
"Benjamin, just do your best. There's no one else here. Stay calm and treat your opponent like a real enemy,"
Whitebeard advised Benjamin seeing his nervous face,
"Take Kuzan as an enemy?"
Benjamin muttered to himself. He stared at Kuzan, beginning to visualize him as an enemy, imagining him as the one who had attacked Whitebeard.
"I'll never let you attack Oyaji!"
Benjamin raised his head fiercely, his eyes bursting with absolute determination. He had entered the state he needed to be in. As Whitebeard's close guard, he wouldn't allow anyone to harm Whitebeard. Otherwise, he would betray his identity.
"As expected of Oyaji, just a few words and he's filled with fighting spirit,"
Kuzan remarked, looking Benjamin in the eye.
"Let's begin,"
Whitebeard ordered. Kuzan took the lead in the attack, forming an ice spear in his hand and instantly launching it towards Benjamin with fierce pressure.
With focused eyes, he quickly stretched out his hands and summoned a black spatial vortex in front of him. It swallowed the ice spear without causing any power fluctuations.
"As expected of the Dark Fruit, so powerful,"
Kuzan praised. He also realized that long-range fruit abilities couldn't pose a threat to those with Dark Fruit abilities.
The weakness of the Dark Fruit ability lies in physical combat; close combat is a weakness. But getting close to Benjamin is risky for Kuzan too, because if he's touched, he can't use any fruit abilities.
However, as a former Admiral, Kuzan still had confidence. He was determined not to reveal this flaw, so he rushed forward resolutely. First, he formed an ice blade in his hand and stabbed at Benjamin in rapid succession.
Benjamin dodged in a hurry, unable to use the dark power in time. With Kuzan's attacks getting faster and faster, Benjamin felt the danger. In desperation, he turned his hands into black hole-like matter.
Kuzan's ice blade pierced Benjamin's palm, and it seemed stuck as if in a swamp, unable to pull out. Finally, Benjamin didn't need to dodge anymore. Taking advantage of this, he immediately began to release a large amount of dark gass from his palm.
The invisible and intangible dark power made Kuzan feel an indescribable sense of threat. Ice formed a route forward, condensing from the freezing power.
Benjamin's feet are also on this route, completely covered by ice. In this situation, it basically make Benjamin doesn't have much mobility
Afterwards, Kuzan rushed over and defeated Benjamin. Though the battle was finally over, Kuzan still had lingering fears. Although Benjamin really lacked combat experience, he still made Kuzan feel some threats.
Therefore, it's not difficult to imagine that if Benjamin experiences many battles in the future, his Dark Fruit ability will develop to an extent where he'll be a formidable opponent.
"Oyaji, I failed,"
Benjamin said to Whitebeard, feeling greatly disappointed that he can't last much longer
"Don't be discouraged. Let's go back and focus on training first,"
Whitebeard said reassuringly.
"Yes"
Benjamin nodded and left, leaving only Whitebeard and Kuzan.
"This guy has great potential in the future. I didn't expect the lower limit of the Dark Fruit to be so low. An ordinary person can have such strength after getting it,"
Kuzan suddenly sighed to Whitebeard.
"Guurarara, are you scared too? It's because the Dark Fruit is so powerful that I chose him as my guard"
Whitebeard laughed and said, though Kuzan's fear was still rare.
"That's true, he was not your crew on the ship before, but a Marine. Aren't you worried he'll become another Blackbeard when he gains power in the future?"
Kuzan asked.
Kuzan also knew well about Blackbeard. He knew Blackbeard was once a member of Whitebeard's crew. He had been lurking to obtain the Dark Fruit. Once he got it, he revealed his true nature.
However, Whitebeard didn't pay attention to Kuzan's doubts. He said confidently, "I'm not the same Whitebeard as before, and I won't repeat the same mistake."
"And his past identity doesn't change anything,"
"You see, Blackbeard used to be my crew member. He stayed on my ship for so long, but he was just full of selfish ambition. So, that doesn't mean much."
Whitebeard fully demonstrated his trust in his ability to judge character.
This moved Kuzan a bit. After all, what he said just now includes himself. Though he joined the Whitebeard Pirates, it wasn't necessarily a stabilizing factor for him, yet Whitebeard trusted him so much.
For instance, the Noah ship—even the current Marine doesn't know the Whitebeard Pirates have such huge ships. It's a big secret, but Whitebeard told him everything about how he plans to secure a way to get on Noah's ship.
This is definitely a sign of complete trust, so Kuzan feels very touched. He feels he didn't make a mistake in joining the Whitebeard Pirates. Here, there's more freedom than in the Marines, and he can have his own ideas. If he has any differing opinions, he can speak directly and communicate with Whitebeard.
This friendly way of interacting makes Kuzan feel great, but there's one thing that's not so good: training these commanders. He has to face their actual combat almost all the time, which is a big burden for Kuzan.
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TO BE CONTINUED
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État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone