The whole island was shaking as destruction took place.
Law was sitting against the railings of the Black Pearl, looking exhausted. He had his turn against the world's strongest swordsman and was completely outclassed.
Yamato had fought him for a good while now and she was also pushed back.
"Cavendish after this it's your turn." Ace said, it was a good learning experience for them.
"Captain... I have also become a swords man! Let me fight as well!" Urouge said as he held a sword in his hand looking proud of his new fighting style.
Ace looked at him and nodded, it seemed to be true, Urouge had become a real swordsman...
The only problem was that Urouge was holding the sword from the wrong end and his palm was bleeding profusely from the sharp blade he held.
"Ermm... It's better if you don't become a swordsman." Gaga said as she felt bad for him.
"That's not how you hold a sword you baka! This is how!" Yennow angrily corrected Urouge. He took the sword from Urouge and put the hilt in his mouth.
"WHAT KIND OF STUPID SWORDSMAN HOLDS A SWORD WITH HIS MOUTH!" Nami felt like her crew mates became dumber for each minute.
"A real man holds a sword like this!" Ronaldino Ronaldo said as Baby 5 beside him turned into a sword and fell to his hand... The only problem was that the hilt of the sword was... Very soft and bouncy.
"Nyaaaah my husband, you're to Pervy!" Baby 5 cried out with a blush.
"..."
"... Ronaldo, let me try holding your sword like a real man as well." Spiekwards said with a blush.
"ORAAAAAA ILL BE THE GREATEST SWORDS MAN EVER!" Urouge shouted as he raised the sword he held, sadly he was holding with a bit too much force.....
*Chop*
*Thump*
Hearing the sound everyone turned to Urouge and looked at him with wide eyes... They looked up and saw that his hand was bleeding even more than before...
They looked down and saw a bloody finger on deck. Urouge still held his happy grin... But it his eyes were twitching.... He had lost a finger just like that.
"I think I will retire as a swordsman and go back to being a fist fighter...." Urouge nodded as he agreed with Nami's earlier words.
"...."
"..."
"...."
"It's not that bad if you think about it, doesn't he look like The former strongest man, Whitebeard? They both lost a finger..." Yennow tried to salvage the situation.
"Ah, Law-kun!!! Help him reattach the finger!!!"
Bepo cried out.
"... No." Law said as he turned away his head pretending he didn't see anything.
"Ora Ora, help me out will ya!" Urouge said meekly with his wide grin.
"Play stupid games, win stupid prizes." Law said refusing to help out. He was already exhausted from his fight with the world's strongest swordsman, and didn't have the energy to play around. Plus, its just a finger on the hand, its not like he lost the finger between his legs.
Ace turned back to the fight and looked at Mihawk's swordsmanship. He was impressive.
'It's no wonder he was Shank's rival.' ace thought.
Mihawk had the conquerors Haki as well, although it wasn't on the level of emperor's, his adamant Haki was on that level.
But what was the most impressive as ships swordsmanship. The blade seemed to move flawlessly though space.
Ace's swordsmanship was mostly brute force as he spun the blade, but Mihawk's sword seems to move in a way more natural flowing way.
"To think that there are others except the Emperor's that can fight us with such ease." Yennow sighed.
After half a day, Mihawk had defeated three of the Demon Ace Pirates, he turned to their ship and started at Ace with clear challenge.
"Captain, it's your turn it seems." Jojo Pojo laughed.
Ace jumped toward the island and landed harhsy on the sand as dust blew up.
"You really impressed me, no wonder you are the world's strongest swordsman." Ace said happily.
"I want to see the difference in level between us, the strongest man." Mihawk spoke, it was his first words since he arrived.
Ace put his hand on his hilt and smiled.
The Demon Ace Pirates seemed excited for their fight.
Ace and Mihawk started fighting, but it wasn't an all out battle where they tried to kill eachother, it was more of a fight to see the difference in skill and power.
Ace easily overpower Mihawk with his speed, strength and willpower. But in pure skill, Mihawk outclassed Ace. The sharpness of Mihawk's attacks was superior to Ace's slashes, but even then, Mihawk was outclassed.
Mihawk was constantly pushed back and understood what kind of beats he was facing. By no means was Mihawk weak, he is one of the strongest in the sea, maybe top 10 pirates alive.
So he understood what it meant that Ace was holding back against himself, to the point of it looking easy for Ace.
It took another half a day before their fight ended. The Demon Ace pirates were completely in awe of the skill that was showcased, but the one who was the surprised was Dracula Mihawk himself.
When they started their fight, Ace's blade skills mostly utilised power, but as they clashes danthousand times, Ace's skill increased each time he drew the sword.
Mihawk realised that Ace become more skilled for each minute that passed, it actually gave Mihawk a fright as he had never seen someone of such skill before.
In the end, Mihawk didn't have to stay anything as it was clear who was the stornger one even without them going all out.
"You truly deserve your title. Allow.me to challenge you again." Mihawk admitted as he turned around to leave, as he hikted his sword, he could feel his hand shake from clashing against Ace's sword, ACE.
His forehead was full of sweat and his clothes were cut in some places.
"Now wonder you're the strongest swordsman... Let's spar more in the future!" Ace smiled.
Mihawk was content, he had felt that he had reached wall in his growth since he stopped sparring with Shanks... But now he found another sparring partner to sharpen his sword.
Somehow, the news reached the rest of the world the next day. The strongest swordsman challenged the Strongest man to a duel.
The strongest man easily defeated the strongest swordsman... Even though this was the obvious outcome, it still shock many people.
In Marineford, Akainu sat down with the admirals and vice admirals.
"Even though we knew the outcome... For Dracula Mihawk to lose.... The news have reached far." A vice admiral sighed with a frown.
He had thought that the sea would calm down with the fall of Whitebeard... But this generation was worse than the one former.
"The Flame Emperor..."
"You all know that we have been preparing to take care of these pests..." Akainu said as his hate lingered in his tone. He could feel his left shoulder itch.
In his last encounter with the Flame Emperors, he had been left with a scar that reached from his left shoulder,not his biceps and down his chest. It was a grotesque scar.
No one spoke a word, they were all aware, ever since Marineford war and since Akainu became a fleet admiral, they have secretly been preparing and scheming... For something big.
"..."
"Garp, are you sure you can do this?" Sengoku asked while looking at his friend, although he had retired, he still adviced Akainu whenever needed.
"That brat... has caused to much trouble... It needs to be done." Garp sighed. Why can't his children and grandchildren just behave?
"Garp, you won't be involved with the Demon Ace Pirates directly, only their fleet." Sengoku clarified.
Although Garp didn't like to fight on the sidelines, he felt a bit of relief.
"The leaders of his fleet are not to be triffled with." Aojiki said.
"BWAHAHA I would like to see your faces smashed in by my grandson." Garp suddenly felt light again as he didn't have to fight his grandson.
The room suddenly got much hotter as Akainu stared daggers at him.
"Ah... I mean, I would love to see my grandson's face smashed in by you guys." Garp awkwardly corrected himsels, while picking up a cracker.
"Hey that's mine!" Sengoku angrily rebuked.
"Ne, ne, are we sure about this... He is after all the strongest man alive." Suddenly the light-man slowly stated.
"The world government also sees him as an object of elimination... We aren't alone this time." Akainu hinted at something tremendous.
"It's almost time..." Sengoku siged."