章 142: Rapping Things Up

Redfield swung down his scythe on me.

I immediately raised the staff of my axe to block the attack, and as a result, the ground around us immediately caved in as we both collided. His attacks were getting more and more diverse as we kept fighting, I had to avoid physical contact with him because of how much he had disrupted my blood circulation in the past.

I had regenerated the lost blood as compensation, but it still didn't offset the pain that I got after restabilizing my condition. On the other hand, Redfield was doing his damnest to deflect most of the attacks that I had sent his way. He came to realize that my attacks weren't easy to block, so he decided to start dodging and deflecting to offset the force.

It was a delicate balance that made us alert and weary of each other's next moves.

"This has been fun and all, but I grow tired of playing these games with you," Redfield stated.

I didn't say anything and readied my axe as I stared him down. I also wanted to rap things up as well, I wanted to get to Skypiea as quickly as possible.

The purple mist slowly emerged from him as he positioned himself for an attack. We both stared at each other for quite some time as we tried to predict each other's moves in the future.

We both immediately lunged at each other.

I stomped the ground and pushed myself towards him as fast as possible, and Redfield had sent his purple mist right at me. The mist took the form of several drills and sent them my way, but it didn't stop me from immediately stopping in my tracks and swiping my axe with all my strength.

The force of wind that was propelled from my swing slammed the drills and dissapated them, and I soon used that same swing to collide with Redfield's scythe. However, because my swing had already began to lose momentum, I ended up being on the losing side of the collision.

However, to recover, I immediately used the force to deflect the scythe towards the ground. I ended up having my axe getting on the axe as well, but I quickly used that oppurtunity to swing myself to kick Redfield square on the chest. The force of the kick didn't push him back to far, but it gave me more than enough space to make him lose his grip of his polearm, and remove my axe from the ground, and swing it down upon Redfield.

Redfield immediately used his mist to offset some of the lethality of my swing, but it didn't completely stop it from slamming him on the shoulder. Blood gushed out like a fountain, but he was immediately able to heal it after. However, I wasn't planning on giving him the oppurtunity to.

"Fulgur Perditionis!"

A wave of silver lightning followed by destruction was immediately sent Redfield's way. He immediately had sensed it with his Observation Haki, but he couldn't react quickly enough to avoid the attack.

As a result, he was immediately engulfed by the attack. An explosion bloomed from where he previously was at. The shockwaves immediately stirring the dust that was littered around the grounds that we had been fighting on.

I covered my eyes for a bit, and waited for the explosion to subside. Soon after, with a swipe of my axe, I managed to get a clear vision of what had happened. In front of me, lay the Red Count himself. He looked worse for wear as he occasionally coughed up blood. I slowly began to walk over towards the man, but a familiar clone appeared in front of me. It was none other than the clone of my former captain, Rocks D. Xebec, and he was about to attack. However, Redfield stopped it from doing so.

"Pato, that's enough," Redfield groaned.

Slowly, the familiar Racoon-dog appeared out of the Redfield's coat, and it was crying.

*Sniffle* "Don't worry, Boss Red! I'll get you fixed up Pronto!!" The racoon-dog, Pato, assured.

"It's already too late, my friend," Redfield replied, "I have lost too much blood this time, and I don't see myself defeating him."

"But, but you promised that you wouldn't die until you become the Pirate King! You said that we were going to travel around the world!!" Pato cried while saying.

"I'm sorry, my friend, it looks like I won't be able to fulfill that promise," Redfield said as I stopped near them.

"That was quite a fight, I've only fought like this when I was fighting those monsters belonging to Rocks," Redfield started. Pato immediately turned back and had the clone of Xebec lunge at me.

I ducked the swing that the clone had swing on me, and plunged my hand deep on through its chest. Making the clone disperse immediately after the impact, Redfield chuckled before turning his lying head towards me.

"In light of such a compelling fight, would you care to grant this dying man's wish?" The Red Count requested. I remained silent and continued to look deep into his eyes, and he took that as a sign to keep going.

"Pato....he's a very lonely child. He gets depressed when he's lonely, would yo-" Patrick was about to finish talking, but he immediately puked out a large quantity of blood. Slowly, but surely, his appearance was beginning to age. At first he looked like a man in his middle ages, but now he looked like an old man who lived a little bit over a century, and now was on his deathbed.

"Like I was saying before, the child is very lonely, would you take care of him in my place?" Redfield requested.

"I don't want to be with him! I want to be with you!! You're my one and only friend! Don't talk as if you're leaving me!!!!" Pato exclaimed loudly while sobbing. I didn't say anything, I could only remain standing and listen to what the man he had to say for himself.

"Look, I'll give you incentive to do so as well," Redfield said while pulling out a fat fruit, "When I die, this fruit will take the form of my Devil fruit. It's yours for you to do as you see fit."

"I could take this and just fuck off after you die, you know?" I reminded him.

"I'm giving this to you as a sign of good faith, I don't expect you to follow through with the request," Redfield replied calmly. While this was happening, Pato was busy holding Redfield's hand. He had summoned multiple clones of nurses who were busy trying to help Redfield heal, but all that effort was for naught.

"Why?! Why isn't it working?!" One of the clones exclaimed, the clone had taken the shape of a woman, and on her hands, a light glowed and covered the figure of the dying Red Count.

"It won't work, Pato," Redfield commented, his voice was getting weaker and weaker as he kept talking, "It was fun, traveling with you."

Pato couldn't say anything, and he continued sobbing as he kept holding the Redfield's hand, and soon, The Red Count had passed away. His body slowly disintergrating as it faded to the wind, making me question his actual age before he died.

My eyes remained focused on the large fruit that was on his other hand that had rolled to the ground as he died. It's light yellow color soon took on a purple color as green leaves sprouted from the stem. It was clear that it was a Devil Fruit, but I had yet to find out whether or not it was actually Redfield's.

As I was going to pick it up. I sensed someone coming at me from the side, I immediately raised my hand and caught it, or him; it was Pato.

"I'm not letting you take it!!" Pato hissed as he glared at me.