章 125: Sakazuki

I hadn't turned to look at the man directly.

He had managed to land on the ship coming from the back, and I could tell that he had caused quite a bit of damage to the ship and the crew while he was at it. However, that was to be expected, after all; the man did try and kill Whitebeard directly.

I slowly got up from my couch before turning around to get a first look at the man. He looked exactly as he did in the anime, only much younger compared to then. He had a large sword on his back, and wore a hoodie with the hood over the cap that he had on his head. He almost looked like a teenager in his rebellious phase, had it not been for the magma that bloomed from his arm that looked menacing.

He immediately lunged at me with his lava arm cocked all the way back. The distance between him and me wasn't too far, so he got right up in my face in no time.

"Great Eruption!"

I immediately coated my torso with Armament haki as I took on the punch head on. I wanted to see the level at which the man currently was on. I had to admit, he was doing pretty well; I could even see why he was able to do so much damage to the old Whitebeard during the war. However, this was me he was fighting.

The impact shook the entire ship, causing smoke to erupt around Sakazuki and I's surroundings. However, Ken used his Whirlwind kick to disperse the smoke immediately, judging by the look on his face. He had been worried about the severity of the attack.

As soon as the smoke cleared, Sakazuki's fist could be seen smoking on my chest. I had kept the Armament haki just incase he wanted to pull something, but he was more shocked that his attack didn't go through.

"Why do you always have to be so violent?" I asked casually, as I slowly gripped his fist, "Talking is a skill as well, you know?"

With those words, I threw him off the ship, and right towards Kuzan's direction. I doubted that he would actually land where Kuzan was, but he was a little bit further from the ship now. Since I didn't really have much to do at the moment, I decided to play with him; just a bit, while they fix the part of the ship that had been damaged thanks to Sakazuki.

I gave out my orders before leaping towards where Sakazuki had landed, creating a mini-crater in the ice as a result. I hadn't bothered to bring Labrys with me, because I didn't feel like Sakazuki posed a significant threat to me at this point of time.

Also, it was only then that Sakazuki seemed to have an epiphany of somesorts.

"I know you, you're the Storm Dragon!" Sakazuki exclaimed while getting up. He wasn't significantly damaged, so he managed to get up easily.

"We have orders to avoid you the moment we spot you, but I won't be following them. I'll make sure you face justice!" Sakazuki roared as he channeled more Lava. He had also drawn his sword and coated it with Armament Haki as well. Giving him an intimidating presence to boot.

"Do you genuinely believe that you alone can stop me?" I asked curiously.

It was then, that massive explosions broke out in the distance, the explosion's shockwaves went passed us and even managed to shake the ship more. However, the ship remained intact, Sakazuki immediately lunged at me, seeing me distracted. He raised his katana before covering it with lava and swinging it down.

I was ready this time, so I immediately started Dodging all of Sakazuki's swings. However, everytime that I would try and create some space between the two of us, Sakazuki would fling more lava at me; and use it as a temporary distraction so that he could close the distance and land a hit on me.

I had to admit, Sakazuki's situational awareness and combat IQ was quite formidable. However, that alone wouldn't have been enough to pose a significant threat towards me. I continued dodging all of his attacks while keeping an eye on the ship. It seemed that the crew mates were just injured, though some of them suffered life injuring wounds; nobody had died from them. That gave me some relief.

"You have the audacity to look somewhere else while we fight?!" Sakazuki roared.

"You should be greatful that you didn't kill anyone of my crewmates, you know," I replied aloofly.

Sakazuki scoffed and continued launching more attacks, he was relentless. At some point of time, he even launched plenty of Magma towards the skies. As they rained down, I had to dodge them while dodging the attacks coming from Sakazuki. It was only when I started sensing some of the attacks going through the ship, did I start actively retaliating. Right as Sakazuki was at mid-swing, I got closer to him and managed to land a square push kick right in the middle of his chest.

I had added quite a bit of strength to that kick, and I only used Armament haki to make sure that the kick had landed. However, the force seemed to be too much for Sakazuki, as he was sent flying quite a distance from me. I immediately turned to analyze the current condition of the ship.

It was fine, but more reparing was required if we were going to make the ship last all the way to Water 7. Curious, I decided to leap back onto the ship so I could get a better look at all the damages that plauged the ship.

Ken instantly appeared the moment I got there, he was anxious as he detailed the full extent of what Sakazuki had done to the ship. The doctor couldn't fully fix some of the injuries that the crewmates had, they needed to get to an island to seek professional assistance. Moreover, we were running out of time, so we needed to do it as quickly as possible.

I knew that Sakazuki wouldn't let us off the hook that easily, and looking further into the distance. I could sense that the Donquixote Pirates had already given Kuzan the slip. Meaning that there was a possibility that the duo would prioritize chasing us over them. It was just a matter of priority for the higher-ups.

We were already in a non-aggression pact with the World Government, so I had a feeling that they wouldn't be under official orders to attack us. As as result, I immediately ordered all crewmembers to prioritize getting the ship to a nearby town so that we could get the crewmembers some help.

"What if the Marines come after us?" Stussy asked seriously.

"You don't need to worry about them, if they do show up. Leave them to me, we should prioritize their lives first over the other matters," I responded as I turned to look into the distance.

It would be troublesome to defend the ship while those two were chasing us. Kuzan's ice ability could slow the ship down while Sakazuki's magma could directly descend and destroy the ship. they were both a real troublesome duo.

I immediately used my Observation Haki to detect the presences of the both of them. They seemed to be standing, and having a brief conversation. Kuzan and Sakazuki seemed to be fine, but their emotions seemed to be conflicting with one another. Not that it had mattered to me, all that really mattered was for me to get my crewmates to safety, and I didn't mind killing the both of them to do it.