Chapter 284: Round Two

Chapter 284: Round Two



"Hawkeye isn't here to save you this time, pirate. Nobody will stop me from finishing you off." Akainu rumbled, literally turning red from heat and rage.

"He didn't save me from you; he saved you from me, bitch." Cherry shot back.

Akainu reached up then brought both fists down onto the ground with a quaking thud. The ground melted and rose into a wave of lava surging forth from him towards Cherry.

The wave was cleaved in twain, Cherry slipping through the separated halves and piercing forward with a spiraling spear thrust.

Akainu lobbed a large ball of lava at her as he moved to her right side which held the sword. Cherry fired dozens of arcs of electricity from Sakura Tengoku, but he plowed through them and swung a wide left hook at her head.

Cherry ducked at an awkward angle and sweeped around with the haft of her spear, whacking his legs but failing to knock him off his feet.

Akainu reached down to grab her with the hand he failed to connect a punch with. Cherry slipped around it like a leaf on the wind and swung her sword in an attempt to slice off his fingers.

The sword cleaved through the offending hand, but Akainu had already disconnected it from his body, making it nothing more than inanimate lava.

Akainu tried to stompy down onto the spear in hopes of either breaking it or at least

disarming Cherry of it. Instead the spear thrust itself out of her hand, but also out of his foot's reach.

More lightning bombarded Akainu, but he simply grit his teeth and took it seemingly unfazed.

'Lightning is no good huh? I suppose he isn't made of lava for nothing...' Cherry pondered, electing to use the sword as a sword alone for now.

A pulse came from Akainu's body as he and everything including the ground for a few dozen meters transformed into roiling rock.

"Let's see you avoid getting burned now." Akainu sneered.

A pulse came from Cherry this time. The liquid stone on her side of the small lake of lava became very still and started to make cracking sounds as it solidified and spewed hot gas.

"Would you look at that?" Cherry mocked with an infuriating smile. Inwardly she was very glad that that worked, as she hadn't known for sure if she could unfuse heat from matter. Whilst she didn't fear the lava harming her body so much, she didn't want to end up fighting naked if her clothes burned away.

Akainu snarled, but took note of this development. An awakened devil fruit raised his threat assessment of Cherry up a notch, but he wasn't any less confident.

After doing this several times whilst they clashed together, it was clear that the acceleration in the increase of volume and speed of the drum-like beat wasn't as fast. Still, it was progressing steadily until the beat was as fast as a gatling gun and as loud as a cannon.

Fujitora, who was already very far away, decided to get even farther away. The beating sound hadn't been nearly that loud or fast when he heard her do it the first time.

"Time's up, bud. It was a nice fight, but you shouldn't have been so conservative if you

wanted to win." Cherry spoke ominously with a twisted smile.

Akainu's observation haki screeched in his mind as Cherry dropped her sword and reared back

a fist in a fashion he was familiar with.

'King punch?!' Akainu's eyes widened in realization as he threw up every defensive method in

his possession. His molten rock body was already quite difficult to harm, but the full potential of his armament haki combined with Tekkai brought him to a similar level of defense to

Kaidou.

"DIVINE RIGHT!!!!!" Cherry shouted, then her arm vanished in a blur of movement.

...

Dressrosa sat on the horizon as two fleets prepared for battle. One flew Whitebeard's flag and the other flew the Neo Marines' flag.

Normally, the Neo Marines wouldn't dare to fight in the situation since Whitebeard's flagship, the Moby Dick, was within their number. However, Zed wasn't about to miss the chance to annihilate them while he possessed a dyna stone.

It would be worth it even if he died in the act, since Akainu could lead the remaining Neo Marines in his stead. The Neo Marines he brought with him were loyal and felt the same way as he did, though he would spare them of that fate if he could.

A flash of light from the direction of Dressrosa drew the attention of both fleets. A massive column of hyper compressed air shot like a beam into the air vaguely in the Neo Marine fleet's

direction.

Carried along this almost solid shockwave was a lone figure who, when the shockwave finally dissipated, fell into the ocean no more than a hundred meters ahead of them. They identified this figure by the stream of lava he poured into the ocean before he hit the surface as Akainu. "Man overboard! Fish him out of the sea before he drowns!" Zed called out hastily. If Akainu died then he couldn't risk his own life against Whitebeard lest their noble cause lack the teeth it needed to contend with the Four Emperors.

Whitebeard's fleet also seemed to realize who it was, so they did their best to gain a lead on the Neo Marines while they could.