If Shirakawa had not guessed wrong just now, what Kuzan used was Soru from the Marine Six Powers. In the eyes of an ordinary person, closing such a short distance was already akin to teleportation.
Shirakawa could also achieve this kind of short-distance, ultra-high-speed movement, but he did not possess the technique behind the Marine Six Powers' Soru. He relied purely on the strength of his physical constitution and instantaneous muscle bursts.
Kuzan glanced at Shirakawa's completely healed shoulder, and his eyelids could not help but twitch. "Just as the intelligence stated, is it a Devil Fruit capable of regeneration?"
Shirakawa did not answer Kuzan's question. He was currently operating at maximum output, and so was Kuzan.
Armament Haki wrapped around his blade, turning it pitch-black and shiny. A streak of silver-white sword aura instantly shot out from Shirakawa's sword. Not only was the speed incredibly fast, but its sharpness was also exceptionally powerful.
The incoming sword aura seemed to catch Kuzan somewhat off guard. He had not expected the speed of the sword aura to be this fast. The distance between the two of them was not far, meaning this sword aura arrived right in front of Kuzan practically in an instant.
"I can't dodge." This was the first thought that crossed Kuzan's mind. He then used Armament Haki to cover his entire body for defense. However, he still underestimated the sharpness of Shirakawa's sword aura. Although he used Armament Haki to defend, Shirakawa also used Armament Haki to attack.
Right now, even if Kuzan wanted to dodge by transforming into his element, he couldn't do it. Because the moment he utilized elementalization, his Armament Haki would be dispelled, and the injuries he would suffer then would not be light.
The sword aura slashed across Kuzan's body. At the critical moment, Kuzan shifted his body slightly. The sword aura sliced across his shoulder and flew straight past him, traveling a considerable distance behind him.
"A Great Swordsman is actually this terrifying?"
This was the first time Kuzan had faced a Great Swordsman going all out, and it was also the first time he felt the pressure of a Great Swordsman.
Kuzan's right arm was already dripping with fresh blood, practically losing its mobility.
"Pheasant Peck." Kuzan thrust out his left hand, and a massive ice bird flew straight out from his arm.
Shirakawa casually unleashed another streak of sword aura. However, this sword aura failed to cleave the ice bird down the middle; instead, it entered a stalemate with the ice bird.
At this moment, two ice spikes suddenly jutted out from the frozen surface, stabbing toward Shirakawa. Just as he was about to dodge, he realized that his legs had been frozen solid by the ice on the sea at some unknown point.
The two ice spikes pierced straight through Shirakawa's chest. The sword aura resisting the ice bird also vanished, and the ice bird barreled directly toward him.
Shirakawa only felt a blast of freezing air, and then he was completely encased in a block of solid ice.
"Fantastic! Vice Admiral Kuzan won!" An officer who had been keeping an eye on Kuzan and Shirakawa's battlefield suddenly cheered excitedly. Although Riddle's strength was not that impressive, he was truly tenacious.
"What? The Captain actually lost?" Riddle also looked in Shirakawa's direction, discovering that Shirakawa had been frozen in ice, with two ice spikes jutting out of his chest.
"It's over, it's over, we are dead."
Panic filled Riddle's heart. With Shirakawa defeated, he was absolutely no match for that monster.
However, Kuzan's expression did not ease up in the slightest. He remained incredibly serious. He did not believe that Shirakawa was that easy to deal with.
Sure enough, right under Kuzan's gaze, cracks slowly began to form on the ice encasing Shirakawa. Finally, it shattered, turning into ice crystals before ultimately dissipating into the air.
Shirakawa also slowly pushed out the two ice spikes lodged in his chest and broke his feet free from the ice's confinement.
The two gaping holes in Shirakawa's chest could be seen slowly healing themselves.
"He can even recover from injuries like this?" Kuzan felt a sense of astonishment once again.
"That was quite insidious of you, Kuzan, actually resorting to a sneak attack." Shirakawa rolled his arms, bounced on his toes to loosen up his freshly healed body, and spoke to Kuzan with a highly unfriendly expression.
He had truly fallen for Kuzan's trick just now. He originally thought Kuzan's main attack was that ice bird, because Kuzan kept pumping massive amounts of freezing air into the ice bird to negate the effects of Shirakawa's sword aura.
To think he was actually pulling dirty tricks behind the scenes, first freezing his feet in place with ice, and then shooting two ice spikes up from the frozen surface.
"This is called tactics."
Kuzan did not admit to his sneak attack behavior, attributing it entirely to Shirakawa's lack of combat experience.
Seeing Shirakawa completely unharmed, Riddle let out a massive sigh of relief. At the very least, the battle wouldn't end so quickly. However, when he looked at the officers glaring at him like tigers watching their prey, his face sank again. He was not going to be able to hold on much longer.
At this moment, a voice suddenly rang clear in the ears of everyone present: "Shirakawa, I am here to help you!"
A figure rapidly charged into the battlefield and stopped right beside Shirakawa. The newcomer was none other than Jora.
"You arrived just in time. Go help that lizard."
Jora's arrival lightened some of Shirakawa's burden. At least he no longer needed to divert his attention to worry about Riddle.
"A lizard?"
"That's right. That lizard is our new crewmate. Go help him. As for this guy in front of us, you are no match for him right now."
"Alright."
Jora was a bit unwilling, but he could clearly recognize reality, and he understood the vast gap between himself and Kuzan.
"Thanks, brother."
With Jora's help, Riddle felt much more relaxed, but they were still on the losing end.
"Ice Ball."
Several pillars of ice shot out from Kuzan's palm, streaking straight toward Shirakawa.
Using Observation Haki, Shirakawa dodged Kuzan's attacks while slowly closing the distance. In a long-range battle, Shirakawa was truly not his match.
However, Kuzan was no pushover either. If Shirakawa dodged one attack, a second would follow, and if he dodged the second, a third would come.
Kuzan gave Shirakawa absolutely no chance to close in. Every time he was about to get close, Kuzan would use freezing air to knock Shirakawa back.
"What an incredibly troublesome ability."
Kuzan's freezing air functioned practically like a crowd-control skill, making it quite troublesome for Shirakawa.
"Not as troublesome as your ability."
"One-Sword Style, Wild Dance."
Shirakawa rapidly swung his blade several times, every single slash accompanied by a streak of sword aura. Facing such an attack, Kuzan had no choice but to transform his entire body into his element for defense.
But this was exactly the effect Shirakawa wanted. While fully elementalized, Kuzan could not launch any attacks, nor could he maintain the elementalized state forever.
After the sword aura attacks finished, Shirakawa used high-speed movement to instantly arrive right behind Kuzan's elementalized body. A haki-infused slash was instantly brought down upon Kuzan's back.
Kuzan flipped forward, but he failed to dodge this attack.
Pressing the advantage, Shirakawa gave Kuzan no chance to counterattack. As Kuzan landed half-kneeling on the ground, he was met with Shirakawa's blade swinging straight down at his head. Kuzan raised his left hand to block, preparing to unleash freezing air at Shirakawa with his right hand, but Shirakawa suddenly vanished from right in front of him.
Immediately after, Kuzan felt an intense gravitational force crushing down on his body.
"What is going on?" As Shirakawa's strength increased, the gravitational multiplier he could control grew larger as well.
Suddenly, Kuzan felt a bone-chilling sense of dread. A blade pierced straight through his body from behind.
Kuzan was heavily injured, but Shirakawa wasn't doing much better either. His stamina had suffered a severe drain.
"You lose, Kuzan." Shirakawa's voice rang out from behind Kuzan.
Kuzan did not answer Shirakawa. Instead, he gripped Shirakawa's blade with both hands. A violent burst of freezing air erupted from Kuzan's body. Shirakawa tried to pull his sword out, but failed.
Starting from Shirakawa's hands, ice began to form once again, slowly spreading across his body. And the intensity this time was much stronger than the previous strike.
"It is useless, Kuzan." A massive amount of Armament Haki coated Shirakawa's hands. He broke free from Kuzan's ice, then exerted a sudden burst of force, ripping the sword out of Kuzan's body.
Healing the frostbite on Shirakawa's hands consumed another massive chunk of stamina. Kuzan's move just now was a clear attempt to completely cripple Shirakawa's arms.
Jora and Riddle also stopped fighting the Marines, as they could both see that the battle between their respective bosses had entered its final stage.
Shirakawa and Kuzan put some distance between each other. Jora, Riddle, and the Marines all walked over as well, standing behind their respective sides.
"Vice Admiral Kuzan, what do we do now?"
A Marine Captain asked Kuzan.
Kuzan stood up, clutching the wound on his abdomen. His gaze toward Shirakawa was incredibly gloomy, and judging by his complexion, his condition was extremely poor.
Even though he had used freezing air to stop the bleeding, this was ultimately not a good solution. If this dragged on, his injuries would only grow increasingly severe.
In contrast, looking at Shirakawa from the outside, there did not seem to be any problems at all.
This was also a fantastic aspect of Shirakawa's ability. No matter how exhausted his body was, he looked exactly the same as he did at the very beginning.
"We retreat for now."
When Kuzan said this, there was an element of a gamble involved. He was betting that Shirakawa would not attack them.
"Then I will be responsible for holding them off," Momonga said.
"No need. They probably will not attack us."
Hearing Kuzan's words, the Marines did not argue, although they continued to keep a careful watch out for any sneak attacks from Shirakawa and the others.
"Captain, are we not going to chase after them? That Vice Admiral is already injured. We can definitely wipe them all out in one fell swoop."
Riddle spoke to Shirakawa.
"Hold me up."
"What?" Shirakawa's voice was incredibly soft, and Riddle didn't catch it clearly.
"I said, hold me up."
"Oh." The moment he felt Riddle's support, Shirakawa's body instantly went completely limp.
"Let's get on the ship too."
"Right."
The two of them finally understood the situation clearly. Shirakawa was completely out of gas and ammunition as well. If they really had chased after them just now, who knows which side would have been wiped out in one fell swoop.
/-\
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