A heavy silence fell over the immediate surroundings. Then, a deep rumble rose from the Yonko's throat. Whitebeard threw his head back and burst into a thunderous laugh, a sound that made the ice beneath their feet tremble.
"Gurararara! I never thought I'd see the Hawk this determined!" His eyes sparkled with amusement, but also with keen curiosity. "You, Mihawk, a man who hunts only for his own pleasure… What's driving you today?"
Leo didn't answer immediately. His gaze—or rather, Mihawk's—slid toward the distant scaffold, where Portgas D. Ace was still chained, his wrists bound in seastone. Marines swarmed around the platform, their weapons poised to carry out the fatal order. Further away, Luffy was still forcing his way through the chaos, his desperate cry carried by the wind.
"In exchange for your life," Mihawk declared, his voice as sharp as a blade, "I will save your child."
Whitebeard's laughter cut off abruptly. His face hardened, his brows furrowing under the weight of a deep, simmering rage. The pressure of his Conqueror's Haki intensified, causing the weaker fighters around them to falter. Pirates dropped to their knees, marines lost their grip on their weapons, crushed by the overwhelming aura.
"Insulting," Whitebeard growled, his low voice vibrating through the air. "You dare bargain my life for my son's? You, a stray dog who knows nothing of family?"
Leo felt a rush of adrenaline. He had struck a nerve—exactly as he intended. But before he could respond, the bisento wrenched free from the ice in a seismic flash.
The space around them fractured into spiraling white cracks—the Gura Gura no Mi unleashing a shockwave powerful enough to shatter an island.
Leo barely had time to think Oh, shit before his body was already reacting.
Yoru sliced through the air in a vertical arc. A black blade, long as the horizon, swept through sky and earth. The two attacks collided in a deafening BOOM, carving a three-hundred-meter crater. The sea both froze and boiled simultaneously, launching geysers of scalding saltwater into the air.
"UNBELIEVABLE! HE CUT THE EARTHQUAKE!" a pirate screamed, his eyes bulging.
Mihawk leaped through the superheated steam, his coat billowing like raven's wings. Whitebeard roared as he swung his weapon, each movement of the bisento unleashing tsunamis.
Clang! Clang! CLANG!
The clashes between the two legendary weapons sent out bursts of black and white lightning. Every impact shattered grounded ships, tore fissures into the bay.
Akainu, momentarily breaking off his duel with Ivankov, turned toward them, molten droplets falling from his fists.
"What the… Mihawk?" he muttered in disgust.
Mihawk raised Yoru with both hands, his superhuman reflexes taking over before Leo could fully process what was happening. The black blade slashed the air before him, releasing a surge of pure energy to counter the seismic wave. The two forces collided in an explosion of light and sound, sending shards of ice flying in all directions. Nearby fighters were tossed aside like ragdolls, pirates and marines alike screaming as they were hurled into the freezing waters.
Inside Mihawk, Leo felt his heart—or at least his mind—race.
This is real. I'm fighting Whitebeard!
Mihawk landed lightly, his boots skidding for a brief moment on the slick surface before regaining balance with inhuman grace.
Whitebeard swung his weapon in a devastating arc. Mihawk parried with Yoru, the impact reverberating like a thunderclap. The force of the blow sent out a pressure wave that obliterated the ice around them, leaving a jagged crater in its wake. Leo felt his arms—Mihawk's arms—tremble under the Yonko's sheer strength, but the swordsman's body did not waver an inch.
"Not bad, Hawk!" Whitebeard roared, a wild grin spreading across his face. "But you'll have to do better than that!"
He took a step back and punched the air with his left hand. The atmosphere shattered like broken glass, a new shockwave hurtling straight toward Mihawk.
This time, Leo anticipated it. Cut it! he thought, and Mihawk's body obeyed with terrifying precision. Yoru traced a horizontal arc, a black energy blade slicing the attack in two. The split shockwave veered off course, crashing into the bay and sending up walls of water that instantly froze under Aokiji's influence further away.
Mihawk seized the opening. With a single bound, he propelled himself toward Whitebeard, Yoru aimed at the giant's chest. But the Yonko reacted with surprising speed for his size, bringing his bisento up in defense. The two weapons clashed in a spray of sparks, their Armament Haki coating the blades in a gleaming black sheen. The ice beneath them shattered into fragments, sending razor-sharp shards flying in all directions.
"You've… got guts… little hawk," the giant panted, a trickle of blood running from his mouth. "But you don't… understand…"
Suddenly, his free hand clenched. The air imploded. Mihawk felt his insides twist—the Gura Gura was crushing him from within. He coughed up blood, his knees buckling under the pressure.
Around them, the battlefield seemed frozen in time. Whitebeard's pirates shouted words of encouragement to their captain, while the marines watched, stunned, as two legends clashed. Further away, Luffy stopped for a brief second, eyes wide, before resuming his desperate charge toward Ace.
Whitebeard chuckled darkly as he raised his weapon for the finishing blow.
But Leo, in a flash of desperate clarity, pushed—not with his muscles, but with that instinctive force he had seen in the anime—Conqueror's Haki.
A burst of purple energy flared around Yoru. The bisento stopped a hair's breadth from Mihawk's skull, repelled by the invisible force.
"Ha…ki of the…" Whitebeard began, surprised.
Mihawk seized the moment. Yoru slashed horizontally, cutting deep into the Yonko's chest. Blood spurted in a crimson arc.
"FATHER!!" Marco's voice rang out, raw with panic.
That moment of distraction cost Marco dearly. Kizaru struck him with a blinding kick of light, knocking him off balance. As soon as he hit the ground, marines rushed in, slapping seastone cuffs onto his wrists.
"FATHER!" he kept screaming.
Whitebeard staggered back, planting his bisento into the ground to keep from falling. The ice beneath him cracked, darkened by blood.
"You see…," Mihawk murmured, wiping the blood from his lips, "even legends bleed."
TO BE CONTINUED...
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