Escaping death

"You also can you use it?!!..." Shanks looked at me dumbfounded.

"Hoi Hoi! Are you kidding me? It was enough as it is, but now you have such a terrifying power!" Kuzan was also shocked.

"Hey Shanks!" I slowly pulled back my sweaty hair and cracked my knuckles.

"I know, you don't have to tell me!" Shanks said with big smile in his face while wiping the blood from his mouth "We'll kick his ass this time!".

"You are still bustling with energy after that beating?...I guess I have to beat you more than that!"

"Ice Block…Avalanche!" Kuzan froze the cold air from above to create a giant block of ice, and then dropped it at us.

Shanks used a wide projectile sword slash to cut down half of it, while Ashen vaporized the rest with his flames.

*SWOSH* They didn't waste any time after that and they dashed at Kuzan at once.

Ashen proceeded to compress and concentrate all his heat into one point on his body which is his index finger, generating far more heat than normal.

It had the same concept as Hotarubi Hidaruma, but instead of multiple small particles it was one small but far more destructive. It's known that the air pressure and temperature increase as the volume of the space containing the air decreases, and since flames also don't have a set maximum temperature, it only depends on the user's ability.

After that Ashen proceeded to release the concentrated heat forward as a fast beam from his index finger.

"Death Beam!…*BOOOOOM!!!*" the attack pierced through Kuzan's chest shattering him into ice blocks while piercing through several building after that before it exploded, rendering the area completely flat.

Kuzan reformed back quickly after that without being harmed. He looked at the destruction Ashen's attack did before he changed his gaze back to him.

"I can't let this fight drag on any more…Forget capturing you, I'll just kill both of you here"

"Ashen! Don't go around shooting your fire aimlessly!" Shanks was above Kuzan, ready to cut his neck with his sword, before Kuzan hardened his right arm and blocked it.

"Damn it!" Shanks cursed out loud as he kept sending fast slashes towards him before he took him by surprise. He coated his leg with Haki and proceeded to kick him in the stomach, sending him flying at the direction of Ashen.

The later did the same, smashing him down on the ground. After that Ashen coated both his arms with Haki and focused his flames on his knuckles and started raining down Kuzan with punches who was laying crossed arms on the ground.

*BAM*-*BAM*-*BAM*-*BAM* Every punch created a loud explosion upon contact.

"Die!!!" Before Ashen knew it, his arms became pitch black. He was using hardening, it has a similar concept as Tekkai, but instead of hardening the muscles, he increased the density of the spiritual energy and hardened it together to create a black coating around his arms.

"No! Don't be ridiculous!...You can't kill me with such a weak armament!" Kuzan kick Ashen away before he got on his feet again.

Shanks didn't give him the time to regain his composure, and immediately clashed with him again.

30 minutes later,

Although it seemed that Shanks and Ashen finally were able to fight Kuzan equally at first, but it soon turned out that it was far from being the case and they got demolished by him for the second time.

Both of them depleted their stamina and are now very exhausted, and on top of that they had some bad injuries while Kuzan seemed fine.

"Huff…huff…Burn up you son of a bitch…" Ashen gathered dense flames in front of his body and compressed them at one point "Prominence!…BUUURN!!!" He proceeded to emit a strong concentrated beam of heat towards Kuzan.

*BOOOOOOOM!!!* The attack was strong enough to demolish several buildings, while destroying the ground along the way.

"That's enough!" Kuzan used Soru to appear next to Ashen, and then proceeded to punch him down, cracking the ground with his head.

"AGGHHH-!!!..." Ashen's eyes rolled back after taking that hit and was lying unconscious on the ground. Shanks was also on the ground on the other side, drowning in his blood, though he was still conscious.

"Thinking about it, I don't have a sea stone shackles…I'll just have to kill now" Kuzan proceeded to take several stones from the ground and froze them into a sharp ice blade, before he got ready to thrust it at Ashen's heart.

"…I can't move" Shanks tried to get up and stop him, but he immediately collapsed once again, he was dizzy and weak from the excessive blood loss.

Just as Kuzan was going to strike him down a loud shout echoed throughout the battlefield.

"El Thor!" A large cluster of electricity appeared above Kuzan, before it crashed down on him as a massive column. It was Enel who came to rescue his captain.

"It tingled a little bit" Kuzan stated, it was the case since ice can conduct electricity. But before he regained his composure, the figure that was lying in front of him suddenly disappeared.

"Arara! You keep surprising me every time…" He could sense that the figure who was near him a few seconds ago was already a few meters away "He even took the red-haired guy with him" Kuzan proceeded to use Soru to follow him.

…

Somewhere near the seacoast of Water 7,

A huge ship just landed on the water before a few dozen of marines came rushing at the place, surrounding the whole area.

"Surrender yourselves pirates!" A marine Commodore shouted at the direction of the crew.

"Where the hell is the captain?" Ian asked while he jumped out of the ship.

"I already sent Enel to go get him!" Calvin stated before he also approached the marines on the ground "Old man! just start sailing the ship!…We'll hold them off!" Calvin ordered him.

"Alright!"

"I won't let you damage the ship that I worked on so hard!" a blue haired figure shouted as he kicked one of the marines away.

"Bastard! Who are you?!" The marine Commodore asked him.

"You don't need to know"

"Capture all of them!" when order was given, all the pirates charged at the three figures at once.

A few minutes later,

The marines were easily defeated, before a beam of electricity appeared and a figured merged from it. He was Enel, and he was carrying the unconscious Ashen and Shanks in each arm.

"What happened?!!" Calvin asked looking shocked at Ashen's condition. Before he looked even more surprised when he saw Shanks and recognized him.

"We don't have time!...A monster is coming after us!" Enel stated looking nervous, before Ashen finally regained conscious.

"aaggghh!...Enel?"

"You're awake!" Enel proceeded to drop both of them.

"Ah…Thanks for saving me"

"I didn't expect you to save me too" Shanks said.

"Good thing he did…I can't let you die before I pay you back for what you did to me in East Blue"

"Hahaha! Fair enough!" he said laughing.

"Now is not the time to chat, let's get the hell out of here!" Ashen got on his feet, and without wasting any time he ordered the crew to board the ship and sail immediately.

"Shanks!" Benn Beckman, and the rest of the Red Hair Pirates finally appeared.

"Oh, you guys are here!" Shanks approached them.

"Captain what happened?" Lucky Roux asked with a piece of meat in his mouth.

"We just fought a dangerous person! Anyway, everyone get on the ship…We're leaving this place!"

"We, you mean him?" Beckman looked at Ashen in surprise with a cigar in his mouth. He probably didn't think he would develop that much.

"Ashen!" A female voice called for him. It belonged to Amber. She slowly moved towards him while looking at the marine corpses in shock.

"You're here, I don't have the time to explain the situation" Ashen quickly carried her in his arms and used Soru and Geppo to fly towards the ship which was already away on the sea. Calvin also grabbed Ian and Franky and did the same.

Shanks and his crew boarded their ship as well, before an incredibly tall, tanned skin man appeared, and lot of marine soldiers sooner after that.

"Hah! You're pretty fast…" Kuzan stated as he approached the water, before he placed both his hands in it.

"Ice Age!" He instantly froze the sea trying to block the two ships from escaping. But unfortunately for him, Ashen and Enel didn't let that happen and quickly vaporized his ice with combination of fire and electricity.

"El Thor!"

"Hiken!"

*BOOOOOM!*

"Prepare the cannons! If any ship gets close to us…blow it away!"