87 A good beating does wonders
3rd Person POV
*Soru*
While Momonga was trying to reassess the current situation and Sabo's threat level at that, Vergo rushed passed him, using one of the rokushiki.
He vanished from his spot and closed in on Sabo seemingly appearing before him out of thin air.
Sabo still wore a confident expression, the small smile not leaving his face even as a black bamboo staff was swung at him, ready to smash his head in but before it reached him, Vergo suddenly vanished.
*CRACK*
From some distance away, a crashing sound was heard. One of the giants next to Momonga looked over with wide eyes as he saw Vergo who was sent flying into a small hill, slight steam rising from his solar plexus area.
"Hmm? Nani?!"
When the giant squinted his eyes and focused his sight he could make out a footprint where steam was rising from indicating that Sabo had kicked him away too fast for him to notice.
"…You are focusing on the wrong detail…"
Momonga noticed the giant's bewildered look but the later has yet to notice the real issue.
"What?"
"What do you mean Vice-Admiral Momonga?"
The giants were surprised so they asked the later what exactly he meant by 'wrong detail'. After all they just saw Rear-Admiral Vergo turn into a bulled for a moment.
Momonga, after seeing that Sabo didn't follow up with more attacks started to explain. He saw what happened just now but it wasn't the speed or strength of the kick that surprised him.
"…Until a moment ago… there was no hill in that particular spot…"
!
!
!
This revelation visibly shocked the giants once more. Making things float was one thing but changing the terrain to such a degree was a serious matter.
The navy and WG knew long since what devil fruit Sabo ate but for a hill to pop up out of nowhere and from such a distance on top of it… Momonga thought of a certain possibility that filled him with dread.
Meanwhile Sabo only watched them leisurely. The current him could take them on easily since things are different from back then when he almost died against crocodile in the Navy's ambush, yet for some reason the memories started resurfacing on their own.
When he looked at the fainted soldiers around them and at Momonga and the giants in the distance Sabo suddenly started thinking of the big ambush back then despite trying not to. It just kept popping up in his mind.
How he and everyone else were betting their lives on all and every move and attack and still nearly got killed.
Waking up in a foreign room and seeing his friends broken, hurt and more dead then alive.
Hearing that his brother stayed behind for their sake and most probably died.
The relief and happiness when he heard that Jackson was found alive and safe only to be replaced by bottomless despair and self blaming when he saw him looking like a dried up corpse, diagnosed to never wake up from his coma.
"Come to think of it… the navy sure did their best to find trouble with us time and time again."
Sabo's expression didn't change when talking again but the underlying tone in his voice did.
"Get ready!!"
Momonga noticed it, immediately understanding that the fight would start for real from now on. Ignoring the warnings from both, his instincts and haki, he commanded everyone who was still conscious to prepare for battle, but it was just 5 people including him.
"And other than Jackson none of us ever got a chance to hit them back since then."
Sabo continued talking a bit more. Normally he isn't someone petty who holds grudges but the memories that uncontrollably resurfaced on their own, managed to reignite certain feelings of anger from back then.
It was sudden, and unexpected. Everything turned out well in the end, it even made everybody train so much harder, yet for some reason only the negative memories popped up when looking at the navy.
!
The ground beneath their feet started rising as it took the form of a giant dragon head with it's maw wide open similar to how Shiki would form lion heads with the ground.
Momonga and the giants hurriedly stepped back while attacking the stone head. A bright blue light flashed and the dragon head the size of a giant was split in two.
"It should be fine even if I go a little bit overboard, right?"
As if Sabo's words were a signal, the two freshly cut halves started to move on their own, instead of falling. One attacked the nearest giant effectively locking it in a contest of strength while the other rushed Momonga.
The later stayed composed and focused ready to slice the incoming attack apart but when he took a stance with his sword, Momonga felt a resistance as if something was trying to take his sword out of his hands.
"What?!"
The sword didn't move a single inch leaving the wielder open to the incoming disaster if nothing was done.
"SHIT!"
Refusing to let go of his sword, the Vice-Admiral counterattacked with rankyaku, barely splitting the leftover dragonhead made from stone into two more parts but much to his shock the same thing as before happened again.
*BAM*
One of the two giants intervened just in time. The cub wielding giant smashed the parts that were attacking Momonga while the hammer wielding giant attacked the stone head that was attacking the weaponless giant.
For now they smashed the stone head into many small parts, which still floated for a little while longer before falling.
"Whew! That was surprising."
The hammer wielding giant commented thinking that they successfully defended for now but little did he know how incorrect that assumption is.
Both, his hammer and the cub of the other giant took them by surprise as they suddenly started moving on their own and attacking Momonga who was trying to move his sword.
"Tekkai!"
Just before the weapons landed their attacks, he managed to use the defense technique but it didn't prevent him from being sent flying, letting go of the sword in the process.
Yet it still wasn't over. The ground started rising again as another dragon head was formed, then another and another.
"What the fuck is this?!"
The giant who fought with the cub exclaimed nervously. Previously the giants and Momonga decimated the first stone head without suffering injuries while fighting 4 on 1 but now each one of them had to face 10 of those giant sized heads each and on their own while their weapons flew off to where Sabo was watching them from.
The surroundings were totally devastated with gigantic pieces of ground missing and pits scattered across the area wherever one looked.
"You know a good beating does wonders. Not only may it teach you a valuable lesson but it also helps rising my mood."
The culprit behind this large scale move continued to spout infuriating bullshit at them but no one had the leisure to complain.
Was it bullying that Sabo was using his awakened devil fruit abilities to not only overwhelm them but even take away their weapons?
The answer is: who cares. In this world, during a fight between marines and pirates the one who hits harder is in the right.
And according to that logic the navy was truly very in the wrong at the moment. Fighting back using their techniques and expertise proved to be futile because even after cutting hitting and smashing the giant sized dragon heads, the single parts would just continue rushing at them.
It was like an endless loop, where the number of objects trying to squash them increased the more they fought.
Meanwhile on the other battle ground.
"How?! How can this be?!"
Vergo had used the chance to sneak off to help Doflamingo and escape afterwards, thinking that Sabo didn't notice him but in truth the later actually let him leave.
Why?
Because there was nothing he could do over here. In front of his eyes, all the officers of the Donquixote Pirates lay bloodied and unconscious aground the grounds.
*Swoosh*Crash*
Around 30 meters away from him a figure suddenly fell from the sky crashing head first into the ground.
The dust rose and it took Vergo a second to notice who was laying in the newly formed pit.
"…Doffy?…"
A look of shock and surprise emerged on his usually stoic face. Even the glasses couldn't completely hide how unexpected he found this situation to be.
*Step*Step*Step*
Vergo started walking.
*Step*Step*Step*
Slowly, he was closing in to where his captain was. The closer he got the clearer he could see the burn marks and cuts on his body.
Finally he was standing next to him, looking down at the barely conscious Doflamingo who was struggling to say something.
"…n"
Crouching down he focused his hearing to better understand what his captain was trying to say as he carefully picked him up ready to dash away.
"Hm? How come you are here?"
But he never got the chance after a certain voice resounded from behind him.
(AN: Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay this week was busier then I would have liked it to be. In this chapter I showed off what Sabo can do when getting a bit serious to clear small/medium fries and number disadvantage. Also about his awakening, it will be shown in more detail during future battles. I tried to keep this 'fight' simple since there was a big strength gap so not much epicness there. I was thinking of writing Law's fight on a seperate chapter. Also I changed my mind regarding finishing Doflamingo arc in 1-2 chapters and instead decided to use it experiments on writing tricks/styles etc. Hope you enjoy reading my ff and if you do… I think you know by now!)
