Not Your Average Three-Way

From what his scant Haki told him, Dante was dealing with a new player. Someone he had never before seen, and that excited him. Even now, as Jack slowly turned his head and watched the door alongside Dante all the half-devil could feel was anticipation.

"wooow... what a gaaathering... where's my invitaaaation?"

And most of the excitement Dante felt was dampened right then and there. 'The hell's wrong with this guy? Is he doing that on purpose?' He thought, confused but also holding onto hope that he could enjoy a brawl.

"And you are?"

The new figure, who was slowly being revealed as the light dimmed, was of remarkably similar height and build to Aokiji and Akainu, though he had a much... scruffier appearance. Dante couldn't help but appreciate the aviators, though. A stylish choice, fits the yellow aesthetic.

"admiraaaal kiiiizaru."

"Buddy, you're really not giving me much to work with here."

Dante scratched his neck awkwardly as he looked over and saw that Jack was in a much different state, almost foaming at the mouth while looking at Kizaru. In the brief moment that he looked away however, he felt something scream at him to dodge, and saw a glimmer of light in his peripheral.

Ducking down, he watched a massive boot sail over his head at extreme speed, Kizaru having sped behind him by becoming Light and bouncing himself towards Dante. Of course, Dante had no idea of any of this. He just assumed he had to deal with another speed-type, and if there's one thing he hates it's teleporting enemies.

"iiinterestiiiing..."

He covered his hands in Armament Haki and grabbed at the foot, much faster than the Admiral could ever hope to react, standing up afterwards and tossing Kizaru towards the now charging Jack, causing Kizaru to enter full-body elementalisation to avoid being skewered.

With Kizaru out of the way, Jack continued his charge towards Dante, who dealt with the attack by jumping up and punching down onto Jack's head as he passed beneath him, grabbing hold of one of the tusks while he was on the ground, snapping it off and brandishing it as a weapon.

Before he could stab it into the Mammoth though he had to deal with another attack from Kizaru, this time in the form of several beams of light being reflected across the room. Breathing in, he closed his eyes and focused, channeling his concentration, before opening them once more and placing his arms in a familiar stance.

From there he began to block each and every one of the light beams, one after another. The satisfying sound of energy being nullified by an equal amount and absorbed into Dante was all that could be heard in the now demolished auction house, with Kizaru growing frustrated at Dante's inexplicable immunity.

Several times between the beams reaching Dante after several hundred reflections across all light sources in the room, Kizaru had tried to engage in physical combat with Dante. He sent out his foot straight towards Dante's chest at near enough the speed of light, and still came up short after Dante parried the kick with one of his own, hardened by the Haki covering his boot, while the follow-up kick sent Kizaru flying - and Dante was still blocking projectiles with his Royal Guard.

"Thats enough! No more playing around!"

Jack announced his return with a cry of anger at being ignored, or perhaps being beaten down so easily, and began to shift once more into a much more humanoid state, entering his Hybrid form.

From there, he grabbed the tusk Dante had previously dropped to enter Royal Guard and swung it around like a madman, aiming for whoever passed his sights.

Once one of the swings almost reached Dante, he began to increase in ferocity, going faster and faster as he charged across the hall, taking long strides in a desperate bid to attack whatever he could see.

Dante, unwilling to deal with a hulking mass of destruction that Jack was slowly becoming in the Setting Sun, began to aim for Jack over Kizaru, waiting for the Mammotn Hybrid to get close before summoning his twin Cavaliere blades, crossing them over one another as Jack was helpless but to walk into them, causing his legs to be flayed by the grinding teeth of the Cavaliere.

Dante then reached up, grabbing a hold of Jack's face and headbutted the Mammoth, stunning him momentarily and giving Dante opportunity to unleash a Haki coated jab straight to Jack's nose.

Kizaru, seeing an opportunity, flashed in from the opposite side of Jack while Dante was in the middle of his headbutt, trapping Dante in. He smiled with glee as his boot came closer and closer to the Red Devil's smug face.

Until suddenly it all stopped. As though all sound had been drained from the world, all heat, and all feeling gone in an instant. All that could be seen was a single red bolt of lightning, formed of pure Demonic Energy, which crashed into the ground, stunning Jack and Kizaru, sending them both flying outside of the Setting Sun and into the street.

Both men were utterly scorched by the exposure to such amounts of Demonic Power. Jack had come out better than Kizaru, however it wasn't as though the Admiral was unscathed.

The lower half of his body was melting into his clothes, the fusion of skin and fabric was causing him utter agony, his aviators were shattered, and he had no idea why. His Devil Fruit should negate this, it should save him. But it didn't.

Jack had been heavily blinded by the blast and was singed from head to toe, his skin bubbling across the Hybrid form as his fur dried out and became ash.

All in all, when Dante walked out of the gaping hole in the auction house wall, both men had more than enough reason to be pissed off with him, especially when he shone that same smug grin.

"Man, is it hot in here, or is it just me?"

From there, Kizaru stopped treating Dante like the average pirate, and instead began fighting for his life.

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The agonising pain of his flesh melting into his own clothes was nothing in the face of the destruction of his pride. To be the fastest thing alive for so long, only to have that trophy ripped out from underneath you was a harrowing experience, and Kizaru hated it more than the pain he now felt. In the span of 10 minutes he went from living the dream to losing it all. He hated it. So, so much.

Hundreds upon hundreds of kicks were unleashed within fractions of seconds, as Kizaru released his fury upon Dante, who once more parried each and every attack with his gloved hands and boots, still smiling, still not dead.

"Yaaawn... I'm bored. Could you hurry it up?."

In between each kick, Dante would poke Kizaru in the charred flesh of his thighs, causing not only further excruciating pain but incomprehensible rage within the Admiral.

Eventually, Dante began punching Kizaru in the chest, stomach, even legs between each kick, showing off the difference in speed between them even further. Kizaru, desperate and afraid, began to incorporate punches into his attacks which Dante laughed off and redirected each time, never allowing the Admiral to land a single hit on him.

"Is this what they pay you for? Incompetence? Man, maybe I should've become an Admiral."

Eventually it became a simple flurry of punches between each man, thousands of strikes in the blink of an eye, each meeting the knuckles of the other. Kizaru, however, was very quick to lose this battle. He couldn't keep up with Dante, and nothing pained him more than to admit such a thing.

Meanwhile, Jack was barely conscious and slowly regaining his sense of self. He had no chance of surviving this battle, so he threw himself into the middle of it with no regard for self preservation. If he could take one of them down, he could make Kaido proud.

Dante, realising that the fight was nearing its endgame, summoned the Yamato and beckoned forth his opponents.

"Come here!"

In a split second, the Yamato had collided with Kizaru's shoes tens of times, being sent back by a Judgement Cut that momentarily scared the Admiral off, allowing Dante time to slash open a portal with the Yamato, directly in front of Jack's trajectory, with the exit portal being behind Kizaru.

Unwilling to be ground into a fine paste, Kizaru backed away from Jack's path, directly into Dante. Had he been thinking straight, he would have used his Devil Fruit to simply teleport away, or just become light and escape, however the agonising pain in his legs didn't allow such rational thought.

Kizaru turned and saw that he was face to face with Dante. He raised his leg, poured every ounce of his Devil Fruits powers into one final kick, yet still he was not nearly fast enough to block the blade of the Yamato as it sliced into his neck.

He fell down, desperately clutching at his throat as blood began to seep down his chest at alarming speed. He gave Dante one last hateful look, before fleeing the battle entirely, once more transforming into light. From there, Dante could no longer see him.

Slashing downward with the Yamato to remove the blood on its blade, Dante stood with a hand on the Yamato, another on the sheath, crouched low as he watched Jack approach.

Just as the All Star was reaching grabbing distance, Dante chose to strike. He unleashed hundreds upon hundreds of slashes around Jack, tens of Judgement Cuts that tore through his thick flesh like a hot knife to butter, leaving the Drought a mess of charred skin and gaping cuts.

With Jack now on the ground, gasping in pain and feeling dissatisfied with his battle against Dante, the half-devil walked over to the fallen form of the All Star. With no regard for the man's last words, or final wishes, Dante simply shot him in the head multiple times with Ebony to ensure that he was dead.

"No wonder Mammoths went extinct."

Dante now had a paycheck to cash in, one that he would be all too eager to spend moving forward.

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Standing in the pouring rain as the Grove was silent and empty of all life after the utter destruction it had seen previously, Dante was ringing Doflamingo's number. After a few minutes of empty ringtone, it was answered.

"The job is done. I made a disruption, and I took out the Beast Pirates. When am I getting my paycheck?"

"Well I'll be. I figured you'd come back in either a bag or a coma. I'm impressed, Dante. On the matter of payment, you'll have to wait a little bit. I'm busy right now, but trust me you'll get your Berries soon enough. I'll be in contact."

If there was one thing Dante felt right now, it was scammed. He does this dirty work for Doflamingo and the man has the balls to delay his payment? Unacceptable.

"Doflamingo. You hang up and we're gonna be in contact a lot sooner than you'd like. Where. Is. My. Money?"

"You want the money so bad? Fine. Just don't expect any more business from me. You caused way too much collateral damage. I asked for a disruption, not a godamn demolition!"

"...So you already knew? You knew I had finished the job already and had more than enough time to assess the situation and come to that conclusion."

The line was silent on Doflamingo's end, silent as a mouse. Nothing could be heard, not even breathing. Dante had caught on. Doflamjngk never even planned to pay him, he more than likely wanted to string him along on more errands and odd jobs.

"I expect my payment to be here soon. We clear?"

"...Yes. You'll get your Berries soon."

The line was cut immediately after. Dante smiled, happy that he was finally going to be compensated for a job well done, unaware that his actions today caused him to become one of the most wanted men in history. Not just by the Marines and the Government, but by Pirates too.

All in all, it was just another days work for Dante. Business was booming.