Chapter 87: Fire Fist Vs. Earthquake Dragon
“Emergency situation, sorry about that! Deuce.”
Flames still flickered around his arm as Ace appeared beside Deuce.
“Ace, you······”
Deuce touched his singed hair, feeling depressed and wanting to curse, but he wasn’t the kind of unreasonable bastard. It had indeed been an emergency just now; if not for Ace’s flames, he probably would have been punched flying by Eschbach by now.
At that point, it probably wouldn’t have just been a matter of singed hair.
“Be careful, this guy is a Zoan Devil Fruit User. I don’t know exactly what animal it is, but he doesn’t seem easy to deal with.”
Deuce quickly talked himself through it, dissipating the depression in his heart, and instead provided Ace with the intelligence he knew, though this intelligence was pitifully little.
“A Zoan Ability User?”
The flames on Ace’s arm flickered and danced as he looked at Eschbach, who had dodged his flames. His Observation Haki clearly sensed the opponent’s undisguised powerful aura. He was really strong! But not comparable to monsters like Black Arm, Pluto, and Black Prince.
However, aside from those monsters, he was not inferior even compared to Vice Admiral Dolo.
Plus being a Zoan Devil Fruit User, he was indeed not easy to deal with······ From East Blue all the way to the New World, experiencing countless storms and twists, but at the same time making great progress in knowledge and experience. He had gradually gained a more detailed understanding of Devil Fruit abilities.
In Paradise, Logia Devil Fruits were the symbol of invincibility.
Paramecia Devil Fruits depended on the specific ability; some powerful ones were not much inferior to Logia.
Only Zoan Devil Fruits, in the cognition of pirates from East Blue and Paradise, were probably the bottom of the three types of Devil Fruits.
However, upon arriving in the New World and witnessing and mastering the power called Haki, he realized that Zoan Ability Users could make a comeback here. With the addition of Armament Haki, combined with the vitality and recovery power of Zoan Devil Fruits, they became extremely difficult enemies.
“Fire Fist, Portgas D. Ace.”
Eschbach stepped forward, stamping out the flames on the grass, “What are you doing in Eckmond Kingdom? Retaliating against His Highness Elus for chasing you in Sabaody Archipelago?”
“Retaliation? No, I wouldn’t do something so petty, okay? Though I am a pirate, please don’t look down on me like that.”
Ace denied it without thinking.
“······”
Eschbach widened his eyes, “Do pirates expect to be looked up to?”
“······”
Ace was at a loss for words this time.
Fine! That made sense too! As a pirate, he was self-aware; no matter what, pirates weren’t positive representatives. Being hated, despised, and loathed was normal!
“You’re right······ Sorry about that! I got a bit carried away!”
Eschbach’s mouth rounded this time. What the hell, was this a ghost?
Surprisingly,
he apologized?
It was his first time seeing a pirate apologize. He’d seen plenty of soft-boned types begging for mercy in pain after being beaten by him, but anyway······ This Fire Fist was different from ordinary pirates. Eschbach had some realization in his heart, but even so, it couldn’t affect his work.
Among the aides-de-camp, he was currently the only one staying in the country; the rest were busy expanding and maintaining the maritime transport network. Though there were still Beautiful Sword and Fighting Dog, the two pillars of the nation, these two seniors were basically stationed around the capital to,
So upon receiving the intelligence from Black Swan Island’s officials about the Spade Pirates appearing, Eschbach rushed over at the fastest speed.
His duty was to protect the tranquility of the country; unstable elements like Fire Fist absolutely could not be allowed to run wild domestically.
“Fire Fist, I’ll give you one last chance. Leave Eckmond, and I won’t make a move against you.” Eschbach issued the final ultimatum. His personality was still so kind; after this simple exchange, realizing Fire Fist was different from those ordinary pirates who reveled in burning, killing, and looting, the killing intent and fighting spirit in his heart immediately faded a lot.
After all, Fire Fist wasn’t any weakling.
His Observation Haki could clearly perceive that aura as blazing and vast as the sun. Fighting such an opponent for real wouldn’t be settled in three punches or two kicks; the ones who would suffer then would be Black Swan Island’s residents and ecosystem.
“Sorry! No can do!”
Ace shook his head as expected.
“Though I came here due to some unavoidable reason······ But that’s no excuse. I won’t use that as an excuse. If I have to give a reason······ We’re pirates!” He said with a smile, emphasizing his identity as a “pirate.”
“I see! Pirates······ Then, I must exterminate pirates here!”
Eschbach’s eyes changed.
The faded killing intent and fighting spirit were reignited.
His kindness was very sincere; he didn’t want his battle with Fire Fist to bring destructive damage to Black Swan Island. But when combat was inevitable, he immediately resolved himself to capture or kill Fire Fist with the strongest power at the fastest speed.
Only this way could the damage to Black Swan Island be minimized.
“I won’t go down without a fight.”
Ace extended his finger burning with flames, lightly pushing up the orange cowboy hat on his head, his smile exceptionally brilliant.
In an instant, the ground shook.
A fist tearing through the air produced a shrill whistle. The long distance flashed by, and Eschbach’s fist wrapped in Armament Haki was already in front of Ace.
“Bang!”
It was a muffled sound like thunder on a clear day.
Fist collided with fist.
Feeling the heavy force transmitted from the opponent’s fist, which was a size smaller than his own, a hint of surprise appeared on Eschbach’s face. His Observation Haki had sensed Ace’s strength, but he thought this Logia Ability User who ate the Flare-Flare Fruit’s strength lay in ability development.
Who would have thought,
he had such impressive strength.
However,
“Not enough!”
Eschbach glared, like a non-human beast opening its pupils, fierce and violent bestial nature bursting forth. The muscles in his punching right arm suddenly swelled, a layer of gray-brown skin as hard as stone covering his arm. The human palm transformed into a beast’s claw in that instant.
The change was not just that;
His head turned into a flat dragon head, a thick long tail extending behind him, and his entire body covered in tough, sturdy skin like stubborn stone.
This was a Zoan Ability User’s Beast Form.
The postural change not only gigantified his already tall body once more.
More importantly—
The surge in power.
As the posture changed, a rolling hot current surged through his flesh and blood, his heart pounding like a drum, power filling his limbs, the overwhelming killing intent and fighting spirit all poured into that fist, transforming into the most violent force.
“Raaah!!!”
A thunderous roar exploded from his open mouth.
The explosively increased power immediately overwhelmed Ace’s resistance.
Fire Fist
turned into a scattered mass of flames.
“Actively elementalizing?”
The fist wrapped in Armament Haki didn’t land on anything solid. Eschbach wasn’t annoyed; before fighting a Logia Ability User, he had already prepared mentally. Such hide-and-seek tricks were within his expectations.
“Let me see whether your Observation Haki sees farther or my fist is faster!”
Before the words finished,
The heavy iron fist swung out again.
The air was pushed by this punch, creating a visible white wave ripple, and at the same time, a muffled grunt came from the scattered flames.
“Ace!!”
Before the fight started, Deuce, who had cleverly hidden behind a landscape stone by the pond, watched Ace with worried eyes. He didn’t doubt Ace’s strength; after all, Ace had led them to escape from Black Arm’s grasp multiple times.
But,
Eschbach looked very strong too!
Especially now in Beast Form, he really looked full of invincible power.
“Cough cough! You’re really strong!”
The grass by the pond was ignited by falling flames. Ace quickly stood up from a patch of flames, a bit of blood at the corner of his mouth. That punch came too fast; he had dispersed the flames as much as possible to dodge the fist wrapped in Armament Haki, but still got grazed a little.
As a result, it made his chest feel stuffy.
“This form······ Is it an Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit?”
The three types of Zoan Devil Fruits: normal type, Ancient Zoan, Mythical Zoan. Among them, Mythical Zoan was the easiest to recognize—not existing in reality, but animals or figures from mythology or legends. Besides that, Ancient Zoan’s dinosaur category was also relatively easy to recognize.
Besides that, the difference between normal type and Ancient Zoan wasn’t easy to distinguish.
For example, one of Beasts’ subordinates’ Three Disasters, Drought, Ancient Zoan Elephant-Elephant Fruit Mammoth form······ Pirates who hadn’t seen mammoths in books and were ignorant would probably just see it as a hairy elephant.
Eschbach didn’t explain his fruit ability to Ace.
This wasn’t because he feared revealing his secrets—that was a concern for some Paramecia Ability Users. Zoan Ability Users basically weren’t afraid of people knowing their ability details anyway, since their standout feature was superior vitality and recovery power.
He was now only thinking of taking down Ace as quickly as possible.
Fists,
came one after another.
“Mirror Fire!”
Ace suddenly swung his right arm, releasing a large swath of blazing flames from his arm, forming a fire wall over ten meters high, carrying scorching heat flow to meet the charging Eschbach. The previous fist clash failure had made Ace realize that with his honed physical power and Armament Haki, he temporarily couldn’t withstand Eschbach’s iron fist.
He immediately switched tactics, starting to utilize the Flare-Flare Fruit’s ability.
The astonishingly hot fire wall did cause Eschbach some trouble. Even Beast Form’s skin couldn’t withstand such fierce flame burning. The only counter was to cover his body with Armament Haki, but full coverage would accelerate Armament Haki consumption.
“Whoosh—!”
Eschbach, fully covered in Armament Haki, broke through the fire wall and arrived in front of Ace.
Having decided on a quick battle, there was no reason to conserve Armament Haki for a prolonged fight, so he charged forward in a desperate, all-out posture, smashing through the burning fire wall, swinging his fist, and sending the surprised Ace flying with one punch.
“That hurts!!!”
The pain on his cheek made Ace feel like his skull was splitting, his left ear buzzing like a high-power generator in his ear canal.
This was still the result of him timely using Armament Haki to protect his cheek. If his reaction was half a beat slower, he might have gotten a concussion outright! Such fist strength, in Ace’s impression, was second only to Black Arm. Grandfather Garp didn’t count; when Garp beat him and his brothers as kids, though it hurt a lot, that strength was definitely held back.
Otherwise,
Grandfather, with the dual titles of “Iron Fist” and “Navy Hero,” absolutely wouldn’t be inferior to Black Arm.
Pain was pain, but Ace’s consciousness was still clear. He gritted his teeth enduring the pain, his spread Observation Haki firmly locking onto Eschbach’s position. Still in the state of being knocked flying and not yet landed, Fire Fist’s hands crossed fingers into an X.
Just as Eschbach’s figure flew to his side, preparing to follow up with another punch.
The X formed by crossed fingers placed in front of his chest, aimed at Eschbach’s flat dragon head. Ace endured the pain and showed a brilliant smile, softly saying:
“Cross Fire.”
Cross-shaped light shone on Eschbach’s dragon head.
The next instant, just before Eschbach’s fist landed on Ace’s head, blazing flames blasted along the cross-shaped light channel onto Eschbach’s head, making him emit an extremely pained roar. Even with Armament Haki protection, the impact was on his head, his face.
There were too many fragile organs here.
Eyes, neck, mouth, ears······ All were extremely vulnerable parts without exception. Eschbach felt his nasal cavity burned by the flames, the pain stabbing straight to his brain forcing him to halt his pursuit of Ace and stop to recover from the injury.
“Huff huff—”
Ace, flying over thirty meters, finally landed in front of a small grove. He rolled with the momentum, fully dissipating the terrifying impact, flipped to his feet, stood in place, caught his breath, looked at the disheveled Eschbach, his smile growing even brighter.
“Even if I can’t beat Black Prince now, handling one of his subordinates should still be doable, right?”
He murmured to himself, full of confidence.
This battle—
He had never thought of evading or rejecting it from the start.
This period being chased like a lost dog by Black Arm, though he benefited greatly from those battles, constantly losing and being suppressed still left him somewhat depressed. And he wasn’t the kind of trash who got a kick out of bullying the weak to feel like a strong person.
So,
Encountering an enemy like Eschbach who could pressure him but not pose a fatal crisis was exactly what he wanted!
“Yo! If that’s all you’ve got, you won’t be able to drive me out of Eckmond Kingdom!”
Ace proactively taunted, his sun-like brilliant smile so piercing.
The taunt succeeded.
The enraged Eschbach regrouped. The Zoan Ability User’s powerful vitality and recovery power healed his nasal injury in a very short time. He swung his fist again, launching an attack at Ace.
