Alex and his crew sailed the treacherous waters of the New World for a little longer until they found intel on the whereabouts of the Robo-Pirate crew along with scoping out the surrounding islands, and it was smart to do so because it was there that they found the crew lounging about in their makeshift camp, which looked an awful lot like some lab. They were tinkering on some wounded members of theirs, which meant Alex would chuck an EMP made by Boomer, and then they'd knock out the rest of the crew, executing their foe and moving to their next targets.
With the plan formulated, Alex stretched his hand out to Boomer, who put the EMP into the palm of his hand, and without a second's hesitation, the EMP was in the middle of the area, and it detonated, the electromagnetic pulse of energy disabling the robotic parts of the pirates. Conqueror's Haki from Alex kept them disoriented as that same rear admiral blitzed in, and with nigh-surgical precision, his victims were annihilated.
They, or more precisely, Boomer and his helpers, gathered all sorts of info and research material and loaded it onto their vessel. The whole crew was setting sail mere minutes later, and the Cook Pirates were going to get it next.
They have been to underground dealers and established locations to gather intel, and they all said that this crew was moving constantly and at very high speeds, so their whereabouts would be difficult to track down. Unlucky for them, Alex picked up a few patterns, akin to circles the Cook Pirates sailed to, probably to commit their wonderful acts of terrorism, meaning their tracking will be done at sea from this moment onward.
They sailed for about a month to finally track down this elusive crew. They looked big and menacing, their weapons sharp and gleaming under the sunlight, but the thing that made Alex facepalm in annoyance wasn't the power of these Cooks, it was impressive, but he could handle that, he now knew why they were so outmatched when it came to pursuit, the ship was tugged by two huge sea kings, monstrous beasts with their sizes being quite astonishing, and the only thing Aika, the cook could think of was how long her crew wouldn't need to restock on food if they got these two, so after she stared at her captain with puppy eyes and begged him to take them, he gave in, though it was absolutely not because he had skipped eating in order to have a more intense training session, definitely not, okay, maybe a bit.
The leader of the cooks, a burly man with a huge war hammer as his choice of weapon, yelled at his men to teach the marine scums a lesson about not trying to take on more than they can chew, receiving roars of approval as his crew charged in recklessly.
They put a gangplank onto the Marine ship, but Alex didn't want to bother with the weaklings, so when they got to the middle of the plank, he sliced it apart, making 90% of the crew fall into the sea and get shot by his Marines, who were told about this plan before it happened.
Alex then crossed the distance between his position and the Cook Captain in a heartbeat with the use of a Soru, his sword already in motion as it surprisingly clashed with the hammer, now coated in a thick sheen of black armament Haki.
Alex didn't get too carried away, though; he jumped back and coated his sword in Ryuo, a purple hue surrounding his sword as hairline fractures appeared in it because of so much power being poured into a not-so-good-quality sword. Alex felt it, and his mind found only one solution for it: he will have to throw hands.
Sheathing his sword, he stood in a textbook stance taught by Hakuji Sensei, but it was a bit different. Alex optimized it to suit his patterns and move set along with his habits, making this a comfortable fighting style, even if he was more of a swordsman than a hand-to-hand fighter type.
The cook got furious and yelled, "Are you handicapping yourself?! You will pay for your arrogance, you shitty lapdog of the government!!!" The Cook rushed at Alex as the latter dodged and redirected all the attacks using his offhand, while his dominant hand struck out at openings, dishing out as much damage as he minimized the damage he could receive, his mastery of all three Haki types showing nicely as his Black Conqueror's Haki lightning mixed with his purple Ryuo, creating a beautiful aura as he slowly began to overpower the pirate, his technique becoming more refined by the second since he was facing an armed opponent without possessing a weapon himself, the threat of severe injury keeping his mind hyperfocused on the battle, and Alex felt a pang of excitement in his heart; it truly felt amazing.
His Armament and Observation were reaching quite high levels, and so was his even more overpowered Conqueror's Haki, and then his System hit him with good news:
[System Notice:]
The User has successfully obtained 50% of the fusion rate
User will now receive the rewards
...
Once the user obtains 50%, the user will be given the following rewards: regeneration via Haki channeling, Observation & Armament Haki unlocked (if not learned before), and dual wielding.
{Error detected}
The user has obtained Observation, Armament, and even awakened the Conqueror's Haki.
The User will be given 2 points to allocate to any Haki type and new Item
Igris' Swords 2x
Do you wish to allocate points now?
Y/N?
[Waiting...]
Alex was stunned, but he didn't let it show; he had to continue the battle after all. He kept pace with the chef while he mentally allocated his points to Conqueror's Haki, and he kept the swords in the inventory for now.
[Allocation success]
[System interface]
Alex
Job: Marine (Rear Admiral)
Status:
Fusion Rate: 50%
Next milestone: 60%
Haki:
Arm: 6/10
Obs: 7/10
Con: 9/10
[System close]
With this surge in power along with the knowledge of dual wielding, Alex stepped into the Cook Pirate Captain's guard, and then he struck with both hands, the one holding the weapon and the other hand. The sudden pain caused any movement of the pirate to cease for a second, and a second was all Alex needed. With a roar of exertion, he sliced through the chest of the pirate with his hands; cuts akin to those of flying slashes split the pirate into pieces as he fell to the ground, dead, a red viscous liquid splashing from the corpse.
Alex took note of a couple of superficial injuries on his person, so he used his Haki regeneration trait to patch himself up really quickly. It worked without a hitch, and Alex thought one thing: perfect.
Alex had won this battle, and what remained now was to scope out Whitebeard and his crew and then evaluate whether or not he was capable of going in there and killing them all, because if he didn't, they'd hunt his ass to the ends of the world, and he doesn't want that, thank you very much.