The battle intensified as the duo sprung into action to terminate one another. Vane knew it'll be awful for the marine reinforcement to arrive before getting rid of the vice admiral engaging with him.
He knew Smoker would prove troublesome to deal with despite him being a Logia-type devil fruit user. Cladding both arms in haki, a grin plastered across his face as he clashed against a vice admiral of the marines.
Smoker cursed himself, actualizing his foe wasn't just a mere pirate stationed in the first half of the Grand Line but a notorious pirate who'd wreaked havoc in the New World.
Smoker's transponder snail rang for a couple of seconds but Vane pressed on with his assault, enabling the navy to be unable to correspond to the urgent call.
Vane blitzed Smoker instantaneously extorting a hush of blood streaming down his nose and mouth. Vane hadn't applied his devil fruit powers yet, relying on his physical prowess, flexibility and the utility of his mastery of Observation and Armament Haki to push Smoker into a tight pinch.
"Isn't he a devil fruit user? Why isn't he activating his powers?" Smoker whispered to himself, "perhaps, is he contemplating to best me using just haki? How rude of him!"
"What's the matter, Smoker? Is this the level of a navy captain?" Vane outburst into a vigorous laugher as he plunged forward once again, his observation haki indicating the navy fleets at the shore of the island.
He hissed, consummating his plans were about to crumble as well as the people he'd enslaved since he'll be busted if a rear or a vice admiral found he has been involved in a human trafficking.
'Fuck! This isn't the way I'd planned it would go.'
He activated his Devil Fruit, the Gra Gra no Mi—a gravity-manipulating fruit that allowed the user to control space and gravity at his own accord.
By negating its effects on himself, Vane reduced his personal gravity to zero, rendering himself completely weightless. He then lunged forward at tremendous speed, blitzing the navy captain as he simultaneously increased the gravity on his fist to its maximum capacity, exceeding twenty kilos.
His fist collided with Smoker, who was in his peak form—a manifestation of smoke itself. A gush of blood emanated from Smoker's mouth, hurling him backward as he flew through the air, clutching his abdomen in agony.
Smoker gritted his teeth, realization dawning on him. How was he unable to follow Vane's movements in that split second?
A tooth declined out of his mouth leaving a slight trace of blood before hurling himself on his feet, barely able to deter after getting struck very solidly.
"You were able to stand after tanking a punch worth over twenty kilos?" Vane snarled, "you fascinate me."
"Twenty kilos?" Smoker's voice was barely functioning as he staggered sideways. "Perhaps, you could control gravity?" He clutches his Nanashaku Jitte, his signature weapon.
"How brilliant of you," Vane applauded, "I'll be nice to spare your life if only you could order your fleets to return back to the navy headquarters as well as you and I'll overlook the outcome."
"How absurd. I'll defeat you right here and now." His body flared up into a cloud of white smoke, blinding the vision of the retired pirate in order to pummel him to the ground and restrain him with the seastone embodied on the tip of his Jitte.
"Do you think blinding my vision will halt my assault? How foolish a man could be."
Deploying his observation and armament haki at once, he was able to counter and evade blind attacks springing towards him from every veer.
"Don't underestimate the smoke." Smoker's voice resonated from the cloud of blinding smoke. "Hell breath!" He clenched his fist, unveiling the ruthless prowess of his devil fruit and engulfed the whole structure of Vane.
'What's he up to?' Vane thought vividly, clutching the smoke with his hands cladded in haki before realization unfold miserably as he stumbled backwards, clutching his throat in pain.
"You just inhaled a complex of contaminated smoke. How long will you continue to suffer until the poison irreversibly damages your vital organs?"
A haze of blood gushed out from Vane's mouth, eyes, nose and ears as he inhaled a vast complex of toxic smoke rendering his body numb, unable to correspond any longer.
'Fuck, I underestimated him,' Vane snarled fiercely, clutching a fragment of the smoke with his Busoshoku Haki, which engulfed him and startled Smoker for a moment. Redirecting his whole power, a violent pulse of gravity exploded from his palm.
The air bent. The ground cracked.
Smoker's smoke form suddenly collapsed inward, forcibly condensed back into flesh and blood as the crushing gravitational force overwhelmed his Logia transformation. His eyes widened for a split second before his body was hurled downward.
BOOOOM!
The marine captain slammed into the floor hard enough to shatter the stone beneath him. Cracks spiderwebbed across the ground while invisible pressure pinned him there like a mountain resting on his back.
Dust hovered around the impact crater.
"Tch—!"
Smoker gritted his teeth, struggling as the gravity continued to press down on him, veins bulging in his arms while wisps of smoke leaked uselessly from his body before being crushed back into place.
Ha? Ha ha
Vane erupted in laughter, opting himself from the ground as he wiped off the trail of blood visible on his lips. He exhaled loudly, swinging his hands continuously before extracting Smoker's weapon.
"You almost had me for a second," Vane stated, glancing at the marine captain whose body was about to be crushed into meatballs of flesh and bones. "If you'd used the tip of your weapon cladded in Seastone to apprehend me, you would've won easily."
Smoker coughed a mouthful of blood, unable to transform his physical body into smoke as Vane apprehended him with his own weapon nullifying the use of his Logia devil fruit.
Vane felt his body was aching to crumble from the exhaustion as he visualized he was at his limit to employ his devil fruit any further. Yet, he decided to go beyond plus ultra in order to exceed his own limits and weakness.
"Your marine fleets are advancing way faster than I anticipated." Vane hissed, "it's so bad I can't kill or imprison you right now." He contemplated for a brief extent, actualizing he didn't own a Seastone cuffs to keep Smoker from escaping when he recovers.
"I'll just have to make you slumber for a while and deal with the incoming troops up ahead."
Smoker could barely utter a word and was unable to transform into smoke to free himself from the grasp of Vane.
"Goodnight, smokey-chan."
Vane struck his fist cladded in black as it collided with Smoker's face, compelling the latter to suddenly lose consciousness before withdrawing the seastone weapon imbued on Smoker's back.
He deactivated his Devil Fruit as he began to heave for breath, his body drenched in sweat and his vision slightly blurred due to the relentless surges of exhaustion and fatigue coursing through his entire being.
He snatched his Den Den Mushi from his jacket and dialed his companions number.
Pere Pere Pere!
Pere Pere Pere! Clank!!
"Hiro here." He said from the other end of the call.
"It's Vane. I've already taken down Smoker, a captain of the navy." Vane let out an exasperated sigh.
"Seems you did have a rough time dealing with him," Hiro chuckled, "I'll keep eyes on Foolio as well as the rampaging pirates."
"Good job. I'll pay the marine troops a visit while you analyze the situation with Jimmy in the underground."
"Roger that."
The transponder snail disconnected briefly after interacting with Hiro, deactivating his haki, he strode forward towards the incoming troops of the marines.
…
"G-5 soldiers, I'll need you guys to evacuate the civilians into shelter." Tashigi exclaimed, clutching her Shigure, one of the Grade blades ever forged.
"Yes ma'am." The soldiers exclaimed, being overwhelmed by Tashigi's beauty.
Rear admiral Reiji, a swordsman, led his troops to apprehend the pirates vessels docked at the shore while the other vice admirals wandered in the depths of the island with the marine soldiers cladded in various firearms.
"Listen, I'll need you to capture any pirate at sight." Vice admiral Momonga, a G-1 base commander ordered his troops trailing behind him as he seemingly tightened his grasp at the various wanted posters stationed on his palm. "Also, don't forget to use the seastones. They're definitely many big shots camping inside this island."
"Yes sir!" The soldiers swallowed hard, knowing too well they're meant to sacrifice their life for the sake of Justice be it good or bad.
"Stop!" Momonga halted in his tracks, his marine coat swaying gently from side to side as the breeze swept through the air. "Vane.. you bastard. Weren't you supposed to be deceased?"
"Isn't that a bit harsh?" Vane snapped, his hands cladded in armament haki.
"The scar you once gave me in the New World aches a lot." Momonga crouched down, employing a battle stance before lunging forward while his troops plunged into the depths of the upper yard to restrain the pirates who lurked in the vicinity.
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