405
In the Tower of Justice, Enies Lobby,
Usopp barely avoided the folly of bladed attacks before throwing a few gunshots that the Vice Admiral dodged.
"You are too slow!" The Vice Admiral said kicking the pirate away, making Usopp hit a wall.
The sniper didn't stay there, quickly shrinking down and shooting from multiple angles, while the marine gave chase.
Onigumo smirked, lunging forward with unnatural speed, masterfully using soru and geppo to avoid the sea stone bullets, his swords swinging in an intricate dance of death. The building itself shook each time he moved, creating small shock waves every-time he landed.
Just as the Vice Admiral was about to thrust his blades onto Usopp, he was tackled to the side.
Gin roared, meeting Onigumo head-on. Forcing the Spider Zoan user to smash through a wall. The pirate swung his tail with immense force, colliding with two of the Vice Admiral's swords. Sparks flew, igniting tiny fires on the concrete floor.
"You ancient zoans have the tenacity of a cockroach." He grunted, struggling under the force, using his free spider-like arms to throw webs at Gin's face, before plunging his swords into his gut.
"Tekkai!" Gin grunted flexing his muscles, making them hard enough to not get fully pierced. Still, he was sent back a few meters, giving the Vice Admiral time to throw eight united air slashes at him.
Gin crossed his arms again and took the hit with everything he had, taking considerable damage. Still, he stood tall.
The Vice Admiral clicked his tongue, "Why don't you stay down!" He came in for a close attack, his blade gleaming ominous black, due to the use of armament haki.
But before he could make it, he had to protect himself. Usopp fired off multiple shots from his Kabuto slingshot, firing sea stone balls. Onigumo deflected them, a bit surprised by their speed.
They were way faster than normal bullets. But still, the Vice Admiral struck them down with his sword. Not letting any of them get on his body. But not all of the balls were made of sea stone.
"Multiple Shining Star!"
Onigumo's senses flared up, as he struck down a purple ball, but he was too late to react. One of them exploded and like a chain reaction, all five of them exploded right near the Vice Admiral. Sending him off a few meters.
But even with that the Vice Admiral had anticipated it due to his observation haki, and was able to avoid most of the damage by using armament haki and tekkai. But even with that he didn't avoid all the damage.
Seizing the moment, Gin used the moment to jump and tuck his limbs in, for a roll, with his spikes on his back, he crushed in where Onigumo previously was.
But the Vice Admiral was already gone, up in the air with the help of geppo. Unlike Gin, he had observation haki, so he was using it to avoid getting hit.
"You both are far damn annoying than I give you credit for!" Onigumo said, his clothes burned due to a surprise attack.
Usopp's shining star was inspired by dyna stone, so he couldn't ignore the damage. The vice admiral came down to a cleared-up area as both Usopp and Gin took position. The fight had been going on for a while now. But both sides were in a stalemate.
Vice Admiral Onigumo was faster, stronger and more skillful than both of the pirates. But combined they were able to fend him off. And not only that, the marine Vice Admiral was also taking damage from the ongoing fight. Mainly not due to ancient zoan pirate, no, it was due to the pesky sniper.
That's why he didn't attack immediately, taking some time to catch his breath and analyze both of them.
Gin stood up, the wounds on his back were already healed, his ancient zoan recovery helped him stay in the battle. But the attack he took to save Groot and Franky took away a lot of his stamina. Still the pirate wouldn't go down anytime soon.
At that time Gin had to move with everything he got, and took the attack on his back because he didn't have the time to use iron body. That's why the wounds were a lot fatal. But since then he has managed to work around the Vice Admiral's armament-covered swords.
With his ancient zoan already having a tough hide, he just had to use tekkai to make them even stronger. It didn't completely protect his fists, but with it he was somehow managing to contend with him.
But that wasn't the only thing, in the fight due to being constantly near death, Gin's fighting powers were improving. This was the main reason why the pirates were able to keep up with a Vice Admiral of the marines.
Usopp on the other hand was somewhat fine, still the sniper knew they had to end it fast. With using his powers so much, Usopp was draining his stamina a lot faster. Shrinking and sizing things up to fight the Vice Admiral was taking a lot out of him.
Not to mention that Usopp had to constantly use Observation haki. As Gin didn't have that, Usopp had to use it in case his friend was in danger and he needed to step in.
Gin's attacks were relentless, almost suicidal. But there was no other way, since if he didn't go all out, the Vice Admiral would beat him with speed. But that left him wide open for a lot of attacks. Some even deadly, if they weren't stopped beforehand by Usopp.