The air crackled where Ace's Haki-flame fist met Weevil's Haki-brute fist. The ground beneath them fractured further, the shockwave rippling outwards. Weevil, momentarily surprised by the sheer ferocity and newfound hardness of Ace's defense, let out an enraged, almost confused roar. He hadn't expected this level of resistance from the "fire-boy."
Ace's arm screamed in protest, muscles tearing, bones groaning under the immense pressure, but his will, fueled by camaraderie and a burning desire to surpass his limits and Gunnar, held firm. "Get… BACK!" he roared, and with a massive surge of power, his Haki-flames exploded outwards, pushing Weevil back a single, hard-fought step.
Gunnar, on his knees, watched with a mixture of pride and pained helplessness. "Ace…"
Isshin Ashina vs. Byrnndi World
While Ace and Gunnar faced the monstrous Weevil, Isshin Ashina, the young sword prodigy, was locked in a truly desperate battle against a furious Byrnndi World. The sky-splitting blast from Gunnar had disoriented World and given Isshin a precious moment to breathe, but World, fueled by rage and the humiliating defeat of Crocodile, was now fighting with the ferocity of a cornered beast.
"You damn brats! You ruined everything!" World shrieked, his grotesque features contorted. He no longer bothered with finesse, simply grabbing the largest, heaviest pieces of debris he could find and amplifying them to insane levels. "MOA MOA – METEOR RAIN OF RUIN!"
He unleashed a barrage of multi-ton chunks of castle wall, each glowing with amplified kinetic energy, each a potential one-hit kill.
Isshin was a silver phantom amidst the storm. His youthful agility was pushed to its absolute zenith. He wasn't just dodging; he was dancing with death. His katana, a blur of Haki-infused light, wasn't just deflecting; it was dissecting. He'd slice through smaller projectiles, redirect larger ones with precisely angled parries, and use the explosions of their impacts as cover to reposition. The courtyard around them became a hellscape of shattered stone and smoking craters.
"You can't keep this up forever, pretty boy!" World taunted, hurling a twisted metal siege tower, now the size of a small ship, like a javelin. "MOA MOA – GIGA TOWER SPEAR!"
Isshin's eyes narrowed. He couldn't dodge this one completely, not without exposing himself to another attack. He had to meet it. "HAAAAAH!" He leaped, not away, but towards the incoming projectile. His katana blazed with white Haki. He spun in mid-air, transforming into a human drill of pure, cutting force. "ASHINA DRAGON TWISTER!"
He met the Giga Tower Spear tip-first.
SKREEEEEEEEE-KRA-BOOOOOOOOOOM!
Steel shrieked against amplified steel. Isshin was driven back through the air, sparks flying like a forge gone mad, but his Haki-infused blade was carving through the monstrous projectile. He emerged from the other side of the now-splintered spear, landing heavily, a deep gash smoking on his shoulder, but he was still standing.
"Damn you… damn your stubbornness!" World raged, panting heavily. His Moa Moa Fruit was powerful, but amplifying objects to such extremes was also draining, even for him.
Isshin, too, was reaching his limits. His youthful stamina was prodigious, but World's relentless barrage of city-block-busting attacks was taking its toll. His breaths were ragged, his body screaming. But in his eyes, a cold, calculating fire burned. He saw World's frustration, his slightly slower movements, the tell-tale signs of waning energy.
Now… or never…
"You fight with borrowed power, monster," Isshin said, his voice surprisingly steady. "You amplify the world around you… but your own core is hollow!"
He took a low stance, his katana held horizontally, Haki flaring along its edge, so intense it seemed to hum with contained power. This wasn't just a technique; it was the culmination of everything he was, the distilled essence of Ashina swordsmanship, fueled by youthful vigor and unyielding will.
"This ends!"
Byrnndi World, sensing the shift, the sudden, lethal focus in Isshin's eyes, felt a flicker of genuine fear. He grabbed two massive stone slabs, one in each hand. "I'LL CRUSH YOU! MOA MOA – TWIN DOOM HAMMERS! MAXIMUM AMPLIFICATION!" The slabs swelled, glowing with terrifying power.
Isshin didn't wait. He exploded forward, faster than he had moved before, a silver comet leaving a trail of displaced air. He wasn't aiming for the hammers. He was aiming for the man.
"ŌGI: ASHINA… ISSEN! (SECRET TECHNIQUE: ASHINA… ONE FLASH!)"
He passed Byrnndi World in a blur.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened. World stood there, his Twin Doom Hammers raised, a confused look on his face.
Then, thin red lines, like spiderwebs, appeared all over World's amplified arms, his chest, his legs. They spread, deepened.
World looked down at himself, his eyes widening in horror. "Wh-what…?"
SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!
With a sound like a thousand sheets of silk tearing at once, the amplified power around Byrnndi World unraveled. The Moa Moa Fruit's effect on his own body seemed to short-circuit. The Twin Doom Hammers crumbled into dust, their amplification gone. The unnatural bulk of World's muscles deflated. The rubbery resilience of his skin vanished.
He was just… Byrnndi World, the man, stripped bare of his borrowed might.
And crisscrossing his body were dozens of impossibly fine, impossibly deep Haki-infused cuts. Blood welled from them, instantly drenching him.
He swayed, his eyes rolling up into his head. A choked gurgle escaped his lips.
"…No…way…"
Byrnndi World, the Devourer of Worlds, the man who could multiply anything, crashed to the ground like a felled tree, his reign of amplified terror finally over.
Isshin Ashina stood over him, his katana held loosely at his side, his chest heaving. Victory. He had done it.
Then, the adrenaline faded. The countless minor injuries, the exhaustion of pushing his youthful body and Haki far beyond their limits, all crashed down on him at once. His vision swam. The world tilted.
With a soft sigh, Isshin's knees buckled. He pitched forward, his katana clattering from his grasp, and collapsed into unconsciousness beside the very monster he had just vanquished.
Two combatants down.
The fate of Ashina now rested solely on Ace and Gunnar, facing the seemingly unstoppable Edward Weevil.
---
The focus shifts back to Ace and Weevil. Ace is barely holding on, Gunnar is still critically injured but conscious. Weevil, enraged and primal, is a storm of destruction.
The sudden, almost anticlimactic collapse of Byrnndi World, followed swiftly by Isshin Ashina's own fall, sent a ripple of shock and disbelief through everyone still conscious enough to witness it.
---
Perched precariously on a high, crumbling battlement overlooking the chaos – a spot she'd secured earlier with surprising agility for her age and stature, a spyglass pressed to one eye – Miss Bakkin, self-proclaimed mother of Edward Weevil and former associate of Whitebeard, let out a startled squawk.
"Eh?! What in the blazes happened to World-boy?!" Her spyglass had been fixed on Weevil's brutal exchange with Ace, but the sheer finality of World's defeat had drawn her attention. She swiveled her glass towards the motionless forms of World and the young Isshin.
"Hmph! Serves him right, the noisy oaf!" she grumbled, though a flicker of unease crossed her features. World, for all his bluster, had been a significant piece on her board. "Thought he was so clever with his 'Moa Moa' this and 'Moa Moa' that. Got himself sliced and diced by that Ashina brat, did he? Tch! That young'un's got some nasty tricks up his sleeve, even if he did keel over afterwards."
Her gaze then darted back to Weevil, who was still locked in a furious struggle with Ace. Avarice gleamed in her eyes. "No matter! My Weevil is still standing! He's the strongest! He'll crush these remaining pests, and then all of Ashina – its treasures, its gold, everything – will be OURS! Whitebeard's true legacy!"
She cackled, a dry, greedy sound, but there was a new urgency in her voice as she muttered, "Still, that fire-boy and the big one with the ice… they're proving more troublesome than expected. Weevil! Finish them quickly, my boy! Mama needs her inheritance!" She then noticed Crocodile's still form. "And that sand-idiot actually got himself killed! Pathetic! More for us, I suppose!"