Yamato's P.O.V.
Standing at the arena, I can feel my blood boil at what was about to go down. This is it, this is what I wanted. I wanted to see and experience the world, to leave that accursed island and set sail at sea. I was glad when at sea, and even now I can barely even believe I am in a place like this.
An arena with thousands of spectators here to watch me fight. Where I can make a grand name for myself!
Looking around I see who I am to face. This is the semi-finals, me against this guy named Oven, a son of Big Mom, while the Marine Vice-Admiral faces a captain of Whitebeard. After that, I will face whoever wins between the Marine and the captain since I will sin against Oven anyway, and finally, it is the winner against the champions of the arena.
I look on as the son of Big Mom stands against me on the stage. The man is taller than me and very muscular, but I am not impressed. Compared to Kaidou he is nothing, most of the higher-ranking members of the Beast Pirates are big and muscular so it isn't anything that amazing.
"So, you are a new member of the Beast Pirates?" Oven asks and I frown. I am not a member of those guys, I am Oden! I am the one who shall open the borders of Wano!
"I am Oden!" I said directly, the man staring at me for a while before smirking.
"I remember someone who had that name in the past. A member of the Roger and Whitebeard pirates, I once heard that he was the one who put a scar in Kaidou." Oven says, then smirks. "Not that it matters, he died anyway, in a pathetic way I heard."
"Take that back!" I shouted in anger at his slander of that great man. "Oden was a great man, and he did not die a pathetic death."
"... I don't care." Oven said, which just made me angrier. "He was able to injure Kaidou, an impressive feat, but little else. His country was still taken, he was still executed, and his family is all either dead or missing. What is the use of him being strong when he couldn't even protect his family?"
I feel my ire rise at his malicious slander, raising my weapon.
"I will make you take back those words." I said in fury.
"I want to see you try." Oven smirked as the gong for the battle to start was sound and we both darted at one another.
3° Person PoV:
Yamato grunted as she blocked another of Ovens strike with her Kanabo. Her arms were feeling heavy and burn marks spread all over them and the rest of her body from the several strikes she had tanked until this point, perspiration nearly evaporating constantly from her body due to the heat causing her body to release sweat constantly to try and cool down, only making her dehydrate faster and faster. And to add to this sorry state, she released a disgusting smell that could be felt all around her. A smell of cooked meat from several places in her entire form.
As much as she would like to say that she was dominating the fight and doing as Oden would... She really wasn't doing that hot right now, pun unintended even as she dodged another strike from Oven. This Oven guy was just far too experienced, both in Skill and with his Devil fruit. The man was not necessarily stronger than her. On contrary, her Oni-heritage as well as her haki training allowed her to easily keep up with him in regards to pure strength, even winning out if a contest of pure strength ever happens.
Yamato was truly confident in her own strength, her training over the years showing results as she was able to crush giant rocks in a single blow and even a small mountain in Onigashima was crushed by her once while training. However, all that physical might was sadly useless since Oven was no slouch in terms of physique and he simply outclassed her in all other parameters.
Combat technique, he was better than her who only ever trained alone while he had trained with his dozens of siblings as well as had decades of experience at sea.
In terms of Devil Fruit, she lacked any while Oven had a strong one that he had mastered to the point of awakening for a long time now.
In terms of speed, Oven had a slight edge as his Soru was faster and more versatile than Yamato's simple speed.
And then there was that...
Yamato honestly almost shed a tear as she looked at the remains of her once awesome-looking Kanabo. The mighty weapon being distorted and half molten at several places, the clear footprint of a hand in it.
Oven's had caught her by surprise at one point in the combat with her weapon taking the brunt of the damage as he blindsided her with a feint to the face. She concentrated her haki in her face to defend herself, but the attack was merely a feint and the real aim was him trying to take away her weapon, he failed in removing it from her hand but was able to nearly completely destroy it.
The damage not only forced her to use more haki to make sure the weapon wouldn't break during combat, but it also throw off her sense of balance as the Kanabo started to feel unwieldier and worse to use as its center of gravity was not quite right.
An experienced fighter with her abilities would have discarded such a weapon and used their fists instead, but with the spirit of Bushido inside her and her desire to live like Oden made it so that she did not even think of such a possibility, even if it would undoubtedly be the best option.
She snapped back to attention when she heard an arrogant chuckling from her opponent.
"Sad about your broken toy Oni-girl? Maybe if you are lucky your drunkard of a Captain might buy you a new one." Oven mocked Yamato, the two knowing that they belonged to opposite Yonko groups and that 'peace' between them was nearly impossible.
Yamato scowled furiously at the man who had nearly completely destroyed her weapon.
"First you destroy my weapon and now you make fun of me? Who the hell do you think you are, you overgrown Heater?!"
Oven stopped chuckling and smirked.
"Big talk from some no-name loser. Not sure if you are some random new blood of the Beast pirates or something, but you are far too inexperienced at the sea. If the Beast Pirates have to resort to sending a wet behind the ears welp like you out in a place like this, then they have seriously lost their edge." Oven said with a smirk.
Yamato growled at the insinuations of her weaknesses, not liking such comments in the slightest.
She was not a member of the Beast Pirates, but calling her weak was just not true at all.
She was Oden!
She tried to take a step forward, but nearly winced in pain from all over her body. Looking down and observing her battered body from this and the previous fighting as well as the state of her weapon, she knew that she only had one last attack in her. Even if she was not half knocked out and hurt all over, her weapon might just break with the next attack anyway.
She could go for hand-to-hand combat, but she was a samurai at heart. She would not fight hand-to-hand even if she could.
Scowling at this reality, she held her Kanabo in position. The way she held her weapon caught Oven's attention as the man stopped chuckling and his eyes opened in shock as he recognized this form.
It was the same form that Kaidou used last time when fighting Big Mom in a war a year or so back over a dispute between an island. At the time Oven was close enough to see the power of that strike, he knew just how dangerous that attack was and how, if Kaidou used it against him, he would be hospitalized for at least a few days without a doubt.
"Kanetsu chōri jigoku (Heat Cooking Hell)!" Oven yelled as he was going all out in his defense, his armament haki going at full force to defend his body even to his own heat as well as releasing all the heat he could all at once, during a short time becoming the being able to release the greatest heat in the entire world, being hotter than even the Mera Mera no Mi or the Magu Magu no Mi.
The Heat fruit was a paramecia with a much higher ceiling of how hot it could be than either Logias, the only limits were how much stamina was he willing to use and how much his own body could handle to heat it generated. Right now, Oven was going all out, and, even if only for a short time, he was hot enough to even cause mild burns in Akainu!
His going to such an extent shows how seriously he took Yamato's next strike.
And the girl did not disappoint as she used her full strength left to leap at Oven, her kanabo smashing down at him.
"RAIMEI HAKKE!"
In a matter of seconds, Yamato had rushed past Oven with a massive strike that caused Oven to spit blood from the broken ribs he got from impact. He was even nearly thrown out of the arena by the impact, but his will was strong enough for him to plant his foot on the ground and, even as he was still being pushed away, he was able to stabilize before he was fully sent flying away.
This was, by far and wide, the strongest hit Oven had gotten from all the fighting until this point during the tournament, but he had managed to tank it in the end even if barely.
The same could not be said about the weapon in Yamato's hands, however.
Yamato nearly threw away what was left of her weapon in her hand, she merely holding a small piece of the handle while the rest of the Kanabo had exploded in a shower of scraps and molten metal which flew in all directions. Including directly at Oven.
All the Spectators looked stunned as Charlotte Oven screamed in pain and rolled on the arena floor in pain. Even from a distance people could see that while his strong body had just endured most shards, his eyes were different.
His right one had been lucky to not have been hit by anything. But his left eye was impaled by a small shard of broken metal, his Armament Haki not able to defend the sensitive organ which was now leaking a constant stream of blood, his eye completely ruined by that strike.
Yamato attempted to turn around to see what was happening but before she even managed to finish the turn she fell over in unconsciousness as her energy had depleted and the dehydration having gone beyond her limits due to the heat from Oven's body, her body shutting off on her despite her desire to keep on fighting.
The Announcer was shocked for a moment before he remembered his job and called out.
"WINNER OF THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE SEMI-FINALS IS CHARLOTTE OVEN."
Markus POV:
"Well, that was a thing..."
Markus looked on as both Yamato and Charlotte Oven were dragged off by the Medics. Or rather Oven was, as Jack had jumped down to the arena as soon as the results were called and intercepted the Medics, taking Yamato with him directly to the doctors to make sure she would be well.
Looking at Doflamingo he could see the man frown as he also understood what the damage to Oven, or specifically his eyes, might lead to.
"I will inform the others about what happened and prepare to leave as soon as possible. Once Oven has recovered from his wound, the man and his siblings will no doubt want revenge. It's better if we are far away from here when that happens as we wouldn't want to implicate our new ally."
Doflamingo nodded sharply, a bit relieved at the fact that the Beast Pirates wouldn't stay here for now. After all, he only had this one island and he really didn't want to see it sink into the ocean because of the Beast Pirates and Big Mom Pirates duking it out on Dressrosa.
"I will order the Medics to keep a sample of his blood secretly." Doflamingo said instantly, wanting to curry favor with this 'son of Kaidou' in front of him as well as hoping that he would be able to buy the improved formula he spoke about. "I will have it as well as blood samples of the others you mentioned al sent to Wano after the fighting with Big Mom stops."
Markus nodded sharply before motioning for Scarlet and Baby 5 to follow him. They would need to travel fast and get into the Beast Pirates territory before some hot-blooded brother of Oven decides to attack.
Jack could handle most of them with his own strength and the Teigu that Marcus gave to him, but if it was someone like Katakuri, who was one of Oven's twin brothers, was the one to show up, well, then things would get very bad very fast. Katakuri might be completely crushed in terms of physical might by Jack at this moment thanks to the power of the Teigu, but the Observation Haki of Katakuri would still be too much for a 'meat tank' like Jack to handle.
Doflamingo looked after the young man who left with one of the Riku Family hostages and a member of the Doflamingo Family crew, his eyes a bit cold due to his 'toys' being taken away, but his pragmatic side winning out in the end.
As long as the kid survived what comes next his value would only rise, being friends with him was the best idea for the future of the Doflamingo Family, even if the sacrifices were larger than he would have liked. It was a bit of a shame though, the kid had not yet completed the research on how to improve the Smile fruit fully, but even if incomplete at this point it would already garner much better results than Caesar could accomplish at the moment.
After a bit of thinking, Doflamingo motioned for Diamante to continue the Tournament after repairing the arena, but make the repairs a bit slow so as to give more time for the Beast Pirates to leave Dressrosa.
