Two Swords, Two Swordsmen

The two swordsman started off at a high note right off of the back. They both zoomed in on each other, closing the distance in record time. They began a ferocious high-paced exchange that would've been lost on even the closest of audiences. Every clash they shared sent a shower of sparks all around each other, every so often their exchanges would result in something bigger. A burst of flames would explode form their strikes.

Flint was a little less wary of these things. His many bouts with his sword had allowed him to develop a fine sense of sparks. He knew where they were going to fly and he knew when he would have to avoid them. He knew their pattens and form of movement, he would predict them with ease and move out of the way just in time to avoid them. Even worse though it seemed that as the battle dragged on Flint began to piece together how and where to place his blades, strike, block to cause the flames to blast back at Zesiro.

While neither side seemed to have a clean advntage, neither side seemed too bothered by this as a matter of fact both sides just seemed to be re-invigorated by such a close fight. True battle junkies to the end. Another brilliant clash between the two of them sent both men scrambling to the floor from the recoil alone.

However, they both didn't waste a second getting back into the mix. The two clashed once more, causing an immense flurry of sparks as the two began to heatedly trade blows. "Red Heat!" shouted Flint as he lowered himself down to a crouching position before cleaving his two blows upwards, clashing them together halfway through to throw a powerful blast of fire upwards.

Zesiro sliced the fire blast in two with his swords before immediately turning on his enemy once more. "Whirlpool Reaver!" Zesiro crossed his two blades over his chest and leapt forward, extending the twin blades at the last second to create two massive lines of damage that trailed through the air.

His opponent's two blades flashed across the air, catching the two opposing slices and destroying them with ease. Zesiro then stepped in harshly, closing the distance once more right behind his past two slashes until he was back up in front of Flint. Zesiro brought his two swords together before bringing them across the air in a powerful cut. Flint leaned backwards and out of the way, although his hair did get a little singed as the attack came by.

Zesiro slammed his foot in using it as a hard brake to twist his body around and launch another powerful cut at Flint. Flint managed to keep pace with Zesiro although as the time flew by it was becoming more and more obvious that neither side was releasing their full-power. As a matter-of-fact both sides seemed to just be holding back their true attacks. The exact reasoning for not going at full-blast was unknown to either side, but it also irritated both sides that their opponent had been holding back.

"Let's just skip to the good part," Flint stated as he lifted his two swords above his head. "Two Sword Style! Flame Halo!" A twisting blast of fire began to emerge from the two swords forming a ring above Flint's head. Flint launched himself forward, throwing both of his blades in front of him and launching the fiery circle at Zesiro with him not far behind it.

Zesiro slammed his foot down and blasted himself forward as well. "Two Sword Style! Davy Jones' Ship Sinker!" Zesiro's two blades crossed over each other as he narrowed in on Flint's 'halo'. He uncrossed the two blades with a snap, smashing the two across each other and destroying the 'halo' with ease. That just left the man behind it. Flint smashed his shoulder into Zesiro and sent the young Fishman back a few feet as the two crossed blades once more.

"Flame Burst!"

"Cascading Cuts!"

"Fiery Hook!"

"Devilfish Finisher!"

The two swordsmen, quickly unleashed a medley of attacks, all crossing and destroying each other before a victor could be decided. The slightest edge one obtained was destroyed in turn by the next. With every crossing of their blades the two swordsmen seemed to get more and more excited by the next promising clash.

Neither side seemed to be backing off as the two swordsman pushed each other off from another one of their death-defying exchange of blows. Flint's hand went up to his cheek and flicked the blood leaking from a new wound away, Zesiro would've chuckled at him, but he could feel the blood oozing of a wound on his own chest.

They had both obtained shallow wounds from their last crossing. A deeper one would be required to cinch the deal, but could they gain the necessary upper-hand before their opponent did. Would it come down to a simple matter of luck as to who would deal the first blow? Neither side would agree to such a duel ending in that matter. They would either win because they were the better swordsman or lose because they were the worse. A simple flip of the coin wouldn't satisfy either.

"I wonder if this is like the clash of the current World's Greatest Swordsmen," stated Flint with a mischievous grin. Zesiro nodded. The three greatest swordsmen in the world were at a stalemate, seemingly a permanent one. Neither side ever managed to the edge the other out. Imaging the greatest swordsman in the same pickle as this was rather comedic.

"I guess I'll consider you a stepping stone for my eventual fights with them," Zesiro offered as he straightened his sword arm out and pointed it right at Flint's throat. Zesiro flipped his sword up and then down, making small movements with his arm. "There are myths amongst swordsmen about the ability to cut fire."

"You're going to rely on myths?" asked Flint with a laugh, "you must really be at the end of your rope."

"There are myths of swordsmen who can cut steel, cut air, cutting fire is probably just another one of those legendary myths. Cutting dragons is also another one of those myths," Zesiro pointed out, "and that is where the legends of many samurais and swordsman begin. And we swordsmen just hate to lose out even to men of myths."

"You want a dragon to cut down, do you?" asked Flint as he brought his two blades swinging down by his side. "I'll give you a whole slew of them." Flint's two blades came together at the tip. He then began to rotate the two blades at the handle making them spin like drills. The two blades began to clash in the middle creating a few bursts of flames which followed along the blades spinning. Soon there were several streaks of fire spinning around each blade.

"Secret Two Sword Style Technique! Fire Stream Hydra!" Flint let the swords stream free from his swords. The flaming streams lashed out forming several heads of a fearsome beast that began to fly out and towards Zesiro in perfect synchronicity.

All of the heads moved in almost as one, they all followed the same trajectory becoming one immense flaming funnel that roared and ripped through the air at Zesiro. Zesiro would never say he worked best under pressure, but right here. The feeling of do or die. A sort of ancestral ping went off in him. And it wasn't his shark side that awoke in these situations.

Say what you will about humans. They are physically weak, they don't have razor sharp teeth or claws, they seem to be incredibly basic and weak. However, when faced with great challenges they rebound incredibly fast. The ability to lift cars and the such. An adrenaline rush that was nearly unmatched by other animals.

Zesiro's eyes flashed as his predator's instincts warned him about the upcoming attack. He could feel the approach of the powerful attack and it made him shiver to his very core. This was where he found himself at peace. When everything around him was crashing down everything else seemed to slow down.

"Two Sword Style. Apex Hunter." Zesiro stated with a deep breath. He held his two swords behind him and let their strength flow into him once more. His predator's instincts seemed to be manifesting themselves around his blades.

Flint paused as he looked on. He recognized what was happening. This wasn't the first time he saw such a new power pulsing into his opponents mid-fight. And it wasn't a unique power. Zesiro's sword-play was going on a natural progression, his Predator's Blade was nothing more than the foundation of his style. This was an improvement upon it.

Zesiro rushed into the fanning flames, his two swords drawn and already beginning a continuous arcing through the air. A continuous stream of attacks. Flint was certain he had sent seven or eight flaming streams at his opponent, but with how many Zesiro mowed down within seconds it was more like one or two.

With the flaming heads of Flint's 'Hydra' being destroyed he paused and bit his lip, he knew was next. However, even so, he accepted it. The better swordsman had won. Zesiro had achieved something that Flint had never been able to quite so much as grasp. The Colors of Armaments Haki. Zesiro's Predator's Blade was a stepping stone. It manifested his power right into his sword, it was basically just a subsect of Haki to begin with. But now the two techniques had merged.

A new ferocious blade had been gifted into Zesiro's hands.

(-With Kurai Ai-)

Kurai Ai approached Alistair. He was still trapped within her world no matter what he wanted to do. The ability to control every sense a person had was a powerful one indeed. Kurai Ai didn't really care for it though she just wanted to do Alistair in. Despite the overwhelmingly worse position he was in compared to her, Alistair kept on smiling.

"I lead a raid on your town," Alistair spat out as he looked up at her from his place on the ground. He had to admit Kurai Ai had a fiercely strong arm compared to his. "In order to get your Devil Fruit, just imagine if you had just come out when the raid began everybody else on your island could've been spared. But since like all human beings you were so obsessed with your own survival you let everyone else die."

"I had no idea you were there for me," Kurai Ai explained, and although she was extremely upset with him, she knew better than to let him here it in her voice. "You could've been there for anyone. Handing myself over could've just gotten me killed or worse."

"You lived on a small town," Alistair stated as he stood up, "nothing else was of importance. The only possible thing I could've wanted was your Devil Fruit. I started off simply enough, I brokered a deal with the Shichibukais. I wanted power and they wanted a Shichibukai to be truly unstoppable. They would raid your island under the pretense I was there and when they found you you were to be killed, I would step out as the man who led this raid and I would be given my true status as a Shichibukai."

Kurai Ai paused. "According to what the World Government said that was why you got your title. The Fox Brothers officially got their Shichibukai status enabled due to multiple daring raids on islands."

"The 'un-official' truth is far more interesting," Alistair murmured as he turned his head to the side and then back to her, "wanna hear it? About the secrets we've uncovered from the World Government? About the World Government? About the Void Era? About the last era of pirates?"

"The last era?" asked Kurai Ai as she approached Alistair, "what secrets could possibly have been hidden about that?"

"All eras have their secrets honey," Alistair mumbled as a slight vibration went off in his pocket. He pulled out a small Den-Den Mushi and smiled. "When Monkey D. Luffy was executed, the Marines killed the truth as well. What really went on on the final isle of Raftel? Why no one ever saw the One Piece? These questions were buried deeper than any grave you'll ever find."

"You're just talking nonsense," Kurai Ai stated as she lifted her hand up and into the air, creating another bubbling blast of make believe water, but she'd make sure Alistair felt like it was real scalding water with her powers. "You know you are about to lose."

"Paradise is just the start," Alistair laughed. "A mass revision was revealed from Nico Robin about the Void Century, one that changed the history books forever, but even the history books will never be able to contain everything. You should know better than anyone that things are not what they appear."

A low rumbling began to echo throughout the island, forcing Kurai Ai to heel and Alistair's barking laughter to begin. "Paradise is just the beginning," he shouted once more. "And that beginning will come anew! Behold the Alpha!"

The center of the fortress gave way. Lifting itself up higher and higher into the sky as a new large metal disc rose up into the air. Alistair laughed as he saw the shock appear on Kurai Ai's face. "My ingenuity," he began again between his laughs, "before Paradise was a singular location, but thanks to me and my genius a movable fortress was created out of it."

The Rumbling Hunger

So the last chapter didn't upload. Its up now, but you may want to backtrack.