"Wait Kilford we still don't know-" Fredrick began to say as Kilford dashed away, but was cut off by an over enthusiastic taunt.
"I don't think so" The voice screamed, a just like that the ground buckled beneath the three men and all across the square in strange places. The straight strips ground stretched and contracted like a massive caterpillars made of stone. Then the earth released a massive metallic rattle as the strips of ground suddenly gasped and twisted revealing metallic plating that began to whir and chatter in sinister cacophony. Suddenly without warning the metallic plated ground began to move and had quickly pulled the three men to different ends of the square at an alarming speed. Kilford got pulled to away from the pier and the other two got pulled perpendicular to it, in opposite directions. The speaker of the voice revealed himself atop one of the buildings near Samuel's new direction. He was well build tallish for a normal build, it was Leider; he placed a foot atop one of the roofs knee high walls and grinned down at the chaos below.
"I ate the whir whir fruit, and gained the ability to turn anything I touch into a moving pathway"
Fredrick swore loudly "The hell, I thought those damn things were rare or something, I am hanging out with the wrong crowd."
Leider grinned "Benefits from my employer"
Suddenly Samuel heard the distinct crunch of someone getting hit very hard, and heard Samuel's heavy body hit the floor. It didn't take him more than a second to figure out what was happening as he was quickly sped towards the streets leading out of the square and near some branching alleys. Acting fast, he began to run as fast as he could down the conveyor belt and at the last second threw himself forward belly down onto it, reasoning the one thing his attacker wouldn't expect is for him to run towards him. Sure enough as he did that a slender knife shot directly over his head as he caught a glimpse of neatly polished, black shoes. Ashcroft, quickly he rolled over un-slinging his gun from behind his back and aiming it at the alley. Unfortunately he didn't count of the conveyor belt stopping abruptly and throwing him off, as he tumbled head over heels in a cloud of dust.
Meanwhile Kilford quickly got it in his head to attempt to jam the belt by shoving his cane between the metal panels he was standing on. Instead of stopping the conveyor belt completely. It simply sent as massive shock through his entire body throwing him off it. Quickly he got his bearings and began running out of the square the same way the belt was taking him.
"Stop him Rolf!" Leider screamed, Rolf stuck his head out of the alley pinky finger cleaning out his ear and shouted in a slurred speech back
"What?" at the same time as Kilford shot past no sign of a limp as all.
"Stop him!" Leider screeched at the top of his lungs from the other side of the square.
"Stop Jim? Whose he?"
"Him you lumbering oaf, him" Leider screamed jumping up and down on the rooftop pointing at Kilford as he sped by.
"Bumbling loaf? Leader I'm pretty sure you don't need me to stop bread" he laughed.
"AAUGGHH" Leider shouted clearly incapable of coming up with a response to that, instead he stuck his finger at Janine, who currently had one muscled foot on Samuel's chest; her tongue lulling out of her mouth and twitching with excitement, and screamed. "Janine get Rolf and catch that asshole, I'll deal with this guy". With that he bounded off the top of the roof on to a balcony below and then off of the balcony. As he fell from the balcony he pressed against the side of the wall and a clinking sound followed by scratching erupted from the side of his body in contact with the wall. He began to slow down slightly as he fell, so that when he landed it was with a heavy thump not a bone cracking smack. Janine bounded off Samuel's chest with a powerful kick knocking all the breath out of him and causing him to gag violently. Quickly as Leider landed on the ground Samuel rolled and pushed himself off the ground readying himself for Leider attack.
As Fredrick rolled through the dust and dirt he did finally get a good grip on his rifle and as his body skidded to a halt amidst the dust he did end up pointing in the correct direction rifle fixed vaguely on the spot his attacker was standing. Of course he couldn't hold that concentration for long. His mind was still spinning from the dizzying slide, and as soon as his rifle dipped even the slightest Ashcroft was on him. A nicely polished shoe connected with his chin knocking him back, and luckily knocking his brain back into the proper frame. He felt his focus becoming more clear, and the regular dimensions of existence becoming more defined. He clamored to his feet wiping his bleeding lip on a dark blue sleeve.
"That wasn't smart" Fredrick growled, Ashcroft simply tipped his hat and set off. Quickly there was a flash of metal in the sun and suddenly two daggers appeared in Ashcroft's hands his heavy white cloak flapping widely as he began to run in a circle around Fredrick who in turn began to mirror him, forcing both of them to run in a giant circle. Daggers flew out at Fredrick one grazing his shoulder damaging his shirt but not much else, another shot just in front of his knee causing him drawing his attention and causing his to stumble and trip. However before Ashcroft could capitalize on the blunder, Fredrick, following instinct, didn't attempt to correct his fall instead he accepted it graciously with a knee and quickly assumed a shooting stance as he traced Ashcroft's path and fired his rife quickly twice. Both shots were off, but they at least got Ashcroft's attention as one ripped a hole through Ashcroft's coat. In return Ashcroft sped up hoping to take advantage of Fredrick's lack of maneuverability and his exposed back. Fredrick sprang up but instead of turning to face Ashcroft immediately and thereby allowing him an easy stationary target his took off running straight using his downed foot to give him a powerful boost. Ashcroft swore and skidded to a halt rather than chase after him. This gave Fredrick the opportunity he needed. Placing a hand down he kicked out his feet in front of him falling into his slide and shifting his weight one hundred and eighty degrees till he was facing Ashcroft direction a dagger flew over his now crouched body; his free hand shooting out straight at Ashcroft still grasping his rifle. He skidded backwards for a short distance then stood up.
Ashcroft pulled on one of his gloves tightening it. Then he gradually drew another dagger out of his coat.
"You are competent I will allow you that compliment."
Fredrick smiled with his arrogant grin, and replied
"Well I suppose I should respond in kind. You're not blind which was my original assumption upon viewing your outfit", he continued his smile hoping that Ashcroft was too far away to noticed his heavy breathing, the man was fast faster than he was, and from what he could tell he wasn't even winded yet.
Ashcroft continued choosing to ignore the insult "Do you even know why you're fighting?"
"You started it." Fredrick countered mockingly, as he stood up.
"On behalf of my associates." Ashcroft calmly replied indicating into the square, where two figures clashes. Fredrick turned to watch the two figures, and noticed for the first time the sound of clinking metal, mechanical whirs, and cracking wood echoes across the square. With each clash the entire square broke open in a flurry of movement and metal clanking.
"They want what's there's, and I want what's mine and as far as I'm concerned our business agreement was terminated the minute that man's his brutish friend lost my cargo."
"Kilford?" Fredrick did crack a genuine smile at the fact that Kilford escaped.
"Dr. Jennings, yes . He is in an interesting position and one that, I'm afraid, my client has a lot of interesting in controlling."
"From what he told me, client seems a lot more like master. Saint Weatherford, eh?"
Ashcroft looked surprised, but it was the same surprise you get when you hear the chef's special is something you like or when a team you tangentially follow wins a game.
"So he told you that story?"
"Yeah so what does the kiss ass handbook say you have to do? Silence me or what?" Fredrick retorted grinding his feet into the ground preparing to sprint if need be.
"Nonsense" Ashcroft continued once again choosing to ignore the insult "Although yes I will admit I am more a servant then a free-for-hire professional, but that being said I am the best paid servant in the world. As for silencing you, unnecessary, one of the benefits of world nobles is they are very much above the law, and by proxy so am I."
"Forget it, I'm no stooge" Fredrick spat.
Once again Ashcroft chooses to ignore the obvious insult and simply responded in the same casual voice that was quickly becoming annoying.
"You know how many people I've killed? Hmm"
"No, why is there a contest like world big-" Fredrick remarked sarcastically but was quickly cut off by the suddenly harsh voice and cold stare of Ashcroft.
"forty three" He stated coldly "and of those forty three how many has the government cared about? None and you know what? I can easily make it forty four, or forty five" He continued indicating to Samuel "if need be, and you know what? The government will still not care. I am above the law through my connections but just because you have never heard of me on your stupid bounty boards that people flap around like rulers measuring dick size, does not" He continued eyes narrowing a murderous glint appearing in them "mean I am not a very dangerous person."
Fredrick smiled; he was getting to him after all. "Listen mister I don't care how many defenseless women and children you murder for your fat bastard of a master. Here is how I see things, you have been hounding Kilford for what two years now, and that's a long time. I am getting to like Kilford, and you, for all intensive purposes, look like an asshole and have done nothing to persuade me otherwise, asshole. Now you're fighting someone your own size so shut the fuck up and fight me, asshole."
The icy cold glint in his eyes shone even brighter for a second as they caught a stray ray of sun.
"My own size" He chuckled his voice void of all humor and his stance loosening up. "I am afraid I'm so far out of your league you're not but a speck on my long coat."
"More like a whole" Fredrick said smirking and in a single sweep he leveled his gun and emptied the remaining cartridges into Ashcroft in quick succession. The bullets shot straight and true one through Ashcroft's throat one straight through his forehead and one straight into his eye. He knew he wouldn't bring him down; this man was too cocky for that, however he could find a weakness. He was right as soon as he leveled the gun, Ashcroft got blurry, the bright colors of his multicolored suit blended together with his dark vest and white overcoat, his skin mixed with his hat into an indiscriminate blur as if he was a mural splashed with turpentine. The bullets hit the mess; instead of punching through they mixed in with the mess becoming indistinguishable, soon Ashcroft materialized again, as clean as he was before.
"Damn it" Fredrick spat "you're a devil fruit user too"
"Yes" Ashcroft said gloating "I ate the smudge smudge fruit I am a blur man capable of blurring the lines of the world"
"Oh no what are you going to do dirty my shoes" Fredrick replied cockily buying himself more time.
"You haven't seen the half of it" Ashcroft assured him, Fredrick didn't need any. He loaded his gun or at least tried to until suddenly his surroundings began to blur; all the different colors blending together in very unappealing brownish muck, he fumbled with his bullets whose line's were now much less defined, and clumsily attempted to load the revolving barrel of his rifle. When out of the corner of his eyes he saw three smudges moving quickly at first they were simply a different shade of brown then they became outlines and finally when they were colored in three daggers shot at him. Luckily they were thrown in an arc with only one headed directly towards him, he tried to dodge throwing himself to the side only to find himself diving face first into something hard, suddenly the colors separated again as if strained and he found himself face first in the dirt. Quickly he rolled spitting more blood out of his mouth, he pointed a finger at Ashcroft.
"Ha, so you can't see through your smog either."
"Inconsequential" Ashcroft replied, as he began to run, drawing daggers from his coat and throwing a couple out. Which then quickly disappeared in a brown haze that quickly shot towards Fredrick who dived out of what he thought was the way, but as they began to materialize he realized he had make a mistake as one lone dagger materialized and cut a large gash across the top of his shoulder. He gritted and charged at Ashcroft wielding the rifle like a club. Although the force of the attack caught Ashcroft off guard and pushed him back into the square proper, his ability to blur the impact zones meant he avoided all but minimal damage and the rapid swings and swipes of his long and heavy club were rapidly draining Fredrick of his energy. He did get one lucky break as he pressed Ashcroft back into the square he also pressed him out onto the conveyer belt infested area, they seemed to whir at random intervals in tandem with the cracking of wood and the screams of Samuel and Leider. His arm's were growing heavy as he pressed forward determined to press this moment for all it was worth, and suddenly Ashcroft shouted in surprise, he had actually stepped on one of the conveyor belts as it began to move and as such he was thrown off balance and his concentration was shot, allowing Fredrick to catch him with a heavy blow to his side that connected with a satisfy crunch
"He's just as unfamiliar with this territory as I am, these two haven't fought together before, that was something he and Samuel had over them," Fredrick thought.
However soon his momentum gave way and Ashcroft came back on the offensive two daggers in hand swinging in each hand.
He started sidestepping an overly aggressive overhand swipe from Fredrick and used his inside hand to swipe the strike wide, then he used his outside swipe to jab directly at Fredrick exposed flank. Fredrick recoiled bring his rifle butt back in and swatting the wide jab too the side causing a nick in his flank and nothing more. To follow up Ashcroft immediately stabbed at Fredrick belly and he pulled his wide swipe back, in turn Fredrick rotated his gun like a baton spinning it across his chest and connecting with Ashcroft's wrist to intercept only to find Ashcroft hand a brown blur that was currently protruding into his chest. In the split second he had to analyze the scene he noted that although the dagger was undoubtedly sticking out of his chest he felt no pain probably due to the fact his chest was blurred with the weapon. So it was a doubled edged sword, interesting. Quickly to monopolize on the situation Fredrick caught the top of his spinning rifle with his free hand and jabbed out at the other hand that was quickly coming in again for another attack. He caught Ashcroft by surprise by not flinching back from the now harmless knife strike, and as such he was able to heavily connect with Ashcroft's gloved hand with a loud crunch, more surprised than hurt Ashcroft dropped his knife, and pulled his hand out of Fredrick's chest, drawing back he drew yet another dagger out of his chest and wiped his brow with a spotless sleeve now smudged with dirt and sweat. Fredrick smiled; it's all about the little victories.
"Your getting annoying, but no more." Ashcroft snarled.
Breathing heavily Fredrick grinned back, ignoring the piercing pain that was shooting into his ear from the heavily bleeding shoulder, as well as the dozens over other smaller cuts and bruises he had acquired at various parts during the battle. "Bring it."
Ashcroft smiled a gleeful smirk and he began to blur his entire body, in one quick movement he was nothing but a giant brown blur that suddenly enveloped Fredrick's front side, until all he could see was that disgusting brown much color, and he could swear he saw Ashcroft's sickening smirk in the cloud. Almost as soon as he fully registered Ashcroft's presence, two hands began to phase in, each clutching daggers and appearing from seemingly opposite sides of him. He screeched with surprise attempting to bring his gun to block at least one of the stabs, but he was spent the one dagger he actually got his rifle in front of smacked it away with a contemptible ease. A stinging pain erupted in his lower leg as a knife cut through the pants and flesh with contemptible ease, meanwhile the dagger that smashed away his rifle slashed his upper arm drawing a thin line of blood. Realizing he couldn't fight in this close quarters with his rifle, he quickly unloaded the few shots he actually was able to reload, at least scaring Ashcroft temporarily to back off. Tossing the rifle down he readied himself for the next attack, and when the flurry of the blows came he attempted to swat them away with his fist, but his sluggish reflexes and loss of blood simply meant more and more knives got through nicking him in more and more places.
Finally he was able to successfully grab Ashcraft's wrist stopping the dagger from piercing his skin once more but as soon as he had grabbed it he felt his grip slip away as the wrist grew more and more blurred. He was so tired he could scream it just wasn't fair he wanted to shout, but he couldn't all he could do was redouble his efforts and closed his eyes. However as soon as he closed his eyes suddenly he felt Ashcroft's wrist as clear as day, shocked he quickly opened his eyes and just like that the wrist slipped from his grasp as soon as he tried to see it.
The power is visual based, as long as I don't look at it; it loses its power he can't blur the sense of touch. A thought quickly began forming in Fredrick's mind, wasting the last of his draining energy he began to dodge widely ducking and weaving on pure instinct as Ashcroft swung and swiped with more and more violent swipes scoring a couple more hits and ripping Fredrick's clothes into even more shreds. Then suddenly time began to slow down ad Fredrick saw his opening, he ducked down as Ashcroft in his violent rage swung fast and hard aiming at his neck but only shot harmlessly over his head. Fredrick shot back up like a loaded spring grabbing his non blurred arm and closing his eyes tightly he threw himself at Ashcroft and sure enough found himself connecting with something heavy and solid, Ashcroft's body, as they both fell heavily on to one of the conveyor belts; he screamed at the top of his lungs eyes clamped shut.
"Samuel give the bastard one hell of a head ache" He screamed and prayed he was heard