Strongest Swordsman in the World ?

The Fight between Ashen and Mihawk was dragged for another 12 hours with no breaks. The island where they were fighting suffered massive destruction, luckily it was uninhabited.

During the fight, Ashen slowly started figuring out how to use future sight, though not very frequent as Mihawk, but it was enough to make him turn the tide to his favor. And as he expected he started seeing five seconds into the future.

*CLANG*-*CLANG*-*KABOOOM*

"SCREEESH!!...An attack from the left towards my neck…he leaps back before he charges his sword with his green aura and deliver a swift, flying sword slash" Ashen muttered to himself, with his eyes closed as he took a glimpse in the future.

Ashen proceeded to bend down his knees avoiding the attack that was targeting his neck, and then counter attacked by swinging his sword horizontally at Mihawk's chest. The latter also foresaw that, but the speed of the attack was faster than he anticipated and couldn't dodge in time.

"*COUGH*-*COUGH*…Whenever your sword hit me, it feels like my organs are going to explode" Mihawk commented on the attack, throwing a mouthful of blood while sweating heavily "Is it your Haki that flows inside my body?"

"So, you've noticed…I'll admit it when it comes to pure swordsmanship, you're way better than me, I can't even compare and that's normal since no one taught me how to use the sword, but…what is the use of that if I can crush you with pure power? your Armament Haki and Conqueror's Haki are not at the same level as mine" Ashen stated while slowly walking towards Mihawk, before he used Inferno Jet Steps to dash towards him at blinding speed.

'Unlike Shanks, I've already gone a step further. Until you improve your Haki you won't be able to fight me equally from now on'

"SCREEECH!!..." Seeing the future, Both Ashen and Mihawk are able to anticipate upcoming attacks.

Charging at a high speed, Ashen was determined to end this fight in the next attack.

Drawing upon his knowledge from the manga, he remembered how Shanks was able to target Aramaki from a far, unleashing his Conqueror's Haki directly towards him. While it won't be able to do a lot of damage it will certainly take Mihawk by surprise, making his focus falter for a moment and preventing him from using his future vision, since the person needs to be very calm and focused to use it, which will give Ashen an opportunity to deal a fatal attack.

Ashen concluded that in order to do that he would need to use a combination of Observation Haki and Conqueror's Haki at the same time. So, before he reached Mihawk he used his Observation to detect his presence and know exactly where he was before he unleashed his Conqueror's in the intent of directing it towards that exact position.

*Lightning*-*Lightning* As Ashen released his Haki, the black and red lightning surged directly towards Mihawk, and in a split second he was shocked by it and was frozen in his place.

"What?!!--"

'Now!' Ashen took the opportunity to strike down Mihawk without giving him the time to recover. He used his future vision to see where he would try dodge and managed to slash him directly in the chest, leaving a large deep wound, that would probably leave a scar.

"Game over!" Ashen said, pointing his sword at his neck.

Mihawk held his wounds from pain as he collapsed on his knees. Ashen didn't look much better as he also suffered some serious injuries as well.

"Huff…Huff…With your strength, should I call you the world's strongest swordmen?"

"Don't like those kinds of titles, it implies that I'm only the strongest when I'm using a sword which is not true at all" Ashen responded, as he calmly sheathed his sword "You still haven't reached your prime yet, get stronger and come back for my head…I'm always up for some legendary duels"

"…"

"I will come back again for a duel, don't lose your strength or die until then" Mihawk said as he calmly grabbed his sword, put it in his back and then he proceeded to leave.

"—Ah, and if you lose to Shanks don't even dare to come and challenge me" Ashen said with grin "I know about your little duels after all"

"Hmph…you don't need to tell me that"

…

A few weeks later…Hachinosu -- at the top of the skull building,

"How did it go?" Ashen asked Calvin who was on mission to bring Totto Land, Big Mom's previous territory under the Ashen Pirates flag.

"Well, it was pretty smooth, there was a handful of pirate groups using some of the islands in the archipelago as their bases, but we managed to subdue them without a problem" Calvin stated, then added "We setup bases in the important islands and put some of our men there, we'll be collecting monthly taxes from the citizens living in those islands in exchange of our protection as you wished. Unfortunately, we still lack the manpower to take over the entirety of Big Mom territory"

"I see, we should start recruiting more people"

"Did you read the news?" he asked, as he glanced at a newspaper lying on the table.

"Yeah, very interesting…Shanks and Kaido clashed and ended up in stalemate, the red headed bastard started putting some territories under his protection after that…We also got a Fish-man called Fisher Tiger escaping from Mary Geoise, they put a 200 million on his head"

"A slave escaping from Mary Geoise? How the hell did he pull that off?"

'Not surprised since Kaido haven't reached his prime and Shanks is not a pushover either…and Fisher Tiger's escape should have normally happened a year from now if I remember correctly' Ashen thought.

'The only explanation is Butterfly Effect…the future is already changing, Shanks defeat made him become more serious, and he's starting to move for the title of emperor sooner that he did in the original time line…if I'm not wrong he became a Yonko six years before cannon, but at this rate he might become one even before he meets Luffy' Ashen though in his head 'We might also see a stronger version of him, maybe his crew and fleet will be stronger than the original'

"His Bounty increased by a lot. He's head is now worth 2 billion Berries" Calvin noted, looking at Shanks bounty poster "Looks like the Red Hair Pirates aren't playing around either"

"He's getting serious isn't he?...he wants to become the fourth emperor…" Ashen smiled saying that "good, there is no fun if there isn't any competition, I enjoy crushing strong opponents"

…

Now that Ashen is an emperor, has too many subordinates and started taking territories under his flag. Building a large fleet of ships and having a clear hierarchy was a most for things to be organized.

Ashen's new title now is the Warlord of the Ashen Pirates Fleet, and he is the highest authority in the crew, after him is The First Mate and his most trusted subordinate Calvin as the second in command after him. Below him are the other core members -- the Demonic Commanders, with each of them commanding their own respective ship and subordinates, and then finally the other subordinate crews like the Happo Navy.

In the next few months, Ashen ordered the construction of the ships, although he couldn't get Adam woods for each of them, they were still sturdy and they all resembled the 'Sword of Xebec' a little in their appearance, but they were still not copycats in order to keep the main ship distinct.

After that Ashen started thinking about his next movement, while he was checking the New World map he saw the Standing Kingdom Island on the map which was not affiliated with the world government, he proceeded to gather some information about it and found out that it was actually Orlumbus home nation.

At this time line, Orlumbus already made a name for himself as an adventurer and gained his nickname 'Massacre Ruler'.

A kingdom that can found and support a fleet of 50 ships must be somewhat rich, rich means more tax money and if you can bring them under your protection, you can take a percentage of that.

…

"Should we prepare the fleet?" Enel asked. At this moment all the core members of the Ashen Pirates were gathered to make plans and preparation for their next move.

"No need, we're not attacking the Navy or an Emperor…us and the 'Sword of Xebec' will be enough" Ashen replied.

"I'm very surprised a nation like that is not affiliated with the world government. They certainly have the money to pay the heavenly tribute…what if they decide to join after we attack them? The Navy will be forced to move too" Moria stated.

"Then I will make them pay for it, if they decide to challenge me then the Standing Kingdom…will be no more"

So, it was decided…Ashen will either bring the Standing Kingdom under his protection, or he will wipe them out of the existence.