Chapter 46

Augur's battle barely had any developments. He was extremely focused, making sure not to make a slip-up that would give the giant Vice Admiral he was facing a chance to win. Right now, their battle is in a stalemate. But soon, the Vice Admiral will win unless Augur figures something out.

The main reason Augur can't defeat his opponent is because of their Armament Haki, Iron Body, and natural advantage of a strong giant's body. Augur could use the special exploding bullets for a chance to do more damage, but it comes with a risk. If the bullet doesn't do much damage, it'll be detrimental instead because of the resulting smoke cloud that would only serve to block Augur's vision.

The path of victory, the one that Augur is seeing, is to outpace his opponent by learning Observation Haki during the fight. If he could similarly get a feel of what his opponent will do, Augur will have the slight advantage he needed to win.

During the last two weeks he spent with the Royal Aces, he also joined in on their training. Vash and the others already started training him in Observation Haki, but he had little progress to show. Out of ten strikes, he avoided one.

Still, he wasn't disheartened. Augur believed he could learn it. If focus was the main skill needed to unlock, learn, and master Observation Haki, there wasn't any reason why he couldn't learn it.

"Stop warping!" The giant Vice Admiral was very annoyed at Augur's ability. He made a big smashing attack that broke the wooden makeshift platform they were standing on.

Augur panicked slightly at seeing that he was about to sink. He warped to the air to avoid drowning, and couldn't react in time to the Vice Admiral's next attack.

"Gotcha!" The giant Vice Admiral caught Augur in his hands. He squeezed, and AUgur felt his bones creak.

"Gah!" Augur gasped and spat out blood after one of his arms broke. The Vice Admiral was about to squeeze even more when Augur's reinforcements came.

"Let go of him!" Hepha shouted with Clear Sky raised high above her head.

"Not good!"

The Vice Admiral let go of Augur and tilted his head back, avoiding Hepha's attack. Then, the Vice Admiral felt an attack aimed at his gut.

"Tekkai!"

The Vice Admiral used Iron Body to defend against the attack coming quickly at his gut. He had no time to add Armament Haki. To his surprise, it was ineffective. Two bullets pierced through his defense.

"Impossible!"

Giants have incredibly tough skin and muscles. Other than that, the Vice Admiral used Iron Body, a technique that enhances defense. To still fail against an attack like that would mean…

"Armament Haki?" The Vice Admiral looked in the direction the attack came from.

There, he saw Vash with two guns raised, smoke coming out of its chambers. Vash was glaring at the giant, clearly unhappy with the fact that he was able to hurt Augur.

"To think you're still just rookies. You're dangerous!" The Vice Admiral grunted.

"Two bullets, and you don't even feel numb," Vash commented. "Giants are something else."

Seeing Hepha and Vash have the time to attack him, the giant Vice Admiral looked around him to try and see where his fellow Vice Admirals were. To his great shock and grief, he spotted them. Three were dead, smashed into bloody paste. One was lying down, unmoving. The other marine officers were just frozen, having lost the will to fight.

"What are you doing?" The Vice Admiral shouted at the officers. "These are pirates! Keep fighting! If we don't win here, catastrophe will only befall on the world!"

The last Vice Admiral's words shook most of the officers awake. They started picking up their weapons, only to be shot by Vash.

"I'll handle these guys," Vash said to Hepha and Augur. "Can you still fight, Augur?"

"Of course," Augur said, clutching his broken arm. "This is just a scratch."

"Don't push yourself," Hepha said. "I can handle that giant."

"And be the only one who didn't carry his weight?" Augur looked insulted. He raised his rifle, who he named Senriku, with one arm. "As if I'll let that happen."

"Give him hell," Vash said before diving towards the officers, shooting them in close range.

"Babylon's Impact!" Hepha jumped up and spun, making her hammer bigger and heavier for a strike aimed at the giant Vice Admiral's head.

The Vice Admiral didn't dodge, but instead met Hepha's attack head on. With a fist covered in Armament Haki, the Vice Admiral punched Clear Sky. Their clash shook the air, but neither Hepha nor Augur yielded.

Augur took that chance to warp above the Vice Admiral. He squeezed his finger on the trigger, and fired. His bullet hit the Vice Admiral's head, but it didn't pierce through. The bullet was like a small and incredibly fast punch. The Vice Admiral felt his skull crack at the unexpected attack, his focus all on Hepha.

Hepha took the momentary weakness of the giant as a chance to win the clash. She swatted the giant's fist away, used Air Jump to get in front of the giant's face, and swept her hammer to the side, hitting the Vice Admiral across the face with an enlarged and heavy Clear Sky.

The Vice Admiral spat blood and a few teeth from Hepha's attack. He stumbled sideways, disoriented from that heavy attack. Augur didn't stop and combined his assault with Hepha.

Augur warped in front of the Vice Admiral's face. He can't aim properly with just one good arm, so Augur warped with his good arm aimed straight at the Vice Admiral's face.

"Don't, Augur!" Surprisingly, Hepha advised against Augur attacking the giant Vice Admiral with the intent to kill.

Not a moment later, a giant fist swung through where Augur was. Thankfully, Augur listened. He warped next to Hepha. Then, he fell on his knee. Hepha was about to assist him, but Augur signaled that he was fine.

"Just… tired. Used my power too much," Augur said. He was never pushed to use his Devil Fruit power to such an extent before. "Thanks, by the way."

"Let's up your training once this is over." Hepha grinned.

"I know." Augur sighed.

While they talked, the Vice Admiral went over to them. A huge shadow loomed over Augur and Hepha. The Vice Admiral was trying to stomp them. Augur warped away and Hepha attacked. Their clash had no winner, both of them were pushed back.

"Why are you with them, War Hammer?" the Vice Admiral asked Hepha. "Fire Lord Ace is just a rookie!"

"I don't need to explain myself to you people!" Hepha scoffed. She jumped and swung her hammer at the Vice Admiral. Her attack was blocked.

"What does he have?" The Vice Admiral threw a punch and Hepha avoided it by using Air Jump. She attacked again. "Are you the real captain?"

"Cut the crap!" Hepha pressed her attack, every swing generating a huge force enhanced by her Advanced Armament. "I'm the forgemaster of the Royal Ace Pirates! You better remember that!"

A bullet came from seemingly out of nowhere. The Vice Admiral was distracted and couldn't react in time. His ankle was shot by an exploding bullet, making the giant stumble. It was a shot made by Augur who was currently sitting on a plank of wood hundreds of meters away, his rifle propped up on his leg to help him aim.

Hepha didn't miss a beat. She landed another critical shot on the Vice Admiral, hitting him on the head. For the first time since the battle began, the giant Vice Admiral went down. He was unconscious. Hepha's attacks were too strong and heavy.

Around the same time, Vash shot down every marine who could fight. Of course, he didn't really kill them outright. Still, they won't be able to fight back for some time.

Vash, Hepha, and Augur regrouped. They looked around at the destruction they - mostly Hepha - caused. They stopped to catch their breath.

"HAHAHAHA! What a battle this must've been!"

Vash, Hepha, and Augur looked up to see Ace falling from the sky. He landed behind them, feet solid on the big pile of wood that acted like a platform.

"Yo, Ace!" Vash greeted.

"You two look like shit," Ace said to Vash and Augur. "Need help?"

"No need, Captain. I can warp back to our ship," Augur said as he looked in the direction of the Ashen Dragon. He disappeared with a pop.

"I should go and get him treated. His arm's broken," Vash said before turning to Hepha. "You hurt anywhere?"

"I'm not the one all beat up."

"Hmm. Good point." Vash used Air Jump to fly towards the Ashen Dragon, leaving Ace and Hepha alone.

Ace looked around to try and judge the size of the fleet that three of his friends fought. From what he could see, there were five massive ships that were broken by what looked like a great crushing force. He instantly knew that Hepha was responsible for it.

"Thanks for looking out for them," Ace said.

"Yeah. It's no big deal. They looked out for me first." Hepha looked down, seemingly embarrassed.

"You alright?" Ace asked. He knew about Hepha's past.

"I am now," Hepha said after turning around to look at the damage their victory caused. "Doing this… feels good."

Ace was happy to see that Hepha was grinning at what she was able to do. Who wouldn't be? To be powerful enough to destroy a force that traumatized you in the past must be a redeeming feeling.

…

"How is he, Vash?" Ace asked Vash who was currently patching up an unconscious Augur, who instantly collapsed after warping back to the Ashen Dragon.

"He'll be fine," Vash answered.

"To think that two of the most rational members in our crew would do something reckless." Ace was rather amused to hear that Vash and Augur were the ones who decided to face a whole fleet by themselves.

"Well… I do admit we underestimated the marines a little." Vash looked embarrassed, which made Ace laugh.

"It's good we returned early then," Terzo said from the side.

Ace, Terzo, Teach, Mihar, Kotatsu, and Eri already returned from their little trip to the island. The pirate group they encountered at the base of Giant Jack was already handled. They left most of them unconscious for the locals to deal with.

"You guys defeated a whole fleet?" Eri asked Hepha, stars forming in her eyes.

"With some difficulty, yes we did." Hepha pat Eri's head, a gesture she's come to do often to the little girl.

"I'm sorry we weren't here sooner." Mihar apologized.

"Don't mind it. We still would have escaped if we were cornered. Augur's Devil Fruit is that useful."

"ZEHAHAHAHA! I don't think I've said this before, but you're really forming a terrifying crew, Ace!"

"You're part of it, Teach!"

"You better hope you don't lose to Pops, then!"

"You're so gonna regret making another bet with me."

Hepha looked like she had so many questions after seeing Ace and Teach act so… friendly. They weren't like that before. All this time, Teach was rather distant with the rest of the crew. It was obvious that he was unwilling to call himself a part of the crew then, but now he looked as if he didn't mind sailing with them.

"What the hell happened on that island?" Hepha asked.

"Apparently, Teach didn't know Ace is Roger's son," Terzo answered.

"...huh. We never mentioned it before?"

"No. Would be nice if you did," Teach said.

"By the way, where's Soma and Doppol? I thought they left with you?" Vash asked.

"Ahh we kinda went our separate way. Doppol found an interesting tree, and Soma went to take our… rather big order," Ace answered. Then, he perked up after feeling a familiar Voice approach. "Speaking of a big order…"

Soma jumped up and entered the ship. He was carrying lots of boxes. It was the fifty seafood pizzas Ace ordered. Soma didn't look like he was bothered by the amount of what he was carrying.

"It's pizza time!"