Chapter 69: Chapter 68: Kuina vs Mihawk

Chapter 68: Kuina vs Mihawk

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In the middle of the silent sea, two incredibly rapid swords clashed against each other and created an enormous shockwave that made the surface of the water tremble slightly. The ice on where they were standing cracked slightly and the nearby animals ran away in fear of being involved in such a fearsome fight.

Kuina, who was glancing at the impassive face of Mihawk, grinned slightly before she started attacking Mihawk with an even higher speed than before.

"To think that he was actually telling the truth about your strength... I'm glad I listened to him and kept training for all this time!"

*Clang!!!*

As both of their swords clashed once again with fierceness, enormous black lightning bolts started appearing around both of them. The power these two people were showing was so big, that even an Admiral could be wary of approaching carelessly.

"He? Who is he exactly?" Mihawk showed curiosity when he heard Kuina talk about someone that seemed to know about his strength, so while both of them continued attacking and diverting each other attacks, he also raised his voice and asked her about this mysterious person's identity.

"The one you call Shadow Raven, he trained me since I was only a kid and allowed me to reach these incredible heights in swordsmanship. Without him, I doubt I could have reached such a level by now, or if I could be even alive by now"

"You mean that Shadow Raven is even stronger than you?" Mihawk narrowed his eyes after hearing Kuina refer to Shadow Raven as her master, after all, he was already having some problems dealing with her, if Shadow Raven was actually stronger than her, then that meant that he was actually equal in power, or even stronger than him right now!

And to confirm his suspicions, Kuina smiled wryly and nodded her head while still swinging her sword at enormous speeds.

"Yes, his swordsmanship far surpasses mine. Even now, I can barely last a minute before he then starts getting serious, which usually means that the fight is already over for me..."

Mihawk widened his eyes after hearing this, even he, the strongest swordsman in the world, doubted that he could defeat her so easily in just a mere minute. Heck, he wasn't even sure if she was going all out right now, and although he was taking the upper hand right now, anything could happen during a duel.

While all this was happening, Sid was just simply watching the battle while eating some popcorns that he had prepared beforehand. Of course, although he was indeed admiring the battle from outside, his mind was also rapidly storing each and every movement of Mihawk so that he could decipher his swordsmanship, and use it to train later.

He was in need of a new imaginary rival, after all, the previous one was already too weak for Sid to improve himself. And although there were still a few things he could notice from time to time during his imaginary duels, his progress had already slowed down too much for it to be beneficial.

Now that he had finally came across Mihawk, and was seeing him fight almost completely seriously, it was finally time to upgrade his imaginary rival so that he could also improve his own swordsmanship style as well.

So considering all that, he paid pretty close attention to all his movements, and stored them deep into his mind to increase the difficulty of his training later, of course, he didn't ignore Kuina's own style, but he had already analyzed it to the maximum. Also, he had already a plan for her style later... Maybe creating the ultimate swordsman by fusing all the styles he had seen through his life, or maybe improving them and making them harder to defeat. 

Both of these options worked for him either way.

*Booom!!!*

Back at the battle, both Kuina and Mihawk had several small injuries across their bodies, but none of them had received a critical strike yet. Which was tiring both of them out right now. Unfortunately for Kuina, although she was indeed hiding her strength at the beginning of the battle, Mihawk was still much more strong than she expected and was perfectly able to face her even while using all her power.

Not to mention, Kuina had been simply training for 6 years under Sid, so even though Sid was a very talented master, and his teachings were incredible for Kuina, she still was lacking a bit more experience regarding duels than Mihawk, who had challenged Shanks and other powerful swordsman several times in the past.

His stamina was draining out a lot slower than Kuina's, and that was being the most decisive factor of this battle.

*Slash!*

In one moment of the battle, Mihawk slashed with her sword in direction of Kuina and sent an incredibly rapid and sharp shockwave in her direction. Kuina, as tired as she was, tried to dodge the attack, but noticed quickly that her best option was to divert it.

*Bam!!!*

Kuina's sword clashed against the attack of Mihawk and created an enormous explosion that sent Kuina flying away several meters in the air. On her shoulder, there was a deep cut that was dripping blood rapidly and making her grit her teeth in order to endure the pain.

Soon, however, Mihawk appeared right before her and performed a rapid slash in her direction once again.

Kuina deviated Mihawk's attack once again, but this time, it was obvious that Kuina was on the losing side, and by a great difference.

Not long after that, Kuina had already been cornered and was on the verge of collapsing because of exhaustion. However, right as she was about to do so, her eyes drifted for a moment to look at Sid.

His red eyes, which seemed to glow with some kind of mystic energy while looking at her, reminded her of the day where she almost died. She remembered the time when she was about to die, and how she saw his eyes before losing her consciousness while falling to her death.

Those were the same eyes that gave her the determination to continue improving for the last 6 years, where she fought incredibly ferocious individuals, faced the most horrible and exhausting training that could exist in this world and continued training her swordsmanship abilities to the limit.

If she lost here, then what had she been doing for the last 6 Years?

Kuina gritted her teeth in anger and turned to look at Mihawk with a gaze filled with anger. This surprised greatly Mihawk as he had already thought that the fight was already over. However, what was to come surprised him even more, to the point where all his senses screamed in alert at an incoming danger.

*Fuoooosh...!*

"S-such speed?!"

In the blink of an eye, Kuina had already appeared in front of Mihawk and was performing a swinging motion like she had done so many times during her usual training.

But the speed and power behind that swing was something vastly different from what she had done until now. To the point where even Mihawk felt threatened by the power behind that slash.

Kuina's sword, which had a dark blue color to its blade, suddenly took a more beautiful white glowing color, and sparkling blue colored lightning started surrounding her sword.

[Moonlight carver]

*Clang!!!!!*

Mihawk moved with his fastest speed and blocked the attack with his black sword in a hurry. However, even though his sword was not damaged by the attack, the power behind that slash was so much, that it still injured Mihawk's arms and caused all the bones there to break almost instantly.

*Boom!!*

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Mihawk was blown away and crashed directly with the frozen surface of the ocean, creating an enormous hole in it, and making the whole arena Sid had prepared for their battle tremble slightly.

 Kuina's body fell powerlessly to the ground as she had used all the energy left in her body to use that attack. However, right when she was about to make contact with it, suddenly a hand stopped her body and caught her in mid-air.

Kuina opened her eyes with all the energy she had left and looked at the masked man carrying her with a tired look in her eyes.

"Did I win?" Kuina muttered in a low voice, as talking normally was too tiring for her.

Sid looked at her for a few seconds, before he turned to look at the injured Mihawk once again with a dubious glance in his eyes, and saw that Mihawk wasn't able to lift his sword anymore.

"Something like that..."

"That's good then..." Kuina smiled softly and fell asleep right away.

...

"I will have to upgrade your training methods as well it seems..."

"She was an incredible opponent, it had been a long time since I have been left like this after a duel" Mihawk suddenly appeared in front of Sid and looked at him with a tired yet energetic gaze.

"You were left in a rather bad shape... I don't think you will be able to recover before the main event happens..."

"Main event...?" Mihawk looked with a raised eyebrow at Sid. What was this main event he was talking about?

However, before he could be able to think about that matter, Sid threw him a small pill of the size of a thumb and gestured him to eat it.

"It's a pill made by the best medic in this world. It should heal completely your broken arms in three days or so..."

"Three days?!" Mihawk gasped in shock and looked at the extraordinary pill in his hand with a slightly dumbfounded expression on his face.

But right as he was going to ask Sid about it, he noticed that he was already walking away with Kuina in his arms without even looking back at him.

"Now I will be taking my leave. I have to treat this girl here before something bad happens to her body because of how much she overexerted herself" The voice of Sid in his Thanatos costume echoed around in its deep voice and startled Mihawk slightly.

However, right as he was about to leave for good, Mihawk raised his voice and tried to stop him.

"Wait!"

Sid stopped walking and looked back at him with a curious expression on his face.

"What is it?"

"Shadow Raven, allow me to see your style of swordsmanship before you leave!"

"it's Knivesmanship"

"Whatever you call it!"

Sid looked at him with a calm expression in his eyes, before he then took out his sword from his scabbard.

*Shiiiiiing...!*

Mihawk narrowed his eyes slightly when he saw Sid's sword. He expected an incredible sword that could be able to make him shiver in shock, but the sword in Sid's hands was just a normal one that everyone could be able to buy at the cheapest price in a weapons shop, something that took him unprepared.

"My name is not Shadow Raven, I'm Thanatos, the one that has been bestowed the mission of destroying this world's biggest enemy, and since you are injured, I will only show you one move, but I will not attack"

"What do you-" Surprised by Sid's almost unnecessary introduction and mercy, Mihawk tried to tell him that mercy wasn't necessary, as having an opponent hold back in a swordsmanship duel was incredibly shameful. However, before he could even blink, Sid's sword turned crimson black and got engulfed in raging golden flames that seemed to be asking for blood.

In less than a second, Sid was already in front of Mihawk and had already his sword on his neck ready to kill him instantly, moreover, Kuina was still in his shoulder, but didn't seem to have gotten affected by Sid's speed in the slightest.

Mihawk's eyes, which were known for their incredible ability to be able to follow the movements of any opponent with ease, blinked in surprise and widened enormously as Mihawk processed what he had just seen.

Sid's movements were so strange, yet so intimidating, that even he, the strongest swordsman in the world, was unable to understand nor think on how to block the attack before it happened.

It wasn't just because of the speed. But also because the movements of Sid were so difficult to comprehend, that he was not able to react properly in time.

As Sid moved rapidly towards him, no matter how and what plan he thought about in order to block or dodge his attack, Sid's movements were always so unpredictable that they always seemed to surpass his plans somehow.

If he planned to block the attack that seemed to be coming from above, then the attack suddenly appeared below him. And when he was about to block it as well, the attack suddenly appeared right beside him.

His mind just couldn't understand it.

"Very well, I think that should be enough for you to understand what it means to fight me... Now I'm leaving. There's someone here that wants to sleep after all" (A/N: Hello)

Without even letting him say something back, Sid disappeared from his previous spot and reappeared on top of his ship, after that, he walked towards one of the rooms and disappeared from Mihawk's view completely.

Soon after that, the ship's appearance turned once again to be submarine-like, and the ship dove into the water completely. Disappearing without a trace, and leaving Mihawk standing there contemplating about the new heights of Swordsmanship that he had seen just now... Or well... Knivemanship, as Sid said.

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