The axe came around again, and Lucien moved before it arrived.
After a few more attempts at the joints, the neck, the ankles, he stopped. The numbing came back every time, travelling straight up his arm from whatever point of contact he tried. He stood back, considered it for a moment, and sheathed the sword.
Virex noticed. His grin widened.
"Smart boy. Figured that out fast." He rolled the axe in his hand, stone-hardened fingers catching the last of the evening light. "Doesn't help you. You've got nothing left."
Lucien didn't answer. He was watching the way Virex moved.
They worked around the deck, Virex swinging and Lucien not being where the axe landed. He kept his Haki open and let the information come in — weight distribution, the slight drop in the left shoulder before each downswing, the way the right foot planted a half-beat early. He was looking for something. He wasn't sure yet what it would look like.
He made a decision. On the next dodge, he stepped into the space instead of out of it, clenched his fist, and hit Virex hard in the left shoulder with everything he had.
It felt like punching the hull of a ship. The pain came back up his arm immediately.
But Virex grimaced. Just slightly. He took one step back and rolled his shoulder.
Lucien looked at his hand, then back at the man.
There it was.
"You hit hard for a kid," Virex said, sounding almost impressed. "But hitting hard doesn't matter when there's nothing to hit through."
Lucien let out a slight grin. "You say that. Your shoulder said something else."
Virex came forward again, faster, the axe cutting horizontally at waist height. Lucien jumped back and felt it pass close enough to pull at his shirt. Virex followed the swing straight into a charge, shoulder dropped, clearly intending to put him through the mast.
Lucien sidestepped at the last moment; his Haki had given him the angle a half-second early, and Virex's shoulder hit the mast instead. The wood cracked. Virex pulled back, unbothered, and turned.
"You can dodge all night," he said. "Doesn't change anything. You can't hurt me."
Lucien didn't respond. He was already moving.
He stopped trying to find a gap and started making one. Every time the axe extended and Virex's elbow came forward with the swing, Lucien hit it. The same spot, every time, as hard as he could. His knuckles were throbbing badly enough that he stopped registering individual impacts and just kept going. Virex absorbed it. Mocked it. Swung again. Lucien hit the elbow again.
Then, on one of the swings, he saw it. A hairline fracture in the stone skin at the joint, there for less than a second before the surface sealed itself back over.
But it had been there.
That was what he had been looking for. He stopped varying anything. Same dodge, same target, same point of contact every time. The cracks that closed between strikes were closing a little slower with each one.
Virex switched the axe to his left hand, which was naturally not his dominant hand, and the swings became wilder. He tried to hide the right elbow, which had quite some cracks at this point, but Lucien was not going to allow it as he kept circling and kept hitting.
On what might have been the fiftieth hit, the elbow gave. There was a crack loud enough to cut through everything else, and then Virex's scream. The axe hit the deck. Virex backed away, his right arm hanging wrong, the stone skin split open and bleeding at the joint, his teeth clamped together hard enough that Lucien could see the muscles working in his jaw.
What was left of Virex's strategy left with the scream. He came forward swinging his left arm in wide, graceless arcs, all weight and no direction. Lucien slipped each one and hit the ribs. Then again. Then again.
His knuckles were bleeding. He barely noticed. There was something about a fight like this, not the violence, but the problem of it, that had his full attention in a way that almost nothing else did.
Lucien never seemed like a battle junkie, but all the travels and fights he had during his time in Germa made him understand he loves solving the problems various fighters brought upon him, just like now. It was like solving puzzles, and Lucien loved cracking them.
Virex's wild actions didn't last long as he kept getting slower and slower. Lucien, who is still high on adrenaline, took in a deep breath as he concentrated all his energy on his right fist, winding it back as far as he could before bringing it right at Virex's unguarded right rib. Lucien, who was so engrossed and in the mode, didn't notice the light metallic sheen that was covering his right hand as it connected the rib, shattering that place.
Virex, who was already feeling tired, just clutched his rib and fell on his knees. He wound up once more, the same gleam still sitting on his knuckles, and hit Virex across the face. The stone skin cracked. Virex went down and did not get up. The gleam faded.
Looking at Virex, Lucien couldn't help but have a wide smile on his face as he looked at the last bit of sun that was peeking through the horizon. Everything around him was destroyed as all the crew members were already done with bullets in them from Idris, who picked off every single one of them.
"AH, YOU MANAGED TO DEFEAT HIM. GOOD, THAT IS VERY GOOD. NOW I CAN TAKE ALL HIS TREASURE. HE STOLE SO MUCH FROM ME. I HAVE TO RECOVER IT ALL. HEY, GUARDS, GO AND GET HIS CHEST OUT," came a loud and very irritating scream as Lucien turned to see the merchant ordering his men.
Before he could even do anything, Idris had already fired a bullet just a few centimetres before the leg of the first guard who was moving towards the office.
"Anyone who takes a step forward will have a bullet in his head," warned Idris.
"I wouldn't do that. Can't have you walking off with what's ours. We both came for what we want. You can leave now," ordered Lucien as he stared at the Merchant whose face became red. Idris also jumped over to the pirate ship and stood beside Lucien with his gun pointed at the guards.
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1 Chapter For Every 50 Power Stones. Please Do Support.