"Huff, huff..."
Aokiji had begun to pant. His body was tough, but the wound on his back was far too severe.
"Is that so? Then I'll have to freeze all of you before you cut off my head."
With that, Aokiji pressed his hand to the ground again, preparing to use his ultimate move, Ice Age.
But Werther had no intention of standing by and letting him.
Werther slashed through the air, sending a pale blue Sword Aura packed with Armament Haki toward Aokiji.
It reached Aokiji almost instantly and struck him across the chest.
Crack.
Ice shattered. A huge gash appeared across Aokiji's chest, nearly cutting him in two.
But Aokiji's expression did not change. Though Werther had infused the Sword Aura with a great deal of Armament Haki, Aokiji had still turned to ice in time to avoid the blow.
Even so, dodging Werther's slash had interrupted his technique.
"The ground's slippery enough already. Don't even think about making the terrain any worse, Aokiji."
One look at the enormous ice spikes rising around Aokiji told Werther that this Ice Age was not meant to attack them. Aokiji wanted to reshape the terrain in his favor and split them apart.
Logia Devil Fruit users like Aokiji loved using their powers to create terrain that favored them.
Back at the Summit War, Akainu would have done the same if they had not been fighting at Marineford. He would have turned everything around him into a field of magma to restrict his enemies' movements.
The ice Aokiji had created was not as deadly as Akainu's magma, but it seriously hampered all three of them.
Lightning already covered the ground beneath Werther's feet. He used Electromagnetic Force to keep his balance; falling in the middle of a fierce battle would be disastrous.