Kazu had found the perfect sparring partner, but Aokiji was starting to grow anxious.
Smoker was seriously injured, and the other pirate was no weakling either. Smoker probably could not hold out much longer.
But that sneaky bastard Kazu's Devil Fruit was too troublesome. Catching him and landing a fatal blow seemed to have become a pipe dream.
His speed was even more troublesome than Borsalino's. When he moved using the Space-Space Fruit, he left no trace and could only be sensed with Observation Haki.
"Hahaha, want to get past me and save that Marine captain?"
"Dream on."
"As the captain, how could I dump the pressure on my crew?"
"Take this!"
Kazu was still relying on his swordsmanship to fight Aokiji. He sent a Flying Slash his way, forcing Aokiji to stop trying to reinforce Smoker.
Aokiji scattered Kazu's attack with a punch and glanced at Smoker's situation, his expression grim. He could only pin his hopes on Smoker holding out a little longer.
"Kuzan, don't worry about me. Give it everything you've got and defeat Her Kazi."
As Smoker and Carlmand fought, both kept part of their attention on the battlefield over there.
After all, those two were the ones who could decide the battle's ultimate outcome.
Seeing Aokiji repeatedly try to come to his aid only to be held back, Smoker did not want to become Kuzan's weakness. That was why he spoke up.
"Hehehe, you can barely save yourself, and you're still hoping that Marine Admiral can defeat our captain? You should worry more about yourself."
Carlmand spoke loudly, not just for Smoker to hear, but also to disrupt Aokiji's concentration.
"Hmph, that's none of your concern."
Smoker took the initiative to fly high into the air. He no longer actively engaged Carlmand in close combat, focusing mainly on keeping him occupied and conserving more stamina so he could hold out longer.
Although Carlmand saw through Smoker's intentions, his opponent was considerably more mobile than he was. There was little he could do besides keep chasing Smoker and attacking.
Seeing that Smoker had stopped actively fighting back and adopted this stalling approach, Aokiji felt somewhat reassured.
Then he focused his gaze on Kazu before him, his face serious as he considered how to quickly defeat this troublesome opponent.
Aokiji formed balls of ice in both hands and hurled them at Kazu in rapid succession.
Kazu dodged whatever he could along the way and cleaved whatever he could not dodge in half, rapidly closing in on Aokiji.
The ice balls hit the ground and formed pillars of ice. In the blink of an eye, over a hundred had landed, but Aokiji's expression did not change in the slightest.
"The prince's battle strategy is all well and good, but..."
"I'm not a stationary target."
Kazu had already reached Aokiji and swung his sword straight at him with the Riki Sword Technique.
Aokiji shifted to the left, then coated his foot in Armament Haki and kicked the blade of Muramasa.
With his attack blocked, Kazu pushed hard, pulled Muramasa free, and immediately followed up with a Flying Slash.
Aokiji formed two ice sabers to block the sword energy, but it pushed him back dozens of meters.
Without another word, Kazu charged again, intending to continue his attack before Aokiji could regain his footing.
"Sure enough, you're still too young, brat."
As soon as Aokiji finished speaking, he raised both hands, and the hundred-plus pillars of ice on the ground instantly grew larger.
The pillars formed a cage of ice, and Aokiji lowered the temperature to the absolute limit once again.
"This temperature is enough to freeze everything."
"Sleep forever."
Kazu realized it too. Aokiji had clearly used the force of his attack to fly naturally into the middle of these ice pillars without making Kazu suspicious, luring him into this trap prepared in advance.
"Independent Space."
Kazu tried it. The surrounding space had become unusually firm because of the extremely low temperature. Using Space Swap to get out would take longer, about a second.
But that one second was enough to freeze him, so he simply hid inside his Independent Space.
It was a separate space, unaffected by the power here, allowing him to slip inside at leisure.
The ice instantly froze everything around it. A mountain of ice rose from the ground, clearly visible even to the civilians hiding in Loguetown's back streets.
"Wh-what is that?"
"An iceberg?"
"This is terrifying. Why aren't the Marines here yet?"
The civilians saw loud crashes and tremors coming from the harbor, and now an iceberg had appeared. They could well imagine how intense the battle was.
Hmm?
Where did the person inside the iceberg go?
Seeing Kazu vanish from inside the iceberg in an instant, Aokiji hurriedly pushed his Observation Haki to its limit, sensing everything around him in an attempt to find Kazu.
As far as Aokiji could tell, his opponent must have escaped his attack.
Aokiji searched warily for Kazu, but no matter how he probed with Observation Haki, he found nothing.
A bead of cold sweat ran down Aokiji's cheek. This feeling of complete uncertainty made him deeply uncomfortable and put him under immense pressure.
He did not know when or from where Kazu would launch a fatal strike at him.
Meanwhile, Kazu enjoyed a glass of orange juice inside his Independent Space. Watching Aokiji act so suspicious of everything outside, he felt thoroughly at ease.
"As expected of an Admiral-level fighter. Sure enough, every last one of them is a sneaky bastard. He nearly got me."
After downing a glass of orange juice, Kazu no longer felt thirsty. He opened his Independent Space and sent a slash outside.
Aokiji had remained tense the entire time and noticed Kazu the instant he emerged.
The oncoming slash split open the iceberg and headed straight for Aokiji.
"He's still in the same place?"
Although Aokiji was briefly surprised, he felt considerably more relaxed.
An enemy he could see put him at ease. The kind that appeared and vanished without a trace was the most troublesome.
"Ice Gauntlet."
Aokiji gathered ice over his right hand and, combining it with Armament Haki and his martial arts, knocked the slash off course with a single punch.
The slash shot into the distance along the sea's surface and vanished in the blink of an eye, leaving only the cut it had carved through the water slowly closing behind it.
The two had been fighting for half the day, and evening was approaching. The last rays of the setting sun still shone over the land, but they would not last much longer.
Neither Kazu nor Aokiji was affected in the slightest by the fading light, and the two clashed again.
"What's that?!"
Out at sea, the Dog-Head Warship was still bounding rapidly forward, with Garp serving as a human accelerator at the stern.
The lookout at the bow saw a silvery-white slash come into view and rapidly approach, frightening him nearly out of his wits.
"This is bad! Someone's attacking our warship! Officer Bogard, a Flying Slash is rapidly approaching our ship!"
The moment the lookout finished speaking, Bogard used Soru to reach the bow, his right hand gripping his sword hilt tightly as he fixed his gaze on the rapidly approaching Flying Slash.