A deafening explosion erupted across the battlefield as intense heat waves spread outward, forcing Ace and Beckman's figures apart in the aftermath.
"So it's your flames that got me," Beckman observed with grudging respect, carefully assessing the burning sensation hidden beneath the pain coursing through his body. After a moment of consideration, he figured out his opponent's cunning strategy.
He shook his head with self-deprecating amusement. "But only now do I truly appreciate just how remarkable your fire has become."
Apparently, Ace's tactic of using physical exchanges to slip wisps of white flame inside his opponent's body during each contact had finally been discovered.
"Of course it is," Ace grinned without any attempt at modesty or denial.
Thinking back to when he and Jerry had been developing this "Starburst" technique, and remembering all the innocent fish that had been roasted during their experiments, Ace couldn't help but lick his lips appreciatively. They had tasted absolutely delicious!
Having said that, Ace realized that Beckman was proving far more slippery and difficult to pin down than Big Mom had been.
Ace had maintained an aggressive offensive since the battle's opening, but Beckman made excellent use of his rifle—firing at long range when possible and swinging it directly as a melee weapon when necessary—so that most of Ace's attacks had been blocked or deflected without achieving the flesh contact he needed.
Therefore, Ace understood that even if he could detonate the accumulated energy at this moment, it wouldn't be sufficient to cause significant damage to someone of Beckman's caliber.
"Hmph! Young people are so full of dirty tricks," Beckman commented, using his rifle to create a powerful gust that blew the white flames aside. Then he gripped the weapon's barrel, flipped it upside down, and swung the stock like a club aimed at Ace's skull.
"The fact that I couldn't hide it from you proves you've got quite a few tricks of your own," Ace replied, raising his fist to meet the rifle butt head-on.
In the intense collision of opposing Haki, both combatants separated at the moment of contact. A flash of determination appeared in Ace's eyes, and without waiting for his body to stabilize, he suddenly swung his left hand in a wide arc.
Instantly, countless small white fireballs danced through the air like ethereal fireflies, spreading in the blink of an eye to occupy an area several thousand meters in radius with Beckman at the center.
"Firefly!"
The overwhelming number of miniature fireballs arranged themselves in perfect formation around both fighters, instantly creating a hemispherical barrier that completely isolated their battlefield from the outside world.
Beckman surveyed the small flames hovering motionlessly several dozen meters away from him, spat out the cigarette butt he'd smoked down to nothing, and spoke in a grave tone. "So you're committing to a fight to the death? Logia types really are troublesome to deal with."
Ace took a couple of deep breaths, looked directly at Beckman's still-composed expression, and asked with genuine curiosity, "Why aren't you going to take this opportunity to escape?"
"Would it work? Besides, I don't need to run away," Beckman replied with confident calm.
He already understood the effective range of natural-type attacks from their previous exchanges.
Throughout their battle, Ace had been using small-scale flames in combination with Haki-enhanced combat techniques. His extremely refined fighting skills and precise control capabilities had made Beckman fully aware that his opponent was no longer the inexperienced young man from their first meeting—his rise to this level had been no accident whatsoever.
For Ace to suddenly deploy such a large-scale offensive technique at this crucial moment, he must have anticipated various potential reactions. If he intended to let enemies escape at will, why would he bother creating such an elaborate setup? That's exactly why Beckman had responded as he did.
Ace's mouth curved into a slight smile as he stretched his body and suddenly burst into motion. With flames blazing brilliantly around him, he rushed toward Beckman at lightning speed.
As he advanced, he slowly opened his clenched right fist, revealing pure white flames erupting from his palm.
The distance between them was closing rapidly, and just as Ace raised his hand to launch the fire in his grasp, an extremely powerful sense of mortal danger suddenly flooded through his consciousness.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Ace saw only a flash before his eyes as a dark shadow suddenly approached him, while deafening gunshots exploded in his ears.
In that split second, Ace gritted his teeth and instinctively shifted sideways while simultaneously hurling the blazing flames from his palm with everything he had.
"Flame Commandment: Fire Dragon Wave!"
A colossal pure white fire dragon erupted with exposed fangs and claws, as if it intended to tear apart and incinerate everything in existence.
It attracted the surrounding fireflies like moths drawn to a lethal flame, and they all shot forward like lightning in a coordinated barrage.
A catastrophic explosion suddenly consumed the battlefield. An enormous fireball rolled endlessly through the air while earth-shaking sounds echoed across vast distances, audible for thousands of miles.
The staggering temperature caused space itself to distort as ice throughout the surrounding area completely vaporized. Rolling heat waves surged upward and blasted a massive hole through the cloud cover in mere moments.
Immediately afterward, two figures were launched along nearly identical trajectories like cannonballs, crashing heavily onto the ice field thousands of meters away.
"Cough, cough!" Ace spat blood as he slowly raised his head to look at Beckman's distant crash site.
Throughout their previous exchanges, Beckman's flintlock had consistently fired single shots, but just moments ago he had suddenly accelerated to deliver rapid-fire volleys at close range.
With his formidable presence and superhuman reflexes, three bullets had instantly emerged from the weapon's barrel, aimed precisely at Ace's head, heart, and abdomen.
In that critical instant, Ace had instinctively twisted his body and adjusted his positioning, successfully avoiding the shot aimed at his head but inevitably taking hits to his right chest and abdomen.
Dragging his severely wounded body—nearly pierced through by two bullets wrapped in explosive Haki energy—Ace refused to relax or collapse. He stood up trembling and faced Beckman, who was staggering toward him from the distance.
"Give up now! Otherwise, I'll keep shooting," Beckman declared, raising his right hand to aim his weapon steadily at Ace while attempting to convince him to surrender.
"Hehe..." Ace started to respond with a smile when another mouthful of blood erupted from his lips. However, he ignored the injury entirely, quickly extending his right arm with fingers spread wide. "Have you forgotten what you figured out earlier?"
"What!?" Beckman's pupils suddenly contracted as his finger reflexively pulled the trigger.
With a sharp crack, another bullet burst from the rifle and struck Ace's chest.
Almost simultaneously, Ace's open fingers clenched into a tight fist.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Dozens of explosions and bursts of flame erupted throughout Beckman's body, creating a series of thunderous sounds that nearly merged into a single devastating roar.
When the air finally settled, both combatants slowly collapsed to the ground with eyes closed, having fallen into unconsciousness from their mutual destruction.
Learning from Cavendish's earlier situation, Deuce had launched himself from the Black Nova the moment he sensed something was wrong, enabling him to reach Ace as quickly as possible.
Seeing that Ace bore shocking wounds several centimeters in diameter through his right lung and abdomen—with an additional bullet embedded in the flesh near his heart—Deuce immediately began emergency field treatment on the spot.
On the opposing side, the Red-Haired Pirates' ship doctor Hongo also appeared beside Beckman to treat the extensive internal and external injuries covering his body.