The Baratie deck had begun to feel like a war zone again—but this time, Ash was at the center of it.
Krieg's men, still groaning from overindulgence in Zeff's food, were attempting to regroup.
Krieg himself, towering in his dented golden armor, stomped forward, eyes burning like molten brass.
"You! Since you lot gave me food .... I'll repay by taking this ship for myself!"
Krieg roared, slamming his fist into the deck, leaving a crack spider-webbing across the wood.
Ash rose slowly, Mikazuki Munechika gleaming under the dimming sun. His gaze met Krieg's, calm but dangerous.
"Krieg,"
Ash said evenly, voice cutting through the chaos,
"you wanted food? You already got it. But taking the Baratie? That's a mistake."
Krieg bellowed a laugh that rattled the rigging.
"Mistake? ..do you think your little reputation as the grim reaper of east blue scares me ? ....I am Don krieg ! I have sailed the seas of grandline , you are nothing but an insect!....You'll see what it means to cross Don Krieg!"
Ash grinned clapping his hands in amusement.
" Bravo ! That's what I would expect from an idiot like you ."
A vein bulged on krieg's forehead as he ordered his mens to charge -
"Attack !"
---
The first wave was of Krieg's lieutenants—Bacon, Chew, and Pearl—charged forward, each flanked by dozens of cannon fodder pirates.
Medusa stepped forward
"Let me handle them ."
Chains slithered from her wrists like serpents, hair curling and sparking faintly.
Bacon, muscles rippling under a striped sash, swung a massive iron mace.
"Let's crush her like a snake underfoot!"
Medusa smirked.
"Not today, big guy."
Her chains whipped forward, wrapping around Bacon's arms mid-swing, yanking him off balance.
"And maybe you should reconsider underestimating someone?... especially the sword of Ashborn himself."
Chew, a hulking man with jagged teeth and a club twice his height, roared and charged next.
"She's mine!"
Medusa twirled her chains, lifting Bacon into the air before slamming him into Chew, knocking both of them sideways with a crack like a cannon shot.
"I am sorry but , I am already taken of the market, so please keep your hands of me ."
Chaos spread all over Baratie-
"Watch your angles!"
one pirate yelled as he dodged flying lieutenants.
"I didn't sign up for this acrobatics class!"
Medusa laughed softly, amused with the situation playing out.
Pearl, the wiry but fast one, darted from behind, twin daggers flashing.
Medusa shifted, chains whipping into his legs, tripping him mid-lunge. She flicked her wrist, sending him spinning into a stack of crates.
From the rail, Nami's voice rang out, clipboard in hand.
"Ash! Krieg's moving forward—he's targeting the center!" she called, pointing. "Sanji! Reina! Watch the side decks—"
She then muttered to herself-
"At times like these ,I really hate being weak and a liability."
Sanji flipped a frying pan like a frisbee, slicing a pirate's hat clean off.
"Not my problem if they can't dodge food!"
Reina formed a massive rolling pin of bread dough and smacked two pirates flying.
"Try stealing my ingredients next time, and you'll become hors d'oeuvres!"
A cannon fodder pirate stumbled over a stray carrot, yelling,
"Why are vegetables deadly here?!"
---
Ash took a deep breath,
"Water Breathing: 10th form-> Constant Flux."
The Tachi glimmered as water surged along its edge like a flowing dragon. He lunged at Krieg, slicing through the first few pirates with precise, sweeping arcs.
Each slash was accompanied by a ghostly echo, water spinning violently into the air.
"You are strong ,
...But ! ....I am Don krieg !"
Krieg shouted, deflecting Ash's first strike with his armored gauntlet. Sparks flew where steel met steel.
Ash smirked, flowing seamlessly between Water Breathing forms and Archer's Noble Phantasms.
A barrage of phantom blades flew from his Tachi, slashing through the air and slicing cannon fodder in half before they could even raise their weapons.
"You're going to have to try harder than that!"
Ash taunted, stepping lightly across the deck, water curling around him like living armor.
Krieg roared, swinging a massive iron flail, and the deck shook violently.
Ash countered with a flying slash, sending the flail spinning back at a group of pirates who hadn't realized they were in the line of fire.
"OUCH! Hey! Not cool!" a pirate yelled, his hat sailing off into the sea.
Medusa, meanwhile, had Bacon, Chew, and Pearl tied up in an intricate web of chains, tossing them like rag dolls.
"Is that all you've got, lieutenants?"
she said casually, sending Pearl sliding into a stack of barrels.
Bacon groaned.
"She… she's cheating! I swear, she's cheating!"
Reina and Sanji were still a whirlwind of culinary combat—Reina forming dough shields while tossing knives made of hardened bread, Sanji delivering devastating kicks that sent pirates flying into barrels or overboard.
"Your sure can cook, blondie!"
Reina called, spinning a dough whip around a pirate.
"Thanks, but your seasoning's lethal too!"
Sanji yelled, sending another flying pirate screaming into the sea.
Nami ducked behind the mast,
"We might survive this,"
she muttered,
"but I need to learn how to fight....atleast enough to protect myself !"
The Baratie deck shook under the pounding of the storm and Krieg's fury.
Krieg staggered back, battered but grinning like a man who believed nothing could kill him. Golden armor dented, cape tattered, fists raw, he bellowed:
"HA! You think a few fancy sword tricks can defeat me, Ashborn ? I've survived cannon fire, sea storms, and a thousand fools like you!"
Ash's eyes narrowed, Mikazuki humming softly in response, water swirling along its blade as if alive.
Every step he took sent ripples across the deck, small whirlpools forming at his feet.
"I don't think, Krieg,"
Ash said calmly, voice cutting like ice.
"I know."
With that, Ash moved.
Krieg swung a massive iron flail, each strike sending tremors across the Baratie. Ash met it with his pristine tachi , water spiraling from the edge to meet the spinning flail.
Sparks flew as steel and water collided, the sound echoing like thunder across the ship.
Krieg grunted.
"Hah! Predictable!"
He hurled a second flail from his off-hand, a tangle of iron swinging toward Ash's chest.
Ash smirked,
flowing seamlessly into Fourth Form: Striking Tide. Water extended like a shield around his body, diverting the flail with a hiss.
Then, with a flick of his wrist, the water condensed into a razor-sharp torrent that sliced clean through the flail mid-swing.
"Not bad,"
Krieg admitted, wiping a smear of blood from his lip.
"But I'm not just a flail!"
With a roar, Krieg slammed both fists into the deck, sending a shockwave that splintered wood and hurled nearby pirates across the ship.
"Too slow," Ash muttered,
executing Sixth Form: Whirlpool, spinning Mikazuki Munechika in a deadly arc. The deck became a miniature maelstrom, sucking debris, pirates, and even Krieg's armor pieces into a swirling vortex.
Krieg staggered, eyes wide.
"Impossible!"
---
Meanwhile Medusa, chains writhing like snakes, had tied Bacon, Chew, and Pearl into a complicated human chain, tossing them like rag dolls onto the deck.
"Don't get too distracted, ladies!"
a pirate yelled, diving past Medusa's whip.
"I've got your backs!"
"Funny,"
Medusa said, flipping him over a railing,
"but no. You don't."
Sanji was a storm of legs and smoke, spinning on barrels, kicking pirates into the sea.
Reina summoned a giant dough mace, smashing cannon fodder into the rigging.
"Tell your captain to fight clean or my pastries get messy!"
---
Back on the the battlefield: Ash activated Archer's Noble Phantasm—a sudden flurry of ethereal blades erupted from his tachi, flying at Krieg like a storm of frozen steel.
The blades shredded armor, forcing Krieg to retreat with a guttural yell.
"You…"
Krieg snarled, spinning his flail.
"You think steel phantoms can stop me?!"
Ash grinned ,
"Now don't be a fool ,like I said before- I don't think krieg ,I .....ACT."
Ash took a calm breath and then combined his Tenth Form: Constant Flux with a flurry of phantom blades-
Spinning like a watery tornado. Krieg swung, but the water itself became a living entity—dodging, blocking, slicing.
Even the cannon fodder pirates hesitated, unsure whether to fight or run from the swirling maelstrom engulfing their captain.
Krieg slammed both flails into the deck, creating a shockwave that ripped up boards and sent water spraying everywhere. He roared:
"You're going to pay for every slash !"
But Ash just smirked and leapt into the air, his tachi spinning like a living storm.
Water coiled around the blade, each strike faster than the eye could follow.
Krieg tried to block with his flails, swinging wildly. Sparks, water, and steel clashed violently.
The Baratie deck groaned under the assault, pirates scattering in terror, Medusa yanking Bacon and Chew clear with chains, and Sanji and Reina tossing anyone foolish enough into the sea.
The clash continued for few more seconds then- Finally, Ash landed before Krieg, water cascading off the blade, aura blazing with noble phantasm energy.
"Time's up,"
Ash said quietly.
"Surrender or die. The reaper doesn't show mercy often."
Krieg, battered, bloody, armor shattered, and still panting, glared with molten fury. But he knew. He was defeated.
"Fine… you… win… this time…" Krieg growled.
Ash tilted his head, eyes calm but piercing.
"Don't ever come near here again."
Krieg's flails fell to the deck with a clatter. He glared one last time, then limped toward his crippled ship.
---
Medusa yanked her chains free, letting the lieutenants collapse in exhaustion. Bacon groaned.
"I… hate chains… and her…"
Pearl muttered, "I want dessert… but not from that witch!"
Sanji lit a cigarette, tossing the last pirate overboard.
Reina laughed, collapsing her dough constructs.
"I think I earned a Michelin star tonight."
Nami also joined the group as the fight ended -
"I… I survived… barely… fortunately our ship too survived ."
Ash sheathed Mikazuki Munechika, water dripping from the blade like liquid silver. He looked over the wrecked deck, all his allies exhausted but alive.
He grinned as he waved at them-
"Well ,would you look at that ? Aren't my friends crazy strong ."
Medusa rolled her eyes."You love chaos too much, Ash."
Ash grinned. "It loves me back."
The sea calmed. Krieg's warship drifted away, broken but still afloat, leaving the Baratie battered, but victorious.
And the survivors—chefs, pirates, lieutenants, and allies—looked around, realizing for the first time that they had faced something legendary today.
Ash's smirk widened as he looked at his friends, fighting spirit alive in every scarred and bloodied face.
"Alright now , Reina .." He called " I am hungry after all that moving you know ?"
Reina grinned-
"Your pretty face let's you get away with almost anything you know ....Bastard !"
Ash spoke while feighning heart attack-
" My.....you almost stopped my heart from beating you know ?"
Reina just scoffed and moved towards the kitchen of Baratie as if it was all her own property.
" Wait a bit , ...I need time to cook for your grand meal ."
Meanwhile sanji was biting his cigrette while muttering-
"Damn him ....grim reaper ! He took all the beautiful ladies for himself ..."
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________To be continued _________