Ace watched as the valiant soldiers of Silverlight unhesitantly gave their lives to protect their home. The bones in his knuckles clicked as his grip around his glaive tightened. The crimson veins around his eyes became more pronounced with every second as he watched the warriors on the battlefield being slaughtered whilst he stood on the walls safe and sound.
He knew if things carried on like this, they would soon be overrun, and the innocent civilians in the city behind them would end up as food for these insatiable beasts.
"NO!
STOP!
ACE, COME BACK!" Silum roared when he noticed Ace jumping off the wall and running onto the battlefield.
He was tempted to jump down and bring Ace back himself, but he couldn't afford to stop supporting Venerin. Though Sartius was pretty badly injured after Wukong sent Zarconix crashing into him, he was still a dragon of the ninth rank. Still, he couldn't allow Ace, who wasn't even a citizen of their city, to give his life, especially as he had such a promising future still waiting for him.
"Dammit!" Silum cursed as he hurriedly focused his attention back on Venerin. "[Earth Wall!]"
Luckily, his wall of what looked like Jade had been erected just in time to protect Venerin from the slash of the Wyrm's razor-like claw.
With his support, Venerin was just about able to fight on par with it, but if he were to stop, Venerin would quickly lose his life, and without anyone to hold him back, Sartius would be able to rampage through their army freely.
Taking another look at Ace, he was shocked to find that his presence on the battlefield had an immediate impact. He hadn't foolishly charged headfirst into the middle of the war like one would expect from a warrior of that age. Instead, he was picking off different second and third-ranked beasts, allowing the opponents of said beasts to support their fellow soldiers.
Silum seemed to hesitate on how to proceed. After everything Ace and Wukong had already done for them, he had no right to expect any more from them, but he couldn't very well allow his underlings to die in front of him.
"Ahh, fuck it! Leilani," Silum hollered at the red-haired mage standing beside him, who was launching one powerful fire spell after the next into the magical beasts in the distance. "Keep an eye on Ace; support him whenever necessary. Try your best to make sure nothing happens to him!"
Leilani, who'd been hesitating over the same decision, glanced at Silum briefly before looking back at Ace. "I understand; leave it to me!"
Ace didn't seem to care that the beasts could end up targeting him; all he knew was that he had to do something.
With his [Observation] overseeing the whole battlefield, he went from one skirmish to the next, assassinating one beast after another. This was far from his preferred style of fighting, but with the help of [Soru], it was by far the most effective tactic available to him.
He was able to move around the battlefield with almost complete freedom. No beast could get anywhere near him, and his tactic was slowly allowing the Silverlight forces to regain some stability.
That was when he noticed something he simply couldn't ignore.
Two young men, who, judging by their resemblance, appeared to be brothers being toyed with by a giant dog of the fourth rank with a body that seemed to be made of rocks and lava filling its cracks.
The older of the two stood with an axe in his hand in front of his younger brother, who lay behind him with a broken leg.
Ace knew that, as it stood, he was no match for a fourth-rank beast, but seeing their plight, he couldn't help but think of the moments before he died…
'Luffy!'
"Kash, you need to leave!" Jason, the older of the two brothers, commanded as he fearlessly faced the fourth-rank lava hound, despite only being at the peak of the third round.
He knew that even if he were at the fourth rank, he still wouldn't be much of a match for the beast, but it didn't matter. All that mattered to him was making sure his little brother lived, even if he had to die to make that happen.
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"I won't lea-"
"NOW!" Jason barked, unwilling to waste time with useless chit-chat. "I can't focus if I have to worry ab-"
Before he could finish his sentence, Jason threw himself to the ground, barely evading the giant magma-filled paw aiming for his face.
"JASON!" Kash roared when he saw the giant canine launch itself on top of his older brother.
He desperately wanted to support Jason, but not only was his broken leg keeping him from moving how he would like, but the speed of a rank four beast wasn't something he could keep up with on the best of days.
Luckily, he wasn't the only one rushing to Jason's aid.
"Dammit. I just missed," Ace cursed as he watched the beast leap out of the way at the last second, barely avoiding his descending haki-imbued glaive.
He was hoping that by using [Soru] to close in whilst the beast was focused on the older brother, he would be able to catch it off guard and kill it in one go. Unfortunately, a rank four beast is superior to a rank three one in every way. He'd need more than a surprise attack to kill it.
"You two should leave now," Ace said as he cautiously eyed the growling beast in front of him.
Jason and Kash looked at the back of the boy, who was almost half their size, in shock and a hint of awe. They already knew from his earlier performance that he was a genius amongst geniuses, the type they'd heard stories about but never seen with their own eyes.
It was already impressive enough that they got to witness a talent like that in action, but they never would've expected he'd be the one to come to their rescue in their time of need. But as far as they were concerned, not even a genius on Ace's level would be able to jump two ranks to defeat a rank four Magma-Hound.
"HURRY UP!" Ace bellowed, snapping the two brothers out of their daze. "If you stay here, you'll only get in the way."
"But what abo-"
"That's enough, Kash!" Jason barked, knowing that Ace was right. "Thank you, young master. Your assistan-"
Before he could even finish his sentence, Ace had already disappeared from his position to intercept the approaching canine directly.
"Jas, we can't let him fight alone," Kash said as he hobbled over to his brother's side. "He may be a genius, but he can't win on his own."
"Stop being an idiot! That young master's right. If we stay and try to help, we'd only end up a hindrance." Jason said as he took one final look at the battle between Ace and the Magma-Hound, before turning back to look at the top of the city walls. "Plus, it looks like he already has someone ready to support him should he need it."
Tracing his brother's line of sight, Kash noticed General Leilani paying close attention to Ace's battle with her mage's staff at the ready.
"We'll repay this debt of gratitude in the future if the opportunity ever arises. For now, let's just do as he said and give him some space." Jason said as he wrapped his little brother's arm around his shoulder so he could be used as a crutch.
They were right. As a sixth-rank fire mage, the general was the best support Ace could have at a time like this. The only reason she didn't act immediately was that she wanted to reserve her energy as much as possible in case of an emergency. Still, the moment Ace looked like he was struggling, she would immediately take action.
Ace, though, had no idea he had the support of the general. He was too focused on the beast in front of him.
After their first clash, Ace felt his arms creak under the pressure. It became immediately clear that whether it was speed or power, Ace was definitively inferior. Still, he was oddly calm.
Leilani had almost intervened several times already, but there was something about the look in his eyes that stopped her every time. Between that and the fact that he seemed to be relaxing more and more as the fight went on, Leilani decided against acting just yet, but she was still shocked beyond measure. He was, after all, fighting against a magical beast two ranks superior to him.
It was unclear when, but at some point during their fight, Ace stopped seeing the beast and instead began picturing it was Akainu in front of him. The admiral who insulted the man he respected most in his life and the man who tried to kill his little brother, forcing him to sacrifice himself.
He lost to him once, and it cost him his life…
'I WON'T LOSE TO YOU AGAIN!' Ace roared in his mind as he saw the magma paw slashing at his chest.
And as if to answer his calls, his glaive seemed to come to life. It whistled through the air and pierced straight through the beast's rock-like paw.
"HOOWWWLLLL!"
"One…
Did he…
Did he just become one with his glaive?" Leilani muttered in shock as she watched Ace and his glaive move in perfect unison. "What kind of talent is this?!"
Whilst Leilani was watching in shock, Ace looked down at his glaive with a proud smile. Even without looking at it, he could feel every part of it as if it were an extension of his arm.
In his last life, he never could've imagined that holding a weapon could bring him so much… Joy!
That proud smile gradually transformed into a fiendish grin as he looked back at the howling beast, which trembled under his gaze. "Now, where were we?"
The Magma-Hound never would've imagined that it could feel such fear in front of a human boy at the second rank, but when their eyes met, it understood that their roles had reversed; it was no longer the predator, but the prey.
It didn't hesitate for even a second as it turned to escape, but with one of its paws injured, its speed took a hit.
Ace moved like a blur, appearing directly beside the terrified beast. A smile appeared on his face as his raised glaive descended like a bolt of lightning.
He performed a chop that not even Wukong would've been able to find fault in. The blackened blade of his glaive sliced straight through the neck of the beast completely unimpeded.
'I kept my side of the deal; now you need to stay alive so you can keep yours!' Ace said mentally as the head of the canine fell by his feet, a smile of pure satisfaction suffusing his lips as he looked towards the other battlefield where Wukong was likely fighting for his life.