The Vice Captain of the WhiteBeard Pirates

[ Third Person POV ]

Manmeyer Manor

Ken punched the elder right in the face with a lightning-clad fist. The elder had just barely managed to recoat his face with Armament Haki before Ken's first landed.

The Elder was pushed back for a moment before he began his own sequence of retaliation. He coated both of his fists with Ryuo as he kicked the ground and appeared right in front of Ken.

Ken's Observation Haki immediately informed him of the impending danger, and he began to respond accordingly by dodging and deflecting the elder's blows.

The elder took note of this and increased the ferocity of his blows, aiming to overwhelm Ken to the point that he wouldn't be able to offset his attacks to begin with. However, Ken was a lightning human; things like this were nothing but mere walks in the park.

Ken managed to dodge another punch aimed at him before initiating his counterattack. He channeled some lightning into his fist before landing it right on the elder's side. 

Although the blow successfully landed on the elder's liver, the elder also took the same opportunity to land an elbow right on Ken's face; his entire arm had been coated with Ryuo at that point. Making the impact of the blow even more severe than it initially was.

Ken's brain shook as he stumbled backward. His vision momentarily blurred as his brain tried to recover from the impact of the blow. Although he wasn't getting hit as often as the elder was getting hit. The elder ensured that each hit that landed would almost be as devastating as all the blows that Ken had been landing on him.

"Damned old bastard...!" Ken growled as he snorted out another clot of blood and stared at the kneeling elder.

The elder wasn't left unscathed from this minor altercation either. That liver shot essentially paralyzed him on the spot. He was even struggling to breathe because of the pain that he was going through. Moreover, the lightning that Ken had coated had also amplified the paralyzation. 

Essentially, both of them were left injured by what they had done to each other. 

Ken was the first to stand up. 

He hadn't completely recovered from the blow, but his injury was slowly beginning to recover. The same couldn't necessarily be said for the elderly.

"It's time to end this, old man," Ken remarked as lightning surged from his hand before forming a hand blade of sorts.

The elder struggled for a bit, but he also managed to get up from the ground as well. He staggered when he managed to fully stand.

"I suppose you're right; I don't think that this old body of mine can manage to hold on any longer."

Again, they stood opposite each other as they prepared for a final clash. 

Ken channeled as much lightning and haki to his fist as he could. Meanwhile, the elder had coated his fist with Armament Haki before covering it with a dense amount of Ryuo. The elder slowly began to bend his knees as he took a fighting stance.

The tension was palpable in the air as they both waited for the other to attack. 

A small pebble from a nearby cell wall broke off and fell to the ground.

At that moment, they both promptly disappeared from where they stood and reappeared right in the center. 

Ken had lowered his center of gravity and twisted his hips. He had already set his sights on taking the elder's heart. 

Meanwhile, the elder had maintained his fighting stance and was aiming to blow Ken's head clean off his neck. 

although the two met each other at breakneck speed, it was obvious who would be faster. 

Ken had managed to dodge the punch that had been aimed at his face. Had he been anymore slower, the outcome of the battle wouldn't have rested in his favor, and on the other hand, the elder had already seen that his attack wasn't going to land. So, the most that he could have done at that moment was to watch with his eyes how Ken would end the battle.

Ken swiftly maneuvered his body and inched closer towards the elder's chest. Ken's eyes flashed ruthlessly as he plunged his hand right through the elder. The elder tried to cover his chest with Armament Haki to reduce the force of the attack, but he was still too late.

The elder shrieked as pain sparked right from his chest. Blood gushed out of him like a waterfall as he fell to his knees and tried his hardest to remove Ken's fist from his chest. However, Ken's fist wouldn't budge. Instead, Ken sank his fist even deeper into the elder's chest. 

Eventually, he pulled his fist out. However, the elder had already passed by the time Ken did. The elder's body could do nothing but slump over and fall to the ground immediately after. 

On the other hand, Ken staggered back onto his feet and made his way back to where Ginny and Isaac were. His head was still reeling from the elbow that the elder had given him earlier.

Ginny, who Isaac had managed to get right next to, looked at Ken with mild concern. Although Ken didn't appear to have any concerning injuries, the blatant stagger he had while he walked warranted reasonable worry.

"You need to rest. You don't look too good," Ginny remarked.

"I'll be fine; I just need to take a breather, that's all," Ken replied.

"What happened to him?" Isaac asked anxiously.

"He's dead. We should head out before others like him decide to pay us a visit," Ken replied.

Ken moved to Ginny before picking her up princess-style. She winced in pain as she tried to position her injured foot to ease the pressure that suddenly afflicted her leg. 

"Isaac, we're leaving Mariejois; you should head back home. You'll be safe," Ken stated.

Just as he said so, screams erupted from above. 

"What is that...?" Isaac asked nervously as he shuffled himself a little bit closer to Ken.

"Dragon probably released a bunch of slaves, and they're probably inciting a riot. You might want to stick close to me for now; they might decide to take their anger out on you," Ken replied.

Together, they both quietly stepped out of the dungeon within the Manmeyer Manor. When they got out of the manor, a small group of slaves raced towards them. Isaac flinched and immediately hid behind Ken while Ken looked at them with an exhausted expression.

"You there! Where are you coming from?!" One of the slaves, a double-jointed human, pointed at them and asked.

"The dungeon, one of the elders belonging to the Manmeyer family, is inside there. So, if you're going to free the rest of the slaves, be quick about it," Ken replied.

The group of slaves looked at them for a while before they slowly began to move inside the mansion. However, the same double-jointed human approaching them noticed Isaac's apparel.

"Wait! Is that a World Noble?! What the hell are you doing moving around with those bastards!" The double-jointed human asked angrily.

The group of slaves immediately turned to look at Isaac. They were about to say something, but when they turned to face Ken. Thoughts about what they were going to do to the trio immediately froze.

"The kid's with me. Is there a problem with that?" Ken asked coldly.

"Hell yeah! You're colluding with our slavers! If you have any sympathy, you ought to..." The double-jointed human didn't even have the chance to reply before a bit of lightning raced from Ken's body and zapped the double-jointed human's brain.

The double-jointed human immediately collapsed and twitched a bit. The rest of the group wisely decided to venture into the manor without doing anything else; they even left the double-jointed human where he lay.

With that, the trio turned around and moved away from the manor.