Light raised his pitch-black saber with his right hand, the blade held parallel to the ground.
With a smooth, annoyed sigh, Light swung his saber in a sharp, horizontal arc.
SLASH!
He matched Mihawk's intent. No Haki. Just pure, flawless Weapon Arts.
"Ittoryu: Shinkuu (One-Sword Style: Vacuum)."
WHOOOSH!
A colossal, massive crescent of compressed vacuum erupted from Light's dark blade. It was nearly identical in size and sheer destructive presence to Mihawk's attack, screaming across the ice horizontally, hovering just inches above the frozen bay.
Mihawk's vertical slash, Light's horizontal slash.
The two apex displays of swordsmanship collided in the exact dead center of the plaza.
BAM!
The vertical slash met the horizontal slash, forming a stalemate energy in the middle of the warzone. The sheer force of the two strikes attempting to bypass one another created an area of no-stepping around a radius. The thick ice beneath the collision point instantly vaporized, sending a geyser of ocean water shooting hundreds of feet into the air.
BNNNNNNNNN!
For three agonizing seconds, the massive cross of energy hung suspended, grinding and screeching as the two absolute forces cancelled each other out with the peak of swordsmanship.
SHUWAHHHH!
Then, the energy violently dispersed, sending a shockwave that threw Vice Admirals and New World captains onto their backs.
"That was... "
"He- his swordsmanship!"
The battlefield fell into a stunned, absolute silence.
Zoro's jaw literally dropped. The green-haired swordsman stared at the vaporized crater, his mind struggling to comprehend what he had just witnessed.
"That guy... Light... he matched it," Zoro whispered hoarsely, staring at Light Yagami's back.
"A horizontal cut to cancel the vertical... with equal force. How?!"
From a high, jagged mast of a frozen pirate ship, Donquixote Doflamingo watched the terrifying exchange. The Heavenly Demon let out a sharp, nervous laugh, a heavy bead of sweat rolling down his forehead behind his pink sunglasses.
"Fuffuffuffu... Cancelling Hawk-Eye's slash?" Doflamingo muttered to himself, his fingers twitching compulsively.
Remembering his previous verbal clash with False Deity. He chose to stay a bit away. He would see if he could lull the False Deity to sneak attack and kill him later!
Or, it would be best if Light died fighting Mihawk. Either way...
"Ah... I think I'll go play somewhere else. The weather over there is far too dangerous for my tastes. Fufffufufufu!"
Without another word, Doflamingo shot his strings into the clouds and swung violently in the opposite direction.
Dracule Mihawk stood perfectly still, his golden eyes wide with a profound, electrifying thrill. The False Deity hadn't just deflected his test; he had answered it in the exact same language!
"Wonderful."
"Truly wonderful."
Mihawk didn't hesitate. He effortlessly hopped off the raised ice pillar he had been standing on, landing softly on the flat ice below.
STEP.
STEP.
"Then..." He slowly raised Yoru, holding it at his side, and began to walk deliberately across the battlefield toward Light.
"Ha..."
Across the plaza, Light Yagami let out an irritated breath. He lowered his saber and turned his entire body to face the approaching Warlord.
The False Deity and the World's Strongest Swordsman locked eyes across the smoking crater they had just created.
STEP.
STEP.
Light began to walk slowly forward.
The surrounding pirates and Marines, recovering from the shockwave, saw the False Deity moving and foolishly assumed he was distracted.
Slash!
"He's open! Get him!" a pirate yelled, swinging a heavy battleaxe toward Light's blind spot.
Light didn't even turn his head. He didn't break eye contact with Mihawk for a microsecond.
With a casual, fluid motion, Light swung his saber behind him. The blade cleanly decapitated the pirate, sending the head rolling across the ice.
BANG!
A Marine sniper, hiding behind a barricade fifty feet away, fired a flintlock directly at Light's temple.
Still staring at Mihawk, Light simply tilted his head two inches to the left. The bullet grazed his hair.
BANG!
In the same smooth motion, Light flicked his wrist. A small slash flew from his armament covered index finger, piercing the sniper's scope and burying itself in the Marine's eye.
Light continued his slow, walk toward the Warlord, his saber casually dispatching any fool who dared to enter his perimeter. His full attention entirely focused on the golden-eyed man approaching him.
'Meddling in my affairs...'
'Hawk Eyed Mihawk.'
'Let's see your soul.'
VNNNN!
As the distance between them closed, Light engaged his empathic Observation Haki, diving deep into the soul of Dracule Mihawk.
The glowing blue system panel materialized over Mihawk's wide-brimmed hat.
[ Name: Dracule Mihawk ]
[ Green: 929 | Red: 9230 ]
Nine thousand, Light thought coldly.
If Light were still operating solely under the rigid, binary rules of his Karma System from a month ago, the math would have been simple. Nine thousand points was well above the execution threshold. Light would have classified the World's Strongest Swordsman as a criminal and immediately attempted to take his head.
But his Level 5 Observation Haki told him an entirely different story.
As Light peered into Mihawk's soul, he didn't find the stench of rot that permeated the rest of the battlefield.
Dracule Mihawk was a profoundly, fundamentally morally neutral entity. He was not power-hungry. He was not oppressive. Unlike the Celestial Dragons, the corrupt Marines, or the vicious Emperors, Mihawk had absolutely no desire to seek control over the world. He didn't exploit the weak. He didn't lead massive, conquering armies. He didn't torture civilians or burn villages for amusement.
The seven thousand points of Bad Karma were simply the accumulation of a lifetime spent fighting and killing other swordsmen, pirates, and Marines who had willingly challenged him in combat. It was a ledger of consensual violence, not malicious oppression.
"Hmmmm..."
Light's dark eyes narrowed slightly.
He made the decision in an instant.
Dracule Mihawk... he can live. The man was not a rot upon the world; he was merely a solitary force of nature pursuing his own peak.
'Still...' Light thought, his grip tightening slightly on the hilt of his black saber as the distance between them shrank to a mere fifty paces.
'To dare to throw a slash at me from afar while I am working...'
Light's jaw clenched, an aura of dark, crushing Conqueror's Haki beginning to leak from his black coat, cracking the ice beneath his boots.
'This guy clearly didn't know what's good for him.'
.
.
.
A/N: Mihawk man mind yo own business! We got things to do in the war! Go away!