Doflamingo's sinister laughter filled the air as his hand and the haki hardened strings whipped downwards at Marcus. Only a few minutes passed since Marcus counter attacked Doflamingo and while he initially caught him off guard. Doflamingo was unfortunately better than Marcus in every way imaginable. Doflamingo's haki was stronger and more refined, his conqueror's haki absolutely crushed Marcus's own while his combat skills were perfect. Even his devil fruit mastery left Marcus speechless because he was positive the man already awakened his fruit.
After Marcus's first attack, where he managed to land the smallest cut on Doflamingo's chest. Doflamingo gave him no other chance to attack as both his hands produced strings that he attacked Marcus with relentlessly. After their first real exchange, Marcus knew he was no match for Doflamingo at all. But he didn't stop attacking because he could feel his conqueror's haki slowly getting stronger. He also knew he couldn't really back down at this point, since Doflamingo was pissed Marcus landed what amounted to a scratch on him.
As Marcus was fighting a losing battle, everyone else watched with different concerns. Baby 5 really wanted to help, but she knew that she was absolutely not a match for the young master. She also couldn't let go of Uta who struggled in her grip constantly, but didn't really seem stronger than her. As for Gab and Limejuice, they calmly drank as they discussed how much Marcus had improved since they last saw him. Rayleigh was also relaxed as Shakky leaned against his air and slowly took a drag from her cigarette.
As Marcus parried another attack, one of the strings slipped passed and sliced a thin line across his arm. Uta, seeing Marcus hurt again, finally turned towards everyone else as she said in an anxious tone, "One of you help him!"
"Don't worry, this is good experience for him." Gab said before he took a long pull from his bottle.
"He's gonna be killed! I order you to save him!"
Limejuice shook his head as he said, "I already told you before, you can't order us around."
Uta teared up as Marcus took another attack from Doflamingo and blood poured out of a new wound on his chest. She turned away from the fight and focused on Rayleigh as she said in a trembling voice, "Grandpa, please save him!"
Rayleigh waved off her comment as he said, "Don't worry, I'm definitely not gonna let that maniac Garp lose his grandson on my door step."
Marcus flashed towards Doflamingo after he successfully slipped through one of his attacks. But as Marcus approached, his observation haki flared in danger and he barely blocked an attack aimed at his head. Doflamingo's malicious smile widened as Marcus was held in place for a moment and another attack came for his unguarded right side. Marcus jumped backwards and with the help from the attack he was blocking was able to escape unscathed.
"Gran-" Uta started to say but was cut off as Rayleigh said, "Don't worry, he won't die."
Uta felt slightly relieved at the words but a second later a string stabbed Marcus in the chest and her concern spiked again. She struggled against Baby 5 again as she said, "Let me go, I need to help him!"
Baby 5's grip tightened a bit as she asked in an anxious tone, "You couldn't help before and you think you can help now? You can't even break free from my grasp and you expect to be useful against someone like the young master?"
Something seemed to click in Uta's head at that statement and she said in a cold tone, "This is all your fault, if you weren't here, Marcus would be perfectly fine right now!"
"My fault?" Baby 5 asked as her grip tightened again and she said in an accusatory tone, "If some stupid little girl didn't provoke the young master, Marcus wouldn't have had to protect her and get into conflict with him."
"I'm not a stupid little girl!" Uta said as she tried to break free from Baby 5 again.
As Baby 5 and Uta started to argue, Marcus was doing everything he could not to be gutted by Doflamingo's attacks. While he was able to block or parry most, about one in twenty still snuck through and they were rapidly depleting Marcus's strength. The longer the fight carried on, the more Marcus noticed this was never a fight to begin with. Doflamingo was completely toying with him from the start and the wounds he accumulated were aimed to inflict as much pain as possible.
It became completely apparent when another attack slipped through his defenses and him that exact same spot again for the sixth time. The attack didn't really cause much damage, but the pain was excruciating and Marcus almost blacked out from it.
Once Marcus figured out what exactly was happening, he gritted his teeth and blocked the next attack as he launched himself backwards. Marcus was flung over a hundred feet away and as he landed he took an attacking stance. As Doflamingo's strings snaked towards him for a new attack, Marcus's whole body tensed up with his sword held on his right side and behind him slightly. A moment later the ground exploded under Marcus and he rocketed towards Doflamingo as he concentrated all of his power into a single strike.
Marcus's armament haki flowed smoothly into his sword along with a tiny wisp of his conqueror's haki that crackled with purple lightning. As Marcus put all of his remaining energy into his attack, his sword whipped forward with incredible speed before a black air blade with tiny bits of purple lightning flashed towards Doflamingo.
Doflamingo's strings that were streaking towards Marcus touched the black air blade and disintegrated. Doflamingo's face contorted into a snarl as he slashed his right hand upwards and roared, "Five color strings!"
Five large prismatic strings shot out from his fingers as they flew towards the incoming attack. The strings flashed black in color as they clashed with Marcus's attack and for a moment even stalled it. A moment later the haki coated strings were sliced through and Doflamingo had less than a second to coat his own body in haki before the attack hit his waist. The attack stalled again for a moment before it sliced clean through his body and finally ran out of power as it disappeared.
Marcus totally spent, dropped to his back as the last attack took everything he had and more. He saw Doflamingo being hit and even watched the top half of his body fall to the ground before he let out a tired sigh. Doflamingo's clone started to laugh before strings shot out from it and reconnected both halves of the body together before the real Doflamingo landed in front of Marcus.
Doflamingo wore a twisted expression as he studied the exhausted Marcus and said, "You're strong… Stronger than some of my family members."
Fuffuffuffuffu
Doflamingo's laughter filled the air as he added, "You have conqueror's haki and even managed to injure my string clone… I'll allow you to marry Baby 5 if you join my family."
Marcus chuckled weakly before he said, "I'd never agree just on the principle that Baby 5 only likes me because of a misunderstanding and her mental hang ups."
Doflamingo stopped laughing and he frowned slightly as Marcus added, "Besides, I have dreams and none of them involve becoming a pirate."
Doflamingo sneered, "A dreamer, how disgusting."
A string shot out of his finger and stabbed deep into Marcus's left shoulder as Doflamingo mockingly said, "You don't wanna be a pirate? Just having a kingly disposition will have you targeted by the marines and the World Government!"
More strings shot out into Marcus and as they slowly drilled into his body Doflamingo asked, "Or are you planning to join the marines like your grandfather and be a good dog?!?"
Marcus clenched his jaw so hard his gums started to bleed as Doflamingo's strings dug deeper into his flesh. As he started to black out from the overwhelming pain he spat out, "Fuck you!"
After Marcus passed out from pain and exhaustion, Doflamingo raised his right hand and said, "Troublesome people like you can be the worst opponent if left to grow properly."
A thick string appeared from his palm as he said, "Good thing I ran into you now."
The string blasted out from his palm towards Marcus's head as Doflamingo said, "Overheat!"
The string turned fiery orange as it shot towards Marcus and at the last moment a haki covered sandal kicked the attack out of the way. The ground for over a hundred yards was split open by a massive gash as Rayleigh's cold voice said, "You've already won, I won't let you kill the boy."
Doflamingo stared down at the smaller man and for a moment he couldn't place him. While he looked like a homeless vagrant, Doflamingo felt an instinctive fear when he locked eyes with the man. It was only after a moment of studying the man's face that a picture he saw almost twenty years ago flashed in his mind and he jumped backwards as his clone rushed in front of him.
Rayleigh didn't follow but bent down to put Marcus's sword away before he picked him up and said, "Damn, you really made a mess of this kid…"
As Rayleigh examined all the deep wounds on Marcus's body, Doflamingo asked in a nervous tone, "What the hell is a pirate like you doing here?"
"Whatever I want… Now leave."
Doflamingo gritted his teeth but knew he wasn't a match for the man in front of him so he turned to Baby 5 and said, "It's time to leave Baby 5, follow me back to the ship."
Baby 5 hesitated as she looked at Marcus in Rayleigh's arms, who was covered in holes over most of his body and a large amount of blood. Doflamingo frowned as he added, "I'm not gonna ask again, get over here!"
Baby 5 finally started to move as Rayleigh almost reached the group, but stopped in front of him as she pulled out a first aid kit from her bag to help Marcus. The veins on Doflamingo's forehead bulged as he watched her start to work on Marcus before he burst into laughter and killing intent flooded from him directed at Baby 5. As his sinister laughter died down Doflamingo asked, "Baby 5 are you choosing to help an outsider over listening to your captain?"
"He's my fiance and I won't leave until he's healed!" Baby 5 said with a hint of fear in her voice.
"You know what happens to people who don't follow the rules…"
Baby 5 started to shake as she tried to clean out one of Marcus's wounds before a string shot out from Doflamingo's hand and flew towards Baby 5. Rayleigh caught the string with his hand as he glanced towards Doflamingo and said, "I told you to leave, punk."
Doflamingo gritted his teeth before he sneered, "If you're not back at the ship within an hour… Consider yourself out of the family Baby 5, we have no need for people who can't follow orders."
Baby 5's head snapped up to look at Doflamingo with tears forming in her eyes as he shot out a string and pulled himself into the air. Baby 5 froze completely as Doflamingo and his clone disappeared from view until Rayleigh said, "Let's get him inside, we need to clean out his wounds properly."
Baby 5's whole body was shaking as she was torn between running after Doflamingo and helping Marcus. As Rayleigh lifted Marcus up, Uta who was also frozen finally burst into tears as she looked at Marcus's ruined body. Rayleigh shook his head at her reaction before he said, "Shakky, go grab your sewing kit and soak the needles in alcohol… It's gonna be a long day."