Zoro VS Erza

Zoro VS Erza is the 70th episode of DEATH BATTLE!, featuring anime sword-slashers, Roronoa Zoro from One Piece and Erza Scarlet from Fairy Tail. Zoro was voiced by Kaiji Tang and Erza was voiced by Katelyn Barr.

Description
''It's pirate versus mage in this duel of anime blades! They hope to be the best of the best, and this battle will prove it!''

Interlude
Boomstick: Past, present, or future, one kind of fighter has stood the test of time: the swordsman.

Wiz: And today's combatants are two of the most skilled warriors to ever wield a blade.

Boomstick: Roronoa Zoro, the feared swordsman of the Straw Hat Pirates.

Wiz: And Erza Scarlet, the battle mage of the Fairy Tail guild.

Boomstick: He's Wiz and I'm Boomstick.

Wiz: And it's our job to analyze their weapons, armor, and skills to find out who would win a Death Battle.

Roronoa Zoro
(*Cues: Gomu Gomu vs Goe Goe - One Piece*)

Wiz: As a child, Roronoa Zoro dreamed of becoming the greatest swordsman in the world.

Boomstick: But he didn't just enroll at a dojo, he showed up, challenged everyone, and then just sort of stuck around.

Wiz: Zoro's dojo training sharpened his natural talent with a sword, but there was one person he could never quite manage to beat, his sensei's daughter, Kuina. They dueled A LOT, and Kuina won every single matchup. All 2,001 of them.

Boomstick: Damn, you'd think he would've gotten at least one in!

Wiz: Despite the constant defeat, Kuina and Zoro were very close friends. Together, they promised that some day, one of them would become the world's best swordsman.

Boomstick: And then she fell down some stairs and died, which just seems like an unacceptable way for a master swordsman to bite the dust.

Wiz: Does thin out the competition for world's best swordsman, though.

'''Boomstick: True. I mean, that's how I became the world's best shotgun woodcarver!'''

Wiz: After Kuina's death, Zoro inherited her sword, and used it to hone his skills even further, eventually leaving the dojo in search of the current titleholder of "World's Greatest Swordsman", Dracule Mihawk.

'''Boomstick: But, he immediately got himself lost. With nothing better to do, he became a bounty hunter and wandered around the ocean, until he ran into a weird, stretchy, pirate kid.'''

Wiz: You mean Monkey D. Luffy, who brought Zoro onto his crew of Straw Hat Pirates.

'''Boomstick: Actually worked out pretty well, since Luffy was already looking to hire him anyway. Turns out, Zoro has quite a reputation.'''

Wiz: At this point, he was already a master swordsman, and after finding and training under Mihawk, his swordsmanship became legendary.

Boomstick: He created his own fighting style, Santoryu, also called "Three Sword Style", because he uses THREE swords, one in each hand, and one in his friggin mouth!

Wiz: That doesn't seem very safe...

Boomstick: Ah, shut up, Wiz, badasses don't care about safety!

Wiz: Regardless, with the Three Sword Style, Zoro can perform several unique attacks, including the Oni Giri, where he strikes with all three blades at once.

Boomstick: Or the Tatsu Maki, where he makes a tornado dragon!

Wiz: By swinging his swords a certain way, he can fire compressed air projectiles at an opponent, like with his strongest technique, the 1080 Pound Cannon. And, last but not least, he knows the Kyutoryu Nine-Sword Style.

'''Boomstick: Wait, did he just grow four more arms and two more heads? How the hell'd he do that??'''

Wiz: It's just an illusion, but, it still somehow has physical presence.

Boomstick: He's like a human Slap-Chop, with a total of nine swords!

Wiz: That's... one way to put it. In addition to his skills with a blade, Zoro is able to use Haki, a mysterious power which every living thing possesses, but only a select few have learned how to use.

Boomstick: Haki, much like Neopolitan ice cream, comes in three flavors, and Zoro only has access to chocolate and vanilla.

Wiz: Chocolate... I... what? I... I don't even... well, one of those... flavors... is Observation Haki.

Boomstick: That's vanilla!

Wiz: Of course... which in some ways is similar to Spider-Man's spidey-sense. Zoro can sense the location of other people, even if they're invisible or far away, and can also predict most opponents' attacks.

'''Boomstick: Then chocolate, everyone's favorite Haki flavor, is Armament Haki. This lets him form an invisible armor around himself as protection, or harden his swords to make his strikes cut through almost anything.'''

Wiz: With both Haki, Zoro has been a real asset to the Straw Hat Pirates. They've traveled the world and gone on a lot of... weird adventures.

Boomstick: Like the time that Zoro fought a literal living mountain man named Pica, and sliced him clean in half!

Wiz: A strike so powerful it didn't just cut through Pica, it his top half flying upward! Considering Pica's enormous size and approximate mass, this strike had to have been more powerful than the first ever deployed hydrogen bomb: the 11-Megaton Castle Romeo.

'''Boomstick: Also, Zoro's pretty damn fast. One time, he moved so quickly that he seemed invisible to a room of highly-trained assassins. And when the odds are against him, he'll keep pushing himself, even past the point of bleeding out.'''

Wiz: Thus, he's powered through some incredibly tense pain. Such as...

[Zoro gets a taste of Luffy's pain and spasms wildly]

'''Boomstick: HOLY SHIT!! How the hell is he still standing after that??'''

Wiz: That's a good question. After a battle with Kuma, a bear man- because this is One Piece- Zoro took on not only his own pain of near-death, but also Luffy's, despite being told that doing so would surely kill him. But it just... didn't.

'''Boomstick: He doesn't even brag about it. What a badass.'''

Wiz: Zoro is certainly the stoic, badass type, but he can't do everything. He's a sword fighter above all, and prefers to fight up close and personal.

'''Boomstick: He also has the world's shittiest sense of direction. He gets lost without someone there literally reading the map for him, and could never survive on his own without his friends.'''

Wiz: You might think that Zoro might be the "Lone Wolf" type of guy, but no: Much like how Kuina's death spurred him on to become a great swordsman, it's his friends who keep him fighting.

Zoro: I set sail for only one reason: to meet you!

Mihawk: And what is your goal?

Zoro: To beat you!

Erza Scarlet
(Cues: Main Theme (2014) - Fairy Tail )

Wiz: Erza Scarlet grew up in a small, rural town called Rosemary Village. It was pretty picturesque, as far as childhoods go.

'''Boomtick: Hold on, Wiz, I'm getting a premonition. Despite everything seeming perfect, something...something terrible happens.'''

Wiz: A murderous cult attacked, destroyed the city, and enslaved the children to build a tower to resurrect their evil overlord.

Boomstick: There it is.

Wiz: Young Erza was tortured, and while she may have lost an eye in the process, she also gained a friend, Jellal Fernandes. He actually gave Erza her last name, Scarlet, after her red hair.

Boomtick: She and her buddy swore they'd escape, so Erza ended up staging a revolt, and saved the other slaves, thanks to discovering her latent magical powers.

Wiz: Unfortunately, not everyone made it out.

Boomstick: Turns out, Jellal got possessed by some spirit that made him a huge dick, and she had to go without him.

Wiz: After that nightmare, Erza swore to dedicate her life to helping and protecting the innocent, and so joined the Fairy Tail Magician's Guild. Luckily for them, she possessed a great skill set for a mage.

Boomstick: Her main thing is requip magic, which is basically like having an armory with you at all times, without having to lug it around.

Wiz: Requip magic allows Erza to summon her vast array of weapons and armor at will, meaning she can use multiple combinations of swords, lances, and outfits, all in one fight, without ever really slowing down.

Boomstick: Damn, that'd be useful for all my weapons, how many is she packin'?

Wiz: She's rumored to have access to as many as a hundred sets of armor and two hundred weapons.

'''Boomstick: Nice! As far as armor goes, her go-to is the standard Heart Kreuz set, but there's also the Heaven's Wheel armor, where she can send swords flying at people, the spiky, defensive Adamantine armor, and the Black Wing and Flame Empress armors, which have wings, for...flying!'''

Wiz: Don't forget her Giant armor, which she uses with a lance, Purgatory armor, which has a lot of spikes, and, uh...Seduction armor? I'm not really sure what purpose this serves...

'''Boomstick: Probably to make enemies terribly aroused, ever tried to fight with an erection, Wiz? (chuckling) Believe me, it's not easy.'''

Wiz: Right...well, Erza claims her most powerful armor is the Armadura Fairy armor, which is very...pink.

Boomstick: These are fancy and all, but sometimes, she doesn't even bother suiting up, if her back's against the wall, Erza equips her Clear Heart clothing, this enhances her speed and attack over defense, and channels all her magical energy into her katanas, for a decisive blow.

Wiz: She can charge magic through her swords to perform all sorts of magical attacks, even mixing and matching weapons and armors to better her chances in a fight.

'''Boomstick: She's also just really good at sword-fighting. Actually, she's really good with a lot of weapons, including hand-to-hand.'''

Wiz: All of this makes Erza an excellent addition to the Fairy Tail guild, she quickly became one of its highest ranking mages, and was the youngest member to ever pass the S-Class Mage Promotion Test, an incredibly difficult gauntlet only the strongest and wisest of warriors can even attempt.

'''Boomstick: Speaking of achievements, she's pretty friggin' strong. Don't believe me? Well, here she is, lancing a hole through a giant, floating cube.'''

Wiz: This cube was about a hundred million cubic miles in volume, to punch through it, Erza's lance must have dealt about sixteen kilotons of force.

Boomstick: Erza's also fast enough to deflect bullets, point-blank, from a flintlock pistol, guns with a muzzle velocity of about 540 miles per hour, and that's without a speed boost from her armor.

Wiz: Right, many of her armor sets grant her stat boosts, increasing her speed, magic, defense, etc. She's survived plenty of destructive blasts, including one that blew up an island. Considering that island's size, that's an explosion equivalent to two kilotons of TNT.

'''Boomstick: So, she's sexy, can survive island busting attacks, and has a shit-ton of weapons? She's basically perfect, just wish she used a gun or two.'''

Wiz: Well, she may have a vast armory, but swapping them in and out requires magic, and she can run her supply down, if she's not careful.

Boomstick: So, it's just like a mana bar in those fantasy games you always play.

Wiz: Exactly, ahem, though, even when she's out of magic, she's still quite deadly in hand-to-hand, like when she fought her alternate self from another parallel universe.

Boomstick: That universe has a lot less clothing, sign me up!

Wiz: But when your among the best in the guild, you get the job done, no matter the limits.

Erza: I will withstand any physical pain, to protect the ones that I love!

Death Battle
KO!

Zoro arrives at the shipyard as Erza's two halves lie on the ground, surrounded by her swords.

Results
'''Boomstick: Jesus! Talk about a killing blow!'''

Wiz: In the past, Erza could react to projectiles flying over five hundred miles per hour, but Zoro can move faster than the eye can see. U.S. Air Force tests have shown that a well trained human eye can consistently spot and recognize an image in one 220th of a second, so in this case, Zoro would've had to move from point A to point B, which is about 57 feet, in 4.5 miliseconds, that's close to 9,000 miles per hour.

Boomstick: That's more than five times faster than a bullet, Erza didn't really rely on speed anyway, and there's no evidence any of her armor magic could've helped close that wide of a gap.

Wiz: Speaking of her armor, Erza did have more options in defense and weaponry, unfortunately for her, she was simply outclassed in damage dealt.

Boomstick: Erza could withstand hits of about two kilotons, like the blast which destroyed that island, but Zoro has dished out much stronger blows than that.

Wiz: Slicing Pica in half, for example, was equivalent to 11.5 megatons, that's about 6,000 times bigger than anything Erza's survived, and while Erza's artificial eye may have seen through Zoro's nine sword style illusion, it couldn't prevent him from actually attacking her.

'''Boomstick: She also has that habit of stripping down to Clear Heart clothing in a bind. Yeah, it gave her more sword power, but at the cost of less defense. This sounded like a good idea on paper, but close-range combat was Zoro's bread and butter.'''

Wiz: Erza was mostly self taught, and while proficient with a blade, Zoro has trained with swords all his life, even with the greatest swordsman in the world, an up close duel was exactly what he was looking for.

Boomstick: Yeah, she won't be getting a fairy tail ending.

Wiz: The winner is Roronoa Zoro.

Trivia

 * The connection between Zoro and Erza is that both are powerful swordsmen who came from widely popular manga/anime series that revolve around the theme of friendship and adventure, and are known for their monstrous strength and durability.
 * This is the first Death Battle to feature a One Piece character and a Fairy Tail character.
 * This fight is likely being done to celebrate Roronoa Zoro's birthday, which is November 11th.
 * This is the first Death Battle to feature an anime character battling another anime character.
 * This is the first Death Battle of Season 3 to feature an anime character.
 * This is the first Death Battle where a character from a Shueisha publication (Zoro) has fought a character from a Kodansha publication (Erza, the latter's first representative in the series). Due to the fact that these are the two biggest manga publishers in Japan and they are in competition with each other, this Death Battle is in a similar vein to the Marvel vs. DC Death Battles.
 * This is the third Death Battle to have a male character beat a female character. First being Yoshi VS Riptor and second being Dante VS Bayonetta