Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece
It's not everyday you get to finish an arc in one day and then take a long hiatus to work on other stories. Thank you everyone.
X_X_X_X
The commanding officer postulated with his hand rubbing his chin while Hulius watched him without blinking or moving a muscle. The officer was trying to act calm when he sent three of his Watchdog's out and none have returned but his skin was glistening perspirations of sweat while he sat. Just before he felt himself completely lose it, the door opened.
"Watchdogs, how many pirates were there-"
It wasn't one of his men or girl that walked in through that door. It was the prisoner they kept for a week with his gleaming face and dark holes swelling on his chest in the bright light of the door.
He strolled in, only going a step at a time over running, trying to get close and confront the commanding officer until Hulius stepped in between him. The two boys stared, Eric breathing heavily and Hulius twitching his fingers ready to fight if he so much as took another step.
The man on his throne stood upright and yelled "Why couldn't you just leave this base and be on your way?! All I want is to find a curse for this virus inside of me so I can go back to turning boys into men through hard work and pain."
Eric inhaled and exhaled trying to speak without making it sound too personal "You took me hostage and tortured me; a pirate. Pirates are the one who take prisoners not the other way around."
The man was completely dumbfounded by this "That's your explanation?"
Eric clenched his right fist and delivered a right hook straight at Hulius! Hulius caught the fist then did an upright leg sweep on both of Eric's legs. Making him tumble to the ground took a lighter momentum than plucking a feather from a bird. He fell hard, blood exploding from his mouth, and he just laid there breathing heavily while Hulius gazed down on him.
"You were a complete imbecile to come here in your current condition. Rest assured that I will not dishonor your valiant efforts by killing you on the ground. I will let you fight until your last breath or until you pass out from exhaustion, then I will execute you myself."
"I appreciate th..." Eric couldn't finish his sentence without almost barfing whatever amount of blood his body still had. Luckily, he managed to hold it in. "sentimentality. But if you think you're getting out of here unscathed...you don't know me."
All of a sudden, an electric discharge escaped Eric's forehead. It blinded Hulius for a flitting second before he opened them to see two horns protruding from his head. They looked like goat horns but facing the other way-appearing pallid over brown.
While the pirate captain was transforming, the commander whisked a blade out of his scabbard and slid it on the marble floor.
"I order you to decapitate him, now!" He shouted.
Hulius glanced at the sword for unconceded second before closing his eyes. "I refuse."
"What?!" He bellowed gutturally. "I am your leader! I order you to kill him with that katana right now!"
"You're no one's leader. I follow the orders of Marine's bigger, stronger, and more honorable than you. You are more like a package I am to take care of before it's delivery. So shut your mouth and let me handle this pirate...my way."
No sooner did he reject the order Eric roared standing up and delivered flurries of sharp air with his five fingers. They were like daggers stabbed at Hulius. Fast but he evaded them like a breeze. Although, he had his own things to worry about while dodging.
'I thought he was on the brink of collapsing but he still has energy to spare. What a strange pirate he is.'
Eric finally stopped his onslaught, reeled his head back, and lunged with a loud roar at the Marine. He looked like he caught him, however, Hulius delivered a left hook to Eric's chin where he sprawled in pain on the ground. Blood dripped from his mouth. Even though not a speck projected on Hulius he studied his hand.
"Didn't take long to see the pattern in your one-note attacks."
He gave his opponent some time to stand on his feet again. He looked weary and out of breath, yet he still leaped at Hulius trying to to scratch him. He was jabbed in the chest by his elbow. He staggered and kneeled down, in pain from the blow.
"Too reckless." He chastised.
Eric was on his feet even if red blood was staining/swelling through his shirt. He launched himself feet first at him only for Hulius to reel back and karate chop him in his back.
"You're fighting with anger. I know a Demon Fruit can give you demonic strength, but if you let the fruit take complete control it will kill you. Just lie down."
The commander was seething in anger when the pirate didn't collapse after another blow. Since Hulius refused to kill him, he pulled a flintlock pistol out of his armrest. He aimed the nuzzle at Eric's chest, but he was spotted before he could shot-first by Hulius than by Eric. Eric shuddered even with his deranged eyes seeing the pistol.
Eric's heart was frigid and his veins were covered in frost. Instead of one man he saw the writhe of a dozen people with their flintlock rifles aimed at him, a gate, children in fear hugging their mothers and aunts, standing over the limp body of a friend he killed with his own hands. This hallucination made him seethe in frothing anger.
Suddenly, a strong discharge came from his chest. In a guttural roar, drake wings sprouted from his back.
Now it was clear to Hulius which Fruit the intruder ate.
"Astaroth."
Before Hulius had time to react, Eric skyrocket off the ground to the ceiling and swooped down coming in from the left then veering before disappearing. The commander searched all over for any signs of Eric, but he could not see him before he appeared before him and raised him by the color. He looked deep in his eyes that were now layers of three different colors. The layer closet to his pupils were black sclera, the middle layer was crimson red and in the center where his irises were was tiny yellow.
"I HATE GUNS!" He growled in a guttural way, the same way a bear roars when up close to a hunter.
"Don't just stand there!" The commander yelled before pleading to his Watchdog. "Get up here and save me."
"I don't have to move up there." He retorted.
From his back a large spider appendage emerged. He stuck the leg back before swinging it downward at Eric! Even though Eric seemed distracted he still dodged the surprise attack.
Eric turned sharply and fluttered off the ground with his wings before sticking his feet to the ceiling. He had a new target for his attacks: the man with his skin peeling away in monstrous fashion. What was once skin of a human turned into blue fur with abs, cuticles turned into long sharp nail-talons, his face extended into a sharp nuzzle while his hair completely puffed out of existence leaving small pointy ears, and his eyes turned into a mix of yellow sclera with blue pupils. He became a werewolf...with a spider leg appendage protruding from the back of his right shoulder.
"AWOOOOO!" He howled. " 't is good to fight the way I am meant to."
With great agility he leaped off the ground and swung his claws at Eric. Eric did a back flip while hovering away from the ceiling and while he was doing a flip he lashed a tail at him made of steel. The tail left a long gash on the beast's left arm but it didn't stop him from plowing into Eric's torso! To continue with his attack he tried opening his mouth to bite his neck.
Eric was restrained but he could still wriggle his neck in time to evade the teeth that almost clenched around his neck. He tried controlling his tail to stab him in the back only for the spindly appendage to squeeze his leg.
"What a grindy little urchin this pirate is." The commander mocked. "Finish him!"
This time being yelled at made his fury grow as he obediently pushed his body into Eric to restrain him and opened his jaw for a bite. Instead of biting his neck the membrane of his wings got in the way as the monstrous body twisted and contorted his body to break free of the monsters grasp.
Once he was free he launched two knees into the beast's torso and did an airborne backflip over the beastman. Now he had to make it to the next wall, gliding limply because the beastman punctured his right wing's membrane.
As for the beastman, he was jumping up with his spider leg keeping him attached to the wall and spinning around with his body to strike his leg into another part of the wall, slowly ascending to the ceiling where he could divebomb Eric.
Both men made it to the positions they wanted to be. Eric was bending his legs on the wall while the beast did the same on the ceiling. Simultaneously, they both launched from their positions at lightning speed, Eric flying up and the beastman falling down. Eric once again tried jabbing his tail into the beasts' sternum only for his leg to act as a guard against him. Once his tail was trapped the only thing he could do was watch haplessly as he was pushed to the ground, the velocity of the fall making a crater in the floor.
Eric was pinned down, thrashing his arms and tails but the force only overexerting strength he barely had. Hulius the monster kept pinning him down but instead of relishing what he was doing he looked disappointed at the position he was in. And while he was in the position he closed his eyes, reopened them as a last ditch effort to grab Hulius, and close them again...his mind starting to fade. While in the purgatory of his mind dying and everything turning dark, he heard a soft woman's voice.
"Eric...I love you."
All it took was that voice, and he was awake and was newly enraged.
Hulius who wouldn't decapitate a man when he was sprawled on the ground raised his spider appendage to strike the demon. The leg almost hit him, but was stopped by an outstretched hand. Suddenly, the veins started to grow bulbous in his arm and his arm was bulging. With his claws clenched on the leg he tore it off, a geyser of purple blood erupting from the torn hole.
This was only the beginning of the carnage. Eric's body catalyzed to a bigger, bulkier form with a thicker neck and a more bloodcurdling roar. He reached his hands out to scratch his claws at the beastman. Unfortunately, Hulius also caught his arms, now they were both squeezing each other with brute strength.
It seemed to be a constant push with their wrestling until Eric fluttered off the ground with Hulius. Both demon and beast still madly inflicted rippling wounds on the other until Eric ended it dropping them off in the same crater he feel from before.
After the magnitude of the fall created a dust cloud the commander coughed from...both Eric and Hulius were seen unconscious on the ground, both in human form.
At first there was absolute silence in the room, not even a stir from either of the men, and then the commander stood off his seat and walced towards Eric, cackling with his flintlock clutched in his right hand.
"That was some hell of a show you did back there. Not many of you vermin pirates have the tenaciousness to defeat one of the Watchdog's especially my top one, but in your feeble position...all I need to do is shoot a bullet between your brain and you'll be dead. Farewell, pirate."
He aimed his pistol to fire right into Eric's head. Just then an unknown figure rushed through the hall, pushed open the door, and when he saw the vulnerable figure of a man pointing a gun at Eric he leapt off the ground and kicked him with both his feet.
While the commander was severely wounded in the face, the figure raised Eric off the ground. He tsked him outright.
"Oh Eric...how brazen can you get?"
The boy was none other than Yukine. As Yukine helped Eric up, the commander cackled at the top of his throat.
"You may've won the battle but we just won the war!" He gleefully exclaimed. "In my body is a contagious, deadly virus that will spread to anyone who touches me. In just a few moments it will fester inside of you.
When your dimwitted vermin comrades come to find you...they'll unknowingly be infected as well. Without the cure or rather touted for stabilizing it for a week...you'll all be dead in five days!"
Yukine approached the Marine reveling in his own ailing health. Yukine made a face he didn't respect him enough to look at at first, but when he did...he saw the oscillating blood red tint only found in an animal who hates a certain kind of human.
"Although being a doctor means it's taboo for me to take anyone's life even someone as curt as you," he said cocking his right fist, "as a pirate it's my job to knockout anyone who is a pitiful piece of trash."
The last thing the commander did before Yukine enacted his fury was wave his hands defensively and tremble, cower, and plea.
"NOOO!"
X_X_X_X
Cain and Elsha ran together to the door at the end of the hall. They sprinted even faster seeing the door in hopes of being able to knock it down. However, the door was opened from the inside; they nearly ran into a wall bolting in.
The room was spacious with two boys and a really old man unconscious on the floor. One of them was Eric and his exhausted state was all but indistinguishable.
"That's funny." Cain stated. "Yukine said he would go on ahead to look for Eric but I don't see him anywhere."
"He must have gone back to Jovo in search of something useful." Said Elisha. "Well he's been a little help let's carry Eric and get out just the three of us."
Grabbing his arms and legs—man legs and woman arms—they dragged him out the door.
Although most of the Marines were defeated and they were no longer in great danger, the two ran trying to drop Eric quickly.
Eventually, they made it through a visible entrance.
Feb 7Greeting them below was Jovo, their behemoth turtle made completely out of sand twinkling dirt awaited them on the bottom. They landed gracefully on the rear and after trying to recompose their balance saw Yukine in his tent, injecting a syringe in his arm.
"Yukine...? What are you doing?" Elsha asked.
He didn't answer so she walked up to him. She noticed his monkey tail swaying out of his rear hole that was out for no reason until the hairs started to stand.
"Don't come too close!" He roared. She flinched hearing how aggressive he was, but her stress eased when he spoke in his normal voice only less grouchy. "I'm sorry; it's just this guy said he had a virus I may've contracted and until I've learned more about it I dont want you come close to me."
She furrowed her eyebrows, "So I guess you won't be helping Eric to his tent. That's fine, just don't expect any dinner from Cain for you tonight."
"So your not making dinner for me because I picked finding a cure for a virus instead of carrying a captain stupid enough to get himself wiped out?"
"Yes!"
"How moronic."
The Triplets watched in silent astonishment as that island not far from their base turned out to be a sentient living turtle golem.
Although the interior decorator and the chef were too astounded by this site to move, breath or think, the doctor rushed to the artillery of cannons and fired a fusillade straight at a rock towering over the golem.
The first cannonball didn't even put a crack in the stone until he fired another cannonball that caused a rockslide from the large crackling. Although the sight of it was astounding, it missed the golem by a landslide—just big rocks falling into the ocean. The other two Marines once stuck watching the golem looked at the doctor now.
"What did you do that for?" The interior decorator snapped. "You could have hit the golem and instead—"
"We all saw what happened; we know what he could have done." The cook interjected. "Seriously, what the F-ing H?"
A smarmy smirk crossed the doctors face for more than five "Red Line's" before he hopped back to his fellow Triplet's.
"I wanted to make fake evidence that we destroyed that pirate ship crushing the crew in a rubble of rocks. If we can make the Marines see that we'll go back to our actual jobs instead of cabin boys and even get promotions. Doesn't that sound 'amazing'?"
He could have just ended in silence letting his fellow Triplets relish the position this would bring them in, instead he let out the weirdest laugh either of the other two have ever heard. It wasn't he snorted a lot laughing or had a repetitive sound come out, it was more his body was frozen and his mouth barely open while a long shrilly sound came out.
"Mehahaha...gahehs...mamemehaha...ehahaehaha!"
The cook was the first to say "That was the most puissant laugh I've ever heard."
X_X_X_X
Only three hours later it was nightfall and Cain finished cooking dinner. He was inside Royo in a room completely made out of rock and some granite yet it still had electricity for his oven, microwave, and even blender. For dinner he made spinach mushroom risotto with chicken meat filled with a little lemon inside small incisions in the meat.
He was alone in the dining room not to mention made too much food for two people who weren't coming. Eric was still unconscious and Yukine was still in his tent experimenting on himself. Fortunately, Elisha walked on...and did she look different in a way that made Cain tongue-tied.
Her bellybutton was exposed wearing a short strap sleeved semi-transparent shirt exposing her whole tummy but not even a glint of her brassiere was show. She wore black shorts cut very close to where her legs started and sewn with fluffy cotton. Also her hair was puffy looking like an afro instead of long and silky.
"Mind if I join you." She said, pulling up a chair and sitting down. Cain just stood in silence trying to unknot his tongue.
"Guess it's just the two of us tonight." She used chopsticks to pick up a chicken and slid it on her plate to cover it with the green sauce of the lettuce.
When she finished she picked it up and ate it in one bite. Her cheeks looked like sunshine's with a tint of pink under her eyes as she opened her mouth to smile.
"Yummy. What did you use for the vegetables?"
"Ceaser. Once I used five teaspoons of it I melted it into the salad. I cooked the mushrooms separately with a few strands of rice on top. I wanted to slather the chicken with yogurt...but thought herbs would be better. I'll save the yogurt for a leg of a cow or a horse."
She wasn't listening anymore; nearly ate her whole plate by the time he finished explaining. With that, he used his chopsticks to dig in.