Astrid was now face-to-face with Ake, who seemed to be a bit more focused on spinning his staff around.
"So, dear girl, are you ready?" Ake asked. "That is ready to die?"
'Like I'm gonna die in a place like this,' said Astrid. 'As much as I would like to tell this guy into the ground, I have to focus on rescuing Heather. I just need to snatch the key from him. Here's hoping that he is just as dumb as the other guy.'
Astrid then gripped her axe tightly. "Before we start brawling, you do actually have the key, right?"
"Let's see," said Ake as he began ferreting around for it. "The key…"
"Yes, go on," said Astrid starting to lose her patience.
"The key…"
"You do have it, right?"
"Yes, the key…"
Astrid was finding it extremely difficult to maintain her cool; she had a keep reminding herself this was for Heather's sake.
"Why the key is right here, of course," he said and then frowned. "Oh, how peculiar, where did it go? I thought that I had it here, or was it here."
'That confirms it; this guy is just as dumb as the other guy,' Astrid groaned.
Ragnar, meanwhile, was still face-to-face with Gunner.
"Is there any particular reason you haven't attacked me yet?" Ragnar asked.
"I may be an assassin, but even I wouldn't shoot a man in the back," said Gunner.
"I thought assassins always like to shoot people in the back?" Ragnar blinked.
"I always rather kill my enemy in front of me, it's a lot more decent, and it certainly confirms whether I kill them or not," said Gunner as he made his way to a table and sat down on the chair. "You should never count someone dead into you see their body right in front of you."
"Something with your colleagues are terrible that it would seem," said Ragnar.
"What do you mean?" Gunner asked curiously.
"Lael and his team failed to kill Iceberg."
"Really?" said Gunner. "Man, those guys must be losing their touch."
"You believe me?" said Ragnar, slightly surprised. "Despite knowing that I am a pirate."
"In my line of work, I discover the pirates are sometimes more honest than us Government types," said Gunner as he pulled out a pair of glasses and then filled them with beer. "Now, you fancy a drink before we tumble?"
"Gonna say this is the first time I've had a drink with an assassin," said Ragnar as he grabbed a glass. He then examined it closely for any poison. "I see you have an ad anything special into it."
"You're impressed me more and more," Gunner smiled. "You can tell from a glance that I haven't poisoned ya drink."
"I am a cook; I can tell from an incident whether something is properly prepared or not," Ragnar explained.
Hiccup had finally made it to Spandam's office and found the place completely deserted.
"Looks like they already moved her," said Hiccup. "And here's me hoping I could catch them before leaving this place. I guess I'm going have to make my way to the Gates of Justice."
Toothless was facing down Silvernose, who was sitting quite calmly in his chair.
"Why don't you save me the trouble of cutting you down," said Toothless. "You have the key or not?"
"Don't be a fool; you may have been a bit of disappointment back of the Galley Law mansion, but I expect to be entertained this time," said Silvernose. "If you pirates could make it this far, then you far more capable than I gave you credit for."
"Got that right, make that mistake again, and you'll be dead," Toothless warned.
"Maybe so; you're like a beast," he said, looking directly at him. "That savage look in your eyes, but I can be pretty beastly myself." He then grabbed a pair of swords that were resting against his chair and then rose out of his seat. "You know, for the record, I'm the strongest swordsman in all of CP9. This won't be easy."
"Two Sword Style?" said Toothless.
Silvernose then immediately spun the sword in midair. The moment they hit the ground, he immediately grasped the handle and then swung his legs directly at Toothless, unleashing a pair of Tempest Kicks. Toothless quickly slashed through the attack with his blades.
"Tempest Kick!" said Silvernose as the bookshelves behind Toothless was slashed to pieces. He then looked directly at Toothless with a smile. "Sorry, I use four swords."
"Well, that's fine by me," said Toothless as he placed Light Fury and his mouth. "Your whole body as a weapon, isn't it? What's the difference?"
He then immediately charged at him at full speed, and then Silvernose vanished, leaving behind only the sheathes of the swords behind. The two of them then clashed at close range, and so far, the two of them appear to be evenly matched.
Toothless then immediately went on the offensive, swinging his blades down upon Silvernose, pushing him back. However, they use a combination of his Shave and Moonwalk techniques to zoom around above Toothless.
Toothless then got ready to swing his blades. "72 Calibre…"
"Tempest Kick White Thunder!" Silvernose yelled, swinging his leg.
"…Phoenix!" Toothless yelled, unleashing his slashing attack.
The two attacks collided in midair and cancelled each other out, but Slivernose's attack created a white dust storm blinding Toothless for a moment. Using this as an opening, Slivernose zoomed down towards the ground with his swords at the ready.
"Shave!" he said, vanishing.
Toothless quickly pointed one of his blades down just in time to block Silvernose's attack. He then swung his other blade directly at him, but he was able to block it before the attack sent him spinning across the floor.
Slivernose looked up just in time to see Toothless charging at him and quickly leaned back, avoiding his blades. He then quickly straightened his back and turned towards Toothless.
"This is fun," Silvernose laughed.
"Yeah, well, I don't have time for fun right now," said Toothless, pointing his sword directly at him.
"Shame, guess you had better kill me quickly then," he said before he vanished.
Toothless looked up and saw that he had planted his sword on the ceiling.
"Tempest Kick Slaughter!" he said, swinging his legs upwards at an unbelievable speed.
This caused several of his slashing attacks to rain down upon Toothless, who quickly blocked them with his blades.
'He's throwing out everything at once,' said Toothless finding it difficult to keep up. 'What is this?'
Finally, the attacks stopped, and Toothless came out unscathed, though he was slightly exhausted. However, the entire study was completely torn to shreds by the attacks.
"Bastard, are you taking this seriously?" Toothless asked.
"Of course, I'm quite impressed," said Slivenose, who was now standing on top of the rubble. "But he said you were in a hurry, didn't you? My new power should speed things up for you."
Toothless watched as he dropped his swords, and he didn't like the sound of this new power he was talking about. He then watched as Silvernose slowly began to transform into something quite large.
"What the hell?" Toothless stared.
Snotlout, meanwhile, was directly below Toothless and was standing in front of a sleeping Jabez.
'This sure wasn't what I was expecting,' he said, looking around the garden.
The entire place seemed rather peaceful there were even birds and butterflies flying around. They even had a small waterfall and a stream running through the centre of the garden.
'A little gardening is nice and all, but this is way overboard,' he said. 'It's like we're outside. Never mind the garden, I got to stay focused on getting the key to Heather's handcuffs. Here we go…'
He then slowly and quietly began making his way towards Jabez, not making a sound.
'Easy does it,' he said, taking one step at a time. 'Just take one small step at a time.'
He then immediately jumped backwards when he saw Jabez moving slightly but then watched as he rolled over, much to his relief.
'That was scary,' he said. 'Let's try this again. Let's do this nice and quietly and then run away quietly. Take the key and leave a hero; no need to fight. That's right, I'm the Masked Wrestler, but today I'm Captain Lucky too.'
It was at that point that a bumblebee began flying in front of him.
'What's that? A bee?' he panicked. 'Go away!' The bee wasn't listening and landed on his nose, and he remained perfectly still. 'My nose is not a flower, you know.'
He then tried to shake the bee off, but it stayed put and then he tried to blow it off. That was a big mistake as the bee then immediately stuck its sting right on his nose. He quickly covered it now as he screamed inside his head.
'My nose! Why?' he said with tears in his eyes dancing around.
Finally calmed down and realised he was right back where he started. 'Damnit, I'm right back where I started! But he still didn't wake up; this guy is seriously out cold. If I can go just a few steps without anything ridiculous happening, I've got this.'
He then slowly began making his way back towards the key, and he was now at arm's length. He slowly began to read out his arm towards the key when suddenly, from out of nowhere, a rooster crossed his path.
'A rooster? Are you kidding me?' Snotlout cried. 'I'm right there; the noisiest bird in the whole stinking world shows up! If he crows, I'm finished. That assassin guy will wake up and wiped the floor with me.'
However, instead of crowing, the rooster chirped.
"Roosters don't chirp! Come on!" Snotlout yelled.
Unfortunately, his yells woke Jabez from his sleep.
"Oh, hey, pirate," he said, looking over his shoulder.
'Curse you rooster!' Snotlout cursed.
"Guess it's time to kick your ass," said Jabez as he picked up the key.
Jabez then struck him with his fist right in the face sending him flying across the room until he finally crashed into the wall.
"He's strong," Snotlout moaned.
Jabez laughed. "Guys say I was expecting a lot more from you, but I guess you all talk and no bite."
Snotlout picked himself up, realising that Jabez hadn't used his full strength. "He just woke up from his nap, and he's already hitting back hard?"
"Sory, pal, that punch was kind of sloppy, not my style," Jabez admitted. "Bet it hurt, though."
He then suddenly began to transform, growing even larger until standing before Snotlout was a wolf standing's hind legs.
"I know I look scary, but I'm no sadist," said Jabez. "I like my fight clean and simple."
"He's got Devil Fruit powers!" Snotlout gasped.
"The Dog-Dog Fruit: Model Wolf," Jabez smiled. "I'll just tear out your windpipe, and that will be that. You're going to die anyway, so no need for you to suffer, right? See simple."
"A wolf," Snotlout gulped and quickly raised his fists.
"Bold on, you sure?" Jabez asked. "You don't look all that tough."
"Don't try to intimidate me; I'm not giving up!" Snotlout yelled as though he was sweating in buckets. "Got it? I came to save Heather, and that's what I'm going to do!"
However, before they could fight, they noticed the ceiling was beginning to crack.
"The ceiling!" Snotlout yelled as it collapsed. "What's going on?"
Then to their bewilderment, they saw falling from the ceiling was Toothless and the giraffe.
"Damn! I will try to use my hybrid form, but I only use my beast form!" the giraffe yelled in Silvernose's voice.
"There's a talking giraffe falling through the ceiling?" Snotlout stared.
Jabez just laughed upon seeing Silvernose. "Your power is so awesome; I love it!"
Toothless then saw Jabez. "A wolf? Is this place some kind of zoo?"
The two of them then crashed on the ground, but Silvernose quickly picked himself up.
"Horse-Horse Fruit: Model Giraffe," Jabez laughed. "Silvernose, you poor bastard. I told you not to eat that fruit, didn't I?"
"And what's so wrong about being a giraffe, huh?" Silvernose snapped. "For your information, I happen to like it okay!"
'That Lael was a leopard guy, wasn't he?' said Toothless as he looked at the two of them. 'That makes three people that transform into animals. Does that mean the rest of CP9 have powers like that too?'
"A wold man is one thing, but now a giraffe man too?" Snotlout stared. "This is insane. How my supposed to deal with two Zoan types? Actually, now that Toothless is here, it's two on two, isn't it?"
"'For your information, I happen to like it,'" Jabez laughed, making Silvernose's voice. "I mean, who could blame you, right? Since giraffes are so cool and all."
"Yeah, they are!" Silvernose snapped, lowering his head towards him. "You got a problem?"
'Do giraffes and walls not get along or something because they shall hate each other?' Snotlout blinked.
It was then that he noticed the open safe out in the corridor. 'What's that? Looks like someone left a safe open.' He then saw inside the safe were handcuffs. 'Wait, are those weird-looking handcuffs think they are?'
Jabez was still sniggering at Silvernose, much to his annoyance.
"That's enough; stop laughing!" Silvernose roared.
"Hey, giraffe!" Toothless yelled, and then the two of them looked directly at him. "Could you shut up? I'm in a hurry. If you zoo animals want to argue, do it on your own time, but if you just want to stand there, your net is an easy target."
"You fool," Silvernose glared. "Don't underestimate the destructive power of giraffes. Behold my hybrid form!"
Silvernose then began to transform once again, standing on his hind legs and his front hooves began transforming into hands. However, for some reason, his body began to become more square-like, including his nose.
"I have been reborn with unspeakable power," said Silvernose, now towering above Toothless.
"Whoa, that is lame," said Toothless.
Silvernose was quite taken aback. Clearly, he had expected a slightly different response. "But I? What? No!"
Jabez just laughed even harder.
'Why did I say something like that?' Toothless groaned. 'I mean, he does look pretty ridiculous, but that's not the point. If I lose my composure, he'll have the advantage.'
Jabez just continued to laugh.
Slivernose glared at him. "Are you just going to sit there and laugh all day or what?"
"Sorry," said Jabez looking at him seriously, but then Slivernose's ears flicked, and he burst out laughing once again. "You're just too funny!"
'Damnit, this is harder than I thought,' said Toothless, not liking his odds. 'Even though results when funny looking.'
Then suddenly, he felt something attaching to his wrist and looked down to see a pair of handcuffs.
"Wait, where do these handcuffs come from?" Toothless stared.
The answer soon came to him as Snotlout was standing at the doorway.
"Oh no," said Snotlout. "Whoops, sorry!"
"What the hell are you trying to pull?" Toothless yelled.
"Well, I was thinking that those are probably the same Sea Prison handcuffs they put on Heather. Our enemies both have Devil Fruit powers, so I thought that if I used them, they would be easy to beat."
"Then why did you put the handcuffs on them instead of me?" Toothless snapped.
"Because I…" Snotlout then began laughing. "…the giraffe guy's face is too funny, my hand slipped. 'I'm not square. I'm cool, right?'"
"That's brilliant!" Jabez laughed.
Silvernose looked even more furious now than before. "You're going to pay for this; you're all going to pay!" He then placed his left hand on the ground. "I'll show you the power of my Devil Fruit, then you'll be sorry." He then began spinning on the one hand and began to increase speed. "Tempest Kick…"
Everyone instantly knew that this attack was going to be big and powerful.
"Oh boy, he's mad now!" Snotlout yelled.
"… Sky Slicer!" Silvernose roared.
He was spinning so fast that he was nothing more than a blur now.
"This isn't good," said Jabez and used Shave to get to safety.
"Snotlout, get down!" Toothless yelled, tackling him to the ground.
Silvernose then unleashed his attack with was a massive shock wave that sliced through all four walls diagonally. The attack hadn't just sliced through the walls of the room. It had sliced through the entire building causing the entire top part of the Tower of Law to slide slightly.