The Drugged Power

The Most Destructive Man in the Prison

Enma's head was forced back as another painfully fast attack came sweeping in. The time limit still wasn't up, Enma had to keep doing checks to make sure he hadn't just missed it. It seemed like an eternity since he had taken his drug. An eternity and several scars ago. His entire body was beaten up and torn ragged, several of his opponent's attacks had made their mark, slicing through his skin and then quickly finding their way even to his bones. Blood was basically freely flowing from his open wounds now. He tried to stay standing, but his opponent wasn't in a very kind mood. Akihito charged in, bringing his trident around and making a quick thrust for Enma's head. Enma batted it aside and stumbled away, however, Akihito swung his trident around his head, and brought the back end smashing into Enma's gut. Enma stumbled back, trying to remain focused. The distance was still too great. His opponent wasn't ever going to slip-up, so that meant Enma would have to step-up. Enma produced his bone spear once more. Waiting around and dodging wasn't the way of a pirate. He would charge in and met his opponent head-on, regardless of range or power.

"Finally, going to stop running away?" Akihito smiled as he brought his trident back and readied another thrust, "good then…cause I'm going to stop going easy on you then!" Akihito brought his arm down on the trident causing it vibrate like before, except this time he pivoted his foot forward and sent numerous powerful thrusts forward. Due to the wild vibrations of the trident each thrust seemed to be coming in from a different angle, be it down, up, left or right Enma had to avoid all of them. It seemed like the man was truly going easy on him though. If he had done this from the start, the Longarm may just be the only one standing now. The vibrations added not only versatility to his attacks, but also speed and power. And Enma would have to overcome it all. Enma swung in blocking the first strike with his spear, ramming it right up in between the top and middle prong and then swinging his spear to the side to knock it away, but Akihito minimized the damage, drawing the trident in as well as matching the knock-away with his own hands to maintain control over the weapon. With that he had already shown off his far superior skills to Enma. He stepped in again, choosing not to waste a single moment. His thrusts came in again in a similar shotgun like fashion. There was no method to this madness, the shots came in at any angle possible, it was an attack that was impossible to read. However, nonetheless Enma had to go forward. If he went back he would be trapped again at the outer reaches of Akihito's range! He needed to push forward!

"Bone Needles!" Small and thin bones grew from Enma's hands and he quickly tossed them in at Akihito trying to cause a slight opening to make itself evident, but in terms of attack as well as defense Akihito seemed perfect. He swung around, using the speed from his vibration to draw his trident inwards and quickly flicking it around to knock the weapon aside with insane strength and ability. Of course, Enma wasn't done yet! "Bone Spike!" Enma slammed his hands on the ground and created a massive yard of deadly bones jutting out of the ground all of them shooting towards Akihito. Akihito smiled, finally things were starting to get exciting. He might actually get more pumped up from this! Akihito jumped, slamming his trident into the ground and lifting himself up and into the air and out of Enma's range for awhile at least. Akihito was actually coming straight for him. He had taken to the air rather than the ground, but Akihito was basically pole-vaulting his way towards the pirate. The guard yanked is trident free from the ground and circled around aiming downwards and unleashing another medley of high-speed downwards thrust, this time, however, his full-body weight was behind each and every one. They came down like hail, Enma swerved, desperate to avoid each strike, but they were too closely interwoven, each attack seemed to come in rapid-fire succession with less than a second in-between them. Enma brought his arms up and created another ivory shield, but the fact of the matter was the speed and power behind each thrust gave it great penetrating power. The shield did little to shield him, the attacks ate away at it until one finally broke straight through, piercing the shield and Enma's shoulder in one fell swoop. Enma let out a cry as he stumbled back, but the cry went unheard by his opponent who was already pulling back on his trident readying another high-speed blow without any remorse showing through on his face. The attack came down, shooting like lightning towards its target. Enma stared blankly at the incoming weapon, did he dare to create another shield just to have it shattered? He needed to stop that attack, his normal weapons and tactics seemed to have no effect on it. He would have to go for it then. He could feel it finally. A sort of unbridled excitement. A fighter's high. Back away now, try to hide behind his shield both of them seemed like useless options to him all of a sudden. He'd just do what Mikoto did…and lay his life on the line. He produced his bone spear and angled it upwards. The attacks should've clashed, but it was already obvious that a difference was forming in between them. The tip of Enma's spear shifted it was no longer a solid cut-creating point, it was a mess, a big ball of goo. His drug had kicked in.

Akihito's trident bull-dozed into the goo and was immediately swallowed up. Enma used the bone goo to change the path of the thrust, slowly pulling it to the side, making sure it would never land like Akihito had intended it. The path of his downwards thrust had sifted, turning what was probably going to be the killing blow into a horrible miss. Enma pulled back on his spear, yanking Akihito further down. Enma tightened his right fist and felt his liquid bone slowly give it a solid coating. He would lean in and go for it. He would hit him and this would be the end of things! Enma would win this match here and now! Enma's fist rocketed forward, all of his power was behind the blow and Akihito's face twisted into something else as he realized he had no way out of it. He was already coming down on top of Enma and his trident was tied up there was no last-minute technique that could save him now!

At least not from Akihito.

Enma was suddenly thrown way off balance and sent flying into one of the walls. Enma looked down at his latest attacker, expecting another guard, but it wasn't…it was a root? Even Enma a pirate on the Grand Line couldn't figure out a proper explanation for this. Roots didn't just attack people. He suppose they had trees here on the floor below, but this just seemed insane. "T-Taisho?" quivered Akihito as he struggled back onto his feet and stared down the hallway. The quiet and somber footsteps of a man approaching could heard as a dull echo came bouncing through the room.

"I'm here for the sole reason of detaining this prisoner," said Taisho, barely giving Akihito a glance as he closed the distance between him and Enma. "You are one of those Infinity Pirates, right? We originally mistook you for the captain and locked you up in solitary as punishment. I apologize for our brashness, however, I must warn you due to the fact that you broke out and started up another prison riot…your last set-up will look like a walk in the park compared to your new one, captain or not." Enma took a step back…what was with this feeling? It wasn't natural, but it felt like he was beginning to suffocate under this pressure. Just by simply looking at this man you could tell he was a man of the highest authority anywhere. Authority capable of matching the Admirals within these walls that is the power of a Warden.

None the matter, Enma realized he was a pirate. He would've taken down one guard if he hadn't interfered so he'd just get to work on another. No problem.

(-With Maria-)

"What the bloody hell is going on!" shouted Maria as she jumped backwards, trying to avoid another powerful swing that cut through the air as the prison guard closed in. She let a single punch fly like an arrow crushing the man's skull with a swift counter. "Why does it seem like all of the prison guards are coming for us!" she shouted turning around to face her 'partner', Aaron, for just a brief second before slugging another man's skull in. "This fight is taking too long!" Maria viciously planted her foot into the ground and rotated all the way around, moving from opponent to opponent, not wasting a moment in between them. Each heavy-handed slam from her fist sent another opponent flying. She moved through the mess like a gladiator, stepping over the bodies of her vanquished foes time and time again to get to the next one, living a trail of blood in her wake. Of course, for her 'partner' her demonic war path didn't seem too distracting as a matter of fact unlike before when he had been completely caught up in her looks, he seemed to be focusing on his own battles more than her.

"It seems like we knock one down and another two or three come," complained Aaron, "they got numbers on their side, but they still seem-" Aaron swung his entire body around, committing himself to a near tornado-like presence, before embedding his fist into one of the men's skulls, "-so weak. Do you think this might be a game plan of theirs or something? Like act weak where we get cocky and then trip us up with a tough opponent."

"I don't think they know of this plan then," explained Maria, weaving inwards, taking several quick steps before transferring her momentum into a twisting punch, blowing away another man's gut. She had to admit these guys did seem awfully weak almost as if they didn't have any formal training, could these guys be the new recruits or something? Or was there another plan going down here? "I don't think these guys would agree to be cannon-fodder that easily."

"Yeah, I wouldn't like to get shot out of a cannon either," Aaron said nodding as his legs seemed to move independent of his body and knock another man's head around with a startlingly fast roundhouse kick. "It doesn't seem like all that much fun."

"Do you only do things because they are fun?" asked Maria, as she easily took out another prison guard's skull with her lightning fast kick to the side of their head before gliding in lower and then launching an uppercut against another one, keeping up a quick left-to-right combination without stopping, despite having a conversation with someone.

"Of course, why do you think I'm here in the first place?" questioned Aaron as he launched another punch.

"Invading a prison sounded fun to you?" growled Maria.

"Yup, why it didn't sound fun to you?"

Open the gates. The voice seemed to come from nowhere almost as if it wasn't even from the Den-Den Mushi intercom system. It was just that his voice carried all the way through this prison with a twisted, yet obviously competent voice. He sounded as if he believed without a doubt that no one could touch him. As if his strategy was incomparable to any others. That was his goal…and it was delicious. The Zenith Gaol's final strategy…a technique only to be used in dire circumstances. Combined with lowering the second floor this technique was one of the deadliest strategies ever put to use in history.

Two gigantic steel slates on both sides of the second floor were slowly lifted up, revealing a sunny, cloudy world that nobody would've believed would be a last ditch strategy until the thunderous roar broke free. Two monsters had appeared at the gate, their mouths dripping with wet anticipation. One was a monstrous bird with razor-sharp fangs lining its beak. The other was more akin to a snake, wet, slippery, disastrous and ready to swallow its next victim whole. The monsters set through the mess in search of their next meal. However, for the bird it was only a short walk.

It cocked its head to the side as it found its victims, the smell of blood unmistakably wafting from its teeth, it had obviously eaten people before and it liked the taste. It lifted its large wings into the air and let loose a monstrous cry as it held its mouth open, ready for dinner. "Great…we get to be eaten," muttered Maria as she threw up her guard. Was this their battle plan? Sending a crazed monster into the prison? Did they forget they were in here, too? The monster was just as liable to eat them! It wasn't a battle plan it was suicide. Maria jumped back and signaled for Aaron to follow her, they both moved back and looked upwards at the beast. Between them rested the numerous prison guards they had beaten. It seemed horrible, ugly, and downright evil, but it was better a bunch of passed out losers than them. The monster stretched forward a bit, letting its legs glide forward, taking careful steps before stopping at the pile of guards. The bird's head dropped to the same level as the guards and took a careful whiff as if testing the freshness. Maria almost felt sorry for them…however, not half as sorry as she felt herself in the next minute. The bird lifted its head apparently unsatisfied with the offering and crowed loudly. The beast charged over setting its eyes on her and Aaron. Maria and Aaron quickly turned around and ran away, trying to outrun the colossal beast. "I just don't understand? What is wrong with the Marines?"

Another trick. They didn't let these beasts in to feed on them the beasts were allowed in to feed on the pirates and the prisoners…the Marines weren't idiots. They had conditioned these beasts years and years of training. They tossed piles of garbage out again and again laced with a sweet smelling, yet stomach-sickening ingredient. The beasts would be idiots and gobble it up for awhile…until it came to pass. The sweet small was memorized by every beast that hung around this prison as an awful poison. They would never attack anything with that smell…which meant to avoid being eaten around here you just needed to coat yourself in that stench. However, how would outsiders and pirates now about this trick anyways? They wouldn't…they would be eaten before sunrise. The man who had unleashed this strategy was kicking it back in his office watching the scenes unfold. Ordinarily he wouldn't mind being on the same level as everyone else, fighting it out, however, he didn't much care to get his hands dirty just yet. He was the prison's secret weapon, after all. His goal was the same as everybody else's a prison with a perfect escape record…if he had to step over a few allied corpses to do so…so be it! He would do it with a smile on his face.

Of course, in order to make sure that this prison had a perfect escape record a few more insects had to be taken of. In the vocation of assassin it was often said that you should completely eliminate all of the weaker targets first, ordinarily he didn't agree with that, however, he supposed since there were so many insects crawling around he would. Certainly Taisho would be able to hold the Infinity Pirates off while he took care of that. "Let's see now," he said aloud as he sat down, crossing one leg over the other and tapping his chin as he looked on in the very few Den-Den Mushi's they had left. He noticed a large amount of prisoners on the fourth floor were starting to get rowdy, certainly they hadn't apparently been broken enough. Oh, well, he would fix that. His hands started at his hair, playing around with the horizontal spikes of his silver hair. Then he dropped them down and played with the small scar above his left eye as if remembering how he had gotten it. From there he ran his hands down his clean shaven face as he considered how to approach this matter. He lifted one hand up and quickly did some quick examining. Fourth floor, area 4B was what the Den-Den Mushi had its eyes on. In other words, that was his target. He stood up and adjusted himself, pulling down his jacket's collar to make himself more presentable. Being the strongest man in the prison didn't mean one could slack off with their appearances. Anyways, where was he…oh, yes, Fourth Floor Area 4B. He was about to clean it.

He lifted a hand up into the air, remembering the exact distance between here and there…20 feet per story…first floor, second floor, third floor, fourth floor. Eighty feet down…twenty feet to the right and twenty more feet down. The entire prison was divided by twenty feet. Where he was standing would be considered the center of the base aka 3C on the first floor. As long as he knew his own approximate location he could guess on where the other locations would be. He would just create one twenty feet in diameter to swallow up the entire space. "Sol Sphere!"

The prisoners on the fourth floor didn't even know what had happened, as far as they had known they were safe out of the busy prison guard's hands and they even had strong allies. They had no idea what to do when the entire room became engulfed in a large sphere of incredible fire. The man smiled, he was the supervisor of this prison, it was his job to make sure no insects escaped…and he was damn good at his job.

The Root of the Problem

HA HA HA HA HA! Get it? Get it? The ROOT of the problem? I'm hilarious...

Anyways, now that we are beyond my hilarious pun (I'm still laughing by the way) we can get on to more serious matters like what the hell is going on? Seriously the problems seem to be magnifying all around them! Its a mystery that no one on the Infinity Pirates has died yet! Oh, well, things happen. Maybe that'll be a future chapter (O_O). Seriously speaking though, I am rather surprised I haven't killed any one off yet. I have thought about killing everyone at least once (except for Hiro-Shu and Sage, sorry anybody who submitted a character or likes someone else). Anyways, BIG NEW PROBLEMS ARE COMING!