Hello my friends, sorry for the long delay. But then again, that's quite on character for me.
Before starting I'd like to thank anyone reading this, a time ago we arrived at the mark of 1k+ follows, with favorites not far behind with 839!
I lack the words to describe how that made me feel, but I'll try anyway.
Thank You very much, you guys truly don't know how much happy I'm in knowing that so many read my fic. If you read all the way here know that you made a big positive impact on my life, and once again I thank you for that.
I'd hug every and each one of you if I could!
Anyway, before we start the chapter here's a brief guest review.
Guest (Ch. 1 Jan 11, 2023): You not wrong, but my meaning with that was of he going even beyond of where Garp arrived, to truly do the 'impossible' and change the ways of the Marine for good.
Though if going by your words you wouldn't be in this chapter reading this, with it's a shame. Thanks anyway for even clicking at my story, even if you didn't liked it's something still very appreciated.
DISCLAIMER: I don't know if I should do this or not but whatever, I don't own anything here apart from my OC's.
May have grammar errors
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Some Minutes Earlier
"Go man!"
"Crush him!
"Win my money back!"
The crowd around me was quite energetic. With loud voices they cried their emotions out without restrain, some who had become my fans cheered for me, however a lot also cheered for my opponent.
The reason for that was honestly obvious; a lot of them lost money betting against me, another portion was just tired of seeing me winning, while many are the very opponents that lost to me and now are hoping to see someone basically 'avenging' them by crushing me.
Sadly I quickly demolished that hope once again.
Bang!
"Argh!"
The bald eye-patched man before me couldn't do much to stop me, with me putting more strength in my arm I quickly crushed any resistance he had and ended the match.
"Good match"
"Thanks"
From the side my friend Torlo came to compliment me on my win, he gave me some water before turning around and going back to the betting table to rile some people up again so that we could continue this distraction.
This plan of his was working wonderfully. However I quickly realized that while quite simple at first glance, this arm wrestling scam wasn't as easy to pull off as I first imagined. My opponents while certainly impressive if you compare them to normal civilians, to the likes of me they are not much different from fodders, I can easily defeat them by just using a bit more strength.
That, however, was counterproductive.
The plan was to attract the attention of everyone in the bar so that Tashigi would've enough time back there, but if I started to win too easily people would lose interest.
No opponents would come to me if they knew their loss was obvious, no one would bet anymore and as overall consequence the big majority of people around wouldn't watch us.
That wouldn't do.
Hence since the first match Torlo instructed me to not win too easily, I should give the impression that while strong I wasn't invincible, thus giving my opponents the hope of defeating me and with that the scam would keep on rolling.
But like I said that wasn't easy as it looked. The truth was that my strength was leagues above that of any of my opponents, and holding said strength back proved to be harder that I thought it would.
I needed to find the balance; Winning but not too easily, showing some struggle but not too much. Ironically as time went on the stress of keeping this whole scam up was actually tiring me, which helped convince the others that some chance of winning was still there.
'Who would've guesses right?'
Still, after doing that for many matches I found myself somehow having a better control of my strength. That itch in the back of my head tempting me to just crush my enemies was still there, but now I was better at fending it off.
"Who wants to go next?"
Torlo was doing his thing again, trying to get another opponent for me. Barely two seconds went by after those words left his mouth and a strong voice responded.
"I would like give it a try"
A little surprised at first Torlo quickly recovered, looking at the source of the voice he saw a strong man in the crowd. Smiling Torlo said "You do huh? So go ahead big guy!"
With a nod the man in question approached the 'ring', when he did that I was then able to take a batter look at him.
The man coming from the crowd was probably around his late twenties. Tanned skin and short black hair, he wore a sort of loose white robe that didn't much in regards do hiding the very defined muscles beneath it.
He reminded me of a wandering martial artist, he walked with firm steps and his posture betrayed signs of someone of great discipline, someone that clearly knew more than just throw a sloppy punch. He was honestly quite the impressive figure.
Arriving at the ring he looked at me and cupped his fists.
"Please"
I was a little surprised at that. The man was the first opponent to be this cordial with me. Smiling I copied his actions and returned the salute.
"Please"
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Near the counter in the back a group of 'waiters' were, like many others in the bar, watching the arm wrestling match about to happen with great interest.
Normally they wouldn't be too keen in watching these match, after all they're a regular event there so they long lost much of the excitement of watching them. However since the white haired young man appeared things became interesting once again.
Their excitement surged even more when they saw the man in white stepping forward from the crowd. Outsiders may not know that man, but as employees they very well knew who that man in white was.
"Is Guo Jing going against that white haired kid?"
"It sure looks like it!"
"I have to tell the others!"
With a smile on his face one of them left the group and made a beeline towards the door near the counter.
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Going into position we clapped our hands together, in that moment as always I tried to gauge my opponent's strength and to my surprise he tried to do the same. Looking up I saw a certain look flash in the man's eyes, very likely he sensed that I wasn't exactly tired as I pretended to be.
On my end I was also surprised, from his hand I could sense a depth of strength that confirmed my guess that he wasn't just some thug pretending to be strong, man wasn't a fake.
'This gonna be a real match…'
The old man acting as referee once again came forth and with a glance he confirmed that everything was in order.
"Ready… Go!"
BOOM!
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"Why is this door unlocked?"
Outside the office a man looked at the door in puzzlement.
The man in question looked to be around his mid-twenties. Wearing a white robe with a sword strapped to his hip, the man had white skin and black hair tied in a ponytail.
If Lucas was there he would be able to see some similarities between his opponent and this man, their clothes were very similar to one another with the difference being that Lucas's opponent wore a more plain white robe, while the man before the door wore one a tad more exquisite.
Open
Pushing the door open he stepped into the dark room, hand lightly resting against his sword's handle he began surveying the place.
At first glance everything seemed normal, the man entered that room just a few times but could still tell that all was where it should be. Still, the fact the door was open when it shouldn't made some suspicion appear on the back of his mind.
"There's no harm in looking…"
With steady steps he began walking around the office, looking and carefully examining every place that he believed something strange could be hiding.
From behind a counter to inside some cabinets, atop the bookshelves and beneath the sofas, he looked at the celling and even looked beneath the carpet to be sure he checked everything.
However after all that nothing out of ordinary was found.
"I could swear I sensed something here! Am I missing something? Maybe I should look behind the de-" "What are you doing sir?"
As he pondered about what he should do next a voice appeared out of nowhere and caught him by surprised. Hurriedly turning around he drew his sword in reflex and pointed at the source of the voice.
"Aaaaii!"
'It's just one of those guys from the bar…'
Seeing it was only one of the members of the staff he sighed in relief, taking the sword away from the janitor's face he looked at the spooked man and said "The door was unlocked, that's unusual so I was checking if everything was in order"
The waiter nodded in understanding, looking at the floor he saw that it was sparkling making him think of a plausible answer "I believe someone came here earlier and waxed the floor, after leaving they forgot to lock the door"
"Maybe…"
Looking at the sparkling floor the man also came to that conclusion. Settling some of his suspicious he looked at the waiter and sharply asked "What are you doing here anyway?"
The light coming from the corridor when reflecting from the man's eyes became sharp as a sword, the waiter flinched in fear and hurriedly answered "I came looking for you sir, Guo Jing is in the bar arm wrestling against this super strong white haired guy!"
That man was genuinely taken aback by that.
"My senior brother is arm wrestling? Now that's something I need to see!"
At that moment whatever suspicious about the office the man still had got thrown aside. Sheathing his sword he dashed out of the room in such speed that the waiter barely got time to react, before he could even realize he was already alone in the office.
'I should go too!'
Realizing that he was alone in boss's office the waiter quickly got out of there before he got in any trouble, closing the door he made sure to tell a passing staff to come and lock the door before also dashing away back to the bar.
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"That was close…"
Said Tashigi in relief as the night wind blew through her hair.
Early after recovering from her frozen state she quickly tried to find somewhere to hide, looking frantically around the room she saw a window she hadn't noticed before in the back of the room. In a hurry she went for it, the window was thankfully already unlocked so she jumped to the other side and grabbed the edge.
She reached with her hand to close the window back but at that moment the man in white entered the room, scared she retreated and left the window ajar. Luckily that waiter said something that made the man leave before he could notice this detail. Tashigi also didn't failed to hear the waiter mentioning a 'super strong white haired guy'
'The plan's sure working'
Thanking her friend for coming in clutch she turned her attention to the matter at hand, that being how she was going to go back now.
'I don't feel like going back through the same way'll work, someone may still be outside the door' turning her head she looked at some other windows at the side of the building 'I could also try going for another room, but I can't be sure if they'll be unlocked or even empty for that matter'
She could of course just slash they open and knock anyone that happens to be inside, but that was an iffy plan with no guarantee of going exactly her way. With that in mind she went for the next best plan she could think off.
"Up I go"
Gazing up Tashigi made her way to the top of the building, she didn't had much climbing experience but her strong physique made up for her lack of skill, she had some near misses here and there but eventually made her way to the building's roof without much trouble. There she used the office beneath her as reference point to trace back her steps, she wanted to pinpoint from where exactly in the building she came from so as to find her way back to her friends.
"The entrance should be that building over there, but how I get down? …" Passing back nd forth Tashigi thought about that issue for a time.
Looking at a nearby building across the street she noticed a light pole to its side, and that's when a crazy idea that refused to go away popped in her head. Walking to the edge she gazed at the distance between the two buildings, doing some quick math she confirmed the crazy possibility in her mind.
Walking back some back distance Tashigi tried to psych herself up for what she was about to do "Lucas's daredevil antics might'be rubbing on me…" she muttered. With good enough distance taken she paused, readied herself, and then dashed forward with all her might!
She crossed the distance to edge in an instant, kicking the edge she propelled her body forward, jumping over the street she looked like a cherry blossom leaf gracefully fluttering above a dark abyss.
Arriving at the nearby building she rolled in the landing, in the same motion she rose up and jumped towards the light pole in the street. Climbing it down she was finally in the ground again, as she made haste back to the bar she couldn't help but look back at all that she just transpired, without noticing a excited smile appeared on her face.
'Who knew I'd be doing all this in just eight days of being a marine'
Going through the dark streets she found herself once again before the old store that's used as cover for the bar, following the same steps from before she arrived at bar's door.
When checking the white card she got from Lucas the bouncer threw her a confused glance, he kinda remembers seeing her coming in before but not she leaving 'Must've been when I was in the bathroom' Shrugging he gave the card back to Tashigi.
Ignoring the man's confused look she took the card back and entered the bar again, at her arrival she saw a way bigger commotion than what she expected.
'What exactly those two did?'
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Some Minutes Earlier
BOOM!
Immediately as the match began I could feel my opponent going for a strong start, the strength coming from his hand instantly increased in an alarming rate.
Taken aback by that I reacted fast and too increased the strength behind my hand as to match his, the air around us exploded as if a bomb had been set off. A whirlwind blasted from us towards the crowd pushing them many steps back, a crack could already been seen on the poor table acting as ring.
Gasps and cries of surprise rang all around us, but to me they felt distant, at that moment all my senses were locked at my opponent. All night long he was the first one that I truly felt the need to be serious, just the initial burst of strength would've crushed any of my previous opponents, the fact the same hadn't happened to him once again made me firm on the thought that he is the real deal.
"Just as I thought" said the man, taking my eyes away from our clashing hands I saw him looking at me with a smirk "You scammed all of them with your tired act"
"So you saw through me huh? Came to avenge the others then?"
"God no, if they fell for it is their skill issue" he chuckled "I just didn't liked to see you wasting your energy on unworthy opponents"
Now it was my turn to chuckle "You'd be a worthy one then?"
Smirking he said nothing, bending his wrist in a different way the grip he had on my hand changed. It allowed him to leverage more strength, something that became quite clear to me as I felt him pushing my arm back bit by bit.
Now truly fired up I reached inside me and called upon even more strength, the muscles on my arm tensed up and my counterattack began. I stopped his advance right on its track, pushing back his arm I regained the lost ground and even gained a good amount of advantage.
Once again the tables turned, his technique admittedly was greater than mine, but in terms of pure strength I had him beaten. Briefly looking up I saw him struggling, though the smirk was still there it was now strained. I flashed him one of my draconic smiles.
What a good feeling indeed.
Seeing my smile the man scoffed, changing stance he once again showed me the worth of skills. His whole demeanor changed, the arm losing to mine suddenly stopped moving and locked in place. My opponent to my senses no longer felt like a man, instead it felt like I was facing a mountain! Steady and unmovable, truly like as if a mountain his arm didn't even budge, more cracks formed in the table as I flared up my strength though to no avail.
Despite this development however things aren't as bad as they seemed, his strange technique indeed allowed him to stop me from pushing him back further, but my strength was still higher than his as such he wasn't able to push me back either.
He might be like a mountain, a Mount Tai if you will, but I was a True Dragon!
Like that a stalemate issued and it lasted for a fair amount of time, during this time no more banter happened between us again as we both focused at the match.
"Lucas!"
My attention however went elsewhere as I heard my friend Torlo calling my name, he looked at me and hurriedly pointed towards the entrance, with a sideway glance I saw a certain bluenette entering through the door.
I smiled at that, it was finally time to end this charade!
"You proved to be more than worthy" the mountain man looked at me "But the time of parting has come, I'm going all out!"
Throwing all caution to the wind I finally stopped restraining myself, something that honestly was a tad hard to do against an opponent of this caliber. The man's eyes widened as he felt my strength increasing beyond anything I had shown before, with a roar I pushed his arm back with all my might.
BOOM!
The poor table couldn't withstand anymore and broke in millions of pieces, we fell to the ground causing strong winds to blast all around us, cracks extended from us towards nearby walls and a cloud of dust rose up covering us both. When the cloud subside it what greeted everyone was the scene of both of us in the ground, still in arm wrestling stances but now my opponent's hand was firmly planted against the ground.
I won!
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"Wow!"
"Both are so strong!"
"To think he still had all that strength…"
As I rose up I could hear the bubbling of astonished people around me, cracking my hand for some relaxing pops I extended my other to my opponent "That was a really good match"
"Truly one to remember" he accepted my help, now back on his feet he smiled at me with an all too familiar look in his eyes "What's your name?"
One part of me whispered that I shouldn't tell him my name, less my cover be found out, but another way more vocal side of me didn't felt right in not exchanging names with such a worthy opponent, so I indulged him "The name is Lucas, yours?"
"Guo Jing" he said his name with pride "You're really strong, I'd really love if we could meet later for a friendly spar. What you think?"
That didn't sound bad at all! "Now we talking, what about-" "C'mon Lucas we gotta bounce!"
Before I could finish my friend Torlo appeared on my side, without ceremony he grabbed my left arm and starting dragging me away. Seeing my confusion he whispered in my ears "Lots of guards are coming from that back door, we better leave now before it's too late!"
Not good.
Understanding his point I moved fast, grabbing a couple notes from the stash Torlo was carrying I threw them in the crowd around us and screamed "I'm the new champion so let's commemorate, drinks for everyone!"
As expected the people around us went absolutely wild with that, it felt like a stadium during the finals of a Libertadores Cup.
Picking my friend Torlo up I pushed through the crowd and dashed towards the door, there I also picked Tashigi up much to her chagrin and zipped out of the building into the darkness.
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Back on the bar the man named Guo Jing looked at the commotion around him in amusement, it made him think of his white haired opponent who zipped away without looking back.
While his sudden departure was quite unusual it didn't detract from the awesome battle they just had, earlier he hadn't been expecting much when coming down to the bar, but luckily he was proven wrong.
"Senior Brother"
The man in white that Tashigi saw before appeared besides him, his voice had a clear tone of reverence when speaking to Guo Jing.
"Junior Brother Danfeng" Guo Jing turned to him with a smile "Let me guess, you saw the match?"
Danfeng nodded "Though I was surprised that you allowed him to win"
"What you mean?" Guo Jing raised an eyebrow at that.
"I mean, there's no way he could've defeated you otherwise"
That answer made Guo Jing laugh.
"Oh Junior Brother, as always your view of me is quite flattering" he gave another good laugh before saying "That guy won fair nd square, though his technique could be polished a tad bit his strength was the real deal, I couldn't have won"
"That-…!"
At that moment Danfeng's face was the definition of astonished, to him it wasn't easy to accept that his senior brother lost in a contest of strength like that. Guo Jing on the other hand didn't mind the loss that much, after all it wasn't like anything of important was at stake, it was just a honest clash between two warriors.
"Don't be like that Danfeng" putting a hand on his Junior Brother's shoulder Guo Jing tried to comfort him "Remember what master always says, 'There's a mountain beyond this mountain, a sky beyond this sky' "
"I guess…" the mention of their master helped Danfeng adjust his bearings back "It was just an arm wrestling match anyway, in a real fight Senior Brother'd certainly win!"
"Well, I wouldn't be so sure of that…" Looking around Guo Jing noticed the many guards frantically going around in search of something "What's this all about?"
"From what I heard a guard was found tied in one of the rooms"
Guo Jing was almost stumbled in surprise, anger flaring he roared "We allowed an intruder to pass?!"
"I understand your anger Senior brother" Danfeng gritted his teeth in anger "To think we failed at our tasks, master wouldn't be too pleased with this"
"Do we have any clue of who it was?"
"The guard who was knocked out said it was a blue-haired girl with a sword in hand"
"Blue hair you say?"
Thinking back to when his opponent left in a hurry Guo Jing could remember briefly seeing someone that fit those descriptions 'Could he be…?'
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Deep in the night sky a Dragon with black scales could be seen flying above the clouds, on his back were two figures tightly holding to his shoulders. The Dragon is off course Lucas on his hybrid form, and the two figures his friends Torlo and Tashigi.
After leaving the bar they went on foot for some minutes, with a good enough distance between them and the bar Lucas with his friends hosted in his back assumed his hybrid form and took off into the night sky. There in his home territory everyone took the chance to finally relax, even Torlo who wasn't much of fan of flying allowed his nerves to ease a bit, after some time they began retelling what happened to one another.
Tashigi told them about what she did when infiltrating the back, and Torlo and Lucas told her about the whole arm wrestling scam.
"You should've seen Ii Tashigi, Lucas destroyed those guys one by one. No one was a match for him!"
"Well, it was to be expected. It's Lucas we're talking"
"Stop, you guys'll make me blush" Lucas joked, their words genuinely made him happy "The last guy was a different beast altogether though, in the end it was just an arm wrestling match so I'm unsure how a real fight between us would go"
"You think he's strong?" asked Tashigi from his right shoulder.
The feats both her and Torlo saw Lucas accomplished were beyond astonishing, to them Lucas saying that about his opponent speaks volumes of said man's skills.
"His techniques were the real deal, so yeah" he turned his head to them and smirked "I'd still win though, so no worries"
Both his friends laughed, Torlo proudly patted a bag strapped to his chest "Between what Tashigi found in the office and the money we won with the scam, we can safely confirm this night's operation to be a resounding success!"
Tashigi curiously asked "How much did you two made?"
"My great plan and Lucas's strength fetched us a whopping 8 million berries!" said Torlo with followed by a laugh "Not bad for just one night of bets huh?"
"That's almost half Prictus's bounty!" Even Lucas got surprised by that number "Damn, gambling do be looking kinda tempting right now not gonna lie"
Torlo scoffed "Don't count on that, we only got this much money thanks to your big strength and my genius management. You better stick to bounties if you want easy money Lucas"
"You know I'm joking"
"I know" seeing Lucas flying them through a cloud Torlo tightened his hold on the Dragon's shoulder "Believe or not two other people actually won just as much as we did, one was that old man acting as referee and the other was a girl with pink hair"
That last one caught Lucas's attention "You said pink hair?"
"Yeah" saying that Torlo paused as something came to his mind "Now that I think about it, believe I saw you talking to her back in the bar"
"Yeah, she felt familiar for a second there. But I guess it was nothing"
"If you say so"
Time passed and soon they arrived back at the base, they entered through the window in Lucas's room and after a bit more talking they decided to wait until morning to speak with the Commander to show him their findings.
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"Huh… guys? I have this strange feeling that we're forgetting something"
Right before leaving Lucas's room Tashigi turned to her friends and explained the strange feeling that came to her, the two young men exchanged confused looks. They thought about deeply for some moments, but in the end found nothing.
"Nah, probably just a feeling"
"Guess you right then…"
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Unworn Abandoned House
"Urghh my head…"
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That's the chapter.
As I feel like things are kinda slow I'll try to change the pacing of the story a bit, don't know if it will work but I'll try anyway. Last chapter and this one were set ups for some big events in next chapters.
Once again I thank everyone reading, you guys are way awesome than you think. Like I said expect things to gain a more fast pace going forth.
Anyway, Thank you everyone from the support.
Constructive critics are always welcomed.
Fiquem Bem!