Hello my friends, here I am with another installment in our journey in this amazing world.
First of all, sorry for the delay in the update. My old PC died and I was unable to write anything, I still had my phone, sure, but personally writing anything long as a chapter on the phone is such a hassle that isn't even worth it. I also find my work when writing on the phone to be of lower quality, so for better or worse I was stuck without writing anything for the past months, only being able to write now after getting a new machine with the help of my family.
Also, 'Happy New Year' to you all, hope that everyone had a nice time and that this year is amazing to us all.
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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The Next Day
A new day came and our search for the fabled creatures continued. The researchers were eager to study the creature, and we still had a few days in our schedule, as such very early in the morning we packed our things and started to move.
But we had lost sight of the Gryphon's trail yesterday however, where to look now? Well, Oscar had a pretty good guess about that.
"Analyzing the places where that Gryphon led us I've found a pattern, none of the places we visited went through, or were anywhere close, to the mountains in the center of the island. The 'Gryphus Magnificens' is a species that makes their nest in high places, so I believe it's reasonable to say the creature's nest is there on those mountains"
The researcher from the Briss Kingdom had a solid reasoning behind his words, with Dr. Victor being quite impressed with him, so considering his words we locked at the mountains in the distance and made them our next destination.
Leaving the plains was pretty easy, we got quite familiar with this place in the last few days, and none of the fauna here really posed a threat to us; Most of it wouldn't even get closer to us as Khan's aura would scare them away.
Speaking of him the tiger hadn't left our group to go roam the island today, and that's because I didn't allow him to.
After what happened yesterday, I was reasonably wary of letting my feline friend walk around alone. Khan wanted to go after the hunters to wash away the stain on his pride; he however couldn't go against my authority.
Leaving the plains behind we arrived at the foot of the first mountain, our climbing of the mountain was easy enough at the start, the terrain wasn't too steep nor the paths too narrow. However, as you might guess things changed soon enough as we started to get higher and higher, the terrain became steep, and dangerous cliffs got closer to us.
We pressed on nonetheless, with me at some point even picking up the carriage over my shoulder and jumping over a cliff with it. It had been a long walk, the end segment of the afternoon had already arrived and our group was ready to start setting camp, however, it was at that moment that we all heard something.
"▂▂ ▂ !"
A call our group had become acquainted with in these last days, was heard echoing through the mountains. Everyone perked up and began looking around for the source of the sound.
However I felt that something was different in the Gryphon's call this time, the mockeries and insults I heard so much were no longer present, in their place I could hear a desperate call for help.
"Everyone, follow me!"
Concentrating on the sound I led my friends and the others to its source, after going through a narrow mountain pass, we arrived on a sort of rocky platform on the other side of the mountain. There in the sky above it the Gryphon from before could be seen circling in the sky, however this time he wasn't alone.
"There's another Gryphon!"
That's right, our feathery friend from before had a companion with him this time. The researchers behind me talked that it was a female in her prime, probably his mate; I however wasn't paying too much to that though, being more fixated on what the two fabled creatures were saying.
Noticing the look I had on my face Tashigi approached me and asked, "What's wrong Lucas?"
"They need our help…"
Going towards the edge of the platform I looked down, there some dozen meters down the wall of the mountain I saw a crack in the rock, and inside of it was a baby Gryphon.
My friends having followed me also looked down and saw the trapped baby Gryphon, seeing that Torlo said in a surprised tone.
"It's a Gryphon hatchling!" taking a closer look at the crack in the wall he then looked at the Gryphon flying above "They are too big to get to it, and if starts to rain there's a high chance that the crack will get flooded. If that happens, then…"
"Say no more!"
Wasting no time I did my partial transformation, and then using my claws I began to climb down the mountain wall. Approaching the crack on the wall I could hear the Gryphons flying in the sky above gasping in shock, the male Gryphon recognizing me and in fear warned his mate to not get near me, she however was more worried it what I was going to do.
Ignoring them I arrived at the crack, the small Gryphon inside got scared by my presence but I tried to reassure him. Putting my hand inside the crack I was able to, after some careful maneuvering, take him out, holding the hatchling close to my chest I then climbed back to the platform.
"You got a hatchling?!"
The others having seen me climb down, had come forward to look at what I was doing, when I returned with the baby Gryphon in my arms they all exclaimed in surprise.
The researchers, like Oscar and Dr. Victor, had looks of pure wonder as they looked at the small creature in my arms. Vanix had a similar expression; however, I could almost swear I saw a greedy glint briefly flash in his eyes.
Dismissing them all away I walked to an empty spot and then gazing up at the Gryphons I said:
"This is your child, right? Come down here and take him!"
Saying that I put the baby Gryphon on the ground and then backed away, on the sky the mother seeing that didn't hold herself back anymore and came down, the worried father landed shortly after and stood between us and his family.
"Don't look at me like that…"
"▂▂▂ ▂ ?"
"Trick you? What I'd gain with that?"
" ▂▂▂▂ !"
"In my defense, you had it coming what happened yesterday. Besides, you got away in the end, so why be like that?"
"…. "
Though suspicious at first the male Gryphon, whom I'll call Parrot because 'why not?', began to trust me after I talked and explained myself more, easing his guard he turned around and went to check on his child.
Going back to my group I saw my friends looking at me with wide smiles, clapping his hand on my shoulder Torlo said "You really did it, huh?"
"What can I say? Everyone loves a happy ending, me included-"
"IN THAT CASE, YOU'RE GOING TO LOVE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!"
"?!
Just as I thought things would proceed well for us, I heard someone yelling at me. The voice rumbled across the mountains, almost as if a giant had spoken, quickly turning around I looked towards the source of the voice, and by doing that I felt my eyes going wide.
There, flying out from behind the peak of a nearby mountain, I saw a Sea King size brown eagle flying out towards us, with a flock of about a dozen or so other birds which, although smaller than the eagle, were still big enough to carry a person on their back.
Speaking of which, all of these birds had men riding them, with green camo armor and big guns in hand I quickly recognized them as the hunters I fought yesterday. Riding on the eagle and with the biggest gun, which was basically a cannon, was their Chief Hunter.
"AFTER I DEFEAT YOU AND TAKE THE GRYPHONS, THE TRUE HAPPY ENDING WILL HAPPEN!"
Yelling that he wasted no more time, lowering his gun at us he shot.
Bang!
Acting quickly I called upon my powers and launched a bolt of lightning at the incoming shot, successful in blocking the attack I hurriedly turned to the other and yelled "TAKE COVER!"
No second warning need they all ran away in search of some cover, the Gryphon family included.
Having that done I turned around and was about to go deal with the hunters, but at that moment I felt a hand grabbing my shoulder, turning around I saw my friend Torlo glaring at me.
"You're not going on this alone, take me with you!"
For a brief moment the thought of saying 'no' to him crossed my mind, however, the intensity in Torlo's eyes prevented me from saying that. Time froze for a moment, things that couldn't be conveyed by words got shared between us through our eyes.
Feeling his unshakable resolve I smirked.
"Let's do this together then!"
"That's what I'm talking about!"
…
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…
After my great friend Lucas agreed to take me with him, I saw him turn to Tashigi and say, "Take care of the others" to which our intrepid Meito specialist firmly replied, "Of course!"
After that grabbing my shoulder and dragging me along him, Lucas ran towards the cliff and jumped off with me. Even though I kinda expected he'd do that, I still inevitably felt my heart grow cold as the feeling of weightlessness overtook my body.
The feeling of not having anything beneath my feet only lasted for a moment however, in an instant a gigantic shadow had appeared beneath me and halted my fall.
This was, of course, Lucas who had fully transformed into his true dragon self, gigantic in this form the amount of space I had on his back to stand was honestly astounding, and as if that wasn't enough of a foothold I felt lightning flow from his scales to me, enveloping my whole body they acted as another insurance so that I wouldn't fall.
All of this happened in just a few short seconds, almost instantly really, with me secured on his back Lucas gave a powerful wing beat and shot away towards the incoming hunters.
From my vantage point on Lucas's back, I could clearly see the looks of utter astonishment on the hunter's faces, pretty understandable. However, they soon shook the surprise away, with gritted teeth and resolved expressions turned their weapons at us and began attacking.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
They shot at us with their weapons, but most shots missed their mark, with those that hit us not leaving even a scratch. A True Dragon of myths, the black scales of Lucas aren't something that could be damaged easily.
Completely unfazed by the attack Lucas flew straight towards the giant eagle (which looked small when close to Lucas), where the Chief Hunter was. The man, however, probably expecting to be the first target, acted quickly and was able to command his eagle to dive away and thus get out of Lucas's path.
The hunters flying in the birds right behind him didn't have this luck though, Lucas slammed on them without hesitation, and due to the difference in size and strength, the hunters and the birds all got knocked out of the air.
For a few seconds, I thought that Lucas had just killed them all, after all falling from this height they'd have surely died, however a moment later that thought was proven wrong. I saw lightning shoot from Lucas's body towards them, wrapping around their body and making them hover in the air, their fall and would-be death were prevented.
'As if Lucas would just kill someone like that…'
Relieved I focused once again on the matter at hand, looking around I saw that we had done a turn and flown after the hunter who had evaded Lucas's slam attack. All of these birds were flying quite fast, however, despite his gigantic size Lucas's flight speed was also pretty high, so we didn't stay far from them.
Not wanting to be a lazy hitcher I decided to finally take some action, aiming my rifle forward I locked at one of the hunters and took my shot.
Bang!
Cutting through the air the bullet successfully found its target, it hit the man in the chest and knocked him out of his bird.
Lightning flashed through the sky and fell on the man thus preventing his fall, the bird he had been riding noticing that it didn't have a rider anymore cried out in happiness, free at last she then flew away into the distance.
The entire situation was exhilarating.
Riding on the back of a Dragon and fighting eagle riders… such a scene only seen in books was happening and I was a part of it!
"THIS IS AWESOME!"
The battle however wasn't finished yet.
Turning around on the back of his eagle the Chief Hunter aimed his gun at us once again and shot, like before Lucas didn't bother dodging and allowed the attack to hit his body, the result however was a bit different this time.
"Urgh"
Amazingly the attack this time made Lucas groan in slight pain, something that astonished me to no end so I yelled to him:
"Are you alright?!"
"I think his ammunition is laced with kairoseki…"
Recalling what Lucas once told me about devil fruit, I knew that 'kairoseki' was a type of substance that had the same aura as the sea, the thing that countered devil fruits, as such it could be fashioned in many types of weapon effective against devil fruit users.
"Will you be okay?"
"It's only lightly laced with kairoseki, so no problem there, and even if totally made with it would still not be a problem for me. I'm a Dragon, a True Dragon In fact, my scales aren't so easy to break!"
Though I couldn't see his face, I could tell that Lucas was smirking by the tone of his voice, something that made me smile too.
"-However, that guy just now made me upset! So buckle up Torlo, things are about to get spicy now!
Just as he finished saying that Lucas gave a powerful wing beat and propelled his gigantic body forward with even greater speed than before, ignoring the hunters in the smaller birds, he flew straight towards the man in the giant brown eagle.
The hunters, however, didn't ignore him, pushing their mounts to the limits they just so barely had been able to keep up with us, their attacks never ceasing.
Bang!
Bang!
Doing my part I kept firing at them, hitting some, and missing some, I almost got hit a couple of times, like, I felt the wind of the bullet passing beside my ear, only avoiding being hit due to hiding behind one of the spikes Lucas had on his back. Looking from afar these spikes looked to be not that big, small even, however, that was only true in comparison to the rest of his body, in actuality they're quite big, big enough to safely allow me to completely hide myself behind them.
Seeing the current state of things, all the four remaining hunters decided to do something crazy, flying close to us they jumped off their birds towards us!
A nuts decision this crazy stung actually worked! Lucas's back on his full transformation was just too big, so it wasn't hard to get that jump.
Landing not too far from me they all, without hesitation, rushed forward at me with hunting knives in hand. I was no bitch you see, so grittinging my teeth I also charged at them. They had landed close to me, with not much distance to aim my gun and fire, rushing at them felt like the more optimal choice.
My skills in close combat could said to be only average, a LONG way from being comparable to the combat skills of Lucas, or Tashigi. That's why when two hunters attacked simultaneously, I was only able to block one of them with my rifle, with the other successfully slashing my left arm!
Zap!
I felt some pain, however, it was far from the level of intensity I expected. Gazing at my arm I saw the lightning around me holding back the knife's blade, which because of that was only able to lightly graze my skin.
'I really could get behind having a power like this…'
I pushed the man I had blocked away, then went and punched the one that had slashed me, hitting him on the face the lightning must've helped again, 'cause the man yelped in pain and then fell to the ground in one hit.
Crackling evilly I rushed towards the others with reckless abandon, my skills in close combat were still average so I got hit many times, however, the boost of defense, and attack this 'lightning armor' gave me were just too great for these hunters to overcome, as such in the end I came out victorious.
Focused on my side of the battle I forgot to check on what Lucas was doing, though I felt shockwaves traveling through his body due to getting hit by the Chief Hunter, I had totally zoned out and wasn't aware at all of what he did after we last talked.
" ▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅ -▅▅!"
However, just as I was about to check on him, I heard his mighty roar rumbling across the clouds, turning around quickly, I was able to witness a beam of blue draconic energy shooting towards the brown eagle of the Chief Hunter.
Lucas had greatly closed the distance between us and him, the attack quickly arrived at the Man, who with not much time to maneuver was only able to half dodge the beam, the Eagle screamed in pain as the beam of energy touched one of his claws and wings.
The Chief Hunter ignored that though, with the sky turning blue behind him he made his mount do a suicide dive at Lucas. The feathery beast was severely weakened by Lucas's beam attack, however, it used its remaining energy to latch onto Lucas's face and viciously try to peck my friend's eye out.
Lucas of course didn't stand still waiting to have his eyes pecked out, shakings his heads my friend tried to throw the giant bird away, his giant maw opening and closing as he attempted to bite the bird which, despite being very big, looked pretty unremarkable now so close to Lucas's full transformation.
"You're too open kid!"
The Chief Hunter was still there, taking advantage of Lucas being distracted with the Eagle, he lowered his giant gun and aimed at Lucas's eyes. A shot in the eye like that, especially from a bullet laced with kairoseki, would do quite some damage.
I of course wasn't about to let that go down, running up Lucas's neck I arrived in a position on top of his head that gave me a clear view of the Chief Hunter on the Eagle's back. In a move already deeply ingrained in my bones, I quickly aimed and shot the Chief Hunter.
Bang!
"ARGH!"
Hitting his shoulder and making him tumble to the side, the man lost his footing, and with the violent shaking of the Eagle he lost his balance and fell into the clouds!
" ▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅ -▅▅!"
On his end my friend Lucas also won his fight, adjusting himself he was able to claw the Eagle out of his face, followed by a burst of lightning for good measure, and the Eagle too was defeated.
Zap!
Flying towards Lucas caught the Eagle on his giant hands, a bolt of lightning fell and hit the Chief Hunter, halting his fall and bringing him up Lucas's back. Then doing an arc in the air Lucas turned around and flew us back to the mountains, in the way picking up all the defeated hunters, who had been hovering in the air due to his lightning.
Man, I love being a marine!
…
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…
Having dealt with those annoying hunters, I made my way back to the mountain where I had left the others, carefully putting Torlo and all the defeated hunters on the ground, I recalled my full transformation and turned back into my normal form.
"That was truly amazing!"
Exclaimed my friend Torlo, smiling at him I offered my fist for a fist-bump which he happily accepted. Walking forward I approached the others, seeing me get closer Dr. Victor looked at me with an impressed look in his eyes and said;
"That was quite the impressive display of power, my boy!"
"I'm a True Dragon, after all" I said with a smile.
"So it seems"
"Now I just need to properly tie these guys before-" 'Pururururu!'
Before I could finish my sentence, I got interrupted by the familiar sound of a den-den Mushi, asking for a moment I walked some meters away, took the little snail from my pocket, and answered it.
"Hey Thomas, how're things go-"
"Is that Vanix guy and his mercenaries there with you?!"
"…What?"
"Just answer!"
The question was a strange one; however, the urgent and worried tone in Thomas's voice coming from the other side of the call was palpable, so I promptly replied.
"They're here, yes, Vanix is standing beside Dr. Victor as always. Why?"
"I had finally received that info you asked about them from the base, and it turns out they aren't a legitimized mercenary group at all! They're a criminal group, a nasty one at that, they go around offering their services as a legit mercenary group, only to stab their contractors in the back!"
"WHAT?!"
"-And that's not all! Do you remember that bald guy you? The one you told me to look up too? According to the Intel I got, he's actually the true leader of this group! The hunters and the mercenaries are one single group, they're all working together!"
Fuck-!
Not needing to hear anything more I pocked den-den mushi and then rushed towards Vanix, fist raised I aimed to get a one-hit KO, however midway there I saw something that forced me to stop in my tracks.
Click!
"I wouldn't take another step if I was you!"
Having noticed that his cover had been busted, Vanix threw all pretense to the wind and drew his gun, and pointed it at Dr. Victor's head, around the platform his mercenaries also moved into action and by using the element of surprise took Oscar, the researchers, and both of my friends as hostages.
The only two not with a gun shoved into their heads were me and Khan, however, neither of us could move a muscle in that moment, the fear of the others getting killed stopping us.
"It's amazing isn't?" proclaimed the man in a condescending tone "For all the power you 'warriors of justice' have, a hostage is all that is needed to turn you into someone powerless"
Too angry at him I didn't reply and only glared at him while growling, Dr. Victor although terrified couldn't help but ask "W-what's the meaning of this Vanix?!"
"Isn't obvious? The Gryphons of course" the man stated with a smirk "As you said a few days ago, a lot of people would be willing to pay big money to have these fabled creatures for them, our group has been contracted by one of them to get a few specimen. However Gryphons are notoriously hard to find, so we devised a plan to get to them more easily, this plan being following you around Dr. Victor"
"What..?"
"Don't you see? A group of researchers such as yours would be the ones to know more about these fabled creatures, about their habits and whatnot. So disguising as mercenaries, we got you to hire us to escort you. Then it was all a matter of waiting for you to find the Gryphons, and then I'd tell my boss and he would've caught it" Getting here the man gazed at said boss defeated on the ground, and said grimly "Now things had gotten more complicated…"
To the side both my friends, not really fearing the state they're in, looked at the man with barely contained anger "What's your plan now then?" asked Torlo basically yelling.
Hearing that question the man chuckled, locking his eyes with mine he gave a chesire smile.
"Now your friend will have to help us out! Unless he wants your brains to get blown, he'll use his powers to go and take a few Gryphons for us!"
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!
I felt like a bucket of freezing water had been poured over me, despite all my strength I wasn't able to catch Logan in that forest, falling on his traps, and now with everyone hostage I've once again fallen into a trap!
Looking at the eyes of my friends, I could see they're telling me to just do something. I, however, was unsure if I could.
Was I fast? Yes, I was damn fast.
However, I wasn't The Flash, with the way things are now, Vanix and his men would only need a brief moment to kill everyone taken hostage. Even if I were able to flash step and punch Vanix's face in, I'd still lose, the others would take that moment to pull the trigger.
I wouldn't be able to save everyone!
'Did I get too careless...?'
That was the question swirling around my head at this moment, looking back at how I approached things during the island I came to realize how full of myself I had been, my success so far, the power I had, had gotten to my head and made me too confident.
This trap, this betrayal… I truly didn't saw coming,
With a sense of utter helplessness overtaking me I resigned myself to having to follow along with Vanix's demands
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…
'Fly-High-On-The-Skies' felt extremely conflicted at that moment.
When first meeting the humans, he didn't think much of them, doing his job he baited them all over the island to keep them away from his nest, away from his mate and young. Later when noticing the aura of a predator in one of them, he decided to mock him to no end as to truly make them chase him.
That plan worked well, too well in fact. The one he had been mocking all this time decided to retaliate against him, shedding away its human disguise he showed his true predator form and came roaring after him.
Now feeling his unrestrained aura 'Fly-High-On-The-Skies' realized that he had severely underestimated the reptile, he instantly realized that he was facing a predator greater than him.
He'd then run away, being successful in that due to someone attacking the Lizard. Returning to his nest he thought things couldn't get worse, however, 'Fly-High-On-The-Skies' was soon proven wrong.
The very next day when trying to teach his young how to fly, an accident happened and his young ended up stuck in a hole that he couldn't reach. His mate, 'Weaves-Through-The-Mountains', was understandably frantic about the whole situation, 'Fly-High-On-The-Skies' tried to come up with a solution, but in the end, was unable to.
Then he appeared again.
Despite his best wishes to never see the 'Predator-In-Disguise' again, the same had found his way to where 'Fly-High-On-The-Skies' and his family were. With his pack following alongside him, the Predator saw where he his young was stuck.
'Fly-High-On-The-Skies' felt his heart stop in horror when seeing the 'Predator-In-Disguise' climb down and pick his young, that horror turned into confusion when seeing the same coming back and just put his young down without doing anything to him.
His mate, 'Weaves-Through-The-Mountains', not waiting to see if that was a trap swooped down to check on the young. 'Fly-High-On-The-Skies' flying shortly after kept his guard up, staying between his family and the 'Predator-In-Disguise', however after a time talking with him the Gryphon sensed no malice coming from the 'Predator-In-Disguise'.
When the other humans came on their 'Enslaved Birds', the Gryphon 'Fly-High-On-The-Skies', and his mate 'Weaves-Through-The-Mountains', flew away from there and allowed the two groups to fight themselves.
After the amazing display of power the 'Predator-In-Disguise' defeated the other humans and returned to his group, however, it was at that moment that things changed and part of his group betrayed him.
Looking at his struggling expression 'Fly-High-On-The-Skies' felt conflicted about what to do. Despite having been attacked previously by the Predator, and previously wishing to never see him again, the truth of the matter was that he did in fact save his young. Doing anything now would put him at significant risk, that is true… but 'Fly-High-On-The-Skies' wouldn't feel good if he didn't return the favor.
With that in mind 'Fly-High-On-The-Skies' shook away his hesitation and moved into action!
…
…
…
"▂▂▂ ▂▂▂ !"
Just as I thought all hope had been lost, just as I was starting to give up, a call coming from the sky brought me back.
Catching everyone by surprise Parrot, the male Gryphon from before, came swooping down from the sky towards us. In reflex, all, including Vanix and his Mercenaries, had unconsciously raised their heads to look at the Gryphon who had decided to make a daring move, and with that, they all unknowingly gave me the escape I had been looking for!
ZAP!
"AAARRRRGHHHH!"
Wasting no time, I quickly called upon my powers. I shot a blast of lightning towards the ground which covered the entire platform in less than the blink of an eye, and with it I made all the mercenaries feel a level of pain so intense, that even their next lives wouldn't be able to forget!
Of course, none of the hostages got harmed by my lightning; I had enough control to prevent that.
Like puppets whose string had been cut, all the mercenaries fell to the ground as their consciousness gave in to the pain. With that problem dealt with, I dashed forward and went to check on the others, making sure everyone was okay I walked towards the Gryphon, thanking him with a big smile on my face.
Talking with him I learned that my action of saving his baby made him grateful to me, so when he saw me in a bad spot, he couldn't help but come down and give me a hand.
"You're the big hero of today my friend"
"▂▂▂▂ !"
"Yeah, we're cool now"
After what had happened, there was a consensus in our group that staying much longer on the Island wasn't going to be possible. The hunters and mercenaries needed to be locked up, furthermore, none of the researchers wanted to do any research anymore.
As the mercenaries wouldn't be helping carry the equipment anymore, going back the same way we came would take too much time. That's why I decided to turn into my full dragon form, take everyone and all the equipment with me, and fly away back to the ships.
It was getting dark however, so we decided to first rest this night out and then travel back in the morning, it was during this time of rest that we received a pleasant surprise.
"▂▂▂▂ !"
Parrot the Gryphon had appeared with his family, bringing them to thank us he also said that after some thought, he decided to allow the researchers to study him and his family, the only condition being that too much touching was out of the picture.
When I told the researcher in our group that, they all jumped out in pure joy.
While everyone had to have fun studying the Gryphon family, I went to an empty on top of our ship's cabin, there all by myself I began pondering about all that had happened.
Despite my desire to prevent that from happening, I, in the end, did become a bit arrogant.
My path until now had been too smooth; I found a mythical zoan, received direct training from my grandpa who's a living legend, made good friends, joined the marine and rose ranks quickly, and in all the missions I took part I won with little problem.
As of now the only real opponent I had was Guo Jing, only a single man that, in the end, I still defeated. That made me slowly, but surely, become a bit too full of myself. I genuinely believed not a single enemy in the South Blue would have been strong enough to make me, the Lightning Dragon, face a loss.
However, reality proved me wrong.
Despite all my strength yesterday the hunter managed to give me the slip, trapping me like a dumb animal and then running away. And today, despite defeating the hunter's aerial attack, I fell once again into a trap and allowed my friends to be taken hostage.
In the end, everything turned out great, sure, but that was only due to 'Parrot' coming in and saving the day. If not for him, Tashigi, Torlo, Oscar, and everyone else would've stayed as hostages, and with that I'd have been forced to help Vanix in his evil endeavor.
"Why the sad face?" said a familiar woman's voice.
Lost in my thoughts I barely noticed Tashigi climbing the cabin and sitting beside me to my left, looking at me concern was clear in her eyes.
With a humorless smile, I shook my head before answering "After what I did today, this is the only face I could've. I was a failure today Tashigi, that's something clear as day"
Hearing my words she frowned, and with a quick move, she chopped at my forehead with her right.
"Ouch!" normally a hit of this caliber wouldn't wave hurt, but something in this one made it painful enough to make me recoil "What's that for?!"
"That's for acting like an idiot"
"How I'm being an idiot?"
"By thinking you're the sole responsible for what happened today!" She said almost shouting.
"But it is my fault" I shouted with a certain helplessness to my tone "As the leader I should've prevented a situation like today from happening"
Hearing me say that Tashigi chopped at my forehead again, something that again made me recoil.
"To someone so amazing, you can be an idiot sometimes" she said with a sigh before looking at me with stern eyes "Where in the dictionary does it say a leader needs to be perfect? That he can't make mistakes? What happened today was beyond your control, you couldn't have possibly known, so your 'failure' can't really be blamed on you"
Sighing my shoulders lowered "I know…" Raising my fist I did a partial transformation and made sparks fly from my fingers "But with the power I have, the power of a True Dragon, I shouldn't have been so helpless. If not for Parrot coming in clutch, we'd have been in a pretty shitty situation right now"
Putting her hand on my shoulder in a reassuring way Tashigi told me "The power of a True Dragon you may have, but in the end, you're still mortal like everyone else, and as mortals we all make mistakes. None of us blames you for what happened today, and you shouldn't blame yourself either"
Her words carried a great truth in them, and despite still feeling like I could've done better today, he words greatly soothed me and brought me back from the funk I was in.
"Thank You"
I said with a smile while looking deeply at her beautiful eyes, hearing my 'Thank You' she smiled back at me.
We stayed there alone together for a time after that, only returning to the group when Torlo in his usual loud tone came calling for us. Time passed and morning came, and with all the needed preparations ready both ships sailed out, leaving Verdan Island behind we made our way back to Bullfrog Island.
During the entire trajectory, none of the people we had captured had woken up, at some point I even wondered if I had killed them all, however some checking later it was seen that I had just hit them really, really, hard.
I truly did not regret doing that!
Still, due to this, we had been unable to interrogate any of them, only after some days would that be possible, however by that time they'll be out of my hands, put behind bars in Bullfrog Island they would stop being my problem and so I wouldn't get to hear what they have to say.
Which is a shame, the whole event left me with many questions answered, but as things go I probably will not be getting answers anytime soon.
"Well, It shouldn't matter that much…"
...
…
…
…
A Day Later – Somewhere in the New World, Grand Line
Inside an opulent office a massive, highly obese round-figured man could be seen sitting behind a desk especially made to fit his size, a small mountain of burgers was on his right hand and a Den-Den Mushi was on his left.
Humming a tune, the man patiently waited for someone to pick up his call, when someone did the rumbling voice of an old woman came from the other side.
"Mamamama! It's about time! So Duke, should my boys go pick up the cargo? Or should I prepare some accommodations for yours when they come here to deliver it?"
Most people who knew the woman who was the owner of this voice would've been utterly terrified when hearing it, however, the obese man didn't have any such reaction and actually went on to speak with her in a nonchalant tone.
"Yeah, about that. Sorry, the mission turned out to be a failure. My bad!"
"… What did you just say?"
"Munch Hey, don't be mad now, my boys did their best"
"You think you have any place to say that?! After I already paid you?! I was looking forward to adding those cute feathery lions to my collection damn it!"
The man named Frank Duke remained undisturbed by the terrifying rage of the woman on the other side of the line, he simply moved the den-den mushi away from his ears, grimacing at her volume.
"Do I have t to remind you of our usual contract? 'Provided the contactree fails their job, only the advancement payment will be paid'. I'm not in violation of the contract"
"That's not the damn point and you know it! How the hell will you make up for this?!"
"So unreasonable… Fine then, this incident did leave a bad taste in my mouth too. My motto is 'Good Business' after all! How about this? Next time we do business I'll do one job for free; will that be enough for you Linlin?"
There was a pause as the woman on the other side pondered about what Duke said, then, after a time, she said:
"Hmmnn… Guess we gotta forgive and forget. Now then, what should I use this offer on... "
A time later after that call had ended the man named Frank Duke put his den-den mushi aside and picked up a clipboard on his desk, in it some important info he had received that morning.
"Guess I should be happy that three of my boys in the South Blue had remained, at least they had been able to safeguard their ship and the other cargo in it. Still, that leaves a few questions…" Tossing the clipboard aside Frank Duke looked towards the door and yelled "Lamb Chop!"
Following his call, the door got pushed open, and from outside came a humanoid sheep dressed like a butler.
"Sir?"
"Find me all you can about the one that defeated our boys in the South Blue..."
"Right away Sir!"
As the butler went away Duke reclined away on his chair and smiled, he had no worries as to regards if his subordinates would be able to find info on the person he asked. After all, when you're one of the emperors of the underworld there are very few things that you can't your hands on.
"I can smell good business coming!"
…
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…
…
Well, that was the chapter.
The climax of this arc finally happened, and I finally managed to make Lucas use his full form in a fight. With this arc done the one particular thing that I wanted to do in the South Blue was done, that being making Lucas disrupting Big Mom's plans.
Years ago when going through the wiki, I saw that Big Mom had Gryphons taken from the South Blue to add to her collection. A footnote piece of lore really, but one that gave me the idea for this whole arc, and was, in fact, the main driving reason as to why I brought Lucas and his friends to this Blue in the first place, to make him and one of the Emperors have the first encounter, even if one done through a third party.
Speaking of him, 'Frank Duke', one of the emperors of the underworld, was a character created by my dear friends 'King0fP0wers' and allowed to be used in my story, all credits go to him. Are you curious about this new character? This new player in the great game? Then tune in to future chapters!
For now, the adventures in the South Blue have come to an end, I feel like it's time to move the story to the Grand Line. There the stakes can be higher and enemies can be way stronger. As fun as writing Lucas stomping his enemies is, he having no worthy enemy is getting old, bringing him to the Grand Line being my way of giving him foes that will actually push him to his limits.
So... that's it for now. Hope to see you all again in the future.
Thanks everyone for the constant support, you all are awesome.
Constructive critics are always welcomed.
Fiquem Bem!
