452 | Sea Kings!

"This really complicates things…" Fleet Admiral Sengoku said from the other side. Luffy had explained the situation to him, and it seemed the marine head shared his view.

"So what do you want me to do old man?" Luffy asked, "I could take Dr Hogback down… but I would much rather not set foot there…"

There was also the fact about saving Moria. With how Perona had explained Dr. Hogback's power, he more or less controlled people with his parasites… so they were still a chance that he's still alive and curable in some regard. But who knows?

Personally, Luffy would see no reason as to why Dr. Hogback might keep him alive. Personal grudge maybe? Or using Moria as a puppet, a strong puppet, to do his bidding? Both were viable options, but… it might happen that, after all the fighting they might come to know that Moria isn't alive. So yeah, he didn't want to waste his effort here.

"This also explains why two of my navy battleships have gone missing there…" Sengoku said in a low tone, his voice hiding cold anger for the Thriller Bark pirates, "I fear what might have happened to them… even though it's a bit of a sudden, I'm changing the task. Dr. Hogback is much more of a threat and he is to be either captured or killed… and if you can, then please save the marines that have been taken control."

Luffy frowned, he knew this might end up happening. And he wasn't opposed to it, he just needed to get a good deal for this. But right he was thinking that, the whole ship shook as if something had impacted them from outside.

Luffy frowned, but chose to finish dealing with Sengoku first before doing anything else.

.

Outside,

After Luffy had left for his room, the crew had nothing much else to do but question Perona or Brook about things around here. As they already had lunch, they were planning to follow along with Luffy had planned and were waiting for his orders.

While some of the crew, like Zoro, Kuina, and Gin were eager to get to Thriller Bark, the same couldn't be said for all of the crew. Especially, the more Perona told about the place.

"Awful and stinky experiments were quite common in that place… I always hated Dr Hogback's work, but Gecko Moria always thought he had control over him, until he didn't…" she said with a somewhat somber tone. Now that she had a good meal, —after almost a month of surviving her own horrible cooking skills— she was much more open to a conversation then before.

"How did you even live in that place, Perona-chan?" Chopper asked, somewhat horrified about the horrifying beats that roamed in the floating island ship of Thriller Bark.

The girl shrugged, "Eh… I grew up there. It might not be all pretty, but it was home." She said, and in some way she missed it.

"It was a creepy place! I will tell you that!" Brook said, "Even I was scared!"

"Hey, don't say that right in front of her face!" Sanji complained.

"Wait? Have you been to that place before?" Nami asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Eh… kind of… multiple times really… not that I was intending to go there… oh! Now I remember who Dr. Hogback is?!" Brook said, planting his left fist in his right palm. "He attacked…" But he was cut off as his eyes widened, "What's that…" he said pointing at something in the dark fog.

Everyone who was near, followed Brook's skeleton finger and became pale at what they saw.

Terror seized the pirate crew as the sea erupted before them, a behemoth lobster-like sea king arising from the depths. Its crustacean form loomed stories high, malignant black eyes narrowing at the pitiful vessel bobbing insignificantly before it.

"That's SUPER huge!" Franky said, and that wouldn't be an understatement.

The creature was at least twenty to thirty times the size of the Thousand Sunny, easily able to topple the ship if it wanted.

Its titanic pincers snapped menacingly, eager to crush wood and bone within their vice-like grip. The ship rocked violently as waves smashed against the hull, dislodged boxes and barrels careening wildly across the deck. The pirates clung to railings and masst, praying to survive this brush with colossal, primal doom. All the while, the beady gaze of the sea king remained fixed angrily upon them,

"Shit!" Nami cursed, as the creature swang it's claws towards the small ship, intending to crush it with it's size alone. "Zoro!"

"Already one it! And finally some action!" The green-haired swordsman said with a menacing grin as he jumped in the air drawing his blade, "Cut Nozarashi!"

And with one slice, the whole large claw split in the middle, catching green flames as the sea king roared as it tried to attack with it's other claw, but before it could, its face exploded into an explosion. Taking out one of its eye.

"Nice shot, baby!" Usopp whooped, as he shot from the staged canon on the Thousand Sunny.

"Sunny SUPER shotooo!" Franky said, firing from the other canon, beside Usopp. Hitting the lobstar like sea king's head, making the already angry monster roar. It's roar shook the area, throwing back wind and wave as it franticly tried to attack the Thousand Sunny.

"Oi, what's happening?" Luffy said, coming out of his room. He then looked at the giant lobster sea king, "Who ordered seafood without me?"

"Now, isn't the time to joke!" Vivi called out, holding onto the ship, as it rocked back violently, "Kill that thing…"

"Now… now, why be violent?" Luffy said, just as Kuina unleashed a large ice slash, that made a deep cut through and froze the sea king. The beast lost was already half dead, but it was angry enough to retaliate.

But before he could something else popped out of the water, a smaller cow sea kings ramming its head right into the chest of the lobster-sea-king, before toppling it over the water.

"Who-ho! Go Momooo!" Usopp cheered. Usually, Momoo would have been much smaller than the lobster sea king, but when you have the power of 'size' on your side, you don't need to worry about that.

Both sea kings were wild on the sea, as the lobster sea king saw it's end. But while doing so, it thrashed the sea, sending waves of tsunami towards the Thousand Sunny.

"No! We are gonna die!" Brook yelled and Perona shared his fears.

Cricket rolled his eyes, "Tch… rookies."

"Bari Bari bubble!" A round green-shaped bubble surrounded the ship as it was pushed back, and rode the waves with ease. But that didn't mean, the stuff on the ship wouldn't topple over. But Sparky was there to slow things down, before anything fell off from the ship.

Soon the waves calmed down and Bartolomeo dropped the barrier, "I'm beat!" the pirate said, while panting.

"Everyone alright?" Johnny asked.

"Gah! I think I broke my back" Yosaku grumbled, but he was ignored.

All of the crew, were scattered but managed to keep their selves on the ship, but that wasn't the problem.

"Why did that Sea King look angry at us?" Chopper said, mumbling to himself. Bepo who had a bucket over his head for protection, tilted his head at his friend's question. "It almost seemed to be controlled…"

"Umm… guys," Coby said, his ears twitching as he picked up the sounds, "I think we might have a problem…"

Right as he said that, multiple creatures from the sea erupted forward, giant sea kings and monsters that looked angry at the Thousand Sunny, ready to attack.

Gin gave out a predatory grin as he spun his weighted tonfas, "I see them more of a challenge…"

"This will be fun…" Zoro said agreeing with him.

"Now, now… Don't forget to strike fear in the hearts of your enemy," Luffy said with a laugh with a feral grin on his face. His nameless naginata already on his hand, he pointed the blade forward, "Charge!"

The crew or at least those that were eager to fight roared jumping out from the Going Merry, and charging at the dozens of Sea Kings that were targeting them.

.

On the other end,

Dr Hogback's jaw dropped on the floor as he saw what played out on the screens, "What kind of monsters are they?!"

- [ Sorry for not uploading for a while. I'll try to get back to brining in regular chapters, so yeah. Have a nice day!]

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