AN:

One of the more fun chapters to write. Not much else to say other than that.

Hope you like it.

Chapter 6: Early Reunion

A faint scream startled Luffy from his dreams of meat. So faint, that in his grogginess, he wasn't even sure he'd heard it. He tried to listen for the noise again but it didn't come. He looked around the clearing and couldn't help but feel that something was missing. Thinking back to before he fell asleep, it hit him, the orange-haired girl wasn't there anymore.

His eyes widened.

Things were slowly starting to connect in the boy's brain now that he was more awake. Luffy swam to where he had laid out his clothes and quickly put them on. The scream he'd heard must have been the orange-haired girl. He wasn't sure but he had a feeling and he always trusted his instincts. He needed to go find where the cave was. He was sure that's where the girl had gone. Even though she'd said she wouldn't! That peeping liar!

Finishing dressing, the slightly incensed boy quickly made his way back into the forest to go find White and the pups. He would have immediately started looking for the orangette but the scream had only awoken him. At the time, he wasn't aware enough to know where it had come from. So, because White knew where the cave was, he was going to get her to take him there. Simple as that. Luffy pushed his legs as fast as possible and the trees began to blur by his eyes as he unthinkingly dodged his way through the numerous trunks. The only thing on his mind was his destination.

White and her pack were soon in Luffy's line of sight and he pushed himself even faster until he came skidding into the clearing. "White!", he breathed out, hands on his knees, "I need you to take me to the cave, NOW!". Almost as if the wolf could sense the boy's urgency, she darted her way into the forest. The straw-hatted teen followed her retreating form, immediately breaking into a sprint again, White's pups doing the same. The black-haired boy and the younger wolves caught up to the she-wolf quickly and the group ran together as what they were, a pack.

Zoro glanced around the little spring and sighed in contentment. He'd been lucky enough to find it before night had fallen. He would have had to sleep out in the open air otherwise. Now, he had a nice hot spring to lay back and get some shut-eye in.

The young man sat in a small pool of water that stopped just below his peck muscles. Steam rose from the liquid like a smoking volcano, a testament to its heat. Trees stood in a circle around the area, making it mostly enclosed and relatively private. Zoro liked that. The actual pool itself would only fit three or four people at most and he thought it was weird that the pool looked more like a crater than a hot spring after looking under the water.

Saul had told him to go into the forest and cut down one of the trees, saying he needed some of the wood for a job. So, like any good worker, he had. Apparently, the man had 'forgotten' to tell Zoro it was impossible. He'd tried everything. Every move he had. Well… every move he had that used one sword. None of it even left a scratch. He still didn't quite understand it. He'd gone further into the forest to see if all the trees were impossible to cut and... Well... He got lost. Now that he thought back on it more, it made a lot of sense why Saul couldn't stop laughing when he gave him the job.

Zoro had given up when night began to fall, resigning himself to trying again tomorrow, and left the area to find a nice place to get some shut-eye. Little did he know, his feet would bring him to the little slice of paradise he was currently in.

The green-haired teenager scowled to himself. Even with the lucky find of the spring, he was still pissed at Saul for giving him the stupid job in the first place. He laid his head back on the edge of the pool and closed his eyes. He could think about how he was going to get back at the man later. Right now, he needed sleep, and sleep he was going to get.

Quiet spread throughout the area and Zoro slowly began to fall into the realm of Morpheus. Just as he would have lost himself to the clutches of the Sandman, however, a scream pierced through the air.

Adrenaline shot through the swordsman and his tiredness was washed away in a wave of fight-or-flight instincts. Well in his case, fight instincts. The verdet looked in the direction of the scream before jumping out of the hot water and dressing. He grabbed Wado Ichimonji and tucked it into his haramaki, bolting into the forest toward the call of distress. The sound was close enough for him to know which direction it was in so it couldn't be far.

He weaved between the trees, going as fast as he could, and soon enough Zoro had arrived at his destination. However, he wasn't prepared for what awaited him there.

A massive clearing, looking almost like a battlefield with the amount of debris around, stood in front of a huge dome-like cave. It was, more specifically, a half-sphere. Like the moon cut in half. In actuality, that couldn't have been a more apt description. Its material seemed to glow in the moonlight making it seem like there was a real moon buried in the ground, down to the craters and everything. Zoro had never seen anything like it. To add to the surrealness further, in the mouth of the cave stood a black wolf. A massive black wolf. Massive was almost an understatement.

The boy paled.

Zoro didn't know for sure, with the distance, but he thought he might be about as big as one of its fangs. For the second time in recent memory, the swordsman was at a loss. Stuff like what he was seeing just wasn't supposed to be real. First, he had to deal with the craziness Luffy had unleashed upon him and now there were building-sized wolves?! What was next? Islands in the sky?!

The teen cleared his mind and made a mad dash toward the cave entrance. He really didn't have time to ponder such things at the moment. Even in his wariness, there was a part of Zoro that was excited. Who got to say they'd fought a beast of such magnitude? There couldn't be many. The verdet grinned a beastly grin to himself as he cleared the distance to his target.

Coming closer to the mouth of the cave, Zoro could finally see where the scream that had brought him there had come from. An orange-haired girl in dark brown khaki shorts and a matching button-up top sat just beneath the massive black beast, cowering in utter fear.

"STAY AWAY!", the girl screamed as she tried to scramble backward toward some semblance of safety.

The beast was even more fearsome up close. Midnight black fur spread across its whole body and its eyes were a milky white with no pupils but Zoro had a feeling that it could see just fine. Also, his first assumption was correct, if not an understatement. Its fangs were definitely the size of him. Some even twice that.

'How the hell am I even supposed to kill this thing?!'. Zoro gulped, drawing his sword. It was one thing to be excited from afar but seeing the monster up close… was a different story. He didn't really have a choice now though, he wasn't just gonna let the girl die.

Zoro burst forward just as the massive maw of the wolf went to swallow the girl. The swordsman dove from the wolf's side and managed to grab a hold of the orangette, tossing her out of harm's way. However, the same could not be said for him. In saving the girl, he'd put himself in a very precarious position. The boy thought a mile a minute as the jaws of the beast began to close around its unintended target.

When its teeth had come close enough to closing, Zoro stabbed Wado Ichimonji into the roof of the wolf's mouth with all the strength he had. The blade didn't pierce very far but it seemed to be enough, the massive wolf recoiling and lifting its head to howl in pain. Zoro took the chance he'd made and rolled out of the jaws of death… Literally. He immediately rose back to his feet, sprinting toward the orange-haired girl he had saved. "GET OFF YOUR ASS AND RUN", he yelled at the shell-shocked orangette.

The swordsman almost completely tackled her but she had at least started to get up. He grabbed the girl's arm and led her toward the tree line, not even looking back to see if the wolf was chasing them. He was coming back after all. He still wanted to fight the thing. The two ran as if their lives depended on it and, soon, they reached the forest. "Keep running and get the hell out of here. Or don't... I don't really care, but don't expect me to save you a second time.", said Zoro, turning back in the wolf's direction.

"That's just plain rude! You didn't even ask if I was ok!", the orange-haired girl replied indignantly.

Zoro turned back and gave her a glance. He didn't know why, but he had a feeling the girl was the type that would give him a headache if he hung around her too long. "I'm gonna go fight that thing.", the swordsman stated, ignoring everything the girl said. He turned back toward the wolf who, surprisingly, hadn't moved from the mouth of the cave. Weird… It almost looked like it was guarding something. Well, he could find out when he beat it. He made to move back out into the clearing but was interrupted.

"YOU IDIOT! YOU'RE GONNA DIE IF YOU GO BACK OUT THERE!", the girl screamed at the green-haired boy. She huffed and looked to the sky as if to ask 'Why me?', "WHAT IS UP WITH ALL THE IDIOTS RECENTLY?!"

"Thanks for worrying, but you shouldn't. I won't die", he didn't even register the idiot comment and glanced back at the massive black wolf, "I won't die… probably.". He smirked, ignoring the rest of the girl's screaming, and began to walk in the direction of his adversary. Now that he didn't have to worry about the girl…

"I'M TAKING THE TREASURE IF YOU BEAT THAT THING!".

Treasure? Zoro didn't know about any treasure. When he thought about it though, it did make sense. The wolf seemed to be guarding something. It hadn't come after them when they'd run after all. "WHATEVER!", he yelled over his shoulder. He didn't really care about the treasure. He just wanted to fight the beast and that was exactly what he was going to do.

The swordsman unraveled his bandana and tied it tightly around his head. Time to see what he'd learned. His walk slowly transitioned into a run, then into a sprint, holding Wado Ichimonji out to his side. The best place to start was to try and get in and cut the wolf around the legs. If he could get it to drop lower, he could get to more vital parts. He could also just climb it but… He looked at his quickly approaching foe.

Yeah… He didn't like the idea of trying to climb the monstrous beast. Only an idiot would do something that stupid.

The wolf's eyes locked onto Zoro sprinting his way back onto the battlefield and it crouched down as if preparing to pounce on its prey. Pounce it did. The massive animal leapt straight up into the air and slammed all of its paws into the ground as it landed, cracks rocketing outward and toward the swordsman from the points of impact.

Zoro pushed off his foot and jumped into a roll to dodge out of the way of a crack that almost swallowed him whole. He was immediately back on his feet, once again sprinting his way toward his opponent and trying not to let the fact that the beast was creating earthquakes faze him. Now he understood why the area in the clearing was so messed up. The massive wolf he was fighting... had been jumping.

He was almost within striking distance of his target when it suddenly jumped again, higher this time. The boy could only watch as the beast flew out of his reach. It only occurred to him to run when he saw the massive form begin to descend.

'SHIT'.

The swordsman sprinted out from under the animal's shadow as fast as he could. He didn't even have time to look back before a massive boom sounded behind him. The shockwave blew Zoro forward as if he'd been thrown, his body ragdolling and rolling for several more yards after he landed. It was a miracle that he hadn't stabbed himself with his sword. Honestly, it was a miracle he'd managed to hold onto it at all.

The boy groaned as he rose from the ground. How the hell was he supposed to fight the thing if he couldn't even get close to it?! He looked back in the direction of the wolf and scowled when he saw it was back at the cave entrance. So it wasn't going to actively attack him. Interesting. Then it really was guarding something. He checked himself over for any injuries more serious than scrapes and when he didn't find any, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He needed to think. He hated thinking. He was more of a put your head down and do it kind of guy, but that was definitely going to get him killed if he tried it here.

Suddenly, an idea popped into Zoro's head. Saul had once mentioned that he knew of a whole group of people in the navy that used moves that seemed superhuman. He'd called them the Six Powers or something like that. One of them he'd mentioned was the Rankyaku if he remembered correctly. It was supposedly a flying slash of some sort. It was also the one giving him a crazy idea. Maybe the old man had been trying to help him more than he realized…

At the time, Zoro shook the blacksmith's words off, not really believing them, but now he realized how foolish that had been. He was just so used to things being normal that he defaulted to thinking that impossible stuff didn't exist. He needed to stop that. Luffy had already shown him some impossible stuff and the giant wolf was really selling the whole point. No longer would he be surprised by things of impossible nature. It was a promise to himself.

Bringing himself back to the matter at hand, the swordsman opened his eyes. He was going to try and give his own version of the Rankyaku, a shot. If it didn't work… Well, he'd only look stupid for a little bit. If it did work… He'd figure that out when the time came.

Zoro approached the wolf once again and stopped when he felt he was a short enough distance away. The beast made no move to attack, staring at him from its place at the entrance to the peculiar cave. The teen stared back for a moment before closing his eyes and imagining what he wanted in his mind. He would need to use every ounce of strength he had for one slash.

As he raised Wado Ichimonji above his head, grasped in both hands, Zoro felt it almost begin to vibrate. It looked like he was on the right track. He didn't know exactly what he was doing but now that he believed he could do it, half the battle was already won. The swordsman breathed in deeply, his eyes still closed, before snapping them open, a grunt of exertion leaving his mouth.

His katana came down in an overhead arc so fast, the blade created its very own lightly purple-colored slash. The projectile sped through the air at dazzling speeds toward its target who'd begun to growl as soon as the swordsman raised his sword. Just when it looked as if the air blade would surely hit, the massive beast's image disappeared, the slash continuing on its trajectory toward the wall of the cave. Without the wolf blocking its path, the flying slash hit the rock and bounced off, redirecting into the ground and creating a massive gouge in the earth.

Zoro didn't even have time to celebrate the fact that he had successfully used his sword to create a projectile as he was suddenly covered in shadow. The verdet turned immediately and came face to face with his opponent. He had no idea how it had managed to move so fast being as big as it was but he didn't really have time to think about it.

The beast's massive paw came down with blinding speed and Zoro managed to dodge being squashed by inches. Taking his chance, the swordsman threw as many slashes as he could at the leg he'd managed to dodge, blood splashing with each swipe of his sword and beginning to cover the ground beneath his feet. The wolf howled and reared back on its hind legs, escaping the bite of his blade momentarily and Zoro took the chance to dash away from the beast to attempt another flying slash. As soon as he was out of range of the wolf, he turned and swiped his sword through the air with one hand.

Nothing came from his katana… 'SHIT'.

The wolf was back on all fours and quickly moving toward Zoro once more. It looked... angry. He grabbed the hilt of Wado Ichimonji with his other hand and desperately slashed through the air again.

Unlike before, the movement was accompanied by a flying purple slash made of razor-sharp air. The purple arc glimmered as it flew and once again the huge animal disappeared from Zoro's vision. The teen turned as fast as he could, sheathing his katana, before flashing forward to behind where the large animal now stood. It all happened in the blink of an eye. "Ittōryū:", Zoro spoke, the sound of a blade clicking into its sheath echoing around the clearing, "Lion's Song".

The loudest roar of the night erupted from the black wolf as red spurted all around its paws. Zoro had managed to cut somewhat deeply around the inside of all four of its legs. 'Might not be able to move as fast now.', he thought to himself, immediately drawing Wado Ichimonji again and preparing to send yet another flying slash toward his opponent.

The swordsman brought his katana down once more and another purple arc materialized along with the wind pressure of his swing. Even though the beast was able to move its head in time, it did not vanish like before, the slash hitting the left side of its neck and leaving a large bleeding gouge. Well… large to any normal-sized human being. More like a pin prick to the monster Zoro was currently faced with. However, it seemed the beast really didn't like the pain, because it was roaring something fierce. It must have been a fairly deep cut.

Zoro ran at the beast once more.

The swordsman had only wanted to take advantage of the wolf's distraction. However, it would lead to his downfall. As soon as he began moving, the creature burst forward. The image of a paw that screamed death consumed Zoro's vision and he held his sword in front of him in a futile attempt at blocking some of the damage he was sure to take.

Vicious pain erupted across the swordsman's body as the paw slammed into him, sending his body flying across the clearing. He was definitely going to be hurting after this… if he even lived. The boy rolled and rolled and rolled until he eventually came to a stop, his form lying still. He grimaced, pain shooting all throughout his body. There were definitely some things broken. He shifted slightly and hissed to himself. Scratch that. There were a lot of things broken. The teen raised his head to look at what the monster wolf was doing, his body severely protesting the movement.

It was beginning to approach and it looked… scary to say the least. He must have really made it mad. Its face was stuck in a permanent snarl that made it look as if it wanted to devour him whole. It was very different from the image of the statuesque guardian he saw before he'd attacked. The verdet groaned as he pulled himself to his knees and slowly made his way to his feet, watching the massive animal's approach. He wasn't happy about almost being done in after just one hit but come on! Look at the size of the thing!

He finally got all the way to his feet, standing stock still as the beast came closer. Once it stood over him, Zoro looked it directly in its massive white eyes, "I ain't goin' down without a fight."... It might have been the wrong thing to say.

The beast roared and opened its maw in another attempt to eat the swordsman.

"YOU ALREADY TRIED THAT ONCE! YOU OVERSIZED MUTT!", Zoro yelled and grasped Wado Ichimonji as if preparing to stab it into the ground. The ground in the current situation being the roof of the wolf's mouth. Just as the massive jaws began to close and Zoro prepared to strike, he heard a loud voice.

"ALRIGHT FOREST GUY! AS COOL AS YOU ARE, I'M STILL GONNA BEAT YOU UP AND TAKE YOUR TREASURE! AN OLD MAN TOLD ME TO, SO I GOTTA!".

A boom sounded throughout the clearing and the beast that almost sent Zoro to the afterlife was rocketed across the clearing. The swordsman could only gape as the large form about to swallow him whole landed from its flight and rolled not unlike he had moments earlier.

"ZORO?!", a voice exclaimed in surprise.

Said teen turned in the direction of the voice and almost fell from the shock, "LUFFY?! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!".

No thoughts went through Luffy's mind as he and the pack raced toward their destination. Thinking would only make him slower. They were running at an even faster pace than before after hearing loud booms, like the sounds of cannon fire, coming from the direction in which they were headed.

Luffy focused all the energy he had into his legs and felt his enhancement spread through them. He needed to go faster than he was right now. Why he hadn't thought of it sooner he could think on later. He had to get to the girl… SHE WAS GONNA TAKE HIS TREASURE! She might also be in danger, but that was secondary.

"White! I'm going ahead! I think I can find the way from here!", he yelled to his companion, already bounding ahead of the group of wolves. His enhanced legs helped him increase his speed by a good margin and Luffy's form began to blur through the forest as he made his way to the place where the cannon-like booms were coming from.

The tree line of the area he was looking for quickly came into view and he wasted no time sprinting through it. Coming into the large clearing, Luffy saw something that he wished he had more time to admire. It was just that cool. A dark black wolf, the size of which he'd never seen, stood with its mouth open as if to eat something off the ground. The boy had seen plenty of large animals before but nothing as large as the wolf. It must be the forest guy he was looking for.

As much as he wanted to stop and admire the animal, he didn't. The wolf was about to chomp down on something and when he looked closer, Luffy thought he could see a human form in between its open jaws. The black-haired teen raced toward who he thought was the orange-haired girl he'd met in the pond.

She wasn't gonna die on his watch, he still had to get mad at her for being a liar! He didn't even really care about the lying, he just really wanted the treasure she was trying to steal from him. Peepers sure were sneaky… He would just have to get the treasure first. To do that, he had to beat the massive wolf in front of him. He was definitely gonna have to give it all he had. Just look at how big it was. It was as big as a huge building!

Luffy brought his hardening to his knuckles, grey-black immediately forming on his hand in response to his will. He was getting better. He'd been practicing his armament for the entire time he had been with White and almost didn't even need to think about it now. He could even enhance and use what he had decided to call Armament Hardening at the same time! Little did he know, he'd chosen its actual name. He didn't know how exactly how long he'd been in the forest, but he did know that he was glad he had the time to practice.

The straw-hatted boy had practiced bringing the black haki forth, as well as holding it, every day. On some of those days, White and her pack had to hunt by themselves because Luffy couldn't move from using too much Armament Haki. It was never very fun. Now though, not only could he summon his hardening faster, he could also use it for longer.

"ALRIGHT FOREST GUY! AS COOL AS YOU ARE, I'M STILL GONNA BEAT YOU UP AND TAKE YOUR TREASURE! AN OLD MAN TOLD ME TO, SO I GOTTA!", Luffy yelled as he jumped in the middle of his stride, his form blurring through the air. In the time it took to travel to his target, Luffy had pulled back his hardened knuckles and loaded every ounce of strength he had into his arm. The boy's fist shot forward like a cannon and connected with its target.

A large boom echoed in the air and Luffy's hand sunk into the fur of the massive wolf, its side rippling from the impact. As if hit by a speeding train, the building-sized animal flew through the air in an almost straight line. When it finally landed, its massive body rolled more than a few times before stopping, its form stilling.

Luffy let his hardening fade and landed on his feet. His eyes met the back of the person he had saved from the big bad wolf and they widened, "ZORO?!".

The green-haired teen whirled around and a look of shock overcame his face, "LUFFY?! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?".

Luffy didn't even think before answering. He was so excited to see his friend! "An old guy told me to come beat this thing up and get its treasure.", he replied, excitedly.

Zoro paused for a moment, taking in his words, "An old guy… told you… to come here… beat that… thing… and take whatever it's guarding?", Zoro asked, incredulously.

"Yep, sounds about right!", Luffy replied, a smile on his face. He had really liked the old guy.

Laughter burst through the swordsman's lips and even as the sound left his mouth, he held his body in pain, "Only you could get convinced by an old man to go into a forest to look for treasure!", Zoro groaned, laughing through the grinding of the broken bones in his body.

The straw-hatted boy watched his friend, a tick mark forming on his head, "Well, why the hell are you here then?!". It was Zoro's fault that he was even out here in the first place. He said he wanted to be alone!

The green-haired boy reigned in his laughter and answered, still chuckling slightly, "An old guy told me to come cut down a tree...".

…

…

…

"Damn it.".

Luffy immediately broke into laughter, rolls reversing as Zoro scowled at him, "Stupid Zoro! You can't cut down these trees!".

"I KNOW THAT ALREADY, IDIOT!", Zoro screamed with shark teeth. He immediately paused and looked bashfully off to the side, "I know that now at least…".

Luffy continued to laugh and Zoro apparently had decided to just wait it out, a scowl on his face. The younger boy held his stomach in humor-induced pain, "That is jus-".

The conversation was interrupted by a howl coming from the far side of the clearing. Both Zoro and Luffy looked to see the wolf sitting at the mouth of its cave, eyes seemingly locked onto Luffy as if urging him to come forth and challenge him.

"Go.", the verdet said, tracing the beast's gaze to its target, "It obviously wants to fight you.".

Luffy looked at his battered friend and nodded toward him, "You gonna be ok?". The verdet looked to be pretty beaten up. Kind of black and blue all over, really. Luffy was definitely gonna get in a few punches for his friend.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I might have been able to win if I really had to. But now that you're here I'll just let you handle it. I need to sit down anyway.", he replied, hunching slightly in pain.

"Alright! It's time to get my treasure! No way I'm letting that girl get it first!", Luffy exclaimed as he sped off into battle. Zoro tried to say something as the boy left, already hardening his knuckles once again, but Luffy was so excited about the fight he was about to have and the treasure he was going to find that he didn't hear.

The straw-hatted boy's black eyes met the milky white of the Forest Lord's. Huh. They looked kind of like White's eyes to him. Only these were white and hers were black. Weird. The beast stood to all fours, preparing to meet its foe halfway. There was a hint of something on its face... It almost looked like excitement.

Luffy's steps were more like leaps as he approached the massive wolf, closing the distance in seconds while the beast mirrored him with its own huge steps. The boy wasted no time, not even thinking before he leapt toward the Forest Lord, brandishing his hardened knuckles. The wolf wasn't as fast now, with the cuts Zoro had inflicted previously slowing it down but it still had enough mobility to leap out of Luffy's way. As the boy sailed through empty air, a giant paw slammed into his back sending him back down to the earth like a bullet.

The straw-hatted boy groaned from his position buried in the ground but moved just quickly enough to dodge a second paw that would have smashed him flat. It was a good thing he'd been enhancing, the blow may have broken him otherwise. Luffy scrambled through the legs of the wolf, dodging left and right as it continued to try and crush him. He shifted just in time to avoid yet another massive paw slamming into the ground and saw his chance. He'd been holding his hardening for a good opportunity and one had finally come. He reared his arm back and shot it toward the gash in the wolf's leg in the blink of an eye.

The beast howled in pain as the punch pierced through its wound like butter. Luffy pulled his bloody fist out and replaced it with his other one, continuing back and forth like a gatling gun. The boy's fists blurred as he inflicted as much damage as he could at that moment. It was short-lived, however, as the Lord of the Forest leapt into the air with a howl. Thinking quickly, Luffy grabbed the animal's fur and joined it in its flight. As the midnight black form sailed through the air, he hung on tightly, a crazy idea forming in his head.

The wind began to die down when the two opponents neared the point at which they would begin to fall back to the earth below and the straw-hatted boy took his chance. He began scaling the beast, enhancing his legs to make the process faster. When he reached the wolf's back, he immediately bent and put all of his strength into launching himself into the air as the wolf began its descent.

Luffy rocketed higher and higher until he reached his own apex where he turned and finally noticed how high he was. He could even see Zoro from up there! Speaking of Zoro, he needed to punch Forest Guy for him still! It looked as if he was floating in the air for a moment before, he too, began to fall back to the earth. The boy could only scream in joy as his eyes gazed at the descending black form below him. With his target in sight, Luffy enhanced the majority of his body and dove, a hand bearing four hardened knuckles leading the way.

The Lord of the Forest landed first with a loud boom, a shower of debris exploding into the air, and the straw-hatted boy was not far behind.

Heat began to gather on Luffy's fist as the air rushed by his face. He'd never moved faster in his life, only just barely being able to process his surroundings at the speed he was going. At the same time, it made it kind of nice that the wolf was so big. Larger targets were easier to hit. Well... in his experience at least.

"ALRIGHT FOREST GUY! THIS ONE'S FOR HURTING MY FRIEND!", the straw-hatted boy screamed before connecting with his target.

A second boom sounded throughout the air above and the earth shattered below, Luffy's fist blasting into the back of the black wolf faster than an actual cannon. The beast's form rippled and buckled as it was buried into the ground, the momentum Luffy was carrying pushing it deeper and deeper into the earth.

End Note:

A little bit of a cliffhanger, but don't hate me too much. The next chapter will be up in a couple of days at most.

I'm also curious, did anyone call the big bad wolf or did I throw you guys like I wanted to? I'm usually not great at that kind of stuff, so I'm sure it was obvious.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you in the next one.