132 cleaning east blue final (1/2)
Crouching slightly, Alex jumps at Kreig in a mighty leap. Keeping near to the ground, his body contorted nearly on his own as he past pirates toward his target. With but a wave of two of his tails, he leaves behind a bloody path when hacking into the unsuspecting men.
Pushing lightly on his left feet, he rises above them suddenly, stretching of all is length, before plunging again amid the shocked crew. While they were all gawking at the feat of fitness, not a single of them reacts rapidly enough to avoid the end of Kreig spear, striking where Alex was, just a second before.
As the explosion ring, five pirates suddenly fall on themselves, their Achilles' tendon cut, offering a neat shield to Alex from the explosion.
Kreig fighting style wasn't meant for close combat, not with his men all around. Launching the moaning pile of bodies to their captain, Alex hides in their shadows, circling them to arrive on Kreig left.
Surprised by the sudden attack, he reflexively swung his spear again, striking the inform mass nearing him at high speed. While open and obstructed by the smokescreen, Kreig only understands what happens when he feels his chest becoming lighter.
Giving a rapid glance, he sees with horror that his chest plate had vanished, leaving him only with his skintight black suit underneath. Moving his finger, he activates the guns on the left part of his armour on the left side, pelting it with bullets.
But Alex was already knowing the man style and had long since vanished behind him the second he was successful. Conturning his entirely, he was standing on his right side the moment he fires the mounted pistols.
With him concentrated on his left side, his grip on his spear had naturally lesser, allowing Alex to store every piece of armour from the finger to the shoulder, before retreating in the crowd as the smoke dispersed.
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”Stop hiding your coward!” Shout Kreig furiously, after losing his chest plate and every piece of armour from his upper right side.
Never before had he face such an opponent. The man, while taller than most, even him, was incredibly stealthy and quick. He even stole his armour while he was still wearing it, and didn't feel a thing! This was maddening! For a man like him who heavily rely on tricks and his weapons, the boy was turning into his worst adversary! He had lost his main weapon and the larger piece of protection he had. His diamond knuckles were gone, he only had left his pistol on his left shoulders and leg, as well as his flame thrower, who was now useless, as the liquid cartridge was in his chest piece.
Deprived of nearly all his weapon, he was left with hand-to-hand, but before that, he needs to found him in the sea of dumb morons that was looking at him with wide eyes.
”DOn't stay like this, and search for him!” Scream him at them, snapping them back, before they ear pained yell on the far end of the deck, literally at the other side of their position.
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Alex was running on pure instinct, already immersed completely in the fight, for the first time in his life. Weaving through the men, he hacks, slash, parry, dodge, side-jump and strike without thinking.
For the first time of his life, he understands why it feels so good to let his body exprimate itself. He was born with an otherworldly speed and instinct. His mind-hand coordination was so good that his limbs were moving nearly freely, evading blow on their own, while still keeping a connection with his mind, allowing him to retake control of them the instant he needs.
But he didn't. In the HP world, it had been his magic, In DanMachi, it had been mindless creatures, and in ZnT his mind. Now, it was time for his body and instinct to run wild, and rather to fight it, he fully embraces the feeling.
Lost at the marvels of the prowess of his pumping blood, stretching muscles and fleshes, the coordination of his mind, all his attention was on this tenuous links maintaining and turning the whole into a beautiful dance of death.
While barely skilled, the sheer numbers of adversaries were pushing his body for the first time. He was loving the slight strains his muscles were put under for the first time, the exhilaration of shedding blood, the constant' minors change he could feel his instinct operating on his body, making him better, stronger, deadlier.
For the first time of his life, Alex was feeling free, totally free, and he loves it.
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While he was basking into the feelings of euphoria, Kreig crew was far from sharing his feeling.
They were terrified at the monster shredding mauling and seeking them. He was a single man and yet, he was cutting through them like a sharp blade mowing the lawn. The men on the two free ships were all rushing there, but their numbers didn't seem to rise, on the contrary, they seem to lose more and more men. For every one crossing the gangplank, two were falling by that demon hand and tails.
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While curious as to why most of their opponent seems distracted, none of them misses the opportunities. Unlike Alex, they weren't against using their fire ability, the only power he had shared with them, burning through dozen at a time. Their fight was rapidly finished, and while Kiuna and Tashigi would have prefered to use their blades rather than fire, it wasn't the place to be difficult.
With the ships only left with burned and poisoned corpses, they all dart inside the ships, trying to salvage as much as possible, bringing everything on the deck, crushing some of the littering corpses at the same time.
While still keeping their guard just in case, they were surprised that not a single pirate was coming their way. They were around 200 men on each of their ships. With only 5 of them, it should have been around 360 men they should have faced, but the other 100+ never came.
It was only after they finish to gather as much as possible supplies that they understand why.
There, on one of the two ships that had tanked the cannon fire, all the rest of the men, the 800 were. Every one of them rushing at the slowly moving cluster formed at the end of the deck.
The only thing left behind it was knee-high (for them, so a little higher than waist high for any 'normal' men) pile of the corpse, all showing large bleeding gash. They could see the hundreds of litres of blood soaking the deck, tainting the wood into a sombre red shade. There was so much of it that it was starting to accumulate into a thick layer of liquid on it.
The mix of charred corpses and heavy iron sent was turning them a little sick, but they stay still, looking at their man achieving the impossible.
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'More, faster, lighter!'
Was all Alex thoughts at the moment, every parcel of concentration was fixedly directed into those single objectives. He had long since starting to accumulate small wounds, cut and blunt strikes, but it was nothing compared to the heavy, and mortal damages he was dealing each time.
His body seems to have started to learn on his own to doges, something bending more that it was humanly possible, leaving weapons barely scratches and cut his skin when they should have open the fleshes.
Rather than tiring from all those slashes and dodges, he wasn't feeling like exhausting his body, he was even feeling like he was keeping his reserve at the same capacity, or feeling them decrease so slowly that it was nearly inexistent.
What he wasn't knowing was that he was slowly improving his movements, with a subtle change of power and position, he was erasing superflux moves, better controlling his force and thus wasting less stamina, giving the impression that he was keeping it at the same level.
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”What are you waiting! continue to swarm him, he is tiring! GO!” ANgrily yell Kreig at his men.
”Don, shouldn't it be better for me or pearl to deal with him?” Ask Gin, while looking at the massacre, not the less perturbated that his Don was sending his troops to their death.
”If they can't bring him down I have no use of them for Grand Line. If they can't kill a name-less kid of east blue, what use they will have in Grand Line?”
Gin could only nod at this, knowing it was true. More so, they are short in ships, it wouldn't hurt to thin the crew, leaving just the stronger behind and recruit one on Grand Line if need.
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Alex had long since turned red from all the splattering blood he had received but he couldn't care less. Every time blood was flooding his hands and blades he would store it, leaving him to keep an iron grip on them.
He was feeling the tumps of his blood in his veins, the heat spreading to the confine of his limbs, his stamina, lowering a little more with each strike. Even his breath was starting to turn erratic, laborious, multiples...
The realisation was sudden, it was not his breath that was turning short, but there, he could feel it faintly, flickering on and off, the hairs on his body suddenly jolts, feeling as if the wind was blowing on his raw nerves, but without any pain.
He was aware. Aware of everything that was happening as far as he could stretch his tails, the breath of everything. the wind, the steel in their hands, the beck below him, even the corpses and blood seems to give off a particular breath.
For the first time in his life, he was feeling the breath of the wild.
But even when he feels it, his concentration never wavers, it even seems to rise, as if the barrier of his mind had been broken, freeing it to the external world. With but a thought, his blade fall on the raised steel mace ready to strike him, only to cut in without any problem, continuing its path unbothered, gutting the dumbfounded wielder.
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All the pirates forming the tight cluster around him seems to freeze at the impossible sight. All their thoughts immediately derivated from the fight to a single question.
'How can he cut steel like it wasn't here?!'
This was all he needs. Pushing the new feeling at his maximum, he melts in, a silver of fire, before crouching slightly and spinning on himself, his arm extending as much as he can, subconsciously muttering.
”Nitôryû, fire ring blast!”
Releasing the build-up energy while rising, a thin blue fire ring form at the drawn edge in the air, before immediately expending downward, burning through the surrounding into a six-meter wide disk centred on him.
The thin layer of fire was so much condensed that it burns through anything on its path, be it steel, flesh or bones. The tightly formed cluster of pirates immediately turns into a blank space around him as a headless corpse with cauterised wounds falls.
He immediately feels the strain on his stamina, burning through his reserves and taking a good chunk with it. It also snaps him of his previous mental state. Seeing the dumbfounded expression of all, he immediately throws his knives to his tails, making his rifle appears, and shot Kreig.
Having aim at the unprotected chest, a fist-sized hole appears on their Don body, under the frozen gaze of his two lieutenants on his side. When they turn their head to the culprit, they barely had the time to take a glimpse at the flying shadow, before a knife impaled them, Gin in the heart, and Pearl, in the hole of his shield, leaving his throat open.