8 Going to the Jungle

I woke up to Barry poking me, "It's time to go. We don't want to get caught out during the night. It's already a stretch to reach the jungle in 1 day, we don't want to make it harder on ourselves."

I nodded then got up. Barry packs some of a few belongings before handing me a canteen, an old stale piece of bread. "You haven't eaten since we met, have you? Here eat this. We need you to keep your energy."

I nodded and thanked him before devouring the meal. We then walked in the South, in the direction I remember seeing the Jungle in.

Barry stayed silent for a moment before saying, "Be careful Marcus, it's not safe here. While the village I traded with were good folk, not all the people we will be meeting will be the same."

He elaborated, "We look like an old man and kid with a backpack full of things to steal. We are one of the most alluring targets to any would-be thief to keep your guard up."

I nodded and focused. As the day went on nothing of note seemed to happen. Just as I thought the trip was going to be just a long boring walk, a group of men appeared.

They wore crude armor made by hanging pieces of wood and metal around their body for protection. The weapons they used seemed to just be clubs made from iron or wood.

Except for a man in the front of the group. He was massive 7 ft tall. He carried a rusted and dull wood chopping axe in one hand and a broken sword in the order.

He said, "Hey, hey, hey. Looks like some rats came scampering into our little abode. What should we do about them, boys?"

All the men in unison said, "We should rob and beat them, Boss Loyd."

Loyd smiled, "Well you heard what they said. Do you want to do this the easy or the hard way?"

Barry looked at me and with his eyes seemed to ask me, can you take them. I nodded in affirmation confident I could beat these 2-bit losers.

Barry said, "No I don't believe we want to be robbed or beaten so can you please move out of our way."

The man, Loyd, dropped his smile and said, "Boys, they refused our generous offer. Kill them."

6 men rushed me trying to kill us. I rushed into their ranks with a Bo-Bup faster than their eyes could see. Then before they could react I did a Ground Drawer kicking them in the legs.

They all fell over and before they could stand up and walked you each of them and kicked downward knocking them out.

I looked the Boss Loyd and instead of the fear I expected, I saw rage. He quickly rushed me much faster than the minions he sent out.

He started slashing at me with his axe and broken sword but I managed to dodge each of his swipes. I estimated that he probably has an Agility stat of around 19. Very good but much slower than me.

During one of his wild slashes, I hit him with a Hwechook on his head. He staggered but managed to keep up his assault.

I was surprised a person with my Vitality of 25 would have trouble standing up after then moving but he seemed to be fine. His vitality must be in the 30s for him to be this unaffected.

I need to remember this is the world of One Piece. While I may be strong for a human, in this world even the most common crook might be stronger than me.

After that change in mindset, I focused and after another missed swing I did the 3 Stage Hwechook, hitting 3 times in the head from different angles.

This was probably the strongest move I had so if I didn't knock him out I would lead to a battle of attrition. Luckily for me as soon I finished my combo he fell to the ground.

To my surprise though he was still conscious. Loyd grumbled out, "You think this is the end my boss will come for you. When I tell him what you did you will wish you had died."

He continued on threatening me before I knocked him out with a simple downward kick.

Barry walked over to me and said in a shaky voice, "That was mighty impressive what you did there. I didn't think you would be able to knock out Loyd the Titan so easily."

His name was Titan. I snorted and said, "Other than him being a bit tougher than normal it was no problem for me. Do you know about the boss he is referring to?"

Barry nodded and sighed, "I heard he works for the Shark Eaters gang. His boss Muringa apparently found a massive cache of guns so managed to expand quickly to defeat all of the other rival gangs in Devil's Shithole."

"No one knows where he got the guns or the ammunition but he must have a supplier. If not he would have run out of guns and ammunition to give to his men."

I nodded and kept that information away. I asked, "How many guns does he have?"

Barry scratched his chin saying, "Heard rumors that he has nearly 100 men with guns."

I took a sharp intake of air, while I could probably take a group of 20 men with guns, maybe even 30, I was not ready to face 100 men with guns. So I wanted to stay as far away from them as possible.

Barry seemed to notice my unease, "Don't worry he probably won't chase after us. While Loyd was valuable, he wasn't even trusted enough to receive a gun so he probably won't chase after us."

I nodded my head. He probably had greater concerns than us but if fiction has taught me anything Murphy has a habit of making the bad guys our problem anyways.

We walked the rest of the distance with no more trouble. After we exited the aptly named Devil's Shithole, Barry led us to a clearing in the forest.

In the middle lay a lake fresh with clear water. I was surprised and I asked, "How do you know about his place? Have you been to the jungle before?"

He chuckled and said, "Used to be a water runner in my youth. Would brave the jungle to get the water that we drink back in the Shithole. Not much freshwater there."

Ok. So we set up camp with all the things that Barry was carrying. He had a firestarter to allow him to quickly make fireplaces and blankets to sleep on. Not the best but good enough for now.

Barry said, "I'll take the first watch. You sleep. You must be tired from all the fighting you did."

I wasn't but I thanked him anyway. So I drifted off to sleep.