Chapter 17: Progression So Far

(Two Months later) Location: Wano

It was late at night, and the Lunarian couldn't fall asleep as he was still full of energy, so he carefully got up from bed so that he didn't wake up his pregnant girlfriend and quietly left their home.

To pass the time, Crow went to another island to train with Titan's powers so that he could continue to improve his usage of his recently acquired abilities.

Ever since he obtained the power of the Nine, the Lunarian has been training nearly non-stop so that he could eventually use his new abilities for long periods without having to worry about getting exhausted quickly in battle, which so far has come along pretty well.

When Mikasa said that the power of the Nine was physically taxing, she wasn't exaggerating. Even with the significant boost in stamina, the Cart Titan gave him didn't do much for his overall Titan training.

Within the first week, just transforming into his Titan form two times depletes seventy-five percent of his stamina, and he can't use most of his new abilities more than ten times at the risk of draining his life force.

However, his lack of stamina for his new powers could easily be fixed with King's brutal training/torture sessions and his own training regime, so the teen wasn't all too worried about it.

By the end of the first month, the Lunarian could perform four transformations before feeling fatigued, and he could use most of his Titan abilities more than forty times before risking his life force.

By the second month, his results doubled. The Lunarian could now perform eight consecutive transformations before feeling fatigued, and he could use most of his Titan abilities eighty times before suffering any risks.

Besides his improvements with his Titan training, the Lunarian discovered that he had an affinity for the Warhammer and Attack Titan.

And due to his affinities with two of the Nine, the teen could manipulate crystals without much difficulty, nor did it cost him any of his energy, and his regenerative capabilities were potent enough that he could heal from almost anything near instantly and had perfect control on what he could regenerate.

Other than his affinities, the Lunarian took to understanding his other Titan abilities relatively well.

Crow was able to manipulate steam at a high level. The teen could alter his Titan form's size from twenty to thirty meters, and he could also modify his own size from his original height to King's height. He could release sonic screams powerful enough to destroy boulders the size of large buildings.

Sometime during the second month, the Lunarian discovered the animal trait he inherited from the Beast Titan, and he was pleasantly surprised to see it a dragon. Honestly, the teen was expecting to turn into a giant humanoid bird, but hey, he wasn't complaining.

Dragons are just awesome, and if anyone says otherwise, well, their opinion doesn't matter.

The Lunarian's Beast Titan or Dragon form naturally stood at twenty-five meters, was heavily muscled, had two curved horns on its head, round golden eyes, massive bat-like wings, hind legs, and a long, thick tail with spikes. The body of the Titan was predominantly black, with parts like the horns, spikes, claws, wing membranes, and most of the torso being red.

In this form, Crow gains a massive boost in power, durability,

speed, senses, and the ability to emit beams of Haki from his mouth. The downside with this form was that it consumed more energy than his regular transformations, and it was too destructive to shift into when nearby allies, so he had to be selective with transformation.

Despite his significant progress, the Lunarian still hadn't made notable improvements with the Founding Titan's abilities or with transforming into the Colossal Titan.

The reason he hadn't made any improvements on the Founding Titan was that, unlike the rest of the Nine, he didn't have immediate access to its powers and would have to awaken them, which the teen had no idea how to do as Mikasa stated that awakening the power of the Founding Titan was different for each Titan Shifter, so he was pretty much on his own.

As for the Lunarian's issue with transforming into the Colossal Titan, it was because the transformation power was too destructive for him to control. Even transforming into a lesser version of the Colossal Titan released enough energy to destroy entire islands, so using that while allies were nearby was a no-go until he mastered his control over the form.

Minor setbacks aside, Crow was happy with his current progression as, thanks to his intense training, he physically felt better than ever before!

With training his stamina so much, the Lunarian barely needed to sleep any more; just two or three hours was enough for him to function fully, and because of the amount of free time he had, the teen was a lot more productive with his time.

The Lunarian also improved his other capabilities, such as his physical abilities, combative skills, Haki, and fire manipulation.

Thanks to his Titan, power, strength, durability, and speed had increased tenfold, while his vitality was triple that amount due to his Titan training.

Crow's combative skills, or more specifically his skill with a sword, hadn't improved as much as he'd like as King had been busy lately, but thankfully, Mikasa helped keep his skill with a blade sharp, so there was that. For his hand-to-hand capabilities, the Lunarian had no issue with improving that skillset, as he always had a knack for ramming his fist, elbow, knee, foot, or skull into someone else's, so there wasn't much to worry about on that front.

For his overall Haki capabilities, if the Lunarian had to make a comparison, his Haki was slightly above Yamato regarding skill and potency.

His fire manipulation was one of his abilities that improved then most drastically, which he later found out was an odd side effect of inheriting the power of the Nine. Now, his flames were thirty times hotter than before.

Was his fire anywhere hot enough to match what King or Kaido could produce?

Ha. Not even fucking close.

Still, progress was progress, and the Lunarian couldn't complain.

(Timeskip: Eight Hours Later)

"There you are!" Crow stopped what he was doing and looked into the air to see King descending to the ground. "I've been looking and calling you for the past three hours!" he said, making the teen chuckle sheepishly and rub the back of my head.

"My bad, guess I got lost in my training..." The teen's eyes widened when a realization came to him. "Wait, how did you even find me?"

"Had to ask Mikasa for help," King shrugged.

"Ah, ok, so whatcha want?"

The older Lunarian pulled out his blade and gave it a few good swings. "Due to being so busy lately, it's been a while since we had a good ol' spar, and Mikasa has told me you've gotten better with a sword," he then pointed the blade at the teen. "Let's see if thats true," King challenged, looking at his apprentice with a bloodthirsty grin.

Crow matched his grin. "Alright. Just let me grab my sword real quick," the teen quickly went to grab his swords, and once he returned, he got into a battle stance.

"You ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

The two looked at each other for several moments. Neither made a sound nor made a move. Then, moving at speeds most couldn't follow, both Lunarians vanished from their spots, so suddenly it seemed like they teleported, and a moment later, the sound of steel hitting against steel could be heard.

When their blades clashed against each other, it produced a powerful shockwave that destroyed everything within a ten-meter radius, and large amounts of Haki could be seen emitting from their bodies furiously.

Both Lunarians locked blades and looked at each other with crazed grins.

"You certainly gotten stronger!" King said, looking at his fellow Lunarian in pride

While Crow may not think he has gotten much stronger, King believes the opposite. Three months ago, the teen could barely handle two percent of his strength. Now, Crow could match it with ease.

It looks like he'll have to increase the intensity of Crow's torture--he means training tenfold again!

Oh, how he's looking forward to that!

"Not as strong as I'd like!" the teen gritted his teeth and pushed the older Lunarian back.

The teen thrust his blade towards King's head, but the Lunarian easily evaded the attack but moved his head slightly to the right and went for a counterattack by swinging his blade toward Crow's abdomen.

However, Crow jumped back a few feet to evade the attack and was about to go on the offense but was beaten to the punch as he quickly raised his blades to block a strike toward his head.

The strength behind the older Lunarian's attack caused the ground beneath the teen to crack and his knees to almost buckle in ache, but with sheer willpower, he managed to fight through the pain.

Crow let out a roar and kicked King back, surprising the older man. The teen closed the distance between them and swung his blades at different areas on the older Lunarian's body in hopes of landing a strike.

Unfortunately for him, King effortlessly deflected both attacks and thrust his blade toward Crow's sternum. The teen managed to evade it by moving to the right side, then quickly jumped a few meters away to avoid getting cut in two by another sword swing.

The teen dashed toward King at immense speeds and purposely telegraphed an attack toward the older Lunarian's head. When Crow got within a few inches, King raised his blade to block his apprentice's attack, then suddenly disappeared, making the older man narrow his eyes and remain cautious of his surroundings.

The All-Stars Haki warned him of an attack above him, and the Lunarian quickly raised his sword above his head to block an attack from Crow.

"Looks like Mikasa was right," before the teen could even react, King was above him and landed a devasting axe kick to his head, sending the boy crashing into the ground, which created a miniature-sized crater. "You've definitely improved," he landed back onto the ground.

The teen groaned. "Fuck, that hurt like a bitch," he slowly got up and looked at his teacher with glare. "Asshole," he said, but there was no heat behind his words.

"I try," King retorted with an amused tone. "Not stop, quit your bitching and raise your sword. We have a lot of torture to catch up with," he gave the teen a bloodthirsty grin, making the teen nervously chuckle.

"Uh, don't you mean training?"

"Same thing."

King then proceeded to beat Crow's ass for the next four hours.

End.