Chapter 16

Ra pov

I was lying face down on the bed in a hotel room I had rented for the night. I was organizing my thoughts on what to do while I was at Sabaody Archipelago. It was sutuated very near to a marine base and the home of the celestial dragons. Apart from being a place to rest,gather information, entertainment and gathering supplies it was also a hoodlum for bringing together pirates, bounty hunters, slave traders and all kinds of people. Though it was either they laid low or have a date with the marines who could be seen patrolling everywhere.

I had been raised in a backwater place where money was rarely used hence my own uselessness in the usage of money. Two million beli and it was already used up by a third. Speaking of such, I thought back on my now destroyed boat and missing belongings, but luckily the axe remained as it should have been heavy to lift and carry away so it was left on the ground. Pieces of shit robbing me in broad daylight when I am at my strongest state. And to think I was actually so proud of hiding my money from Deri.

The issue on money can easily be solved by catching some pirates and selling their heads to the marines, figuratively speaking.

Then came solving my boredome and leaving this place for somewhere else more interesting which came with its own problems as I had no ship, so to solve my ship problem I should go to a shipwright island next. I'll just ask Shakky about it tomorrow, right now I should get some sleep.

The following day...

I was standing across Deri who was in battle posture. How did this happen? I came to the bar at noon after looking for pirates with high bounties since morning and after failing to find any of them disappointedly left. I asked Shakky about the easiest way to find pirates and also on my dilemma on the ship issue and she said to me,"Sure but I expect payment." When I inquired about how much money she wanted she laughed and said,"Zero, little Deri here wants to go out to sea with you and I want to know if your strong enough to protect her, but she wants to prove that she's stronger and that you should be the one to follow her. So how about you spar with her and I'll see what information I can give to you."

From there not much was said because the little shit had tried to trample on my pride and question my strength. I would have still beat her down even if Shakky hadn't asked for a spar on her behalf. That's practically the reason we were having a face off though I had my shirt on lest I am labelled a pervert. Deri stared at me, then taking a boxing stance she made the first move. I let her land a hit and true to my assumptions it was weak.

I threw my own jab foward restraining my strength quite a bit but she was agile as most females are, avoided the attack entirely and countered hitting my outstretched arm. I'll just let her hve her fun and when she's tired I will pummel her to the ground. No haki was in use at the moment as I predicted the attacks she would make while she avoided my attacks using her instincts. I think she realised that even if one of my punches landed on her body she would be done for the day.

Then why was she playing the waiting game if she knew she'd get tired and I could easily take her out. Maybe she had the same ability as Derieri, I think it was called Combo Star or something of the sort. But that would be impossible according to how this world functioned unless she found and ate a devil fruit granting the same abilities.

It was after about thirty minutes that my suspicions proved to be true. Her attacks were not much before but they were starting to sting. The question is whether her attacks grow stronger every time she lands an attack or if the longer she fought, the stronger she became. All this time she had that serious look on her face so I tried to see if I could disrupt her rhythm by dodging. I dodged the kick she aimed at my calf and increasing my speed hit her in the abdomen but she crossed her arms and defended against it though she moved back and right at the next second she rushed back at me. I realised two things from that experiment; first she grows stronger the longer she fights whether her attacks land or not and second she is incredible at hand to hand combat, even better than I was at her age by how fast she recovered even though I interrupted her momentum.

The only problem was that she was taking too long to grow stronger and after about twenty more minutes when I unconsciously lowered my guard she gave me a bleeding nose by landing a punch straight to my face with a fist covered in haki. I see, she is smart too, she lowered my guard by hiding the fact that she could use haki for over fifty minutes and when she had stacked enough power and momentum she made a beeline straight to my face.

Seeing the proud very unnoticeable look on her face, I decided to break her in half. And how best to do so than by fighting her at full strength like how a lion hunted a rabbit, but instead I'll be hunting a sneaky little wolf. I grew bigger and taller with my shirt holding my bulging muscels in place in preparation of the oncoming hunt but sadly and unfortunately my magnificent form was halted before it fully showed itself by a very sweet voice."If my little sister gets seriously hurt then there is no deal between us."

It was regretful but I went back to normal size. She was lucky though, if I had finished transforming no amount of talking would have saved little wolfy from her fate. I hardened my fists and taking her seriously I made the first attack of the new round. We went at it for a while and I couldn't help but think if that was how those who fought against me felt. Deri was growing stronger by the second and also improving her hand to hand combat as time went on. Her strikes were now raising gusts of wind even before they landed and I had to admit that her ability was indeed terrifying.

But she made a mistake by changing her expression from a blank one to a ferocious grin looking at me as though I were prey and that finally ticked me off. I coated an unnecessarily large amount of haki on my fist and pummeled her to the ground before she could react. Haaa! she is very good at annoying me, I sighed as I started to calm down feeling great.