And so a hellish battle had begun! Luffy shot through the air with extreme speed. Looking at the window in the treehouse Luffy's smile widened.
His arms twisted itself into a corkscrew shape before he used all of his currently existing physical strength to contract his arms into his shoulders.
BOOM!
Luffy soon stuck his landing within the interior of the treehouse as his feet were suddenly implanted into the wooden flooring of the treehouse.
As his feet glided across the floor his body made a full 360 turn before he finally attacked with both his arms smashing out with terrifying power.
As the elongated fists met their ends two shadows flew out from directly in front of it before heading towards Luffy.
Luffy spat a nasty sneer as his battle aura grew. Stretching his right hand further it quickly caught hold of a giant tree causing a smile to break free upon Luffy's face.
"TOO," he yelled as his body was abruptly pulled towards the tree with extreme speed as he then went on to swing himself around it escaping his previous upcoming demise.
He then flung himself back into the treehouse this time stretching his left hand out as his right arm retracted. "SLOW!!" His remark finally finished as the entire scene described above happened in the span of only six seconds.
With a whistle of the air his fist came smashing forth, colliding with both shadows which had attacked him earlier.
Two painful grunts sounded as the figures shot back and slammed into the thick wooden wall of the treehouse, denting it to a degree whilst getting injured in the process.
The figures of both shadows were finally revealed as they slowly got up on their feet. Two young boys that looked similar in age to Luffy stood with determined expressions on their faces while staring into the eyes of Luffy.
Both boys wore ruffled clothes followed by tattered boots and gloves. "Luffy you bastard! I see Kronos has been training you well!" One of the two boys, a boy with longish raven black frizzly tipped hair shouted with a wry smile etched on his face.
Luffy smiled proudly at his words and quickly remarked, "Hoh, it seems Sabo hasn't been as much of a 'great' sparring partner as you would have imagined, Ace!" Ace, hearing his words of open provocation and seeing his cocky smirk started to shudder in anger.
Sabo on the other hand, the second of the two boys who wore a purple noble long coat, had blonde curly hair covered by a top hat and had goggles over his forehead rushed towards the defenseless Luffy with his metal pipe in his hand.
"Damn you cheeky bastard!" Sabo shouted as he positioned his pipe at his side as he then appeared at Luffy's side.
Swoosh! The air hummed as the pipe swung up towards his chin, connecting with it sending Luffy's head flying all the way to the back and out the window. All the while this happened Luffy kept a firm stance upon the ground.
Now how did Luffy, the braindead idiot based off of how he previously portrayed himself in the anime become such a collective and composed badass? His battle awareness in itself seemed to be even more potent than it was in the anime as well.
Such a thing was definitely shocking but is to be expected as Luffy was trained by Kronos. Of course it wasn't the current Kronos but instead the Kronos of the past.
Past Kronos even without current Kronos was destined for greatness. Garp treasures him as he is extremely gifted in the arts of hand to hand combat, strategic planning and has a natural talent to apparently 'become a marine'.
Kronos watched from afar, a smile of understanding visible on his face. His memories showed him that the current Luffy was delicately trained under the heaven defying genius and was also cared for by him.
But Kronos wanted to gauge the strength of those around him immediately as he needed to know if they would become an asset rather than a liability.
Sure he knew that they wanted to be the leaders of their own dreams and had no intentions of forcing them to join his crew but he also didn't want to have to keep on running back and forth to save them if they were constantly at death's door in the future just because they were weak.
So in order to gauge their strength he had Luffy issue a challenge to both Ace and Sabo yesterday, right before they had all gone to bed.
Of course Kronos wasn't present when he made Luffy go and announce his challenge. He wanted to surprise them both with his physical changes by interrupting the spar when he felt as though it was time.
Witnessing Luffy's head stretching backwards looked rather badass than funny when comparing real life to the anime.
Luffy's head came rushing back in, closing in the distance between it and Sabo's face. Just as it was about to sink into Sabo's face, Luffy felt a shiver encase his bodily hair before feeling his body grow weak.
"Argh!" Luffy grunted painfully as his hands stretched to his hamstrings. There, he felt a tiny yet sharp object lodged inside his left hamstring.
Thud! Luffy abruptly fell onto his knees before slowly turning back to lay his bulging eyes of hatred upon the scoundrel who dared to make his skin leak blood.
Until, he saw Kronos smiling cheekily towards him from below. His hatred turned into anger as he comically shouted, "You bastard, Kronos, what the hell do ya think you're doing?!"
Kronos waved his hands in front of him whilst smiling making it apparent that he was sorry for his 'mistake'.
Hearing the name Kronos, both Sabo and Ace ran towards the window ignoring Luffy who, if I may remind you, had a freaking pebble stuck in his left hamstring.
Both Ace and Sabo couldn't help but gasp seeing Kronos's appearance. What they saw was a 137cm tall boy with shoulder length silver white hair and icy blue irises which carried a universal like form of attraction.
"K-Kronos…?" Ace said with a hint of disbelief on his face. Sabo said nothing as he appeared to be too stunned to speak.
Kronos, seeing them both, smiled gently before slightly bending his knees, releasing them soon after launching himself high up into the air right next to the window of the tree house.
Kronos then stretched his arms forward before grabbing onto the edge of the wooden window quickly pulling himself inside.
Both Ace and Sabo stood there on the spot flabbergasted at the feat Kronos had just pulled off. Based on what they knew he, unlike Luffy, had no Devil Fruit powers so seeing him pull off a stunt like this made them both extremely curious and shocked at the same time.
They knew it was possible as they've seen Garp do inhuman things however they found it strange how quickly Kronos had grown in physical strength and ability when compared to them.
They wanted to know his 'secret'. That is, if he had one. "Kronos you bastard, help me unlodge this right now!" Luffy's anger-filled voice resounded throughout the room breaking the silence and causing a runabout of panic from the three boys.
Fun and games soon came to an end after Luffy had the pebble removed from his thigh. Kronos, Luffy, Ace and Sabo took a seat and started recounting the events that had happened while away from each other.
Ace went first followed by Sabo and then Luffy.
It was finally Kronos's turn and as he told both Ace and Sabo what had happened of course with the assistance of Luffy they grew both shocked and envious of him. The envy only increased after they caught a glimpse of Kronos's tribal tattoos.
Boys will always be boys. Kronos found that he was delaying himself in his purpose here though so he brought up his real reason for why he came here.
With the exception of the first one being to act cool and show off in front of them which gained Kronos a hateful glare from both boys, they soon learned the second reason.
Their disdainful glares turned into expressions of irritation and anger. "Why must we be your little lab rats!" Shouted Ace.
Sabo stood up and pointed a finger towards him in support of Ace before loudly stating, "Sure, we're weaker than you but that doesn't mean that you can do whatever you like to us because of that!"
His words caused a small snort to escape Luffy's mouth as he said under his breath, "Bunch of chickens." He, of course, agreed to help Kronos uncover the powers he had gained knowing full well that his brother was far stronger than him.
Kronos smirked before he muttered a few words which made the ears of both Ace and Sabo perk up. "I'll train you both-'' He didn't even need to finish his sentence as both boys instantly rushed down to their knees in front of Kronos, kowtowing in the process.
"Senior brother!" Kronos and Luffy both shared a look before bursting out in laughter. Ace and Sabo felt their faces go numb from all the heat generated through feeling embarrassed.
But who can blame them though? They've been begging past Kronos to train them for god knows how long now but for some reason he always denied them.
However, to see him offer them both this opportunity as of now shocked them greatly. They didn't delay any further as they took up this opportunity almost immediately.
"Don't feel embarrassed, let's actually start our first session of training after you've helped. All three of you will be facing me off after we've uncovered the things I'm capable of right now."
Kronos said in a calm and collected tone.
Seeing that even his countenance was slightly different they sighed as they tried to wonder what else had changed within their friend Kronos. And so, after prepping some water and food they left the treehouse and then headed towards the far north.
They looked and searched for an open area of greenland making sure that there were no humans or animals occupying these open pieces of land.
It took them an entire hour and half of travel before they found an open field suitable for themselves. It could be said that it was flourishing!
With its beautiful plants and brightly colored trees. It carried an aura of ethereal and gave one a feeling of peace and serenity.
Taking in some deep breaths of the passing wind they all smiled warmly feeling as though their fatigue and stress were instantly lifted. "This is the spot for sure from now on." Luffy said with a grin plastered onto his face.
His word gained the acknowledgment of them all as they replied with a nod.
Five minutes came to pass as they were finally settled in. Kronos stood at the center of the field completely shirtless, remaining with only his pants on while also standing bare feet on the field.
Looking around him one could see that he was encircled by a group of three boys. Each wore an expression of absolute determination while looking towards the glorious figure at the middle of the grassland.
"Come." Kronos spoke, his voice resounding with a kingly aura. Hearing his word, they all took off kicking up clouds of dust that joined and connected before fading back into nothingness.
Kronos watched as they closed in, a smile forming upon his face. His eyes closed suddenly, a silence overtaking the soon to be chaotic battlefield.
At that moment the atmosphere underwent a change. Kronos's tattoos suddenly started to glow dimly as the brightness of the glow continued to rise.
BOOM! A massive shockwave flew out blasting the approaching boys away as they quickly reestablished their footing upon the same spot where they previously stood at.
Woosh! The air around Kronos started to visibly churn as an invisible gas started to invade his body through his pores, fueling him with an unknown power.
The atmosphere within the grassland tightened as the oxygen within it began to visibly disappear making it hard for the three boys to breath.
They didn't know what was going on and just by the fact that this mysterious occurrence was stemmed towards its cause, Kronos they were beginning to view Kronos in a new light. A light that only shunned upon monsters!
Crackle! A soft yet loud crackling noise suddenly interrupted their chaotic thoughts as their main focus was finally switched over once again.
Crackle! Again, they heard the very distinguishable crackle of a fire yet when they looked around there were no fires in sight.
It then sounded for the third and final time. That's when it became clear as day to them. The source of this strange crackling sound wasn't the cause of some nearby fire, it was the doings of Kronos!
But the moment they acknowledged its source something so mind bubbling occurred right at this moment. A brightly lit spark flashed around Kronos's body before soonly after it transformed into an oceanic colored blue flame!
The blue flame, generated from the oxygen drawn into his body combined with the sudden increase of Kronos's bodily heat, charred the ground below whilst burning away at the air surrounding Kronos.
Chaos seemed to have ensued at this moment as the flame stretched and encased his entire body! Kronos felt the strong volcanic-like energy circulate throughout his entire body, fueled by an even stronger form of energy.
Kronos was shocked as he was able to inspect the interior of his body. Seeing the blue volcanic-like energy being supplied by an invisible gaseous type of energy Kronos could already guess what.
It was oxygen!
He had gained the inconceivable ability to control and manipulate oxygen! Such power was too dangerous within the hands of almost anyone. The potential possibilities that came along with this ability was undoubtedly endless.
Kronos smiled evilly as he began trying to understand his power. He gained one element which was fire albeit a stronger variant of its regular flame. But, was that it? No! Kronos knew that oxygen was a fuel.
Oxygen, if potent enough, could be used as the core to other elements. If its user can use it as both a fuel tank and a conductor creating or even recreating other elements were possible!
Coming to this realization his smile continued to stretch as his eyes widened with intensity scaring Luffy, Ace and Sabo.
"LET'S PLAY BOYS!!" Kronos's voice boomed out suddenly as the Blue Flame surrounding his body flared up into a small pillar of flames which encompassed his body.
His muscles then tightened as his newfound strength was effectively put to use. BOOM! The earth beneath his feet was demolished as his body smashed forward with tremendous speed.
The boys were all scared silly seeing the sight that was being displayed in front of them. There was nothing but scorched, demolished rocks that rested at where Kronos previously stood.
The three boys all retreated, immediately regrouping together with their backs turned against each other's own. "Stay vigilant fellas." Warned Luffy.
Ace and Sabo nodded as they hurriedly tightened their grips around their metal rods. Soon however, death made itself apparent.
A feeling of absolute dread overtook their bodies as Kronos appeared above them in a flash. "HAH!" He screamed with an explosive tone as the Blue Flame began gathering at the center of his fist.
Kronos sent his fist smashing forward as the Blue Flame which encased it crackled throughout the air before it abruptly descended upon the figures of the three boys.
Ace, being the first to feel the heat, flicked his head upwards with beads of sweat covering his entire body. No one knew if the cause of his extreme perspiration was because of fear or because of the heat which leaked off the Blue Flames.
"SHIT! LUFFY!!" Ace called out immediately. Luffy instantly grabbed them and flung them a distance back before sending himself flying towards the attack.
"COME ON!!" He shouted ferociously, his eyebrows furrowed yet there was a maniacal smile glued onto his face.
BOOM! They instantly collided as their collision went on to form a small shockwave which flew out contesting with the air flow of oxygen in the surroundings while also obstructing the flow of wind within the green land!
Ace and Sabo took cover and sulked as they thought back to their own strength. However realizing that sulking would not of course increase their strengths they gritted their teeth as they steeled their wills. And like that, they rushed back into the battlefield to assist Luffy.