The wind tore across the mountain's upper slopes, carrying the scent of pine and blood and distant fire. Above the tree line, where the ancient pines grew twisted and the ground gave way to moss-covered stone, two figures circled each other like predators who had forgotten how to retreat.
Jannali Bandler stood on Gosan's back.
The great Hatzegopteryx's wings beat with the rhythm of a hurricane, each downstroke sending gusts that bent the treetops below. Its massive head—a beak the size of a small boat—swiveled toward the woman who had appeared on the ridge ahead. Jannali's feet gripped the creature, her afro pressed flat by the wind, her headscarf snapping like a battle flag. In each hand, she held a boomerang—the wooden curves carved with swirling patterns that shifted when you looked away.
"Bloody hell," she muttered, her drawl thick as honey. "You've got to be kidding me."
Captain Joy Jenebe stood on a pine branch fifty feet away, her hybrid form a striking silhouette against the grey sky. Sandy-brown fur covered her shoulders and limbs. Massive tufted ears perched on top of her head, twitching with every sound. Her legs had transformed into long, powerful digitigrade limbs, and her prehensile tail curled behind her like a question mark. In her right hand, she held Little Diva—the collapsible javelin gleaming with seastone filigree. Bailey rested on her hip.
"Chu-chu-chu-pyaaaa!" Joy laughed, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "That's a big bird you've got there, sister. What's his name?"
Gosan's beak opened, and a sound emerged—a low, rumbling growl that vibrated through Jannali's bones. The creature's orange eyes locked onto Joy with the hunger of an apex predator that had forgotten what fear tasted like.
"His name's Gosan," Jannali called back, throwing one of her boomerangs. "And he's not a bird. He's a bloody nightmare with wings."
The boomerang curved through the air—a wide, spinning arc that should have struck Joy from the side. But the Captain was already moving.
She dropped from the branch, her digitigrade legs absorbing the impact, and launched herself into the trees. The boomerang clattered against the bark where she had stood, then looped back toward Jannali's hand.
"Catch me if you can!" Joy shouted, her voice echoing through the forest.
Jannali cursed. "Gosan, down!"
The Hatzegopteryx folded its wings and dove.
---
The pines swallowed them whole.
Jannali leaped from Gosan's back as the creature banked hard, its massive body crashing through branches and sending showers of needles into the air. She landed on a thick limb, her heeled sandals finding purchase on the rough bark, and threw her second boomerang.
Joy exploded from a tangle of undergrowth, her tail snapping like a whip.
"Desert Rose Piston!"
She kicked.
The shockwave ripped through the air, shattering branches and sending splinters flying. Jannali threw herself sideways, the impact grazing her shoulder, and tumbled to a lower branch. Her boomerang returned to her hand, but she had no time to throw it.
Joy was already above her.
"Seismic Stinger!"
Little Diva extended—a flick of Joy's wrist sent the javelin shooting toward Jannali's chest. Jannali twisted, and the seastone tip buried itself in the trunk beside her head, pinning her headscarf to the wood.
"Oi!" Jannali grabbed the javelin and yanked, but it held fast. "That's my favorite scarf, you overgrown mouse!"
Joy landed on a branch across from her, her sandy fur bristling with excitement. "Then maybe you shouldn't have worn it to a fight, sister!"
She pulled Bailey from her hip.
Jannali's eyes went wide.
"GOSAN!"
The Hatzegopteryx's beak snapped down between them.
Joy fired—three shots, Bailey's Verdict—but the bullets ricocheted off Gosan's armored skull. The creature roared, a sound that shook the leaves from the trees, and Jannali used the distraction to yank her headscarf free from the javelin.
She tumbled backward, landing in a crouch, and pointed at Gosan.
"Spear!"
The great beast shimmered. Its wings folded, its body compressed, its form collapsing inward. Where a thirty-foot pterosaur had stood, a spear now lay on the moss—a long, segmented shaft of dark steel, its tip gleaming with seastone.
Jannali grabbed it.
The head of the spear opened its eyes.
A beak—smaller than before but still vicious—snapped at the air, revealing rows of needle-sharp teeth. The Hatzegopteryx's head, now attached to the spear's shaft, swiveled toward Joy with predatory focus.
"Oh, that's new," Jannali muttered, hefting the weapon. "Right then. Let's have a proper go."
Joy's grin widened. "Now we're talking!"
---
They charged.
Joy's digitigrade legs launched her across the gap, her inner toe claws extended, her tail lashing for balance. Jannali spun the spear, the serpentine head snapping, and met her in the middle of the clearing.
The spear's beak closed on empty air as Joy kicked off a tree trunk and changed direction mid-flight. Her tail caught a branch, swung her around, and she came at Jannali from behind.
"Rudder Snap!"
Jannali didn't turn.
She closed her eyes.
The voices came—faint at first, then louder. The wind whispered. The stones hummed. The trees spoke of roots and rain and the blood that had soaked this mountain centuries ago. And Joy... Joy's intent blazed like a bonfire in the darkness.
Jannali dropped.
The Captain's kick passed over her head, and Jannali drove the spear upward. The beak snapped shut on Joy's tail.
"YOW!" Joy yanked free, leaving a tuft of sandy fur in the creature's mouth. "That was my tail!"
Jannali opened her eyes, grinning. "Yeah, well, you pinned my scarf. Fair's fair, love."
She pressed the advantage.
The spear became a blur—thrust, sweep, snap, retreat. The Hatzegopteryx head lunged and bit at every opportunity, its jaws seeking Joy's limbs, her tail, her ears. Jannali moved with the weapon like she had been born holding it, her body flowing from stance to stance, her bare feet finding purchase on the mossy stone.
Joy retreated, bouncing from branch to branch, her eyes tracking the spear's pattern.
"You're good," she admitted, landing on a high limb. "But you're predictable. Every third strike, you over-rotate."
Jannali's eye twitched. "Am not."
"Are too." Joy launched herself into the air, her ears flattening against her head. "Sand-Cloud Mirage!"
She kicked the ground.
Dust exploded upward—a thick, choking cloud that swallowed the clearing. Jannali's vision vanished. Her ears rang with the sound of Joy's movement, but the dust scattered sound as well as sight.
She closed her eyes again.
The voices whispered.
There.
She spun and drove the spear toward the dust. The beak snapped shut on—
Nothing.
Joy appeared behind her, having used her tail to swing around a trunk and double back.
"Bailey's Verdict!"
Three shots. Jannali couldn't dodge them all.
She threw herself sideways, felt a bullet graze her arm, another tear through her shirt. The third struck the spear's shaft, and the Hatzegopteryx head shrieked in fury.
"Sorry, Gosan!" Jannali rolled to her feet, bleeding from the shoulder. "Bloody hell, you're fast."
Joy landed on a branch, her chest heaving. "You're not so slow yourself. Most people don't last this long."
"Most people don't have a spear that bites."
They circled each other, both breathing hard, both bleeding from small wounds. The forest had gone quiet around them—no birds, no insects, just the whisper of wind through the pines and the distant thunder of other battles.
Jannali's head throbbed.
The voices were getting louder.
She tried to push them down—to focus on Joy, on the spear, on the fight—but the mountain was old. Very old. And it had stories to tell.
Blood on the stone. Fire in the sky. A woman screaming. A child running. The World Government's ships on the horizon.
"Not now," Jannali muttered, shaking her head. "Not bloody now."
Joy tilted her head, her massive ears twitching. "You okay there, sister? You're talking to yourself."
"It's called strategy," Jannali lied.
The voices surged.
She saw it—a fragment of the future, a ripple in the pattern. Joy would attack from the left, feint high, strike low. She would use her tail to blindside Jannali while her javelin drove for the ribs.
Jannali moved before she understood what she was doing.
The spear swept left—not where Joy was, but where she would be. The Hatzegopteryx head snapped at empty air, and Joy's eyes went wide as she realized her feint had been read.
"How did you—"
Jannali didn't answer. She drove the spear forward, and the beak closed on Joy's javelin.
Little Diva clattered to the ground.
Joy leaped back, her hands empty, her eyes shocked.
"You read my intent," she breathed. "That's... that's not Observation Haki. That's something else."
Jannali pressed a hand to her forehead, where her third eye throbbed beneath the headscarf. "Yeah, well. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. You caught me on a good day."
Joy reached for Bailey.
Jannali threw her boomerang.
The curved wooden weapon struck the pistol from Joy's hand, sending it spinning into the undergrowth. The Captain stared at her empty palms, then at Jannali.
"That's three."
Jannali raised the spear, the Hatzegopteryx head hissing. "Yeah. It is."
They stood there, ten feet apart, both weaponless except for Jannali's spear and Joy's claws. The wind blew between them, carrying the scent of pine and blood.
"Your name," Joy said finally. "I didn't catch it."
"Didn't throw it." Jannali's eyes narrowed. "You're not going to surrender, are you?"
Joy grinned. "Not a chance. We can do hard things, remember?"
She crouched, her digitigrade legs coiling, her tail stiffening behind her.
Jannali spun the spear.
"Right then. One more."
They charged.
The forest shook.
And somewhere above them, the Red Hair flag climbed higher toward the summit.
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