OPTC Chapter 253 Iron Teeth and Copper Jaws
"Pardon me for asking, but what kind of animal are you? Some kind of horse?"
Despite trying to stay low-key, Ma Lao Wu still drew Zeole's attention. The strange creature immediately stirred his curiosity.
"I'm not an animal. I'm a demon," Ma Lao Wu said.
"A demon?" Zeole blinked, confused.
"You can just think of me as someone who ate the Horse-Horse Fruit," Ma Lao Wu explained. His grasp of this world's basics was sharper than even Ye Yan's, so he quickly came up with the simplest answer.
"Oh, so a Devil Fruit user." Zeole lost interest right away.
"How much farther?" Zhang Da Ye asked. The life card could point direction but not distance.
Ma Lao Wu twitched his nose. "Almost there. He seems to be with many other animals. The scents are all mixed up."
"There really are a lot of animals, and they're coming this way," Artoria said. Her senses had already picked up their presence.
One group went up the mountain, the other down. They met in the forest without warning. The animals weren't on guard at all, but when they spotted Zhang Da Ye and his group, they screeched to a halt.
Suddenly, a small figure was flung forward, smacking into Zhang Da Ye's face and knocking him flat.
Of course, it was Tom. And because of the slope, Zhang Da Ye tumbled backward with Tom in his arms, rolling down until—Duang!—his head hit a tree, leaving both of them buried under a shower of leaves.
Rustle. Rustle. Two heads popped out of the leaf pile one after the other. Zhang Da Ye rubbed his forehead. "A little dizzy. I think my defense might've been shaved down."
The moment Tom saw Zhang Da Ye's face, he leapt up and hugged him tightly, rubbing his own cheek against Zhang Da Ye's.
Zhang Da Ye chuckled and stroked the fur on Tom's back, though he muttered, "Alright, alright. Take those horns off before rubbing against me again—you'll poke my eye out."
Tom ignored him and kept nuzzling.
Meanwhile, everyone else's attention was locked on the massive beast standing among the animals.
"Golden horns, thick mane, towering body, enormous wings—it has to be! That's the beast king, the qilin lion!" Zeole cried in excitement.
Artoria's gaze followed. She had always felt drawn to majestic predators like lions.
Ye Yan, still in his reindeer costume, had even managed to blend into the animal group. He circled the qilin lion, nearly reaching out to touch its mane. "I can't believe such a creature really exists. Call it a demon and I'd believe you."
Crow Asa, who could speak human language, looked at him in shock. "Are you an animal too? You can also speak like humans?"
Staying in character, Ye Yan replied, "Oh, you can talk? I'm a reindeer who lost my antlers. I came here with them. Where are you all heading?"
"So that's it…" Asa said with pity. "They took your antlers? How cruel. But it's good you survived. We're gathering allies to fight back against them!"
The other animals joined in with cries—some consoling Ye Yan, others vowing vengeance.
"Roar!" The qilin lion greeted them with a mighty sound. It had already recognized Artoria as the one Tom had described. If these humans were willing to return a hornless reindeer, surely they weren't enemies.
Ma Lao Wu covered his face. He could understand the animals' words. His unreliable master had clearly created a terrible misunderstanding. What would happen when they realized the truth? Would the animals turn hostile?
Tom finally released Zhang Da Ye and began hopping about, acting out his adventure. With Asa translating and filling in details, the group soon pieced the story together.
"Trading food for our help in driving out the invaders?" Zhang Da Ye noticed that many animals carried fruit on their backs.
When he asked, they all nodded in unison.
It was strange, but as Zeole had said, the animals here were intelligent enough to communicate with humans.
"Da Ye, let's help them," Artoria said.
She wasn't tempted by the food. What moved her was the hopelessness in the beast king's eyes. That look reminded her of her own past despair.
If there were any other way, the qilin lion wouldn't ask outsiders for aid. But he was old now, his strength waning. If the invader fired cannons or unleashed the horn eaters in waves, he wouldn't be able to stand against them.
As for the animals who followed his lead, they were many—but weak in battle.
"Alright, we'll help. At the very least, we owe them for looking after Tom." Zhang Da Ye ruffled Tom's head. These clever animals were too endearing to harm anyway. And besides, their ship needed fruits and vegetables, not meat.
The qilin lion's grateful eyes glimmered. The animals cheered. Tom and Ye Yan, still pretending to be part of the herd, celebrated along with them.
They had both played a big part in earning the animals' trust so quickly.
Maybe one day Ye Yan could wear one of Tom's costumes, pretend to be a Zoan user, and sneak close enough to club Kaido from behind.
"So, where is this invader now?" Zhang Da Ye asked.
"I know," Zeole said, pointing ahead. "Batra is camped over there." He took the lead, clearly unwilling to let his misguided colleague keep tormenting the animals.
They followed Zeole to a cliff. Below it, on an open plain, stood a small table. A middle-aged man with a bright red rooster comb of hair sat there, a napkin tied around his neck. On the table were plates piled high with animal horns.
Around him, horn eaters grazed. Not far away, the ground was littered with corpses of deer and goats, their horns sawn clean off.
"Lord Batra, here's ketchup."
"And here's salad dressing."
A tall, thin man and a burly one squeezed sauces onto two horns in front of Batra.
Batra picked one up, bit down hard, crunched it into shards, swallowed, then stretched his arms. "No good. Nothing yet. Next!"
On the cliff above, Zhang Da Ye's jaw ached just watching. "He's chewing raw horns? What is he, Iron Teeth Copper Jaws incarnate?"
Tom touched his own mouth nervously. If he bit into a ram's horn, his teeth would shatter instantly.
"This is too much. He's already slaughtered so many," Zeole said bitterly, his heart aching at the sight of the fallen animals.
The qilin lion bared his fangs. The rest of the animals trembled with anger and fear. Many had once been chased by the horn eaters below, escaping only by luck. Others had watched helplessly as friends were killed.
Artoria tightened her grip on her sword. "So all we have to do is defeat those three?"
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