"So this is where they are hiding," said Lucien, looking at the castle in the distance. His sword was already drawn, resting on his right shoulder. Idris stood beside him.
Behind them, Law stood quietly, looking at the same castle.
They had come straight from Klance. The King of Hotaru was the Flevance Queen's older brother, and his kingdom was a member state of the World Government. That backing was what had given the Flevance royal family the confidence to abandon their people and sanction the bombing. They had somewhere safe to go. They had always had somewhere safe to go.
The road up to the huge castle gates was long and had guards on top of the castle's outer walls looking straight at them as they slowly made their way towards the gate. As they got closer and closer, more guards concentrated on them as they shifted their guns towards them.
"Go Back. Whoever you are, this is the residence of the Royal Family of Hotaru. No one is allowed inside with weapons. Turn and go back," shouted a guard using the large horn.
"We are here for people not of your kingdom. Step aside and let us through. We do not want to fight against the Hotaru Kingdom," replied Idris, but it was only met with the guard starting a siren alarm.
Lucien turned towards Idris, who just shrugged and replied, "I tried to reason," as the guards cocked their guns, drew their swords, and raised their shields.
"Alright, Law, you stay a little back, don't want you getting injured before we get there," reminded Lucien as he slowly began to jog, which soon turned into a full sprint towards the huge castle gates. The gunmen opened fire. Lucien read each shot through Haki a half-second before it arrived, and was not where they expected him to be as Idris worked the walls from range, picking off anyone with a clear angle on Lucien
The gates were not built for someone of Lucien's size moving at that speed.
BOOM
The large steel gates were blown apart by one punch. Beyond them, a line of guards was already moving — swords drawn, spears forward, shields locked.
Lucien did not slow down. He rolled his shoulder, let the sword come off it, and hit the shield wall at a run. The formation broke on impact. He was through before the second rank had finished drawing.
Idris came through the gap behind him, pistol already up, picking off anyone moving to close the line. He did not fire at anyone standing still. He was precise about that.
"Lucien." His voice was level. "Hotaru soldiers. World Government Kingdom. We put bodies on the ground here, and this gets very complicated."
Lucien had already processed it. "I know."
"I want to hear you say it."
"We don't kill Hotaru soldiers. We go through them." He caught a spear shaft mid-swing, snapped it, and used the momentum to put the man holding it face-first into the stone wall. "That's still going through them."
"That's fine," said Idris, and shot a crossbow bolt out of the air before it reached Lucien's back.
They moved through the courtyard in that rhythm. Lucien took the volume — too many soldiers to count, none of them a serious obstacle individually, all of them a problem in aggregate if he let them organise. He did not let them organise.
He moved fast, hit hard, and made sure nothing that went down stayed a threat without staying down permanently. Broken shield arms. Dislocations. One soldier who had the misfortune of grabbing his sword arm got lifted off the ground and set down again, much harder than he had been picked up.
Idris worked the edges. Anything at range, anything trying to flank, anything trying to regroup. Legs and arms, not chests. He shot the horns, too. Not the people holding them. The horns specifically, which took considerably more precision but left fewer complications behind.
Behind them, Law walked through the chaos with his hat pulled low and his eyes up. He did not flinch when soldiers went down around him. He watched everything. He did not look away.
They cleared the outer courtyard and pushed through the main doors into the castle proper. The interior guards were heavier. Better armour, better weapons, the kind of soldiers who protected something worth protecting
They hit harder. Lucien noticed.
He did not particularly mind.
Lucien took a shield bash to the ribs from a large soldier who caught him mid-turn. He grunted and grabbed the man's shield and used it to sweep the three people standing behind him before tossing it aside.
Idris had switched to his rifle at some point and was picking off anything Lucien missed with the kind of calm that made it seem like he was doing something considerably less intense.
The great hall was the hardest part. There were too many of them in a wide open space and they knew how to use it. Lucien started using his fruit, feeding small distractions into the ones trying to flank him, making them hesitate for the half second he needed. It wasn't clean, it cost him, but it worked well enough.
By the time they had cleared the hall, Lucien had a cut across his left forearm and a bruise forming on his ribs that he would feel much more tomorrow than he was feeling right now.
Then they stopped.
At the top of the wide staircase ahead of them, two men had appeared.
The first was big, broad-shouldered, and decorated heavily in a Hotaru military uniform. A greatsword on his back and the kind of stillness that came from having been in enough real fights to stop performing before them. He looked down at the hall and then at Idris and did not say anything yet.
The second man wore what had once been a Flevance military uniform. Lean, a long blade at his hip, and eyes that had already decided. He looked straight at Lucien.
The remaining soldiers in the hall moved back without being told to.
Law stood between Lucien and Idris and looked up at both men at the top of the stairs. His expression hadn't changed since they left Klance.
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Author Note: Guys would like a quick feedback if possible on this chapter. How did the Action come off. Was it good? Too much explaining? Just let me know your thoughts so I could improve. Thanks for the help.
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