It was starting to approach and it looked… terrifying, to say the least. It must have driven him mad. Its face was locked in a grimace that gave him the impression it wanted to devour him whole. It was very different from the image of the statuesque guardian he had seen before attacking. The verdet groaned as he dropped to his knees and slowly rose to his feet, watching the enormous animal approach. He wasn't thrilled about almost being killed in one blow, but come on! Look at the size of that thing!
Finally, he stood up, remaining motionless as the beast approached. Once it stood over him, Zoro looked directly into its enormous white eyes: "I'm not... I'll go down without a fight"... Perhaps that was the wrong thing to say.
The beast roared and opened its jaws in another attempt to eat the swordsman.
"YOU ALREADY TRIED ONCE! YOU'RE TOO BIG A PUP!" Zoro yelled, grabbing Wado Ichimonji as if he were about to pin him to the ground. The ground, at that moment, was the wolf's palate. Just as the enormous jaws began to close and Zoro prepared to attack, he heard a loud voice.
"ALL RIGHT, FOREST MAN! BECAUSE YOU'RE GREAT, I'M STILL GOING TO BEAT YOU UP AND TAKE YOUR TREASURE! AN OLD MAN TOLD ME TO, SO I HAVE TO DO IT!"
A thunderous roar echoed across the clearing, and the beast that had nearly sent Zoro to his doom shot out. The swordsman gasped as the enormous figure, about to swallow him whole, landed and rolled, just as he had moments before.
"ZORO?!" exclaimed a surprised voice.
The teenager turned toward the voice and nearly fell over in fright. "LUFFY?! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"
Luffy wasn't thinking anything as he and the pack ran toward their destination. Thinking would only slow him down. They ran even faster than before after hearing loud explosions, like cannon fire, coming from the direction they were heading.
Luffy focused all his energy into his legs and felt his power spread through them. He needed to go faster. He'd figure out why he hadn't thought of that before. He had to get to the girl... He was going to steal her treasure! He might be in danger, too, but that was secondary.
"White! I'm going ahead! I think I can find the way from here!" he shouted to his companion, already leaping ahead of the pack of wolves. His enhanced legs helped him considerably increase his speed, and Luffy's figure began to blur into the forest as he headed toward the source of the cannon-like explosions.
The line of trees in the area he was searching for appeared quickly, and he wasted no time speeding through it. Upon reaching the wide clearing, Luffy saw something he wished he'd had more time to admire. It was simply magnificent. A black wolf, larger than he'd ever seen, stood with its mouth wide open as if it wanted to devour something from the ground. The boy had seen many large animals before, but none as big as this wolf. It must be the man of the forest he was looking for.
As much as he wanted to stop and admire the animal, he didn't. The wolf was about to devour something, and upon closer inspection, Luffy thought he saw a human figure between its open jaws. The black-haired teenager ran toward who he believed to be the orange-haired girl he had met at the pond.
She wasn't going to die under his care, though he still had to be angry with her for lying! He didn't even care about the lie; he just wanted the treasure she was trying to steal. The onlookers were very cunning... First, he would have to get the treasure. To do that, he had to defeat the enormous wolf in front of him. He was definitely going to have to give it his all. Look how big it was! It was as big as a huge building!
Luffy hardened his knuckles, and a dark grayish-black coating immediately formed on his hand in response to his will. He was improving. He'd been practicing his weaponization the entire time he'd been with White, and he barely even needed to think about it anymore. He could even improve and use what he'd decided to call Weapon Hardening at the same time! What he didn't know was that he'd chosen its real name himself. He didn't know exactly how long he'd been in the forest, but he did know that he was glad to have the time to practice.
The boy with the straw hat practiced his Black Haki and grip every day. Some days, White and his pack had to hunt alone because Luffy couldn't move due to using too much Armament Haki. It was never much fun. Now, however, he could not only summon his hardening faster, but also use it for longer periods.
"ALRIGHT, FOREST MAN! BECAUSE YOU'RE GREAT, I'M GOING TO GIVE YOU ONE WORD AND TAKE YOUR TREASURE! AN OLD MAN TOLD ME TO, SO I HAVE TO DO IT!" Luffy shouted as he leaped mid-stride, vanishing into thin air. In the time it took him to reach his target, Luffy had curled his hardened knuckles and concentrated all his strength into his arm. The boy's fist shot out like a cannon and hit its mark.
A great crash echoed through the air, and Luffy's hand sank into the fur of the enormous wolf, whose flank rippled from the impact. As if struck by a speeding train, the building-sized beast flew through the air almost in a straight line. When it finally landed, its massive body spun several times before coming to a complete stop, motionless.
Luffy let his hardening fade and landed on his feet. His eyes met the back of the person he had saved from the ferocious wolf and widened. "Zoro?!"
The green-haired teenager turned around and a look of surprise came over his face: "LUFFY?! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?"
Luffy didn't even think before answering. He was so excited to see his friend! "An old man told me to come and destroy this thing and find its treasure," he replied excitedly.
Zoro paused for a moment, taking in his words: "An old man... told you... to come here... to hit that... thing... and take whatever it's protecting?" Zoro asked, incredulous.
"Yeah, that sounds good!" Luffy replied with a smile. He really liked the old man.
Laughter burst from the swordsman's lips, and even as the sound left his mouth, he clutched his body in pain. "Only you could be convinced by an old man to go into a forest to look for treasure!" Zoro groaned, laughing through the crunching of broken bones in his body.
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