The Makings of a Legend

As I thought after their victory in Torres the New Imperium was going to march on us. We were probably the largest threat in their eyes and they wanted to eliminate us before we could grow.

Most other cities were in chaos from the massive changes in the world but due to my intervention, Brecksville was relatively stable.

We had probably the best image in the minds of people ins the surrounding area as we were backed by the police and mayor.

We also took down the gangs in our town quickly after only 1 day. A track record like that made us a massive threat to any would-be gang in the area.

As sad as it is to say we are probably the strong force for "good" in this area as the rest of the area seems in complete disarray.

Looking at the massive 1,000-man army marching towards us I sighed. Even after the massive boom in recruitment we only had 150 members so we were massively outnumbered.

That was what happened when you gather the population of a city like Torres and compared to our small quaint town of Brecksville.

I decided that I was going to do the skirmishing strategy that I had prepared. There was no way we were going to win this in a straight-up fight.

I gathered all of the people who had gone through the willpower training done with Mary and were people I trusted into 1 room to discuss the grave news.

I said, "As you no doubt know the new gang, the New Imperium, is marching towards us now with a 1000-man force armed with futuristic weaponry and armor."

"We can definitely not win in a straight-up fight and even if we do the toll I would take on us and the civilians would not be worth it."

They all nodded and Dustin spoke up, "So what are we gonna do boss. We're only 150 people strong and only 100 can actually fight."

I nodded, "That is true which is why I am going to attack and conduct guerilla warfare on their army on my own to deal as much damage as possible."

A hand immediately rose up, Micheal, "Why are you doing this alone? Would one of us joining help immensely?"

I nodded, "It would but right now I need most of you back here if that roving band of 5 bandits attacks us. They know that this is their best opportunity to deal with us."

He nodded and Mary spoke up, "Are you sure you can do this on your own Marcus? I mean I know you are strong but you're fighting an army here."

I sighed and said, "That is why I need your help. I need you to prepare weapons for me that can deal massive amounts of damage to the army as quickly as possible."

I looked at Wilbur in particular, "I know that you have been experimenting with the dials, do you have anything that can help in this situation."

He grunted and said, "Some of them successfully mixed with some of the dust I had laying around. I managed to make 4 grenades that generate that different effects when they explode."

"They are fire, ice, gravity, and wind grenades. They should be able to take around 50 men down each if you hit them into a crowd of soldiers."

I nodded and looked at the other engineers in the area one stepped up and said, "There was a small gadget I was working on. It makes a barrier around the user for about a minute."

"It is powerful enough to stand up to tank fire but once it runs out the device cannot be reused."

I nodded then looked at Dustin hoping for more and he happily obliged, "I can probably whip up a pretty nasty poison for you. It will be pretty obvious though."

"I can't seem to make it invisible, I will probably be a dark purple or green hue so the soldier will definitely know to avoid it. But I am confident anyone caught in the blast will die."

I nodded and looked around more but there seemed to be nothing else they could provide. I nodded and said, "Meeting adjured, I will be leaving at 8 am tomorrow so get everything ready."

They all left except Mary. She looked at me and said, "Are you sure about this. This will be a very dangerous mission. You could ask for more people to come with."

I shook my head, "I have to do this alone, worst comes to worst I can run back here after only 3 hours, I am pretty fast."

She sighed, "You're too nice you know that. But I like that about you."

I smiled and said nothing. While I did want to do a lot of this to protect the place I had a lot of it was also because I wanted the fame and adoration of doing this.

I admit, after my lackluster first life I saw this second one as a way to fulfill my regrets from my previous one. In particular that I died a nobody, my name would be forgotten only a year after my passing.

I was trying to improve this organization, get stronger, and help others to make my name remember to carve out a legacy of greatness that will never be forgotten.

This would be a mere stepping stone, killing a thousand men strong army all on my lonesome. I admit it was risky but I had mitigated it as much as possible.

I knew Dustin could make healing potions so I had made him make a few before this meeting had even started. I had 5 healing potions that would save my life stored away in my inventory.

So long as I wasn't instantly killed with 5 of these potions in my pocket I was confident that I could escape any pursuit and head back to Brecksville for better healing.

Not only that the armor that I had made for me by Wilbur and his apprentices would protect me from the normal fire from the grunts in the army.

It protected my entire body so there were no gaps to exploit. With this, even harder hitting weapons that possibly could've killed me would only result in cracked bones and bruises.

So this fight while seeming intimidating to the normal man for me was actually pretty easy. Other than their Space Marine leader they seemed to show no other powerful combatants.

They might be hiding some of them but they probably wouldn't be too strong. Maybe only A-rank, if they were S-rank then they would have no need to hide and the battle of Torres would have ended much sooner.

So the next day I got everything from the mission and packed up heading out to meet them. They were around 100 kilometers to the North West of Brecksville.

They were riding in stolen cars they had scavenged and seemed to only have 5 futuristic war vehicles. Seems like they had improved their kit since last time.

I stood to the side of the highway they were riding down. If things went on like this they probably would've attacked us later today or early the next day.

Luckily I decided to head out early. I set up my sniping nest and pulled out the laser rifle from Vegapunk. I was going to try and kill as many of them as possible from as far as possible.

I had only 10 shots with this bad boy before I would need an entire day in the sun to recharge so I prepared.

I shot first at the leading vehicles destroying them and blocking the road in front of them. Cars started to immediately crash into each other at the sudden stop of the leading cars.

I shot the back of the formation where one of the powerful war machines was parked. My shot dealt heavy damage to it destroying the massive gun on top but not killing its passengers.

I noticed that it could still move but one of its tracks was broken grounding it for the moment. I moved on to the next war machine destroying it in a similar manner to the first.

Then the 3 remaining war machine aim their guns directly at me and I jumped into the air and started to dart around like crazy.

I was 1 kilometer away from the highway so all they could see was a small black dot in the air moving about, it was basically impossible to hit me.

I was right as their first 3 shots missed me and I managed to retaliate with a shot taking out another one of their war machines.

I then noticed that the first one I had broken was back in working condition. Looking around I saw a few mechanics running around to fix the broken machines.

They were scattered around the highway so I would take multiple shots to kill them all and I decided it wasn't worth it.

Another volley of 3 blasts came at me completely missing once again but instead of shooting back them, I brought out the gravity grenade Wilbur gave and tossed it at one of the tanks.

I shot out my hand crossing the one-kilometer gap easily and once it hit it turned into a miniature black hole turning the war machine into a pile of junk that no mechanic would be able to fix quickly.

I noticed that now all the war machines were back in working condition except the one I had just destroyed. I sighed and fired 3 shots at one of the war machines obliterating it.

I dodged another hail of fire before sending my last 3 shots of the rifle to another war machine leaving me with only 2 more to deal with.

I rushed closer and threw 2 grenades the fire and ice one at both of the remaining tanks destroying their final 2 war machines.

I was pretty sure that the mechanics could get them up and running again if I dawdled as the fire and ice didn't do as much structural damage as the gravity one.

I mostly just killed the people inside driving the vehicle. So I rushed in and kill the first mechanic to reach one of the tanks with a Rankyaku.

Then the grunts who hadn't been able to hit me before because I was so far away started shooting at me. I immediately used the barrier given to stop any of the shoots from reaching me.

I then threw the poison potion at them causing organ failure and necrosis. Damn Dustin had some pretty nasty poison but my barrier protected me from the harmful gases.

I had checked with the original inventor just to make sure. Then massive powerful blasts of lasers and bullets in the barrier and a group of 20 men walked out of the poison.

One was their space marine leader and the other 19 seemed to wear a bastardized version of their leader's armor, probably protecting them from the poison.

I immediately sent out a Jin Mo-Ri Original: Twin-Dragon Kick that launched them into the air. I Geppoed my way to 6 of them and killed them in their confusion of being launched into the air.

Then they regrouped and fired, with my Observation Haki helping I dodged 5 of their shot but 3 of them hit my Armament Haki reinforced armor.

It hurt my ribs cracking but it was nothing I hadn't dealt with before. Using the principle of Rokuogan I could easily penetrate their armor to reach their squishy bodies.

They were weak only around 50 stats each. Once they landed I rushed down from my position floating up in the air to do an Axe to the ground shattering it and taking away their footing.

Despite their low stats, they shot surprisingly accurately, I assume maybe they had neural enhancements or AI to help their aim?

Either way, it didn't matter and I Bo-buped and Sorued my way through their ranks killing 7 of them before the blast of the last remaining war machine made me jump into the air.

Now that I was visible a hail of gunfire from the last 6 remaining space marine ripoffs and their boss shot toward me. I dodged all of them except for their leaders.

It was a mistake as whatever he was carrying was much strong than his lackeys as it pierced a hole straight through my armor, leaving a hole in my left shoulder.

I looked at the poison still covering the left side of the battlefield looking to where the war machine was located. I was in the poison as I could see the corpses of all the remaining mechanics around it.

Not willing to go into the poison I rushed above and using Seimei Kikan I made myself incredibly buff. Then I unleashed a Blue Dragon's Kick wrecking the war machine once and for all.

I moved rushed back into the fray of the remaining elite soldiers and killed them, leaving me face to face with their leader.

He was trembling in fear, he said, "What the fuck are you? You killed all of us! How!?"

I didn't deign to answer him and I rushed in and snapped his neck with a clean Hweechook. I then looked around the battlefield.

There were a few stragglers only around 200 men. I decided to kill 100 of them and the rest scattered. I was impressed, the poison Dustin made killed the majority of the men.

Granted it was a pretty narrow highway and I covertly help it spread with some air-assisted blasts but still I had done some serious work.

I left the 100 scattering men, they were of no threat and I was tired. They would spread the tales of my power far and wide.

I brought out one of Dustin's healing potions and downed it. It stopped my bleeding and numbed my pain but the wound was still there.

I sat in the carnage. I guess I shouldn't have really expected much from them. They had only been in existence for about a month so their discipline was dogshit.

I mean my organization probably had similar problems to them except that mine was a little more well trained. This was not a pirate crew that had survived the Grandline for years.

I sighed. While it had been hard it was not really challenging. I had only used one of Dustin's potions and I still had 1 wind grenade left. I really was broken in this world.

I probably ranked among the strongest individuals and now was a time when the power of 1 man can truly change the world. Before no one man could rule alone, now some probably can.

I stopped my introspection as the poison started to fade. That's the problem with this type of poison, it was potent but only lasted around 5 minutes.

Taking that as my queue I started my trek back to Brecksville leaving the massive graveyard of dead men and women behind me.