Chapter 149

149

"I hate you Zoro!" Coby yelled, a bit of panic in his voice as he ran through the trees of Little Garden. A group of velociraptors, numbering more than twenty, each being at least ten feet in height with a sail-like spine and a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, were chasing after him.

Now, some might be wondering how Coby got into this position. Well, when both Coby and Zoro had teamed up, they first thought of just hunting down the beast by themselves.

But soon things became clear when after killing a few, the rest of them would run away from them. Zoro grumbled about it being counterproductive.

So Coby suggested that they should use something as bait. And that made Zoro grin evilly at the young pink pirate.

Coby really should have kept his mouth shut as even with his regeneration; he would rather not experience getting chowed down by prehistoric beasts. And even worse; getting prehistoric rabies from them.

"One Sword Style: Demon Wind!" Zoro said, swinging Sandai Kitetsu, as a powerful wind slash came out of the sword. This sword, like his Akaiittou Nozarashi, was a bit unruly, and hard to master. And as a swordsman with three swords, he had to give each sword his attention. That also made him glad that his third sword, Yubashiri, was an obedient one, unlike those two.

Coby hastily ducked, but he was damn sure he got a haircut from the attack. He was going to give his two cents to his green-haired crewmate. Well, that was until he heard some falling noise behind him.

But when he looked back, he was almost gaping as almost all of the beasts had their heads cut clean off. Okay, maybe he would not be giving his well-too-powerful crewmate an earful.

Nodding, Zoro jumped down from the boulder, his blade casually resting on his shoulder. He wasn't going to use any flames on the hunt as he didn't want to char the beast, nor give it any more trauma before killing it. "That makes it seventy."

"Really, a thank you would be appreciated," Coby grumbled picking himself up from the ground and dusting his clothes.

Zoro mused at the pink-haired boy, it seemed that the boy did grow a spine in the few months he stayed with them. Zoro had to say, Coby really had talent, but it seemed that he was going at it the wrong way.

"Hmm… why don't we go for something that's a bit tough." Zoro said, as if to answer him, a giant-sized triceratops, came out of the nearby bush. Zoro grinned, eagerly, before stopping himself. "Hm… you know what, why don't you take on this one?"

Coby blinked pointing at himself. "Me?"

"Why, you a wimp?" Zoro shot back.

To answer Zoro's question Coby flipped him off, before turning around and taking out his claws. "I needed to blow some steam off anyways."

The Triceratops huffed angrily like a bull, dragging some dirt along with his feet as he eyed Coby.

The beast moved wildly at Coby, who also moved forward using his newly learned 'soru'. The speed wasn't at the level of a mastered one, yet it gave him blinding speed to normal men.

Except that a Triceratops was not a normal man; Coby's claws were stopped by the three-horned predator, making the boy wide-eyed. He was expecting his claws to pierce through the beast's skull, but it seemed that his skull was made out of harder stuff. Almost like steel. Before Coby could do anything he was suddenly pushed back to Zoro's side.

Coby had to drag his feet to stop himself from falling to the ground.

"Like I thought, this one is different." Zoro smirked, casually resting Sandai Kitetsu on his shoulder. He then pointed at the beast. "I would have loved to cut you down myself, but this boy here…"

"Did you just call me a boy!?"

"…needs to learn a valuable lesson." Zoro finished ignoring Coby's comment.

"Hey, I'm only three years younger than you."

Zoro gave him a side glance, "Like I said, practically a baby." he snorted. "Can't even take down an oversized cow." The Triceratops huffed angrily hearing that.

"Hey, I can take that one on myself." Coby shot back, before standing up, drawing his claws.

"You could… but that's not the point."

Coby blinked, before raising an eyebrow. "What, are you gonna teach me something?"

"Well, that depends." Zoro smirked, "Do you want to learn how to cut steel…?"

Coby was wide-eyed for a few moments before a challenging grin made its way to his face. "Yeah, why not."

.

"Gegyagyagyak! So Broggy's guests are friends of yours, eh? I guess that makes sense. We don't get many visitors. He described them as one of them having a straw hat and an attitude to go with it."

"Well, that does sound like captain." Sanji said, as he was trying to set up the flame for cooking. He had already skinned down and peeled the few beasts that he would be using for cooking.

Both him and Gin had found the giant along with Usopp, Barto, and Sparky. It seemed the resident giant here helped them get out of a mess. So as a thank you, Usopp requested Sanji to cook something for the giant.

Speaking of giant, 'Blue Ogre' Dorry the Giant was a mountain of a man standing at nearly 2260 cm (74'2 feet) with tanned skin. His black beard covered much of his Viking-like armor, nearly touching the ground, and a blue cape flowed down his back. A helmet, sword, and shield – each supersized to fit a Giant – sat next to him, even bigger than the cask of ale he was drinking from.

At first, Sanji didn't want to cook immediately because of the challenge with Zoro. But when Dorry didn't mind and casually said that he hadn't eaten anything made by a chef for a hundred or so years, then things changed.

So feeding the giant came first. And while he was at it, he would make food for everyone in the crew. He did pack them lunch, but with so much game, and he knew not all of them could be taken into Merry.

The ship was getting crowded in the male quarters already. The ship was getting a bit too crowded, and so they already had rations from Whisky Peak, so refusing to let good food go to waste, Sanji went cooking.

He had two giants and his crew to feed.

While Sanji was in his own world, the others enjoyed the tales from the giant. The giant was 158 years old, and had scars, all of them having stories behind it.

"I got this one, when I first went to the sea. Accidentally went to the calm belt due to the winds." Dorry said, showing a bite mark scar on his forearm. The rest hearing the story shivered as something similar almost happened to them. "A sea king tried to break our ship, had to stop it with my bare hands… While that wasn't the problem, that particular sea king was an eel… I was up for a shocker. Gegyagyagya! Broggy is still jealous of this scar. Gegyagyagya!"

The rest, especially Usopp and Barto, had stars in their eyes. They had seen Luffy and Sanji fish out large fish, and even small sea-kings, but a giant fighting giant sea kings, that's something they wanted to see.

Gin also noticed a similar scar on his other hand. But this one looked fresh, "Dorry-san, that other scar… did you also get that from a sea king?"

The giant looked at the scar and shook his head as he stroked his beard. "No, this one is recent. Before you guys came here… we had two other people visit us. But they were here for our bounty. Lest to say, one of them had gotten a hold of the devil fruit we were hiding in our treasure chest… and things went from there."

The other blinked at who would be stupid enough to fight giants… or even steal from them.

"Wait… if that scar is because of the devil fruit. What kind of…"

"A zoan fruit… quite a powerful one." Dorry hummed. "It made the human quite the big beast… though it was still small compared to us. And like a wild dog it bit me… Gegyagyagya! But I did smack the shit out of him."

"Well… ah Dorry-san, if that fruit is so powerful. Why didn't you guys eat it beforehand?" Barto questioned.

"Well, we didn't know what fruit it was. We found it a few years back… also, we don't have a boat. And in case we need to return to Elbaf… we need our swimming abilities."

The others nodded, much in awe and respect. To swim from one island to another… so that was the giant's way.