61 Chapter 25
Markus looked over the electrical net covering the entire island and grinned. He could hear exclamations of shock and awe from everyone. The Marines on the ships summoned for the buster call were freaking out and have to be calmed down by the Vice Admirals leading them. The Vice Admirals didn't take Markus's warning seriously and intended to continue the attack. Though they showed some reaction to his name being revealed.
Markus ignored them for now, it would be far funnier when they really initiated their attack. He had been forced to use the precious system created skill to create this attack. He'd tried on his own but had failed to get it to work as he wanted. The only bright note was that trying to develop it had given him enough experience to get his Control skill up to level 10.
With the net in place, Markus moved back to Robin and Franky who were looking at him in surprise. They had no idea what he'd done, but they knew it was goddamned impressive. Markus sat back down and smiled, "Watch the show."
They both numbly nodded and looked at the marine ships as they spread out and soon began firing their cannons non-stop. The eyes of everyone watching opened wide as every cannonball that hit the electrical net stopped in place the moment it touched the electricity. Even cannonballs that managed to land in one of the small gaps in the net were stopped by an invisible force.
Robin looked at Markus in shock, "Y-you're stopping the Buster Call?"
The grin on Markus's face grew wider, "Not just stopping it, watch and enjoy."
On the marine ships, the low ranked marines were in a panic as all of their cannon shots were stopped and rendered harmless. The Vice Admirals ordered them to continue to fire. They believed that if the net was hit enough, it would break and they could resume bombarding the island. More and more cannonballs slammed into the net and froze in place. So many were caught that they began to cast a large shadow over the island. Everyone who could see what was happening froze in place.
Luffy and Lucci were still going hard in their fight. Luffy's nearly awoken Observation Haki was helping him negate a lot of damage from Lucci's high-speed attacks. Somehow, Kokoro, Chiminie, and Gonbe had met up with Nami and Chopper and were running through an underground tunnel that was flooding. Markus hadn't been paying close attention to Kokoro or the others so he had no idea why they'd even come. Even weirder was sensing Sanji and Zoro, carrying Usopp between them, running in the tunnel too. Markus just shook his head and dismissed it from his mind. The tunnel was flooding and he wasn't immune to water. They'd have to get out of trouble themselves and he knew they could.
Markus glanced toward the area where Luffy and Lucci were fighting just in time to see a gigantic fist come crashing out of the building while punching Lucci in his half-beast form. Lucci flew through the air and slammed into the net created by Markus. His whole body began to jerk around as he was electrocuted. Markus flinched, "I hope Luffy doesn't think that counts as me interfering. Repulse!"
The moment Markus said 'Repulse', Lucci was blasted off of the wall and crashed back into the building with more than double the force he hit the wall with. That was the trick of this skill. It was a combination of his lightning wall and railgun skills. Anything that hit the lightning wall could be held in place or repulsed with a thought. It worked best with magnetic materials but if he activated the repulse of the net fast enough, it could blast back anything. He wasn't entirely sure of the exact mechanism behind how it worked since it was a system created skill but it worked well!
Markus just shrugged his shoulders while Robin and Franky stared at him. They would see the true might of this skill soon enough. The marines on the ships hadn't given up and the surviving marines trying to flee the island were hurting themselves by attacking the wall in any way they could. He just watched the marines generously adding more and more of their ammunition to his skill.
Finally, everyone in the underground tunnel had been sunk underwater but were rescued by Kokoro, who turned out to be a mermaid. When she surfaced with everyone, Robin, Franky, and Markus helped them all onto the smaller marine ship meant to take Spandam and Robin though the gates. The marines were still out of it so they had no right to object.
After they all recovered, they looked at what Markus had done and stared in awe. Hundreds of cannonballs hung in the air stuck in his net. Markus grinned and looked them over, "Ready to see the truly terrifying part of this ability?"
They all swallowed loudly and Markus didn't wait for their replies as he said, "Repulse!!"
As soon as he spoke, every single cannonball stuck to the net was instantly blasted back at the marine ships with nearly three times the force they hit the net with. Hundreds of explosions rang out as the cannonballs struck the ocean and the marine ships. Flames covered everything as pieces of wood, fabric, and bodies flew through the air.
His return fire was indiscriminate and left nothing untouched. The entire might of the Buster Call, an attack meant to completely destroy an island had been returned to the much weaker ships that launched it. The results were self-evident. Every one of the ships was completely destroyed. There were survivors, mostly the stronger marines like the Vice Admirals, captains, and a lucky few more. The rest... dead or injured.
Markus looked away from the destruction, while ignoring the myriad notices of experience and level ups, and focused on Robin, "I told you, they will never be able to use this attack again as long as I am alive. They will grow to fear it the way they made you fear it. They made a mistake in their arrogance and thought that no one could counter their 'might', they were dead wrong."
Robin looked at Markus with tears streaming from her eyes while she smiled brightly. She couldn't be happier to know that a Buster Call may never be used again. In this single incident, the Marines had lost their ships and men while being completely impotent to do anything about it.
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Your relationship with Nico Robin has greatly improved.
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The marines had really lost this time. Ten of their biggest ships completely destroyed beyond repair, nothing but scraps remained. An unknown number of dead marines with most survivors injured. And all that accomplished was a couple of lame hits that only damaged government property anyway. It was a complete and utter failure. Still, some didn't give up. Vice-Admiral Momonga, a man capable of using Geppo, ran through the air and tried to attack the net to bring it down. All of the survivors of Markus's retaliation were infuriated, but a seed of fear had been planted in their hearts. A single man had defeated the Buster Call. Not just defeated it, decimated it.
Those that could attack the net did and paid for it. Every time Markus felt a hit on the net he activated the Repulse causing the attackers to suffer from their own repulsed attacks. Markus watched as they started to coat their weapons and fists in Haki to attack the net. This was something he anticipated and wasn't afraid of. Their attacks managed to rip holes in the net, for about a microsecond. As soon as a hole opened up, it would immediately be closed at the speed of lightning. Still, every one of those attacks that ripped the net, drained a little power from it. If they kept it up they could destroy it, eventually.
Since that annoyed him, Markus moved into the interior of the Marine ship and started collecting cannonballs into his inventory. Once he stole them all, along with the gunpowder, he returned to the main deck and walked onto the bridge. He amplified his voice once again and spoke for the marines to hear, "LEARN YOUR PLACE PESTS!"
He started pulling cannonballs out of his inventory with a flair of electricity for effect and firing them at the marines attacking his net using his Railgun skill. All Vice Admirals should have the two common forms of Haki but even if their Observation Haki was decent, it wouldn't be better than Aokiji's unless they were someone really special. They barely registered the threat before the net opened and cannonballs slammed into all of them. A normal cannonball flying at a normal speed posed zero threat to a Vice Admiral. They could easily handle them by cutting them, punching them, or any number of things. But a cannonball moving at above Mach 7? They all got blasted away from the net with various minor wounds no worse than papercuts.
None were seriously injured, they were too tough for that but it served as a warning. They were not safe. To reinforce that message, Markus fired off another set of cannonballs and blasted them again. Even on guard, the range of their Haki was nowhere near large enough to see his shots coming from so far away. Add to that the speed of his shots and their reaction times... They were sitting ducks and they knew it. They were just lucky he wasn't trying to kill them will full-powered shots or by adding Haki to the cannonballs.
He didn't want to kill them because he needed survivors to spread the fear and his name. This incident couldn't be covered up like his defeat of Aokiji. There were too many witnesses both Marines and otherwise. The Vice Admirals got his warning and backed off, reluctantly. Markus nodded and returned his attention to the final phase of the fight between Lucci and Luffy. Even though he managed to avoid a lot of damage, in the beginning, Luffy was still badly beaten thanks to Lucci's Rokuogan hitting him multiple times.
While Markus had been busy taking shots at the Marine's, Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp had been watching the fight between Luffy and Lucci. Usopp had started to give a stirring speech when he saw Luffy fall and reinvigorated him. Markus opened a small hole in his net when he felt a certain something approaching. It brought a soft smile to his face that caused Nami, and oddly Robin, to blush when looking at him.
Markus still wasn't much to look at really. His dark hair, grey eyes, muscular body, and confident attitude just made him seem more attractive. Also, his system might have had a helping hand. While the boys watch Luffy and his finale, Markus kept an eye on everything happening around them. He left the net up and keep watching for the marines to get far away. Especially the Vice Admirals. No one but him was able to put up much of a fight right now. If they came back and attacked, he wasn't entirely sure he could protect everyone.
Markus felt the moment when Luffy pounded the snot out of Lucci and finally defeated him. Luffy had pushed himself well beyond his limits. He'd collapsed and couldn't move much. Since the Buster Call and marines had been defeated, there wasn't much of a rush to get away. Markus hopped to his feet and made his way in Luffy's direction. As he did, Usopp held his hands to his ears and looked around muttering something about a voice.
Once he got to the edge of the bridge and looked over the gap between where he was and Luffy's location, he just casually hopped into the air and used Geppo to cross the distance easily. He scooped up the exhausted Luffy and tossed him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He glanced at the unconscious Lucci and contemplated killing him. However, he had no reason to. Blueno had a great Devil Fruit, Lucci's was just a basic Zoan. Something he considered to be completely worthless. So, he ignored him.
With his sack of Luffy, Markus hopped back into the air and used Geppo to walk back to the others. As he looked around, he saw everyone else looking around as well. A moment later, he smiled. He heard it too, a sweet voice telling him to look down. Markus walked to the edge of the bridge and looked down. Everyone was and they all had tears in their eyes. Even Luffy, who could see from Markus's shoulder. Their friend, the Going Merry, was sitting in the water waiting for them. She had come to help her friends, even with her mortal wounds.
Everyone began laughing happily as they jumped down to the Going Merry. Markus joined them and set Luffy on the deck. Once everyone was on board, Markus addressed them all, "Wait here, I'm going to go let everyone else know about the Marine ship so they can sail out themselves."
Markus vanished after he said that and went around informing all of their allies about the Marine ship they could use and reminding them about the sea train Puffing Tom. They would all be able to leave just fine. He did one final full scan with his Observation Haki at the max range and couldn't detect a single threat. All the Vice Admirals had fled out of his range.
With no threats nearby, Markus ended his Electro-Repulsion Net skill. The net of lightning surrounding the island vanished releasing everyone and allowing for people to come back to the island if they wanted. Markus moved back onto the Merry where Robin was looking at everyone. When he arrived, Robin smiled brilliantly, looking more like the young woman she was, and spoke, "Everyone, thank you."
Markus smiled back at Robin and gave her a nod of acknowledgment. He thought she truly looked beautiful at that moment. Like a flower finally blooming. Everyone went about their business to sail the ship while he picked up Luffy and placed him on his favorite seat, the top of Merry's lamb head at the bow, at his request. They were soon sailing back in the direction of Water 7.
As they sailed, Markus finally opened his status page to check how much his level had blossomed once again. After all, there were ten thousand marines on the ships he sank, a thousand on each ship, along with captains and the vice admirals. The weakling marines only gave an average of 500 experience, but 10,000 of them added up to a whopping 5 million experience. Add in the 75,000 experience he earned for each of the five Vice Admirals he'd sent running and his level had grown to a shocking 138.
Markus looked over his shiny new 95 attribute points and tried to decide what to do with them. He contemplated increasing his Wisdom as that would increase his Willpower regeneration. It was currently at 178.1/30 seconds or just under 5 points per second. Then again... his current maximum health was about half of his Willpower. He was treading into 'glass cannon' territory. Harder fights were bound to come his way, Vice Admirals and Admirals would be after his head after today and all it would take is one or two good hits from an expert and he would be using his Second Life skill. He nodded to himself and dumped all 95 points into his Vitality.
If he wanted more points then he knew exactly how to do it, mass murder people in his Image Training. He could kill thousands of people at once and reap large amounts of experience from it. With all 95 points placed into his Vitality, his maximum hit points increased to 3,560, still a little more than a thousand points below his Willpower but it was a good start. His new plan involved doing nothing. He was going to just register opponents into his Image Training and take them out there. Though he would swoop in and kill opponents with Devil Fruits he wanted to obtain and still planned to introduce himself to Perona.
While the others were going to need time to recover, he planned to continue to grow stronger. Not by increasing his level though. He had Shodai Kitetsu now and he wanted to be worthy of wielding it. His best option was to train with it and hope upgrades for his Sword Mastery skill would appear once he capped it. His other skills could use some work and he still wanted to get his hands on Kami-e so that he qualified for Rokuogan. Seeing it in action when Lucci used it was impressive. If he could combine it with Armament Haki and Hasshoken... Well, it didn't really need to be stated how deadly that would be.
As he was pondering his future course of action up to the war at Marineford, his system notified him of his completed quest.
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Quest Complete!
Fuck the Marines!
The Marines think they're all that. They're not. Justice is just their lame excuse for committing atrocious crimes. Show them what their heinous deeds have wrought. Show them that their 'power' means nothing before you. Show. Them. FEAR.
Objective 1: Make them bleed! Defeat, Cripple, or kill at least 5,000 marines. (Complete)
Objective 2: Make them tremble! Plant fear into the hearts of any surviving marines. (Complete)
Objective 3: Make them despair! Prevent the Buster Call from destroying Enies Lobby. (Complete)
Objective 4: Make them flee! Destroy any trace of morale in the marines and make them flee before your might. (Complete)
Failure Conditions: Death, Death of a crew member, failure to rescue Nico Robin and/or Franky
Rewards:
Objective 1: 50 Bonus attribute points
Objective 2: Skill Book: Aura of Fear
Objective 3: Skill Book: Aura of Despair
Objective 4: Rewards TBD (Double Devil Fruit Physiology, Devil Fruit Extraction Serum)
You have gained 50 Attribute Points.
All of your items have been deposited into your inventory.
Double Devil Fruit Physiology (Legendary) – Modifies the body of the user and allows the user to have the power of two Devil Fruits. There is a limit though. The two powers granted by the Devil Fruits must be fundamentally compatible. If not, the combination process will fail. The two Devil Fruits must also be of different types, therefore you cannot have 2 Logia, 2 Paramecia, or 2 Zoan at once. When you hold a Devil Fruit in your hand you will automatically know if it is compatible or not.
Devil Fruit 1: Goro Goro no Mi (Logia)
Devil Fruit 2: --- (Paramecia or Zoan Only)
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Markus felt his whole body shudder in delight when he saw his rewards. He'd become like Blackbeard! He had no memory of any direct proof of exactly how Blackbeard could possess two Devil Fruits. The two prevailing theories were that he had a unique body, due to a comment from another character, and that his Yami Yami no Mi allowed him to absorb the power of other Devil Fruits like it could absorb objects and attacks. He still didn't know how it worked but he knew how it would work for him!
He quickly got to his feet and went below the deck for some privacy. Once he was alone, he retrieved his crate of fruits and dug through it until he found the one that had transformed into the Doa Doa no Mi. He didn't plan to eat it himself, he just wanted to use it to test his new physiology. After digging a bit he found a green fruit whose swirls looked like doorknobs. He quickly grabbed it. The moment he touched it he instinctively knew that it was not compatible with his current fruit. He didn't know why not but it just wasn't. He shrugged his shoulders and stored the Doa Doa no Mi in his inventory before closing the crate and returning it into his inventory as well.
He read over the description of his new physiology once again and slowly smiled, "Fundamental compatibility eh? I see..."
