Bedivere's Ambitions! Pierre face off against Doll Factory?!

"Tales. Mad Tales is his name."

Bedivere, who was laying on his bed remember what Pierre told him this morning.

"Mad Tales, is there some connection between Tales and that kid this afternoon?" Bedi uttered to himself.

All of a sudden, someone knocked and opened the door of his room right after. It is one of the people living in that shared house.

"Yo, Bedi! Pop's calling for you!" the man told him.

"Yeah, I'll be there soon." Bedi got up from his bed as he heard his summons.

He put on his cloak and kept a sword on his waist. It seems like he was ready for a battle but all of that is for protection himself. After all, he could never trust anyone here on this island due to its reputation.

In the living room of their rundown shack, 5 people were gathering at a long table, each having a keg of beer in their hands where they directly drink in. Each of them omits a dark aura, only to be interpreted that each of them is not getting along with each other. In the middle of that same table is someone they called Pops. Unlike the other 4 people at that table, this person omits a different aura, which only can be seen as pure evil.

"Why the hell is that brat taking too long to come down here?" one of them complained.

"Pops, should we start before Bedi comes down?" the other asked.

"No, we wait for him to appear. After all, we cannot go with the plan without that man." Pops answered.

Out in the shadows, Bedivere appeared as he remove the hood of the cloak he was wearing.

"Yo, it's been a long time since we all gathered here today." he casually greeted them.

"You punk! D'you know how long it took for you to come here, huh?!" the complaining man grabbed him by the collar.

"Ho, you might want to loosen that grip of yours there, old bag." Bedivere taunted the complaining man.

Pops sighed.

"Do whatever you want, just don't kill him. We'll need his men to proceed with our plans." Pops said.

As soon as Bedi got permission from the man called Pops, he grabbed the hands of the man grabbing him by his collar. He then proceeds to break the man's fingers one by one, resulting in the man begging for mercy each time he breaks them. As soon as the complaining man let go of his grip on Bedivere, he reached for his rapier tainted with poison on its tip.

"Hahaha, you fool! One scratch from this killer right here will kill you instantly." the man mocked Bedivere, forgetting about the pain he just went through instantly.

As soon as he saw the rapier being pointed at him, Bedivere reached for his sword. His eyes were in full focus on his opponent, and the tables and chairs began to tremble, resembling something similar to an earthquake.

Draw. Bedivere drew his sword as he sliced through his opponent's hands easily as slicing through butter. He cleanly cuts his opponent's hands which are holding the rapier before his opponent can make his first step.

"Keep your eyes peeled, fool." Bedi begins his barrage of insults.

Slash. Bedivere slashed through his opponent's eyes, rendering his opponent blind.

"Don't put your blade to someone if you cannot beat them in the first place." he continues.

Thud. He kicked his opponent till his opponent slams himself into the wall from the impact of his kick.

"And don't ever think you can ever beat me in your lifetime, shit-face," Bedi added more salt to the wound he inflicted on his opponent.

"Don't you think it's enough punishment for him, Bedivere?" Pops asked him, returning Bedivere to his usual self.

"So? Why would you summon us this late, Pops?" Bedi asked him.

Pops stood up from his seat which is unmoved from the fighting that happened, unlike other seats which were blown from the impact Bedi gave his opponent.

"Tonight, we proceed with the plan. We'll start with the HQ of Doll Factory then we work our way up from there." Pops announced to his subordinates the plan.

"Then, from there, we'll steal the first artefact found and put our faction only next to Mad Tales and Round Tables in the ranking!" Pops continued.

As to how Bedi got involved in this one, we'll have to go back 6 earlier.

"Hey, kiddo! You said you will beat the Round Table? Don't make me laugh!" a thug from Scorching Haven said.

It happened in one of the dark alleys of Scorching Haven. Bedi was ganged up by about 20 people in that place. Apparently, they claim that they own that area of the island. That's when the man they called Pops appeared along with the man ganging up on Bedi.

"Pops, this guy says he was an exiled knight from the Round Table and is going to take them down by himself." one of the lackeys reported to Pops.

"Ho, is that so? You're pretty lively for a brat as young as you." Pops responded, intrigued by the report given to him.

"What? Don't think I'm going to hold back just because a lot of you are surrounding me!" Bedi claims.

Pops just laughed it off.

"If you really think you'll beat the Round Table just by yourself, take these people down just by yourself. Once you do, I'll listen to whatever you have to say to me." Pops ordered him.

One by one, the people surrounding him start to arm themselves with different types of weapons. While there are some from distance arming themselves with ranged weapons like crossbows and guns, the people fighting him at close range armed themselves with scimitars, spears and axes.

"Hraargh!" one of the close-ranged thugs begins charging at him.

Slash.

Blood spills from his opponent's belly as his guts start spilling from where he damaged him. As soon as the others saw what happened to one of them, they started to attack him in groups simultaneously as their emotions drives them, resulting in a careless attack with no form and all force. Bedivere, as someone who was trained as a knight, played with his opponents with ease.

[Hmph, these monkeys are being controlled by their emotions. They'll never beat me with their mindless attacks.]

As he dances around against his opponents, he enjoys cutting through them with ease. All of that changed when he took a look at the person these thugs called "Pops" and saw him with a somewhat disappointing look in his eyes.

"Haa, when I heard you were an exiled knight from the famous Round Table, I thought you'll be like one of their big shots like Gawain or Lancelot. Maybe you're just one of their pawns and just a nameless knight." Pops draw his sword which turned out to be a wooden one.

"You dare fight me with a toy?!" Bedi took offence to what his opponent did.

For a knight, fighting on equal terms is their way of life. This mostly translates into a one-on-one duel. Having his opponent face him with nothing but a wooden sword is a mockery of their abilities as a knight. His opponent seems to know about this and mocked his opponent regardless of that.

"This is only what I will need to beat you." Pops insulted him even further.

As a result, Bedi aimlessly charged toward his opponent. It came to his mind later that it was a wrong move. His emotion controlled his actions. As soon as he charged at his opponent, Pops smiled with tears in his eyes.

"You're unworthy of your sword, young man," Pops said as he disarmed him quickly and knocked him out with such ease.

[No way, this guy is strong. He might be on par with Lance - no, he might be on Gawain's level now that I think of it. He- he did not even break any sweat from that!] Bedi thought to himself before losing consciousness.

Back in the present, Pops just announced his new plans to further their progress and for them to reach their ambitions - to be the King of the World. Doll Factory, the group who got the first ever artefact found two years ago. They are controlled by the Governor of the World and just mere puppets to the corrupt underworld of Central Seas.

[At all cost, I should re-claim my sword and beat the Round Tables myself. In order to do that, I must defeat Pops first, just like what he promised six months ago.] Bedi thought to himself.

Somewhere in The Scorching Haven, Pierre is getting thinner and thinner as hours have passed by and he still hasn't eaten anything after his talk with Bedi.

"Food, I need something to eat!" Pierre said as he wobbly walked the main street of The Scorching Haven.

Soon after, his nose caught onto something tasty. He followed the scent of the flavour. He ended up in front of a stall with his eyes focused solely on the floating octopus' tentacles in front of him.

"Looks tasty!" he then attempted to bite the floating tentacles.

It moved!

"Huh?" Pierre is confused by what just happened.

Then, he followed the tentacles once again and took a bite of it. Finally, he caught the floating food.

"Aww!" someone screamed in pain.

"Huh? This one's hard to chew!" Pierre once again attempted to chew on the tentacles only to hear someone screaming out of pain once again.

"Oi, what the hell are you doing there, snotty brat?" Pierre heard a voice next to him.

As soon as he turn his head to where the voice came from, he saw a man with tentacles next to him.

"That's my tentacle right there, not food!" then the man attempted to stab him in the cheeks.

"Shit, gotta run!" Pierre then took off and ran for his life.

Luckily enough, the man did not follow him.

"What a shit hole place this is. Where the hell are they?!" the man screamed in anger.

"Oi, keep your mouth shut there, Tako!" another man appeared, wearing a disguise moustache.

"You do know we are sent here on a secret mission, right?" another girl appeared wearing a clown disguise.

"Yeah, after all, we don't want people to know that members of Doll Factory are roaming around their area." a kid wearing a shogun outfit said.

"Piss off, will ya?! Anyways, I remember the kid's face. Once I see him again, I'll beat him to a pulp!" the tentacle man clenched his fists alongside his tentacles.

The members of Doll Factory - a faction from the Governor of the World appeared in the lands of Scorching Haven disguised as foreign entertainers from the East Seas.