1 Kellan Alaric

Kellan had seen a whole lot of things during his years training under Mihawk himself, the man who had come to be known as the true strongest swordsman to have ever set sail across the seas. Having become one of the Seven Warlords themselves.

It was during those years that he had come to learn that there are so many mysteries in the world that are left to be discovered, and also that it was just full of things ridiculous. People with supernatural powers, even as ridiculous as making someone act like rubber.

That's a Devil Fruit for ya.

There are honestly not many things that he would believe could surprise him that much at this point, and the only thing would probably be if Mihawk actually lost to someone in a sword fight. He himself, despite all the torturous training he has had under the man, still stood no chance even with his Haki.

Kellan wasn't even sure why it was that Mihawk would choose him of all people to become his disciple, maybe it was his talent for Haki? His desire to become stronger? His will to never give up a fight until the last drop of blood escaped from his body?

Who knows?

Over those years of torture, Kellan had become an incredible swordsman who had gotten on the radar of a number of people. Let it be pirates, the marines, and even the revolutionary army. But, even if he was as strong as he is, he knew that there was still much bigger fish in the sea. Take Whitebeard, for example, the guy could honestly squash him like no tomorrow.

Moving on though, there were not many things that could surprise him anymore considering everything he had experienced while under Mihawk's eagle eyes. Not even the fact that he had suddenly found himself thrown into an entirely different world.

Yep, you heard that right.

At the current time, he was just walking through the forest of this strange new land he had found himself in, calm as he always has been. It would take even a whole lot more than knowing you've been transported into another world to break his calm demeanor.

Well, maybe this wasn't even a new world at all, perhaps just a foreign land that no one has discovered yet. Though, he had his doubts as pretty much most of the damn planet had been separated into known parts, such as being the Grand Line, East Blue, etc.

Moving along from that, Kellan was seventeen now, having started his training when he was ten. Seven whole damn years of torture with that guy, and he really didn't regret it considering how powerful he had become thanks to the training.

Kellan was currently wearing a rather dark attire, of mainly the color black. He had sleek long black pants along with a skin-tight black hooded jacket with a white t-shirt underneath that could barely be seen every now and then as he walked.

His attire went well with his features, such as being his midnight-black hair and pair of amethyst eyes, any color worked with black honestly. To finish things off, he had a black mask over his mouth along with what looked to be a long thin sword sheathe attached to the left side of his waist.

The blade itself that was currently sheathed was a sword he named Yoseru-shi, which typically means 'to bring death'. This blade is as the name suggests, he typically only uses it if he wants to fight seriously or whenever he has no other choice in the matter. Otherwise, he'd use... other means, if you catch my drift.

"More of you? What a pain..."

Kellan frowned heavily as his eyes narrowed, his annoyance being due to the strange beastly creatures that had begun surrounding him. They all had black bodies along with a common train of having certain skeletal features, mainly in the form of some kind of mask and more.

These creatures had been seemingly swarming towards him for who knows how many times since he arrived here, and it was annoying. They weren't even that strong either, so they were just a massive pain in the ass than anything. None of them really proved to pose themselves as a threat.

However, he had noticed something about these creatures.

His senses couldn't pick up any kind of spiritual energy residing within them. No matter what living creature you were, you have spiritual energy. The fact that these creatures didn't have any seemed to tell him that they were dead, or perhaps they had a method of concealing it. Nonetheless, they were a major annoyance.

As the creatures charged towards him, he calmly stood tall without moving as they all lunged at him. From the group that was now attacking him, they all seemed to resemble wolves, although capable of properly standing on their back legs.

Once they got near, Kellan moved so fast that it looked almost like he teleported as he appeared in front of one of the creatures. Using his fists, he gave two punches to the head of the beast, effectively smashing it to pieces as the body of the beats fell to the ground.

He didn't waste time and moved on to the others before quickly finishing them all in easy and quick succession. He may be an incredible swordsman, but he wasn't dumb enough to not at least learn hand-to-hand combat. Although highly unlikely, there is always a chance he may not have his blade.

"Hmph, you're not even worth using my dinner knife..." Kellan gave a small scoff as he saw the bodies of these creatures slowly disappearing into a kind of black smoke. He calmly turned and continued on his way. "I wonder if there is a city or town around here..."

Kellan had only been walking for twenty or so minutes, and that time didn't include the small time he took dealing with a few of those creatures. He hadn't come across another person he could talk to, so he was currently looking for a sign of civilization. He needed information about this place after all.

Speaking of civilization, he was interested to see their form of combat. Considering if there was civilization, what do they do to fight off these beasts? Do they have Devil Fruits here? Do they have the knowledge of Haki? Or do they fight with basic weapons?

So many questions...

"Pl-Please, help!"

Kellan blinked his eyes when a loud voice could be heard screaming from the distance, he blinked a few times before dashing towards the source. Don't take him wrong, he wasn't a hero, he was more neutral than anything. Plus, the fact that there was a voice meant that there might be a village or something close by.

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Was this really where he was going to die?

In the middle of the forest?

The attack on the village that he lived in was so unexpected that no one was prepared for the invasion of Grimm that had occurred. The people who could fight back tried their best to fight back as many as they could, but he wasn't naive enough to think that they were safe just because of that.

It was only in due time that those people would become too exhausted to fight back this seemingly endless swarm of Grimm, ranging from beowolves, boarbatusks, and more. The hunters and huntresses were quite strong, but even they had their limits.

At the moment, he had no hope of survival. He knew for a fact that he had run way too far off from the village for people to come to rescue him in time, and now look at his situation. Surrounded by beowolves with his back against a tree, there was really no hope...

"Well, this ain't such a bad situation, huh?" The young boy couldn't help but snark a bit seeing his situation. This was something the people of his village knew him very well for, and that was his ability to freaking snark despite how much deep shit he was in. "Too bad they won't hear me snark for my last time..."

He was literally not even thirteen yet, but here he was, on his last damn legs. True, he had gotten some training done and had been taught to fight, and he would dare say that he was pretty good. But, no amount of that skill is getting him out of this situation.

He watched as the beowolf at the front of the pack approached him, claws raised up and ready to slash down on him. Gritting his teeth, he clenched his fists as he was literally met with death's eyes. 'This is going to hurt a whole damn lot!'

As he closed his eyes tightly, ready to be slashed to pieces.

"You okay there, kid?"

"H-Huh?"

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These creatures were seriously a major annoyance, he wouldn't be surprised if they were the actual freaking plague. He had arrived at the location where he heard the scream and ran into a bunch more of those black creatures, which he swiftly dealt with.

He was now staring down at the form of a kid, probably no older than twelve, who he had seen about to be absolutely mauled by those things. Surprisingly, the kid looked ready to just take the hit as he had his eyes closed tightly just waiting for his end.

'Either the kid is brave or stupid.' Normal kids would flail around in fear if they were in such a situation, so this kid was really brave or was just absolutely idiotic. He wasn't even trying to find a way to escape from the situation, not like he even could. "You okay there, kid?"

"H-Huh?"

The kid in front of him, as stated before, looked to be around eleven or twelve. He had black hair that was a bit messed up, probably due to fighting or running from those things. Along with a pair of hazel eyes and fair skin, simple clothing as well, that being a t-shirt and shorts, as well as shoes. From the looks of it, the kid had some muscle on him, giving Kellan the impression that the kid does some training or some physical work.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for the help..." The kid nodded his head as he managed to compose himself. Kellan was honestly impressed by this, the kid calmed down quicker than most his age should be able to. "My name is Zane, Zane Keston. You are...?"

"Kellan, Kellan Alaric."

"Right, Kellan... I've never seen you before, so you're definitely not from the village." Zane voiced with interest as he looked at the masked and hooded male. Honestly, those sharp hawk-like sharpened purple eyes sent shivers down his spine. "Are you a huntsman...?"

'A hunter? Like a bounty hunter?' Kellan was rather confused hearing the boy. From the way he spoke, it sounded like a hunter was a well-known profession. Definitely not a bounty hunter, mainly because he could hear the slight hint of admiration in the boy's tone. Bounty hunters weren't typically viewed too highly. "No, I'm not."

"Really? But, you're so strong..." Zane blinked in surprise. While he may not have seen it, Kellan had dealt with those beowolves in that short amount of time he had his eyes closed. "I would have thought you were a huntsman..."

"You said something about a village...?"

"Oh, right! The village...!" Zane seemed to widen his eyes in realisation and also major panic. He quickly ran straight up to Kellan before holding onto his sleeve as a pleading look appeared in his eyes. "Please, you need to help save my village! We're being overrun by the grimm! The huntsman and huntresses won't last much longer!"

'Grimm? Is that what these creatures are called?' Kellan thought to himself as he heard the term being stated. Aside from that, it seems that there really is a form of settlement in this forest. "Very well, which way is the village?"

"I-I'll lead the way!"

Just so that they could move faster, Kellan just decided to put the kid onto his back as he ran. Zane was shocked by the sheer speed in which Kellan could run, but nonetheless gave him directions as Kellan continued to sprint through the forest, swiftly killing any grimm that they came across.

Zane was shocked more by the way that Kellan killed the grimm, and that was with his bare hands. He knew that some huntsman and huntresses use their fists to fight, but they usually had weapons of some sort attached to their hands as well. Kellan was using his literal bare hands!

This kind of confused him as he could see the sword that Kellan had sheathed on his waist, so why wasn't he using it? Every time they came across a grimm, he would just punch it before it fell to the ground. That was even more shocking, he was literally one-shotting these grimm!

While they weren't the strongest of grimm, it was still preposterous!

"If you don't mind me asking, why is it that you don't use that sword of yours? I mean, it's cool and ridiculous how you are killing them with your fists, but why?" Kellan could only blink in a bit of confusion when he heard the question that was directed at him.

"There is no need to use my weapon against such small rabbits." Kellan gave a simple and firm response as Zane rose an eyebrow. He wasn't entirely certain what Kellan meant, but he guessed that he didn't register these grimm as much of a threat to him. His actions speak truth to that. "Whose voice was that?"

"Th-That sounds like Mister Agon! We need to hurry!"

"Got it!" Quickly speeding up, Kellan began running even faster through the trees as Zane quickly gripped on as tight as he could to the young swordsman. It didn't take long at all before they arrived into a clearing. "Is that the guy?"

The sight he was greeted by was a village that had quite a number of buildings destroyed, and there were a number of people who were running away as a few were trying to fight back against a large horse that were swarming towards the place.

The main thing that Kellan was focusing on were the people that were fighting against the grimm, more specifically, an older man who was probably in his late forties. The man was very much visibly muscular, and also had short teal hair, and was wielding a large greatsword the same size as himself.

"Yeah, that's Mister Agon!"

"Looks like he's having some trouble." Kellan commented casually as he saw the man faulting quite a bit, easily due to exhaustion. The other fighters around were no different, they looked like they were on their last legs as well. Kellan placed Zane on the ground and began walking forwards. "Stay here."

"G-Good luck!"

Zane watched as Kellan calmly walked towards the massive horde of grimm, no sign of hesitation or fear at all in his step. The others seemed to begin noticing him as well as they all stared at him in major confusion, probably due to the fact that he was literally walking into death.

"Hey, kid! Get out of here!" Zane heard Agon yell towards Kellan, though the swordsman didn't seem to pay him any mind before seemingly disappearing in a flash. Soon after, a large chunk of the grimm fell to the ground with a crash as they began to disappear. Agon and the villagers all gasped at the sight.

"Zane!"

"E-Eh? Miss Larenza?" Zane turned his head to see an older woman, probably in her late twenties or so running over towards him. The woman had long long black hair that was tied into a ponytail, she was one of the huntresses that resided in this village.

"Thank goodness you're okay, your mother was worried sick!" Lorenza sighed in relief as she stopped next to the boy. Lorenza soon turned her attention towards the grimm. "I saw you coming into the village with that kid. Do you know him?"

"Yeah, he saved me. His name is Kellan..."

"Kellan, huh?" Lorenza could honestly say that she had never seen anything like the swordsman. Not that she knew he was a swordsman aside from the fact that he had a sword sheathed on his waist, but because he was literally killing the grimm using only his fists. "What incredible aura..."

All the people that had their aura unlocked were capable of seeing it naturally, so they could see the dense powerful aura that coated the swordsman's body. Mainly his fists as he continued to mow down the grimm like no tomorrow, who knows how many he had killed already...

The sheer density and volume of aura that Lorenza, along with the other huntsman and huntresses, could see was absolutely astounding. Along with that, she could see that he was manipulating where he transferred that aura to different parts of his body. She had never seen such manipulation of aura before, not even in some of the best hunters.

In Kellan's point of view, he could probably take these things down with his bare fists even without putting any haki into his limbs. To only reason he was doing this was so that he would get the job done even faster, the haki at least assured he would obliterate these grimm creatures.

It didn't take him too long before he had finished off all of the grimm that were hording the village front, though there might be more on other sides. Hopefully, there were a few other fighters that were dealing with those grimm that might be attacking from another side of the village.

"Y-Your help is very much appreciated, kid..." The voice of Agon sounded as Kellan turned his head to see the man walking over toward him, an expression of absolute disbelief on his face. "You look young, though you're certainly powerful, aren't you...?"

"I suppose."

"W-Well, either way. We truly do appreciate your help with the grimm, I wasn't really sure how much longer we would be able to last." Agon added as Kellan just gave a simple nod of his head. "Are you from outside the village? I've never seen you before."

"Yeah, I saved some kind called Zane and he asked for my help."

"I see, that makes sense. Zane is quite the troublemaker when he wants to be, I thank you greatly for helping him." Agon sighed as he gave Kellan a bow of appreciation. "The others should have been able to finish off the other grimm from the other sides. It was a miracle you came along, the grimm were piling up this side more so than the others."

"No problem, it was just a coincidence." Kellan responded simply. He had noticed something about these grimm creatures, something aside from them not having souls. It was the fact that they seemed to be attracted towards him for whatever reason.

He had immediately noticed this when he first walked onto the battlefield, and it was then that the majority of the grimm had turned their attention straight towards him. It was almost like they switched targets simultaneously just as he entered their radar. For what reason, he didn't know.

Also, there was something that did interesting that he took notice of. There were a few individuals who had significantly stronger spiritual energies compared to others, the ones mainly being the people who were fighting back the grimm.

It felt kind of different compared to what normal spiritual energy felt like, though this was a different world, so he wasn't sure what things are different. Was this even Haki? Or something else? Whatever it is, it didn't seem to be too powerful from what he could see right now.

Just going by the amount of spiritual energy that he could sense from them, the strongest one here aside from himself was Agon. The guy could probably last decently well in the four cardinal oceans, but he could honestly forget about surviving long anywhere in the Grand Line, especially the New World.

"Once again, I appreciate the help. My name is Agon."

"Kellan."

"Dad!"

"Oh, thank goodness you're okay!" Kellan calmly turned his head to the right to see a figure jumping across the rooftops of a few building and heading over towards them, the person appeared to be a female his age that had a strange device attached to her back, perhaps some kind of weapon. "How was everything on the south side?"

"All good! We managed to take down all of the grimm." The girl voiced as she jumped off the building and landed next to them, she also gave a small peace sign with her fingers as she smiled at her father. "Looks like you have everything under control here as well!"

Now that the girl was here, Kellan got a good look at her and saw that she had the same colored hair and eyes as Agon. He did hear the girl call him dad, so that was most likely why. Agon then seemed to gesture his hand towards Kellan.

"Everything here is fine thanks to this young man, he was a very big help." Agon stated as the girl turned her attention towards Kellan with a curious look. Kellan decided to lower his hood as his appearance was now in the open, though he still had his mask on. "This is Kellan."

"Oh, nice to meet you. Thanks for helping out in saving the village!" The girl had thanked him with genuine gratitude as she extended her hand forwards for a handshake. Kellan accepted the gesture and calmly took hold of her hand and shook. "My name is Vella Moisia, it's a pleasure!"

"Kellan Alaric, same."