26 Clash In The Town

A young boy no older than 10 was walking through the street with a giant sword larger than him strapped to his back, a silver halberd in one hand hanging over his shoulder, a scarlet bow in his other hand and a katana on his hips.

That boy was Orion. As he walked he was given weird looks by others who he passed but he didn't have the energy to pay attention to them. Strips of sweat was starting to trickle down his face and veins were starting to bulge from his forehead.

[Carrying 180 kg of weapon's is no walk in the park.]

As he was in his own little world, A group of marines were walking in his direction on the opposite side of the road.

[Captain look at that little kid, carrying all those heavy weapons. Haha whoever made him collect them wasn't doing him any favours!]

The man he called captain turned his head to see who his subordinate was talking about.

[That kid… Black dreadlocks, white shirt, beige trousers, black eyes, looks about 10… He fits the description perfectly!]

As he was being studied Orion sensed someone watching him. He turned his head to the source of the feeling and was shocked.

[Isn't that a young Smoker?! That's not good, I think he's recognised me!]

When Smoker saw Orion's reaction to seeing him, his speculations were immediately confirmed. Without hesitation Smoker turned into half man half smoke combination as he darted towards his target.

Seeing that, Orion frowned.

[I won't be able to ditch him carrying all this, looks like I have to fight my way out of this one.]

He dropped all 3 weapons he just bought and moved to intercept smoker.

Smoker took the jutte that was strapped to his back and thrust it forth. When he saw the Jutte Orion immediately sensed a threat.

[Seastone?!]

Orion didn't dare be negligent as he drew his sword from its sheathe and raised it to collide with Smoker's jutte.

As they sword and jutte collided Smoker was inwardly shocked by Orion's physical strength.

[This kid's no joke]

Orion on the other hand let out a satisfied smile.

[His strength has reached the D Rank, haha this'll be fun!]

As the two weapons clashed they were relying on physical strength to push each other back, of which Orion was on the losing side.

"Who are you kid and why did you intervene when my men tried to apprehend 4 criminals?!"

Orion laughed when he heard that.

"Criminal's? They were captured by the celestial dragons against their will and treated like slaves. How does that make them criminal's?"

Smoker didn't reply, instead he pushed harder against Orion forcing him on his back foot. Feeling himself losing the battle of strength he changed his tactics.

"Wind Burst!"

Orion's body was surrounded by a ball of wind that expanded forcing everything and everyone that was surrounding him backwards.

"White Cage!"

Smoker turned directly into smoke and created what appeared like a cage to surround Orion.

Orion was just about to try and force his way out when a jutte was suddenly thrust towards his head, forcing him to stop his dash and dodge the incoming attack.

"In my cage I can appear from anywhere at any time. Give up, you've lost."

Orion didn't listen as he once more tried to make a break for it but was stopped by smoker's jutte. Seeing that he didn't listen, Smoker said.

"I was trying to be nice but since you don't appreciate my kindness, I guess I'll have to rough you up a little bit…

Rapid Assault!"

As he said that, a myriad of juttes appeared and they were all thrusted towards Orion. Orion closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

As the juttes were approaching, Orion's mind flashed back to when he was training with his father on Gale Cliff.

After learning to move freely on the cliff despite the wind, his father made him practice his dodging by Marcus flicking haki coated stones at Orion and Orion being forced to dodge.

One day a leaf floated in front of him and when the stone was flicked, just as it was about to touch the leaf, the leaf changed direction evading the path of the stone.

Orion was too distracted to dodge and was hit in the shoulder, but it was as if he didn't even notice as he was so immersed in his discovery.

[The more forceful the attack the more wind resistance it'll face. The first part of my training was to feel the subtle changes in the wind around me… If I focus on sensing the changes in the wind and then use those changes to dodge the attacks…]

As he remembered his training a smile formed on his face. He took a gentle step forward and began to dodge the myriad of attacks that came from all different positions.

"Zephyr's Evasion!"

As he was dodging, he was slowly moving forward. Even though his speed moving forward was slow it was constant but more importantly, it was free and easy.

Watching him, Smoker felt as if he was watching a leaf that changed direction with a gentle breeze.

As he made his way to the edge of the cage, Orion smiled as he slashed out with his sword.

As the slash connected the cage vanished and everyone who had gathered to watch the fight was shocked by the result.

Orion was standing proudly, while Smoker was on his knees covering his chest with his arm as he had a gaping wound reaching from his left shoulder to his right hip.

He looked at Orion as if he was looking at a monster.

"That was… Haki!"

Seeing Smoker down, Orion sheathed his swords and ran towards the weapons he had bought earlier.

[Thankfully I managed to learn Busoshoku Haki a couple of weeks ago. My body's not strong enough to bear the pressure of hardening (turning skin or weapon black) but I can still create a coat of haki, so I can negate the effects of devil fruit users.

According to Dad's description, if I want to be able to use hardening my body needs to reach at least the C- Rank. But this is enough for now, if I couldn't use haki, I would've struggled a lot more than I did today!]

As he picked the weapons up he noticed that everyone was still in shock by the result, he took the opportunity to make a break for it.

Seeing that he was trying to escape, the other marines drew their pistols and started to fire at him and chase after him.

Orion knew it'd be hard to ditch them with all this excess weight so he decided to go all out. He circulated his Heavenly Demon qi and then gathered as much wind as he could under his feet and jumped on to a roof. As he jumped up, a giant gust of wind was released pushing against everyone in the area.

As he landed on the roof he began jumping from one roof to another getting further and further away until he became a fading black dot in the horizon. Just as he was about to vanish, Smoker heard his shout.

"Haha see you around Smokey!"

Smoker's face was emotionless as he picked himself up. His subordinates didn't know what to say so they said nothing in case of upsetting their Captain.

Smoker walked away without saying a word.

[That's one monstrous kid!]

Orion didn't head straight back to the inn in case he somehow was followed. After half an hour of evasive manoeuvres he was confident he wasn't being followed. Orion finally made it back to the inn and jumped through the window to the room they rented.

"Guy's I'm back!"