Chapter 6 Set Ablaze

"It is now time to begin the 100th Auction of the Treasure Auction House!" Atop the stage of the Treasure Auction House stood a bald man with a scarred face, his face and body like that of a battle hardened warrior. This was naturally Vidar L. Picker the boss of Lawless, and today he would be leading the 100th Auction of the Treasure Auction House.

With this announcement the crowd was riled up, and immediately the first item was brought on stage. It was a rare Grade Sword, and bidding war soon ensued, the sword eventually being sold for a million Beris.

As the auction progressed more and more items were sold, from various weapons, to raw materials, to even slaves, the auction was all over the place in terms of what was being sold. To the side Arch simply noted who bought what, and who he had to be aware of.

Anyone who could actively participate in this auction wasn't a pushover, after all regular pirates could only dream of spending 100s of thousands to millions of Beri at an auction.

Time passed, and finally the finale arrived, a treasure chest was carried to the stage and then placed on a golden podium. This was the final item of the auction, the devil fruit. 'Regardless what devil fruit this is, if I can obtain it that's another powerful asset for the Kingdom.' Arch thought as his eyes flashed with a hint of greed.

In Paradise it was albeit much more common than outside of the Grand Line, still rare to find devil fruit users, so if Arch could find a few devil fruits and train some soldiers he would have no problem combatting the pirates in paradise, the new world and Marines were another matter altogether though.

Picker then opened the treasure chest showcasing the devil fruit inside. "This is a devil fruit obtained by a pirate crew about 2 weeks ago. They sent it here to be auctioned off for our grand 100th Auction but have decided to remain anonymous." Picker began his sales pitch to the masses.

"Now this wouldn't be too exciting normally, but this devil fruit was obtained from a heavily guarded marine escort ship, meaning that the value of this devil fruit is extremely high, so the starting price will be a low low, 100 million Beris!" Picker declared, and immediately the bidding war began.

"150 million!"

"200 million!"

"210 million!"

"212 million!"

The bidding was relentless and the price continued to soar as bid after bid was declared, finally the price settled at a whopping 280 million Beris, the smile on Picker's face was almost blinding as he heard the final result.

"Now that our final item has been sold it is with great sadness that I declare this auction to be over, all those who have won items may follow me to transaction point." Picker stated as everyone left the auction house, only those who had to pay for their items remained.

Naturally Arch had known about this beforehand and had bought a silver gun for 300 thousand Beri earlier in the auction. After scanning through all the winners, Picker nodded his head and made a waving motion before walking away.

Immediately they all began to follow him through the auction house, eventually walking through a secret passageway and down a tunnel before making their way to a small room a distance away from the auction house.

"The money?" Picker asked, standing in front of the treasures. After a treasure was bid on, it would be moved to this location so that the transaction could be made after the auction had ended, after all it was hard to make the transactions in the middle of the auction.

Hearing this everyone began to take out their money including Arch, when suddenly one of the men in the room swung a sword towards Picker. Immediately everyone in the room was alarmed, but before the sword could even reach Picker a small inconspicuous leaf blocked the attack.

"What a pity." Picker shook his head, before a leaf slit the man's throat, there was always one idiot per auction who thought they could steal all the treasures. The spectators immediately sucked in a breath of cold air.

All those within the room had had thought of trying to steal the treasures, but after witnessing Picker's prowess they simply suppressed such thoughts. 'So a leaf based devil fruit? Interesting.' Arch thought as a glint flashed in his eyes.

It was unfortunate that such a closed location was used as the transaction point or else Arch was confident in killing everyone here, but alas it seemed he had to let these lowlifes go, that didn't mean he wouldn't take what was delivered to him.

After the transactions were complete, Picker then lead the group up another passage where they arrived at a secluded place within Lawless. "Well if that's all you can all fuck off now." Picker said dropping his polite attitude from earlier.

Although this wasn't exactly pleasant to the ears it was to be expected, now that their transaction was completed, and based on the fact that they would probably never attend another auction Picker didn't feel the need to keep up any pretense.

"CAW!"

Suddenly a cry of an eagle resounded, as a gigantic eagle with a wingspan of 8 meters and a golden beak swooped down on the group before grabbing a man carrying a chest and flying away. Its brown wings flapping strongly as it flew away.

"BANG! BANG!"

Gun shots sounded as two of the winners were killed. Immediately Picker's face distorted before he began to run away. "If you want to live follow me!" Picker screamed as he ran towards the tallest tower in Lawless.

Bullet after bullet flew by, some missing others hitting their targets, but Arch simply smiled beneath his mask. Naturally he had no fear for the bullets flying by as this was all part of his plan.

Soon the remaining group of 6 arrived at the tower, the pirates on the road dispersing as they heard the gun fire, fearing that they'd be accidentally hit. Luckily for the group of 6 they finally managed to reach the tower where Picker's guards were stationed but once again, the eagle appeared tearing through the guards.

Picker continued running, eventually entering the tower, in his panic he accidentally let in those who had been following him, but he had no time to deal with them so he continued running up his tower or else this would all be over.

Finally he entered his private room at the top of the tower, just as he sighed with relief he looked outside his window.

"BOOM!"

The gun manufacturing factory had exploded, causing a chain reaction of explosions throughout Lawless setting the city ablaze. "What the fuck." Picker muttered in shock, when he suddenly heard the sound of footsteps.

Looking behind himself, he saw a young man with blue eyes and white hair walking towards him with a smile on his face. Before he could utter a word, the man moved his fist jetting towards his face. Still in shock Picker forgot to block this attack as he was blasted towards the wall banging his head on it.

"Wh-" He tried to speak before he was slapped unconscious by Arch. 'Luckily I had caught him off guard or he might have forced me to use my devil fruit.' Arch thought in shock as he looked at the man. He had somehow stayed conscious after Arch had directly punched his face into the wall had he used his leaf devil fruit the outcome would have probably been extremely annoying for Arch to deal with.

Grabbing the man, Arch then opened the door and walked down the tower eventually arriving in front of the group of 4 who had also entered the tower. "You give me your key to the slave collar." Arch said pointing at one of the men.

Arch had anticipated the selling of slaves in the auction, so he knew that there'd also be a device which would be useful to him, the bomb collar.

The man in front of him was so shocked at the sight before him he couldn't respond, but Arch didn't care. Slapping the man unconscious he then searched for the key, even finding a few million Beri in the process which he quickly pocketed. 'He knew robbery was so profitable.' Arch thought as he eyed the other pirate.

Seeing this gaze he reached for his gun, but before he could even react Arch had also slapped him unconscious, before searching him as well. All in all it was a decent harvest of about 7 million Beri.

Arch then reached for the two women who had the bomb collars on their necks and quickly undid them with the keys. "You two are free to go, I suggest running away now while the island is in chaos." Arch said as the two girls looked at him in admiration and fear.

Hearing his words they didn't know what to do, but it was true that they couldn't stay here so they quickly fled the scene. Arch then moved back up the tower as he dragged Picker reaching his room.

After a few minutes the man then groggily woke up as he looked around the room, only to see a smiling young man before him. "Y-You who-" Picker questioned in fear as he gazed at the young man in front of him, but he was quickly cut off.

"Quiet, as you can see I have your life in my hands so you will listen to my demands or you can say good bye to your little life." Arch commanded as he locked eyes with Picker. To be the boss of such an island as Lawless it was safe to say that this man deserved no pity, but that didn't mean he was useless.

"What do you want?" Picker asked as he noticed the bomb collar on his neck, he knew there was no chance he was getting out of this now, at least not without losing something. "Your money, all of it." Arch demanded as he made a sort of "pay up" motion.

Hearing this Picker almost coughed up blood in rage. He was a pirate he loved money almost as much as life itself, almost. As he felt his strength coming back to him, Picker then got up and moved towards a wall.

He then took off a small painting inserted a few keys into what looked like a treasure chest, opening it up he showed the contents to Arch who smiled. "You indeed do have a treasure worth over 500 million Beri." Arch muttered before grabbing the chest, when suddenly a leaf flew towards his face.

Seeing this Arch's expression immediately sank as he jumped backwards dodging the leaf, but it seemed to track him as more and more leaves began appearing and launching themselves towards him.

"Hahahaha." Arch laughed as he dodged the leaves, the more appeared the more funny he found it. 'This guy actually thinks he has a chance, you know what I'll give him some hope.' Arch mused as he continued dodging the leaves.

Eventually no more leaves began appearing and it was the same amount constantly attacking Arch over and over and over. Finally Arch grew bored of this little game, and fur began to grow on his arms and legs as 2 small ears appeared on top of his head.

His hands turned into tiger paws as claws grew out of them. A tail then grew out from his back as he stood there facing Picker. Arch then swiped his claws slowly as a great wind blew through the room dispersing the leaves and slamming Picker into the wall.

"I really didn't want to use my fruit, at first I thought you could be my inside man but now you've shown me that that's impossible." Arch sighed as he moved towards the now truly frightened Picker.

The man wanted to kill himself in rage when he saw Arch transform. 'This bitch could already kill me with his normal strength, and you're telling me he has a Zoan fruit not only that but a predator type!' Picker raged in his mind as Arch reached him.

"So what will it be? Your eyes or your tongue?" Arch questioned with a smile on his face.