Ch 36 - Calvary

[Mc Pov]

Just as I was nearing the disturbed area, I started hearing loud noises coming from the direction. They sounded like extremely sharp wind blades, and the sound of stone and wood being cut like butter gives credence to this.

Registering this fact, I don't stop moving and continue towards my destination.

And just as I landed on one of the remaining buildings, I was greeted by the sight of Carina, who was covered in plants head to toe, fending off a large green preying mantis with plants and vines that she controlled from the surrounding area.

However, this didn't seem to work too well for her, because the preying mantis didn't even react to this, simply waved its large pincers, generating huge wind blades and slicing through anything she threw at it, followed by it zooming to Carina's position and trying to bisect her whole.

Carina seemed to know this would happen, because she suddenly became somewhat transparent and dodged under the attack, rolling to safety, and continued running around the area.

Dodging and repeating the process again and again.

She seemed to be extremely tired as well, even with her covering herself in those green balls I saw before, which I knew from experience can replenish one's stamina and energy, it seemed as if they were no longer affecting her all that much.

This was an issue, one that I could easily resolve by jumping down there and helping her, but I was still holding off, looking around the area for any sign of the redhead that came in this direction.

She seemed to be up to something, and it worries me I haven't seen her yet. I know for a fact that if she were to come here and try to capture or kill Carina, she would not have a problem with it at all, she was just that powerful.

However, my searching was cut short when I heard a loud "Aaah," from Carina; and looking down I spotted her holding her bleeding arm tightly to her chest, with the large mantis quickly approaching her in order to hurt her further.

Seeing this my eyes become bloodshot, and I bare my teeth in anger, angry that I have to see Carina in such pain, and angry at myself for not helping her immediately, even if it was for a good reason.

And to correct that, I quickly shave and aim towards the preying mantis's trajectory with my eyes, immediately firing off a star beam when I locked onto his moving figure.

He seemed to not be expecting me because he was immediately hit by the attack, even if he was, he could have done very little to dodge it anyways, it was going near the speed of light; he's not that redhead after all, just a mere bug.

Seeing this I sigh and land near Carina and proceed to walk towards her.

"Sorry for taking so long, Carina, I came as fast as possible."

I say to her, she looks up at me, and I'm immediately amazed by her face, its bloody and covered in dust, but even with all this I can immediately tell that her beauty has jumped a few levels higher than what it previously was, and she wasn't anywhere near ugly before.

Seeing me approaching, somewhat nonchalantly at that, seemed to ignite a fire in her because she quickly stands from her position and approaches me.

She then walks closer and pulls my ear as hard as she can, and yells in it, "CADE don't lie to me!"

"I know you have been spying on us for a long time now! I almost got killed CADE! Is this what you wanted? To see me fall and then come in and play the knight and shining armor? Well!?"

But just as I was about to defend myself from her accusation, I sensed something and immediately brought her into myself for a hug, and not a second later, a large vertical wind blade tore-up the ground where Carina was standing.

Seeing this she is stunned for a second, but I don't give her time to say anything because I'm already near the mantis agent, and already in the motion of punching his large triangular shaped head with all of my strength.

And as my fist makes contact with his soft leathery head, it punches right through it and right into his pillowy brain, splattering it all over the place, including me.

However, I'm not satisfied, and I don't like that there are still bits and pieces of this fucker's head that are still recognizable, so I quickly bring my fist back, and start destroying anything that resembles a preying mantis head, making sure to take all of my anger out on this guy's corpse.

I was infuriated by the fact that this had to happen, the ambush, the cp agents, the fights, the chaos. This was meant to be an easy day, just in and out, beat up some weaklings, get a powerful fruit for my future teammate, and continue taking it easy until we reach the grand line.

But nooo all that had to go to shit with the arrival of that red haired bitch and her goons, and it's not even done yet, I still have to find Porche and make sure we survive whatever that red haired woman is planning.

*Punch* *Crunch*

*Punch* *Splat*

And just as I was about to destroy the mush that was this guy's head even further, I was stopped by a soft hand on my shoulder, "Stop Cade, it's enough, I think that if you continue, that guy's poor brain is gonna be nothing more than juice."

When I hear this I breathe in and out a few times, trying to calm myself, yet even as I do, I still have a bad feeling about what that red haired woman is planning, there's just no way that after all that, she just up and vanished.

"Your right, I just got carried away because this guy almost hurt you even though he was frozen, I guess I better start focusing on what I hit from now on," I say.

"Yeah… you should *cough* anyways I'm glad to see that you're okay, and thanks for saving me, let's forget about my little tantrum from earlier…" she awkwardly replies, holding her now healed arm.

I nod and then continue "yeah it's fine, no problem, that's what teammates are for, anyways we should go back, we still need to look for Porche-chan, I'm not too worried, she should be able to handle herself, what with all the tricks she has in that jumpsuit of hers, but we should reconvene and get out of here, before that red haired woman I was fighting comes back and screws us further."

With this she nods, and we move forward, back to where this all started.