38. Mysterious Cave

Buggy & Cricket enter the mysterious cave and turn their flashlight on. They also keep using their observation haki for any danger. The cave's size is around 3 meters high and 4 meters wide, pretty normal for a cave.

They walk into the cave while observing their surrounding for danger. They didn't find any danger and keep walking for half an hour. After half an hour, they find a very big room that has a lake in it.

"This place must be connected with the sea."-Buggy

"Captain, look! There's something in there."-Cricket point at the left side of the room

Buggy looks at it and sees a big old crate placed on a stone table. There's also a coffin beside the crate that looks very old too.

"Treasure?"-Buggy

"Hehehe, let's take it, Captain."-Cricket

"Wait! Something is not right, let's wait for a moment!"-Buggy

"What did you want to wait, Captain? Do you really believe those people's stories? I think the people here are exaggerating this cave's story."-Cricket

"No, if it's just the people, then I will think like that too, but that tiger is a different story. Animals can sense danger better than humans, so if that tiger is afraid, then there must be a danger in here."-Buggy

"But what? We haven't found anything except that crate & cof-."-Cricket

Cricket can't finish his words because Buggy suddenly pulls him back. Buggy sense something in the water that alert him. Buggy immediately pulls Cricket back and hide while looking at the lake.

Then suddenly, something come out of the lake, and it surprised them. The thing that comes out from the lake is a giant snake that has green scales. The snake crawls up to the ground and curls near the crate & coffin.

"So this is the 'demon' in this cave?"-Buggy whisper

"It's more of a monster rather than a demon. What should we do, Captain? It seems to guard the crate."-Cricket whisper

"Hmm, I don't know what's inside that crate, but we're not pirates if we don't take it. That might be a big treasure after all."-Buggy whisper

"But that snake is guarding the crate & coffin."-Cricket

"Let's try to distract it, Cricket, you will be the bait!"-Buggy

"Huh? Why should I become the bait?"-Cricket protest

"Of course you should, I am the captain you know."-Buggy

"Don't abuse your authority, Captain Bastard!"-Cricket raise his voice a little

"You're the bastard in here, how dare you to talk like that to your captain?"-Buggy also raise his voice a little

"I DARE BECAUSE YOU ABUSE YOUR TITLE NOW."-Cricket yell

"I'M NOT ABUSING ANYTHING."-Buggy also yell

They start to brawl with each other, completely forget about their current situation.

"HISSS!"-The snake gets alerted and look at them

""Ah.""-Buggy & Cricket stop their brawl and look at the snake

The snake slithered to them, and they run back panicky to the cave entrance. However, the snake fits perfectly in the cave and keeps chasing them.

"DAMN, THIS SNAKE'S BODY SIZE FIT PERFECTLY WITH THE CAVE."-Buggy

"WHAT SHOULD WE DO NOW?"-Cricket

"USE THE MUGGY BALL!"-Buggy

Buggy & Cricket throw their Muggy Balls to the snake. The balls explode on the snake's mouth, but it didn't get injured at all.

"SHIIIT, IT'S SCALES ARE VERY TOUGH."-Buggy

"CAPTAIN, TALK WITH HIM! YOU'RE AN ANIMAL EXPERT RIGHT?"-Cricket

"I'll try. Hey Mr. Snake, we don't intend to do anything, we're just exploring the cave, that's all."-Buggy talk with the snake while running

"HIIISSSS!"-Snake seem pissed

"Eh? Y-you're a female? T-then, Ms. Snake is it? Let's talk about it slowly, okay? We were just exploring the cave."-Buggy

"HIIISSS!"-Snake

"T-the talk about treasure? A-ah, we're just curious, we don't intend to take it."-Buggy tries to lie

"HISSS!"-The snake tried to bite them, make Buggy & Cricket jump

"WHAT? YOU DON'T BELIEVE IT BECAUSE THE PREVIOUS HUMANS SAID THE SAME THING? COME ON, WE'RE NOT THE PREVIOUS HUMANS."-Buggy

The snake still didn't believe them and keep trying to bite them. They run faster and finally get out of the cave. The snake also gets out and keeps chasing them. Buggy & Cricket keep running, but then Buggy feels something and jumps away while pulling Cricket.

*BOOM*

A cannonball suddenly hit the place where Buggy & Cricket ran before. The cannonball came from the forest, behind the bush. Buggy senses many people are hiding, he didn't feel it before because he's too focused on the snake. The snake also stops on her track and looks around, she also feels many people are there.

"COME OUT! I KNOW THERE ARE 68 OF YOU."-Buggy

*Clap clap clap* Someone clap slowly

"Impressive, you can detect us and even guess our number. As I thought of a pirate with a bounty of 50 million beri."-Man 1

A man with steel armor comes out from the bush. Then the other guys also come out, and they all wear full armor. They have 5 mobile cannons, 20 bazookas, and they all have pistols & riffles with them. Buggy looks at their armor design and knows who they are.

"Ilisia's army?"-Buggy

"Ooh, you know about it. I guess you're not a stupid pirate. Yes, we are Ilisia Kingdom elite team, and I am the commander, Dagel."-Dagel

"It seems you know about us already."-Buggy

"Hehe, we've spied this place for a month, and suddenly you come here, so we thought it is the perfect chance for us. You could become the perfect bait for it to come out from the cave. Under The King's order, we're here to take over this cave and exterminate the giant snake. "-Dagel

"HISS!"-Giant Snake

"Huh? After all these years, why'd you suddenly want to take over the cave? I think this place has been untouched for hundreds of years?"-Buggy

"Hahaha, that's because we've found a rare mineral in this area, and we'll make mines in this mountain. The cave's Giant Snake will just disturb us if we don't handle it now."-Dagel

"So, we're not involved, right? Then, can we just leave this place?"-Cricket

"That will be impossible because this project should be a secret for now. If the other countries or underground forces hear about this, they'll try to get a share, and might attack us. Before we can get WG's protection, no word about this shall spread. So we'll need to silence you here."-Dagel smirk

"..... If you don't want it to spread, then you should stay silent about it in the first place."-Buggy

"Right? Is this idiot really an army commander?"-Cricket

"I see that you don't want to live, then I'll exterminate you here. MENS, PREPARE THE CANNONS!"-Dagel get pissed

Buggy & Cricket get serious and get ready to fight. The snake also gets ready and raises its head.

"SHOOT!"-Dagel

The soldiers shoot their cannons, and bazookas at Buggy, Cricket, & the giant snake. Buggy & Cricket use their observation haki to evade the bullets. They can evade, so the soldiers start to shoot with their guns too, forcing Buggy & Cricket to hide behind a boulder.

On the other side, the snake didn't evade at all. Well, it's too big and can't evade even if it tries. The snake also didn't need to evade because it has tough scales. The cannonballs can't hurt the snake, so the army change their cannonballs into big harpoons.

"!? OI SNAKE, GET AWAY FROM THERE!"-Buggy warn the snake

"HISSS!"-Giant Snake refuse

"IDIOT, EVEN YOUR SCALES WON'T BE ABLE TO DEFEND THAT."-Buggy

The giant snake doesn't listen and intends to take the fire head-on. Buggy clicks his tongue and runs toward the snake. He covers his right hand with armament and punches the snake as hard as he can.

"LISTEN TO ME, YOU 'NO LEG' THING!"-Buggy

Buggy's punch makes the snake fall to the side, right on time to dodge the harpoons. But a harpoon still grazes her scales and makes her bleed. Buggy himself can't evade mid-air and get stabbed by a harpoon, make his body get cut in half.

"HAHAHAHA, WHAT AN IDIOT. TAKING THE FIRE JUST TO SAVE A USELESS SNAKE."-Dagel

"HIISSS!"-The snake is surprised by what Buggy did

Buggy just lay on the ground and didn't move like he's dead.

"What kind of drama that he plays right now?"-Cricket sweatdrop

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