Ch. 43 - Bar fight

*Chatter!*

*Creak!*

A bunch of gruffy men were having a chat, some were arm-wrestling.

They suddenly stopped moving when the door suddenly opened.

Turning their attention to the one at the door, they saw a black haired man with a bit of a buffed body while two beautiful women were on his side.

"Look, a beautiful woman." A man with a viking's helmet said while pointing his finger at them.

"We can see that." The man behind him replied.

"What are you three doing here?" Suddenly, a bald man with a hook as his hand asked while his eyes were glaring at them, trying to intimidate them with a huge and menacing appearance.

"Well, we kinda need a map to a nearby kingdom. And also a ride." Jin said, while walking forward, not an ounce of fear on his face as he's literally surrounded by men whose appearances are screaming as 'danger' and 'thugs'!

"Map? Ride?" The man with a hook repeated what he wanted and then looked at his fellow men.

"And why should we give you those?" The man with the hook said while pointing his hook at him and glared.

"Tell me, if I defeat you all here alone, would you give me what I want?" Jin looked around first before staring back at the man with a hook.

The moment they heard what Jin said, the thugs all stood up and stopped what they were doing before grabbing their weapons and wearing their armors.

"Oh? Are you sure about that? You can't back out now." The man with a hook grinned menacingly.

"I should be the one asking you that." Jin said with a smirk before assuming a Kazama-style stance.

"Shouldn't we help him?" Rapunzel whispered to Tigress while pointing at Jin being surrounded by scary men.

"You mean help them?" Tigress 'corrected' her as she referred to the scary men.

"What?"

***

What happened next surprised everyone, including Rapunzel. Contrary to her expectations where Jin would be beaten badly, instead it was the scary thugs that were beaten by him very badly.

Each of them tried to attack Jin by each turn, not wanting to pressure him, however after he defeated 15 of their men, that's when they started going at him in all directions, trying to save their dignity from being defeated by an unknown man who came out of nowhere.

Unfortunately for them, Jin was no normal man, what they were facing was an utter monster. His strength and technique were enough to knock them out one by one without even knowing how they were knocked unconscious.

His body movements were fluid, evading all of their attacks and slashes.

It didn't take long before all of them were down on the ground, even the scary man with a hook got his mustache violently removed and his hook sticking up to his nose, making it bleed a little.

"So....where's the map and the ride?" Jin asked with a smile, while those who were still conscious shuddered in fear, there was only one word running in their mind right now.

'Monster!'

Suddenly, the man with a hook opened his eyes after hearing what Jin said before standing up and surprisingly kneeled in front of him.

"We offer our loyalty to you." The man with a hook said with his head bowed down.

"What? No, I don't need your loyalty, just give me the map and a ride and we're leaving. You guys can resume whatever you're doing here." Jin scratched the back of his head and explained.

"That's the thing. We, our group have always wanted someone strong to lead us to our....dreams. And to us, you fit that character very well." The hook-man said while the other thugs nodded their heads repeatedly.

Jin just confusedly looked at this and can't help but feel how troublesome it would be to lead such a group of thugs.

"I refuse. Just give me the map and the ride." Not wanting to stay and argue any longer, Jin started glaring at the hook-man as he demanded what he wanted.

"Sigh, alright. Hey Atilla, grab a map for our dear friend here. As for the horse, it's outside." After saying that, the hook-man walked outside the pub while Atilla came back and handed him a rolled paper that looked old.

"Thanks." Jin said after being handed the paper before following Hook-man outside the pub.

Meanwhile, Rapunzel just stared at Jin's back and couldn't help but feel how attractive he was, especially the strength he showed today. He can't be compared to those stories that she read. Jin is like both the main character and the final villain in a story. 

"Let's go." Although she was weirded out by what the hook-man said about offering their loyalty to her husband, she thought that Jin would accept it after all, leading such a bunch of strong men would attract any male with a strong and ambitious personality.

Outside the pub, the hook-man grabbed a horse's lead, and walked back to Jin as the horse followed the lead.

"Here ya go. I wish you luck in your journey and if ever you change your mind, we will always be here." The hook-man said with a warm smile that it looked weird on his scary face.

"Alright, thanks." Jin said before walking past him and climbed on the back of the horse.

Tigress just nodded at him before walking forward while Rapunzel just flashed a smile and waved her hand which hook-man reciprocated and waved back in return.

"Looks like they only have one horse here. Maybe the three of us could fit in." Jin said.

Meanwhile, Tigress was looking at the horse with a weird expression, the image of Master Horse back in her world flashed in her mind and compared the horse in front of her to Master Horse.

'Jin was right, it is indeed weird in other worlds. Everyone here looks mindless unlike those in my world. I wonder what my kind looks like in this world. Hopefully it's nothing bad.' Tigress said to herself as she heard Jin's words and shook her head.

"I think this horse could only carry at most 2 people." What she said is actually true. If they insist on getting on with the three of them, the horse would definitely lose his energy fast and might even break his back, who knows.

Thankfully, his Jin Kazama Template knows how to ride a horse, so there won't be any problem is riding the horse.

The only problem left is who will ride with Jin, Tigress or Rapunzel?

"I could run in my other form, so Rapunzel would take the horse with you." Tigress said before giving Jin a glare as if telling him that if he ever had any ideas during Rapunzel's ride with him....

'She's definitely telling me that she would bite my dick off.' Jin gulped and said to himself, though he doesn't understand how the heck he knows that just by Tigress's glare at him.

"Oooh! Are you gonna turn in your Tiger form again?" Rapunzel's eyes gleamed in excitement, not because she would ride in a horse with Jin but because she would see Tigress's Tiger form.

'Why is she more excited to see Tigress's transformation instead of riding behind me on a horse? Shouldn't she be excited at hugging my hard rock abs or something?' Jin's eye twitched before sighing, anyways he's just being sarcastic here, it's not like he's jealous of other fanfic protagonists who seem to get their girls left and right without any problem.

[Author: Muwahaha! Too bad for you, I wanted to make this fanfic as realistic as possible when it comes to emotions and character development!]

After calming Rapunzel down from her excitement, Jin helped Rapunzel climb on the horse, right behind his back. He also helped her place all of her hair on her lap.

Since they walked far away from the pub, the thugs wouldn't be able to see Tigress turn into her Tigress form, if they did, they would probably panic and call her a monster or something. Thankfully, Jin predicted this, so they walked away from the pub, away from their sight.

*Fwooossh!*

Slowly, furs cover Tigress's body, while her delicate body turns a bit buff as her hair spreads on her head and covers them in orange fur.

Rapunzel's eyes gleamed in excitement and if it wasn't for Jin holding her back, she would probably jump from the horse and try to ride on Tigress's back.

"Alright, let's get on with this." Seeing that Tigress is already on all her fours, Jin took this as a signal to wave the reins skillfully, making the horse neigh and start running under his guidance.

"Grrr." As if fueled by the challenge of surpassing a horse's speed, Tigress growled before running at fast speeds, slowly catching up with the horse and when she did, she kept up with the horse's pace.

***

Back in the tower, Mother Gothel wiped off her sweat as she finally arrived back at the tower, and as usual she yelled to signal Rapunzel to come and let her hair down to fetch her.

"Oh, Rapunzel! Let down your hair!" A few seconds and so, Rapunzel didn't respond to her, at first Mother Gothel thought she was asleep and tried calling her name repeatedly.

"Rapunzel?"

"Rapunzel!"

Finally noticing that something is wrong, Mother Gothel started panicking and immediately ran towards a specific side of the tower before removing the small stones packed up within each other, revealing a small hidden door.

As she entered and climbed upwards towards Rapunzel's room, she was shocked to see it dark and empty and no matter how she called, no one responded to her.

Opening the window fiercely, Mother Gothel inhaled and exhaled as she realized that someone must've kidnapped her 'daughter'.

"NOOOOOO!!!!"

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[My soldiers! Our goal is within our reach! We must persist and never give up! Death might be in front of us but glory would be our greatest treasure after this! My Soldiers Scream! My Soldiers Fight! My Soldiers RAGEEEEE!!]

TATAKAE!!!

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[Next Chapter: Ch. 44 - Corona Kingdom]

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