Extraction & Transportation

After some more tests on the trees around, I immediately started cutting down some trees. 

There had already been a group that was sent forward to get the ship and direct the crewmates to this location. I didn't know the specific number that Tom had wanted from the forest, so I decided to make a quick estimation on how much wood is normally needed to make a ship. 

This decision was actually made easier thanks to Rayleigh. He had seemed to recall the amount of wood Tom had used to commission the Oro Jackson. 

"It was about 100 planks of wood, if I recall," Rayleigh recalled.

So it was, Roger's men immediately started to work on cutting down those trees. It was more of a hassle to cut them down compared to actually finding the forest. The main reason being that it was hard as hell. It actually took quite a bit of strength to land some damage on the tree, the other method that they could use was Armament haki. Most of the men couldn't use it, so they had to make groups of four. 

Moreover, the figures that had attacked us before seemed have friends, because every single day we were constantly being ambushed by these beings. It was so annoying that it got to the point that I had half of a mind to level the forest. However, it was Rayleigh who decided to stop me from doing so. 

"There's no point of destroying the entire island when we're halfway done," Rayleigh advised, "they're probably upset that we're invading their territory. So we need to finish this as soon as possible."

"Fine," I growled as I pulled out my axe and covered it with Armament haki.

Rayleigh took a step back before yelling at the crew.

"Everyone, duck!"

Everyone instinctively ducked as I let out a large axe slice that cut through a large portion of trees. I wasn't sure how many I cut, but they looked to be a lot. As the crew slowly got up after dodging the attack. They all looked in awe as the trees began dropping one by one. 

"Wait a minute, you mean to tell me that you could have done this earlier?" One of Roger's men complained, "You should have done this from the start!"

More of Roger's crew were about to start complaining, but one look from me shut them up almost immediately. Rayleigh chuckled, he claimed that it was one of the rare moments that he had ever seen the crew that subdued in front of someone else other than the Roger Pirates higher up.

I didn't care.

Since we needed to wait till the crew that had left previously to get back to the location so that we could get the Devil's wood back on the ship. However, I wasn't as patient as I initially was. We had been in this forest for the past week, just showing how difficult it was to get the Devil's Wood. I immediately summoned my wings and took to the sky. 

After that, I used my Observation haki to sense the group that had left earlier on during the week. It was then that I had found them, well, what remained of them anyway. It was no wonder that they had taken so damn long to get to the ships. They were all currently serving as food for the humanoids.

"They were ambushed by those presences.." I muttered as I looked on to the larger presence that was in the middle of the group within the forest.

It didn't seem to be directly antagonizing us, but it did seem not to appreciate our presence there. Promptly, I decided to pay it a visit, hoping that I would be able to find the source of all these complications.

Now it was important to note that the group that we had sent to get to the ships first were all people who were good at navigating themselves through a forest. Shanks and Buggy wanted to go with them, but Rayleigh decided that it would be better for them to stay with him because of all the circumstances happening.

As a result, the people who died weren't directly involved with the plot, hell I didn't even know who they were because they weren't that relavant to the plot. However, that wasn't relevant to my interest at the moment. I soared over towards the presence that I had sensed earlier. It didn't even take that long until I landed right in front of it.

The humanoid was larger compared to the rest, it had been surrounded by other smaller humanoids that had ambushed us earlier. They were obviously eating when I eventually landed, because blood and flesh was riddled on their mouths and hands as they all stopped what they were doing and stared at me.

I immediately released my Conqurer's haki to immobilize the majority of the humanoids that were about to attack me. The largest humanoid there wasn't too fazed by the Conqurer's haki, instead, it just remained sitting there and kept staring at me with its indifferent eyes. I stared right back at it with an equally cold gaze as well as I slowly walked up to it.

No words were needed to be spoken as we kept staring at each other. I kept increasing the pressure as I stared that humanoid down. I wanted to send a message towards the entity: That if it kept sending more of its surbordinates to us, I would be leveling the entire forest down. 

Soon after, I took to the skies and returned to where I had left the Roger Pirates. 

"The expedition team is dead. I'm just going to take all of you to the ship now along with the wood," I immediately announced.

"How the hell are you going to do that?" Rayleigh asked.

I slowly turned into my Draconic form, my figure quickly towering over the forest as I spread my wings for the first time after a long while. My three heads roared for a bit before I stared down at Rayleigh. He already knew what to do, but he laughed for a bit before saying.

"I almost forgot why they call you the Storm Dragon."

First, Rayleigh had everyone climb my back to make it easier to carry the Devil's Wood. Soon after everyone was latched on to my back. I grabbed the wood, that had been gathered and tied up in one place, with the claws of my feet before taking to the skies. 

The coast of the island was pretty far compared to where we currently were. Indicating the vastness of the forest, and the possibility of other monsters like those humanoids existing within that forest. However, I ignored that feeling as I soared carefully through the sky. I didn't want any of Roger's crewmembers falling off of me while I flew. 

It didn't take long before we got to the coast of the island, the ships hadn't arrived there before us, so we had to wait a while before they could get there.