Chapter 53- Well that was... Something
As Luffy arrived at his predetermined viewpoint, Enel and his army arrived in front of the Straw Hats. "Where is that Straw Hat boy? If he comes forward I'll kill you quickly." Enel said in an arrogant tone. He recuperated from Luffy's earlier stunt, and now he wanted to establish his dominance once again.
"He's watching the show, so you won't meet him," Sanji replied as he lit his cigarette. "So he chose to watch?" A vein popped on Enel's forehead, "I guess he just doesn't care for your lives then. He's passable in terms of strength, but I can still kill you!" Enel finished his sentence and seemingly teleported behind Katakuri, who Enel assumed was the biggest threat due to his size. Enel wanted to break their spirits by killing the strongest, and then slowly killing off the rest as panic came over them. Too bad he picked Katakuri
*Splurt*
Blood flowed in the air as a dead silence resonated. The battle hasn't even officially started, and there was already a casualty. That casualty being, of course, Enel. "KATAKURI WHAT THE HELL! WHY DID YOU FINISH HIM OFF SO QUICKLY?!" Luffy shouted as he ran from the hill he used to spectate. "Do I look like the type to play with an opponent? I just saw him attempt to attack my back with my observation haki, so I transformed my arm into a mochi spike stabbed and him with armament haki. No need to let scum like this live any longer than what their luck allowed them. Still, I thought he was supposed to be pretty good with Mantra. I'm surprised he didn't even attempt to dodge"
"What did you expect?! He doesn't know armament haki is a thing. Hell, he doesn't know haki is a thing. I mean, you have experience dealing with newbie Logia users right? Couldn't you have saved the haki for later? Or at least not aimed for the heart? Damn that Author, I really wanted a cool fight." Luffy complained.
"Who's this 'Author'? And why would I carry on a pointless and dramatic fight when I can just kill him off quickly? That's just a waste of my time" Katakuri said. "Forget it, but my point still stands!" Luffy said in annoyance.
"It was a bit anticlimactic, but what do we do about the 700 souldiers?" Law chimed in. "Right, let's see if they surrender. Zoro, go see if they agree". "Sure", Zoro agreed and walked towards Enels' former priests. "Do you surrender?" Zoro asked them. "...KILL THEM" the priests snapped out of their shock, and commanded the army to march on the Straw Hats.
"I guess that's a no", Zoro unsheathed his swords and charged at the priests. "Damn Moss Head, why did we send him to negotiate..." Sanji charged at the priests. "Yohoho! Let's see what they got!" Brook drew his sword with Law as they both charged as well. "I'll incapacitate all the lower-ranked soldiers", Robin said. "I'll he-" Katakuri was about to head out to battle, but he was stopped by Luffy. "You had your fun already, let me have mine".
By the time Sanji and the others arrived, Zoro was buried deep within enemy lines facing three priests at the same time. Zoro was strong, but when facing off against three priests of Enel, he was slowly losing ground. Zoro dodged a white ball of clouds that was thrown at him by a fat priest with red hair and glasses named Satori, only for it to blow up behind him. Zoro was pushed forward and was almost impaled by a red-hot javelin used by another priest with an old pilot's with wings attached to it, as well as a very sharp and thin mustache. His name was Shura. Zoro rolled beneath it at the last second, but a blade stretched out of the sword hilt of another bald priest with thin sunglasses named Ohm.
"Fuck" Zoro braced for impact, but the blow never came. "Ugh!" a grunt was heard as Ohm's forehead was hit with a rock. "I'll cover you, Zoro!" Usopp shouted from afar. "Would you look at that. You sure did a number on him for him to help out Zoro like that", Luffy told Katakuir. "Yes, I've been giving him some extra work lately. Seems like it did its job", Katakuri responded with a smirk.
Zoro didn't miss his chance, as he slashed at the now defenseless Ohm's neck. Ohm couldn't react, and his head rolled on the ground. "Die!" Shura said as he dashed forward to stab Zoro in the chest. Zoro, however, dodged it easily with his observation haki. "Watch it, Shura!" a panicked Satori yelled as the javelin almost hit his head.
Zoro didn't let the duo rest, as he jumped back at them with renewed vigor. The two priests tried as much as they could, but Zoro was skilled enough without Usopp covering him. On a rare occasion when one of them had a clean shot, Usopp sniped them. At the start, he acted slowly, but as the battle continued, he gained more confidence and he shot quicker and quicker.
"I think that's it." Luffy stated as he looked at the sea of corpses. He started to fear Robin's ability, who wouldn't? Ninety-five percent of the casualties had their head turned around like an owl. While she wasn't good against strong individuals, she had the best AOE abilities he had seen. It was truly scary how quickly the war ended with only enemy casualties thanks to her, as she allowed the rest of the Straw Hats to focus on the more elite enemies and support each other.
"Don't relax," Katakuri suddenly said, "there is another group coming our way, and they don't seem friendly". The crew immediately got back into a fighting position as they awaited the new gests.
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Hey, guys. Man, I had an annoying couple of months. The army is putting me on hold for like 5 months now, I'm in a couple of other programs that also keep me on hold, and we entered the third lockdown this week. Also, we have our 4th? Elections in recent years since apparently, no one can establish a stable government. I mean we have a faction that's basically running only to prevent another one from being elected since that person is now in court for taking bribes and more, but he still has a big chance of being elected once again. It's a shit show. Hope all of you are doing better.