CH - 80

Their crew turned to see a beast standing at the end of the road. It was about ten feet tall, slender, with white fur. It had long brown horns coming from its head and hooves. It stalked towards them.

"What is this? Another Zoan?" Halcen asked.

"That's right," the beast claimed. "I ate the Goat Goat fruit. I'm a goat man." He had a very thick accent.

"Gross," Halcen said. "And who are you?"

"Oh how rude of me," the goat man said. "My name is Bavbroch, and I am the remaining leader of the Milkovich Bandits."

"What are you doing here?"

"I came here with my crew to ravage this island. We came because it was supposed to house an ancient treasure. But when we got here, we found that it was nothing but a standing stone with scribbles."

"The Poneglyph," Halcen whispered to himself.

"And when we found out, we went to town on the townsfolk to steal all their stuff," he began to laugh. "Come to find out, that 'treasure' attracted the likes of some pretty powerful pirates. We were in battle for weeks. Until they finally wiped the rest of our crew out."

It was only then that the crew realized they were surrounded. There were a dozen more men of normal physique and stature walking towards them from their hiding places about the scene.

"Oh shit," Halcen said. "It's a setup. I should have fucking known." This is the perfect place for it. We can't see, smell, or use Observation Haki. This motherfucker had every advantage… except one.

"And who are you?" the beast asked.

"We came to find Shanks," Halcen said.

"Shanks? Are you friends of his?" the goat man asked.

Halcen looked to Grey. "Kind of."

"He's the one the murdered our leaders and the rest of our crew," growled. "Maybe I ought to do the same to you. Show him how much it hurts."

"Dude," Halcen sighed. "You really don't want to do that."

"Oh I think I do." He knelt down and readied himself into an aggressive stance. He looked at Halcen with happy eyes. He was ready to enjoy whatever it was he thought he was going to accomplish here.

Halcen stepped forward from the rest of his crew. He needed to handle this solo. That was something Grey was right about. He had to be strong enough to handle the stronger opponents by himself. He let his crew alone to handle the ambushing bandits. He knew he would come back without a scratch on them.

Bavbroch launched himself high into the air. His goat legs allowed for some interesting amplifications.

Halcen's green eyes followed him closely.

The goat came back down with horns aimed directly at Halcen. He was coming down like a rocket.

The moment he would have devastated Halcen was the exact moment Halcen's Haki kicked in. His right forearm raised into the air above his head and he didn't move an inch. His Haki held, but Bavbroch's launch was strong enough to push Halcen down into the dirt. The ground exploded with dirt, but Halcen didn't even wince. He kept his eyes locked on Bavbroch with a smile.

Bavbroch's smile faded as soon as he saw the black Haki coating Halcen's body.

Halcen swung his right arm with all his strength and shoved the beast back through the air.

Bavbroch did a summersault in the air then landed on his legs. "What the fuck?"

"Oh?" Halcen laughed. "Weren't you expecting that?"

"What the hell is this?"

Halcen chuckled. "Do you really think I'm going to explain my powers? Unlike you idiotic Devil Fruit users, I'm not dumb enough to go around announcing what my powers are."

"We Devil Fruit users are the strongest warriors. We boast our abilities because we know nobody can beat us."

"You mean like how Shanks couldn't beat you?"

"Shanks and I never fought one on one," Bavbroch spat.

"Unlucky for you," Halcen laughed. "If he had killed you, you wouldn't be stuck here facing me."

Bavbroch laughed. "You mean you're stuck with me." Then Bavbroch charged forward. He came running like a freight train. His large horns came for Halcen's chest.

Halcen held his ground. He grabbed Bavbroch by the horns and stopped his charge.

Bavbroch flung his legs against the ground, breaking Halcen's grip and smashed his head into Halcen's chest, flinging the pirate Captain off to the side.

Halcen fell to the ground with a thud. "Motherfucker." He got himself back up. "Alright, bitch, let's do this."

Bavbroch didn't give Halcen enough time to steady himself. He rushed him again.

Halcen reached out to grab Bavbroch, but the goat bounced off the ground, and dove to the side, then hit the other side, and launched himself into Halcen's back, knocking the man to the ground again.

Halcen tuned over and wrapped his legs around his neck. And then he pulled his knife and stabbed the beast in the neck. Blood quickly stained his white fur. Halcen fell back to the ground as Bavbroch struggled to breathe. That ought to do it.

"You fucking pirate," Bavbroch stuttered as he slapped his hand to his throat, trying to keep the bleeding to a minimum.

Halcen stood up and pulled his pistol. "I'm gonna put you down like the animal you are."

Bavbroch's eyes went wide in fear. "Oh, fuck." He bounded off as quickly as he could, his body taking giant strides as he held his neck tightly to keep as little blood escaping as possible.

Halcen let a shot out but it whizzed past the goat man. "Dammit." Halcen went to run after him. "Come back, we were just starting to have fun."

Bavbroch ran through the torn up town and headed to the docks, where his bandit crew's dinghies waited. He was readying one to escape on when Halcen caught up to him.

"I'm sick of you Zoan assholes thinking you can do what you want and just get away with it," Halcen cursed. He pulled his pistol once more.

Bavbroch was moving quickly. "Please don't."

Halcen released a gunshot and missed any vitals. He hit the goat man in the left thigh. "Just die already! Fucking animal."

"Shit!" Bavbroch shouted in pain. He pushed his boat off into the water and jumped in with nothing but himself. He quickly began sailing off across the water, toward his crew's main ship, that sat out on the water.

Halcen was intent on chasing him down. I'll just grab another one of these little boats and go after him. There were about six of the dinghies all together in Architao's dock. Halcen went to get on one, when he noticed all the loot sitting, packed in the boats. "What the hell?"

He looked around the area, seeing that they had left all their supplies and treasure they had gathered from their pillaging of the island in their rafts. It looked like they had meant to begin transporting it back to their ship. He looked out to see their ship out in the waters a little ways. It was too large to bring up this close to the smaller island. But the Black Tail would have been able to make it much closer. Halcen began to rummage through their treasure. There was plenty of coin and a few jewels, some food and drinks. But what drew Halcen's attention was this small plain-looking wooden box sitting all by itself. It was about ten inches wide and a little less deep. He picked up the box and opened it to find a Devil Fruit. It looked like a large lime green raspberry, but it was about the size of a cantaloupe. It had small green berries covering its flesh. Halcen looked at it with excitement.

Then he looked up at the escaping Bavbroch, and for a moment, Halcen almost went after him.

"I think you can let him escape," Grey said.

Halcen turned around to see his first mate standing behind him, gazing out over the horizon. The rest of the crew pulled up behind him.

"You've won the fight," the old man said.

Halcen scoffed. "Yeah, I guess." He looked down at the treasure. "We'll let him limp away. This time. We got more than enough out of this fight." He looked to Fein. "Fein."

"Yeah?"

"We've cleared a safe landing space for the Black Tail. Do you think you can handle going back and guiding the other's over here?"

"Roger that." Fein turned around and took off through the destroyed town back toward the woods, with Shira tagging along for the run.

Halcen turned back to look at his reward. "It just keeps getting better."