Chapter 57

"How amazing," One pirate member with a pair of wings on his back, whispered in awe as he crouched down to touch the ground he was standing on. "Vearth... to think it would be this abundant here..."

The other pirate member, also with a pair of wings, followed suit. "And look at these plants all around, how fascinating!"

A very tall and muscular man, reaching almost four-meter in terms of height, stepped past the pirate member. He had black hair, thick and puffy black beard, and small black-coloured eyes. He was seen grinning wide. He was a man with a bounty of 58 million Beli on his head, known as Urouge the 'Mad Monk.'

"Sahahaha! I told you not to dwell on simple matters like that!" Urouge spoke out boisterously. "In the Blue Sea, they value the golds as much as we do with Vearth!"

The pirate members were about to express their surprise hearing Urouge's claim, but Urouge suddenly raised his hand.

"Wait," While grinning, Urouge turned his head to a nearby tree with a serious gleam in his eyes, "Come out, I've seen you."

A figure peaked from behind the tree, and to his surprise, it was a white horse!

"A horse?" A pirate muttered in confusion.

"Neigh~!!" Witnessing Urouge's menacing form, Farul cried and ran away in fear, leaving Urouge and his crew dumbfounded.

Urouge stood in the spot for a few seconds, before his grin became even wider, "Quick, chase after that horse!! I smell that something fun is about to happen!!"

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"Farul, Farul!!! Oh Farul, where art thou?!!" Cavendish shouted out all around Prominence in anxiety.

"Should've just kept him leashed," Carina commented, to which Cavendish turned to her and growled, before turning back and crying out for Farul once again.

"I apologize. My continuous use of Haki depleted my reserve of spiritual energy; I didn't notice Farul's departure." Alfred said calmly.

Suddenly, Cavendish sat down on the deck and closed his eyes.

Dan tilted his head in puzzlement, "What are you doing?"

"Trying to awaken Observation Haki to sense Farul!!" Cavendish said as the veins popped out of his forehead and his face turned red.

"Stop, are you trying to kill yourself?!" Dan quickly rushed over to Cavendish and tried to pull him out of his spot, only to have Cavendish struggling to maintain his posture. "Breathe, you idiot!!"

Rowan sighed while sitting down on a chair, watching how his crew was behaving as usual.

"Neigh~!!!" A faint cry of a horse was heard from the distance, which caused Cavendish to perk up in joy.

"Farul!!!" Cavendish opened his arms wide as he teared up. He was about to run towards the rushing Farul, onto to have the hem of his attire grabbed by Rowan, preventing him from leaping down.

"What the..." Rowan squinted his eyes as he sighted a group of men chasing after Farul. "Are they the natives of this island?"

"Everyone get ready for a possible battle. Someone wake Carmen up." Rowan jumped down from Prominence and sighed as Farul stopped in front of him with a visible nervousness on his face.

"Ah well," Rowan simply extended his arm and rubbed Farul's head, "What's done is already done. Don't worry about it, we will handle the rest."

"Sahaha, you look strong!!" Urouge said with a grin on his face, standing on his superior height. "You must be the captain of the ship, right?"

"So what do you want?" Rowan confronted Urouge's grin with a cold gleam of his own.

Urouge motioned his crew to stay back, before bumping his fists together and walking towards Rowan. "Why don't we have a manly one-on-one brawl, between you and me!"

"One on one?" Rowan quirked his eyebrow. "Why should I?" He could literally have Carmen burn all of them in one go.

"Sahaha, it seems that you misunderstood!!" Urouge laughed as he stopped in front of Rowan, extending a hand of his own. "I am not interested in plundering! I simply wish to fight!!"

Carina leaned on the rail, twirling a dagger on her hand, "And why should we believe you?"

"Hmm..." Urouge crossed his arms hearing this, seemingly deep in thought. Of course, he was grinning. Eventually, he turned back to his subordinate. "Kamazo, bring the gold."

"Gold?!!" Carina instantly took her dagger away and leaned further on the rail in anticipation.

One pirate member dropped a sac on the ground next to Urouge.

"If you win, I will give you all of this. What do you say?" Urouge gestured towards the sac of gold.

Rowan turned back to Carina with a deadpan in his eyes. 'Don't you think we got enough? We already have like 540 million Beli in our possession.'

Carina's shook her head and intently stared at Rowan. 'Best quality ship, best quality food, best quality clothes, best quality medicines, do you know how much all of them cost?! We have to seize every chance we can get!!'

Rowan cracked his knuckles and turned back to Urouge. "Fine, I accept. But on one more condition," Rowan stared at the large wings that were attached on Urouge's back, "There is a particular information that we would like to have, and I believe that you may have it..."

"Deal! Annnd let the fight commence!!" Urouge said hastily and rushed his gigantic body to Rowan.

As he watched Urouge's large fist approaching his face, Rowan made a grin and crouched his legs, 'Well, guess this is a perfect chance for me to test out my new moves.'

"Sonic Step."

Rowan disappeared from his spot in an instant moment, and all Urouge saw was him flying backward all of a sudden, with a fist dent on his chest.

*BOOOOM* The booming noise caused by Rowan's move technique only managed to catch up after Rowan already landed his blow.

*BOOM* Urouge crashed onto the tree, which broke from the sheer force of Rowan's strike.

'Not easy to control, but definitely manageable.' The mechanism behind the Sonic Step was simple. He witnessed the move 'Soru' from Baten previously. It wasn't too hard for him to master such a move for himself, who has physically trained himself almost everyday. In addition, each time he kicked off the ground, he applied the bounce force on the sole of his feet three times—this resulted in an insane burst of speed that far surpassed a normal Soru.

Urouge stood up giddily. "Now it's my turn to show, isn't it?" He looked much bigger than his previous self. His muscles swelled, his height increased to around six meters.

"Jimmas?" Rowan couldn't help but mutter, before shaking his head to focus. "You are a devil fruit user yourself, huh?"

Urouge simply continued to grin and cocked his fist back, preparing for his move.

'Alright, let's try the next one.' Rowan took a deep breath and closed his eyes to concentrate. "Converge. Synchronize. Ugh..."

A complete synchronization was a very difficult process. Rowan couldn't properly grasp how he managed to pile up multiple bounce forces in such a manner against Baten; it would take more time for him to master this technique.

"Inga Zarashi!" Urouge shouted as his fist reached Rowan. Rowan simply opened his eyes and vanished. Urouge turned around with a grin, sighting Rowan who was now standing behind him casually.

"Sahaha, you are quite formidable, aren't you?!" Urouge shouted joyfully before jumping to Rowan.

This time, Rowan didn't use the Sonic Step to evade Urouge. Right when the fist was reaching closer to him, Rowan simply placed hands behind his back.

What happened at the next moment was very interesting. Right before Urouge's fist landed on Rowan, he suddenly bounced from his position, without moving a single bit of his body. He was now lying down on the ground, staring at Urouge, who towered above him, with a casualty.

"Ho?" Urouge grinned before slamming another fist towards the downed Rowan, only for Rowan to bounce off sideways, sliding to the position adjacent to where Urouge's punch landed.

Rowan's crew members were having fun watching the fight, especially Cavendish and Alfred, who witnessed Rowan being in an actual fight for the first time.

"Bounce... how versatile." Alfred commented, "judging by the name itself, it initially sounds underwhelming. However, if used correctly, this fruit just seems... limitless."

Carina laughed hearing that. "Well, can't refute against that. But you gotta know that this fruit is useless if a weak person gets it; the strength of basic bounce scales off of one's physical strength."

Cavendish's eyes gained a gleam of greed, "Devil fruit... if I can eat a fabulous one, oh, just imagine how brilliant I will be!"

Carmen snickered from his right, "Yes. I think the fruit that suits the best for you is the Dog Dog fruit, model: Ugly dog."

"What did you say?" Cavendish shouted angrily as he butted his head with Carmen.

Dan shivered hearing that. "Devil fruit is really rare to sight, but eating one is a gamble as well. Wow, I would feel bad for someone who eats fruit like that."

On the other hand, Urouge's Fallen Monk pirates were watching the fight with twinkling eyes.

"Heh," One member grinned as his eyes were onto the one-sided fight, "our high priest is cool as always."

"Well said brother. His manliness is unparalleled by any other." The other one nodded seriously.

"Yep. And the fight is quite quick-paced too, attributing even further to his coolness. I bet that high priest can end the fight at any moment-"

*BOOM* Urouge flew and crashed back, before standing back up with an increased height of eight meters.

"-right-"

*BOOM* Urouge crashed onto the ground, creating a cloud of large dust around him. Rowan was standing on a tree branch with boredom written on his face.

"-now...?" The member stopped speaking as he saw an orange octagon generated above Rowan's head.

"Let's end this. Entropic-" As the dust cleared, Rowan saw an unconscious Urouge, causing him to stop his attack and jump down from the tree. "Well, guess it's already over."

Carina immediately dashed using a weakened version of Soru and grabbed the sac of gold. "Hehehe," She smiled happily as she hummed a tune and placed the sac on top of Prominence.

Urouge quickly regained his consciousness, as his eyes opened and he sat up from the ground, looking bewildered. "I... lost?"

"""High priest lost?""" The crew members of the Fallen Monk pirates expressed their disbelief simultaneously.

A silence ensued for a moment before they all burst out a laugh all of a sudden.

"Sahaha, I lost!!!" Urouge stood up laughing while dusting himself off. "This calls for a party!!!"

"What?" Dan voiced his confusion.

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"Yo~ hohoho~, yo~ hohoho~" Drunk Cavendish sluggishly sang the Bink's sake while riding on top of Farul and holding his sword. The pirates of Fallen Monk crew and Alfred were clapping around him.

Carmen and the chef from the Fallen Monk pirates were seen to be exchanging notes.

"Sahaha, to think I would be defeated in such a manner!" Urouge laughed as the Grimheart pirates and Fallen Monk pirates all sat around the campfire, partying. "But don't get too complacent, Grimheart! In the future, I will challenge you again!!"

Rowan scratched his head. He never expected that the situation to turn out like this. Nevertheless, the Fallen Monk pirates were pretty friendly to hang out with; not that he will let his guard down though.

"Well, if you want to challenge our captain again, bring more gold." Carina made a cheeky grin while connecting her thumb and index fingers to form a circle with her hand.

One member of the Fallen Monk pirates sweatdropped, "She reminds me of Erisa, that Vearth loving priest."

Dan was sitting right in front of Urouge, with a journal in his hand, ready to write. "Now, tell us. How do you get to the sky island?"

"Oh, that's what you wanted to know?" Urouge grinned even wider while chugging down a mug of beer in his hand. Looking at his wings, Urouge commented, "Guess you managed to figure out that we're from up high.

We came down to this island by using Octopus Balloon, but I know just the way." Urouge grabbed a stick and began to draw on the dirt.

"You see this dot? This is where we are. And these two lines, represent the Calm Belts. Now, from this position, you move up. Once you reach up north, you will know what to do; I've seen the pirates from the Blue Sea entering from somewhere there while I was in the sky."

"Move up? Uh, can you be more specific?" Carina said while staring at the simple line that connected two dots with a sweatdrop.

"That's all I know. Never been down to the Blue Sea until now." Urouge grinned before refilling his mug.

'Sky island...' Rowan looked up at the starry sky, which was empty of any cloud. 'Up north. Guess we will be passing through Alabasta. No change in plan.'

The party continued throughout the whole night, serving as a great way for the Grimheart pirates to relieve the stress they've accumulated after the week of harsh sailing.