Chapter 44 [Edited]

If you enjoy my writing, please consider supporting me on my Patreon page. There, you'll find advanced chapters of everything I write or will write: patreon.com/_Luizinho_

If you enjoyed this fic, support it with your Power Stones, it helps a lot.

---

East Blue – Conomi Islands

Forest Near Arlong Park

'Come on, you coward, do you really want to disappoint everyone who's counting on you?', Usopp thought, slapping his own face to motivate himself.

'But there are thirty of them, the crew won't mind if I run away, they know I can't handle all of this', Usopp's fear tries to argue with him, trying to convince him that the best course of action was to run away from there.

'Are you going to run forever? It's you who thinks you can't do it. The crew trusts you and knows you're capable of handling this. How do you expect to become a brave warrior of the sea if you keep running? Courage isn't the absence of fear; it's being afraid and acting anyway', Usopp slapped his face again, trying to encourage himself.

"That's right. I took down Kuro, this is just another Monday in the life of God Usopp", Usopp said, gathering courage and checking his equipment to make sure everything was in order.

"A leap of faith, right? So let's dive in", Usopp said to himself, taking a deep breath.

Still shrunken, Usopp began running toward one of the Fish-Men, only to come face to face with a bunch of ants larger than him, now staring at him curiously.

=Scene Break=

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!", Usopp was running desperately from the ants, who only looked curiously at the strange creature running away and screaming.

"The small world is terrifying", Usopp screams with tears streaming from his eyes as he runs.

Through the grass foliages, he sees that he's near a Fish-Man, so he quickly returns to his normal size, jumps, and quickly shrinks back to his previous size, shooting like a bullet towards the Fish-Man, landing a punch coated with Armament Haki square on his cheek, sending him flying away like a bullet, colliding with several trees before stopping, completely knocked out.

Naturally, this caused noise, which drew the attention of the other Fish-Men, who came to see what was happening.

As soon as they arrived and saw one of their comrades knocked out with a swollen purple cheek, they all began to look around, trying to find the culprit.

"Stay sharp; he's around here somewhere", Chew said, staying vigilant.

And as soon as he says that, one of the Fish-Men screams in pain, quickly grabbing his foot, which now has a bloody bullet hole.

What had happened was that Usopp had gotten close to him, drawn his pistol, and shot him in the foot, coating the bullet with Armament Haki.

And just as the projectile was fired, Usopp, with his Observation Haki, managed to release the shrinking effect on the bullet at the right moment, making it return to its normal size and causing more damage to his opponent.

"What the hell is happening?", Chew asked the Fish-Man who had been hit.

"Urghhhh, something put a hole in my foot. Damn, it hurts so much!", the Fish-Man shouted, hopping on one foot while clutching his injured one.

Meanwhile, Usopp ran desperately to avoid being crushed by the titan who was hopping around.

Chew then watched in astonishment as the human blinked around, growing and shrinking rapidly while his men were sent flying and knocked out.

"Fuck, this son of a bitch is changing size", Chew said, realizing what was happening, before dashing forward using Soru, running towards one of his men after spotting something tiny running on his shoulder.

As Chew ran, Usopp jumped and slid down the Fish-Man's shoulder before grabbing his shirt and, spinning his own body, returned to his normal size and threw the opponent over his shoulders, slamming him into the ground.

As his opponent gasped for air after the impact, Usopp quickly drew his slingshot and shot a 'Tabasco Star' straight into the Fish-Man's open mouth before dodging a punch from Chew, then using Soru to distance himself.

And while the Fish-Man writhed in agony on the ground, choking as he held his throat, spitting fire from his mouth with his whole face flushed red and sweating, Usopp, in his normal size, was already running toward another Fish-Man.

When Usopp got close, the Fish-Man swung his sword, trying to cut him.

Seeing the blade coming toward him, Usopp jumps and shrinks, landing on the sword's blade. He then runs along the entire length of the weapon to its handguard. Once there, he uses Geppo and shoots like a bullet toward his opponent's face, delivering a powerful punch coated with Armament Haki to his chin.

And so, Usopp keeps repeating the same process until only he and Chew are left, who managed to inflict only a few scratches on him with his water bullets during some of the moments when Usopp returned to his normal size.

Not wanting to prolong the fight any longer, Usopp quickly takes aim with his slingshot, loading it with a blackish-red projectile, and after coating it with Armament Haki, he fires the projectile with all his strength while shouting, "Supernova Star."

The projectile tore through the air, breaking the sound barrier before growing back to its original size just a few meters from the Fish-Man, resembling a cannonball.

It struck Chew dead-on, causing a massive explosion on impact, engulfing a large portion of the forest in scorching flames and sending the Fish-Man flying like a bullet, toppling tree after tree in his wake.

This projectile was the culmination of Usopp's research and testing with the Buggy Ball, resulting in this upgraded version.

Meanwhile, Chew finally stopped his trajectory after crashing into a tree that was practically split in half from the impact.

The Fish-Man was completely knocked out and in a deplorable state, covered in blood and with some parts of his body covered in burns. He was alive, but he would definitely have to be completely bandaged up after that.

"Ah, shit", Usopp muttered, realizing he had just set the forest on fire.

He then ran as fast as he could to get all the Fish-Men out of the forest before the fire could spread and engulf them.

After taking the thirty Fish-Men out of the forest, Usopp looks around for a few seconds before slapping his hand on his face as he says, "Man, how dumb am I! I could've just turned into a giant and crushed them all in a simple and easy way, it would've been so much faster, and I wouldn't have started a fire."

Deciding that lamenting his own stupidity was a stupidity in itself, he starts racking his brain trying to think of a way to put out the fire.

However, he no longer had to rack his brain thinking of a solution when a huge amount of water suddenly fell from the sky, completely putting out the fire. It should be noticed that the sky wasn't rainy, and that definitely wasn't rain; it was very quick, brief, and concentrated in a single area, which in this case was the entire forest.

Shrugging off the strange phenomenon that had just occurred, Usopp pulled a shrunken rope from his pouch and returned it to its normal size.

He then tied up all thirty Fish-Men and began dragging them back to Arlong Park.

On the way, he heard a gigantic crash followed by an earthquake that momentarily knocked him off balance.

As soon as he arrives at Arlong Park, he sees Kaya checking if Sanji has any injuries, while Zoro, with his shirtless torso completely bandaged, sits nearby, exchanging insults with the cook.

Looking around, Usopp saw that the giant building from earlier was now completely collapsed on the ground.

---

(AN: 1,270 Words)

Thank you for reading! Please comment on the chapters, leave reviews, consider becoming a Patreon member, and also support with your Power Stones.

Attention: As I previously announced, the subscription price on my Patreon has been reduced, and you can also find 18 advanced chapters of this fic there. 

----- 

Thanks to the members supporting on Patreon: 

Bartłomiej, Stephen, ahmarijah, Adrian Kacprzycki, Abdullah, Shawnk02, Robin DiWinter, John—jr, cl, Joleen Chow, Joseph Sepulveda, Ragzuz, Tonty, Mark Hoffman, UKM115, Matheus Carvalho, Chamar Ellis