Prelude to Battle!

The wind came in hard and threatened to freeze Nami and Kuina solid. Rein hurriedly to create an Ice Wall to block the terrible Icy-cold wind. "Well, it looks like we know that this beast isn't friendly in the least!" Erica covered her eyes from the wind, she wouldn't be frozen from this icy gust with her ability.

The Yeti stopped blowing wind and looked in the direction of the people it had blown at. It believed it was just another group of idiots who came to seek death. "Watch over these two, let me handle this thing!" Rein step out from behind the Ice wall.

"I'm gonna have to hurt you a bit, so hang in there big guy!" Rein pulled the Two Big Shuriken off his back and infused them with a little bit of Haki.

Shing!

Though no one could see it, veins appeared on both of Rein's arms then he threw the Shuriken towards the Yeti. The Shurikens turned in a black blurs as they ripped through the snowstorm, the yeti was alarmed but couldn't see the shurikens.

Splurt!

"RoOARr!"

The two Shuriken ripped into the Yeti's leg and one of its arm, it roared in pain and fell on its knees. Rein moved quickly behind the Yeti and kicked downward on its head, its body fell as it lost consciousness.

[Congratulations, you've defeated the Giant Frost Yeti, you've received: 11,000 System Points!

"Okay, maybe I hurt you a little too much but you'll survive!" Rein scratched his head then put the Yeti into his storage to heal it up later. Erica was watching the whole time, she was surprised because she didn't know Rein could use shurikens! Rein didn't know how, all he did was aim and throw them, that was all to it. Rein didn't use too much force or he would have decapitated its arm and leg.

Erica and rest came over, Nami looked at the Cave with excitement but Kuina wondered where the Giant Beast disappeared to. Strangely, she didn't ask where it went, Rein and Erica were people that were too unbelievable to her when it came to ability.

"This Cave, it's the place, let's go and get our Insignia!" Nami was all smiles under N-Ferno around her head and mouth.

"Okay, let's go!" Rein and rest entered the cave and noticed that it looked like a frozen tavern of some sort. Icicle hung from the cave ceiling while some parts of the cave floor were frozen, so they had to be careful not the fall.

"Look, there are some stairs here that lead downward!" Kuina Spotted some stairs near two icy pillars. The size of the stair pathway had let everyone know the Yeti wouldn't be able to fit down the stair path. Once someone had made it this far, it wouldn't be able to pursue them any further.

Before walkings down the stairway, everyone had spotted the Yeti's nest. There was nothing valuable here, just a simple bedding area made out of branches and straw. After finding that there wasn't anything useful here, they proceeded down the stair path.

Erica and Nami carried torches this time around so the path was lit and easy to get through. The downward stair path was quite long, everyone wondered if it would lead out of the mountain. That would be troublesome if it did, then all this would have been for nothing.

They were eventually at the end of the stairs and came to a hallway. At the end of the hall was an entry path, but there lights inside of it. Rein found that to be strange so he used Observation Haki and sure enough, there were people here already.

"Careful, there are people who beat us down here somehow!" Nami and every else face turned serious, they slowly approached and could hear voices.

"Yes, all we have to do now is climb those long stair and the Goat insignia will be ours, haha!" The man with several missing teeth laugh in delight.

"Phew, I bet everyone is looking for us since we have the Snake insignia! They almost cornered us last time but thanks to your Dig-Dig Fruit ability, we got away, haha!" The man had a ridiculously long top hat with several stars on it. The colors he wore were red, white and blue, similar to Uncle sam from his last world.

He was a middle-aged man with short black hair and a long nose like Usopp. He was with six other men who wore similar color for clothes. One of the men carried a black flag and waved it around often, it had nothing but white stars on it.

When Rein heard about the Snake and Goat Insignia all being here and once, he was overjoyed. "We managed to dig our way into this mountain and avoid everyone's pursuit. That damn Dege Malone almost caught us but it's a good thing we instigated a battle between him and that White-haired man!"

"Flahahaha!"

Suddenly, Everyone felt a chill against their bodies. "Brrr! Where is that chill coming from, we're out of the blizzard, so why?"

"Gasp! Sir, we can't move, Our feet have been frozen over!" The flag holder looked down in shock, how could the ground freeze so quickly? Was this the storm outside causing all of this?

"Everyone freeze and put your hands up, this is a robbery, hand me all your shit and no one gets hurt!" Rein walked out and spoke in a nonchalant manner, he was smiling widely under his helmet like never before, he always wanted to say that.

"Who the hell are you and how did you get in here!?" One of the men yelled and pointed a Rein face in a disrespectful manner.

"Who gives a damn about who he is, let just blast him and get out of this Ice!" The man reached for his pistol on his waist after he was done talking.

"I said, Freeze!" Suddenly the Ice on the man's foot went up his body and instantly covered him in ice, he was now a statue with his hand over his gun.

"W-what the h-hell!?" Did this man just control ice to freeze one of their comrades? They knew what this meant, he had a Devi fruit power! These group of pirates were aware of Devil fruits and had quite the amount of knowledge about them.

"Okay, please take our treasure! Rudy, hand the treasure over to this guy or we'll be killed!" The Captain commanded one of his subordinates.

"But Captain..." He couldn't finish as he was interrupted.

"Hand it over or he'll freeze you to death!" Captain Laflaga didn't want to be frozen to death, he could find more treasure at a later date if he didn't die.

"O-okay!" The man was carrying a bag of treasure and tossed it Rein's feet. Suddenly, a shadow came over and grabbed the bag before Rein could.

"Ah, yes, this treasure is perfect, what nice people to give us these rewards!' It was Nami, she moved pretty quickly that Rein was even taken a bit off guard. Greedy to the core is what Rein would describe Nami!

Nice Reward my ass!

This is damned robbery!

Shit! This chick is greedier than this guy!

The Flagstar Pirates all cursed silently, they didn't dare to say it out loud!

"Is what we looking for inside the bag or not?" Erica and Kuina walked over as Rein asked his question. Nami skimmed through all the treasures but didn't find the Snake Insignia anywhere amongst it.

"Hehe, trying to get one on me, I know you guys have that Snake insignia, hand it over or I'll turn you all into ice sculptures!" Rein's eye flashed red but this was only the helmet's special effects so it looked like his actual eyes.

"Damnit!" Captain Laflaga gritted his teeth and took the insignia out of his coat. He tossed it Rein and he caught it with ease. Rein scanned the insignia and found that it was indeed the real thing. The lion insignia was Gold, while the Snake Insignia was Bronze.

Erica looked over and saw a similar stairway just like the one they saw in the trial pyramid. She wasn't the only one to discover it, everyone had spotted it. "Erica, go grabbed the Insignia for me, I'll watch these clowns until you get back." Rein stretched and took a seat on a Frozen rock nearby.

"Geppo!" Erica shoot into the air, you could literally hear sounds from here movements. She zig-zagged up and down through the air until she reached the top in a flash. She could have done this in the last trail but she was too exhausted back then, so she walked up the stairs instead.

Rein waited but she didn't come back until ten minutes later. "I can't get the Insignia, it seems to be encased in some strange ice that I can't even melt." Erica had a strange expression on her face, her ability couldn't melt ice!?

"Something that even you can't melt? I'll go check it out, you three stay here, I'll figure something out." Rein disappeared from where he stood which surprised Laflage, he was now certain that he was dealing with people he couldn't hope to match.

Once Rein arrived at the top, he saw a huge Ice Ball wrapped around the Goat insignia. The ice was very Blue compared to the clear ice and slightly light blue ice. This ice was Dark Blue, it was something he had never seen before.

Rein could visibly see scorch marks on the ground, it was the doing of Erica who attempted to breach the ice but failed. Rein used the same method but like Erica, it had failed. He punched and kicked it but there was still nothing, no even a crack.

"What kind of Ice is this?" Rein face changed, was it was indestructible ice? For Laflaga to get the Snake Bronze Insignia, it must have been easy but as they got more Insignias, it got harder like this one.

"System, Can you scan this Ice and tell me about it?" He hoped the system would listen to him this time around because it usually ignored him over the years.

[Affirmitive! Scanning....]

"Phew, thank goodness!" Rein sighed in relief.

[Ding! Scan complete!]

[This Ice is called Never-Melt-Ice!]

"What?" Rein immediately thought of pokemon, wasn't that a held item that boosted Ice attacks in pokemon or something?

"How do I breach it? Could you please tell me?"

[Ding! Use a strong Ice ability to infiltrate it to get what is inside!]

"Ah! This will do!" Rein nodded and turned his hands into liquid Nitrogen but suddenly, the room shook!

"What the heck was that?" Rein turned around and walked over to looked to where Erica and the rest were. Erica was engaged in a fight with some guy with white hair and blue eyes. From what Rein could see, no one could hurt each other for some reason.

"This guy, he had a Devil Fruit ability, is it mist of something?" Rein looked at the man, he was able to manipulate mist of some sort. Rein didn't know that it was actually the ability to manipulate Clouds. None of them could use Haki so it was a pointless fight against two logia types, if Erica knew Haki then this guy would be toast!

"I'll finish up here then go help with that problem." Rein ran over to the Ice Ball and used his ability to infiltrate the never melt ice. The process was slow, but he manage to get it done with patience. With that, Rein stored the Silver Goat Insignia into his storage where it was the safest.

"Not bad, you have a pretty powerful ability and you're a beauty! How about you three ditch your captain and come join my crew? I know how to treat the ladies, we'll drink and party all day long, just us." This man was Captain Cloud of the White Cloud Pirates, he was a so-called ladies type of guy.

"Ew! Who would join a stinky crew like yours!?" Kuina was disgusted with this man and cursed at him. Erica didn't reply, she didn't need to answer what she believed to be a stupid question. Nami didn't even look at him, she was calculating the treasure she just received from Laflaga.

"Aw, you beautiful young ladies are missing out, how unfortunate for you guys." Cloud sighed and looked at Laflaga who was stuck in place. "You're really good at playing tricks Laflaga, but did you really think you could hold onto those important items?" Cloud sneered

"....." Laflaga was silent

"Hehe, okay, young miss, it's time for round two, let's see what you can do!" Cloud readied himself but suddenly, the wall was blown open behind him.

"Miahahah! No one invited me to the party, I'm so sad!" Multiple figures appeared, it was a total of three people.

"You weren't invited, so why are you even here?" Cloud snorted and looked at the man in disdain.

"You little asshole, you robbed me last time but I'll be sure to crush you this time!" That's right, this was the Captain of the Berserker pirates, Baron!

"Robbed? I don't know what you're talking about, don't say things when you have no proof!" Cloud denied it and shrugged slightly.

"You shameless sack of shit!" Baron wasn't that dumb, he knew how this guy was! Baron looked over at Erica and the rest. "Are you hitting on more girls but still got rejected in the end, how pathetic are you, haha!" Cloud ignored his taunt and glared at Erica, her abilities were good but their fight would only end in a draw.... unless!

However, he had the Cloud-Cloud fruit so he could do many things to fight erica while she couldn't fight back. Suddenly, clouds began to form in the room, they were filling up with water, then it started to rain.

"What?"

Erica was surprised, she now knew what type of fruit it was, it wasn't mist, it was clouds! However, before anything could happen, Rein came down and landed near Erica.

"Huh?" Cloud looked at Rein and said "So this is your Captain, why is he dressed like some ancient ninja, is this a joke? Hahaha!"

Baron was just watching at first but he sensed something different about this guy.

"This guy is strong, I have to fight him!" Baron said, "Hey you, I want to fight you, let's do this right now!" It seemed that Baron was a straight forward and blunt guy. The co-captain of the berserker pirates noticed that Kuina was a swordsman like himself and felt a spark of fighting spirit in him rising.

Kuina looked back at him and grinned with a spark of determination, things were about to get hectic!