Chapter 12. Destruction

Ace simply dodged the big guy attacking him. The surrounding people had all escaped as soon as they felt like a fight would break out between these two pirate groups.

"You, what's your name? You're quite strong!" Ace asked with a smile.

Although he was focused on the one in front of him, Ace also noticed that the moment tensions rose between Ace and the pirate in front of him, there seemed to be many that wanted to spectate from far away.

Amongst them were a group of three with a strong person amongst them. Ace felt their life force and Haki.

'Seems like they're enjoying the show.' Ace thought.

"Ah, my name is Urouge, the captain of the Fallen monks Pirate crew!" Urouge stopped and said with a small hint of pink on his face, it seemed like he got embarrassed by the compliment.

"Flame Emperor Ace, it seems like you're also quite strong, to be able to dodge my attacks like that." Urouge said with newfound respect.

"Hmm, you're not a bad guy, how about this, let's make a bet so our fight becomes more interesting." Ace said with a grin.

"Ah yes indeed, what do you suggest."

"Since you're so confident you must be very strong?" Ace said, gaining a nod from Urouge.

"If you win, I'll join you as a member of your crew, and if I win, you'll join me in my crew!" Ace said.

Urouge frowned at this, he felt that Ace had potential and would make a good member of his crew, but his gut told him that he shouldn't take the bet... but his brain told him, take it, Ace will lose anyways...

'Should I listen to my gut or my head? No, my brains have never gained me anything, so the obvious choice is to follow my head because it is above my gut!' Urouge thought deeply, contemplated and reasoned using his, above animal intelligence, to Ponder his choices until he reached a conclusion.

"Yes, that sounds good, welcome to the CREW!" he shouted as he once again attacked Ace.

Ace would dodge while occasionally punching back, he wanted to see how strong Urouge was.

He noticed that whenever he punched Urouge, Urouge would become stronger, faster and grow in size.

Ace was impressed, as this one one of the strongest people he had met so far if you exclude his gramps and Shanks.

Occasionally, Urouge would suddenly increase is speed and barely nudge the skin of Ace.

Suddenly Urouge punched with all his might with his right fist, making him burst towards Ace.

Ace barely dodged which made Uroge continue with his punch until he smashed the building behind Ace.

Ace felt the tremors of Urouge's punch and looked back, what he saw gave him a bigger grin.

Urouge had punched down about ten houses by accident and fallen under the rubble, but he got up and dusted himself off.

"You are faster than I thought, you'll make a good member of my crew!" Urouge said with a smile, it seemed like it didn't bother him that he could barely touch Ace.

Suddenly Ace flashed towards Urouge and threw a punch straight at Urouge's face, and while the fist was traveling, it turned dark black.

The punch resulted in a big shockwave which made Urouge explode away and destroy even more houses.

Nami could barely hold her jaw in place but the two beside her had dropped their jaws long ago.

Ace turned towards Urouge's companions with a smile.

"Welcome to the crew." He said, but the two seemed to be frozen.

"Hey pick up the big guy!" Ace said as he started walking away.

Both nodded like frightened bunnies and hurried to the rubble and searching for their former captain, as soon as they found him, they picked him up and followed Ace and Luffy.

"Kid... I mean, Captain, what is your goal with sailing the sea?" Urouge asked by the time he had awakened.

He was a pirate, yet he was also a man of his word. As he woke up, he realised that he had lost which meant that he had to sail under the young man he lost to.

"To become the strongest man..." Ace suddenly stopped and said. His words usually carried a hint of laziness and carefreeness, but as he said these words, Nami, Urouge, and the two goons felt like Ace looked taller and wider than he was.

No one laughed or made fun of his statement.

Even though it was something absurd to say, it might even be more absurd than to say pirateking.

Becoming the strongest meant that he had to beat Whitebeard, the rival of the the former pirateking.

Normally this was something to scoff at but for some reason they couldn't bring themselves to not believe him as they saw his serious eyes.

"Fine, then my goal is for our crew to becoming the strongest crew of the seas!" Urouge said with his grin, that seemed wider than usual.

"Then I'll become the best navigator of the sea!" Nami couldn't help but to say.

"Then our goal is the help the crew as well as we can! The two said.

"Huh, what's your names?" Ace said as he remember the two goons.

"I'm Spikeward!" The black haired guy with spiky hair said. He had a scar above one of his eyes.

"I'm Yennow!" The guy with a Yellow afro said happily.

Ace nodded happily.

As they had walked a bit further, Nami couldn't help but to wonder where the marines were. Ace and Urouge had destroyed lots of building and yet no one came for them, she voiced her worries.

"Ah don't worry about that, this is a poor island with lots of pirates and bandits. There is a marine base but they are corrupt and don't care about anything!" Spikeward explained as they walked side by side with each other.

In front of them, another group of three had arrived. Ace noticed that they stood confidently while looking at them, but at the same time they stopped pretty far away from Ace's crew as if afraid of Ace and his gang. There is about 25 meter between them.

Ace instantly recognized their life force as the ones that were speculating on his fight with Urouge earlier.

"APAPAPA!" The one leading them laughed.