Chapter thirty six- Big mistake

Appearing in his mind palace after getting comfortable in his bunk, Gabriel drew his swords in preparation for the coming fight that he knew would be tough.

With a though he summoned the constructs of both Dorry and Brogy seventy meters in front of him, planning to use the range to his advantage and rushed forward in a burst of Soru with his blades at the ready.

Both giants saw him coming and raised their weapons to attack, Gabriel narrowed his gaze as he rapidly approached ready to phase through the weapons as they came down on him, but the next second he saw something that made his blood turn cold.

Both the giant's sword and axe pulsed slightly before they were both overcome with a black metallic sheen and Gabriel instantly wanted to curse Haki, they knew armament Haki, of course they did.

As the weapons came down Gabriel didn't even try to risk deflecting them or phasing through them, he didn't know if his phasing was considered the same as a Logia's ability to turn into an element but he sure as hell didn't want to test it out here.

Gabriel kicked off the ground and launched himself into the air on leg strength alone to evade the two Haki clad weapons, before he twisted in the air and lashed out with his feet, "Rankyaku!" he yelled as he sent two tempest kicks at the giants, both of who raised their shields to block the blades before they began to attack again raising their weapons up from beneath him.

Gabriel launched himself backwards to evade the attacks narrowly only to widen his eyes as he saw them both thrust their weapons forward a fraction. Reacting as fast as he could Gabriel brought his blades up between himself and the weapons in a cross to intercept the blows, the impact hit him like a truck and instantly hurled him out of the air and crashing into the ground.

Gabriel coughed up a mouthful of blood from the impact and rolled onto his side in pain, that had hurt. The next moment his eyes widened, and he instantly blurred away with Soru just before a black sword edge came crashing down where he had been.

Gabriel reappeared several meters from the spot breathing heavily but instantly his eyes widened again as he raised his swords to block the massive axe that was swung at him like a gulf club, the impact shook him to his bones from the strength behind the swing as he was lifted off his feet and sent two dozen meters skyward and over a hundred meters way before hitting the ground with a bounce and rolling for twenty meters more before coming to a stop with pain racking his body from the various cuts that adorned his skin and the bruises from being tossed like a rag doll.

Gabriel pushed himself onto his back weakly before coughing up another mouthful of blood, 'damn, I knew they would be tough but this is insane, I'm not going to be able to last another hit at this rate' he thought as he tried to get up.

The giants had launched him a fair distance so he knew it would take them a bit to catch up, but when they did it would be all over, he couldn't handle another hit in his current state.

At that moment there was only one choice left to him if he wanted to survive this fight, he was already regretting it before he did it as he gave the mental command to put two thousand seven hundred AP points into his Battle endurance.

The next second Gabriel's eyes bulged as he felt his entire body wrack with pain on a whole other level, he had to fight not to black out from the pain as his body felt like he was being squeeze in a molten metal vice.

He felt the ground shake underneath him as the giants grew closer, he looked up to see them raise their weapons into the air and start to bring them down.

Real world

Nami was content with how the voyage was going, the winds were calm, the seas were sleepy, it seemed that they weren't going to have any trouble for the next while. So, with that she decided that she would go under deck to see what Gabriel was doing, he always secluded himself away below deck when he wasn't training in some way.

Coming up to the door she knocked on it, "Gabriel," she asked getting no response, "Gabriel" she knocked again a little more forceful this time but still got no response.

That was odd, was he sleeping, she knew that he was in there. After a few seconds debating she decided to just go in, a secret part of her thought that maybe he was changing, and if so, maybe she could catch a glimpse of parts of him that she shouldn't.

But upon entering the room she found him lying on his bunk breathing slowly. She frowned, he was sleeping? She walked over to him ready to give him a piece of her mind for sleeping so late in the morning but before she could punch him he suddenly coughed up a huge mouthful of blood.

Nami froze seeing the blood, she instantly knew something was wrong and began to shake him, "Gabriel, Gabriel, come on wake up" she called trying to get him to wake up, but it wasn't working.

She quickly turned and ran back up to the deck, "everyone, something's wrong, Gabriel just coughed up a mouthful of blood, and he's not waking up" she called out.

Hearing about their captain/friend in trouble everyone rushed down below deck to find Gabriel coughing up more blood again. That really started everyone worrying, "Let's get him above deck, maybe some fresh air will help him" Vivi suggested.

The others agreed and they all began to gently carry Gabriel from his bed and up to the light of the deck. But as they finished laying him out on the deck to let him breath, suddenly bruises and cuts began to appear all over his body. Everyone started to freak out seeing him get hurt and unable to stop or help him.

Luffy looked at Gabriel with concern, not knowing what was going on. Ever since Gabriel and he had met back in Cocoyashi village, he had found himself growing to like him more and more. They were similar souls, sharing similar dreams. He wanted to be the pirate king because that would make him the man with the most freedom, and he believed that was why Gabriel wanted to become the strongest Yonkō as it would provide him the same freedom only in a different way.

Zoro had a similar look of concern, Gabriel had his respect for being so strong. In the past week on the ship his respect for Gabriel had only grown as he showed his skills with a sword and they practiced together to try and unlock their haki, but now seeing him like this he was extremely concerned for his friend, he didn't know what could be doing this to him and felt weak for being unable to help him.

Sanji found himself frowning, they had gotten along well ever since he had started coming to him for cooking lessons, he was a fast learner and the two of them were becoming fast friends sharing a love for cooking as well as a healthy male respect for beautiful women.

Usopp was much the same as the others, speechless as he looked at Gabriel's bloody form laying on the deck unresponsive, he didn't know what the hell was going on with his friend, yes he considered Gabriel his friend, despite the many times Gabriel had kicked his ass when training him how to use a bo-staff. Gabriel had faith in him that he would achieve his dream and was trying to help him do to so.

Vivi had tears in her eyes as she looked at Gabriel, she didn't know what was going happening. He had seemed fine before they set sail. She may not have known him as long as the others had but she had come to look up to him. He always seemed to strong and dependable, like a mountain that stood against anything or anyone who tried to knock it down, seeing him like this now made her feel like her heart was being torn apart

Nami was much the same as Vivi, though she didn't know much about him out of all the crew Gabriel was the most dependable of them in her eyes, he had even come to her and confessed his lack of skills in navigation and asked her to help him learn, she had accepted of course and had gotten to know him a little better over the few days' worth of lessons and considered him a friend with hopes of perhaps something more in the future, she didn't know what was happening and was extremely worried for him.

Gabriel's crew were much like the straw hats, each were worried and concerned for their future captain/captain.

Gem stood silently with his arms crossed as he watched Gabriel lay on the ground, he didn't know what was happening, nor did he know what to do. He would be lying to himself if he denied the fact that he could see this as an opportunity to complete the mission he had been given, but he also knew that there would be no point in doing so now. He was truly an enemy of baroque works at this time, and betraying Gabriel just didn't seem right. He had already made up his mind that he would join Gabriel's crew after he beat crocodile, because there wasn't a doubt in his mind that he would.

Mikita frowned deeply as she kept her back turned to Gabriel so as not to see his bloody state, she had conflicted feelings towards him, she had initially seen him as just some eye candy before they had fought, but after she knew how strong he was there was a part of her that was drawn to that strength, it had been why she had so easily accepted his offer to join his crew. In the few days on the sea they had only talked a few times, but each of those times he had left an impression on her, especially the last time when he had promised her that he would help her fulfil her dream of becoming a famous chocolate maker.

Mira looked at Gabriel frowning as she did so, she had known him for less than a day, and she knew something was different about him, then this happened and she didn't know what to think, just what was going on.

Keren was left speechless, unlike the majority of the girls on board she didn't harbour such emotional feelings towards Gabriel, she did however have a deep respect for his strength and capabilities. Especially after seeing him cut down two dinosaurs the day before, she knew he was strong so to see him in this state now she didn't know what to think as she gently stroked Khan as the small tiger cub looked down at Gabriel as well from her arms.

As everyone was looking on in varying emotional states not knowing how to help him, they were all once more shocked speechless when suddenly Gabriel's body began to rapidly heat up, steam began emitting from his wounds as they closed up on their own. His muscles began to shrink greatly but still didn't lose any definition, his skin turned a deep crimson before gradually fading to pale again, like he had been suddenly dunked into a pot of steaming water and brought back out again, none of them knew what to make of it.

Mind palace

*katch* *katch* *BOOM!*

A mere instant before the blades had fallen Gabriel gained back control and feeling of his body and had instantly rose to his feet swords above his head as he caught both falling weapon edges with his blades and parried them to either side of him before they drove into the ground.

The impact of the weapons shook the ground of Gabriel's mindscape, but Gabriel remained unphased as he stood between the weapons.

��System put five hundred affinity points into Combat strength, and two hundred affinity points into combat speed" he spoke as the giants began to pull their weapons from the ground before he vanished using Soru.

'System,' Gabriel thought before giving it the command to unlock another of the Rokushiki that had just became available to him with his latest influx of points and put all his remaining points into it before calling out "Geppo!"

And reappeared behind the two Giants in mid-air with his swords held out at either side of him as he looked at the both of them with a hard gaze. Both giants turned to him but were too slow to attack.

"My turn" he said as he raised both his sword across his body and took in a breath before kicking off the air hard launching himself at the two giants.

"Nitōryū: Tsuin'īgurutaron" (two sword style: Twin eagle talons)

Gabriel lashed out with his swords as he passed by both of the giants, channelling his energy into his swords as he slashed out, whipping up huge pressurised air blades as he did so, the energy curling and lashing out with his blades at the same time catching both giants in their sides and knocking them back several feet.

Gabriel turned in the air with a kick and launched himself higher as he brought his blades around and under him as he climbed higher until her was directly over the centre of where they had been and began to let himself fall.

Both giants saw him start to fall and strode to meet him as they swung their haki clad weapons.

Gabriel saw the attacks coming and began to spin as he held his swords out, "Nitōryū: Ryū saiha" (Two sword style: Dragon shatter wave)

Both Gabriel's swords and the giants weapons met in the middle of the air the impact shaking everything around them as it seemed for several long moments that the forces had cancelled each other out, but the next second Gabriel moved and the force from his blades knocked both weapons back.

"Soru, Geppo"

Seeing his opportunity Gabriel utilised both soru and geppo and began to launch himself at high speed through the air kicking hard with his feet to maintain his speed as he brought his swords up again as he took sight of Brogy as his first target.

"Nitōryū: Kōtō: Kurosu" (Two sword style: Soaring: Cross)

Brogy saw the attack coming and tried to bring his shield up to block it but was too slow, Gabriel's first sword slashed released a burst of sword energy from right to left to right cutting Brogy right across his chest and arms, the second slash released an equally strong blast of sword energy that cut him from stomach to neck, both slashes leaving deep wounds that would kill any normal man.

Gabriel saw the wounds that his attack had left and felt a little bad for doing that to Brogy but put it to the back of his mind, that wasn't the real Brogy it was only a construct of him, and with that he turned and shot towards Dorry who had readied himself for him raising his sword high to smash down on him.

Seeing the sword starting to fall Gabriel didn't stop and instead shot up to meet the huge sword with his own, Dorry kept the sword falling as Gabriel approached but the second before he was hit Gabriel swerved around the falling blade and landed on the flat of the blade only to disappear using Soru.

The Dorry constructs eyes widened for a spit second before its eyes wend dull as Gabriel appeared on its shoulder returning his swords to their sheaths.

"Nitōryū lai: Zanshu" (Two sword style re-sheath: Decapitation)

And the second his swords clicked closed back in their sheaths, Dorry's head fell backwards an off his body.

Gabriel let out a breath before jumping off Dorry's shoulder and used Geppo to slow himself before he hit the ground and watched as both giant bodied start to disappear, as he reminded himself that they were just constructs and that killing them was necessary, he didn't yet have the level of strength required to battle them and not go all out.

Taking a breath once more Gabriel heard the bell chimes in his mind signalling his wins and the completed quest but didn't look at them right away, he was annoyed with himself for having taken on this challenge and almost being beaten like he had been.

'I'm such an idiot, of course they would have haki, they are giants from the new world, how could they not have haki' Gabriel berated himself for not having thought of that fact before taking the challenge on, and because he hadn't planned for it ahead of time he almost had his ass handed to him, 'and if I die in here I die in real life, I can't take risks like that.'

After a few more moments he sighed to himself and began to leave his mind palace.