Chapter 5 - Green Wolf! Wind-Elemental God Art Orb!

Waking up in the grassy field again, Noah got up with a jump and cracked his body's bones, feeling an energy he had never felt before. It was almost as if a great burden had been lifted from his body.

"Well, at least I managed to complete the Tendon Refinement. And by the quality they are now, I have no doubt it's like in the novel. Funny. Golden tendons and shiny muscles. Soon I'll be the glitter man." Cracking his neck with a smile, Noah finally adopted a serious expression.

His resources had run out and he was ready to hunt. And with his current strength, he was sure that as long as he didn't encounter a green wolf pack, he could very well fight one head-on. Not to mention that he now wouldn't have to exchange blow for blow with the rabbits. It was going to be a smooth collection of red orbs from now on.

"Little wolf, little wolf..." Noah remembered the sadistic wolf from the other day and was eager to meet him again today.

"Get ready because daddy is going hunting!"

°°°

Surrounded by five rabbits, Noah was calm as he faced the careless attack of a gray rabbit. Dodging slightly to avoid the bite, his knife-shaped hand went through the rabbit's head and it turned into ashes, dropping the red orb that didn't even reach the ground before being absorbed.

As the attacks of the black and white rabbits came at the same time, Noah didn't feel overwhelmed and dodged calmly. His attacks were purposeful and aimed to kill without the body flying away. His kicks were always aimed at knocking down and his punches always finished off.

Fighting in the Hunting Dimension for approximately five hours, besides the sweat of effort, there were no injuries on his body. He was very lucky not to have encountered a green wolf that could give him trouble or some powerful creature that could knock him down with a breath.

Thanks to this and his active hunt against the rabbits, he already had about 150 red orbs. His hunting efficiency was huge and he was sure it was just a lucky day. After finishing off the five rabbits, Noah didn't even have time to breathe before a few more black rabbits appeared to attack him.

'Am I close to some nest? This amount is too big...' Finding it strange this free delivery of red orbs at his door, Noah looked around a bit, but found no hole in the ground. And as he also didn't want to find the Super Rabbit, he left his search aside.

While he was fighting against the black rabbits, his vision suddenly caught a small rat in the distance, walking so slowly and stealthily that it seemed even cute. And him seeing this rat was pure chance, as his vision cleared up after he killed a black rabbit.

"I found you!" With a sinister smile on his face, Noah suddenly crouched down and two rabbits crashed above him. His boot sunk into the ground the moment he accelerated forward.

The little mouse, who suddenly felt a murderous intent focused on him, hopped up and suddenly ran away. His speed was great, but he felt that his hunter was getting closer at an even greater speed.

And when he couldn't imagine things getting worse, a large green creature appeared not far from him, with green eyes fixed on him. Now with two hunters eyeing him, the little mouse almost evacuated on the spot.

"It's not you, but it will do." Noah naturally noticed that a green wolf also had his eye on his prey, but he noted it was not the same one that had killed him on the first night.

Accelerating even more, Noah was almost near the rat when he felt the wind become turbulent around him and his instincts screamed for him to jump away. And he obeyed, jumping up at the same moment.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Three wind blades suddenly cut through the place he was and tore the ground deeply. The green wolf also growled in anger at having missed his target, but kept chasing after the rat too. But it was a shame that his opponent was a more intelligent species. And faster.

As soon as he hit the ground, Noah sped up just enough to reach the small mouse and grabbed it with his hands, crushing it in the process. Five small purple orbs appeared and disappeared quickly in his hand, indicating the success of the operation.

"Now it's your turn!" Noah jumped away from there, feeling the turbulent wind again. But this time he was not able to avoid all the wind blades and one of them cut his chest from shoulder to waist, "AAAH, YOU BASTARD!"

Thanks to the complete refinement of muscle and tendons, the cut was only enough to bleed deeply, presenting no fatal risk aside the huge blood loss. Feeling some anger from the attack, Noah began to zigzag towards the green wolf, who was still shocked that one of his attacks had not killed the bipedal creature.

"WOOOO!" Before continuing its attack, the green wolf roared to the sky before sending more wind blades.

"Not this time." Noah again jumped to the side, avoiding the wind blades that were coming and planting his foot on the ground again.

As he approached the wolf and dodged the wind blades, the need for a movement technique became more and more obvious. Relying on his footwork that he learned from martial arts training was useless when not fighting against another human.

Even so, Noah eventually managed to get close to the green wolf and raised his hand to deliver a punch. The green wolf, clearly seeing that it was going to be attacked, suddenly lunged forward wanting to bite Noah's neck and exchange blow for blow.

What he didn't expect was that the punch was just a feint, and Noah suddenly dodged the bite and climbed on top of him, his arms around the neck while doing a headlock.

Putting all his strength, Noah's arms swelled and the muscles were extremely apparent, the bulging veins pumping blood at all times. The green wolf also didn't seem to want to give up, and the wind around them became turbulent.

"HUNF!" Noah grunted when he felt some smaller wind blades hit his back, tearing his flesh. Even so, the strength in his arms suddenly increased and the wolf slowly grew weak. And when it could no longer resist, Noah rotated his arms while still applying force.

Crack!

As soon as the body of the green wolf hit the ground, it immediately turned into ashes, dropping four deep Red Light Orbs, two pistachio-sized Purple Orbs, and a Wind-Elemental God Art Orb. Picking up all these orbs, Noah had a smile on his face.

"The first time is never forgotten…"

Seemingly calm that he had won a good amount this time, he looked up and saw that six green wolves were running at full speed in his direction. Cracking his neck, he tore his miserable shirt and patiently waited for them.

"Another fight to the death and great suffering? Let's go!"

°°°

"Holy shit!"

Waking up with tremendous pain, Noah took a while to start breathing again. A few tears came out, but he wiped them away and got up. Only after taking a bath in the stream did he finally relax.

His naked body came out of there and it was possible to see that the effects brought by the tendon refinement made him more aesthetic, while the muscle refinement made him defined and the muscles more prominent than before.

"This shit really is horrible..." Relaxing on the lawn and feeling the breeze, he set aside these thoughts and smiled, "Will this help awaken the haki faster?"

Putting that aside, he noticed that it was still night and he couldn't exactly tell how many hours had passed. Still, he had gained some time before dawn. And the fact that he had woken up earlier today, unlike the first time, he attributed to the amount of injuries and pain that his brain had to process before bringing his consciousness to the surface. And now he was almost killed instantly, which led to a smaller overload.

Taking advantage of the time he now had, Noah first removed the Wind God's orb and looked at it for a few moments before taking one of the purple orbs he got from the rat and ingested the two at the same time. As a large amount of unknown information assailed him, his brain also became clear and lucid, starting to absorb all of this.

Knowing that he needed nothing but to meditate, the information about the orb began to explode in his mind, and at the same time he slowly understood how the wind worked, vectors, control, special use of spiritual energy and other related matters. As a green light illuminated his body, he was understanding the secrets of wind manipulation. And two and a half hours later, the effect finally ended.

"Hehe…" Noah laughed as he continued to sit and feel the breeze of the wind around him, controlled by himself. Although not strong enough to hurt someone now, he would definitely get there at some point.

Taking two more orbs, one purple and one red, Noah ate and stood up, taking his sword. Barefoot and only wearing trousers, he took his sword and began to swing everywhere, trying to feel the flow of the wind and keep up with everything.

'Now I can say that I'm going to start training for real.' With the idea in mind to start training his fencing and strength, both mental and physical at the same time, Noah felt the hours passing while the strength of his body increased.

And soon the dawn sun arose in the distance, illuminating his sweat-soaked body. The grass and earth around him were messy and some leaves were perfectly split in half, with one tree in particular full of deep cuts. He then sheathed his sword back and took another bath before dressing his clothes and starting to walk towards Cocoyase Village.

"I think they are already awake at this time..."

°°°

"Arlong, Nami is already on the island. She asked me to let you know that she will come as soon as she can." With an indifferent face, Take was reporting the news. Despite wanting to curse Nami and tell her to come here herself, he knew that she was more important to Arlong than any other human on the East Blue.

Take is a fish-man who is part of the Arlong Pirates, more precisely a carp Fish-man. He has light blue skin, long black hair, red lips, bags under his eyes, and a pink fin on the back of his head.

And in front of him was the pirate responsible for terrorizing Conomi Islands and tyrannizing the place with force and violence. 

Arlong is a large, muscular, light blue saw-shark fish-man whose most distinctive trait is his saw-shaped nose. He has long, black hair reaching down to his shoulders and with a widow's peak.

"Very well, I'll be waiting for her..." Arlong huffed a bit while still sitting in a beach chair.

"She came back again with a bag full of money. Soon she will be fulfilling her part of the promise." Another fish-man appeared, and this time it was one of the generals, Kuroobi. As someone who never accepted Nami as part of the crew, he snorted and asked, "Are you really going to free Cocoyase Village?"

"I never break my promises, that's a fact..." Arlong smiled sinisterly, his shark teeth looking threatening, "But wouldn't it be a shame if some kind of incident happened in the little Cocoyase Village?"

Thinking that Nami still had a little way to go to complete her goal, Arlong did not refrain from calling Nezumi, the captain of the nearest marine branch. As he waited for the call to go through, his sinister smile returned.

"Nami, Nami... you will never escape from my hands..."