Chapter 126

Title: Fire Fist...

....

–Portgas D. Ace Pov–

I was looking down. "How can I help you, please?"

As I asked this question, I noticed Jack had a small smirk under his jaw mask.

'This will be easy.'

Thinking such, I came down from the sky first, standing in front of the giant man.

Jack then said while releasing an intimidating aura. "Kid, you have just won a one in a million chance, be grateful. Kaido will be happy hearing that you helped on this mission, get it?"

'Kaido huh...'

I nodded. "I understand, but what do I need to do?"

Jack made a grim face. "First..."

....

According to him, there is a devil fruit they are looking for. They didn't reveal anything more, obviously.

They already found the fruit, it is in a small hole inside the volcano, just where the lava ends.

Jack said, since I seem to have some kind of immunity to heat and can fly, I can easily enter the hole and then grab the fruit.

To be honest....

'This is easy.'

Bereboop!

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of boiling lava.

Yes, currently, I am 'swimming' through the steam inside the borders of the volcano, going towards that hole. I can feel the gazes full of anticipation on my back.

'Losers.'

I will just take the fruit and flee. In this fountain of steam, although I can't control the natural steam, by releasing my own then mixing them with the natural ones, I can absolutely control it.

I've been doing it all the time while flying from the sea to here to the volcano.

'40% of the island is already below me.'

I am aware that Jack is strong, stronger than I am currently. However, this is my domain, even if I can't win, I can run.

'As long as my crew doesn't come here, and goes back to the ship as I ordered, I can escape.'

Thinking such, I entered the small hole, barely.

'They probably already reached the ship.'

Ahh, I am feeling hot.

Yes, being just 1 meter above the magma heats up even me. Although I am sweating, it is bearable.

Then I entered the cave. My hand got burned as I placed it on the floor.

'This hurts...'

I barely managed to control myself from screaming and headed forward, crawling.

Basically, I am torturing my palm and knees right now.

'Nothing I can't handle.'

Gritting my teeth, I kept crawling.

The cave was a little deep, deeper than I would have liked it to be. So it took around 3 minutes of torture when I finally reached a wider place, one can even call this a room.

In the middle of the room, there was an altar, on top of it, a fruit that clearly looked like a devil fruit stood.

I grinned.

The fruit looked majestic, I would easily believe it's a Dragon-Dragon fruit if anyone told me that.

I stood up and went ahead slowly and was about to touch the fruit when... I suddenly felt suspicious.

I heard in many pirate folktales that when they went treasure hunting; they encountered this type of altar where the treasure was kept. Most of the time, the whole place crumbled upon touching the treasure.

'Will this whole place crumble down if I touch it as well?'

It was something one should consider. I stayed silent for 3 seconds before I couldn't endure the heat and grabbed the fruit!

"..."

Fortunately, nothing happened.

Sighing, I started to crawl out of the hole. It took about another 3 minutes...

....

"Oh, hey he is out!"

"Yes, I can see that."

Coming out while ignoring the voices, the first thing I did was fly.

I instantly flew hundreds of meters above the volcano. I couldn't endure the heat anymore.

"Hey, you come down here!"

Hearing the call, I looked down, there Jack was looking at me, especially at my hand expectantly.

I first searched if my companions came here to do something stupid like save me or not.

Fortunately, they didn't.

However... I can see some of them coming in this direction from far.

'This is not good...'

"Hey, Kid!" My thoughts were cut by Jack's words. "What are you doing up there, come down!"

Dumbass.

"Hey," I had a question. "How strong is Kaido?"

My last question before I flee.

Jack's face went dark. He seemed to understand something about me. He laughed a little before looking straight at my eyes.

"Kid, he is someone out of your imagination. Don't even try anything stupid, or you, along with all your companions will all die."

I just laughed before putting the fruit in my side bag.

"You know what? Fuck you, I am gonna go now!"

Fwoosh!

I turned around and gave force around me. Instantly, leaping a few hundred meters ahead.

....

–General Pov–

Jack's rage reached his limit as he transformed into his Mammoth form.

He ordered Egura and Batman.

"You two, chase him!"

He ran fast with his giant body while both of them flew.

Egura was fast being an eagle, but Batman was a little slow.

"Brat, you made a terrible mistake!"

With heavy but fast steps, Jack started to run towards the ship that he noticed when Ace went inside.

.....

–Ace Pov–

As I leaped ahead, I instantly started to fly towards Deuce and a few other comrades of mine who were coming in this direction from approximately 1,000 meters away.

I covered the distance in five seconds.

"Hey, Deuce! I got the fruit!" I grinned seeing his shocked face. "RUN! HAHA!"

Deuce screamed one last time before starting to run. He was happy obviously, he was going to get a Dragon Zoan after all.

Things were supposed to go easy, according to plan. But...

"EEEE!"

The eagle-man I saw before surpassed my speed and went towards my ship.

I felt my blood freeze.

Masked Deuce and others noticed it, he started to run faster towards the ship, I flew too.

My speed increased, I was about to catch up to the eagle but...

"!!!¡!!!"

"Ugh!"

I felt a headache and almost lost consciousness.

'What was that...?'

I looked at the culprit behind me, it was that bat-looking guy.

"I am Batman! Nobody can escape my sound waves!"

Sound waves.... He is a bat, no wonder.

He again prepared another attack. "Today your death will be granted for disobeying Jack-sama—"

"!"

Before he could finish, I punched my hand in the air and he got swept by it in seconds, flying back to the volcano.

'Dammit, he made me be late!'

I turned my head around the ship.

I was only 500 meters away from it, I could see my companions... but the Eagle man had already reached there!

I increased my speed, I was able to since this place's steam was under my control now, this was my top speed where I can't even see anything.

Fwoosh!

Instantly, I reached the ship but—what I witnessed made me baffled.

"Ugh! A-Ace! Don't come here!"

One of my companions, Perry, was already taken hostage by the Eagle-man. He had one of his claws on her neck.

'Dammit... I was late.'

He laughed while his claw penetrated Perry's neck, a little bit of blood started to flow.

"Eee-Kid, listen. Hand over the fruit, and I will free her."

I gritted my teeth looking at him.

I got this fruit for Deuce, he must be very expectant to eat it... but he also took Perry as a hostage.

I looked at Perry who stopped struggling. "Perry..."

She just smiled. "It's fine Ace, give the fruit to Deuce, it's my fault I am so weak."

Perry is a woman with light brown hair and a perfect hourglass body. The thing most beautiful about her is her chest and her eyes, her ocean blue eyes.

I am no airhead to not notice that she likes me. But I don't want to enter a relationship with my companion, it would cause many problems.

But it is true, I am attracted to her.

So, besides her being my companion, there are some other reasons why I don't want Perry to die.

I then looked down at Masked Deuce. Our eyes met.

'...Yes.'

That's what we talked about with our eyes. Masked Deuce was the same as me, he would care about the crew first before caring about himself.

"Hey-Eee!!"

The Eagle bastard yelled.

"Quickly, throw it."

I nodded and took out the fruit from the side of my bag.

"Yes..." A grin appeared on my face. "I am throwing it!!!!"

With all my power and Haki, I punched my fist and the fruit forward!

Because of the heavy steam around me, my punch caught fire because of the friction with the air.

"!!!!"

Zhu!

Along with my fist, the fruit got into the fire and hit the Eagle man in the face. He was thrown backward, out of the ship.

However, as the fruit fell on the deck of the ship, I noticed Jack arriving here too.

I am confident the fruit is fine, it was fine in that volcano after all, but this was bad.

I screamed at Perry: "Pery, throw the fruit to Deuce! Now!"

She nodded after gulping twice. "Y-Yes!"

She did the same as Jack ran faster towards Deuce who was the closest to him.

Deuce caught the fruit.

Jack reached him and swung his Elephant Nose.

"Die, kid!"

However, Deuce had already taken a bite of the fruit.

His body started to change, his skin became harsh and dark. He started to sprout 2 wings on his back, his body structure changed...

"*KREEAAAAACHHHH!!!*"

He cried as if it hurt.

"*ROAAARRRR!!*"

With another cry, Deuce turned into a.... Majestic Black Dragon with spiky wings.

Bam!

With his newly evolved limbs, he hit Jack and made his giant body fly a few meters away.

'...Strong.'

That's the only thing that I could think of. Deuce was now stronger than me.

"A-Ace!" Perry called me as I looked at her. "Don't you recognize that beast...?"

I frowned. 'What is she...'

'...Ah!'

That's right, it's a beast that was rumored to exist on this island thousands of years ago.

We even got a photo that Deuce showed us that he got from his underworld friend.

It's a Dragon. An ancient beast called... Nergigante!

[Image Here]

The fruit should be an Ancient Zoan— Ryu Ryu no Mi, Model: Nergigante.

I gulped seeing this. He looked Majestic...

'A monster, even compared to Jack's Mammoth form...'

My ally got powerful, I was confident that he would win against Jack.

That said, I want to meet Deuce's friend from the underworld. He is the one to give him the information, to begin with, he must be one of his close friends....

**

**

**

A/N: Nergigante from Monster Hunter World