"What the hell is this?!"
Onik stared in stunned disbelief, his eyes wide as saucers.
The scene before him defied logic.
Cannons, cannonballs, and barrels of gunpowder had somehow come to life and were now working in seamless coordination, faster and more precise than even the most elite gunners he'd ever seen!
In the very next instant, the fuses at the tails of the cannons flared and vanished. A deafening thunderclap tore through the air.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
One by one, the cannons roared to life, recoiling violently as tongues of fire erupted from their dark barrels, launching their deadly payloads in perfect unison.
"Oh, I'm screwed…" Onik groaned with a bitter smile. He didn't even try to dodge or brace for impact.
At barely ten meters away, there was no escape. Eight 24-pound cannons unleashed a barrage that rained death down on him. Even in his transformed state as a massive black bear, Onik couldn't avoid it, four solid cannonballs slammed into his body in an instant, sending him hurtling through the air like a ragdoll.
Truth be told, if he hadn't been a Zoan-type Devil Fruit user, he'd already be in pieces. A normal person wouldn't survive even one direct hit from a cannonball, let alone four. Forget being knocked back, there wouldn't be anything left to fly at all.
CRASH!
A thunderous explosion accompanied Onik's flight as he smashed clean through the red-brick warehouse wall, crashing down onto the open ground outside. Dust billowed in all directions, and shards of brick shot out like shrapnel, striking nearby pirates and soldiers with stinging force.
"Ugh! That hurt, what just happened?!"
"Something flew out of the warehouse!"
"A m-monster?!"
"Captain Onik!"
"How… how is this even possible?!"
Outside the warehouse, the pirates and soldiers of the Tobias Kingdom stared in shock. The fight ground to a halt as they turned to look at the massive dark silhouette now lying in the settling dust.
When they saw the enormous black bear form, the Tobias soldiers panicked, thinking it some terrifying beast. The pirates of the Mad Bear Pirates recognized it as their captain, Onik, but their faces turned pale with disbelief.
There he lay, bloodied and broken, slowly shrinking down and reverting from beast to man.
A pirate with a bounty of 68 million berries, felled in such a brutal fashion? It was unheard of.
Meanwhile, from the cover of a nearby thicket, a tall, wiry man in a crimson cloak watched the scene unfold before the red-brick warehouse.
He had chestnut hair and wore a blue two-pronged hat. A pair of light-blue sunglasses covered his face, and his dark blue jacket hung open to reveal a bare chest. His beige cropped pants were streaked with orange stripes, and a long sword rested at his waist. The whole ensemble made him look like a tribal warrior trying out streetwear.
"Doffy, that idiot Onik just got wrecked!" the man said in shock, speaking into a pink Den Den Mushi held in his right hand.
"What happened, Diamante?" came a low, composed voice from the other end.
This flamboyant figure was none other than Diamante, codename Diamond, one of the top four executives of the Donquixote Family.
And the voice on the other end of the line? That belonged to none other than their bossm Donquixote Doflamingo, the man known as the Heavenly Yaksha.
"I'm not entirely sure, Doffy," Diamante reported grimly. "It looks like Onik was making some sort of deal with the Tobias Kingdom people, but a huge fight broke out instead. Cordel Onik used his Devil Fruit powers, but he still got trashed. He's so badly hurt he can't even hold his transformation anymore!"
"Fuffuffuffuffu~ What a delightful surprise! Who would've thought the Tobias Kingdom had someone strong enough to take down that rampaging bear? Not bad... not bad at all!" Doflamingo chuckled, clearly amused and intrigued.
By now, the thick cloud of dust had begun to settle outside the warehouse. From the jagged hole Onik had crashed through, Cross stepped out slowly, holding the blade Kagehide in his hand.
Diamante's eyes widened in disbelief as he got a good look at the boy's youthful face.
"Doffy, the one who beat Onik… looks like a kid! He might not even be of age!"
"Hm?!"
Suddenly, Cross's expression shifted. His head snapped toward the treeline by the coast, where Diamante was hiding, eyes narrowing with lethal precision.
Diamante flinched involuntarily, heart skipping a beat. That piercing gaze felt like the edge of a drawn blade sweeping straight at him, forcing him to stumble back a step.
"Damn it, Doffy, I think I've been spotted!" Diamante cursed, gripping the hilt of his sword. He spoke urgently into the Den Den Mushi. "This kid isn't normal. He might have Observation Haki!"
"Is that so…? Then he's definitely not normal," Doflamingo said from the other end, voice light with amusement but brimming with unshakable confidence. "Let's see just what makes this little brat so special."
In the next instant, a black shadow streaked across the ground with uncanny speed, as though something had just passed overhead.
"Who's there?!"
Cross's expression hardened. He snapped his head upward and shouted into the sky.
WHOOSH!
A powerful gust of wind whipped through the air as a dark figure soared overhead, then landed lightly atop the red-brick warehouse with a flutter of feathers.
Cross turned sharply. The moment he laid eyes on the figure, his pupils contracted to pinpricks.
Golden-blond hair. Red-lensed sunglasses. Black long-sleeve shirt, red tie, and the iconic pink feathered coat. A wicked smile curled on his lips. The aura he exuded was oppressive, commanding, he looked down on everyone present as if they were ants.
"Fuffuffuffuffu~"
"You seem to recognize me," the man said in a lazy, mocking tone, his voice unmistakable.
"Heavenly Yaksha, Donquixote Doflamingo!!"
Cross said nothing. But others around him screamed the name in terror.
"Fuffuffuffuffu~"
Doflamingo shifted his gaze to Onik's broken form lying on the ground. He let out a dark chuckle and sneered, "You're more pathetic than I expected, you dumb beast."
"I was furious when I heard you killed the courier, but it seems someone else beat me to your punishment. Fuffuffuffu~"
Then, his eyes returned to Cross. For a brief moment, he seemed taken aback by the boy's youth.
"D-D-Doflamingo… p-please spare me… I'll join the Donquixote Family… I swear it…," Onik groaned from the ground, barely clinging to life.
"Fuffuffuffuffu~" Doflamingo laughed softly. "You're begging the wrong person. I wasn't the one who beat you."
Cross stared Doflamingo down, face impassive. He gripped the hilt of Jingxiu tightly and said in a low, steady voice, "Donquixote Doflamingo. Don't you think you owe the Tobias Kingdom an explanation?"
At those words, General Humil, standing nearby, nearly fainted from shock.
In the North Blue, aside from the infamous Germa 66, there was no name more feared than Donquixote Doflamingo and his Donquixote Family.
To be honest, Humil didn't want anything to do with pirates of this caliber.
-------
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to my Patreon ——— patreon(.)com/JuanPiece [remove the parenthesis ( )]