I pushed off the debris and rose to my feet with a grunt. My arms throbbed from the impact, ribs aching, but I was still standing.
'This isn't good…' I thought, eyes locked on the gaping hole in the wall.
"Caius, you alright?!" Beckman's voice rang out from inside.
Before I could respond, Zephyr stepped through the dust.
"Hmph. So you survived…" he muttered, almost with disappointment.
Then he charged again.
I braced myself, knees bent, arms up, but he closed the distance in a heartbeat.
BAM. His fist slammed into my side, lifting me off the ground.
I countered with a left hook, but he ducked under and drove a heavy punch into my gut, knocking the wind out of me. He followed with an uppercut—I barely managed to block, the force sending me skidding back.
I struck back, a knee to his torso, a sharp elbow to his temple. He took it, grimaced, then grabbed my arm and hurled me into a pillar. The structure cracked and crumbled under the impact.
I rolled, coughing, wiping blood from my mouth. Zephyr was already approaching, unrelenting.
He threw another punch, I ducked and retaliated with a blow to his ribs. He grunted this time. A solid hit.
Rain began to fall.
The floodlights from the base cast long shadows as we faced off in the night, steam rising from our skin.
Zephyr stared at me with fire in his eyes.
"You've got fight… but not enough."
Then he charged again.
For the first time in a long time, I was being outclassed.
Zephyr wasn't just strong, he was ruthless, and precise. Every punch he threw landed heavier than the last. I was fighting back with everything I had, my raw strength, my instincts.
He was pushing me back blow after blow, and I couldn't deny it—I was on the losing side of this fight.
Each hit rattled my bones, each dodge became slower.'Damn it... this guy's not like the others. He's a different beast entirely.'
Then he stopped, standing in front of me. His breath was steady. His eyes, cold.
"Enough games… die." His voice was calm, flat, final.
He pulled back his arm it hummed with energy, its force far greater than any of his earlier strikes. Then he launched it straight toward my face with terrifying speed.
But just before impact, something changed.
I opened my jaws.
And my teeth—My teeth turned black.
Armament Haki. It awakened—right then—in the heat of survival.
His fist was inches away when I struck.
CHOMP.
I bit down—hard—on his incoming arm. I didn't budge.
CRACK.
He screamed.
With a guttural growl and a final wrench of my neck, I tore straight through the muscle and bone—ripping his arm clean off.
Zephyr stumbled back in shock, eyes wide, his breath caught as he gripped the torn stump where his arm had once been. Blood poured out, staining the earth beneath us.
And as I stood there, jaw coated in crimson, shoulders rising and falling with each breath, a new silence fell over the battlefield.
With all the chaos caused by my fight with Zephyr, the entire base had erupted into full alert.
Inside the main building, Mihawk and Beckman were locked in battle with multiple officers.
Together, they pushed forward.
After cutting down the last wave of resistance, they burst through the shattered entrance of the building…
…and froze.
There I was, on my knees, blood dripping from my mouth, my body trembling from the pain. My breathing was ragged, and my jaw still clenched tight. Just a few meters ahead, Zephyr, also on his knees, his face contorted with fury and agony, his right arm torn off at the shoulder, a dark pool of blood spreading beneath him.
The silence between us was suffocating.
Beckman rushed to my side first, throwing my arm over his shoulders. Mihawk followed, wordless but sharp-eyed, supporting me from the other side. Together, they lifted me up.
As we stepped back, preparing to flee, Zephyr raised his head. His glare burned with a hatred deeper than rage.
"I will find you… all of you. No matter how far you run. That's a promise."
He didn't shout. He didn't scream.
We didn't say a word. There was nothing to say.
We turned and walked toward our ship, carried by stubborn will and battle-worn silence. The dock creaked beneath our feet, and the sea's breeze met us like an old friend.
Behind us, the ruined base stood quiet once more. And in its shadow, Zephyr remained.
Even as the shore disappeared behind the waves, we could still feel his eyes.
At sea, the salty wind brushing against our faces as the tension slowly began to fade.
"I almost died back there." I said, my voice low, still feeling the dull ache from my wounds.
"Yeah." Beckman replied, lighting a cigarette as he leaned on the railing. "Wasn't far off. What the hell was a guy like that doing in a backwater base like that anyway?"
Mihawk, sitting nearby, interjected calmly, "Doesn't matter. What's done is done."
He was right. Dwelling on it wouldn't change anything. We got what we came for the information on the Six Powers.
"You're right." I said, exhaling slowly. "We got what we came for. That's what matters.
We're going to integrate these techniques into our arsenal. All that's left now is to recruit more crew members." I said, watching the horizon ahead of us.
"By the way." I added. "I managed to awaken one of the Hakis… Armament Haki. That's what saved me back there."
"How?" Mihawk asked sharply, his eyes narrowing with curiosity.
"I don't know… survival instinct, maybe," I answered. It had come in a moment of desperation, not something I could explain, just something that happened.
"I see." Mihawk said, his voice steady, thoughtful. He didn't press further.
Beckman let out a low whistle. "One step closer to being monsters."
The next morning, still sailing under the endless sky, I rose slowly from my bed, my ribs ached with every movement, a sharp reminder of the fight with Zephyr. I got dressed, and stepped out of my cabin.
"Captain, come take a look at this." Beckman called out from the deck.
"What is it?" I asked, making my way over.
He handed me a paper. "Our first bounties."
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Author's Note:
To begin with, NBA: Road to Glory is my first book, there are a lot of things I would do differently if I started it today. The MC is just too good and since I don't want to nerf him, I'm stuck, writing 10+ seasons of his career will be boring.
For GOT: God of War I would like to continue, but I wrote it on a whim.
And for Naruto: Reborn in Kumo I had written several chapters (29), but I didn't like it, the story fell into very cliché.
My biggest problem is that I want to start too many fics without finishing them, like for example I was going to start a Marvel/MCU fic with a guy who has the powers of Icon or Black Lightning.
While I originally just wanted to write a Mass Effect fic.