As the Magic Circle in Loa's eyes—and the incomprehensible scrawl in Sengoku's and the others' eyes—was completed, the blue markings on the bird's back flashed, then gradually sank into its body.
Clang!
Loa tossed it onto the table. The creature should have been soft, but it had gone completely rigid and struck the tabletop like a block of wood.
Garp bent down and poked the thing that looked like an ice sculpture. "And then? What are you trying to prove with this?"
"I'd keep my hand away from it, Mr. Garp," Loa warned. "That thing bites."
As he spoke, the bird that had looked frozen to death a moment ago snapped its eyes open. It scrambled up, flapping its wings, and lunged for Garp's finger with its beak.
"Bites? This little—whoa! That was close! It nearly got me!"
Garp was still talking when the bird sprang at him. Luckily, he wasn't asleep. Otherwise, Axe-Hand Morgan wouldn't have been the only one to get the better of him; there would have been a bird king, too.
Garp snatched his hand back and stared at the bird. "This little thing... it's fast!"
The speed that utterly ordinary little bird had shown in its sneak attack was beyond anything Garp had imagined. He couldn't fathom what Loa had done to make it move like that.
Loa chose that moment to explain. "To show you the effect, I put more Ice Dragon Power into it than its body can withstand. Its physical abilities are now over ten times greater than those of its kind. In exchange, it only has a few minutes left to live."
And just as Loa had said, the enhanced bird quickly got back up after missing Garp and opened its beak at him again.
This time, though, it wasn't trying