More Trouble Again, Zephyr's Idea

The forest was steeped in silence. Looking up, sunlight filtered through the canopy, glittering like stars in the sky. It was slightly dazzling, yet crystal-clear and beautiful, carrying an elusive tranquility.

"Strange! When did the island become so quiet?"

After wandering through the forest for quite a while, Loa discovered that the once lively, bustling woods had become utterly silent. Forget the sounds of recruits fighting—even insects and birds could no longer be heard.

He knew that his First Release state released Dragon Might, but its range should not have been this large!

Back at Marineford, it had only covered half of the Recruit Camp. Only the pressure released during an upgrade could barely envelop half of Marine Headquarters.

Even so, Loa had clearly forgotten that fear was contagious.

The explosions that had swept the area at the start of the battle, followed by the Dragon Might, had indeed frightened the nearby animals into fleeing in blind panic.

The predators on the outskirts had initially been delighted. So much food had practically delivered itself to their doorsteps!

But after hunting down several prey animals, they too began to grow afraid.

Because those creatures completely ignored the deaths of their own kind and the predators around them, charging forward with their heads down.

Could there be something terrifying behind them? Was it the island's king?

The predators thought so, and their hesitation gradually turned into a collective retreat.

Until it became a beast tide.

"If I don't find something to eat soon, I'm really going to starve to death!"

Loa rubbed his hollow stomach with a miserable expression. Right now, even the rocks around him looked like coarse grain buns.

Just as Loa was frowning in hunger, Vice Admiral Momonga, with his mohawk hairstyle, appeared before him. Loa's eyes immediately lit up, and he pounced.

"Ah! Such a huge grilled sausage!"

Crack~

Feeling the sharp pain in his head, Momonga's face darkened. He grabbed Loa by the leg and slammed him into the ground. "Who are you calling a grilled sausage?! That's my hair!"

"You dare mock me like this? In the name of justice, die, bastard!"

After a round of commotion, Momonga unwillingly returned his sword to its sheath. He had heard Kuzan's words aboard the ship and had not believed them at first, but now he did. Loa truly possessed strength no weaker than a vice admiral's.

Even without using the move Admiral Aokiji had mentioned, Loa's powerful Devil Fruit ability alone was enough to secure him a place among the vice admirals.

Sitting on the ground while clutching his stomach, Loa curled his lip. "Tch! What the hell is wrong with you? Do you know I'm starving to death right now? And you still came looking for a fight! I get it—you wanted to starve me to death and win without fighting, right? Do you have the nerve to call that justice?!"

Ignoring Loa's ranting, Momonga put away his sword and pointed in a direction. "The assembly point is over there. Due to special circumstances, the assessment has been temporarily canceled. Hurry up and gather there."

"Special circumstances?"

Loa suddenly sneezed hard. Rubbing his nose, he asked, "Huh? What special circumstances? Are there pirates on the island?"

Momonga: "..."

Loa's expression did not seem fake. Momonga finally understood how Zephyr felt. He let out a deep sigh. "Your battle with the Silverback Great Ape scared off the animals nearby. Now they've turned into a beast tide. For the safety of most people, the assessment has been suspended."

"Huh?" Loa looked utterly dumbfounded. "Such a huge island, and a beast tide happened because of me?"

"What else could it be?!"

When he arrived at the beach, several hundred recruits were sitting around in twos and threes, looking dejected. Some were even wrapped in bandages and leaning on crutches while the accompanying ship doctors held down their wounds and applied medicine.

"Ah! It's Loa! Loa's back!"

An icy path stretched out from the forest. Top Student was the first to spot Loa skating over on ice blades.

"Yo! Good afternoon, everyone!"

Loa shamelessly greeted them, completely failing to notice the strange atmosphere around him.

Then the furious recruits swarmed him and pinned him to the ground.

"Bastard! Do you know I almost died?!"

"Did you bring a cannon with you?!"

"Ow, my ass! Who kicked me?!"

Loa lay sprawled on the ground in confusion, blinking. Then he looked at Top Student and the others with ill intent. "Hey, you sold me out, didn't you?"

"Uh..."

Although the assessment had been forced to stop because of him, the other recruits probably did not know why. Aside from the officers, the only ones who knew the truth were Top Student and the others who had been with him earlier.

So—

Ice Make: Clothesline!

Crack~ Crash!

Loa climbed to his feet, dusted off his hands, rolled his neck, and clenched his fists until they cracked. Behind him, the recruits had been hoisted into the air by ice clothes racks, hanging in strings and swaying in the wind.

He walked over to Top Student, hooked an arm around his neck, and asked with a grin, "So, how do you want to die?"

When the search-and-rescue Marines returned, this was what they saw.

Centered around Loa, the recruits sat in scattered groups forming a wide circle, shivering as they huddled together for warmth. In the middle, Loa was tossing the rations he had scavenged into his mouth one packet at a time. Behind him stood a large tree made of ice. At the ends of its wildly spreading branches, recruits were frozen in frustration and hanging from the treetops.

Whenever the wind blew, they bumped into one another and made crisp jingling sounds.

"Loa!"

Without a second thought, Momonga roared and charged forward. Loa had not even managed to turn around when Momonga appeared behind him in an instant and sent him flying with a punch.

"Using the Six Powers is totally unfair!"

Loa flipped back onto his feet, picked up his rations, and kept chewing.

Momonga's mouth twitched. Then he gave up on teaching Loa another lesson and arranged for people to rescue the recruits from the tree.

Through the warship's window, Zephyr watched the scene outside with a headache.

"Kuzan, tell me—if we restart the assessment tomorrow, should we remove him from it?"

"Oh? Teacher, are you thinking of simply letting Loa pass? Aren't you afraid the recruits will complain?"

Kuzan did not even lift his head. He sat in his chair with his hands behind his head.

"I think that's unlikely."

Zephyr swept his gaze across the beach and sighed. The quality of this batch of recruits was truly terrible. Loa had knocked down more than half of them through sheer personal strength alone, without even breaking a sweat.

Kuzan said nothing. He turned over and went back to sleep.

"You decide. Anyway, the Elite Camp is taught by you alone, Teacher."

Zephyr's eyes flickered. As his gaze shifted, the corners of his mouth suddenly curled up, and he began to laugh.

"Hehehe, I suddenly have a great idea."

Once the rescue operation ended, the situation was reported to Zephyr.

The good news was that no one had died in the beast tide. Everyone had returned alive. The bad news was that several people had been seriously injured and could not participate in tomorrow's restarted assessment, leaving them with no choice but to be eliminated.

There was nothing that could be done about it. This was a medium-sized island. Even with patrol personnel sent in beforehand and every officer moving at full speed after the incident, it had been impossible to rescue everyone immediately.

Among the unlucky ones, some had their legs broken by the beast tide, some had been knocked unconscious in battle, and one had carelessly fallen into a mud pit and been bitten half to death by the animals inside.

But no matter what, Loa made it clear that he would not take the blame.

Standing on the deck, Zephyr looked down at the orderly ranks of recruits on the beach. Several vice admirals and the instructors of their respective teams stood solemnly before the formation.

The scene quickly quieted. Zephyr cleared his throat and said, "I'm sure you all know by now that today's assessment was forced to stop due to certain uncontrollable circumstances. However! That does not mean the assessment is over! Starting tomorrow, you will continue the assessment. The time limit will still be three days, and the rules remain unchanged. Do you understand?!"

The recruits shouted in unison with great vigor, "Understood!"

"Very good!" Zephyr nodded in satisfaction.

At least one thing was acceptable: this batch of recruits truly possessed strong fighting spirit.

After a pause, he continued, "At the same time, after careful consideration from multiple parties, I will now announce a decision! Seventh Squad, Christopher Loa!"

"Here!"

"Step forward!"

"Yes!"

Loa scratched his face and shuffled out of the formation. What was this hair-raising feeling? Why did he keep feeling like he was about to be finished?!

As for the comment from reader ~Yi Xiangkai~—

Well, the details of this plot point were planned to be filled in around chapters four to seven. Since you left a comment, I'll give a rough spoiler. Loa's "First Release" used Maker Magic inside his body, allowing his body to absorb ice-element magic power and activate Dragon Force. It was not merely a change in magic power.

Just as you said, through this kind of self-production and self-consumption—this term reminds me of a certain seventeen-year-old girl's world—the total amount of magic power would not change. But the Dragon Force activated in the process, namely Loa's passive skill, was what caused the transformation.

These matters would be explained in later chapters: the relationship between Dragon Force and Loa, as well as the development and extensions of Dragon Force. After all, there were so many grayed-out skill icons sitting there, weren't there?

Besides, Loa had only just gone from an office worker to a Dragon Slayer. He needed to feel his way across the river when it came to Dragon Slayer Magic. The pace would not be too fast.