Swain vs. Lizard

"Damn it! We haven't even entered the third district yet, and the beasts outside are already like monsters!"

Swain wiped the fine beads of sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. Clearly, this battle was taking a bit of a toll on him.

"Shigan!"

Simultaneously coordinating with Soru, one of the Six Powers, he chose to attack the lizard's eyes.

Things didn't go as planned. The lizard could read his intentions and whipped its heavy tail toward him.

Swain was too late to dodge and could only opt for a trade of blows, but he underestimated the lizard's speed.

Or rather, it hadn't displayed its speed from the start until now. Predictably, Swain was struck squarely in the abdomen.

After crashing through several trees, he stopped a dozen meters away.

"So strong! The Armament Haki it uses is just the right amount."

Just like that tail whip earlier, he could feel that the lizard's Armament Haki was condensed almost into a steel plate! And it was without the slightest bit of hesitation.

In this regard, Swain didn't measure up to it at all.

He finally understood what Woli meant when he said that without breaking out of the third district, he wouldn't even have a foothold!

Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, Swain didn't feel inferior about being injured by a beast. On the contrary, he was even more excited!

If this journey were too smooth-sailing, he would definitely have felt very disappointed.

Since this was a path toward growing stronger, he would definitely keep walking it!

Mere seconds passed before the lizard lunged again, its eyes blazing red. This time, its momentum was even fiercer.

Swain immediately put some distance between them. In close combat, he was no match at all.

"Sea Thrust."

"Rankyaku."

Two consecutive attacks, executed in perfect coordination, knocked it flipping back several meters and inflicted a certain degree of damage on the lizard's outer armor.

"That still didn't cause severe injuries?"

Swain clearly felt a bit of a headache. He hadn't expected this thing's defense to be so high, its attack power so strong, and its speed so fast.

It was simply a pentagonal warrior!

"Ocean Wave!" Raising both arms, he summoned a wave several meters high from behind him, looking just like a breached flood.

"Never mind that for now. I'll stall it for a bit and see if it exposes any openings."

Sure enough, seeing the flood coming, the lizard turned and scrambled up the nearest banana tree, which was over a dozen meters tall.

"Shock Gun!" Pointing a single finger, Swain made a small, circular, cloud-like ring manifested from seawater appear before his finger.

Afterward, an air bullet surrounded by a faint blue hue shot at extreme speed toward the lizard.

"Thud!" A sharp sound rang out, and one of the lizard's legs was already mangled and bloody.

Effective! Swain was wild with joy in his heart.

As for the small cloud ring that activated his ability, it was something that appeared every time he used his power. At first, he thought it had some special significance, but later he found out it seemed just like a magical incantation—a precursor to initiating the ability, holding no special powers in itself.

This was basically similar to the scene where the Five Elders Saint Saturn appeared on Egghead, though his five-pointed star array might have had a teleportation function, whereas Swain's merely acted as an initiator, somewhat resembling the pre-swing of using an ability, which differed from other Logia fruits.

"Shock Gun" was an ability he had developed. He could condense the shockwaves that triggered Seaquake onto a single point, forming an effective strike.

However, this was on an island, so he couldn't trigger Seaquake at will.

Moreover, the destructive scale of triggering Seaquake entirely depended on whether his physical techniques were strong enough.

With his current strength, he could at most trigger enough to scatter a village.

The lizard bared its fangs, saliva dripping from its mouth from time to time. Swain's "Shock Gun" attack had dealt it massive damage.

It began to be wary of the prey before its eyes. Despite losing a leg, it still refused to let Swain go; at this point, the fresh blood had completely incited the fierce nature of this beast.

Strike while the iron is hot! Swain wasn't going to let this golden opportunity slip away.

"Shock Gun!" Pointing his finger in rapid succession, he lunged at the lizard once more. This time, he was determined to take down this "roadblock" of the third district.

You don't fall into the same pit twice, just as the lizard wouldn't fall for the same move twice.

"Bang! Bang! Bang-bang!"

He left only several meters-deep craters in his original spot, yet not a single strike hit again.

"Binding!" Swain changed his moves once more.

"Soru!" With a jump and instantaneous movement, he arrived above the lizard.

"Let's see how you run this time! Shock Gun!"

The large lizard also realized it couldn't escape and frantically coated its entire body in Haki. Even so, it could hardly resist the lethality of the Shock Gun, and the damage went straight to its internal organs.

"Hmph! You've exposed an opening."

Swain transformed into his elemental state, turning into flowing seawater that spread around and reappeared behind the lizard.

He struck the back of its head with a punch, piercing right through it!

Leaving only a lizard corpse lying on the ground.

"That was close!"

Swain said, panting heavily.

"My strength really still isn't enough!"

Now he truly had a clear recognition of himself. Perhaps once he genuinely set sail, without Luffy's plot armor, he would probably end up locked away in Impel Down prison a few years later.

He clenched his fists. "I want to get stronger!"

Then he proclaimed loudly and boldly, "Let's start right from the third district!"

After resting for a brief moment, he threw himself headfirst into the fray without a second thought.

East Blue.

Foosha Village.

"Gramps! What did you bring me here for?"

The child tilted his head and asked the old man in front of him, still picking his nose with his hand.

"You're going to live here."

"Dadan, I'll be leaving this brat in your care from now on!"

The old man patted the child's head while speaking to the woman in front of him.

"Hey! Garp!"

"Do you think my place is an orphanage or something?"

"The little rascal you brought last time already gave me such a headache!"

"Ah-ha-ha-ha! Is that so!"

"That guy Ace is just hard to manage," Garp said cheerfully.

"Luffy is very well-behaved!"

"Well-behaved? Then why are you dropping him off at my place?" Dadan said, looking unconvinced.

Garp laughed heartily and said, "I'm going out on a mission! If I can't catch anyone, I might just end up rounding up you lot of mountain bandits to vent my frustration!"

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't just say what's on your mind out loud!" Dadan said with a look of disgust.

"Then I'll leave this matter in your hands!" Garp said solemnly.

"All right, all right, I get it. I just hope this brat can behave himself."

"Ah, Gramps, are you leaving? I haven't eaten meat yet!" Luffy asked, somewhat angrily.

"Idiot! You should be worried about me leaving, not the meat!"

Garp lifted Luffy up with one hand and said with a fierce expression, "You have to listen to Dadan here."

Then he casually tossed him aside and embarked alone on his uniquely styled dog-headed warship.

Poor little Lu, not only did he fail to get any meat to eat, but he was also abandoned by his grandfather in a strange place.

Yet it was precisely right here that he met two older brothers who would give their all for him, two big kids who remained gentle from beginning to end...

Returning to the nameless island.

Unlike the mild and sunny weather of Foosha Village, it had been raining here for a week straight.

And there seemed to be no sign of it stopping.

Woli sat alone inside the house.

"Who knows if that little bastard is dead or alive? Why isn't he coming back to send word?"

Watching the rain outside fall heavier and heavier, his mood grew increasingly irritated. With a punch into the bushes ahead, he actually blasted roots, dirt, and all flying several hundred meters away.

"Achoo!"

Swain sneezed out of nowhere.

The rain fell upon his face, washing away only the blood on his body, yet it could not stop him in the slightest from slaughtering the prey before him.

He kicked the prey aside with his foot.

"Twenty-first!"