In an instant, Mohji broke out in a cold sweat.
He stiffly turned his head, slowly. Looking at the smiling Xia Chen, he felt a little unnerved.
When had this man climbed up here?
If he launched a sneak attack now, wouldn't Mohji...
He was a beast tamer, after all!
Put nicely, that meant he could communicate with animals, control them, and wield formidable power!
Put less nicely, he was a useless piece of trash who could do nothing without his animals!
In that case, he would have to...
"Boss, I was only laughing because I remembered something happy!"
"Oh? What happy thing?" Xia Chen asked with a faint, ambiguous smile.
"My Richie gave birth to lion cubs!" Mohji answered with a perfectly straight face.
"I see!" Xia Chen nodded.
"But... isn't he male?"
"He reproduces asexually. Males can give birth too!" Mohji continued.
He looked so serious that Xia Chen almost believed him.
It seemed these pirates were pretty good at lying through their teeth!
They were almost catching up to him!
But Xia Chen didn't pursue it. Instead, he said:
"Now, I'm going to watch their fights from your lion's back. The view is better here. Any objections?"
"No objections, none at all!" Mohji hurriedly answered, even adding fawningly:
"Would you like Richie to bounce a little, to give your ride more rhythm?"
"You know what? That's not a bad idea!"
As he spoke, Xia Chen patted the lion beneath him and said:
"Come on, do a crab dance to entertain me!"
"Roar~~~ whimper~~~!"
It took just one second for the lion beneath him to go from roaring upon hearing Xia Chen's command to whimpering.
Looking at Richie sprawled on the ground, Mohji's eyes filled with heartache, but he didn't dare say anything.
Heaven knew what he had just witnessed!
The man before him had brought Richie's entire body crashing to the ground with a mere flick of his finger.
From the information Richie conveyed to him, he could clearly sense Richie's fear.
"Look at you. You just had to take a hit before you'd learn, didn't you? Honestly!"
"All right, hurry up and do the crab dance!"
"You, go tell him how to dance!" Xia Chen said, pointing at Mohji.
"Yes! Right away!" Mohji immediately replied, but a long while passed without him making a move.
"Hmm? What's this? My words don't count anymore?" Xia Chen's gaze turned cold as he looked at Mohji.
"No, no, boss, absolutely not!" Mohji frantically shook his head and waved his hands.
"It's just... how do you do the crab dance?"
A while later, Luffy and Buggy were locked in a fierce battle. Zoro and Cabaji were fighting too.
Meanwhile, over by Xia Chen...
A lion was hopping from side to side, swaying back and forth, sweat constantly dripping down his face.
But he didn't dare stop. Otherwise, the fiend on his back wouldn't be so easy to deal with.
Still, wasn't making a lion imitate a crab a little inappropriate?
Xia Chen, on the other hand, was having a great time, rocking along as he grandly directed the action and issued his pronouncements!
"Luffy, go for his legs!"
"Zoro, use your ultimate already! Why do you keep dodging?"
(╬▔皿▔)╯!
"Shut up!" Luffy and Zoro shouted in unison.
But Xia Chen merely curled his lip disdainfully and kept blathering away!
What a joke. Since when did two bugs get to tell him what to do?
After listening for a while, Luffy and Zoro stopped paying attention to Xia Chen's chattering nearby.
They simply got used to it!
At this point, Luffy and Buggy were trading blows, with Buggy even holding a slight advantage.
Over on Zoro's side, however, the outcome was growing increasingly clear. As Zoro exerted himself, Cabaji the Acrobat was already struggling to keep up.
After knocking away Cabaji's attacking sword once more, Zoro paused briefly and took up the opening stance of a technique.
"I'm going to become the World's Strongest swordsman! You'll be my stepping stone on the path to becoming the World's Strongest!"
"Oni Giri!"
In an instant, Zoro seemed to become a demonic god, appearing behind Cabaji in the blink of an eye.
A second or two later, blood began spraying from Cabaji's chest.
At the same time, several wounds deep enough to reach the bone slowly appeared.
"How... could I... lose!"
With those final words, the first experience pack on Zoro's journey finished his part.
He was still a little too weak compared to Zoro, though, and barely served to hone him at all.
Zoro had just slid his swords into their scabbards when Xia Chen's voice reached him.
"Hey~~~ Zoro!"
"Come up here and experience the boom-boom beat!"
"Tch. You think I'd be like you?" Zoro looked disdainful.
"Luffy, hit him in the face! What are you doing?" Zoro shouted from his seat on the lion's head.
He had to admit, this swaying really did feel pretty good!
Seeing this, Luffy immediately felt it was unfair.
Pouting unhappily, he said, "Why do you both get to sway around on the lion while I'm stuck fighting this Red Nose here?"
Then Luffy looked at Buggy and said:
"Red Nose, I'm going to send you flying right away! I want to ride the lion too!"
Buggy's expression looked as foul as if he had eaten a pile of shit. He had just been thinking those two helpers could lend him a hand!
And how much time had even passed?
One was sucking up to someone and calling him boss, while the other was lying there comfortably sunbathing.
Just like that, he was back at a three-on-one disadvantage. It was more than a little absurd!
But it wasn't completely hopeless yet. Those two over there didn't seem to have any intention of joining the fight.
That meant he had a chance!
They had only their own overconfidence to blame for giving him the chance to defeat them one by one.
Then Buggy's gaze sharpened. He split off his lower body and sent it flying like a pancake.
At the same time, blades sprang from the toes of his shoes, spinning continuously as his lower body attacked Luffy.
"Chop-Chop Cannon!"
Startled by this, Luffy jumped straight up.
At the same time, Luffy's straw hat bounced into the air. Seeing this, Buggy narrowed his eyes, instantly splitting off his hand and sending it toward Luffy's straw hat with a throwing knife.
Riiip!
The throwing knife pierced straight through Luffy's hat.
"My straw hat!!!" Luffy shouted, his eyes filled with alarm.
"You bastard!"
Looking at the hole in his straw hat, Luffy shouted angrily at Buggy.
"Gahahahaha..."
"Shanks's straw hat is just as annoying as he is. Neither of them should exist in this world!"
"Gahahaha..."
Bang!
Luffy's fist slammed straight into the laughing Buggy's face, sending him flying.
"I... won't let you talk about Shanks like that!!!"