The Bull Became a Cow

Boom!!

Scarlet flames struck the yak's head, singeing its white hair into slight curls and giving off a scorched smell.

"Moo~"

It lowered its head and looked at the human wreathed in flames.

Then it ignored him and continued destroying the makeshift tents around it.

With one stomp, a tent collapsed like building blocks, and the female warrior lying motionless inside was reduced to a puddle of blood.

Dill, who had intended to draw its attention and lure it away, froze for a moment.

"What kind of deep-seated grudge does it have against you?"

"Well, it's a long story."

"Then save it for later."

Still covered in flames, Dill grabbed a machete and rushed toward the yak.

The Flame-Swallowing Lord commanded the power of fire, so naturally, flames could not hurt him;

perhaps because of the pirate world's strange rules, even his clothes remained completely unscathed.

The yak continued ignoring him, wholly focused on stomping on the building blocks.

Dill extinguished the flames on his body, carefully held his blade between his teeth, and leaped up to grab the long white hair on the yak's belly.

Climbing along its white hair, he made his way onto the yak's back.

"Moo~"

Apparently feeling an itch, the yak began shaking its body.

Dill bent his knees slightly and steadied his footing, flames igniting around him once more.

"Let's have some charcoal-grilled beef!"

Unlike normal yaks, which only had long hair on their bellies,

this white yak had long hair all over its body.

Boom!

Its hair served as the perfect fuel, and the flames spread rapidly until they engulfed the entire yak.

"Moo, moo, moo!!!"

The intense burning made it open its mouth and bellow in pain, a trace of madness entering its already scarlet eyes.

Boom, boom, boom!!!

It began shaking incessantly and slamming into the surrounding trees, trying to extinguish the flames on its body.

Leaves rained down, giving off clouds of thick smoke as they met the flames.

Dill lay flat on its back and crawled forward, preparing to cut through its neck.

He had to hurry, or it would be bad if this started a forest fire.

He picked up speed and soon reached its neck.

He hacked at it with his blade, only to find that he could not cut through its thick hide.

This was just an ordinary machete, nowhere near as sharp as a Famous Sword.

Without the slightest hesitation, he opened his mouth and bit down.

His teeth were far sharper than the machete.

The tough hide was scraped away as easily as butter.

Once there was an opening, tearing it apart became much easier.

Dill swallowed the unpalatable piece of hide in his mouth, thrust both hands into the hole he had bitten open, and pulled it apart.

Once he was sure the opening was large enough, he picked up his blade and began slowly slicing through the flesh.

Feeling the pain, the yak struggled even more violently, snapping trees with its collisions and sending up clouds of dust as they fell.

Dill dug the fingers of one hand into its flesh to keep himself from falling while the machete in his right hand kept cutting.

Soon, the machete met resistance and could go no deeper.

It was the yak's spine.

Delight crossed Dill's face. He dropped the machete and thrust both hands down with all his strength until he touched hard bone.

Without pausing, he gripped the spine with both hands and pulled upward with force.

Crack~

With a sharp snap, a piece of its spine was torn free.

"Moo!!!"

The white yak bellowed loudly, humanlike pain showing on its face and terror filling its scarlet eyes.

It staggered forward a few steps before crashing to the ground.

Thud!!

The tremendous noise sent birds flying from the forest.

Sally and the others from the Morisou Tribe stared dumbfounded at the burning yak.

It had been less than three minutes, and he had already dealt with it?

"Don't just stand there! Come put out the fire!"

Holding the bone in one hand, Dill shouted to them:

"No one has to leave, either. We're having beef today!"

The scene fell silent for an instant, then cheers erupted:

"Oohhh!!!"

The children were particularly enthusiastic, their eyes full of admiration as they looked at Dill.

The fire the yak had caused was small, with only scattered flames flickering on the fallen tree.

Working together, everyone soon put it out.

Dill also took the opportunity to demonstrate his ability to create water, adding a little more "belief" to that ability.

Once all this was done, he sought out Sally and asked while eating beef:

"Can you tell me now? Why was that bull only going after you?"

Sally nodded.

"This one's male."

"So the other one's female?"

"No, the other one's male too."

She took out the green disc called Forest's Favor and explained:

"But the other one used to be female. We accidentally turned it male."

"Earlier, when we were turning the men into women, one extremist suddenly changed his mind, grabbed Forest's Favor, and threw it away;

unfortunately, it hit the female yak right on the forehead;

they were our tribe's companions, our guardian beasts. It was mating season at the time, and they were mating;

then that cow suddenly turned into a bull in the middle of mating."

Sally lowered her head in embarrassment and pressed her lips together.

"The two bulls in heat started fighting fiercely, so we evacuated in a hurry;

later, we returned and recovered Morisou's Favor, intending to change the other bull back;

but because it was in heat, that bull wouldn't let us get anywhere near it;

if we missed our throw, we'd lose Morisou's Favor again, so we never did anything;

this original bull thought we'd made its mate disappear, and it's been hunting us ever since."

Dill: "..."

If I were that bull, I'd hunt you down too.

After observing a second of silence for the poor bull, Dill swallowed the beef in his mouth.

"Now that there's food too, want to come with us? There might be medical techniques out there that can cure this disease."

"Never mind. Just let the children leave."

Sally shook her head and gestured toward Greber, who had narrowly escaped death.

"The others in the tribe aren't as extreme as her, refusing to let even the children go;

but most still don't want to leave. They'd rather die here."

"The glory of your ancestors, huh? Understandable."

Dill nodded, inexplicably reminded of the Shandia on Jaya Island.

Even after four hundred years, they still held to their ancestors' agreement with someone else, wanting to ring the Golden Bell.

For that, they fought the Skypieans without rest.

Though their homeland had been invaded and taken by the Skypieans, the Shandia could be considered fortunate compared with the Moriju Clan.

At least they were still alive, unlike the Moriju Clan, which was on the verge of extinction.

After leaving half the yak behind, Dill set off for the beach with a group of children and the other half.

Sally accompanied them, since there were still hostages aboard the ship who had not been let off.

Nothing unexpected happened on the way back, and they soon reached their destination.

The ship drew close to shore again, and Robin hurried down, asking with concern all over her face:

"How did you end up like this? Where did all that blood on you come from?"

"I'm fine. It's yak blood. I'll just take a bath later."

Dill stepped aboard and began recounting casually:

"I'm telling you, what this tribe went through was seriously bizarre..."

Since she and Hina had left earlier, she had no idea what had happened afterward.

Dill simply told her the whole story again.

"Wait!"

When she heard about the strange disease, Robin's eyes suddenly lit up, and she said uncertainly:

"I think I might be able to cure this disease."