........
"aaaaaahhh!!!" Apis screamed in pain as Eric pulled her hand upwards, making Apis seeing him face to face.
"i almost forgot about you little shit!" he said menacingly while trailing his sharp claw on Apis cheek.
"wheeeze* i, won't let you huff* harm grandpa Ryu anymore! huff*" gasping fro breath, Apis glared straight at Eric's eyes.
Eric countenance twisted, just as when he wanted to speak, Eric felt a mountainous pressence on his right!
Ryu looked down on Eric giving the later uneasy feeling. wobling in order to stand, the old dragon lunge towards him with his huge snout!
'CRAAAASH....!'
his huge body fell down and crushed everything on his way, thankfuly Apis were released in time as Eric fled in order to avoid getting crushed into smitheren!
Ryu struggled with pain all over his body, he tried to gather his strength once again, however it was all futile! his old dragon breath were unable to keep up with what he intended to do.
Eric stumbled out of the ruble, Ryu's shockwave had actualy affected him! wiping the blood from his lips, Eric was enraged!
seeing Ryu still struggling to stand, Eric saw several stalagmite hanging on top of Ryu's body. Eric sneered and swung his claw to launch several windblades!
"Kama Kama no Kamaitachi!" exclaimed Eric,
'Swish, swish, swish....'
'crack, crack, crack....'
the huge stalagmites were cutted down by him, its pointy edges aimed straight at several parts of Ryu's body!
'STAB! STAB! STAB!.....'
"GROAAAAAR...." Ryu couldn't help but roared in pain as the stalagmites impaled his body!
"GRANDPAAAAA!!!" Apis shrieked as she saw Ryu's condition, the old dragon blood gushed out and made his green feather become blood red!
"dragon bastard! stay there, i need to talk to our little friend first!" Eric sneered as he come closer towards Apis.
Apis stood up with difficulty, she gritted her teeth and lunge towards Eric! however what power does a little girl has in her assault? moreover Apis was extremely exhausted right now.
'Slap...!'
'thud!'
Eric simply slapped her once again, the later stumbled down face first! seeing her fall down, he steped on Apis back with one of his feet. just when he wanted to reach out towards Apis neck, he noticed something fell out from Apis belt, holding his intention, he took the peculiar scroll on the ground.
"what's this?" said Eric while he tried to open the scroll.
however, no matter how much strength he put into, Eric were unable to open the scroll piece.
"wheeze* gibe it back, huff* huff* sense gabe it to me! cough* cough*." Apis said with difficulty, her speech was incoherent due to her swollen cheek.
Eric glanced at Apis, a moment later he smirked and throw the scroll upwards, then he swung his claw towards the floating scroll.
'slash, slash, slash...'
Apis watched in horror as the scroll were torn to pieces! her goggled eyes turned red with sliver of tears rolling down on her cheek.
the scroll pieces falling down dramatically similiar with fallen leaves from the tree.
"hahahhahhahaha..." Eric noticed how precious the scroll to Apis, so he decided to just destroy it right in front of her!
"cough* you okama! cough* when my sense come huff* huff* you'll pay for dhat!" Apis tried to hold back her tears, however she couldn't.
the scroll was one of her sensei first gift! it was that much precious, she even held the scroll while asleep keeping it safe!
raising his eyebrow, Eric pulled Apis colar from the ground and he asked her at face level.
"sensei? you mean the freak who escaped with you last time?" Eric squinted his eyes probing Apis.
"huff* huff* ugly okama, you can go do hell! cough*." she retorts back.
"tell me where he is! and i'll give you a painless death!" threatened Eric towards the helpless little girl.
"cough*, when sensei come huff* huff*, you can go do hell!"
Apis were being pulled up by her collar, she struggled to breath as Eric gripped her collar tighter and tighter. however,
"well then, you can die first! don't worry, i'll make sure that freak foll....."
'BAAAAAAAM...!'
Eric body suddenly flew away from the spot as someone stomped him away and interrupted his speech!
when Eric accidentally released Apis collar, she fell onto the ground! however, suddenly there she felt a warm embrace from someone's hand gently carried her like a princess!
Apis saw through the corner of her eyes, her teacher's face laden with worry seeing her on his embrace. Apis had a question regarding why her sensei's pupils now were looks blood red, however exhaustion finaly taken its toll on her body.
Apis closed her eyes slowly and mumbled, "huff*, sensei? dhanks huff* you binaly come..." she smiled cutely even with her swollen cheek.
seeing Apis closing her eyes, Rei felt indignant and scared, he thought he was too late! however, soon after he could feel Apis pulse and breath slowly turned to normal.
Rei inspect Apis body in detailed manner with his ever clearer vision from her top to toe, seeing she doesn't have any visible wound other than swollen cheek, Rei sent his chakra inside her body only to find out she had almost depleted her tiny chakra reserves.
for Rei however, everything had become clear, the system notification earlier was actualy half true, chakra in a sense was "life energy", when ones practicing chakra and depleted it, their body would gave a warning sign. for the chakra users, emptying their chakra reserves would spell doom towards their lives.
thankfully, Apis still had some little chakra left almost unnoticed within her repository. the system deemed her body was in mortal danger due to this reason.
letting out sigh of relief, little smile finaly returns to his grim face.
'.....thanks, moon. dweller...' Rei heard the weird ancient voice once more, he turned his head towards Ryu whose bleeding and gave him a stare.
Rei moved towards Ryu, he noticed that the old dragon was currently impaled on the ground by several stalagmites, Ryu twitched slightly as Rei sent his chakra inside his body to check the wound. after several round of inspections, Rei said,
"thankfuly your wound is not fatal, but it is best if you don't move for now."
Ryu stared at Rei's eyes, seeing the later doesn't have any ill intention, the old dragon grunted and closed his eyes to rest.
'clack...'
Rei heard something on the distance, squinted his eyes, he put Apis down letting her exhausted body leaning on Ryu's.
"wait for me, that bastard will pay!" muttered Rei as he walked away.
"cough* cough*, aaah! bastard, you kicked me twice!" Eric grunted as he saw Rei walked closer and closer.
Rei keep his silence as he came closer.
"why your eyes red?" asked Eric tilting his head. as far as he recalled, Rei's eyes were silvery white before, but now both had become completely blood red.
Eric asked about his eyes. however, Rei didn't even registered what Eric had said, all he could see was a dead man, walking!
Rei was completely enraged, even though Apis and Ryu weren't completely in mortal danger, he still couldn't supressed his emotion. when he thought about what would happens if he was too late? will he still be able to meet with a still breathing Apis? or her cold body?
thinking about it, his red pupils became more and more prominent, until finaly it changes completely! now there was a black fine circle on it with a peculiar shape of tadpole-like mark appeared one by one with a total of 3 marks!
if only Rei could see his own reflection right now, he should have known what his eyes looks like. it was sharingan with three tomoe pattern on it! the sign of its awakening!
seeing his opponent didn't respond to his question, Eric clicked his tongue in displeasure, in an instant he flailed his claw towards Rei!
"Kama Kama no Kamaitachi!!!" yelled Eric loudly. however,
'swish, swish, swish...'
Rei accurately dodged the numerous semi invisible wind blades of Eric! and that too only with minimal movements from his body, as if Rei knew beforehand the trajectory of where each wind blade gonna land!
Rei was completely aware of his action, because he noticed something spectacular happening within his vision! when Eric launched the wind blades, Rei's first intention was to dodge it towards another place. however, Rei's vision seems to see Eric movements before he even moved, and also the wind blades trajectory before it even landed!
Rei was able to see the bullet trajectory before, however that ability seems getting updgraded this time by whole new levels, as there was something awakened within his body!
Eric were speechless as he saw Rei was completely unscathed by his tecnique!
Rei walked closer in leisure pace, and Eric began to bombards him using the wind blades produced by his devil fruit ability.
'swish, swish, swish....'
"WHY! WHY CAN YOU DODGE IT COMPLETELY?!" Eric grew frustrated because his attack were completely missed its target!
"EAT THIS! KAMA KAMA NO TSUMUJIKAZE!!!"
Eric change his attack pattern, he opens his hand wide and swung them heavily to the front claping his hands together.
'WOOOOOSH....!'
there was suddenly a strong whirlwind made of wind blades appeared in front of Rei, however he keep his calm and drew his chōkuto out.
coating it with chakra, Rei raised his chōkuto upwards with both hands, Rei paused slightly. soon after, seemingly saw the whirlwind weakness, Rei swing his sword down forcefully!
'SLAAASH!'
Eric jaw was wide open! as he saw in disbelief his own whirlwind splits into two by a vertical slash Rei performed.
"ho, how! how did you do that? my wind blade is so sharp its comparable to 'Meitō' sword! HOW DID YOU DO THAT!!!" Eric stammered feeling alarmed and at the end of his sentence he yelled feeling indignant.
'grab..'
Eric paused, he watched as Rei vanished from the spot and felt someone stood behind him while grabbing his head with powerful grip!
"huh?"
'BAM!'
Rei using his shunshin moved towards Eric's back, he grabed his head and slammed it towards the rocky ground underneath!
"UWAAHK!! cough* cough*!" Eric screamed in pain on the ground! he tried to move forwards by crawling.
'STOMP!'
Rei mercilessly stomped his foot on Eric's back, the later cough out blood due to the heavy impact.
"cough* cough*...wheeze*."
Rei get down on one knee as he pulled Eric's purple hair forcefully. with his new vision, Rei could see Eric's emotion coursing through his face, anger, indignant, and most importantly frightened.
"cough* cough*, please...sto.."
'stab!'
Rei with his cold face instantly brought out a kunai from his sleeve and just when Eric wanted to beg for mercy, Rei stabbed his cheek with the kunai and push it forcefuly so it went through the other side of the laters cheek!
"HNNNNNNGGG..AAAAAAAAKH..." Eric shrieked loudly, his eyes bulging out when he saw what Rei had done to him!
"don't, don't say anything. i'm afraid you'll beg for mercy and the soft-hearted me will grant it to you. so keep silent. be the son of a bitch okama you were, so i will have the justification to do what i want to do to you later...."
hearing Rei's cold voice and his blood red eyes, Eric's tears streamed down his punctured cheek, he wet himself immediately.
grabbing Eric's back collar, Rei pulled him forcefully dragging him along the gravel, Rei saw Apis and Ryu whose still asleep, seeing their evenly breathing Rei smiled a little and yet, when he looked at the frightened Eric at his side, the smile was gone completely replaced by an unprecedented coldness like winter.
both of them could be seen leaving the cave albeit one of them struggled fiercely, the other one didn't give a care for even tiny bit and keep dragging the former body outside.
at that day, there was no more mercenary named Eric in East Blue, and on later date, someone extremely lucky found the devil fruit called "Kama Kama no Mi" grown on the tree.
the lucky man plucked the devil fruit and sold it without knowing what had happened to its previous user.
.......