章 50: Drunk Uncle Slamhouse
The marching band of clowns ran forward, each aiming to attack Dante from a different angle, to exploit the numbers differential and destroy him utterly.
Unluckily for them, Dante had long since grown tired of being faced with nothing more than cannon fodder. Sure, not everybody can be Kaido, but he expected some stronger resistance.
Summoning the Rebellion, Dante dashed forward faster than any of them could react and skewered the man inside of the hippo, the trusty blade going straight through his head and severing the spine of the hippo.
Pulling his sword back, Dante swung the blade in the air to clean it of the blood it had been drenched in and held it down at his side as he looked back at the other Wardens. Evidently, the morale hadn't dipped despite the instantaneous death of their comrade, as they hadn't faltered one step, still charging at him.
Shrugging in indifference, Dante changed his stance to a reverse grip and lowered himself, his body facing the scorpion legged Warden. Before the man could even realise he was in danger or comprehend his imminent death, a wave of raw Demonic Power shot forward and tore the Warden in two within the blink of an eye. His two halves quickly separated and collapsed onto the ground, twitching slightly.
With barely a second passing since scorpion-guy was bisected, Dante dashed towards monkey-arms and disposed of her with a single right hook, sending her head rolling across the ground.
Stifling a yawn, Dante kicked away the now headless body and turned to face his final attacker, old elephant-chest, who was now stunned into silence by the instant slaughter of his friends. It only took them all dying for his resolve to falter.
"Ya know, this plan of yours... 'we'll keep him busy while Queen gets here'... well it don't make much sense to me."
Slowly, Dante began to walk forward towards elephant-chest, with the Warden taking a half step back for every four steps Dante took towards him. His feet defied his will, his body locking up in pure dread.
"I mean, the whole idea is just kinda silly. What makes you think I even wanted to run? To leave? I came here to wreck the place, I wasn't gonna leave without finishing the job."
Despite the surroundings having been wreathed in fire and molten rock only a few minutes prior, the air was eerily silent, accompanied only by Dante's voice and the slow steps he took towards his victim.
"And besides, this whole plan was built on the assumption that Queen could even survive against me. Who decided that? I sure as hell didn't. And I can guarantee, he's gonna die just as quickly as all your buddies did."
Finally, Dante stood face to face with elephant-chest, the sweat rolling down his head visible from Dante's position. His breaths were deep, ragged, the elephant in his chest seeming far less animated.
"Lucky for you, you don't have to worry about that. Hell, you ain't gonna have much to worry about in general now."
With a burst of speed, Dante made several precise slashes with Rebellion towards elephant-chest, tearing his flesh asunder and leaving wounds several inches deep across his whole body. Within seconds, the once stalwart elephant-chest bled out, falling to the ground in a heap.
"Man, that was boring. Oh well, here's hoping Queen is a little more entertaining."
Dante knelt down and dismissed the Rebellion, taking a seat on the dead body of elephant-chest as he waited patiently. Wano was slowly boring him, and despite not wanting to give Kaido exactly what he wanted, Dante was eagerly looking forward to a battle between them.
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Far across the vast stretches of the deep blue, hundreds of miles away from Dante's adventure, the Moby Dick sat still on the calm waters. The atmosphere had been tense for the last few days since the announcement made by the Marines.
A brother, and most importantly a son, had been taken from them, and was soon to meet an untimely end at the hands of the World Government's attack dogs. This, they would not allow. Tomorrow morning they would sail towards Marineford, and by the next days dawn they would arrive at Marineford.
Whitebeard had only planned this far. If he were to be honest with himself, he was afraid. Not afraid of Ace dying, his safety would be the absolute priority of all Whitebeard Pirates.
No, the Strongest Man was afraid that his failing health will cause more of his sons to be taken from him, paraded like animals to be executed in front of millions.
However, such fears were beneath a man of Whitebeard's strength, and so he reminded himself of this simple fact to assuage such unnecessary thoughts.
Yes, of all things he knew, there was one absolute truth. His sons would be safe, no matter what. Why? Because he was Whitebeard, and for him to allow any one of them to perish would tarnish that name and the man behind it.
"Oi! Pops!"
Whitebeard was pulled from his rumination by the loud call of one of his beloved sons, directing his attention towards a small piece of paper in his hand, being waved around frantically.
"There's a letter here, says it's from Silvers Rayleigh! We've checked the letter, no poison or tampering. Here, take a read."
The man passed the letter along to Whitebeard, the piece of paper looking comically small within his oversized hands. As he read the letter, his son continued to talk.
"I'll be honest though Pops, I don't really think this is from the Dark King himself. I mean, nobody has seen the guy since Roger died. Why's he only just shown up now? And why would-"
The pirate was cut off by the loud, booming laughter Whitebeard let out after he finished reading the letter. He felt many things in response to the message. Joy, gratitude, he wasn't sure.
"Gurarararara! My sons, tonight we shall enjoy a feast of Kings!"
The contents of the letter was rather simple, only a few lines of ink on the page followed by a signature:
'I heard about Ace. I've got a lot of questions for you about him, but that can wait. A friend of mine will be joining you soon, to help you get him back. He's gotten pretty famous recently, so I don't doubt you've heard of him.
Dante is many things, but I don't doubt that he's one of the strongest men I've ever met. And because of that, I don't doubt that Ace will be safe, no matter what. Not to say he won't be safe with you there, old friend. I just wanted to give you some insurance.
Maybe after this is over, we can share a drink and think back about the better times, before we got so damn old. Have a moment of peace after all this commotion.
Best Regards, Silvers Rayleigh.'
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Completely unaware that he had become a person of interest to Whitebeard, Dante had been sat in waiting for the last few minutes for Queen to finally arrive. And boy was it a spectacular arrival.
A shadow fell upon the lands around Dante, and looking up he saw a figure obsured by smog clouds and slight glimmer of sunshine beaming through. The silhouette painted a picture for Dante though. A few moments later, Queen came crashing to the ground, landing face down in the ground and leaving a giant crater in his wake.
What stood up from the crater could only be described as big. In every sense, Queen was big. Mainly in physicality though, the man was massive. He held a sword close, one that Dante heavily doubted he got much use of.
"Ohohoho... so that's what the noise was. Pity you arrived at such an inopportune time, though. Had you come here sooner, we could have battled hours ago."
Queen's expression turned to one of immense pity towards Dante as he looked upon the blood and viscera of his subordinates.
"Clearly you have overestimated yourself. But thats fine. You'll make a fine worker in the prison mines. I can see it now, oh you'd look fantastic with a collar on you!"
Dante took a step back, not out of fear of Queen, never, but instead out of total shock from the absurd sentence that just left his mouth. He shivered in disgust at the idea of being put in a collar by this sack of shit.
"Sorry, but I'll have to pass. Got some people I gotta take care of, and being 'collared' is gonna get in the way of that."
"Ohohohoho! It's funny you think you have a choice in the matter, Red Devil. Your fate was sealed the second you stepped foot in my territory. It's fine if you don't understand yet. You can always be re-educated."
Slowly, Queen drew the sword at his side and with a speed far surpassing what one would expect of his stature, rushed forward at Dante.
Summoning Rebellion once more Dante dashed and met Queen in a clash of blades, a small shockwave blasting as a result of it. Dante, with his frame and weapon much shorter than Queen was pushing up against the long blade pressing down against him, yet still he was comfortably holding Queen back.
After a few seconds of blades locked against one another Dante threw his arm up, using the hand guard of Rebellion and his absurd strength to throw Queen off balance, his sword waving in the air for a few moments.
Not wanting to end the fight immediately, Dante used the opening to Trick up towards Queen's sword, coating Rebellion with his own Armament Haki as he carved the sword to pieces, rendering it utterly unusable. Nothing more than scraps of metal.
For good measure, he then kicked out at Queen's hand, still tightly clutching the short remainder of the longsword and sent the handle flying, leaving Queen entirely unarmed.
Tricking back down to the ground, Dante noticed an attack coming towards him and quickly threw up his guard, blocking Queen's Armament coated foot flying towards him, skidding backwards across the floor a few feet as he did so.
Instantly, Queen then lashed out with the opposite foot, attempting once more to kick him away, or possibly squash him under the boots he wore. Dante retaliated by summoning a Doppelganger who punched out at the oncoming limb with such force that it caused Queen to be thrown to the side, forcefully tripping him up.
Despite the strength differential being so high, Dante was admittedly having fun. Fighting against a much bigger opponent was always a blast. Felt natural to him. Even if he was holding back to an extreme degree, he was glad he could still enjoy himself like this and not be cursed with strength like Saitama.
"That all you got, big guy? I figured you'd be a lot stronger but I guess Kaido really does have low standards. All-Star my ass."
Those words had seemingly set off something within Queen, who rose from the ground with his expression locked in a grimace, steam slowly emanating from his body. His form began to shift slightly, bones creaking and joints unhinging. The colour of his skin slowly grew darker, thicker even.
For a moment, Dante thought he had found a Titan shifter in this world, but instead he was left even more astonished as the rotund man slowly began to transform into a literal dinosaur. The 7 year old within him sang out in awe at seeing a living breathing dinosaur, but he didn't have the time nor energy to address those thoughts.
With his new form, Queen began stomping his way across the floor to trample Dante, his height towering over Dante by tens of meters in his full form Bronchiosaurus.
Round two had begun, and Queen was all too eager to kill Dante where he stood, especially after his blatant disrespect of Kaido. At this point, it was Jack all over again.
クリエイターの想い 
emonoc
emonoc woo, new chapter. I played metal gear rising while I was taking a break and I'm not sure if it showed in this or not. anyways, any feedback is appreciated. lay it on me straight.
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