บท 126: The fighting is over

[A/N: I'm back!! :)]

Ian pulled his sword from Jack's now charred body.

"In the end, this was not even remotely exciting…" Ian muttered to himself. He swung his sword one time and effectively got rid of the blood on it before he sheathed it into its place.

He was half expecting someone strong to suddenly pop up to save Jack, but in the end, this was the real world and such a thing wasn't very likely to happen.

He looked at the now-dead person one more time before he clicked his tongue and turned to the side from it.

Killing people always left a bad taste in his mouth. He didn't enjoy it that was for sure. And if someone did, then that person would likely be crazy.

Taking comfort in the people he disposed of being evil is the only thing that consoled him. Just like with Jack this time. He was glad Jack was quite the evil guy.

Shaking his head at this he surveyed his surroundings.

His eyes landed on his crew practically destroying the beast pirates before he chuckled and calmly started walking towards the mink people who were led by Nekomamushi and Inuarashi.

****

On the other side, the two rulers were having mixed feelings. They were both happy and sad.

Not about the impressive show of strength from the part of Ian, no.

The happiness was obvious as Ian had helped their country, and they had practically won a war without many casualties, which was something they had been expecting.

And seeing Jack's real strength confirmed that guess of theirs. Unless of course, they had used the lunar pill.

As for the sadness and guilt… it was not about Ian showing off, not that he did it on purpose, but rather that they had hidden something from him.

Since he fought in this with them, he had a right to know why they were being attacked. The minks were honorable as such they felt guilty about this.

They shared a look before each of them nodded.

They resolved to tell him their secret in the near future. Of course only after consulting with their coming friends.

But to have Ian as an ally was reassuring, to say the least.

When Ian reached them, they both gave him short bows in acknowledgment of his help. And soon all of their followers did the same.

Ian looked with wide eyes for a second.

He was not used to something like this. Still, he smiled a bit at them.

"Captain Ian, you have the thanks of the mink tribe," Nekomamushi spoke up.

And was followed by Inuarashi soon.

"We'll be indebted to you. And we'll never forget this." Inuarashi said next after.

Once again they bowed along with their people.

"Alright, alright that's enough you guys, you know there is no need for all of that…" Ian said in return, an embarrassed smile on his face.

The minks who had seen him easily dispose of Jack couldn't relate this Ian to that one.

Still seeing him like this some of them couldn't help but want to tease him.

As such, they jumped at him and tackled him into a group hug, and pressing their cheeks to his in what they called minkship.

"Lord Ian thank you for saving this country…"

"You have my thanks, young man…"

"Visit my store to eat all you want. Consider that my thanks for this time…"

Various offers and thankful regards were thrown at Ian, to which he was left confused. But after a while of just standing there, he got his bearings back and he started responding to each one politely.

****

Meanwhile with Elene and co.

They had the moment the bet was on started on their parts.

Bert used 'shave' to weave through the beast pirates on one side and deliver sword strikes designed to knock out someone.

Seeing Stella on the side he called for her.

"Hey Stella, check this out…" He told her before he used electro on his legs and then abruptly vanished from the dozen of fighters that were attacking him. Then he reappeared behind them and smirked as each one of them started falling.

Stella was impressed, she found it quite hard to keep up with him in speed. Still, she was not about to be undone.

Just when a couple of beast pirates thought they can take her out now that she was distracted, She suddenly spun on her heels and delivered a flurry of punches and kicks throwing the pirates back onto trees, she moved between them with not one able to touch her. After that brief demolishing no one got up.

"Hmph" She snorted at them.

Bert laughed loudly at that before he searched for nearby pirates. And Stella soon did the same.

Similarly to them, Elene and Robin were having fun destroying these weak guys. Of course, they were only weak to them.

Occasionally a wolf arm would swing near one of them, but they would dodge it quite easily.

Elene moved between 9 pirates and just kept dodging until she felt she was in the middle of the group, and then just as they celebrated and tried to strike her down, some with swords some with their devil fruits, she suddenly spread her arms wide and spun into a circle. And then she released a circular air blade, with her at the center, at the pirates.

Suffice to say all of them fell down unconscious. She grinned triumphantly at Robin who was at her side.

But then she noticed what Robin was doing.

Robin was the best close quarter's fighter of all three girls. That was a fact.

But what she was doing was amazing even to Elene.

She was staying in her place with various pirates attacking her from all sides. Still not one managed to lay his hands on her. In fact, anyone who attacked her ended up unconscious.

She had taken the competition to another level.

Where they said they can't use devil fruits, everything else was fair play. This of course gave an advantage to Bert since he didn't eat a devil fruit but he can use his electro.

But Elene and Robin didn't mind since the main competition was between the two.

However, Robin had further restricted herself to only unarmed combat, while occasionally using Haki to knock out devil fruit users.

Seeing that, Elene opted for her strong point of power. Gunmanship.

Using her handguns she started to target groups of people and shoot them with non-lethal bullets made of her shadows. They were still enough to knock them back of course.

And just like that, the competition between them continued on. They were briefly stopped when everybody watched as Ian killed Jack, but then they continued on destroying the pirates until they finally gave up and started running for their lives.

Elene and co let them be, as the minks leaders had told them to.

And then the fight against the beast pirates was finally done.