Chapter 18 – Hideout
Listening to Robin’s summary, he had a good grasp of the situation.
He didn’t know if he was lucky on unlucky, but he leaned towards the former. That was like a pie falling from the sky, directly in front of him, he had no choice but to eat it, now he only needed to think of how to go about it.
“Robin, let them take us to their hideout.”
There really wasn’t a need to plan anything, their strength was weak, not worth mentioning, he just had to walk in, beat them and loot everything, that simple.
“Alright.”
They both left, guided by the three men, Elis was left in the ship as she couldn’t help them with anything at this moment, she started to prepare a meal for when they would return.
It wasn’t a long walk at all, despite the dense vegetation, the only discomfort was brought by the humid air and insistent mosquitos, after the first few bites, Alexander had enough and created an electric net around him and Robin, zapping all the mosquitos closing in on them.
“Thank you, Alex.”
Robin appreciated Alex’s consideration, while there were mosquitos, there were also other strange insects that looked disgusting.
Alexander nodded at her.
They arrived at the mouth of a cave, in front of the opening two men were sitting on the ground playing cards, they weren’t at all paying attention to their surroundings.
The three men guiding them, stopped for a moment when they saw the cave, but with a kick from Alexander, they resumed their walk.
The two men were startled by the yell the three men released when Alexander kicked them, they rushed to their feet fumbling with their weapons, clearly not expecting this situation.
It seems that despite knowing that there was someone else on the island, they still didn’t increase their vigilance.
“Stop there! Who are you!”
Yelled one of the men.
“The mailman, I got a package for you.”
Answered Alexander in a joking tone, indicating to the three men in front of him.
The guards recognized them, despite the swollen faces, and they understood that they were in trouble, the guards knew that their overall strength was low, they weren’t confident in themselves.
“Do you know who we work for? You shouldn’t cause trouble here!”
If you can’t beat the enemy, then using the influence of a strong backer is a good idea, that is if the other person isn’t Alexander.
“I don’t care, the question is, will you behave, or do I have to force you?”
He will of course not go easy on them, if they trade in slaves, in Alexander eyes they didn’t deserve leniency.
Threatening them, he created an electric arc between his fingers.
The guards were scared shitless at the sight, they weren’t confident before, now they despaired, who can fight a devil fruit user, not them for sure.
Seeing the guards surrender their weapons he knew that there wasn’t a need to fight this time.
He ordered the five men to lead the way, and they followed a tunnel lit by torches, the breeze blowing from inside of the cave indicated that there was a high probability of there being another entrance, he will have to be careful so that no one escapes.
The tunnel extended in a wide area inside the cave, there were men laughing and drinking merrily, they were happy, after all, they did a huge favor for their employer and will be properly rewarder.
There were some tents set inside the opening and there was also a fire in the center, there were holes in the wall above for the smoke to dissipate and creating a good ventilation for the cave.
It looked like there wasn’t another entrance, Alexander thought in his mind, it was stupid to set camp in a place with only one way out and in.
At this time the men saw their companions that should have stood guard, returning, and they didn’t understand why, but after they saw the ashen faces of their companions and the unknown people following them, they understood that something wasn’t right at all.
People started to stand up and unsheathed their weapons, seeing the commotion, more people became aware of the happenings and followed suit.
In but a few moments there were around twenty people pointing their weapons at Alexander and Robin, but despite the huge disparity in numbers there was no sign of fear on their face, making the slavers have a bad feeling.
“Who are you? Why did you come here?”
A tall and muscular man stepped forward and questioned Alexander, he got a bad feeling from them, so he hopped to evade any conflict.
“I’m Alexander, you have something of mine.”
Hearing his words, the muscular man didn’t know what to say, he had something of his?
“Could you describe what is you search for?”
He really didn’t know how he could have something of his, he didn’t even know who the white haired man was.
“That is simple, I heard you have a devil fruit and slaves.”
Hearing his words, his face paled, it was clear that things will escalate at this point.
“Young man, not even we dare to have any ideas about the fruit, and you shouldn’t either, how about this, I’ll give you some of the slaves and we forget everything.”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, I want everything.”
Hearing the white-haired man’s words, the muscular man knew that there wasn’t anything more to say, even if he will suffer some losses, he had to show him that it wasn’t so easy to look down on them.
“Just because I wanted to compromise doesn’t mean that I fear you.”
Saying so, the muscular man signaled for his men to start closing the distance.
He didn’t see the five men that led Alexander to them were furiously shaking their heads at him, he was only paying attention to the white-haired man.
Alexander took a boxing posture, waiting for the enemy to make a move, he wanted to use this opportunity as live practice.
Robin on the other side was taking note of the overall situation around them, she didn’t know is she will get any action today.
“Robin, I will leave half to you.”
Alexander also left something for her, he couldn’t be too greedy.
“You are really looking down on us!”
Shouted the leader after hearing his words, he was angered by the man looking down on them.
Seeing the lead make the first move, Alexander didn’t idle anymore, without using his devil fruit he started to engage the enemy in close combat.
He didn’t look at his enemy’s hands, he only focused on his feet and eyes, trying to guess his intentions.
Sometimes he got it right sometimes he got it wrong, nonetheless even if he made an error in judgement, his speed, reaction time and strength were far above his enemy’s, he almost feelt like time was moving slowly, thanks to his Hyper Focus and Fast Learner abilities his improvement was obvious, even with such an weak opponent.
The fight couldn’t be called a fight, Robin and Alexander just played with them like a cat playing with a mouse.
By the end, only two people were standing.