Chapter 46: Cabernet VS Bon Clay
"Hmph! You think you can stop me, girl? You're strong, I'll admit, but you lack experience!" Bon Clay analyzed, taking a stance.
Cabernet did not respond to his taunts. Cherry had taught her better than to lose focus in a fight.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
They charged one another and clashed. Cabernet's physical ability was greater, but just as he said, Bon Clay's experience allowed him to keep up.
Finally Bon Clay landed a kick to her side and they parted. "You see? I'll slowly whittle you down until you fall!" He shouted.
Cabernet felt her ribs with her hand. She could see fighting him like they just had again would have the same result. However, a different strategy came to her mind.
Once more they struck out at each other. This time Bon Clay landed a kick immediately and his face split with an ecstatic smile.
The smile did not remain for long. Cabernet did not falter from the blow, but instead followed through with her own attack, slamming into Bon Clay's face.
"GAH!" He yelped in pain, stumbling backwards. But he had no time to recover himself as Cabernet persisted with her offensive.
They began to exchange blows. Bon Clay managed to block some of them, but he soon started to see a problem. 'She's not taking that much damage?'
Cabernet's body was by no means ordinary. She had the durability of a blood bound artifact, combined with the natural toughness of the Lunarian people while her flames burned on her back.
Needless to say this made her extremely resistant to harm, compared to ordinary humans.
Bon Clay saw that he needed to step up his game if he's to win this. He removed the heads of the decorative swans on his back and attached them at the base of the neck to the tips of his shoes.
This would have made for quite the odd visual for most, but Cabernet didn't really understand fashion having lived the vast majority of her sapient life on an ancient island away from civilization. She put up her guard, taking the swan shoes seriously.
As it turned out, she was right to be wary. The swan shoes increased the penetrative power of his kicks by leaps and bounds. Now she was back to square one, only the consequences of taking a hit were far greater.
Now she would need to use Armament Haki to block any blows that pass through her defenses. The problem was that, while she could use Haki just fine, her capacity for using it was quite low. Cherry had hypothesized that it may be because of her very young age or perhaps her identity as a ship with a zoan fruit.
"What happened Bon Clay? Didn't you say we were friends? Or do your words only amount to just words, things to be thrown about and not to be taken seriously?" Cabernet tried to persuade him.
Bon Clay did look conflicted in that moment, but he recovered. "I've already made a commitment to Baroque Works! I've been with them for years, while I've only just met you lot!" He made an excuse.
"I think so too, but Cherry will be angry if I don't make absolutely sure. Sorry, and goodnight." Cabernet stated, before ruthlessly slamming him against the ground one more time, knocking him out cold.
After taking Usopp's goggles off his head, she left him lying in the sand and went to find one of the others to assist.
...
Cherry moved through the streets quickly after locating her quarry. Naturally her target was
Miss Spa Day.
Miss Spa Day was the greatest obstacle in regards to stopping the fighting, as she could manipulate the senses of the soldiers on either side.
Cherry found her hiding in an alley not too far from the royal faction's soldiers she had juts
influenced.
"Well hello again, Miss Spa Day. What a coincidence, it's so very nice to meet you again. Since I've found you, I'm going to have to ask you to release those men from your hallucinations." Cherry demanded after sneaking up behind her, causing Miss Spa Day to jump in surprise. Miss Spa Day immediately released her hallucination perfume and relaxed seeing Cherry breathing normally. "Stupid bitch! You aren't even holding you breath this time!"
Miss Spa Day approached Cherry, intending to put her to sleep again, but was greeted with a hard kick to the ribs.
"I'm afraid that won't work anymore, Miss Spa Day. I've already developed a counter to your devil fruit. Now go ahead and do as I tell you, or we'll both soon find out how good I am at torture." Cherry said menacingly, while Miss Spa Day broke into a cold sweat.
Miss Spa Day turned to run away, but Cherry quickly caught her and slammed her through a
wall.
She tried to fight back with her massage arts, but it didn't seem to do anything.
"That feels quite nice, but I'm afraid that won't work either." Cherry said as Miss Spa Day's heart filled with mounting terror.
Cherry's muscles did relax as they did before, but Cherry was able to use Body Puppeteering to continue moving now that she could use her Vital Energy. The Vital Energy also served to reinvigorate the muscles, greatly reducing the time she was affected by the forced relaxation. Cherry wrapped her hands around the woman's throat and began to slowly squeeze. "Whenever you're ready to cooperate, you can release me from the hallucination to let me
know."
Miss Spa Day did not last very long before caving into Cherry demands, to say the least.