Chapter 204: Pardons

Chapter 204: Pardons



"Stop flailing around!" Zoro growled as he blocked a strike from the octopus merman.

He hadn't anticipated having this much difficulty in this fight, but Hyouzou ate some strange pill after a few clashes and got a lot stronger than before.

Not strong enough to actually pose a threat to Zoro, but he was trying to keep collateral damage to a minimum and this bastard kept swinging his swords every which way without any thought. Zoro was forced to block any attacks that would hit the buildings or the unconscious fishmen goons, as well as not hitting them with his own attacks.

The worst part was that Hyouzou figured out he was doing this and started using it against him to gain an advantage in the fight.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

It certainly didn't help that Hyouzou's swords were coated in some kind of poison, otherwise he could simply take a wound or two to finish him.

'Wait, between Chopper and Cherry a little bit of poison is no big deal right?' Zoro pondered. 'I can tough it out until I get to one or both of them, they can't be that far away.'

Settled on this somewhat self-destructive plan, Zoro launched into one of his finishing moves that wouldn't damage anything besides his target whilst leaving an intensional opening for Hyouzou to exploit.

"*hic* I've got ya now fool~" Hyouzou slurred and countered in his drunken overconfidence.

Zoro's movements suddenly shifted into something that was hard to follow even with sober eyes. Hyouzou failed to block Zoro's attack and took two slashes across the chest, whilst he only managed to get small cuts on Zoro.

Hyouzou toppled over whilst chuckling to himself. He didn't even feel his wounds due to the alcohol and the energy steroids that he had consumed, but he knew that Zoro was a dead man walking with his poison coursing through his veins.

Zoro sheathed his sword and went to meet back up with Brook. Unfortunately he went in the opposite direction. So when Brook arrived with a host of guards, Zoro was nowhere to be found.

"Where did Zoro go I wonder?" Brook scratched his head in confusion.

"It really was Hyouzou, this is really bad! We need to get all these men to a doctor quickly! Your other friend must have been disoriented by the poison and wandered off, we need to find him before it kills him!" A guard shouted in worry.

Brook wondered if that was really the case or if Zoro just miraculously got lost once again. "I suppose I should look for him just in case.

Zoro meanwhile was starting to feel the effects of the poison and could find Brook anywhere. "Did he get lost? I guess I'll just find Cherry and Chopper on my own."

Zoro saw a group of 'water roads' that the fishpeople and merpeople used to get around fishman island faster. So he picked one at random and used a bubbly coral to make a bubble around himself to breathe.

Next to the water road that he chose, a sign clearly marked its destination as the "Sea Forest".

...

off of her.

"Mm, I had to call upon some old memories that aren't very pleasant, but that's the least I can do to assuage your feelings about this unfortunate affair." King Neptune said, stroking his

beard.

He had seen many of his comrades fall in battle against humans in the past, so he was no stranger to that kind of hatred. In a strange way, he felt that using those old emotional wounds to make someone smile was something his late wife would have been proud of him

for.

"Let's get you out of here, huh?" Cherry said, causing Slenk and Borke to be relieved. Cherry introduced the two of them to Luffy, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Merry, and Cabernet.

Sanji and Slenk met each other's gaze and immediately clasped their arms together.

"A fellow man of culture, I see!" Slenk said.

"It's always good to meet a comrade and connoisseur of the finest art!" Sanji said.

Borke got into an eating competition with Luffy. He lost even though Luffy has been eating for a while now.

Chopper ensured they were in good health whilst they looked at him funny. Talking animals weren't very common after all, let alone animals that practice medicine.

A dagger came flying through the corridors at odd angles until it reached Cherry where she casually caught it.

"As you can see, Vander Decken's attacks will no longer target your princess, so we should probably get going now, Neptune. Pirates are slippery folk, so it's unlikely that your guards will find the rest of us to bring them here either." Cherry said.

"What about the food?!" Luffy presumably said through his stuffed face.

"Just stuff it into a bag like you normally do, Luffy." Sanji suggested.

"Very well, Jamon. I would like to take my daughter to visit my wife's grave now that she is

free to leave the palace." King Neptune said.

"We'll go as well, father!" Prince Fukaboshi said eagerly, his two brothers nodded beside him

in affirmation.

"I shall make the announcement of the good news as well as the pardons for mister Borke and mister Slenk, your majesty." The Minister of the Left said with a bow.