Clatter clatter clatter!
As the members of the God's Knights moved, their armor rang with crisp metallic noise.
Saint Saturn, one of the Five Elders, rose to his feet. Facing the knights in ornate armor, each gripping a different weapon, he smiled warmly.
"I will be here, awaiting your triumphant return."
"First place is definitely Saint Garling. With the commander's strength, none of us can compete with him," a knight said with a chuckle, then glanced toward the man at the very front Saint Garling, with his distinctive crescent-shaped hairstyle his eyes filled with admiration. "But second place? That we can fight over!"
Another knight spoke, desire plain on his face. "And it's not just points. There are six powerful Devil Fruits hidden on the island. Aside from Logia-types… there's even an extremely rare Mythical Zoan among them. Saint Garling might not care about Devil Fruits with his power, but for the rest of us if we get one, our strength will skyrocket."
Saint Saturn also looked toward Garling's broad, upright back.
"Saint Garling is a genius who appears among Celestial Dragons only once in several hundred years. Even I cannot compare to his talent."
Talent was the kind of thing that could drive people into despair.
An unbridgeable chasm.
A shackle.
Countless people could struggle their entire lives and still only barely reach the starting line of a true genius.
And if a genius received the best resources and worked just as hard then their finish line would become a starry sky others could only look up at, forever out of reach.
The God's Knights were exactly that kind of unit.
A special force formed entirely from Celestial Dragons.
They held supreme authority so high they even possessed the right to judge Celestial Dragons themselves.
They existed to protect the dignity and power of the Celestial Dragons, and to preserve the World Government's rule.
Every member of the God's Knights had been selected through layers upon layers of screening, each possessing formidable strength.
They weren't like those weaklings on Sabaody those "nobodies" who got winded just walking.
And this time, the "Human Hunting" competition wasn't limited to the God's Knights.
A large number of Celestial Dragons were participating as well.
If those Celestial Dragons earned enough points in this hunt, they could be admitted into the God's Knights.
Likewise, if a member of the God's Knights scored too poorly, they would be kicked out.
Behind Saint Garling stood over a dozen members of the God's Knights in exquisite armor, along with several hundred richly dressed Celestial Dragons. Most of them carried all kinds of strange, flashy weapons.
"There's too much trash in this world," Saint Garling said from atop the platform, his gaze cold as he looked out at the hundred thousand slaves scattered across the island. Killing intent flickered in his eyes and that icy hostility only made the Celestial Dragons behind him even more excited. "Even hunting once every three years still can't clean it all out."
The "trash," of course, meant the slaves captured from every corner of the world.
A member of the God's Knights sneered. "Trash can't be cleaned up completely. Trash keeps breeding more trash… and it even turns other people into trash. But if there's a little less of it, the world feels a lot more comfortable."
"And those Devil Fruits on the island can't be wasted on garbage."
One Celestial Dragon's excitement twisted his face into something almost feral. "I can't wait to clean them up. They're alive just to pollute the air."
Saint Garling's lips curled into a cold smile. He drew the gorgeous, almost collectible-looking sword at his waist and pointed its icy blade forward.
"Then what are you waiting for? Begin the collection."
The moment the words fell, he launched forward like an unbridled stallion, his cape snapping violently in the wind.
In moments, he had already plunged into the vast land of God Valley.
Even a regular school with a few thousand students doing exercises between classes could look crowded.
Ten thousand was enough to overwhelm the eye.
A hundred thousand slaves no matter how wide this land was still filled the island everywhere you looked.
Slash!
A flash of cold light.
A head rolled to the ground.
It landed with a dull thud, the face frozen in terror. Hot, choking blood streamed out, even bursting from the nostrils and mouth as the body collapsed.
Green grass drank in the crimson, like roses blooming across the earth beautiful in a way that made the heart clench.
A slave hiding in the nearby bushes was so terrified he wet himself. His whole body shook, making the grass rustle and tremble.
Saint Garling didn't even blink. His expression remained cold and sharp.
With a casual swing
A dazzling sword wave carved through the slave and the surrounding bushes, shaving them down flat and clean.
Neat.
As if a gardener had trimmed the area with scissors into perfect order.
"This may be a game of cat and mouse," Saint Garling said coolly, "but that doesn't mean the most dangerous place is the safest."
"Not in front of my senses."
"In my presence, hiding is meaningless."
His eyes flashed with frost.
He kicked a small pebble at his feet.
Whoosh!
The pebble shot out like a bullet, ripping through the air before striking a tree trunk with a sharp crack.
A spray of dark red blood splattered out.
At the point of impact, a naked slave collapsed to the ground his back painted with bark-like patterns.
Human body paint camouflage.
To an ordinary person, without touching the trunk, it would be hard to tell a living human was hiding there.
But his opponent was Saint Garling someone with powerful perception, someone who had mastered Observation Haki.
The commander of the God's Knights.
And even if it hadn't been Garling any member of the God's Knights could have spotted that kind of trick with ease.
The God's Knights numbered only around twenty.
Not only did that number symbolize the twenty royal families that founded the World Government…
It also proved that they were elites chosen from among the Celestial Dragons, refined through brutal selection.
A hundred thousand slaves versus a few hundred Celestial Dragons, and roughly twenty God's Knights.
On paper, the slaves held an overwhelming advantage in numbers.
But in the face of absolute power, numbers stopped mattering.
"Three points."
Saint Garling spoke the number coldly.
For him, three points took only a second or two.
But those three points meant three lives erased from the world forever.
The feast of slaughter had begun.
The Celestial Dragons and the God's Knights unleashed a one-sided massacre.
…
Somewhere on the island…
From behind a large boulder, a small bald head peeked out smooth as a monk's.
A pair of innocent eyes stared at the open ground ahead, filled with pain and unwillingness to accept what he was seeing.
His expression was dim, his voice a whisper.
"Why…?"
"Even now… why are they still fighting each other?"
"Before the Celestial Dragons even move… they're already dying by their own hands."
In front of him, several slaves were brawling not just punching and kicking, but using the chains on their wrists as weapons, choking a man to death with them.
In the end, only one survived.
That slave was covered in wounds, soaked in blood, bruised black and purple.
Yet instead of despair… his face was lit with excitement.
Then even the "winner" collapsed.
He grabbed a corpse, dragged half of it onto himself, and used it as a cover pretending to be dead.
Hoping that kind of hiding would spare him from the Celestial Dragons' hunt.
Watching it all, Bartholomew Kuma turned away.
His back looked lonely.
On his skin were countless scars some already scabbed over, others still swollen and bruised.
He pressed his lips together, fighting not to let his tears fall.
"Father said… the warrior of liberation will appear one day."
"I have to live."
Kuma clenched his fists.
But he hadn't gone far before a wooden club slammed into him.
Pain and shock ripped through his body.
At the same time, an angry voice spat into his ear.
"Hey! You trying to run off alone?! You want to get us killed?!"
Several slaves surrounded Kuma, their faces twisted with fury as he clutched his wound, his expression contorting in pain.
"If you run off, the rest of us get dragged down with you!"
"That hit was your lesson. If you dare try to escape on your own again…"
"Next time, we'll break your legs."
Kuma's chest ached.
Not only from his injuries his heart was screaming.
The pain inside was worse than the pain on his skin.
"The Celestial Dragons bully slaves…"
"So why… do slaves bully slaves too?!"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh, you like the story? Wow, who knew. Go ahead, drop a review and throw some power stones maybe I'll be motivated to keep going.
The story's already ahead on Patron. Go there if you want to catch up faster!
[email protected]/_theon
Change @ to "a"