Chapter 122: Conquest
"So, you three are the punks I need to deal with, huh?" Tiamat hummed, her large, dragon lips twitching up into a smirk as she stared down at a trio of men in front of her.
The first was a tall, towering, and hulking man, with a muscular physique that was showcased to the world with his mostly bare chest - as he was only wearing a loose brown jacket. He had long blonde hair, which was split into three separate ponytails and flowed to his waist, along with twin horns sticking out of his head.
Next to the giant man, who was nearly thirty feet tall in total, was a shorter man - though only slightly, as he was still well over twenty feet tall. He also had a long ponytail of blonde hair that reached his waist, but compared to the first man’s muscular physique, his body was much more round and bowling-ball-shaped. His white and black overalls, along with one of his arms being entirely robotic, finished off the image of one of Kaido’s elite soldiers.
Finally, to the other side of the middle man, was the final member of the trio - and the one who looked the most intimidating. His face was entirely covered as a thick, pitch-black metal helmet covered his head, and his body was coated with an equally as black suit. He also had twin black wings coming out from his back, as he stood nearly as tall as Kaido himself.
The Beast Pirates’ name wasn’t just based on how ruthless and wild they were - it was based upon their very image. As the three ’All Stars’ of the Beast Pirates stood in front of Tiamat, they were a sight that would’ve sent most running with their tail tucked between their legs.
Towering figures, each easily crossing the twenty-foot mark, with even wider physiques. They were massive figures that couldn’t even be considered human, and each had the strength befitting of being the second-hands to the World’s Strongest Creature. The three held so much prestige that even their names were titles, as King, Queen, and Jack stood as figures that even admirals would struggle to subdue.
But, while even the most ruthless of pirates would’ve been staring up at the trio with fear-stricken gazes, Tiamat simply looked down at them as if they were toddlers. In a rare circumstance, the Beast Pirates were the ones staring up with wide eyes as the form of Tiamat loomed hundreds of feet in the sky.
Right now, she was fulfilling her part of the plan, having busted through the front of Onigashima and made a beeline for the castle. They were standing inside that very castle right now, in a place named the ’Performance Floor,’ as the trio of All Stars gathered to stop the invaders.
Around them, various high-level dragons were running wild - subduing any Beast Pirates who tried to get in their way. None of them were nearly as large as Tiamat, and it was only thanks to the Beast Pirates’ rather high average height that this floor of the castle was even intact.
Tiamat herself had to lean down to avoid sticking her head through the ceiling, and the other dragons were rampaging like enraged giants throughout the Beast Pirates’ headquarters.
"Where did so many dragons come from?" King muttered, glancing around at the carnage taking place around them, but just shrugged as he raised his hand, "Should we try to keep some alive, Queen?"
His question was less so because Queen held any authority over him, but instead because the round man was somewhat of a ’mad scientist’ type.
"Yes! Though this is the one I’m particularly interested in!" Queen replied, looking up with wide eyes at Tiamat.
"They’re intruders, not toys," Jack interrupted the idea, his voice low and like a growl as he stared up at Tiamat with narrowed eyes, "Focus on subduing them. If any of them happen to live, then you can do what you want with the bodies."
"’If’?" Tiamat scoffed as she heard the words, her teeth baring lightly as she grinned widely, "Brats these days are so arrogant, aren’t they? And I thought Valon was bad..."
Seriously, I thought he was insane and arrogant for calling himself the ’Beast King,’ but there’s another one?
Even worse to Tiamat was the fact that the other ’Beast King’ wasn’t even that powerful.
It’s one thing when Valon does it, but this random group of brats?
Valon might’ve been arrogant, but at least he had the strength to back up that arrogance. When you were one of the strongest beings in the universe and a walking natural disaster, you were allowed to have some arrogance.
"Try to entertain me for a bit, will you?" Tiamat finished, her teeth baring as she grinned even wider.
The group of giant-sized men would soon find how just how small they truly were.
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"Finally finished, huh?" I smirked, teasing Tiamat a bit as she strode towards me, "Didn’t you say you’d be done before I even started?"
"Shut it," Tiamat huffed, her face covered in a bit of blood as her part of the battle hadn’t been as easy as she assumed it would be, "I’m just rusty from not fighting for so long! The only battles I have nowadays are in your bedroom..."
I guess she wasn’t wrong there, as the Dragon King was certainly too lazy to train, and her last activity relating to fighting was overseeing the duel between myself and Sirzechs. But ’rusty’ probably wasn’t the correct word, as the woman was still currently dragging three mangled bodies behind her.
Despite being in her human form, and looking far smaller than Jack, King, and Queen, Tiamat was still effortlessly pulling the three unconscious huge men behind her - as if she were dragging sacks of potatoes instead of Kaido’s strongest subordinates.
I was slightly impressed, as while none of the three were anywhere close to Kaido, and I had fully expected Tiamat to defeat them, they still weren’t pushovers by any means. Along with that, Tiamat didn’t have anyone to use [Karma Control] on during the fight, as while the Beast Pirates had definitely done some terrible things in the past, it wouldn’t boost her strength nearly as much as someone like myself or Zekram had.
"You must’ve been done for a while if you’re sitting so comfortably," Tiamat quipped at me, looking up a bit dryly as I lounged in the large golden throne that had once been Kaido’s, "You could’ve come to help out, y’know? Lazy brat..."
I didn’t know if I should be offended or not that the laziest Dragon King to ever live was calling me lazy, but I just grinned lightly as I waved off her words.
"I haven’t been here long. I went around Wano ensuring every region was being properly subdued before coming here," I answered her concerns easily, being honest.
I had felt like my battle with Kaido was pretty long, as I certainly didn’t one-shot him or anything, but it had finished much sooner than the rest of the battles taking place in Wano right now. So, I had left behind an unconscious Kaido and taken a quick survey of how my forces were doing, with the intent of helping out any regions that were struggling.
But, to my surprise, nowhere needed help. I knew the Beast Pirates were definitely top-heavy, as aside from Kaido himself and the trio of ’All Stars’, they didn’t have a lot of serious fighting power, but that became very evident in this conquest.
I was definitely in an earlier part of the timeline, because the Tobiroppo weren’t fully formed, and even those that were around already, such as Black Maria, had been handled by the group of dragons. In fact, most of the Gifters had been handled by Tiamat’s group, as most of the higher-ranking members, unsurprisingly, stayed in Onigashima instead of in one of the poor and polluted areas of Wano.
With the lack of top-level manpower, along with our surprise attack right after a celebration causing the decently powerful opponents to not be at their best, the conquest of Wano had actually been pretty easy. Sirzechs had taken down Orochi without a struggle, the other regions were being cleared out of any grunts and replaced with my own soldiers, and Wano as a whole was being conquered so quickly that I didn’t even need Kaido to make a surrender order to his men.
Yamato had come with me to check on the rest of my army, and was in the Flower Capital right now helping finish cleaning up the grunts. In the end, there had only been two casualties within the dragon unit, and I didn’t have the exact numbers for the rest of my army yet, but the casualties were definitely on the low end. Kaido’s regime had lost, and they had lost badly.
Speaking of Kaido-
"Whose the woman?" The mountain of a man grunted, casually leaning against the wall next to the throne as he looked at Tiamat with an impressed glint in his eye. He had woken up from his unconsciousness pretty quickly, which I would expect from a Yonko.
"The Dragon King Tiamat," I answered simply, "She’ll be your direct commander from now on."
"I-I will? Why the hell do I have to do that?!" Tiamat huffed, glancing over at Kaido with an annoyed look in her eyes, as if it was somehow his fault I was ordering her to do this. Kaido just gave an annoyed grunt in response, but didn’t argue with my words.
"You’re both dragons... kinda?" I shrugged, as Kaido wasn’t a dragon in the same way Tiamat was, but continued, "You were the one who wanted to command the dragons on this conquest, right? So, I’m giving you your own personal squad."
"I-I just wanted to order that bastard Tannin around! And I didn’t even get to!" Tiamat huffed, her shoulders slouching a bit at the prospect of having to manage a unit of unruly dragons constantly, "I miss when I could just lie around all day..."
"You still do," I deadpanned, as the woman’s lazing spot had just changed from a dark cave in the Familiar Forest to my bed since she became my familiar, "Don’t act like I’m giving you some work-intensive job. Just lead the dragons into battle here and there, alright?"
Having a unit of wild dragons would certainly improve my army’s strength, and there weren’t many within my forces that could control such a group. The dragons, even the weaker ones, tended to be arrogant and annoying to deal with, but Tiamat was the perfect mix of ’I’m way fuckin’ stronger than you’ and bossy to command them.
But, most of all, I wanted to give her a squad because I wouldn’t be able to utilize her as my familiar for much longer. There had been more than a few times in the past that I used to element of surprise and just summoned Tiamat to assist me, but as my opponents seemed to keep becoming stronger and stronger, that strategy wouldn’t last much longer.
With the alliance against my Kingdom looming overhead, my direct opponent in that war would likely be Indra. If he were as powerful as I suspected, then even Tiamat’s [Karma Control] wouldn’t allow her to be overly helpful in the battle. Instead, she would be safer commanding a unit and fighting a lower-ranking faction leader or general.
And, with Kaido in her unit, they would actually become one of the strongest in my army. I would be able to safely send her after someone like Odin and not worry about her defeat.
"Are we just gonna sit here all day?" My thoughts were broken as Kaido grunted to my side again, looking a bit annoyed, "If we are, at least call someone to bring us some drinks! I’m damned bored!"
I glanced over dryly at the Yonko, who was still openly bleeding as another pool of blood formed under him. I had offered to use a healing skill on him, but he had promptly declined by saying something about ’enjoying the suffering of defeat.’ It was a bit too eloquent for the beastly man, but I just shrugged and adhered to his wishes.
He was a bit loopy and could barely walk, but I didn’t think he’d die. He was still Kaido, after all.
"We’ll be leaving soon," I shook my head bluntly at his words, "I’ve ordered all my forces to bring any important people to the Flower Capital. We’ll go meet them there soon."
Prior to the assault beginning, I had made a rough list of every important character I could think of that could’ve been in Wano - ranging from Hiyori to any of the Scabbards to the Tobiroppo to Kaido himself. I’d put some extra emphasis on keeping them all alive and taking them to the Flower Capital after their defeat.
The idea was to gather anyone important in one place, and for one reason.
"This country is about to meet their new King."
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AN: Thank you for reading! The next Chapter will be posted in a few days!
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