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Chapter 93: Avalanche
Dalton stood firm and silent, waiting. He was biding his time, ready to launch his counterattack the moment the gunfire ceased.
But just then...
The incendiary arrow, which had been nocked and ready, tore through the air with a piercing whistle. It struck the two black fuzz balls still adhered to Dalton's arms.
"Damn it!"
Dalton's heart sank as a premonition of danger washed over him.
Whoosh!
As if igniting high-grade explosives, the black fuzz balls erupted into towering flames the moment they made contact with the fire.
The blaze spread outward, engulfing Dalton's entire body at an alarming speed.
"Aaaaaah!"
Amidst the firelight, Dalton let out a scream of utter agony.
His tough hide would not normally fear flames of this intensity. However, having just endured a barrage of gunfire, his skin had been compromised. This allowed the fire rising from his arms to burn directly into his open wounds, scorching his blood and raw flesh.
The pain of being burned alive was something even a battle-hardened warrior like him could not withstand.
He threw himself to the ground, rolling frantically in the snow, struggling to extinguish the flames consuming him.
It was a gruesome sight, one too painful to watch.
"Dalton!"
The townspeople's eyes went red with rage. Some tried to rush forward to save him, but the soldiers immediately pointed their guns, forcing them to freeze.
A few braver souls scooped up snow and charged toward Dalton anyway.
But they only made it a few steps before the archer nailed them to the snowy ground with arrows.
"No! Get back! Stay back!!"
Dalton, still engulfed in flames, saw this and panicked. He used every ounce of his remaining strength to roar hoarsely, stopping the townspeople from advancing further.
"Dammit! That's so low... that's too much!"
Hiding behind the corner of a stone house nearby, Nami watched the battle unfold. She was trembling with rage, wishing she could rush out there right now.
But she was self-aware enough to know that she couldn't change anything on her own.
Her brain raced, trying to figure out how to help Dalton and the others.
Ganyu, Luffy, and Sanji had gone to the castle; they wouldn't be back anytime soon.
Usopp was alone, heading to the neighboring village to find the witch doctor. Even if he heard the commotion and came back, the two of them couldn't take on this many soldiers.
Zoro had stayed on the ship. That wasn't too far from here. If she went to find him now... she might make it in time!
After a moment of thought, Nami made her decision. She turned around immediately, intending to run back to the Going Merry at the shore to find Zoro.
However, she had barely taken two steps when she froze in her tracks.
With eyes full of disbelief and horror, she looked up toward the Drum Rockies.
From the towering peaks that pierced the clouds, an endless expanse of white—like a tsunami made of snow—was rolling down toward Big Horn village at the foot of the mountain with earth-shattering momentum.
It was... an avalanche!!!
"Wahahaha! Dalton, looks like your time has come!"
Wapol watched Dalton struggling on the ground without a shred of pity in his eyes.
He took a flintlock pistol handed to him by a subordinate, cocked the hammer, and aimed at Dalton's head.
"Allow me, your kind-hearted King, to send you on your final journey!"
Bang!
He pulled the trigger.
But the bullet didn't fly toward Dalton on the ground. Instead, it shot crookedly into the sky.
"What the—?"
Wapol looked up at the sky in confusion.
Only then did he realize that, at some point, he had fallen flat on his ass on the icy ground.
Before he could figure out what had happened, screams of terror erupted from the soldiers behind him.
"Ava... Avalanche!!"
"It's an avalanche! It's coming right for us!"
"Run! Run for your lives—!!"
In the face of a natural disaster, the fighting was instantly forgotten. Almost everyone turned and fled.
Only Dalton, still wrapped in flames, was left helpless as the massive wave of snow swallowed him whole.
.....
At the foot of the Drum Rockies, in a vast world of white.
A blue-nosed reindeer was pulling a sleigh rapidly through the snow.
The sleigh runners sliced across the surface, the creak-creak sound echoing through the snowy plains.
Sitting on the sleigh was a tall, slender woman with a surprisingly aged face. She sat comfortably, a bottle of liquor in her hand, tilting her head back every so often to take a swig.
"Chopper, you want a sip?"
"No, I... I don't drink."
She was the only doctor on this island, known as the "Witch," Dr. Kureha.
She had just finished treating a patient in a village and was now on her way back to the castle. The bottle of wine in her hand was part of her payment for the house call.
Suddenly.
The sound of the sleigh cutting across the snow ceased, and the vehicle ground to a halt.
"What is it, Chopper?" Kureha looked up, glancing quizzically at the reindeer in front of her.
The reindeer's name was Tony Tony Chopper. He was a disciple entrusted to her by an old friend. However, she now viewed him as her own apprentice, perhaps even her own son.
He was a reindeer who had eaten the Human-Human Fruit, granting him the ability to speak and change forms. Whenever Kureha went out, she had him pull the sleigh. After all, it wasn't easy for a woman over a hundred years old to climb up and down these mountains.
"Over there... I think there's someone!"
Chopper sniffed the air, locked onto a direction, and turned his body—pulling the sleigh with him—to follow the scent.
There, in the snow not far away, was a green-haired man carrying three swords on his hip. He was riding a massive duck, moving slowly through the drifts.
A human?
A duck?
Chopper was confused for a moment. He couldn't understand why a human he'd never seen before would be riding a duck through this vast snowy wasteland.
And, they seemed to be arguing.
"Oi! I said it's not this way! You stubborn duck, can't you just follow my directions?!"
"Quack, quack, quack, quack!"
"What?! You dare curse at me? We only got lost because you wouldn't listen to my orders!"
"Quack, quack, quack, quack!!!"
Chopper watched, dumbfounded, the corner of his mouth twitching.
He had another ability: he could understand the language of animals. He understood exactly what Karoo the duck was protesting.
"Quack! It's clearly this green-haired directionally challenged guy who led us in circles! And now that we're lost, he's blaming me! That's so unreasonable, quack!"
Sensing the conflict between the man and the duck, Chopper felt he should help the poor animal.
He turned his head to look at Kureha on the sleigh.
"Doctorine! There's a person and a duck up ahead. It looks like they're lost."
"Oh? Lost?"
Kureha paused. She didn't have a nose as sensitive as Chopper's; she couldn't smell or see anyone in the snow yet.
But she was puzzled. Who would be at the foot of the Drum Rockies at a time like this?
They had just witnessed an avalanche. Logically, no living creature nearby should have survived.
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