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Chapter 25: The Countdown III

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"Yovan Night." This will either be the start of a long cooperation, or an unhinged war.

Immaculate long golden hair. Loose white robe along with white pants. Exquisite earrings, speaking of his nature and history. A nice metallic spear. This was Yovan Night.

Almost a full month has passed since his meeting with Bege, and now, Yovan found himself on an isolated island.

He studied the map given to him by Francis carefully, stumbling upon this Island in the process. Only the maps of the Mafia families and the Royal families are detailed enough to give Yovan exactly what he wants.

This is either the safest Island on the west blue or the most dangerous. It has very little plant life, and it's small, meaning Yovan has a vision on its entirety.

The most important thing is the colossal mountain behind him... It's a volcanic mountain. There is no wildlife on the island precisely because of the Volcano which erupts every few years.

If the Volcano erupts, Yovan can just fly away. It all depends on what'll happen when the countdown ends. If things go out of hand, he has Capone Bege to protect him.

Yovan doesn't trust him at all, but he trusts the payment he offered. Even with that, he remained cautious of Bege because the latter was hidden somewhere behind the mountain, ready to act.

[Countdown]

[0:5]

The countdown went down from hours to mere minutes. It was on the brink of ending, and every passing minute was an exponential increase in the pressure Yovan was having to deal with.

Sheer willpower alone wasn't enough to deal with his nervousness and fear, but it at least helped him keep enough composure to function optimally. 

Yovan could only pray to the two very small statues before him, statues of his own carving. The statue of the goddess of Hope, Elpis, and the statue of the goddess of luck, Tyche.

You gotta do what you gotta do no matter how helpless the future may seem... He was just trying, remaining hopeful.

Slowly but surely, those minutes turned into seconds... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... 0.

And nothing happened. There was just as much silence as there was before, well, besides the sound of the waves. The motion of the ocean.

Yovan's excellent senses, however, were working far and beyond, remaining wary because predators often hunt when the prey is oblivious.

In this case, the predator was Limitless.

[133+266+161+265+68=893]

[Luck=-893]

Yovan's usually composed face started twitching. It had never squirmed so much, not even when he mistakenly ate poisonous mushrooms in the middle of the woods.

He was starting to realize why his luck was so terrible so far... It was zero. I mean, it at least wasn't negative... Was.

'Have I not gone through enough?' Yovan felt like crying his heart out. He had to suffer through terrible luck so far, so Limitless decided to make it worse. 

He lost an arm. He had almost gone insane with pain and agony. He had to bleed fountains, but it still wasn't enough. The goddess of luck certainly didn't help. 

'Am I going to die?' Despite his immense willpower, resignation was still a fleeting emotion he deeply felt. It was brief because Yovan got his composure back almost instantly.

'Five stats... Only Physique, Endurance, Agility, Willpower, and Mind were counted. My mastery of the Devil Fruit and Airflow Art wasn't taken into consideration.' 

That was the only good news he got out of the situation, or so he thought because what was before his eyes said otherwise... The good news doesn't matter, the chances of survival are slim.

He could see from afar a ship making its way to the Island, a colossal ship in comparison to his. It was an exquisite ship, the likes of which he had only seen in the dock near the Capital of Ko.

It is a large ship with a White Tiger figurehead. It has the symbol 八宝 written on its main sail, meaning Happo. It took no more than a minute for it to reach the Island, and it didn't stop there.

The ship continued to circle around the Island after someone jumped off of it. His jump allowed him to reach the shore from the ship's main deck, and a few jumps later, the man stood before Yovan.

"Boo, a member of the Chinjao Family and the vice-leader of the Happo Navy." He seemed quite cordial as he introduced himself. His next words, however, said otherwise, "I take it you're the one who killed one of the commanders of my fleet?"

"Pardon?" Yovan frowned, already in position for a fight if need to be.

"Two months ago, you killed many of my people, but you left some alive. Did you think the word won't reach me?" Boo remarked as his eyes traced the surroundings.

"Did you know what happened exactly?" Yovan asked. He remembers the shitheads that took his earrings, and he doesn't regret his actions one bit because the alternative might've been slavery, or worse, death.

"So it was indeed you... The reason doesn't matter because we're pirates, aren't we? Well, perhaps you are not a pir..." Boo's rambling came to a halt.

It appears that Yovan wasn't getting ready for a battle. No, he was getting ready to escape as he used all the force he accumulated in his legs to jump before twisting into his beast form and flying into the sky.

Why fight a hopeless battle? He saw it with his eyes, the inky matter traveling along with Boo's arms... Haki. Before him stood someone he simply couldn't contend against.

Yovan of course remembers what Haki is. That's not something even his terrible memory can forget.

Haki is a mysterious power that allows the user to utilize their own spiritual energy for various purposes.

It can be used to sense people's spiritual energy and predict their actions, give the user a protective coating of spiritual energy, and, for a certain group of "chosen ones", overpower the willpower of others.

Such power is like an unclimbable mountain to any who doesn't have it. Defeating Boo is a near impossibility for the current Yovan, further demonstrated by Boo's next action.

Boo frowned before bending for a bit, concentrating his power on his legs. The release of that power was immense enough to send him flying to the sky, almost reaching the crow.

That wasn't the end though as he pulled out a double-bladed axe and hurled at the crow with a speed surpassing Yovan's by far.

Death would've been a certainty because Yovan's attention wasn't on Boo. His full focus was on breaching the sky. He in theory shouldn't have been able to evade the axe.

However, as if by instinct, Yovan flapped his wings ever so slightly to get out of the axe's way. He somehow sensed it, but he gave what happened no thought as he focused on fleeing.

Boo frowned even further, a trace of surprise emerging on his face. He allowed himself to fall back to the ground, creating a small crater, "Didn't see that coming... Well, he should be easy to find, and I'll definitely not make the same mistake again."

The crow has long dove beyond the clouds, nowhere to be seen, so Boo shrugged and turned around to go back to the ship... Three steps later, he froze in his place.

His eyes instantly looked up to the sky, lining up with the opening of the sky, an immense wave of pressure splitting the clouds wide open.

And from the crack in the sky fell the darkest of crows, a missing wing dictating that he can no longer fly.

Boo heard it very clearly, or more like he sensed a familiar energy, a swordsman's energy. He heard the words, "A pesky bird? Go down."

Someone high in the sky didn't want Yovan there, but they didn't seem to care enough to kill.

Boo's attention turned to Yovan, pretty sure that the individual in the sky won't trouble him. 

He scrutinized as the crow ejected numerous dark feathers out of his body, some forming his missing wing back, allowing it to safely land.

Yovan's human form quickly emerged, the only sign of the injury was a long bloody wound on his left shoulder. 

His expression was strange, almost like he was hesitating. He knows that he can not go into the sky anymore, but perhaps he can fly just a bit beneath the clouds?

If that was a possibility, Yovan didn't take it. No, his goal changed. There was a fire in his eyes, and it wasn't that of survival.