All-Meat (1)
"So... this is the location, huh..." Brody smiled as he took off his pants, jacket, and boots before stretching by the end of the cliff opposite to where his ship was docked. "Hmm..." touching his stomach, he couldn't help but muse, "Good, he didn't lie... it's tingling... It may be right here. That supreme treasure..."
With that, Brody jumped into the sea without another thought, a privilege that no other Devil Fruit user can get for their strength and Brody could simply not think to give up on the ocean knowingly for strength!
His eyes adjusted to the water soon enough as he looked around. He was on a time limit. He could surely hold his breath way longer than an average human's capabilities but the sea, for all its purposes, is 'fair' and if he dove too deep, he would shoulder the consequences, again, even if the limits of depth he can explore is wildly greater than an ordinary human. As he continued to swim deep, he began to see dragon-shaped corals and structures extending through the base of the island.
According to Jabra, the Warship Island is the breeding ground for a race of domestic and hospitable dragons that develop in Grandline. The race of dragons, Sennenryu, lived for a thousand years and bred once in a thousand years. And that is when the currents around the Island would lift it up and reveal its entire size, i.e. the plain of corals and draconic structures Brody viewed over the fake seabed around the Warship Island.
There have been rumors around Sennenryu that their skeletal structure can be turned into a Dragonite which can grant eternal youth. This was some fake magazine-level rumor that even Brody understood the moment he heard of it from Jabra. No, the World Government's Target was not the Sennenryu that would arrive in a few days given that this Island would rise in that time period, too, according to their calculation.
The real target of the W.G. was a special breed that, too, bred once a thousand years but happened to be too rare. According to Jabra, aside from the special island in Grandline not accessible by W.G., this was the only island where they found traces of the species.
As such, Brody swam to the end of the seabed and felt the depths of the ocean mimic the very personification of the abyss itself!
Ironically, it was peaceful to look at.
Noticing the sharp end of the seabed with a distinct red crystalline coral that was significantly larger than the corpses of the Sennenryu that would eventually come and rest on the seabed while covering the eggs of the dragons that Brody could steal easily, he realized that he was at the location. After all, the red coral was not only bigger but also in a different shape. Unlike the winged sennenryu, this was a beast with a shell and eight limbs— four tortoise legs and four turtle pedals.
Getting closer to the red coral, Brody realized just how much larger the beast really was. Excluding its draconic but edged-out face that was surely higher, the crystallized shell alone was about 320 meters long and 570 meters high! Alongside the rest of its body, the coral was 380 meters long, 610 meters high, and 440 meters wide!
If he wasn't underwater, Brody would have jumped... wait...
Trying to kick the surface of water ten times as he would do in the air, Brody realized that the skill was far easier underwater to use but the pressure of the water itself made it clear that more energy needed to be exerted for desirable speed. However, Brody just wanted to jump. And jump he did!
Then 'running' towards the coral instead of swimming, Brody grew cautious.
Excited.
There it was. What his gut sensed.
He locked eyes with it that had dug into the coral itself and looked at him with purely red eyes. It was a beast. It was aggressive. And it did not take kindly to meeting other beasts.
The giant, eight-limbed sea creature with a dragon's face and a tortoise's shell was quick to swim towards Brody with its sharp teeth already bare. Its speed was superb, and so was its intent to chomp Brody whole as the beast was larger than Alvida's ship with its entire height including the extended draconic head surpassing 70 meters and its length till its tail was about 50 meters.
Brody was quick to jump away from the Sea King's path and noted its subdued red and brown pattern. In reality, the brown 'shell' with a forest on growing on it was an unimaginably rich imitation of the ground. Its shell was red from the side and so were its scales.
{A/N: Imagine a red and brown, eight-limbed Torterra with a longer scalled neck of a dragon and a face similar to the turtle-serpent.}
All-Meat Sea King.
Looking at the beauty with his gaze practically drooling over the 'trees', Brody grinned and waved his hand. It was at this time the sea king opened her mouth and a violent blast of pure shock shot out and traveled through the water. Moving out of its way did not provide Brody with safety as the mere aftershocks of the attack left his body shaken and trembling which made it hard to keep his breath.
'I can do that, too!' Brody grinned. His clap did not resound as it did outside of water but he could see the water distort and an oval 'stream' reach the Sea King even quicker before directly striking it in the face leaving a tiny cut that bled red.
Almost in that very instant, Brody could 'smell' an extremely enticing scent. It was hard to describe the process of smelling underwater but he could. And similar to him, many sea kings could, too.
---
"Prepare for attack!"
The entire fleet surrounding the Warship Island fell into a panic as they saw large shadows moving under their ships with massive fins surfacing and at times, striking the nearby ships. Some of the aggressive sea kings attacked the ships directly. But they were in a 'wave' and did not linger on. Instead, they continued to make way towards the Warship Island.
Inside the foggy perimeter, docked near the island, the expressions of the Devil Back Pirate's Crew and one unlucky hostage changed as they hurried to move everything to the coast one a smaller boat while a giant asshole of a dolphin let out a chorus call and smacked their ship into smithereens.
"What the hell is Captain doing?!" Alvida raged!
"Well..." Wearing a strapless brown top and blue pants, leaving one marine officer in her rather cute pink panties with tiny honey bees printed on it, Nami scratched her cheeks wryly, "He is going to recruit another... crew... or so he wants to."
---
*Roar*
Opening her mouth, the Supreme Meal that this world has to offer roared in defiance as dozens of sea kings of various species, shapes, and sizes didn't even give the All-Meal Sea King a chance and attacked to devour her at once. While another blast of shock left her maws as it tore into the nearest eel before she chomped on its head, a large arc of pressure tore through the neck of the grey-finned dolphin that irked Brody for some reason. Jumping towards it, he kicked the head of the dolphin towards All-Meal who blinked in human surprise and briefly glanced at Brody as her wound was already healing.
Easily swallowing the head of the dolphin, too, as the injury over her head began to heal, she maneuvered in the water to rush and chomp at a lion-shaped sea beast!
---
Half an hour ago.
"Wait, wait, wait, you're saying that despite once being a Cook's best friend, the species has turned aggressive and is one of the most dangerous but still attractive beasts to other sea kings?" Brody questioned Jabra who nodded while kowtowing.
"All-Meat Sea Kings can grow a tree purely made out of flesh in the same taste as the prey they eat. As such, a cook would get the freshest material by simply plucking fruit off of the tree or chopping down the tree itself. Aside from the bark-like texture, underneath is all meat. But, this beast, due to eating so many rich materials, over time, began to have an attractive scent whenever it bled. This caused many of the sea kings to gradually hunt it down."
"But, after thousands of years, the All-Meat species have adapted and are one of the strongest hunters even in Grandline. From recovering from most injuries quickly to even revealing incredible warfare abilities. They are not just a Cook's Best Friend at this point... but the species only give birth while it's about to die and only in rare cases does it give birth to two Sea Kings at once. This has caused their number to dwindle..."
---
Brody grinned at the natural foody and hurried to the surface to regain his breath.
*Roar*
His smile cramped as the All-Meat suddenly attacked him with the same shock blast that caused his entire being to tear out of the sea and fly even higher!
But...
"Heh! That's what I'm talking about!" His eyes revealed unhinged excitement as the portion of the sea was already turning red!
His legs shot dozens of arcs of pure, unadulterated awesomeness that many sea kings couldn't endure and their bodies floated upwards soon only for the All-Meat to gracefully leap out of the water and crash into these pieces of meat and chomp down on them as Brody rushed into the water, too!
---
'Woah... the sea really turned red!'
Brody felt exhausted, slightly, which was a cause for celebration for him! But he won't celebrate just yet.
Bearing the blood-stained waters finally attracting relatively weaker fishes and predators in tow, Brody looked at the silent All-Meat cautiously gazing at him.
Smiling since he cannot speak underwater, Brody pointed upwards and jumped up by kicking the water. Revealing its intelligence even if it shouldn't be older than a month, according to Jabra, the All-Meat Sea King swam up but decided against attacking Brody since all its previous attacks failed.
"Fuaah! Fighting underwater is really tiring!" Brody sighed as the giant of a sea king, too, broke out of the surface of the water, and before the tide swept him away, Brody jumped up and 'settled' at the height that brought him to All-Meat's level.
"I'm Bro D. Hanma, and I'm here to recruit you as my new ship!"
Having heard enough, All-Meat opened her mouth, and the air around her distorted as she prepared to attack. It would be even quicker above water.
But almost defenseless, Brody smirked, "I saw you enjoying yourself down there... but there are stronger sea kings out there. They are more delicious! They are harder to hunt! Are you satisfied just... being here?"
His question stopped All-Meal in her tracks as her purely pupilless red eyes which were bigger than him matched his red pupils.
Grinning, Brody practically demanded, "Join me! You'll deal with the sea beasts and kings! I'll deal with humans and other monsters. Of course, I won't feed you humans cause I don't wanna eat any... wait, have you eaten humans?"
The All-Meat nodded.
Shrugging, Brody laughed, "Oh, well, we'll try and root those trees out. So? What do you say? Will you be my ship and travel the world with me? You'll be the strongest sea king and I'll be... heh, let's see what becomes of me in three years!"
Tilting her draconic head, All-Meat seemed to be considering the situation before she looked towards the sea they had turned red and then back at Brody.
*Grooougghhhhhhhh*
She opened her maws and gave a heavy growl.
"Hey, I hear ya... could you repeat it? I'll probably learn the fish language in two or three tries!"
With her red eyes narrowing distinctly at mockery, she huffed from her nostrils and then turned around before slowly swimming away. After a few seconds, she turned back and looked at Brody before nodding.
"Ok, yeah, that's cool... but my friends are closer from this direction," Brody pointed in the opposite direction as the All-Meat Sea King huffed once again and turned around while passing through Brody. As he eagerly jumped and sat on top of her head, she tried to wiggle her face but to no avail as Brody only laughed, "This is the best seat! Oi, try moving your head in a circle, it'll be awesome!"
"By the way," Brody looked back, "Want me to give you a name, partner?"
Blinking, she nodded.
"Hmm... no good. I'm not good with names. Let's ask your new friends~!"