Pirate Apprentice

[ 3/18/1482- Morning ]

[ Word Count 1125 ]

" Hello" - Speech

' Hello' - Thoughts

* Huff* - Sounds

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( Achilles' Pov )

Bullet, Marco, and I are currently eating breakfast. We needed a break after the amount of bullshit Bullet and I had to deal with in the previous week with Marco. Who had now calmed down as he didn't try to escape or do anything stupid.

" Marco, meet me outside on the island when you're done eating," I said to him getting up when I was done eating.

" Huh, yeah sure," Marco responded, sounding a little confused before I left the dining room.

[ 10 Minutes Later ]

" So Captain, what are we doing on the island so early?" Marco asked me standing on the small island we docked the Voyager on yesterday. As none of us felt like sailing after we freed Marco once again.

" To test your level of strength. You can transform and stay in your beast form for what I counted around 15 minutes. And yet somehow you got captured by weak slavers."

" How is that even possible?" I asked, genuinely confused, at how Marco got knocked out on Clew Bay. I can understand him getting captured when he first ate his devil fruit. But not when he had a good amount of time to practice how to use it.

" Are you calling me weak?"

" Those guys just got the drop on me, so they were able to knock me out. If they didn't do that, I would have whipped their asses." Marco replied offended at me for calling him weak.

" If you were that strong, then you shouldn't have let that happen to you. Anyway, this is your chance to prove to me you're not weak."

" Come at me with your full strength," I said taunting him a little as Marco got mad at that and transformed into his phoenix form. A majestic 4'8 ft tall phoenix with a wingspan of seven feet shrouded in bright blue and yellow flames.

' A lot smaller than I imagined. The last time he transformed, I couldn't really get a good look at him. I think his phoenix form will get bigger as he gets taller since right now Marco is 4'3 feet.'

Marco quickly flew upward towards me before he came down at me with his talons in front of me in an attempt to deliver a powerful kick to my face. But I blocked his kick quite easily with the left side of his right arm.

" Oh, that's not bad," I murmured just before I grabbed one of his wings and slapped him in the torso with the front side of my right hand sending him to the ground.

Marco's flames of regeneration automatically healed him. But I could tell he could still feel the pain of my slap as he kept saying ouch.

I quickly went after Marco before he could fly to the sky using shave. I landed a couple of punches making sure I held back almost all of my strength.

Marco managed to dodge some of my attacks. And while some of my attacks did hit him his flames kept healing him. I tried to punch him in the face but Marco evaded it quite nicely using wings to fly away before I could land the punch. But he came back down to the ground looking exhausted huffing for some breath as he couldn't stay in his phoenix transformation due to stamina loss.

' What's he up to?' I wondered as I looked at Marco who outstretched his index and middle fingers, he held that pose for around 2 minutes, and just as I was about to interfere they shaped into a dense, flaming swirl of phoenix feathers in front of him shaping it into a small-size fireball that he launched at me.

I whistled, impressed at the sight of the fireball coming toward me.

' I wonder how strong the slaver who caught him was then.' I thought to myself before I punched the fireball away with a shockwave before it could hit me sending Marco flying once again from the winds my shockwave punched made.

I grabbed him before he could hit the ground and injured himself once again. Since it looks like he couldn't heal himself anymore.

" That's not bad at all. I thought you would be a lot weaker from the demonstration you showed." I teasingly said to him a little as both of us laid down on the dirt. Marco didn't respond since was still too tired.

" Hell, I think you're even stronger than I was at your age," I added knowing if I fought Marco when I was his age, I would lose. Then again I didn't have a mythical zoan either and I just started training as well.

" So what was the whole point of this? For me to get my ass kicked?" Marco asked me, sounding a little mad.

" Hahahaha…" I just laughed before I answered him, making him even more annoyed.

" It's for us to know just how strong you are. And what kind of training you need to improve your strength as well."

" But the main reason was for us to figure out what position you're gonna have in the crew. Which by the way is a pirate apprentice." I said getting up from the ground. I could already sense Marco's emotions going crazy just at the mention of being an apprentice.

" Before you go crazy, hear me out first. Right now you're an eight-year-old with one of the rarest devil fruit powers in the whole world on the crew of upstart pirates. We can barely protect ourselves much less you."

" By having you not fight against 99% of the people we're gonna face, it will protect you and the crew as well."

" And besides I want you to have some fun and enjoy your childhood as best as you can out on the seas in a pirate ship."

"After all, I did say you're my responsibility, and what kinda caretaker lets the kid they're supposed to protect fight knowing they could die," I said in a serious tone I rarely use squatting down in front of Marco making sure he understood what I was saying.

" Fine, if I can't fight, I better get the best training I can receive in the world," Marco said, making me smile wryly. Before it went away as I remembered the Hutt Slave Trade organization.

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And that's the end of the chapter folks

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