One Piece: Chaos Kong

Chapter 46: Back to The Palace

Landing on the ground, before me was nothing but a dimly lit narrow passage supported by wooden pillars on the side of the wall; from the looks of it, it extended for quite a long while, which caused me to frown at how idiotic the royal family was, I mean, why didn't they destroy the passage; instead they left it perfectly intact as if inviting me to follow after them.

'Heh, I'd be utterly stupid if I didn't expect this to be a trap.' Mused Diddy with a feral smirk as he got down on all fours before speedily dashing through the narrow passageway.

As I ran down the passage, I made sure to stay relatively alert for any possible traps since while I was confident I'd be able to tank whatever they threw at me; it's better to be careful; I'm crazy, not stupid, there is a distinct line between the two. While running, I suddenly inhaled the scent of gunpowder, which caused me to grin as I hopped off the ground and latched onto the ceiling with my nails before continuing to run down the passage.

Looking at the ground below me, I noticed a few pieces of the ground were slightly different from the rest of the dirt; it was a little too smooth and didn't seem to flush with the rest of the surrounding dirt.

"Hehe, pressure plates, which probably ignite the gunpowder I can smell, causing the entire passageway to be destroyed while burying anyone caught in the explosion; anyone stupid enough to set those off deserves to die." Remarked Diddy while eyeing the few pressure plates from the ceiling before ignoring them as he continued running on all fours.

While the trap from earlier was decently clever, they were too stupid to add any more, so the rest of the run through the passage was serene, only the sound of my nails digging into the ceiling; after a few minutes of running, I arrived at the end of the passage as I hopped off the ceiling while landing on the ground, eyeing the boulder that was blocking my path.

Placing my hands atop the boulder, I began pushing, and a few loud noises later, I moved the boulder out of the way, allowing me to see the ocean I had heard from the other side of the boulder.

'Hmm, it seems the passageway leads to an uninhabited coast of the island, which could only mean one thing: they fled the island by boat.' Mused Diddy as he exited the passageway and walked along the sandy beach while observing the coast for signs of a ship.

Other than a relatively small dock nearby, there was nothing else I could glean, meaning they must've fled shortly after we started the raid; otherwise, they wouldn't have made so much progress in such a short time. However, it didn't matter; they couldn't have gotten too far; it hadn't even been an hour since we first started fighting, so they must still be relatively close to the island. Besides, I still have the King's scent, and I can sense it extends into the sea; the royal family never had a chance at escaping in the first place.

"Hehe, it's been a while since I've participated in a hunt; this isn't too bad, much more fun than hunting unintelligent beasts." Muttered Diddy as he jumped into the sky and propelled himself through the air just above the water while following the King's scent.

While the ocean definitely made it harder to track the scent, thankfully, I didn't arrive too late, since if I had just waited twenty or so minutes, I'm confident the ocean's strong salty smell would've dispersed the king's scent, at that point, it would've been extremely difficult for me to track him.

Propelling myself just a few feet above the sea, in the distance before me, I saw the silhouette of a boat appear; seeing that, I quickly sped, and in a few short moments, I arrived near the inconspicuous ship, which was covered in the King's scent, causing me to smile. However, I quickly dived into the water to avoid being discovered.

'Now then, time to take you back home.' Mused Diddy with a smirk as he neared the underside of the boat.

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