Character Roulette

A semi-transparent roulette replaced the window with the note. There was a slot with a picture of a pirate I couldn’t recognize. Then, the slots began to roll, rapidly picking up speed to the point that it became a blur. Until suddenly, it stopped, landing on a profile picture of a middle-aged man with an iron jaw, and with the words written on the bottom.

[Axe-hand Morgan (E-)]

Suddenly, my body jerked. Second later I realized I was raised by the Mosquito woman by the neck.

“I should just throw you at Yonju, before I lose control.” she said reluctantly. “I doubt he’s going to bring you to the queen though. Not that it matters. My life’s on the line either way. And you’re not worth the trouble. He’s probably be here at any minute now.”

With that, she started to drag me from the room. My only choice was to get this ability going.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait, as the simplified drawing of Morgan’s head appeared on my arm, below the Jolly Roger. I focused on it, and the prompt appeared asking me if I wanted to manifest the character. I pressed yes, mentally as that seemed to be all that it needed, and I could feel the aura around me intensify.

The mosquito woman jumped back in alarm, releasing me as she drew her hand back like she had touched a hot stove.

“What was that?!” she asked as she narrowed her eyes. “What kind of tricks are you pulling?”

I could understand why she would say that. The aura didn’t simple stay in place. It whirled around me, flowing into my body. My appearance began to change. Most noticeable one was size. I grew little over a meter in height, almost reaching the ceiling of the cave. My build had broadened as well, while my musculature becoming more defined. I had turned into a goliath of a man, towering over the chimera ant before me. I felt stronger than ever, and this body was overflowing with vigor.

In the end though, the size didn’t matter that much in the world with supernatural powers. That wasn’t the main cause of alarm of the chimera ant before me. Rather, I guessed that it was the increase in aura intensity that her instincts could sense, despite not being awakened to nen.

It wasn’t only my physical appearance that changed, but also my attire. Nen had washed over my clothes as well, replicating Morgan’s normal attire starting from the large overcoat down to the trousers with the stripped pattern and the boots. Yet, the most bizarre change was the huge steel axe bolted through the bones of my forearm, replacing my right arm.

Now what? Was I stronger than her? I had no idea how our strengths compared. Though, considering that running away wasn’t a choice, I just had to go for it and hope that I wasn’t hopelessly outmatched.

Not finding any reason to give enemy time to recover, I moved, attacking with my right arm. She dodged, but the wariness she was showing was enough clue to know that she had been forced to put a real effort. To my surprise, there were cracks on the wall opposite me. I hadn’t even touched in, there being few meter distance between the thing.

Hot damn. That was some power. Definitely more than I thought.

I whirled around, blocking Mosquito’s claws and trying to counter-attack. Still, she barely managed to escape, her wings granting her just enough boost and maneuverability to slip through my grasp. She had scratched my forearm. A small cut. Not a serious damage, but she could get through my skin. If she used that poisonous stinger of me, it might be enough to take this body down. Unlike Killua, I doubted Morgan possessed sufficient poison resistance.

“Damn you! Stop struggling already!” she screamed as she attacked once more. I raised one arm to block, while keeping close eye for the extra appendages. Her claws clashed against my axe, the collision strong enough to generate sparks.

She targeted my shoulder next, delivering small cuts and narrowly dodging my strikes. She was in a hurry, yet not reckless enough to waste her trump card. She seemed to be waiting for a moment. A moment where I let my guards down.

This pattern repeated few more times, her cursing me and diving for an attack, while I tried to land a hit and adapt to her speed.

Finally, I managed to deal some damage. After a small feint, I pretended to lose balance, and when she was about to land another strike, I aimed for her wings instead. The blade connected, slashing off chunk off of her left wing.

She quickly lost balance mid-air, her path got forcefully shifted and she collided with the wall head-first.

At this point, I was covered in cuts. My anger was boiling from the earlier helplessness and desperation I felt. The situation hadn’t changed much. I had gained a potentially powerful nen ability, but I was still in the middle of nowhere. This was country with that forbade the use of technology. A worst place for the chimera ant queen to take her residence. This state was nowhere near to guarantee my survival, seeing as I was already struggling with this random chimera ant. Not to mention, it wasn’t even going to last for long. My aura was gradually expended to maintain this state. But another hour or two, and I would be completely drained. Considering that this was Morgan we were talking about, duration for stronger characters would be much shorter.

So, I had to get sacrifices and get stronger to survive. And it would start with this annoying mosquito.

My fist flew forward. Despite aiming for her head, she managed to shift enough to avoid instant death, her shoulder taking brunt of the force behind the punch instead. To my glee, the exoskeleton cracked, followed by her flesh being squashed, spurting the green blood around. Another punch, and she would be dead. Dodging would be impossible for her at this point.

Instead of dealing the finishing blow, I drew back, moving towards the spot that I woke up. I could see the look of surprise in her eyes, and a sense of disappointment. I knew why. I would be dead otherwise, alongside her.

“How?” She tried to stand, uselessly, as her back hit the wall she had been lying against.

Wordlessly, I lifted the metallic desk and turned towards her.

“Haha. Oh well,” she muttered as she saw the table flying towards her. “I guess I bee the weaker one.”

I had never met a mosquito that persistent before. But finally, she was dead. The metal table had squashed her body against the wall of the cave. Blood spurted out of her, painting the wall behind her in green.

I took a step to approach her corpse, and winced. Walking hurt. She nabbed my leg in a bad spot. I was bleeding from all over my body. There was no single wound that could be considered life-threatening, but I was in a heavy need of bandaging.

But first, I had to get an idea of how the ability worked. The mosquito woman wasn’t here alone. And she had mentioned about yojon or someone coming here. Probably that centaur guy. A squadron leader; someone much more dangerous than this one. I doubted Morgan’s strength would be enough to deal with that.

“Man, that was a close one. You got lucky.”

I turned around, searching for the source of the voice. Who? How did something managed to sneak in without alerting me at all?

There was no one standing behind me. Not directly anyways. There was, however, a small white-furred creature hanging in the air. It was about size of a child. Its head resembling the Going Merry’s figurehead, while its body was replica of Chopper’s.

This… definitely wasn’t a chimera ant. And with the same theme going on as the mark, I could make a guess of its identity.