Lara's POV;

We were walking through the forest, following the path of destruction Inari left in her flight wasn't too hard, it also helped that I had put my heavy armour away. My part of the plan was fairly easy, all I had to do was to jump into the enemy camp, decimate everything in my path and keep an eye out for Mrs Chicken Wing.

Lia will watch from the sky. She will attack the mind-enslaving boss while giving some cover fire for all of us. Nojiko will be right beside her.

Noa, Yosaku, Jonny, Jo and Fiara will fight the birds, while Inari sneaks into the camp and searches Herbert. Nami is staying on the ship, she won't be able to fight Haki using birds. After this, we really have to up our training for her and ourselves.

“The village is ahead, any further and their scouts might notice us. There is a group of men inside the village as well. They are grouped together, an area of effect attack would be able to decimate them,” spoke Lia suddenly up. We stopped and gathered around.

Area of attack, huh?

“Say Fiara, is your spray bomb finished?” I asked with a look at our resident inventor/arsonist.

Fiara, who was again riding on Nojiko's shoulder, grinned widely and patted a small container that was strapped to her back. “Just finished the first test phase. Not all bugs are out, but a few shots will be possible. Why? Am I allowed to use these evil people as tests subjects?”

Jo cringed at her choice of words. “Fiara, we don't use humans as test subjects, that is unethical.”

Fiara frowned, not really understanding why, so she asked. “But how else am I going to know that they work against humans? I need to know that they work. It is the last phase needed for creating new incinerating weapons.”

Jo opened his mouth to answer but didn't manage to come up with a good reply. Fiara was right, the ultimate test of any weapon is its ability to kill your intended target. It wouldn't be a weapon otherwise.

After waiting a moment I grinned at his failure to come up with anything and then continued were we have left off. “I take it that was a yes then. Good, Fiara, jump on my shoulder. We will attack from the air, you'll first use one of your spray bombs and then fall back to the rest.”

Fiara effortlessly jumped off of Nojiko's shoulder and landed on my own. “Ready when you are, Lara.”

I looked back at the rest and nodded at them, before jumping up and through the treetops. I stopped in the air and allowed Fiara to take aim.

“And Fire!” She shouted gleefully, before pressing a red button. The container on her back opened up and a group of rockets spew out of the small package.

They screamed through the air and exploded way above the group of men. They looked up at the commotion, only to the shout out in panic. The rockets Fiara has shot were also containers for even more rockets. What first have been twelve rockets was now numbering in the hundreds.

They impacted with the ground in a fiery wave of white-hot fire. It rolled outwards from each exploding rocket and turned most of the surroundings to ashes. A good group of the 100 Beast Pirates has fallen to the flames.

Fiara then pushed the container off of her shoulder, saluted to me, and then jumped back to the rest. Meanwhile, the people under me have spotted me. They were hastily shouting orders to each other, but one of them stood out among the rest.

It was a man with a Mohawk, he was shouting orders at the multitude of birds that were standing around. Those that could fly jumped into the air and were flying directly at me.

I would estimate their complete number at roughly 50 birds. 20 of those were able to attack me in the air.

A strong clap in front of me generated a wave of vibrations. The molecules in the air moved away from me and towards the incoming birds. They hit the wave dead centre and for me, it looked as if they were flying through mud.

Their slow-moving bodies were acting as easy targets and a hailstorm of bullets from both Lia and Nojiko made short work of their wings and legs. Those twenty won't be fighting any more.

I fell alongside the crows, robins, primal chickens and other flying birds. But while they landed hard on the floor I had cushioned my fall with the body of a pirate.

My feet broke his shoulder and a quick stab of a spare dagger killed him. I stood up and looked at the remaining pirates. From the whole group, only 5 or so were left. One of them was the Mowhak guy, the other four looked to be higher ranked members of their crew.

They all had partially or fully transformed bodies. The most interesting transformation was that of the Mowhak guy, he looked like a humanoid chicken.

His arms were winged, his feet have turned into claws and his mouth looked like a beak. His hair, which was already looking like a cockscomb was now a real one. That guy must have eaten a Zoan Fruit model Bird. Either the model chicken or the general bird model.

Still, all I have to do is take him out and then he won't be able to give further commands. Hopefully, the old commands will also be nullified with his death.

I rushed forward, dagger ready to pierce into his brain. However, just before I could reach him I got blocked by a pair of Haki coated talons, they belonged to Mrs Chicken Wing. A push separated us.

The chicken man laughed cruelly and pointed at me. “Hahaha, go chicken. Kill her!” Mrs Chicken Wing did not verbally acknowledge the command. Instead, she jumped forward and attacked me with her right wing.

I evaded the swing by stepping to the side and then pushed my palm into her unprotected left side. Her feathers instantly turned black and the force of my palm strike diffused through her multilayered Haki coating.

She still got thrown away and into the forest. A few trees fell down when she flew through them. I jumped right after her. I need to keep her away from the chicken man. His last command was to kill me, now she won't try and defend him.

I landed an axe kick right where Mrs Chicken Wing should have been, but instead of feathers, I hit bark. The tree exploded under my kick into thousands of splinters. A second later my Observation Haki screamed at me to fall back.

I followed my instinct and rolled backwards, right out of the way of a devastating wing strike. The already mutilated tree was no more and in its place was now a deep crater.

I hadn't even finished my roll when a force blade shot out of the dust cloud and right at me. Hastily, I pressed my hands on the ground and pushed myself up into the air. Mrs Chicken Wing's attacked missed me narrowly and her force blade felled dozens of trees.

I did a quick somersault that generated a force blade with an outstretched leg. It ripped the ground open and raced at Mrs Chicken Wing. She however merely batted the attack to the side with her wing and jumped at me. Her claw was open and ready to pierce into my flesh.

I ducked under the attack and swung my right fist at the underside of her body. She in return used one of her wings to deflect my attack and a gust of wind blew past her.

She then continued on her way past me, rotated mid-air, flapped her wings and was coming back at me. All this in under five seconds.

It was harder to duck under her spear-like beak, especially when she had increased her speed with a few flaps of her wing. Still, I managed and she pierced through a tree.

I used that moment to jump into the air and out of the thick foliage. The forest allows her to hide easily. While I was mid-air I was going over the situation. I'm at a disadvantage in this fight. If I fight with everything I have I might be able to kill her and then resurrect her with the awakened form of my Angel Fruit. But that leaves the revived in a severely weakened state. She'd need more healing than Herbert if I do that. I'd also be out of the fight if I did that.

Still, I am not sure if I have a different alternative. She had just sent a force blade at me that would easily cut a super-sized warship in two.

Hopefully, she will be fine once the chicken man is taken out. A glance to the side, where the camp was located, showed me that Lia wasn't pulling any punches. Dirt and rocks were thrown up from her throws, before racing back down to the ground with more speed that should be natural. She was also pushing the dust downwards to prevent a smoke screen.

A few birds were trying to fly up and attack her, accompanied by force blades and feathered projectiles. The birds were shot down as collateral and the attacks were dissolving without even coming close to her. Distant attacks were simply not effective against her.

“Bough!” Shit! While watching Lia fight I had totally lost sight of Mrs Chicken Wing. A mistake she was now trying to use.

She had jumped up to my height, Haki crackling with lightning and in the form of the Advanced Armament. One wing swung down at me and I needed to coat my own arms and daggers in Advanced Armament.

The power of her attack was channelled around me and plunged into the ground under us. A large line of forest got destroyed from the residue strength.

Still, her attack did not breach my guard. However, the force behind had me flying back down to the earth. Hitting the hard ground with my back would hurt, that's why I used the same trick I did at the start of this attack. I made the air behind me vibrate, increased its friction and used that to slow my fall without damaging myself.

While falling I was trying to come up with a different method of freeing Mrs Chicken Wing. Her current state is the effect of a Devil Fruit, so Haki should work against it. But she already has done a full body coating.

Maybe it is the same as in Alabasta? There Lia has had to coat her inner ear to prevent the mind manipulation. If Mrs Chicken Wing does the same, could it free her?

An opportunity to test that theory came quickly. Mrs Chicken Wing was following up her own attack with a dive. A trail of Haki produced lighting followed her back down. It looked as if she was a falling meteor, her beak ready to pierce into me.

I was trying to slow her down by stopping the molecule movement of the air, but her Haki easily pierced through the Devil Fruit produced effect. Each invisible wall was shattered with a loud cracking noise.

She reached me with still considerable speed. I activated my Angel Fruit, coated one of my daggers with a light shield and pierced with the tip at her beak. Haki enforced metal hit Haki enforced beak.

I knew that her Haki was stronger than mine and that my light coating will only somewhat breach the gap between us. But I didn't need to overpower her. I just needed to stop her momentarily.

And the moment we two were in a deadlock allowed me to act. My free hand shot forward, trembling with the strength of my vibrations. I hit the side of her head, directly where she has her ears and allowed my vibrations to travel inside.

She knew about this attack, that's why she reacted instantly. The only counter against that attack was a Haki coating over and inside the whole head. Only coating the ear would leave the brain, skull and eyes unprotected.

Her whole head turned black, even her eyes, and my attack was overcome. Had I used Whitebeard's Devil Fruit as well the result might not have been the same, but I still wasn't trying to kill her.

With bated breath, I waited and hoped that this would be enough. I had no desire to fight her seriously. The island would get destroyed. So far neither of us was using their full power.