Chapter 44 - Full Body Refinement! The Battle Against the Male Flame Lion!

“Screech!”

With a fine, cute sound, a small green feathered dragon awkwardly flapped his wings as he jumped to catch a piece of meat in the air. And after he caught it with his mouth, he chewed joyfully while running towards Nami and Nojiko. They were sitting on the deck meditating and at the same time playing with him.

Ryu: More! ( ◕‿◕ )

"How cute you are! Who's a good boy?!" Nojiko picked him up and stroked his soft feathers, "Nami, take this away from me. He's too cute! I’m gonna bite him!"

“I also don't know if I can control myself. Have you seen how he sneezed when we brought him in?" Nami continued to look at the little dragon who was now the new member of the crew.

Being honest, she didn't expect that something like helping a little girl get home would end up in so many things. Getting involved in Navy matters, encountering a Dragon, and witnessing a millennial event in just one day. It was too much to handle, even if it opened new horizons for them.

Now at sea, they had already said goodbye to Apis and everyone on Warship Island. Well, it was a distant farewell, since they didn't want to go all the way back just to greet those ungrateful ones.

Despite all the crying from the little girl Apis, she eventually accepted that old Ryu had died, fulfilling his life cycle. She had already realized this a lot earlier, but just didn’t want to accept it. So after realizing that Ryu (II) was his reincarnation, she was happy that he could live a new life. They even promised that they would eventually meet again when she was older.

But anyway, here they were, back on their course. And by their calculations, they would be arriving early tomorrow at the Red Line, the starting point of their adventure.

As they played with Ryu, he eventually looked at them with a sad expression, since he had been without food for a while.

Ryu: No More? (●´⌓`●)

"My God, you must have already eaten at least your weight in meat! You and Noah are two devourers." Nojiko controlled herself with his downcast expression and cut another piece of meat, raising it high so that he could rise on his hind legs and grab it. She was feeding him this way so that he could get used to his own body faster.

"Don't even tell me. And after Noah finishes training, I have no doubt that the amount of food he will eat will be even greater. He said he would be busy for several hours now." Nami snorted a smile as she saw the birth of another food devouring monster.

It was exactly as they had just said, Noah was going through the last stage of refinement before entering the Grand Line.

°°°

Sitting in a dark room of the ship, Noah was cross-legged on the floor while taking deep breaths of the air around him.

The powerful energy within his body was constantly making improvements to his main Ren and Du meridians, which are believed to be the first meridians in the formation of a fetus and represent the Ultimate Yin and Ultimate Yang, respectively. Either way, he felt this energy rising through his body, strengthening these two important meridians to perfection.

With the consumption of a large red orb, all of this was refined as much as it could until they began to emit a white glow. And Noah too.

"Now comes the main part..."

His voice echoed in the dark space as his body glowed intensely before entering a special state. A state in which he wanted to devour as much energy as possible to further refine his body and officially enter the next stage. This is called Full Body Refinement, the last step of the Martial Warrior State.

And with red orb after red orb, he first spent all his larger orbs down to the smallest. This made his body increasingly satisfied and increased the pace of refinement due to the large amount of energy.

As the hours went by, Noah remained seated as the refinement process progressed rapidly. He did not dare to move now because he felt that any sudden movement could affect his body and end up hindering the process.

As he consumed the red orbs, he also made sure to consume some purple orbs to better understand what was happening in his body and at the same time keep his bodily control up to date. And because of this, he knew that his musculature and strength were undergoing a tremendous strengthening!

The more energy he absorbed, the purer his body became, and the more strength he gained. Be it his mental, physical or spiritual state, all of them were being elevated. His Spirit Energy, or Haki, was also growing at a fast pace, his reserves and power much greater than a normal person.

And Noah knew that this had positive and negative points. The positive is that he would be incredibly badass when he awakened and controlled his Haki, being able to fight people much stronger than him without using a Devil Fruit or having the same physical strength! But, on the other hand, the more powerful and voluminous his Spirit Energy was, the harder it would be to have a "normal awakening" and perfect control of this power.

But, leaving the problems for later, he finally entered the last stage of all this refinement.

His body was becoming translucent! How the hell? Nobody knows!

Opening his eyes, Noah stared at the dark environment as if it was brighter than the day for him. All things could be seen counting only on the thin layer of light that passed through the door cracks. His main senses and even a kind of "Special Sense" became stronger. It wasn't quite Observation Haki, but it was better than most people.

And all this joy lasted until he looked at his own body.

"Damn, I really became the Glitter Man…" Refraining from further comments about his situation, Noah got up from where he was and walked over to a small bathtub on the spot and got in it to take a bath and wash off the remaining dirt.

In time, his body was returning to normal until it was fully displayed.

Now a little taller, approximately 2 meters, Noah did not get more muscular or defined. With a kind of "perfect body", he reached the pinnacle of what the human body could achieve in terms of bodily functions. His control and level of physical strength also went through a new jump and he knew that his Physique somehow became stronger than before.

Spending time in the bathtub, Noah finished cleaning himself and left there after dressing in a ready-made outfit. On the way, he sighed in relief.

"Now that I've reached this goal, I'm going to start hunting the Flame Lions until I pass the map." His smile widened when he thought about the girls, "And then we're going to make good use of that area where time doesn't pass..."

And it was when his sight became dark and he was dragged back to the PHD.

°°°

In a patch of tall grass, Noah was calmly observing a Flame Lion in the distance. And this time it was not a female, but a proud male Flame Lion!

With his power now upgraded and much stronger than before, Noah took advantage of being pulled here and made a hunt nothing short of spectacular. He accumulated a few Fire Orbs that he hunted from the female Flame Lions and even found another little mouse today.

Now that his party was over, it was time to tackle the biggest challenges he faced. After all, he had entered a new stage of Cultivation and required superior Red Orbs.

After the Martial Warrior State, which encompassed the refinement of the body in its entirety and made it fit to enter this road, the next step would be the Spirit Martial State, which is divided into Nine Levels.

In this State, the intention is for the user to attract a large amount of Chi, or Spiritual Energy, into the body and store it in the Dantian, or Energy Core. In this way, the body could use the Spiritual Energy to strengthen itself even further and the powers of the God Arts would be easier to use, such as Wind and Fire.

And there were two important points about this step.

The first point, which was not very noticeable, is that One Piece World does not produce or will ever have Spiritual Energy. But this was not a concern since all the energy is obtained through the Red Orbs. It would only be a problem when these ran out.

The second point, which was exciting, is that the quantity and purity of the Spiritual Energy could be amplified many times thanks to his "Perfect Body"! In this way, he would be much more powerful than usual, even being still in the second phase of refinement. Of course, this would require even more Red Orbs and it would take a little longer to go to the next State.

If this can affect the growth of Spirit Energy (Haki) in any way? Well, only time can tell.

So far, Noah had only formed his Energy Core below his navel, but there was no Spiritual Energy stored there. After all, he didn't have time to absorb anything else when he was pulled here.

But, anyway, he focused attention on what was most important now. In front of him now was the biggest challenge he ever faced…

Standing at three meters tall, the Flame Lion was surrounded by several Female Lions that were probably his harem. Special needs... Anyway, besides being larger, he was much more threatening, and his Fire God Art should also be equally terrifying. After all, they are only second to the Boss on this first map.

After waiting for the perfect moment, Noah suddenly disappeared from where he was.

Soru! Tekkai!

BANG!

Suddenly appearing in front of a female lion, he punched hard and its head exploded, immediately becoming a cloud of ashes. This move of his was enough to draw the attention of all the lions there, who immediately attacked him with fire.

Wind Fall!

With his high level of Wind Manipulation, Noah watched the barrage of fire coming in his direction become chaotic as soon as the wind arrived. And without further ado, he covered his arms with fire as he disappeared and reappeared on the battlefield among the female lions.

Soru!

Blazing Barrage!

With fists of flame one after the other, the lions were turning to ashes until only the Male Flame Lion was left. The anger and rage was extremely visible on his face, and all he wanted to do was tear this human to pieces.

ROAR!

"Why are you angry? Did you want me to mate with them in front of you?" With a smile on his face, he saw the great lion understand what he was saying before attacking him with full force.

Flame!

BOOOM!

Two enormous waves of flames originating from the bodies of the two collided with all their might, each wanting to break the other and burn the opponent's body to dust. Despite Noah not having high proficiency and power with the Fire God Art, his Wind God Art helped to keep them at the same level.

After these barriers were destroyed, with no one gaining the advantage, both confronted each other with their own bodies. Only one would walk away alive from that fight.

With its claws and teeth, every attack from the Flame Lion was loaded with a fiery power that threatened to burn everything. Its strong muscles and large size made it even easier for any of its movements to easily hit the human.

But it was not that simple to fight against creatures with great intelligence like humans.

Using Tekkai to make his fists even more dangerous, Noah felt the incredible ease with which he did this. It was almost like breathing for him. The use of physical force and the incredible fluidity with which he managed to use the technique were certainly the work of Complete Refinement. Although he had not reached the superhuman level for the technique's standards, his "Perfect Body" reduced the requirements, thus making it easy for him to execute the techniques!

At the same time that he was using this technique, his body was also incorporating the elements of the others at every moment of the battle. Soru to move, Kami-e to quickly dodge powerful blows and even the basics of Shigan were being applied to increase the penetration power of his punches.

Whatever advantage he could count on, Noah was using.

And as the battle was prolonged, the lion and the human were becoming fiercer and more tired. Until the balance tipped in favor of the human, who immediately seized the opportunity.

Wind Blade Storm!

With his reserves of Spiritual Energy low, Noah used almost everything in his move. With Wind Manipulation, a large number of wind blades cut the lion's right front leg, who unbalanced for a moment. And after using Soru, Noah appeared right beneath the lion, his fist full of flames and covered by an even larger wind blade.

Tekkai! Shigan!

COMET BURST!

BOOOM!

Easily passing through the soft belly skin, the lion's internal organs were quickly reduced to a pile of roasted meat. It’s already weak and tired body only resisted roaring one last time in anger when it turned into a huge cloud of ash, leaving several different orbs in place.

"Pant pant pant... Sigh..." Standing in the place, Noah took a deep breath and then let out a sigh. Having done this for the first time, he felt a sense of happiness and achievement within him for a moment, soon after muffling it, "Well, first of many. So let's continue..."