Luffy and Ludo's Arc

Chapter 5 of 11

The gold key was warm in Ludo's paw, but the corridor ahead was blocked. Minnie's palm-chi warriors stood shoulder to shoulder across the narrow hall. Brown dogs in armor, upright on hind legs, spears leveled. Behind them waited the deeper halls and the fourth red door. Luffy counted eight guards. Too many to cut through. Bells still rang somewhere in the compound. "We can't break that wall," Max whispered. The gray tabby prince pressed his back to the cold stone. His purple coat still hung loose from the chains Luffy had picked off him. "Push into them and they swarm us. I've watched Minnie drill these dogs. They don't scatter." Fear cracked his voice, but he stayed close. He owed the twins his freedom, and he ran with them now. Luffy looked up. Paper lanterns hung along the beams overhead. Rows of them, strung tight, dripping oil like the ones in the yard. An idea moved through the siblings without a word. Ludo tucked the key inside his vest. Luffy drew two throwing picks. "Max, the far lantern rack," Ludo said. "When it drops, run low and left. Stay under the smoke." Luffy threw. The first pick cut the cord holding the lantern line. The whole row swung loose and crashed down among the guards. Oil splashed. Flame caught fast and spread across the hall floor between the twins and the pack. The warriors yelped and stumbled back from the fire. The wall of spears broke. Half the guards retreated from the flames. The others beat at the burning oil with their cloaks. Smoke filled the corridor and hid the siblings. "Now," Ludo hissed. The three darted low along the left wall, under the rolling smoke, past the coughing guards. A spear jabbed blind and missed. Luffy shoved it aside and kept moving. They burst through the far end of the corridor into a wider hall lined with red doors. They stopped, panting. The sealed corridor lay behind them, choked with fire and confusion. No guards followed yet. Max stared back at the smoke. "You got us through. But that fire won't hold them long." He pointed down the new hall. Four red doors stood in a row. "The fourth door. That's the one." Luffy ran to it and tried the handle. Locked. Ludo pulled out the gold key and fit it to the lock. It turned. The door swung open. But the room inside was not the scroll room. It was a guard post. Six warriors sat at a low table, heads snapping up at the open door. Beyond them, another red door. "Max," Ludo said slowly. "You said the fourth red door." Max went pale. "I counted from the keep entrance. Not from here." He swallowed. "I don't know which door it is anymore." The guards were already rising, reaching for their spears.