Luffy and Ludo's Arc

Chapter 7 of 11

The stair fell away into cold dark. Luffy and Ludo dragged Max down the steps two at a time. Behind them the top door burst open. Barks and boot-thuds chased them down. But the lower keep waited quiet at the bottom, one lamp burning by a single red door. The scroll room. Their stolen clan scroll lay just beyond it. Then the empress stepped out of the shadow beside the door. Minnie was smaller than a guard, a brown dog no taller than the cats. But her crown caught the lamplight, and Max stopped so fast he nearly fell. "Her," he whispered. "She freed no one. She just watches, then breaks you." His tail lashed. This was the ruler who had chained him for years, the one Ludo had torn the key from. Now she blocked the last door herself. "You come far for paper," Minnie said. She raised one open palm. "You will not pass me." Luffy charged. Minnie's palm snapped forward. She never touched him. The air itself struck like a wall. Luffy flew back and slammed the stone. Ludo lunged low from the side. Her other palm turned, and a hard gust knocked his legs out. Both cats hit the floor, breath gone. "Palm-chi," Max breathed. "She fights the air. You can't reach her." The guards were halfway down the stair now. No time for a clean plan. Luffy and Ludo looked at each other. The old twin look. No words. Ludo grabbed the burning lamp and hurled it. Minnie's palm swept the throw aside easily, oil splashing the wall in flame. But that was never the strike. While her palm was busy with the lamp, Luffy was already moving low under the blast, hugging the floor where her push swept over him. He reached her feet. He did not punch. He grabbed her ankle and yanked. Minnie's palm-chi threw force outward, not down. She toppled. Her crown rolled loose. Ludo dropped both knees onto her arms and pinned them flat. Without her palms free, the empress was only a small angry dog kicking on the ground. "The door!" Ludo shouted. "Max, the key!" He flung the gold key across the floor. Max caught it, ran to the red door, and turned the lock. It opened. Inside, on a low stand, lay a rolled scroll bound in black cord. The shadow techniques of their clan. Luffy snatched it up. The cord was old and worn, but the mark stamped on it was their family's. His paws shook holding it. Behind them the guards reached the bottom step, spears leveled. Minnie writhed under Ludo, screaming for them to seize the thieves. "We have it," Ludo said. He hauled Luffy toward a low servant hatch in the far wall. "Now we get out of this fortress alive." They dove through the hatch with the scroll, the empress and her whole army roaring behind them.