One piece : Celestial Rose

Regardless of Mark's desire to avoid fighting against Saturn, he had to accept this invitation.

Mark and his family were now at the arena; his parents were sitting on the stands while Mark was walking down to the field.

Mark was nervous, incredibly so, but he was still walking towards Saint Saturn.

He might not be confident right now, but he knew that he would learn to fight in no time; his intellect was said to rival Vegapunk after all.

What took others decades or even centuries to understand, he can understand within minutes.

'There is a reason Vegapunk is said to be 5 centuries ahead of the entire world.'

'As long as Saturn doesn't kill me in one shot, I'll learn to fight sooner or later.'

Mark cracked his neck, and his eyes narrowed; a burst of conqueror's haki started emitting from his body; his clothes fluttered, and so did his hair.

He was starting to resemble Goku Black in looks as well as his attitude towards battle.

_Tap_

Taking the last step forward, Mark reached Saturn and stood before the man.

"Conqueror's Haki…"

"Hope you are well prepared, Mark; we are about to begin."

Saint Saturn muttered before he clutched his cane, and his body started to grow bigger; a large shadow soon covered Mark's whole body.

"What is that!"

"How did Saturn grow spider legs and horns? He became so large that he's the size of a small hill!"

"What's going on, honey?!"

Luna Rose exclaimed from the seats; she had never seen one of the elders transform, much less into such a monstrous-looking thing.

Charles held Luna's hand from the side. After seeing this form, he remembered some rumors he had heard as the Rose patriarch.

"Honey, I think Saint Saturn has eaten the Ushi Oni mythical zoan."

"He is said to be an awakened devil fruit user; do you see the black flame around his shoulders?"

"That's an indication of his awakening."

Charles told Luna, as the Rose patriarch, he knew a lot of things; putting together a possible explanation wasn't that difficult for him.

Luna heard this and bit into her nails; Saturn was so tall that Mark was the size of his finger.

"Charles, let's stop this fight."

Luna said with some fear in her voice; she was getting a bit scared that her boy was going to get hurt.

"I don't think this is the right time; let's wait for a while. If something happens, I'll stop them personally."

Charles said with gritted teeth, his fists were clenched under the seat; he was starting to understand why celestial dragon traditions include knowing how to fight.

Charles suddenly realized that in situations like these, he could only depend on himself.

Their love for Mark forced Charles and Luna to wake up to the dangers of the real world; their inherent celestial dragon attitude was slowly starting to change because of this.

Meanwhile at the battlefield, Saint Saturn looked at Mark.

"The Rose family has a good bond with each other."

Saint Saturn said lightly. He was a strong and experienced man; he could clearly hear what Mark's parents were talking about back at the stands.

"Yeah, we stick together."

Mark laughed a low laugh, which slowly changed into a loud, boisterous one.

"Hahahaha! We certainly do!"

Mark's pearl-like earrings were shaking with his laugh; it wasn't only his parents who understood the need for personal strength after facing Saturn's monstrous form.

He did as well.

He was bound to go against Im in the future; someone like Saint Saturn was the least of his concerns.

He had a long way to go before he could protect himself, much less his family; one wrong step and the entire Rose family might die with him.

But for now, he was with them, and he'll use the elders to build his strength.

"I am ready to begin, Saint Saturn."

Mark slowly said with a smirk on his face, although he still didn't know how to fight, but his attitude towards battle was incredibly serious.

"Good spirit."

"Now dodge."

Saint Saturn's eyes suddenly shone a bright glow, and Mark's eyes shrank.

_Boom_

His forehead felt as if it was hit with a hammer, his ears buzzed, and his face felt wet from all the gushing blood.

_Bang_

Mark ragdolled onto the ground and skidded to a stop.

_Cough_

Coughing up some blood, Mark ignored the fearful yelling of his parents and tried to stand up shakily.

His eyes were seeing red due to all that blood, but he refused to fall.

His courage as a conqueror was what kept him standing.

"Your observation haki is strong; you could see the attack coming, but your physical instincts need improvement."

Saturn acted as a teacher to Mark; he had hit Mark pretty hard, but it wasn't enough to kill him.

Mark didn't know armament Haki yet; if Saturn wanted to, he could have killed Mark in one shot.

"I lack physical instincts? Good to know."

Mark huffed with a chuckle and wiped off the blood flowing down his forehead.

Soon his shaking legs became steady, and his forehead, which was supposed to be bashed in and bleeding, was completely healed.

"You healed? How did you heal…?"

"Did you eat a Zoan devil fruit?"

Saturn raised his eyebrows and asked curiously; this speed of healing was immense even for mythical zoans.

Only awakened mythical zoans could compare to Mark's sudden and rapid healing of wounds.

He had never seen anything like this without devil fruits being involved somewhere.

"No, I didn't eat a devil fruit; I just happen to heal a lot faster than normal people."

Mark said with a grin, of course, what he said was a total lie; he didn't want to tell his future enemies about his powers.

He had actually used life return, the technique that lets him control his body completely, to finish healing his wounds in seconds.

Wound healing was far less complex than digestion or muscle augmentation; this was an easy job for Mark.

Of course, if someone else wanted to copy this speed, they would need a brain on the same level as Mark's.

"You have regeneration abilities? Wonderful."

Saturn spoke with excitement and tapped his cane on the ground.

"Shall we test the limits of it?"

_BOOM_

Instantly Saturn's eyes glowed, and Mark's torso was hit.

_Splat_

The sound of flesh and blood hitting the ground was heard throughout the arena.

"Aaaagh, my boy! You have a hole in your body!"

Luna Rose screamed in terror, and Charles Rose was about to run down and stop Saturn himself.

"Ahem… Stop it, Mom, Dad, ahem."

Mark weakly said from the ground; he turned his eyes towards his body and found a large hole in his stomach.

He looked like how Ace did after getting hit by Akainu's magma fist.

Still, he didn't want to involve his parents in the mix; who knows if Saturn will attack them because they were disrespecting him?

There was very little chance of this happening, but he couldn't risk it.

"Ahem."

Spitting out some more blood, Mark concentrated on his stomach area.

_Wiggle_

And to his surprise, it took him a total of three seconds to close these gaping wounds; his body stitched itself back together like nothing.

'Wow… I feel like I am more Zamasu than Goku Black now.'

'Before this fight I didn't even realize that I was almost immortal.'

Mark smiled with amazement.

With a mind far beyond regular humanity and control over one's body, which was second to none, Mark had achieved this incredible feat.

_Spit_

Spitting out some remaining blood in his mouth, Mark stood back up once more, shocking everyone watching.

Even Saturn was shocked at his almost immortal-like body.

"Saint Saturn, let's continue."

"By the way, there is one more thing I need to tell you: I have already seen through your last attack."

"Your powers won't work on me again!"

Giving a very Saiyan-like smirk, Mark himself rushed towards Saturn.

"Oh? We will see about that."

Saturn grunted, and his eyes shone once more.

_Bang_

The attack hit Mark right in the head.

"What?!"

But to Saturn's absolute shock, Mark stopped for one second before rushing towards him again.

How could it be!

How could Mark remain unaffected by his ability!