Skirmish

(Starrk's POV)

"The Dragon Knight?" I said, "Does it look like he's here?"

I watched as Katakuri summoned his trident spear from his mochi arm.

"You will tell us where he is." He said as he gave me a serious glare

I readied my blade as I took a step back, "I don't know where he is, unfortunately."

"Perorin…" I saw as Perospero waved his hand at me, "Sure you don't."

Suddenly, a wave of liquid candy was thrown at me.

I coated my blade with Armament and cut the candy up, dispersing the attack.

As soon as I did that, Katakuri pounced on me.

He thrust his spear at me as I blocked it with the broad of my blade. The force of the attack was powerful enough to cause a shockwave.

"Are we seriously doing this right now?!" I exclaimed, "Why the hell are you after that guy anyway?!"

"He stole from us." Katakuri said as we jumped away from each other

"Perorin~" Perospero said, "That damned bastard always attacks our ships and steals our treasure!"

Before he said anything else, he raised a candy shield over his face as bullets hit it.

I watched as Anne aimed her guns at him.

"You damned bastard." She growled, "How dare you bombard my ship! Reinforcements are on their way! You won't get away with this."

"Who's this young lady?" Perospero mused, "Piss off, Marine girl! Our intel told us that the Dragon Knight stashed our loot on this ship! We have no business with you. But if you insist, I guess I'll drown you up with candy, eh?"

I was about to say something but Katakuri was already on me again. This time, he hit me with a armament enhanced kick.

I was able to see this coming so I braced the blow with my arm, also coated with armament haki.

"Dammit." I said as I reeled back, "This will be a pain in the ass…"

I then swung my blade at him as he had lunged again. My blade passed straight through him as if he were a logia, despite my using of armament haki.

"Tch!" I muttered as he thrust his spear at me

I dodged the attack and jumped away, watching as his attack caused a massive shockwave and made a hole in the deck.

Katakuri is no joke. He is one of Big Mom's strongest fighters. The user of the Mochi fruit, a special Paramecia type devil fruit. Combined with his advanced observation haki, he is seemingly untouchable.

But I do know how to deal with him. It won't be easy though.

I readied my blade at him and gave him a scowl.

"Alright listen here!" I said, "What the actual hell do you lot thing you're doing?! There is no treasure here and I have no fucking idea where that Dragon Knight guy is. Hell, I haven't even met him!!"

Katakuri straightened up and looked at me. He then looked over to Perospero who was swinging candy spears at Anne. Anne was shooting then away as she glared at the guy.

"That is true." Katakuri said as he looked back at me, "Then why are you here?"

"I was told there was loot of course." I said, "So I came to get it off the marines."

I saw Katakuri's eyes frowned, his scarf covering the lower part of his face.

"You were told?" He asked, "By whom?"

I shrugged, "The usual intel sources we have." I said

"Hm, if I am correct. Whitebeard has the same way of obtaining information as we do…" he said, "And our sources told us the Dragon Knight placed our treasure on this ship….."

"Yea. How convenient that you lot found us on this ship and attacked." I said

"It is quite conve-" he said before stopping mid sentence

He then looked around us. I followed his gaze and noticed something strange.

There was a thick fog that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It was so thick that I couldn't see the sea.

"What the hell?" I said

"What is this fog?" Katakuri said, "Is this your doing?"

"No." I said

"Something is off." Katakuri continued, "If you were told the loot was here and so were we…then that must mean…"

He pondered for a little bit before widening his eyes and looking over at his brother.

"Perospero, call it off!!" He shouted, "Its a trap!!!"

Perospero stopped in his tracks, he had been shooting candy spears at Anne casually.

"What?" He said in surprise

As he said this, I heard my transponder snail ring. I got it out of my pocket and answered.

"What?" I said

"Starrk! Something's wrong!" I heard one my guys talk, "We managed to pull away and tried to go around and behind the ships like you told us. But all of the sudden there was a thick fog that appeared out nowhere! We can't see a damn thing! We have no clue where to go!"

"Huh?" I said, "Stay where you are! Do not move the ship! You could crash into something! I repeat, stay where you are!"

I placed the snail back into my pocket and ran to the side of the ship. I saw that the fog was too thick and I couldn't see past a few feet from the ship. This must've been the work of a Devil Fruit.

"Hell!" I cursed

Katakuri rushed over to Perospero, "This is a trap, brother, we've been lured!"

"What are you sayin-" Perospero started before being cut off by a loud explosion

We all turned to see his ship being shot at by a massive bombardment of cannonfire.

"What the hell?!" Perospero shouted, "My ship!!"

"We must retreat now!" Katakuri said, "Something isn't right!"

"An attack?!" Perospero exclaimed, "Who?! The Marines?! Whitebeard's men?!"

I shook my head, "It ain't us!" I told him

Anne walked over to me, "Not mine either! You wiped out half of my crew, you bastard." She said with venom, "I'll get you for that!"

Katakuri looked at us, "I don't think its them, brother." He said, "They, too, were lured."

"By who?!" Perospero shouted

"Who do you think?" Katakuri said, "The same bastard who's been a thorn for a while now. That Dragon Knight."

"That pesky little troublemaker duped us."