CH - 12 [ what pirates do ] part - 4

"Yes, Captain!" He drew his sword. It was a pretty standard hand-and-a-half double-edged steel sword. Jory hurried the others away to keep them out of the next events.

"Snipers!"

The two men came out from their hiding position, each holding their rifles, pistol, and accessories. Halcen had made sure to get them fully equipped for their part.

"You need to provide cover fire." He pointed to the small one. "You, make sure as few of them cross this gap as possible." Then he pointed to the tan one. "You make sure Grey gets through without too much hassle. He's gonna detach the chains. In the meantime, I'm gonna take on the captain. I'll have my hands full, so I won't be able to do much else. Got it?"

The both nodded.

"Alright, get ready!"

The two raced off to find their positions. Halcen watched the bulkier sniper start climbing the rope to get to the crow's nest, and the other headed to the upper deck on the bow side.

Halcen turned and bounded toward the edge of the ship, where Grey stood patiently, stretching. "You ready?"

"Absolutely."

"Good." Halcen took a deep breath. Haki drove up his body, giving him a nice black coating. "Me too."

Slowly, they got closer. Halcen began to realize why Anosmia's pirates were all wearing gas masks; the stench began to become unbearable. What is his logia made out of? He looked at Grey who was having a really hard time keeping his composure.

"This shit stinks," Grey admitted, rubbing his face.

And after a bit of time, the gap closed. Halcen watched two burly men from the opponent's crew carry large wooden planks up to the edge of their ship. And this was when the action started.

BANG! BANG!

Two guns went off, blowing holes in the heads of the men who were carrying the planks.

Good job, guys.

Halcen and Grey took advantage of the confusion. While their crew was getting riled, Halcen and Grey jumped over the gap, only about ten feet at this point, and they landed on the dead bodies of the other men. They began to knuckle their way through the crowd, each beating down any of the crew that came at them. Halcen was heading for Anosmia and Grey was heading for the door to the underdeck. And with him, came the shots of thundering fire from the top of the Black Tail. Sniper support coming from the crow's nest, just as requested.

Halcen was bogged down by a few of Anosmia's crew. They were strong and sturdy, but none of them were a match for Halcen's Haki-powered punches. He bashed into them like a bowling ball, throwing punch after punch. Some of his foes took several blows, but Halcen refused to stop moving forward, and eventually they fell too.

Halcen waved through the crowd, trying to take out as many as he could, but there was a were so many. He turned to see a gangplank had been successfully put up, and now the pirates were crossing over to the Black Tail. The sniper support was keeping some of them down, but they were still going to pile over to the Black Tail. I have to take Anosmia down now! If he could beat their captain, he'd be able to provide support for the rest of the crew. Halcen returned to his swinging and waded through the crowd to the man he was after. This stinking son of a bitch. Halcen had to cover his face with the collar of his shit to try to keep the stink out. He was basically gasping for air under it.

Anosmia's face was beat red but he was smiling under that beard. "Ho! Ho! Ho! Come to fight me at last, have ye? While yar busy here, me crew will be taking care o' yer ship. They gonna tear it o'part fer treasure and then they gonna burn it down, and let the ashes fade in the sea!" Then he began to laugh outrageously again.

"Oh shut up, already!" Halcen shouted.

"Come on then, little boy! Ye think ye can play with de big kids? Ye think ye can just jump on a ship and it makes ye a pirate? I been at this fer years! You ain't got no roger and damn near no crew! You ain't no pirate!"

"Not a pirate? I practically grew up on Whitebeard's personal ship!"

Then Anosmia's face tightened as he caught himself from laughing… and then he did laugh, outlandishly. "That's the funniest damn t'ing I ever heard! YEE? On Whitebeard's crew? What would the greatest pirate alive do wit' a runt like ye?"

And then Halcen had had enough. He took a deep breath, drew his knife, and plunged it into Anosmia's stomach. It spurted out a gnarly-looking green liquid that sprayed Halcen's pants.

Anosmia stared into Halcen's eyes and laughed again. "I told ye, mate. I be a logia! Ya can't hurt me! ARHARHARHARHAHARHAR!"

"What kind of nasty shit is that?" Halcen's stomach violently surged from the stench. He could feel the liquid on him almost as if it were acid.

"It be sewage, mate."

Halcen looked at Anosmia with a look of terror. "So I'm fighting a walking talking ball of shit?"

"Among other things. Hence me crew be covered with them fancy masks. Keeps them from breathing in the fumes."

"You sick fuck!" Halcen pulled his dagger out and tried to clean it off before putting it back away.

But Anosmia wasn't going to wait around to let him prepare. A giant sludge fist came up at him, and a heavy stream smashed Halcen in the face, lifting him off the ground, and throwing him across the deck of the ship. He landed harshly on the body of one of Anosmia's dead pirates, losing his hold on his knife. There was blood everywhere. Halcen looked around quick to realize there were quite a few. They almost all had holes in their heads. Guess that's why snipers are useful.

Halcen stood back up quickly to see the sewage man flowing over the dead bodies towards him. He was still fully coated in Haki. But he was beginning to choke on the fumes. He could feel the nastiness covering him. But he had to focus. This wasn't the time to get distracted. I have to beat this guy.

Halcen jumped out of the way as multiple sludge balls were thrown his way. They smashed into the side rails with loud smacks. Halcen could only imagine the force of them would hurt. But as he rolled to the side, Anosmia was there, and swung his left leg into Halcen's face, tossing the man across the deck. He rolled again and finally regained his footing.

He stood back up in time to block an oncoming punch from Anosmia. He threw up his black-coated arms and sludge went flying around him. This guy doesn't give up! Halcen brought his left arm down to throw a jab into the the captain's face. He took the punch with a grimace. Halcen's Haki was doing damage… but not enough.

Anosmia followed up by throwing his own right across Halcen's face.

Halcen staggered back, but stayed on his feet. He was getting used to the guy's hits. He's really not that strong physically. It's just his devil fruit that pushes me back the most. If he didn't have that, this guy would already be dead. And that was the problem with logias… they damn near couldn't die.

And then overwhelming sound of metal clanging rang throughout the area. Halcen knew it was Grey, finally getting those chains disconnected. They felt the boat rock as the weight literally dropped off their ship. And suddenly they didn't have anything to connect them to this nasty pirate's ship anymore. I gotta end this quick and get over the gap before we get too far away.

Halcen realized his punches weren't doing enough damage. So he drew back both of his arms quickly and put his two fists close to each other. I need to do as much damage as fast as I can. Then he threw all of his strength into a double-fisted punch, smashing into Anosmia's torso.

The man made an inhuman noise, like a wounded wild cat out in the jungle. His eyes almost went white. Almost. He fell to one knee in pain, and huffed loudly. "Ye pack quite da punch dere." And then he stood back up. "But it's not quite enough… harharhar!"

Halcen was running out of breath faster than he wanted to. Damn, these fumes are really getting to me. He stood up straight, trying to make sure he was ready for the next attack. But then it dawned on him. Fumes… gas! I can light this motherfucker up!

Halcen stood up straight, still coated in Haki. He reached out his left arm straight to its full extent. Then with his right arm, he crossed over the top of his left as fast as he possibly could, causing sparks to be launched from it, and they flew across to Anosmia's bloated body… and he caught.

"Oh, shit!"

Anosmia's gas-exuding body erupted in an exploding fire that caught everything around it too. The heat flared against Halcen's body and he could feel the sudden temperature rise, but knew he was safe from any actual damage. The burst was so powerful that it lifted Halcen over the rail of the deck and into the water between Anosmia's ship and the Black Tail.

The cool water suddenly meeting his body after the heated explosion felt invigorating. He lay there for a little while, staring up at the divide between the two ships and the sky beyond it. He could feel himself slowly relaxing. Up above, he watched Jory throw over a roll-up rope ladder for Halcen to climb up. I guess I can't just lay here.

Halcen climbed back up the ladder to the deck of his ship and took a quick damage report. There were about twelve dead pirates lying around their deck and none left alive. He checked across the way where the fire was burning to see that there were no standing survivors on the other ship that they could see. That was good. It meant nobody was going to pursue them. "Is everyone okay?" Halcen asked his crew.

Grey, Valentina, Bailu, and the two snipers were all relatively unharmed. The short sniper and Grey had a few minor scrapes; they'd be fine. But Jory and Loyola had been injured. Jory's entire body had taken a pretty decent beating. And Loyola had a fairly nasty cut across her right leg.

"Holy shit, are you guys okay? What happened?" Halcen demanded.

"I was trying to help Jory protect the others!" she professed.

Halcen looked to Jory. He had taken it worse than anybody else on the crew.

"I was overwhelmed," Jory admitted. "They came down in numbers I couldn't beat alone. I'm sorry."

Halcen looked at him with pride. "Jory, you did good."

Jory looked up, almost confused. "Excuse me?"

"You took on multiple enemies while ensuring the safety of your crew. No one died because of you. You put yourself in danger to ensure they were okay."

Jory just nodded gratefully.

"And Loyola?" Halcen said, looking to the strong woman.

"Yes, Captain?"

"That was a very brave thing. You're not a soldier, and you stepped up to help your crew. I'm impressed. But don't do it again. You're an essential member of this crew, and you being seriously hurt will hinder us from being able to do what needs to be done. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Captain," she said, smiling.

"Alright, everybody, we need to move, now! We don't want to be around this scene in case somebody can see the fire."

And like that, the Black Tail set sail again, with a burning pile of wood left behind to the will of the sea