CH - 7 [ in the line of fire ] part -3

Halcen knew he had to be faster than him. He was smaller, therefore had the advantage. So he dove down between his legs and Halcen skidded across the dirt on the ground, causing some of it to billow. He twisted back around to Commodore Reluji's back. His right arm swung through the air, ready to strike.

Instead, another bullet smashed into his left shoulder, pelting him with pain. His punch was thrown way off and he missed, creating a gap big enough for the Commodore to turn and swing his right leg across Halcen's side. He fell to the ground in a heave.

So this is what it's like to fight a highly decorate Marine officer. Commodore was only one rank below Rear Admiral. That meant Reluji was the fifth highest rank in the Marines. It made sense that he was going to be immensely powerful. Not to mention he had snipers trained on Halcen to shoot him whenever it seemed he might get the upper hand. This guy has everything planned out. He's smart. So now what the hell am I supposed to do? Halcen cursed in his head, unable to formulate a plan to kill both snipers while fighting the Marine officer. And where is Grey?

Halcen rolled back, trying to gain some ground between him and his attacker. He was still coated in Haki, but he was in pain. Three bullets would still have been a lot for an armament Haki master, and Halcen was no master. He was very adept in it, and had a good natural affinity, but he had his limits. I need to end this as fast as possible.

Halcen rushed back to the man, using him as cover from the snipers. All he knew was they were both coming from the west. What their specific locations were, he could not tell. He knew one was positioned more to the north and the other was more to the south. They had to be relatively close to where Halcen was fighting to be able to have this good of sight on him.

Halcen unleashed a barrage of punches on the Marine's stomach, but it didn't seem to do much. Reluji was clenching his body very tightly. Halcen was only pushing him back a little bit with each blow, which was not nearly enough to gain real ground in this fight. He couldn't tell if the man was also using armament Haki to keep the area on his body protected, or if he was just that strong. Reluji laughed with each strike. He was toying with Halcen.

Then Halcen stopped for a brief moment, realizing how little he was doing to the giant. And in that split second of indecision, he was attacked. A single upward kick to the chin sent the new captain up into the air. And from there, he was target practice. He felt the first bullet hit his chest, which sent him spinning in the air; and the other hit his back, which threw him facedown into the ground.

The pirate landed with a hard cough. He was badly in pain. He couldn't let this fight go on any longer. "Fine then," Halcen growled. "I'll go all out!" Halcen stood back up. This time, he was going to do some serious damage. He pulled from his belt a knife in his right hand and a pistol in his left. I'm gonna kill this bastard!

Reluji swung his right arm again. Halcen dodged it, ducking down and grinding on his knees, and slashed Reluji's arm as he went. Blood came oozing out. He had gotten deep. The good news was he wasn't using armament Haki. He was just tough. Now that I know you can bleed… Sensing sniper fire was coming, Halcen bobbed back down again, hiding behind the Marine Commodore. One of the bullets almost hit their boss. That will make them uneasy.

Halcen turned inward and cut deep into Reluji's left leg as he jumped between the giant's legs and through to get back on the side he could still he used as cover. Reluji was nothing but a human shield at this point.

Reluji didn't seem to notice it though. He jumped at Halcen, trying to grapple him. If he could get ahold of the smaller man, that would be the end of the battle. He had been injured twice and was losing blood. Worse, one of his legs was injured, so excessive pressure on it was going to painful, and that would cost him the fight in the long run.

Halcen had his gun aimed as Reluji came for him. He was pulling the trigger as he was grabbed. Halcen was pushed, and his arm jerked, shooting the man in the right leg.

Reluji shouted in agony. Now both his legs were wounded, this one much more severe. He knew he wasn't going to be able to continue fighting. He fell to the ground, hard. He was unable to continue his assault against Halcen.

With that, Halcen raised his gun at the man's head. But now that Reluji wasn't acting as a human shield, the snipers had eyes on Halcen again. His left hand suddenly stung immensely as his own gun was shot from it. "Fuck!" he shouted in rage.

"Commodore Reluji!" a man's voice called.

Halcen watched as a man came from the brush far to his left. He was holding a rifle aimed at Halcen. One of the snipers. Halcen's face twitched with anger. He charged the man with his knife, not knowing where his gun had gone. But the second he brought up the knife, it too was shot from his hand. The other sniper! Halcen stopped in anger, staring dead eyes towards where he was sure the bullet had come from.

Then the first gunman charged Halcen. As Halcen swung around to hit the man, his own face was smacked with the butt of the rifle, and in one fell swoop, he was tripped to the ground and the Marine was on top of his chest, with his rifle pointed at Halcen's face.

Halcen was literally staring down the barrel of a gun. He didn't know what to do, so he laughed.

"Commodore Reluji, can you move?" the Marine asked.

"Yeah, I can stand. But it hurts." He was angry.

"Get back to the ship. We'll cover you from here."

"Don't order me around, Marine. I'm the one in charge!"

To Halcen, it seemed like Commodore Reluji was pissed because a lower rank Marine had gotten the better of the pirate instead of him. To have to be saved by one of your crew from a pirate would be pretty embarrassing. Halcen continued to laugh. "That's right, Commodore, it's time to run away like the little bitch you are! Don't worry. The big bad snipers will protect you!"

With an enraged huff, Reluji limped away. He was in no shape to fight, and he knew it.

Pathetic. Halcen took a minute to look at the man holding him down.

He had semi-dark olive skin, straight, short brown hair. He had a bulbous nose as well. He seemed yet a bit older than Halcen. He had dark eyes though, those of a trained killer. He was quite strong.

"What do you think you're doing?" Halcen chuckled.

"Holding you down while the Commodore gets to safety."

"You do realize that gun isn't an actual threat right? It can't kill me."

"It might not be able to kill you, but this close? I'm sure it'll cause a lot of pain. I don't care how strong your Haki is, you still can't resist a rifle bullet this close. If you could, you would have thrown me off with no care to your own self."

"So you're gonna sacrifice yourself to save your leader?" Halcen laughed. "How noble."