14 The Mighty Crane's Wing Formation
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"si, sir? they've gotta be kidding right?" Marteen the Helmsman asked in confusion.
however the Hardy(Rei) besides him only replied by clicking his tongue in displeasure!
'Poooof!'
with smoke, the 'Hardy' suddenly transformed into tall man with white skin, hair and silver eyes, 2 small horns jutting out from his forehead.
"BASTARD CRIMINAL!" Marteen yelled loudly as he reached towards his gun on his waist.
'Baaam!'
Rei moved in a blink of an eye towards Marteens back and simply knocked him out! Rei knew it was futile to continue his disguise any longer as the situation turns unfavorable for him.
seeing the situation, Rei couldn't help but decided to break the formation with brute strength! how you ask? remember Rei can walk on water? and the maximum speed of sailing vessels was around 30kn or 55km/h, with him sprinting in full speed he could say in confident to fled from there while carying the little girl.
the crew on deck grew restless as there was no response from their supposedly 'superior' on the bridge and as they wanted to make ways towards the bridge.
'Bam!'
'Pang!'
'Bam!'
their vision suddenly turns dark without warning with pain on their back.
"21, 22....thats all." Rei dusted his hand after he finished taking care of the remaining crews.
「Ding! you have defeated the enemies, congratulations you got 22 gacha points!」
Rei paused as he began to recalculate how many of his enemies defeated and point gains from that.
'1 point per enemy? thats harsh...' Rei thought as he observed his surrounding once more.
all around him could be seen the unconscious body of the marine crew with their eyes rolled at the back while some of them were foaming out of their mouth.
the little girl didn't even react when Rei moved from his previous spot, as the last marine crew fell she finaly exclaimed in trepidation,
"wha, what are you doing?"
"reducing the variable." said Rei simply.
right at this moment Rei suddenly had bad premonition! he jumped as fast as he could towards the little girl who stood on the bridge. he grab her and covered her head, however before she could understand what was going on,
'BOOOOOOOM!'
an ear deafening explosion took place! the ship shook heavily as wooden debris flies around everywhere!
'shoooooo....!'
'BOOOOOOOOM!'
the sound of cannon balls flying followed by ground shaking explosion mercilessly assaulted the ship Rei was in!
~~~~~
marine mothership...
Hardy watched with grim expression as the formation begun the bombardment against his ship, Hardy doesn't realy care about the ship what his concerned the most was towards his crew which happens to still on board.
as the bombardment continue, Hardy couldn't help but intterupt,
"admiral! is it necessary to bombard my ship? theres still my crew on board!"
with nonchalant expression Nelson replied with mouthful of food,
"nom* sluuurp* nom*, my order is to attack the ship's hull, nom* gnaw*, as for your crew? nom* nom*, what they has to do with nom* me?"
Hardy, "but they're still our marine crew admiral, they are still your crew!"
'CRAASH!'
Nelson throw his now empty plate to the floor making it break to pieces, with bellyful of anger he shouted,
"SILENCE YOU USELES SON OF A BITCH! IF NOT FOR YOUR GOD DAMN CREW THEY WON'T BE ABLE TO RUN AWAY!"
Nelson paused to adjust his breath, he lazed his back to his throne and continue with nonchalant expression,
"i don't care about those bastards, i want the girl alive! as for your crew or that damned creature you captured? either way!"
Hardy gnashed his teeth so hard it bleed slightly, he even wondered if capturing Rei back then was a mistake? they were talking about innocent lives here! his crew doesn't know anything and just being fooled by that damn Rei!
however seeing his superior attitude, Hardy could only pray for his crew safety, he watched as his ship getting reduced to a wreck in passing second and began to collapse as the formation surrounded and unleashed their superior fire power against the helpless warship in the middle.
~~~~~
Hardy warship...
'BOOOOOOM!', 'BOOOOOM!',
'RRRRUUMBLEEEE!'
the cannon fire were ceaseless, right now Rei carried the little girl and tried to find the place with protection even if its seemed futile. right now they're inside the deck on the stern side tried to hide from the explosions all around them, wooden debris and wreckage flew around!
"whats we gonna do now?!" screamed the girl as she being carried by Rei on his chest.
"we need to jump!" answered Rei,
the girl turned pale in instant and she said, "but i can't swim!"
Rei looked at her slightly, " don't worry about...."
'BOOOOOOM!"
'CREAAAAAAK!', 'CRAAACK!', 'RRUUUMBLLEEE!'
without warning, the stern began to tilts forwards towards the front side of the ship quickly, seeing their predicament becoming worse in second, Rei saw a window on the wall beside them, the window was for an oppening of cannon head on stern deck.
then without waiting any longer, Rei threw the girl outside via the opening towards the sea below! as he himself followed!
"....AAAAAAAAAAAAA!" the little girl screamed with horror as she saw the sea below getting closer and closer!
'SPLAAASH!'
Rei stepped on water first and opened his hand wide to catch the little girl.
the little girl thought the cold sea water would embraced her, however while she closed her eyes and resigned to her fate, the warm, big hand catched her from below carrying her in princess manner.
"huh?" she exclaimed feeling bewildered.
Rei assess their environment on sea, after he determined which direction was safer for their escape he begun to run on water!
'splash, splash, splash!'
the splashing sound of his boot being drowned by the loud sound of cannons bombardment behind them.
what Rei only hoped was no cannon ball heading towards them right now.
for quite sometimes the little girl couldn't close her jaw as she witnessed in shock something so riddiculously sureal and out of fantasy happened to her!
"i can't speed up like this, i need to cary you on the back!" said Rei towards the little girl on his chest.
hearing no response, Rei nudged her head using his chin, "hey did you hear me?"
"huh? huh? what?" asked the little girl finaly coming out from her daze.
"go on my back, put you hands around my neck!" Rei simply tossed her body around quickly towards his back,
the little girl were quite flustered yet she threw her hands around Rei's neck and hugged him tightly, her knee was being supported by Rei's elbow. in this way, Rei freed his hands to prepare if he needs making handseals.
'shooooooo.....'
Rei danger perceptions kicks in once again as he heard the swooshing sound of cannonball flying closer and closer towards them, Rei started making handseals as his chakra attached towards the wooden plank quite far from their position,
'Booooom!'
'Sploooorge!'
'POOOOF!'
a stray cannonball manage to land at their previous spot! thankfully Rei finished using kawarimi no jutsu in time! with puff of smoke he and the little girl swaped place with adrift wooden plank!
the girl feel nauseating from the sudden instant movement of kawarimi technique, however she held onto her stomach so as to not vommited on Rei's back.
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Marine mothership...
seeing his ship broke in the middle, its stem and stern raised upwards making it looks like 'V' shape, Hardy finaly couldn't help but shouted,
"ADMIRAL! isn't it enough? the ship will be sinking in no time if we're not stopping!"
Nelson glanced towards Hardy nonchalantly, and finaly he gestured with his hand towards the marine officer nearby to cease fire.
"all ships cease fire! i repeat cease fire!" said the officer after gotten the cue from Nelson.
in no time, all of the ships stopped firing their cannon, if anyone could saw the current situation from the sky, surely they'll flinched as the broken warships in the middle of the ocean being encircled in horseshoe shape by chained armada of warships with their cannon spewing out of smoke.
the might of Crane's Wing Formation could be witnessed at this very moment on how it could decimate its target in an instant, once the formation successfully encircled its target, the target could only wait helplessly as the formation unleashed their superior naval artillery against them.
Hardy's warship and its crew had become its very victim amongst all other victim which now laid on the bottom of the ocean.
"nom* nom* deploy the boat! crush* craush* search for the little girl! sluuurp* i only want her alive!" Nelson commanded while kept eating his meal.
Hardy turned around as he too wanted to follow the boats in hope of finding the survivor especialy his crew, and yet just as he reached the gallery's door,
"SIR! THERE THEY ARE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE IT SIR!" yelled one crew with binocular with his jaw wide open!
Nelson gestured towards his aide to get him binocular, the aide put binocular end carefuly at Nelson eye as he still busy enjoying his meal, and when he finaly saw what the previous crew yelled about, he himself couldn't help but droped the half bitten chicken tight to the ground!
"what kind of sorcery is this!" Nelson exclaimed.
the rest of his officers began to get the binoculars only to saw something absurdly riddiculous happened on the sea, and Hardy too opening his own device towards the sea.
everyone whose witnessed what happened couldn't help but stunned! they saw a man with waist-long white hair, white skin and using a particular outfit carrying the little girl on his back, running so fast on water trying to escape the formation towards northeast.
the scene inside the gallery was now so silent like in cemetery, even Nelson couldn't return to his former self for a long time and just witnessed the man running through the gap between 1st and 3rd warships formation at ease and unimpeded!
when the two shadows fade from their vision, everyone began staring at Hardy, seeming like demanding an answer from the one who captured the water-streading man just now.
Nelson as well slowly turned his head towards now restless Hardy and said,
"Lt.Commander Hardy, it seems we need to talk." Nelson said all that without eating any food! showing how serious the situation realy were!
Nelson put his attention back towards his stricken officers and yelled,
"WHAT'RE YOU BASTARDS STANDING FOR?! RELEASE THE FORMATION AND CHASE THEM!"
however just right when the officers in the gallery moved, there was suddenly a call from gallery's den den mushi, Nelson aide took the microphone and putting it in front of Nelson mouth,
"Admiral Nelson! what is it now!" Nelson couldn't help but raised his voice in displeasure.
"...greeting Admiral, this is observation tower. it seems bad weather with storm incoming sir..."
Nelson frowned and said, "are you sure? where's this storm coming from?"
den den mushi, "...it's positive sir, it will come from the northeast, we can already see storm cloud brewing there."
Nelson, "when exactly it hit us?"
den den mushi, "...around sunset sir..."
"tsk*, release the formation! prepare for storm!" Nelson commanded in displeasure,
"sir! what about the two suspects?" said one of the officer in gallery.
Nelson grumbled as he slumped back to his seat, "get 1st, 2nd, and 3rd ships to track them, and don't return if they can't find the girl!"
"but there's storm coming sir?"
"I DON'T GIVE A SHIT! I WANT THEM TO CHASE! AND WHERE IS THAT DOG ERIC?! I PAID THAT DAMNED MERCENARY A LOT OF MONEY!" shrieked Nelson, however there was no sign of Eric everwhere, seeing no ones replied, Nelson flipped his short table in rage!
finaly Nelson gestured forcefuly towards his aide to lift the platform and return to his quarter.
as for the rest of officers there, they can only complied without any chance to argue, everybody knew if they were to argue with the Admiral right now, there was no doubt they could only say goodbye to their lives.
when passing by Hardy, Nelson glanced at him coldly as he harrumphed,
"lock this fucker up, i want his confession regarding the 'creature' he brought to my base!"
hearing his order, several marines handcuffed the grim faced Hardy, as he himself could only watch Nelson platform from its back with his squinted eyes.
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