Combat Training!
South Blue: Taijamis Island; 22nd Marine Branch
"Combat training? We're not going to get some time to rest?" Corona's eyes widened in horror upon seeing a few senior marine soldiers walk out from the marine base while pushing along a few weapon racks. After barely even managing to get through a rather bizarre obstacle course, she had expected to be able to rest up for a few hours or so. And she wasn't the only marine that was now exhausted. Several moans and groans of exhaustion escaped from the mouths of other recruits around her.
"Quit all your complaining this instant!" Ensign Dexter shouted and then all the marine recruits straightened up and stood at attention. They were easily being influenced by Dexter's superior aura.
"I know that all of you are tired and exhausted now, but you need to work on your strength and endurance." Captain Bullock said kindly to his exhausted recruits as the marine soldiers pushing the racks stopped near him. They gave their commanding officer a salute before they returned back to their posts inside of the marine base.
"And the best way to do that is by engaging these monsters in combat." Warrant Officer Patrick grinned as two large shadows suddenly loomed over all the marine recruits.
"Did someone block out the sun or something?" Jord and all the recruits looked up to see two massive sized men standing on top of the marine base.
"Everyone! Allow me to introduce you some of the Combat Specialists of this here base! Borris and Nikolai Vanderhousen!" Dexter introduced the two combat specialists with a monotone. The two combat specialists jumped down from the marine base and landed between in front of the recruits, causing most of them to lose their balance and fall to the ground once a small shock wave traveled through the ground upon their landing.
"It's a pleasure to meet all of you new recruits. Ve look forvard to training you and pounding your puny bones into fine powder." Nikolai spoke with a heavy Russian accent while cracking his knuckles. Nikolai was a rather large overly muscular man. He and his brother towered over everyone on the entire island. They both have shoulder length black hair and big brown eyes. They don the standard marine attire except for the fact that they were black fingerless gloves.
"Vhat my idiot brother meant to say vas...ve look forvard to training vith you all vithout pounding your puny bones into fine powder." Borris nervously said upon seeing the frightened faces appearing on most of the recruits' faces.
Feeling insulted in having his little brother correct him, Nikolai violently turned to Borris with his fist raised in anger. "That's not vhat I meant to say! If that vas vhat I meant to say, then I vould have said that!" He growled angrily.
"You alvays talk vith extreme rudeness brother! It's because of you that most of the recruits leave during combat training!" Borris sighed in disappointment while having several flashbacks of the past recruits leaving the base because of them.
"Vell maybe if they veren't so veak and spineless like jellyfish, then maybe they could become true marines!" Nikolai sighed.
"You're such a blockhead!" Borris yelled.
"Blockhead? I'll show you blockhead!" Nikolai swung his head forward and head butted Borris in the face. Borris staggered back a few feet and shook off the damage he received from his older brother. Enraged at being struck, Borris lunged toward his older brother and engaged him in a rumble. The recruits all sweat dropped and stared at the two fighting brothers. Most of them shivered in terror on how brutal the fighting was beginning to escalate.
"These two morons are going to train us in combat?" Harper shook her head in disappointment at the behavior of the fighting officials. She looked over to Bullock to see if he would step in to stop them. But the captain was rather too occupied pointing and laughing at the antics of the combat specialists alongside Patrick. The only one that seemed to be unimpressed was Dexter. The light from the sun reflected off his glasses and concealed the clear anger in his eyes. He slowly walked over to the fighting marines and separated the both of them with ease, shocking the recruits as they compared the sizes between the three of them. They had figured that Dexter should have been crushed by Borris and Nikolai in a matter of seconds.
"Borris...Nikolai...need I remind the two of you what would happen if you two fought like this again?" Borris and Nikolai were trembling in fear as a terrifying aura surrounded Dexter at the moment. Shivers traveled down the spines of all the recruits, only Bullock and Patrick seemed to be unaffected.
"W-why is everyone so s-s-scared of this guy? He doesn't seem s-s-s-so scary to me." Jord stuttered while hiding behind Corona who was trembling just about as much as he was. Corona herself had experienced Dexter's frightening personality yesterday and took a mental note to make sure that she never did anything to direct his anger over to her again.
"You're nothing more than a mere child. You could never comprehend the difference in power between those three men." Harper was slightly trembling herself, though she was doing a fairly good job at keeping her composure than most of the others. "Something is off about this man. He's far more powerful than he's letting on. And since he's not the man in charge of this base...then how powerful is Bullock?"
"Now then, that's enough fooling around right?" Dexter's eyes narrowed and then Borris and Nikolai exchanged glances with each other before nodding rapidly in unison with force smiles on their faces. "Good. Then let's start by handing the recruits some weapons."
"R-Right! Everyone come up to the racks and pick up a veapon of your choosing." Borris ordered after regaining his composure.
The recruits walked over to the racks and examined every weapon on the racks. The weapons ranged from nun-chucks to wooden cutlass swords. Most of the recruits were utterly confused as to why the weapons were made of wood.
"Why are you making us choose such toys for weapons?" Harper was obviously displeased with this situation. If she was going to partake in combat training, then she expected to wield a real weapon.
"If you're going to train us, then shouldn't you give us real weapons?" Tabitha asked.
"In due time ladies. You will all receive real weapons when we deem that you are worthy enough to wield them." Bullock said.
"Now then, ve're going to have a little battle royal!" The recruits all gasped in shock upon hearing such a ridiculous declaration from Nikolai.
"Relax everyone!" Borris nervously laughed. "My brother vas only joking!"
"All of you recruits are going to test your strength against both Borris and Nikolai here." Bullock informed all the recruits. The recruits glanced at their wooden weapons and then looked over to the two muscular Neanderthals. Shivers immediately went down their spines at the thought of having to fight them.
"This shouldn't be a problem at all." Harper stepped forward and then pointed her wooden sword at the two marine soldiers. "I'll take the both of you imbeciles down with one strike."
"She's only gripping the sword with three fingers. This means that her preferred style of sword fighting is most likely fencing." Bullock mentally noted.
"Quite full of yourself as usual." Corona stepped forward and held her wooden sword up in a defensive way.
"Full of nothing but extravagant confidence in myself and abilities in combat." Harper grinned. "I suggest that you step aside and let the professionals handle this."
"I'll step aside when I do see the professionals." A vein popped on Harper's head upon hearing Corona's witty remark.
"Harper! Take them both down!" Beatrice and Tabitha cheered in unison.
"If you two truly believe that you're ready to take the two of us on by yourselves!" Nikolai grabbed a wooden sword off the weapons rack and started swinging it around wildly. "Then bring it on! I vill pound your puny bones into fine powder!"
"So be it! Coup Droit!" Harper lunged forward while extending her bladed arm forward. Despite her weapon being made of wood, she was trained to believe that anything could be a dangerous weapon if she struck her enemies in the right places.
Nikolai side-stepped to the left and easily managed to avoid being struck by Harper's wooden sword. He raised his wooden sword above his head before he quickly swung it down, aiming for Harper's head. She inclined back and narrowly managed to avoid being struck on the head, knowing that if she had been struck there it would have been game over for her. Once Nikolai's sword had touched the ground, the strength of the slash had split the ground in half for a few meters. The recruits stepped aside to avoid falling into the earth and gazed in awe at the man's monstrous strength.
"Amazing! There are people in this world that can do stuff like this?" Corona's mouth was left agape while Jord was pulling on her pant leg.
"Now's not a good time to be standing around Corona! Here comes the other guy!" Jord pointed to Borris who was now striking down the other recruits while constantly apologizing to them. But despite his warning, Corona was too wrapped up in the ground that had literally been split in two moments ago. She soon snapped back into reality once a large shadow had loomed over her. She slowly turned around and jumped back at the sudden appearance of Borris.
"I'm very sorry about this in advance!" Borris apologized before he swung his fist down, aiming for Corona's face.
Jord quickly jumped out of the way of the large man's fist while Corona stood there in place. The ground shook slightly and he turned around to see that Corona was no longer in the place she was standing; rather a large hole was there instead.
"Corona!" Jord yelled.
"Oh no! Did I accidentally crush another one?" Borris began to panic until he looked to his arm to see Corona clinging onto it.
"Oh my god that was close! I thought I was a goner for sure!" Corona panted heavily.
"Please remove yourself from my arm, thank you!" Borris violently shook his arm around in an attempt to get Corona to release him, but the female recruit refused to let go and hung to him for dear life. "Quite the grip you're got on you." He chuckled slightly before he looked down to see Jord punching and kicking his leg. He extended his arm downward and picked up the small child by the back collar of his shirt.
"Hey! Put me down! Put me down!" Despite currently being dangled, Jord continued to swing his arms and legs around wildly.
"Let him go!" Corona removed her arms from Borris' arm but still clung onto him using her legs. She tightened the grip on her wooden sword and struck the marine soldier square in the face. Borris released his hold on Jord and staggered back as he clutched his face while letting out a pained grunt.
Corona released her hold on Borris' arm and rushed over to help Jord who had been dropped onto the ground. She helped her friend back up to his feet and smiled upon seeing that he was okay.
"Ow...I fell on my butt..." Jord groaned in pain while rubbing his backside.
"Oh walk it off. You'll be fine you big baby." Corona laughed.
"Not a bad strike there, marine." Borris shook off the pain from the previous strike. "Let's see what else you can do with that wooden sword of yours."
"Any ideas Corona?" Jord asked.
"Run!" Corona grabbed Jord's hand and started running away from Borris who had started to give chase.
Meanwhile Harper and Nikolai continued on with their intense sword fight. Most of the recruits were in awe at how well Harper was holding up while the others simply waited for her to get beaten already so that they could have the time to prove themselves.
"Attack Au Fer: Battement!" Knowing that continuing to focus on attacking Nikolai would be pointless, Harper instead decided to strike Nikolai's wooden sword.
"I can see why you're so confident in your abilities now, marine. For a mere recruit, you're very talented in the way of the sword." Nikolai took a mental note that Harper was intentionally striking his sword.
"Of course I'm talented!" Harper announced it as if it was obvious to everyone else. "I'm the most extravagant marine in the entire world!" She continued to violently strike Nikolai's sword, grinning slightly once she noticed the cracks forming on the sword.
"Harper sure is doing well against that brute." Tabitha smiled.
"It'll only be a matter of time before she mops the floor with him." Beatrice nodded in agreement.
"I don't understand why she's now focused on striking Nikolai's blade." Patrick tilted his head to the side. "Wouldn't it make more sense to simply strike the person in a sword fight?"
"She's striking the sword in an attempt to break it. She thinks that if Nikolai has no sword to defend himself, then he'll simply surrender." Dexter assumed.
Harper and Nikolai's battle continued to wage on. Neither side wanting to give up until the other had been defeated. Their blades crossed paths once again and both of them were held at a complete stalemate, but only because Nikolai was holding back. He decided to lean forward and add more pressure and strength to the blade of his sword, forcing Harper to lean back. If things continued as they were, then Harper would soon find herself being pinned against the ground under the weight of Nikolai. She attempted to lean forward in order to return to an upright position, but she didn't have enough physical strength to do so.
"Vhat's vrong little girl? You're starting to get pushed back." Nikolai taunted the female recruit.
A vein had popped on Harper's head upon hearing Nikolai taunted. If there was one thing that she hated, it was being taunted by anyone. An idea on how to humiliate Nikolai came to her mind. She glanced down to his feet and needed to wait a few seconds more before he plan could come into play. After the few seconds had passed, Harper took action and slid to the right of Nikolai, and since he was putting all of his weight forward, gravity played its part in the world and Nikolai fell face first onto the ground.
Harper thrust her sword down and impaled the ground inches away from a downed Nikolai's neck. "I will admit that you're quite skilled as well, but you rely mainly on your brute strength." She stated.
"That Harper girl continues to amaze me. Not only has she already awakened her Kenbunsoshoku Haki, but she's skilled in the art of the sword and she can point out weaknesses in people." Patrick laughed.
"Indeed she is talented." Bullock nodded in agreement. "But just like everyone else, she has weaknesses of her own that can be easily exploited."
"Kyaaa! Harper's amazing! She just took down that brute without even breaking a sweat!" Beatrice and Tabitha squealed happily in unison.
"Don't be stupid!" Nikolai reached his arm forward and tightly gripped Harper's wooden sword before he crushed it in half, shocking both Beatrice and Tabitha.
Harper simply jumped back away from Nikolai since she wouldn't stand a chance against him without some sort of weapon in her hand.
"Rule one of combat: Don't let your guard down until you are one hundred percent sure that your enemy in either incapacitated or dead." Nikolai slowly stood to his feet and dusted himself off.
"I knew that it would have been too easy for you to have gone down like that." Harper sighed and then Beatrice and Tabitha rushed over to her side with their wooden swords at the ready.
"Now then, let's continue on vith the combat training!" Nikolai swung his sword around wildly, sending gusts of wind to slightly push back the three female recruits.
"Stand back little ladies and let the men handle this!" Harper and her cronies looked over their shoulders in annoyance as they saw three male recruits rushing over to them with their wooden swords raised above their heads. Harper took notice that all three men looked exactly alike. They all had short brown hair and blue eyes.
"Triplets?" Harper murmured.
"Who are these clowns?" Tabitha asked.
"There's no need to fear this man anymore! The One Hit Wonders will deal with him for you damsels in distress!" All three of the male recruits leaped into action after Nikolai, letting out loud battle cries in the process. The moment the men had entered within Nikolai's range, each of them had been sent flying back into the marine base by one swing of Nikolai's wooden sword.
"Nikolai is definitely going to pay for that." Dexter frowned as he made mental calculations on how much money he was going to have to spend to fix the damage of the base.
"I see why they're called the One Hit Wonders." Harper and her cronies sweat dropped in unison before they jumped out of the way to avoid being struck by Nikolai who had attempted to strike them while they were momentarily distracted. Harper looked over to her left for a moment to see Corona and Jord still being chased by Borris.
"Why is this guy only chasing after us?" Corona and Jord cried in unison as they frantically ran away from Borris who continued to chase after them while easily plowing through other marine recruits that attempted to stop him.
"Sooner or later he'll have to stop and take a breath, right?" Jord panted before he looked over his shoulder to check on the whereabouts of Borris. His eyes nearly popped out from their sockets upon seeing that Borris was only gaining speed. "Gahh! Corona! We need to run faster!"
"I think we're the ones that are going to have to stop and take a break at this rate!" Corona whined before she and Jord increased their speed in order to get away from Borris.
"You cannot run away from your enemies forever, marine! Sooner or later you will have to fight back!" Borris called out to the fleeing marines.
"He's right! We're going to have to fight him head on eventually!" Jord sighed heavily since he hated to admit it.
"Are you crazy? Did you see the way he plowed through the other recruits while he was chasing us?" Corona asked. "He will destroy us if he gets his hands on us again!"
"Well running around and screaming like little girls sure isn't going us any favors at the moment!" Jord stated.
"It's been working out for us this far!" Corona shot back before she started thinking of a way to defeat Borris. A light bulb soon appeared above her head once she had come up with the idea that could possibly defeat him. "Okay, I think I've got an idea that could get this guy off our backs for the time being."
"You do? What is it? Don't leave me in the dark here." Jord asked.
"Just follow me!" Corona made a sharp turn around the marine base and headed straight for the trap hole area of the obstacle course.
"Where does that marine think she's going?" Dexter asked, a small frown forming on his face.
"Who knows. But I'm interested in finding out." Bullock disappeared from his spot. After about two minutes of running around the base, Corona and Jord found themselves in the trap hole area of the obstacle course.
"Why are we here of all places?" Jord was confused as to why he had followed Corona here.
"This is where we will make our stand against that brute." Corona said as she turned around to see Borris slowly walking towards them.
"Finally decided to stop running and face me? Good...then let's begin!" Borris lunged towards Corona and Jord with his fist pulled back.
Corona and Jord jumped out of the way, revealing a large hole behind them, hoping that Borris would fall into it. But fate had other things in store unfortunately. Borris had already figured out their plan and stopped at the edge of the hole, much to Corona and Jord's dismay.
"Anymore bright ideas?" Jord asked.
"No, not really. The hole was basically my entire plan." Corona nervously laughed while rubbing the back of her neck.
"Great..." Jord sweat dropped and then his jaw dropped once Borris lunged toward them again.
"Lookout!" Corona pushed Jord out of harm's way while avoiding Borris in the process. Jord staggered back a few feet after being pushed and eventually found himself falling into one of the trap holes. After noticing her mistake in pushing her ally into one of the holes, she prepared to rush over and help him but Borris was blocking her path in doing so.
"No vhere to run and hide now, marine!" Borris laughed as he threw a seemingly endless barrage of punches at the female marine recruit.
"Yikes!" Corona's eyes widened as she started swaying her body from right to left in order to avoid being struck by the large man's fists.
"Interesting...it's as if she's a leaf flowing in the wind." Bullock chuckled to himself as he watched the battle progress from the safety of the marine base.
Feeling that he wouldn't be able to hit Corona at this rate; Borris suddenly had raised his knee up, planning on striking her square in the face. But her reflexes proved to be quite well for someone her age as she jumped back and performed a series of back handsprings to gain some distance.
"Thank you mom for letting me take those gymnastic lessons as a child." Corona panted slightly and tried to think of a way to get past Borris to get Jord.
"Are you only good at dodging and evading in a fight?" Borris rushed toward Corona once again. He wasn't planning on giving her any time to rest.
"Hold on! Hold on! Time out!" Corona turned around and started running away from Borris again.
"There are no time outs in battle!" Borris reached his arm forward and tried to grab the back collar of Corona's shirt. Immediately sensing the oncoming danger, Corona squatted down and saw Borris' arm pass right over her head. She gripped the sleeve of Borris' shirt and tore it right off before she crawled under his legs and ran off once again.
"What is she doing now?" Bullock was captivated by how interesting Corona's actions were in this fight.
"Vhat are you doing?" Borris yelled before he reached for Corona again with his other arm.
"Improvising!" Corona replied before she slid out of the way from Borris' reach and tore off the sleeve from that arm.
"Are you trying to humiliate me by stripping me naked in battle?" Borris asked and then Corona's face went red in embarrassment.
"W-what? Strip you naked?" Corona was flustered by Borris' outrageous exclamation. "I'm not trying to do anything perverted like that you brute!"
"Sure does seem like it." Borris smirked before he continued on with his charge toward her. Corona shook off her feelings of embarrassment and proceeded to tie the two sleeves together. She had to time this perfectly or else things would only continue to get worse for her. When Borris was exactly seconds away from grabbing her, she tied the torn sleeves around his wrists before she spun around and landed a back kick across the man's torso, sending him falling down into one of the trap holes.
"Owww...my leg is killing me!" Corona cringed in pain as she sat down onto the ground and rubbed her leg. "It felt like I kicked a rhino! His skin is so rough!"
"Corona! Help me out of this hole already!" Corona struggled to her feet and limped over to the hole that Jord was in.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to push you down into that hole." Corona nervously laughed as she laid down onto the ground and carefully placed herself over the edge of the hole. She reached her arm down and waited for Jord to jump up and grab hold.
"You landed another good shot on me, marine." Corona's eyes widened in horror once Borris' large shadow cast over her once again.
"Oh no...please stay down..." Corona gulped as she slowly looked over her shoulder to see Borris standing over her, his wrists were no longer tied together. Borris prepared to slam his fist onto Corona's skull until Bullock suddenly appeared in front of him and blocked his fist with one hand.
"Enough Borris. Take these two inside the base to their quarters and wait for further instructions." Bullock ordered, his usually playful attitude had changed into that of a professional one.
"May I ask vhy you have interfered in the combat training, Captain?" Borris slowly lowered his arm down to his side.
"It appears that we have an unwanted guest." Bullock replied in monotone as he started walking back to the front of the base.
"What's going on?" Corona asked as she looked over to Borris who simply replied with a shrug of his shoulders.
Meanwhile, back at the front of the marine base. All of the marine recruits alongside Nikolai were lying across the battlegrounds unconscious. Instead of taking actions to check on the sudden fallen marines, Dexter and Patrick stood at attention and stared off into the distance as they could feel a certain presence approaching their base. A tall silhouette appeared on the horizon to which Dexter and Patrick saluted the oncoming figure once they had a clear look on who it was.
"Welcome to the 22nd Marine Branch...Vice-Admiral." Dexter and Patrick welcomed the figure in unison.
And that's the end of the chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it. Though I haven't done this in awhile in my first story, I think I'm going to go back to giving small previews to how the next chapter is going to be like.
Next time on One Piece: The Fight For Justice
The First Mission!
Corona: Of all the people to be teamed up with.
Jord: It could honestly be a lot worse than this.
Harper: Get in my way and I will cut you down without a moment's hesitation.
?-They're making a huge mistake in their decision. You've done nothing but waste people's time for your own enjoyment.
Bullock: State your business here and leave. I'm a very busy man you know.
And that's the end of the preview! What kind of mission will Corona take part in? What business does this Vice-Admiral have with the base? All shall be revealed in the next chapter! So look forward to it!
Please Review and Enjoy!