Zwing!

Several arrows were shot down into the sand, just narrowly missing the heads of those that were still on the beach; the shore was cluttered with scattered fishing equipment that had been dropped in the panic. Tui was among them, doing everything he could to evacuate the people safely while batting oncoming arrows away with a fishing spear.

The Kakamora's boat had been thoroughly remodeled after their run-in with Maui and Moana. It was far smaller than last time, though that wasn't to say it's not still a large and intimidating ship in comparison to the canoes of Motunui. The sail alone looked tall enough to pierce the sky.

As Tui was trying to rush the last few people to safety, the coconut pirates shot another flurry of arrows down, aimed directly at the humans. Tui immediately moved in front of the others, squeezing his eyes shut as he braced himself.

What came next was not pain and death, however, but rather the sound of metal colliding with the weapons. When Tui opened his eyes, he saw the body of a crab squatting over them, using his treasure-covered shell as an improvised shield. Grinning down at the chief, Tamatoa chirped, "Good timing, eh?" One more second and you would've been one heck of a shish-kabob, he debated saying, but decided not to after figuring it'd be disconcerting to refer to the man as food.

Upon seeing the heap of gold, the Kakamora started jumping up and down in excitement, the banging of drums sounding from the deck. However, when pile of treasures rose to its full height and revealed the massive coconut crab attached to it, their excitement quickly turned to dread.

"Well," Tamatoa smirked, glancing at the girl that'd been standing by his head. "What's your call, babe?"

"They have a lot of arrows, clubs, and spears; those seem to be their weapons of choice." Moana explained, twirling her javelin in anticipation. "But the blowdarts are what you should look out for. They make you go limp."

"Neurologically-inhibiting poison darts. Got it." The crustacean clicked his pincers together in anticipation, completely ready to wreck these guys.

The lead Kakamora appeared to recognize Moana, as it became noticeably more aggressive at the sight of her. Jumping down to the beach fearlessly, it pointed its staff at the girl. Despite their clear terror of the humongous decapod, the rest of the pirates followed suit, charging at their target as commanded.

Moana jumped down from the crustacean to the sand, and the duo went to work. Moana was skillful in dodging the pirate's weapons and retaliating with her own, and Tamatoa made quick work of the oncoming hordes with his claws.

Unsurprisingly, they were doing well at keeping the feisty pirates at bay... at first. While they were dealing with the first rushes of Kakamora, one of the pirates had sounded a loud horn from aboard the boat. As the sound echoed through the air, a wave of Kakamora emerged from the hull of the boat where they had been concealed, bringing to the deck with them an array of large cannons.

Ah, crap.

Quick to react, Tamatoa darted over Moana and angled his shell towards the ship to act as a shield, bracing himself for the inevitable barrage.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The thunderous roar of the cannon-fire was overwhelming. Each strike that landed pushed the crustacean back due to the force. Moana bit her tongue, looking around frantically as she tried to devise a course of action, but was distracted when she saw a trail of Kakamora start to make their way to the village while they were occupied. She immediately ran in their path to block them, bating them away with her javelin. Moana stood her ground well, but the Kakamora kept her too busy to call on any extra help from the ocean.

Tamatoa stayed on the defensive for the most part, continuing using his shield to deflect oncoming cannonballs, though the sting they caused was becoming hard to ignore…

The crab also became preoccupied by a group of coconuts that had started swarming his legs and throwing spears and knives at his face. With an irritated growl, Tamatoa started swiping at them with a claw. Little did he know, they were just a distraction; while he was focused on the pirates below him, a group of Kakamora had climbed onto his back, preparing to shoot a flurry of blowdarts into the back of the monster's neck.

Their plan was foiled, however, when a net was flung at the creatures from above. Upon hearing the ensnared coconuts stumble and fall off his shell, Tamatoa glanced over to see what caused the commotion. To his surprise, he saw that the source of the net was none other than chief Tui standing on the edge of his shell. While the other villagers had already fled, Tui must have stayed behind in case he was needed.

Huh. How brave. But also foolish. Well, perhaps he shouldn't be regarding the one that just saved his skin as foolish.

"A little out of character for you to help out the big, bad crab monster, isn't it, chief?" Tamatoa said slyly, raising an eyebrow as he lowered his shell so the man could safely jump off.

Tui rolled his eyes, batting away some Kakamora as he jumped down to the sand. "Not the time for that." He replied flatly.

"Heads up, Tama!"

At Moana's warning, the crab whirled around just in time to catch a roped arrow between his pincers. Moana swiftly knocked the Kakamora that shot it away from the rope and grabbed onto it herself, nodding to the crustacean. Luckily they were both thinking the same thing; at Moana's signal, Tamatoa swung the rope across the beach with her holding on, wiping out a good portion of the pirates as she swung by them. At this point, many of the Kakamora had started falling back, heading back to the ship to arm more of the cannons instead of hand-to-hand combat.

This gave Tui an idea. He turned his attention to the Kakamora's ship, paying particular attention to the sail post. Yes, that should work…

He was shaken out of his thoughts as the crab monster snatched him up into the air, saving him from oncoming blowdarts. "Not the time for spacing out either, mon ami." Tamatoa snickered.

Ignoring the decapod's cheeky comment, Tui instead said something confusing. "I need you to throw me."

Puzzled, Tamatoa blinked. "Uhh… What."

After Tui exasperatedly pointed to the sail post, Tamatoa started to realize what he meant. "Oooh… I get your drift…" He reared his claw back, prepared to launch Tui has hard as he could. Glancing at the chief once more for confirmation, he proceeded with the throw after Tui's nod.

Tui was thrown directly at the top of the sail post, and as he anticipated, the force of the toss and impact on the post started to make their boat tip. The Kakamoras, in a panic, darted to the side of the ship that was rising out of the water in an attempt to weigh it down.

Upon seeing this turn of events, Moana quickly turned to the sea. "Ocean!" She called, gesturing to the ship.

In response, the water came to her father's aid, slamming into the side of the Kakamora ship to overturn it completely. The Kakamora plunged into the water, as did their cannons and other supplies. As the coconuts were scrambling in the waves, the ocean gently swept up Tui and placed him safely on the beach, patting his head.

As for the Kakamora, the crew had scrambled onto an emergency raft that had detached from the ship as it tipped, ditching their captain on the beach. The captain watched them float away for a moment before slowly turning back to face the crab and two humans, watching them awkwardly.

"So what do we do with this one?" Moana wondered, raising an eyebrow at the crustacean.

Tamatoa clicked his claws together gleefully, grinning. "Oh, don't worry." He chirped maliciously, picking up the pirate. "Apparently I'm a pretty good shot. Good riddance! Thanks for the free boat!"

On that note, Tamatoa threw the coconut at the rest of the crew, but overshot the throw a bit, as the captain splashed into the water next to the raft instead of landing on it.

"Oops." The crab purred with a sorry-not-sorry tone of voice.

Moana rolled her eyes, laughing under her breath as she shook her head. She then turned her attention to her father, nudging him playfully. "Hey, that was some pretty good teamwork we all did, huh?"

"Hmm…" He mumbled, glancing contemplatively at the crustacean. The monster fought well to help defend them. The chief had seen first-hand now how quick Tamatoa was to protect Moana, and how he'd even come to his own aid. That had to be worth something, Tui admitted to himself. Maybe Moana was right; maybe he should have a second chance. "… I suppose it was." He finally agreed, smiling very slightly as a sign of acceptance.

Oh Gods, the relief that swept over him. Tamatoa was finally getting somewhere with this stubborn chieftain! Nonetheless, the crab kept his cool, smirking in response. "Agreed."

That pirate encounter appeared to be the kicker. The villagers actually seemed to start liking and respecting the crab, to an extent. People were less hesitant in accepting his help, and just all-around nicer to him. Though all the social interaction could be quite tiring at times, it was still quite touching to the crustacean; it's almost like he earned a new kind of treasure.

Unfortunately, not everyone was so quick to be accepting of a monster like him.