Battle on the High Seas
"Where is Roland!? He was supposed to be on lookout!"
Shaad could hear the quartermaster's yell from below deck as well as the sound of clamoring feet stomping around above. The pirate made it above deck after a while, but his ascent was slowed by the bombardment of blasts rocking the ship. There'd been no further explosions for a short time, and Shaad realized why when he finally stepped topside.
Raiders had grappled alongside the large merchant vessel and the crew had been caught too off guard to mount an organized effort of stopping them from crossing. Shaad walked into little better than a slaughter as the seamen were overrun by ravenous marauders.
But, the tides shifted as Captain Morrigan walked out onto the quarterdeck and began issuing orders to his men from the upper railing. The momentum of the surprise battle again moved as the quartermaster drew a saber from his hip and charged forward, cutting down several enemy pirates as he moved to cut their grappling lines to prevent more from coming over. The swift quartermaster was a skilled swordsman and showed off his prowess, downing foes with slashes across their midsection or legs to open them up to a sword through the chest or bleeding out from a cut across the throat.
Among the enemy masses there seemed to be none that could match his speed and skill. However, even after opening a clearing, he was stopped by an explosion hitting the deck right at his feet. This time, though, it wasn't from a broadside or a lone cannon. It was a person. Emerging from the smoke, a man with a tricorne on his head and a captain's coat on his shoulders swaggered towards the fallen quartermaster.
"Don't falter! This whale is ours; we'll take her for all she's worth!" With their captain now on the front lines, the pirates swarmed forth with renewed vigor.
"Hold the right side," Morrigan countered with his command. His men were stronger than average merchants, and with him at the helm, they could quite possibly turn the tables. "Isolate them at the fore!"
The men of the merchant ship fought valiantly, but their morale threatened to crumple like paper in a rainstorm as the enemy captain leveled a pistol at their quartermaster.
"Mr. Dahl!"
The quartermaster, Darko Dahl, swiped the gun away with his saber, hopping to his feet as a bullet was unloaded into the wood. Darko then aimed a thrust to the pirate's stomach, but his sword was cut short, pinned to the ground by a trident from above. Landing on top of the trident, a man with scaled pauldrons, spiked gauntlets, and a multicolored mohawk stared down at him from behind a pair of blue-tinted shades.
In the midst of battle, the newcomer remained calm even as the wind picked up around them, whipping against his chest and the orange baggy pants he wore. The two ships rocked with greater intensity, but the confident smirk he wore didn't fade.
That condescending expression greatly irritated Dahl, and he intended to get rid of it. With a hard kick to the trident's handle, Darko yanked his sword from beneath the steel prongs and rolled backwards onto his feet. Knocked from the impromptu pedestal, the pirate pulled the trident from the ground while performing a front flip and aimed an overhead swing at the quartermaster. Darko blocked the strike and parried the longer weapon down as he sidestepped and moved in, aiming to take the pirate's head off with a single stroke. A gauntleted hand stopped that, though. And, a pistol shot from the enemy captain forced Darko back, his attentions torn between two powerful enemies.
"Careful, Jax, this one's a bit stronger than the other lambs," the pirate captain laughed. "We'll have to finish him before gutting this whale."
"You will never take this ship."
"Cap'n Finn, there's trouble below," a haggardish rogue announced, bursting through the door next to Shaad.
"Hah!" Darko gave a derisive snort at the latest information.
'When did they get below deck? And how?' Shaad pondered inwardly when another person arrived next to him. "About time," he remarked, raising his head to look ahead as Darko and Jax resumed their fight. "I know it doesn't take you that long to put on clothes."
But, receiving no reply from the new presence, Shaad checked over his shoulder.
"Oh, what's up V? Man, I'm off my game right now."
"Then hurry and get on it," Raine's voice commanded.
"There you are," Shaad exclaimed with mock surprise. "I assume one of you was the trouble below deck."
Raine looked to him with a questioning expression, but any statement from either side was immediately foregone as a hatch on deck was flung open and three members of the raiding party were forcibly expelled.
"Seriously, how did I miss that?" Shaad stared at the hatch incredulously, and watched as the ship's primary helmsman - a bald, muscular man with tribal tattoos covering most of the skin left exposed by the tank top and uniform pants ensemble - emerged from the passage.
With another capable fighter joining the raucous fray, Dahl tried to take advantage of the situation, aiming a thrust at Finn's midsection. Jax intercepted him, though, slicing through the open path with the blades of the trident. Darko's saber was knocked down with such force that he nearly lost his balance. But, planting his front foot, he spun on the pivot, carrying the momentum into a horizontal swipe aimed at Jax's exposed side.
However, the opening was a fake, and Jax quickly pulled back his trident, blocking the sword with the weapon's pole and countering with a strong, sweeping stroke. Darko, scrambling to dodge, fell to the deck and was immediately faced with the sharpened spear tip opposite the three prongs.
"Get out there!" Raine shoved Shaad's shoulder as quartermaster Dahl tumbled down.
"Vega."
In a flash, Vega's 'claw' was between Jax and Dahl, the hard metal deflecting the vicious attack. A hard left hook caused Jax to stumble. Vega followed, claw first. But, as Finn interfered with a punch of his own, an explosion blew Vega back. Landing on his feet after a graceful backflip, Vega waited, unconcerned with the harried fighting just off to the side.
"Vega, take out that trident user; let Dahl handle their captain."
"And, what will you do?" Raine's temper flared with each passing second of Shaad's inaction.
"Watch," he answered nonchalantly. That earned him a hard slap upside the back of his head. "What?" Shaad turned, his sharp glare meeting with one even fiercer.
"I told you to get out there!"
"And, I sent Vega."
"I told you to go to keep them from damaging this ship further. Now, go!"
". . . I don't wanna."
"Y-You. . . Wh- Quit bein' lazy!"
"Not laziness. I just don't like Darko Douche." Shaad heard the snap of Raine's baton behind him. "Besides, I'm studying," he clarified.
Raine released a frustrated groan, closing the baton and sliding it into the thigh holster. Shaad thought he was in the clear, but a push kick to his back put him right in the thick of it instead.
Jax possessed impressive strength in his lean frame. With a surprisingly tight fighting form and his quick, chained movements, he was a tough match up for nearly anyone. But, it was the weight of his trident and the ease with which he swung it that most caught Vega by surprise.
Jax wore a pleased grin as Vega was pushed back, his expression unreadable behind the plain mask. Jax had failed to land a clean hit on the lithe fighter, but the impact of each block sent shockwaves through his whole arms. As with the fight against Shaad, though, Vega showed no adverse reactions. Each step remained crisp and fluid as Vega imposed his will on Jax's offense, a tactic he began employing only recently to dictate a fight even while on defense. Jumping back from a heavy downward swing, Vega mimicked the attack trajectory and pinned Jax's trident to the deck with the claw. Pushing off the polearm's length, he flowed that into a flip that landed him behind Jax.
Jax reacted almost immediately, ripping the weapon free with a roar and whipping its weight around. Even with his quick reflexes, however, he was too slow. Vega was again behind him, slipping the claw on as it spun in the air and bringing the three blade points down.
Meanwhile, Darko was eager to get his hands on the enemy captain unobstructed. "Raging Sea Slicer!" Darko rushed forward, his saber trailing behind. Ripping through the deck like a shark in water, he swung the blade up, just missing Finn's unfazed mug. The momentum of the devastating stroke carried Dahl off his feet, but with great ease, he turned it around, bringing the blade shooting down on Finn with both hands.
Finn's expression, though, told how little he thought of Darko and the fierce attack aimed at him. While his arms had been crossed, he unfurled them to counter Dahl's most recent combination and did so to injurious end.
Before his intended finishing blow could connect, quartermaster Dahl felt Finn's knuckles dig into the flesh beneath his ribs, breath racing to leave his lungs. The merchant officer was essentially suspended on Finn's clinched fist as the strike left Darko with mouth agape. But, the damage wasn't done.
As Finn could practically tickle the quartermaster's spine through his stomach, his body erupted in a large explosion. Finn pulled back the fist with a sneer and booted Dahl across the jaw. He was defenseless as the enemy captain approached his prone form. Darko's will, though, was greater than his strength and he gritted his teeth, rolling over to his front and lifting himself to his hands and knees. However, despite his efforts, he could only glare defiantly as Finn's fist came for his head.
"I feel like I've seen this scene before," Shaad remarked as he stumbled between the quartermaster and opposing pirate captain, catching Finn's fist firmly in his palm, unfazed by the explosion that followed shortly after. "You don't mind if I cut in, do you? I think your crew's dance partner might be a bit too active for 'em if you still wanna go."
His pride wounded from having been saved twice, Dahl looked over to where the two crews still raged in battle. Even with the injection of the ship's other officer, the helmsman and navigator Naki, they weren't faring too well as more and more pirates spilled onto the large vessel. They were being overrun; it was a testament to Morrigan's leadership that the ship hadn't fallen yet. Swallowing his pride, Dahl pushed to his feet and moved to fight with his crew, saber held tightly in hand. He would not be a detriment in the fight for this ship. That was his resolution, and he would die to uphold it.
"Now, where were w- boosh."
Raine nearly facepalmed as an explosive punch blasted across Shaad's jaw. Caught unexpectedly, Shaad took the full brunt of the attack. He turned back to Finn, a humorless expression on his face.
"Ouch."
The word was flat, devoid of feeling or emotion. But, the breathless exclaim that Finn released next was far from either. The speed and power behind the knee Shaad blasted into his midsection shot through the opposing captain like a high caliber bullet. Raine felt the resounding pressure of the strike from where she stood. Shaad's quick temper had already cost her one ship.
"Stop!"
Shaad reined in the umbrage he felt and lowered his balled fist. Shooting a look to Raine, he missed the explosive punch that buried itself in his ribs. He stumbled back and felt a second connect with his jaw. Finn was angry. The raiding captain threw combinations of hooks and haymakers at the reeling young man.
"You think you can look down on me!? . . I'm 'Boom Fist' Finn! . . I ate the Bomb Bomb Fruit. . . I have a bounty of 18 million beli," he boasted, continuing to rain down punches on Shaad.
Shaad had been backed against the ship's secondary mast. Each powerful punch that tenderized Shaad's toned flesh and muscles also shook the towering pillar he was pressed against. The reverberating blasts tore into the deck one after the other as the sound continued to ring out into the sunny sky, blending with the symphonic sounds of nature in an inharmonious cacophony. It was anyone's guess how long Shaad or the mast could hold out.
But, Raine noticed the brief grin Shaad flashed her way before eating another of the bone jarring fists. An annoyed growl rumbled in her throat at his audacity.
"Just finish him already," she groaned. "You hear me? Just -"
"Di~e!"
Finn was ready to end their little skirmish as well. With an emphatic yell, he rocketed his fist forward -jettisoned on by a series of explosions from his elbow - aimed directly at Shaad's head. Finn's entire arm erupted in the blast as his punch landed.
Shaad, though, caught the raging fist, muffling the impact of the explosion with his own power. His cocky smirk served to further enrage Finn, enough to bait the enemy captain into throwing a second, equally devastating strike. And, like the first, Shaad stopped it as well. Yanking his foe closer, Shaad delivered a brain rattling headbutt that put Finn on wobbly legs.
"I don't know why people always call me hard-headed," Shaad remarked, shaking loose a few cobwebs on his end. "That hurt. . . But, not as much as this."
Finn could feel his very bones succumbing to the overwhelming pressure being applied by Shaad's grip. Falling to his knees, the man worth 18 million silently pleaded for mercy.
"Come on, you're going the wrong way," Shaad chided as he pressured the man closer to the deck before flicking his wrists and launching Finn into the air, following closely along with a burst jump. "We're getting pretty high, now. But, you don't look like you're having fun." Shaad's tone was scary casual as the pair continued to rise, though both of their ascents slowed as gravity again took hold of them. "I bet that Devil Fruit you're so proud of can send people flying even higher."
Finn, on the verge of losing hope, saw no other option but resistance. His boastful pride compelled him to fight. He lashed out with a quick right, but Shaad easily knocked it aside. Raine had muttered a nearly inaudible thank you as Shaad threw Finn into the air away from both ships. But, that thanks quickly turned to curses as a hard left sent the defeated foe hurtling back down. Slamming through the entangled railings of both ships, Finn's body crashed into the deck of his ship.
Thanks to the angle, the overall damage from the rough landing was mostly superficial, but any hopes of the marauders' vessel being sea worthy after this battle went up in smoke as Shaad came down like an asteroid after the victim of this merciless assault.
"Your Fruit is actually quite strong; you don't deserve it."
Shaad's admonishment went unheard as the wind whipped heavily against the young man's face, the target of it unconscious down below. "No sword style: Final Judgment." Shaad's fist struck Finn's core. But, the impact carried through his entire body and his ship. Level by level, the wood beneath them creaked and splintered, splitting in half until the ship was completely ruptured in two and he lay battered and broken, completely helpless against the elements, on a fractured remnant of the ship's keel.
"Disengage the ships and push them all overboard." Morrigan's orders resounded among his men as they finished off the last of the raiders. They'd suffered significant losses, but they wouldn't complain. They knew it could've been worse (though they also knew it shouldn't have been that bad). Vega had already finished off his opponent, the body floating face down in the ocean with three gashes across the throat.
Shaad remained on the sinking pirate vessel for a short while even after the merchants had loosed it from The Mistress' Dream, standing over the split, a sneer still crossing his face as he looked at the battered pirate captain. "18 million. Don't make me laugh; mine's 20, and I haven't even done anything. . . Yet."