Kira is Kage

Lacus is Hikari

Except when they're together.

There's plenty of nautical terms in this naval battle chapter, so here's a terminology, quick and dirty:

Starboard: the right side of ship

Portside or Larboard: the left side of ship

Waterline: the line used to point how deep a ship's hull is submerged to the ocean

Hull: the body of the ship

Broadside: the side battery of the ship - the side of the hull, usually also used to refer weaponry of the ship

Deck: ship's floor

Superstructure: structures build on top of the ship's uppermost deck

Mast: the pillar where the sail of the ship are hung

Oars: used for rowing boats

Paddlers: steam power paddle used to paddle ships forward, it makes ship movement similar to tanks

Bow: forward part of the ship

Stern: the rear part of the ship – often times, this is also the weakest part of the ship

Crow's Nest: the spot where spotter scout the ocean

Gun, Cannon, battery: The boomsticks of the ship

NOTE:

"Doryaaaaaaaaaa!": normal talking

"Charge!": special case

'Darn!': thoughts

GWA HA HA HA! : Giant creature speech

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING!

Please… read and review

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A few days after his arrest by Courtney…

A cell full of straws… a jug of water and a piece of hard bread.

This is Raww's new room. He had no choice whatsoever. He defied the funeral days, staged an unofficial incursion into Orb lands and even got almost all of his men killed. And even though he knows the truth that one man was responsible for all this, there's just no way he could prove it. The evidence against him was overwhelming. The court had to disavow him and all his actions, denoting that he went rogue and all the high words of treason and betrayal… it all boils down to how they need someone to blame. It was either that, or they'll have Orb declaring war against them. If that happens, and the Alliance will surely piggy back Orb's retaliatory strike and that would see the end of the Zaft Empire in less than a year.

Raww sighed and sat. This is where he's supposed to spend the rest of his natural life. Then again, the respect he garnered over his military career does not disappear in one day, even with such disastrous loss now marring his otherwise spotless record. Everyone polite, everyone courteously offered their assistance. Some even encouraged him that victory and defeat are a common occurrence in war. There's just no way can someone win every time. For his part, Raww took no shame in this defeat. He lost honorably against a vastly superior foe, and he's content to simply wait and patiently think of a way for a rematch.

"Lord Klueze?" the warden, a female knight knocked the cell bar.

"Yes?"

"Here is your lunch, my lord."

Said lunch included a salted roast fish, some potato garnish, a glass of water, and to his disbelief, a croissant. It seems like it was ages since he saw his native pastry bread. "Merci, mademoiselle." He smiled in gratitude.

The Lady Knight quickly scurried away from the cell, cheek blushing furiously.

Raww blinked and chuckled. And then, as he took his unexpectedly lavish prisoner meal, he also took the summarized report of the frontline he asked some of his few loyal contacts to provide. One entry of the report caused him to spurt and choke on his water. "What the… Marco resigned?"

Raww remembered the red bearded veteran water knight. A veteran warrior that commanded great respect from his peers through his hard won victories and life experience. A rigid and stubborn traditionalist. When Ray Yuki brought the much needed revision to the Codex, he was one of the voices protesting it. In fact, more than once Raww and Marco had clashed in a disagreement over strategic decisions to take. Their last disagreement got so bad, they were about an inch away from full frontal physical brawl.

After that incident, Marco was reassigned as an instructor at Jachin Due. Raww had not seen what becomes of the grizzled Water Knight ever since. And now all the sudden this? 'Could it be…' Raww couldn't think of any other reason than his defeat had riled the elderly warrior into action.

Raww groaned and looked through the window of his jail. "Hrmmph…" A veteran naval officer, it should be little difficulty for Marco to track that gigantic ship. What worries Raww, is what he would do once he get there. Undoubtedly, he will try to attack, provoking Kage.

Raww clanked his jail bar to call in that warden. With any luck, she should still be within earshot. "Mademoiselle? Mademoiselle, are you there?"

Luckily, she is. "Yes, Lord Klueze?"

"I need a paper and quill."

The request was fulfilled within moments. Raww start writing a letter.

'Marco, I pray this reach you before you make contact with our newest but deadliest enemy.

By now, the news of my ill fated operation had undoubtedly become your knowledge. I do not know what you have heard, but take heed. What happened in Archangel was not by accident. It was by design of one man, Kage. Perhaps a mistake of nature that gave the brightest of minds the world has ever seen to someone with so black of a heart, but it's no mistake that with it, he handed me an eye opening and humbling defeat.

Kage isn't an opponent that you can tackle with conventional rigid wisdom or by the book approach. Forget what you think you know, forget conventionality and most of all: forget the codex. Abandon your preconceptions on what make sense and what the codex allow and disallow. A straight forward approach will only lead to self destruction. Also, deriving from my recent defeat, and my own personal direct conversation with him, I have come to develop a reasonable suspicion to assume that not only Kage seem to know of Codex Compliant engagements inside and out by the letter, he may also have developed ways to counter them as well.

There have been indeed precedence of Alliance Captains and officers to stole our Codex and attempted to outsmart our army by studying its content. Coded in poetry and philosophical jargons, only an Advanced can fully decipher its content. Even if the Naturals could decipher it, it's practically useless for them, for they have not our physics and bloodline abilities needed to utilize it, the wit to fully comprehend its content also escape them. Then again, neither have we. Throughout our long history, there have been very few of our kind, including the greatest of our intellectuals, who were able to fully utilize the tactics of the codex to its maximum effectiveness. I know for certain that there are only three among us who have been able to do so. The first is George of Glenn, the patriarch founder of our empire, and the creator of the Codex. The second was the late legendary Knightmaster, Ray Yuki, who understand it quite well enough to revise it, with the aid of the third and brightest of them all, the Grand Priestess Lennore Zala.

As for myself, I do not think I deserve to stand as equals to these intellectual titans for, as my disastrous defeat had clearly shown, it was clear that I still had yet to fully comprehend the teachings of the masters. That does not change the fact that this world is full of hidden talents and unexpected geniuses. And while I cannot fathom if there are any amongst our enemies who can do what we cannot, to discount such a possibility would be folly. As heretical this may sound to you, I had a strong belief that Kage will be the very first of these enemies. The first to not only fully master the Codex, and may even use it against us, possessing a working actual knowledge to counter, if not outright surpass them. How can he do this escapes me, but the proof is irrefutable. There's just too many of this new but deadly adversary that we do not know. He's an unknown quantity that we cannot hope to challenge without proper preparations.

Said proper preparation is being made ready as we speak. A large fighting force is being assembled in light of these recent events. A battle is coming. A battle larger than anything ever recorded in the long history of this war. Marco… you and I may not always see eye to eye… but we are both servants of the Empire, and members of the Advanced race. And in that spirit I asked you to forgo our past enmity and humbly beseech you to take my counsel: postpone your expedition and return to Jachin Due, and prepare your forces for this coming conflict. In times such as these, the Empire cannot risk unflinching valor and precious experience to be lost, yours most of all.

Humbly yours,

Raww Le Klueze

Fellow Servant of the Empire.'

Finishing the letter with his signature, he handed the letter to the Warden. "Mademoiselle. Please send this to Lord Marco Morassim with all due haste. Time is of the essence!" The Warden understood and left quickly.

'Marco, I hope you're calm enough to read that message to the end.' Raww sighed.

Chapter 39

Masters and Students

Days later…

Present time…

Fortunately, Raww's contacts managed to fulfill his expectations and his message reached Marco in time.

Unfortunately, that was after Marco witnessed the brutality Kage had committed to his Hassansins. By the time the message that Raww wrote reached Marco by way of an Avian Zoan messenger a few weeks later, Marco's mind is anything BUT calm. Raww's heartfelt plea sound more like a loser's heretical ramblings and he didn't even bother finishing the letter upon reading the word: forget the Codex. Flying into rage at that point, Marco tore the letter into pieces and drove the messenger away under the threat of death.

One of Marco's lieutenants frowned at the torn letter. The second paragraph was indeed blasphemous, but the first paragraph… a man of Raww's stature and caliber would so humbly admit defeat, acknowledging the superiority of his opponent to such degree… Kage was that skilled? "My lord? While I do not support Raww's blasphemous rant of the Codex to be ignored… you think he's right? That Kage was able to orchestrate all that disastrous loss we have heard? All those deaths that seem like a plague' death count… it was all orchestrated by this one man?"

"NONSENSE! The Codex is absolute and infallible! Our founding father, George of Glenn had written the way, provided we have the wit to understand it. In which we do! Those barbaric half-wit naturals could not stand against us!" Raww's letter attempted to calm Marco ended up doing the exact opposite. Now Marco became more determined than ever to win, right here, right now. That would prove not only his worth to the world, but also his superiority over Raww. By then, the crow nest reported something that reaffirm his resolve that he can do this.

"Prepare supper! We march as soon as we're done!"

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At the underside dock, soldiers and troopers are now busy putting what Kage had debriefed them into action. One soldier in particular was hiding in a dark corner, fiddling with a book he took from the corpse of the dead Hassanssin who obviously no longer had any need of it. Said book being the infamous Codex.

They've always known that Zaft knights lived and breathe this stuff. But… he's always curious as to what exactly is inside it. Who knows? Maybe he can learn a thing or two. But when he opened and read its content, it was filled with jumbled nonsensical word that doesn't make sense. He couldn't even begin to wonder on how you even read it! There's no grammar, there's no structured paragraph, just a bunch of jumbled numbers and alphabetical chaos. 'What the…'

"I wouldn't bother laddie."

The soldier gasped and instinctively and futilely hid the book behind his back. It was Lockon, smiling kindly at the soldier. Said kind smile allayed the soldier's fear. He showed the Codex in his hand. It was old and beaten up. "The content just… doesn't make sense."

Lockon chuckled. "Come now. We're talking about a strategy book that once helped the Advanced establish their nation. You think Zaft would just let their 'Hitchhiker's guide to build a country' to be read so easily by unwanted eyes?" Lockon asked for the book and the soldier handed it to the superior officer, slightly dejected.

"Sorry sir… I just thought…"

"Hey. Everybody wants to be as smart as our captain. But take heart laddie. You're not the only one who failed. The Advanced had coded the book in such a way, only another Advanced know how to read it. Unfortunately, no Advanced would be willing to share on how to read it without at least an hour in a torture rack. At least not to Naturals… and there's no guarantee they told us the truth."

"If only there's an advanced who's willing to teach us…"

"Ha, ha, yeah that's a thought."

It was obvious no one (safe few certain people) in Archangel that had yet to realize that there's ONE particular Advanced here who had been teaching them tons of things. Though they may not be codex compliant…

Kage looked at a beaten up codex in his hand, gazing silently at the jumbled letters. It was not a blank stare of confusion, but rather a focused gaze of someone who really took something in. 'Chapter 1, the basic tenets of Emerald knights, chapter 2, the Ascension of Knighthoods, chapter 3, Knighthood, their duties and honor to Emperor and Country, chapter 4: Road to Nobility and their Protocols… the fuck is this shit?'

That was when he heard someone cleared his throat. He turned and saw Mwu, Hikari, Canard and a pale faced George, looking at him, as if asking permission to intrude his space. Kage nodded.

Looking at the Codex in his hand, George blinked. "Kira-kun you can… you can read that book?"

"Hmh? You mean this? Yeah. I need some light reading anyway."

"Light?" George twitched nervously. "Kira-kun, Alliance Decoders tear their hair day in nights out trying to figure out the method to read that puzzle of a book and you read it so casually as to call it LIGHT reading!?"

"Well, rereading something you've already memorized to the letter doesn't really take that much brain power no?" Kage tapped the codex to his head while noticeably smirking behind his mask, leaving George's jaw on the floor. 'Oh lordie… I know that kid is a genius but this is just…'

"I've seen it multiple times: Alliance captured Knights to be interrogated on how to read the book… there are some who cracked under pressure… but even with tidbits we learned they never been able to get very far with that book."

"Zaft developed multiple methods to read this book as safety measure. There was never just one way to read it." Kage explained. "And even the knowledge of how to read the book was divided in accordance to rank. For example, Emerald Knights were only given specific info on how to read the book up until to a certain chapter. Hassansins were only given info to read a few other chapters related to their deadly arts… when they became Elemental Knights, they were given permission to read further chapters of the book. Only a Hakutenkun are allowed its full contents."

"The first…(koff) the very first Codex was created by George of Glenn, (koff) and it has none of that codes and mimicry. (koff)" Hikari added. "The original book is now a treasure of literature. (koff) A legend among academics across the world, (koff) Naturals and Advanced alike, (koff) famously known as 'the Book That Created an Empire'. (koff) Regrettably, the book was lost during the breakout of the Librarian Works. (koff)"

"How far can you read that book, Kiddo?" Mwu curiously looked at Kage.

"What do you think?"

Mwu rethink his question, taking into account his student's genius level intellect… he shook his head. Why would he even bother? "…forget I asked."

Lacus had little doubt that Kira had fully mastered the Codex ins and outs. Having been taught by two greatest Hakutenkun level genius masters of the Codex, fully memorizing and understanding the said strategy book would've been like the very first of the prerequisite.

Kage looked at the book and then he tossed the book away to the ocean, much to George's surprise. "Kira-kun! Why…"

"That book is useless. The current Codex had been greatly revised. That Codex was the old version, and though the strategies inside are pretty good… they're useless in the current times. Quite frankly I'm shocked that there are still warlords out there that still rely on that thing… much lest abide by it so strongly."

"Revised?"

"Artillery combats-" Kage explained. "-as well as updated response actions to both Zaft and Alliance latest technological advances. You might recall… cannons are a new arsenal for Zaft military that they have developed only recently. And remember, the Codex was first designed during the era where Alliance Troopers are still fighting with one shot reload rifle and horse drawn cannons. But now… the Alliance had kept upgrading and updating their gears and strategies. The old version of the Codex won't cut it anymore."

"Regardless, from what little we have gleaned from that book, the strategies are potent, even if it's already outdated…" Meanwhile, George took one more look at the hanging burning corpses and after a moment, he choked and start vomiting. "Though… is this… corpse hanging… is also a little something you get from that book?"

"Nope. It's my personal touch." Kage looked at George's pale complexion with genuine sympathy. "If the sight is too much for you, may I recommend you go back inside, where it's safe?"

"No… (cough) (wheeze…) I need… to… talk…" George looked at the burning corpses again and strengthened himself. "I just… I know I'm not experts in combat and tactical warfare… however… I must ask this… as one human to another. How is it that you find it in yourself to do such…" George looked at the headless burning bodies of the hassansins and added. "…cruelty?"

"How?" Kage merely shrugged. "Because I know it's effective, that's how."

"So as long as it works, you don't care what methods you will use, is that it?" George retorted. "Such result oriented principle. With the end justifies all means! What would future generations think of you?"

"They will think I'm a monster. A man butcherer. A sinner to the world. They will hate me, they will despise me, sully my name, spit on it, and if I try, they might even curse it till judgment day." Kage smiled solemnly at the burning corpse. "That's perfect. That would give them reason NOT to follow my example." Kage's answer shocked George. "I'm an Advanced. And I'm killing my own kind, and there were once a time when doing so gave me the most horrid of nightmares. Now I can do it so easily without even a single shred of remorse or pity. Even if I do this the right way, my hands have been forever stained by monstrous deeds of murdering my own kind. Why should I even care on how I'm going to do things from here on out?"

George's eyes widened. "Kira-kun… you…"

"I'm okay to be demonized." Kage smiled solemnly, as if accepting his fate. "I will die in the most horrible way possible. That's a given. Let future generation use my horrible life's work as a cautionary tale of what happened to those who walk this path." Kage glanced at George with eyes closed in upward curve. "And I'm Kage right now, so please keep that to yourself." Kage nodded off.

George gasped. 'Unbelievable… is this really… does such words really came from a young boy barely half my own age? This is… this is no longer the words of a warlord… to see and think of future generations and do this much…' George swallowed a gulp. Suddenly, Kage's sitting figure looked incredible massive that he dwarfed even George. 'Huge… this boy… is really huge!'

The same thought also ran across Mwu's mind. 'The scariest part, is that he's still growing. More… he'll get bigger and bigger!'

Kage turned to Hikari. He may not be able to see it, but somehow, Kira can imagine Lacus was pouting at him. He can tell she was glaring at him the whole time, as if trying to remind him that's he's still under quarantine. "Hey, Doc."

Hikari looked at Kage.

"Tell me honestly. How bad is my state of being?"

Everyone looked at Hikari, wondering the answer as well. "15 minutes. (koff)"

Everyone gasped.

Hikari first explained the basic dynamics by motioning the veins on her arm. "Inside our body, there are veins that transport and carry blood. There are hundreds of such veins inside our body. Now, as for the blood. Blood has certain function it fulfills when a body became injured. They harden and clot together, forming a membrane on the wounded part." Lacus raise her hand. "When say, you get a cut, at first blood will flow profusely right? But then, after a while, the blood will stop flowing. That was because the blood that flows began to harden and clot, closing the wounds. And then after that, the body will began to automatically attempt to close the wound, reforming new skin, reconnecting muscle strands, the likes. Human body is amazing that way, right?"

Everyone nodded. Dumbly though.

"Well… I just talked about external wounds… but human blood will react pretty much the same way on internal injuries. And Kage-kun, that's what happened to you, specifically your head area. And it's not yet healed yet. During battle, blood rushes faster into your brain through your blood veins due to great stress. At normal state, your blood vein is strong enough to handle the stress… However… the veins in your brain right now is a total mess. There are blood clots flowing inside your veins. They can easily clog your blood vessels during such times. When that happens… it'll be like an overstuffed balloon being force-fed with water until they pop." Hikari explained "You can only directly fight full power for 15 minutes at tops. (koff) Beyond that… and I fear your blood vein will rupture… and… then brain hemorrhage… not even you will survive that. (koff)"

And in response to that, Kage only chuckled. "Fine. That's more than enough time to bring them all down anyway." And then Kage suddenly stood up and cracked his neck, as if preparing for combat. That was when everyone's attention was redirected to where Kage was gazing. And then, as if on cue…

BOOM!

"That sound… that's not Gottfried cannon…" George frowned. "That's…"

"Tristan Cannons." Kage lunged at the elder Allister and pushed him down. Just in time, as moments later, a section behind where the Allister's head had been was blown by a cannonshot.

"WHOA!" Fact is, George can even barely make out the shape of a fused cannonshot passing right above his nose. The shot exploded and blown a section of the structure behind them in a shower of wood splinters. Mwu and Hikari also instinctively duck for cover. When he regained his bearings, the first thing George did was patting Kage on the head. "Kira, my boy, what would I do without you?"

"Like I said…" Kage glared to the direction where the cannonfire came from. "Address me as Kage when I'm like this!" He can make out a fleet of ships coming towards them… Zaft Battle Barges. 4 of them in fact. Kage blinked in surprise. "Only 4? That's so much less than what I thought!"

"Uhh…" Honestly, George had no idea.

"They followed you. I don't know how, they followed you. Get down!" Kage yelled: "BATTLE STATIONS! ALL HANDS ON BATTLE STATIONS!" The battle barge suddenly began launching their salvo of cannonballs at the said gigantic ship. The cannonballs bounced harmlessly against the metal plated armored hull. But, the incomplete fortress superstructures are still made of woods and stockades and they are getting much of the damage. The crew of the barges realized this, as the next salvo was aimed high, avoiding the lower armored hull. No easy task really, with the superstructure is practically a few stories taller than even their barges. But the shots still managed to get through.

BOOM!

Meanwhile, Kage's order was quickly relayed to allover the ship in a blink of an eye. Within minutes after the first shot was heard, all soldiers jumped out of their relaxed state into battle ready and run allover the ship to their preset stations. Other soldiers directed the civilians to evacuate into a deeper safer internal structure of the central section. There's only one wrinkle:

The cannoners who reached their cannons, ready to operate it and open fire suddenly realized: "We don't have a single fuckin thing to shoot at them!"

"You what?" George looked at Kage in disbelief.

"We used up all our ammunition to blast our way out of that half assed blockade." Kage groaned. "Those cannons are just decorations now. And this ship… is now just an oversized metallic coffin."

BOOM!

"Oh my goodness." George gulped just as another barrage of shots zoomed over his head.

"Get down. I will not have this as your coffin." Kage and George began crawling across the wood splinter covered metallic floor as they stay down the line of fire. Mwu and Hikari also duck down, showered by splinters and wood.

"Maybe it's a small fast attacking team!" Mwu theorized.

"In that case, 4 ships are too small of a number. There are two possibilities: "Either the commander really got an insane courage… or… they have other ships hidden around here somewhere."

BOOM!

"Insane courage?"

"Hey, the only people within distance I know would dare to crazily charge into a ship this size with only that number is you and me." Kage pointed at Mwu and then jerked to himself. "Then again, they'll need some genius brain to back it up."

Mwu joked. "A genius like you?"

BOOM! BOOM!

"Don't get me started; I can name a few people who can outsmart me! Let us pray not one of them is inside that fleet." Kage steeled himself up, overcoming the shock of the surprise attack and calmly analyze the situation. Four ships appearing out of nowhere from the mist that suddenly appeared around them. "That mist… I don't think that's a natural mist."

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True enough, aboard one of Marco's ships…

A knight that looked as if he was made of mist from the top of his head to the tip of his toe kept bursting mist from every inch of his body. Slowly and surely, the mist expands, encircling the Archangel. "I should be able to envelop them in mist in 5 minutes, Lord Marco."

"Good. Keep firing!"

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"In 5 minutes that mist will reach us." Kage grinned behind his mask. "There's a Logia on that ship that produce those mists. That mist will engulf us, and significantly limiting our sights."

"Even if we have ammunition, we will not be able to fire back if we can't see them, can we?"

But Kage chuckled suspiciously. "It would be too good if it only ends with only our line of sight being robbed."

George paled. "What do you mean?"

Seemingly ignoring the question, Kage simple added lightly. "But with this, it's clear. They hid more ships behind those mists."

"More ships?"

"Yep. They'll keep shelling at us under the cover of the mist until it completely covered us. We got 5 minutes to act before then!"

"What now Kid? We don't plan for that Mist."

"No we don't…" Kage squint his eyes, his temple frowning, straining his brain to come up with solution. Seeing the stressed look in Kage's eyes clearly made Lacus worried. 'Kira… remember don't get too stressed out…'

Kage ended the stress by snapping his finger. "Fuji."

"Eh?" Everyone blinked, hearing the name of the said giant.

Kage grabbed George by the collar and quickly dragged him back in to safety. The plan has been set in motion anyway. Mwu and Hikari also crawled away, avoiding the cannonfires. "Come on! Come on!"

BOOM!

"Mwu-san! We're going to the Underside Dock! I just hope the men had finished the preparation in time! Urgh!"

BOOM!

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Meanwhile, on the attacking Zaft ships, the captain and the crew had begun to realize that the Archangel, even though its cannons were out, are not firing back. Not even when they start aiming at the vulnerable upper superstructure causing much damage. That's when they start having their suspicion. "Say… that gigantic ship… could it be that it's… unarmed?"

"Unarmed!? They got hundreds of Gottfried cannons protruding out there!"

"Yeah, but it isn't firing. Even with this much barrage…"

Marco Morassim also observed this peculiar situation. Rubbing his red beard, he quickly had an epiphany. "It's a ruse. That ship must've used up all of its ammunition breaking out of Raww's naval blockade… it hadn't had the chance to resupply! Ready your grappling hooks and boarding towers!"

The Knight looked at Marco in surprise. "Boarding action, my lord?"

"Yes. Boarding action! Without ammunition, those cannons are just decorations now. There will be nothing inside but Militia who can offer very little to no resistance. We take 'em out man to man, and we will have that gigantic dreadnought as our prize, and a member of the Logos list to boot!"

"But my Lord… what if Kage sneak the Logos away during the time it'll take for all that preparation?"

"Worry not." Marco motioned at the encroaching mist nearing the Dreadnought. "Pretty soon, he will have no place to hide."

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Meanwhile, aboard the Archangel…

Kage and Mwu had finally reached the Underside Dock.

The Soldiers had just finished the preparation of the plan that Kage had discuss with them in lengths. They began fastening the Lear and its two Destroyers Escorts to the Underside Dock. The soldiers had been briefed of Kage's plan earlier and worked double time to make sure everything is in order… that was when Kage surprised everyone by saying:

"We're changing the plan."

"EERGGHH!?" Everyone gaped. "But Boss!?" "After everything we did!?" "Changing all the preparations…!?" "It took us hours…!"

Kage blinked and raised his hands silencing the protest. "Sorry… A slip of a tongue… I mean: we're modifying the plan a bit." Kage yelled up: "FUJI!"

A short rumbling later and Fuji showed up from above. "Yes, Captain?"

"Stand by and keep me informed of that mist will you?"

"Mist…" Fuji looked and saw what Kage meant. The mist is approaching unnaturally towards the Dreadnought at a very fast rate. "Yessiree… but those mist are closing in on us real quick, ETA… 3 minutes… maybe 2."

"Thank you Fuji. Well, as he says, we don't have much time, so I'll put this as simple as I can. Listen and think fast."

Everyone heard… and they gulped. Their captain is as crazy as a loon as ever… but he's as sure as hell ain't stupid.

"You know… with this plan, we risk catastrophic damage to the Archangel." Murdoch noted.

"Name me one thing aboard this ship that you haven't been able to fix, my dear lieutenant!" Mwu grinned in complete confidence.

"You keep doing overboard things like this, and you may found out." The mechanic groaned. Looks like they're about to get an overtime, again.

"Let's not dawdle, people! Move out!" Kage roared.

"HOO-AH!" The soldiers responded in unison.

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The mist swiftly approached the Archangel and now they're about a breath away. Protected under the cover of the mist, is Marco's fleet, 4 from earlier approaching from the left, another 4 approaching from the back… and an additional 4 ships, kept away as reserve but called in by Marco earlier night for a full on assault, are waiting in ambush somewhere in the mist.

The Archangel was completely surrounded and there's little they can do to prevent the mist from finally engulfing them all in a very thick mist. Just as Kage had predicted, everyone could barely see what's in front of them.

The Mist Logia aboard the enemy Barge get to work immediately. The Mist moved more haphazardly, slithering around like a sentient snake, coiling across every nook and cranny, seeping through the tiniest crack, the most minuscule of seams, every hole, every crevice, all were engulfed by said Mist.

Every Alliance aboard the ship gulped as they sweat buckets.

The regular Troopers, lying down on their backs in their stations, were all as horrified as they could hear the never ending sound of cannon shot on the outside. Praying to every god they know for survival, they notice some strange thing… chief among them: the militia soldiers looked quite calm. They sweat buckets alright, but all that is happening, they're still smiling. Some were even picking their nose as if they're just having a relaxation.

"Aren't you guys scared at all?" The troopers looked at the soldier in disbelief.

The said soldier looked at the tense Troopers. "…why? We're quite protected here."

"Didn't you listen to your captain's plan? That plan is insane! And he's bat shit insane!"

"You think so?" The Soldier chuckled. "Hear that boys? He called our captain insane!"

The soldiers snickered.

"What the hell are you laughing at?"

"My advice for you buddy? Give it up and stick to whatever he told us to do. We all have given up hoping that some sanity will ever find its way to Captain Kage's mind. Truth be told, we kinda hoped that it never will. Cause he make one hell of a captain when he's insane."

"I mean… what kind lunatic of a captain who called in two separate invasions just to train his division? I mean, SHIT! We were scared shitless when an army of 100,000 knights and mercenaries coming towards us and he make salt in the backyard. We got thousands of those flame pukin Exorcists chargin at us and he blew up the whole section of the fortress wall to make a hell of our day!" The Soldiers chuckled as they listed the number their captain had done to them. "Bat shit insane? That guy is a certifiable psychopath! But you know what? He's our kind of Psychopath!"

"Yeah. Cause when he's sane…" One soldier noted. "He's as scary as hell." Every soldier gleefully snorted in agreement.

The troopers twitched in disbelief.

The chatter suddenly stopped when Canard barged in and slapped their heads. "Shut yer god-damn hole or I'll put ya'll in one!"

"Yes sir…" Everyone peeped.

Meanwhile the Mist Logia began to work things out, closing his eyes, concentrating… feeling everything.

Canard looked up to the wooden ceiling. 'Heh… scan away you Zaft fuckers…'

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The Mist Logia blinked. "Hulo… what's this…?"

All knights looked at the Knight.

"I'm detecting a large mass right at the center of the ship. Something big. A mass of people, I think. They left other parts relatively unguarded; everyone was concentrated on the central structure of that giant ship." The Mist Logia looked at Marco, awaiting his assessment of his report.

"I see…" Marco rubbed his beard. "That's how it is. They intend to concentrate their forces on the center, holding it out in the cavernous narrow deeps of that fortress."

"So they really foresee that we will board that ship?"

"This changes nothing. It only shows our enemies are not entirely brainless."

"How are we going to deal with this my Lord?"

"Codex chapter 3, verse 276: 'When they hide, we smash open their bulwarks.' Tell other ships, concentrate all fire on the central superstructure where they congregate." Marco smirked. "We'll force them into the open. If they still holds… well… at least we'll remove their trenches."

And so all 8 ships concentrate their fire, showering the center structure where the huge heat mass was detected. The 4 extra ships did not fire, waiting for orders and to maintain their element of surprise.

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Inside the ship…

The rumblings of the Archangel Super Structure being devastated up above reached all the way to where Kage and the rest were on standby.

"Sensor type Logia?"

"That's right." Kage nodded. "A Logia's body is composed partially of elements. When they expand their element, it's like their body enlarged and spread apart, the elements became some kind of extended limb. In some particular Logia, like the one we're facing, their elements allowed them to perceive whatever's happening when their expanded 'limb' touches something… or someone. Think it like… being swallowed inside the giant body of the Logia. At which, the Logia can then sense the movements and troop positioning of our soldiers within their 'body'"

The soldiers and troopers shirked. So… they're practically being swallowed whole by some freaky elemental Advanced.

"How do you know that there's a sensor type?"

"By rule of the Codex, when a strike force has limited amount of standing force, they are not allowed to enter into unknown territory without waiting for proper support, the exception to that is when they possess sensor type bloodline limit amongst their ranks: one sensor type for each squad and their backup, or depending on the bloodline, one exceptionally powerful sensor type for the whole army in central command, added with another sensor team as backup, second best, but again, greatly dependant on the Bloodline limit."

"How do you know there will be only just one Sensor Logia?" One of the Soldier moaned.

"Logia are the rarest of the bloodline limits. That said, you guys have any idea how rare a Sensor Logia type is?" Kage smirked. The soldiers nodded in understanding. "If there weren't any of that sensor guys… I wouldn't modify our plan to make you guys do this. Sorry."

"…and the Backup?" Another soldier asked.

Kage frowned. "Well… about the backup… what you guys can do… is pray."

"Pray?" The soldiers looked at Kage.

"Pray there's none of the Backup Sensor type whose bloodline limit can penetrate the plan." They all stare incredulously at the captain. "…I never said it wasn't a gamble." Kage groaned.

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True to Kage's word, despite his anger, Marco kept a relatively cold head. He knew the need for more information about the enemy, but he did launch a campaign without consent of the Empire, and thus, he had very little support from the HQ. He doesn't have time to stock up on enough number of necessary units… but he did make sure he stock up on the most important bloodline limits. Sensor type being at the top of his list. Thus a backup team of sensor type Knight was called. And there are only 2 such knights. 1 backup in his ship, the other backup is amongst the other 4 ships that just arrived.

The first knight…

The Knight's eyes transformed into green with yellow veins. He gazed the ship. And what he got… "…there aren't much movements. It's like they're scared stiff at the center of that ship."

"Movements." Marco repeated.

"My ability allows me to detect movements with my eyes. If there's something that moves, I'll know right away. But now I'm not seeing that many movements. It's a bit difficult with all this mist, but really not much problem for me."

Meanwhile, a messenger bird, bloodline controlled to carry a message report arrived from another ship hosting the second backup sensor knight. Marco took the message containing the report of the next backup sensor knight. Said Knight is also eye type paramecia, capable of seeing things by their temperature "The report stated there's a really big thermal blob at the center of that ship. So big in fact it blurred everything else. Even with all that mist, all humidity… Based from what they see… 3… 4,000 men. No less."

Everyone looked at Marco, but the elderly Knight simply nodded in approval. "Nevertheless…" Marco concluded. "All three of our observation reports point out that our enemy is concentrated at the center of the ship. With 12 battle barges… we have roughly over 600 Knights, over 50 of them are Elemental Knights, veteran every single one of them, each can take on soldiers 10 times their number. We are at an overwhelming advantage. What matters now is speed."

As if on cue, the Archangel's chimney roared as the ship began to move. Noticing this, Marco quickly ordered: "Don't let them get away, Full speed ahead boys!"

The Barges unfurled all their sales and sailed on full speed. The Archangel braved the Mist and charged straight on into it.

Marco smiled in delight. "Ha! They went straight into our trap. Maintain the Mist!"

"Yes my Lord!"

The Archangel sail blind in the mist. The crew (Seemingly) was unaware that Marco had brought in 4 extra ships, hidden in the mist. The Archangel however moved surprisingly fast for something so immensely huge, recklessly wading into the mist.

"Damn… for something so bilge swellingly huge, that ship is fast."

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Marco groaned. "Let me remind you that they stole a ship that was crafted and forged by a country known to possess the most powerful navy in the world." The elder knight smirked. "That's why we make plans for everything."

The four reinforcement ships that Marco brought finally take action, waiting in amidst the mist for the Dreadnought to come their way. And indeed, the Archangel maintained its course towards exactly where Marco had predicted that they will come, completely unaware of the impending surprise attack. The four ships had also timed their speed and timing perfectly, and the crew easily read the Archangel's direct approach. The ship really is only going desperately straight! This is easy…

Inevitably, and predictably, the 4 ships finally closed the distance and rammed the Archangel head on from the Archangel's forward starboard side. Their built in siege towers smashed the railings of the Archangel's deck. While it produced quite a loud sound, the Archangel was barely affected even when it has 4 fully loaded Barges slammed home. But it does stop the ship from moving any further.

As soon as the Siege Towers opened up, Knights pouring in, swords and shields at the ready. The Mist had begun to clear up, and the Knights can see clearly, searching for their enemy. All they saw are ruins of the Archangel super structure shot to hell. Out for blood, they charged straight into the ruins, thinking the enemy hid using the ruins as makeshift bulwarks.

The other ships continue to approach the dreadnought in all due haste.

Just one thing:

After a while trudging and ransacking the splintered timbers and shattered wooden logs… the invading Knights had yet to found a single soul. "What the… where are they?"

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Meanwhile, while the Knights' are busy trudging through the ruins up above…

Very few Knights remain on guard the Barges, but they remain constantly on alert. But then, from around the ship… right around the Archangel's waterline border… Alliance Soldiers start popping out of the sea surface around the edges of the Archangel's hull and start swimming towards the latched Barges. 400 strong Soldiers, led by Kage, Canard, Mwu, Prayer, Milly, Neil, Murrue and Karren; all have been hiding underwater, holding their breaths for several minutes, holding on for their lives to the rope tied to the Archangel's rimming at the bottom of the hull across the waterline, holding out against the waves, the freezing water… between that and the Barges ramming at them at such speed and force, it was a miracle, Kage noted, that they all actually make it. The various desperate battles Kage had forced upon them had clearly done its wonderful job forging them into battle hardened veterans.

Slowly, and quietly, the swimming soldiers approached the 4 barges. Kage and Karren took one ship, Mwu and Neil took one ship, Canard and Milly took one ship, Prayer and Murrue took the last ship.

And then, one by one the soldiers brought up crossbows, its bolts linked with rope. And taking their aim, they shot the arrow and nailed the Barge's railings. And then, quietly, one by one, the soldiers climbed the Barge's hull, passing through their broadsides. Some entered through the cannon gunports, others climbed all the way up to the railings. Kage, Mwu, Milly, Neil climbed ninja style: wall walk. One soldier's arrow however, snapped and the soldier fell into the water surface. But before he can scream, the soldier snagged on Kage's outstretched arm. The soldier breathes again and choked: "Thank you sir!"

"Sssh! Remind me to teach you guys wallwalking." Kage motioned another soldier down below to fire another cabled arrow.

"Appreciate it." The arrow was shot, and the Soldier timidly grabbed the line and start climbing again.

"Right, we got 2 minutes before the knights realized they've been duped."

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Duped indeed.

The boarding Sensor Knight couldn't figure, for the live of him, of why when they've penetrated THIS deep into the ship… and they haven't seen even a single soldier. While at the same time, his heat signature eye sensor is going nuts. By virtue of the heat alone, they should be seeing tons of people right now.

What he didn't realize, the heat signature doesn't come from a mass of soldiers…

It came from Fuji the giant, sweating crazily… as he struggled to hold on to the chains while hanging from the ceilings of the Archangel's underside dock, chest up on his arms and legs holding on to giant chains, the heat from his body being the true source of massive thermal blob in the Sensor knight's eyes and the true identity of the large mass that the Motion Sensor detected earlier. Fact is… Fuji's body was SO huge, he occupied roughly half of the ceiling of the Underside dock. His large size contributes further to the deception, creating an illusion of a vast army engulfing Archangel.

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And on the Barges, one by one, Kage and his men began taking over the ship. A knight who just got down from the hold was gutted dead by Neil's arrow straight to the eye. Another Knight tried to scream, but he was gored in the neck by Kage. Mwu cracked a knight's neck without a sound and put him in such a way, a passerby knight thought he was sleeping. When he approached to awake his friend he was gored to death by another well placed Kunai throw.

And the rest of the process went swiftly. The Knights guarding the ship was completely outmatched by the seated officers or otherwise outnumbered and unprepared. What's more, at that point, many of the knights had boarded the siege tower and now busy hunting for enemies that weren't there, several stories above on the Archangel's deck.

By the time the guarding Knights realized something was seriously wrong, it was too late. A knight suddenly saw Mwu rising from the dock hold, and he ran outside to warn his brethren. He opened the door, only to be welcomed by an arrow to the head by Neil. And then, still in that same quietness, the soldiers began dragging the Barge's armament: a single Tristan Cannon and pointed it, with Neil's direction, to the base of the forward siege towers. The same is happening on the ships. When all is in readiness, they all await a signal to fire on cue. 3 ships are ready, leaving just Kage's ship.

Unfortunately, he was not so lucky. Karren was still distraught over everything that's been happening for some time, and while she managed to slice a knight's chest open, she didn't land a lethal blow. She walked away passed what she thought a lifeless Knight… when suddenly he regained consciousness and let out a markedly audible scream that alarmed everyone. The Knights on the siege tower suddenly realized there are Alliance soldiers aboard their barges.

"What the…" The Knights gaped and they screamed. "PULL BACK! IT'S A TRAP!"

The other Knights still on the outside gaped. Quickly overcoming their shock they yelled to relay the message to the Knights currently walking around the base complex of the Archangel in its narrow passageways.

The Knights are returning earlier than expected, forcing Kage to quickly took over and finish it. Screw the cannons, he took out Shiki, transformed it into the Midori Shiki. The blade arrow bursting with green fire ready to explode, and Kage let go the arrow. The super weapon arrow more than compensate the cannon. With a thunderous roar, the siege tower was blown to pieces. That was like the signal for the other soldiers on other barges to do the same. "FIRE!" Mwu roared. "FIRE ALL!" Milly screeched! "FIRE ALL!" Everyone yelled, and the Tristan cannons roared.

BOOM!

And they all struck home. The siege towers were obliterated from bottom up. One by one, the towers toppled down into a cascade of wrecks.

The Knights looked at the destroyed Siege towers, and then to the decks of their Alliance occupied Barges down, so far down below. Kage just destroyed the only safe means for them to return to their ships. At this height, wearing their armor, they won't survive the fall. Which means over 200 knights are trapped in the starboard side of the Dreadnought.

Alas, by the time those 200 Knights realized something was wrong when they heard the explosion; that was when they noticed some particular weird talisman being strapped here and there along the hallways…

Kage and Mwu made a tiger seal and pronounced: "KATSU!"

The entire ruined upper structure on the starboard half side of the Archangel's central superstructure burst into flames, as the explosion roared and take out everything and everyone inside.

The Knights who looked at the explosion from their respective ships gaped. "Did he just blew up his own ship!?"

The Explosion power wasn't really big. Kage and Mwu wouldn't dare planting high explosives inside their own ship, risking too big of a damage on the ship's structure. But… you put a few dozen low yield explosives in a narrow corridor, tightly packed with Knights… the end results left behind very little remains but some bloody stains on the crumbling wall.

Kage sighed in relief the hardest part of his plan came through. Just one hiccup to evaluate… Kage's eyes glaring at the fumbled red haired female warrior named: "Karren! Concentrate! This is DO or DIE dammit!"

"Sorry, skipper." Karren gritted her teeth, angry at herself. This is a battle against time which she can't afford to lose. She had to FOCUS! "Won't happen again."

"You're sure!?"

Karren snapped her claws. "Damn sure!"

"Okay." Kage signaled the other ships to move to the second phase of the plan.

While the other knights of the remaining enemy fleet still wondering what the hell is going on, it was obvious to Marco something bad, something REALLY bad just happened. "FASTER! WE HAVE TO GET THERE SOON! CHASE THAT DAMNABLE SHIP, GOD DAMN IT!" The Hijacked Barges remained immobile, but it was obvious there is some activity going on in there. The Mist Logia Knight just couldn't get his mist figure out what's going on in that Barge. He's only sensing a lot of activity.

"How could you miss those soldiers climbing up our ships from their broadsides!?"

"I don't know! I never thought they'll hide underwater on the edges of ship's hull, that's insane!"

"Well, you're the Sensor for God's sake! You should've known!"

"How am I supposed to know something like that? I've never even heard anyone crazy enough to do something like this in the Codex!" The Sensor Knight gulped. "And I couldn't figure on what kind of explosive Kage used! I don't see anything, the wall just exploded like that!"

"QUIET! We still have a chance to win this! So don't fall apart yet!" Marco roared to silence the quarrelling Knight.

Meanwhile, back to the Archangel….

The soldiers aboard the hijacked Barges began cooperating back with the soldiers and troopers hiding in the ship. Their hiding place? Together with the rest of the civilians: in the cavernous freezer of the 6 salvaged Zaft merchant ships. The cold shielded their heat signatures and presence… a bit chilly, regrettably. But it's preferable over getting blown to pieces in the center structure. The soldiers quickly moved what they can from the barges: black powder, ammunition, weapons, shields… only what they can get in the limited time it took for Murdoch to jumpstart the relatively untouched Archangel's engine. The Troopers boarded the Archangel and start sweeping the ship clean of all Knights who may have survived the blast.

Mwu, getting back on board the Archangel, immediately made his way to the engine room, asking status of the machine. "Murdoch! Can she go!?'

"THE ENGINE'S friggin alright! She'll start even if that's the LAST thing I'll do!" Murdoch roared as he was NOT in a good mood. Howling mad is more like it. Which is understandable, considering Kage just blew up days worth of his work in a single morning. But he knows the plan, he knows it was necessary, and he's gonna stick to it. Doesn't make him any less mad though. "And you tell that crazy son of a bitch student of yours that he better come back alive so I can KILL him with my own hands!"

"Ahahaha! I'll be sure to pass it along!" Mwu laughed.

Momentarily, true to his words, Murdoch finally managed to get the engine restarted in a jiffy. The large spherical machine roared as the whole ship thrums with steam power. The giant exhaust chimney high above burst with black smoke, and the massive paddler began to spin. The battleship began to move again despite the massive damage on the starboard side. Only this time, they turn around. The Archangel detached the salvaged Merchant ship containing the civilians to keep them out of harm's way before they're heading TOWARDS Marco and his men. Flanking it were the hijacked Barges on the left, two battle cruisers and one pirate ship on the right, and one battle cruiser and two destroyers on the underside dock.

In short, all the sudden, 8 Zaft Battle Barges were outnumbered by 3 battle barges, 4 battlecruisers, 2 Destroyers, and one VERY huge Dreadnought… with a pair of Lohengrin cannons pointing at them. But the huge dreadnought was practically the least of Marco's concern; he knew that ship was completely unarmed.

Unknown to Marco, only one Battle Cruiser and the two Destroyers are fully armed, aside from the hijacked Barges. "What do you think My lord?" The Knights looked for Marco for directions.

Marco frowned, listing the chapters in the Codex that would fit this situation. "Concentrate on the strongest threat first. Our hijacked battle barges. Sink it!" With finality, Marco pointed at the barges. "Use the formation from chapter 11 verse 29! Attack speed!" And the 8 Barges, split into two groups of 4, march forward in two rows of ship, Marco being at the rear group. The forward four readied their Tristan cannons whereas the four on the rear prepared their Isolde artillery bombardment cannons for support.

However, all this was exactly as Kage had predicted. "As expected, they're targeting these barges." Kage narrowed his eyes, observing the positioning of the ships. "And they're using the two layer wall formation from Codex Chapter 11 verse 29."

"What was that supposed to mean?"

Kage smiled in triumph. "I'm saying that this guy is getting more and more predictable. Despite what I've done earlier to anger him, he was relatively calm and cool when he started, but now he's cracking. Badly. This battle is getting easier and easier by the minute." Kage quickly turned to the soldiers. "Are the preparations ready?"

"Aye, captain!" The Soldier readily responded, grinning like crazy.

"Then gave the order. Let's give those Zaft Knights their ships back."

"Aye, Aye!"

The 4 Hijacked barges sailed ahead of the impromptu fleet, heading straight at the incoming enemy fleet. The Zaft fleet readily responded with a concentrated cannon barrage upon the barges.

"That's awkward, I thought you said they're adherents to the old codex which doesn't factor artillery." Mwu observed the enemy's use of artillery from the roof of the Archangel's Bridge Tower together with Kage. "That just now is a proper use of artillery no?"

"The Codex also pre-determined the type of Bloodline Limits that should be available in a properly arranged army. Before the cannons, the role of artillery was supposed to be filled with those with tanking bloodline limit to absorb fire, and they protect long range heavy hitter bloodline limits at the back. If they compensate that with cannonfire, it's either the commander is more practical and less stubborn than I initially thought, or they kept them in reserve… or they simply don't have any of those."

"But you said this guy is a stubborn by-the-book kind a guy." Mwu rolled his eyes. "If you say this guy came here without the necessary components of his army, don't you think that's a bit too reckless for someone so staunchly locked to by the book approach?"

Kage looked at Mwu with widened delightful eyes, as if not expecting that from his sensei. "Why, Mwu-san… I never expected such intelligent question from you!"

"Hey, I can be smart if I want to!" Mwu huffed with a smile. "Plus, spending time with geniuses like you may have rubbed off on me… a bit."

Kage chuckled. "War strategies on paper are like beautiful equations. You crunch up numbers and you get an exact answer. But in practical sense, there's no control, there's no equation. In real life battlefield, you're dealing with unstable factors: human element. We're not dealing with chess pieces; we're dealing with humans, each with their own thoughts, their own reasoning, their own thinking, their own ego, and etc, etc… there's no control there. And that's why, predicting the flow of battle is a tricky business, involving quite a bit of a gamble. Things can go so many ways, and there's only so much possibilities that I can predict."

"And how many predictions you've made for this battle?"

"I'm not taking any chances. 10… 12 scenarios."

"Ri~ight." Mwu rolled his eyes in delight.

Meanwhile, the Hijacked Barges took the lead, shielding the other ships from the hail of cannonfire from the front, understandably, the barges took catastrophic damage. And yet, it doesn't fire back not even once, earning Marco's suspicion. Worse, the wind gauge is against them, the Hijacked barges are coming their way at full speed, all sails unfurled. "Sail shots! Fire at the main masts. Stop those bloody ships before they get closer!" The Gunners quickly corrected their aim and start firing at the barges' masts.

Kage noticed the time is near. "Keep the ship straight, get as close as you can to those four barges, and keep some room for maneuvering. Ready to drop the frontal starboard anchor! JUST the starboard anchor and slow down!"

Still shielded by the barges, the Archangel just kept going forward.

The Hijacked Barges are now halfway gone to hell. 3 had its mast ripped apart, the other only have one mast left and now it's barely standing. Despite the damage… to Marco's horror and confusion… they're still charging forward by way of momentum and swaying waters. "How can those ships still…" Shaking his head, he quickly sense danger. "Signal the forward ship, split up! Flank them!" The Knight nodded and waved flags to signal the forward ship.

But before the forward Barges can respond, a loud yell echoed across the battlefield:

"GERONIMOOOOOOOOOO!"

The roar came from Fuji… who used Archangel once again as a jumping platform and cannonball dived RIGHT behind the four hijacked Barges. A modified version of Kage's infamous maneuver during the battle of Archangel Gulf, the Poseidon's Trident… which is now being used to propel four pointed pitchfork of four barges. The wave generated by the splash quickly propelled the barges a notch forward, and at the same time, the wave also splashed against the Archangel's hull. The enemy barges had no time to dodge the sudden speed spurt and 8 barges collided one another in a spectacular mess. But if one to compare it with the destructiveness of the first version, it was significantly weaker in that the ships are still relatively intact despite the catastrophic damage.

"Back during the Archangel Gulf, the narrow canal of the gulf funneled all the water into a narrow corridor; it creates a stronger, faster push. Here, we're in the middle of the ocean… the wave gets dispersed, and the push is significantly weaker." Kage take one more look at the devastation caused by the collision, and Fuji who swim his way back to their side, making big strides with his long arms. Kage nodded him off as he passed them by for a job well done. Fuji swam and joined the civilians at the back. "But it does half the job."

"Then let's finish the other half." And as expected, Kage and Mwu made the now infamous and well known hand signal of: "Katsu."

And all the accumulated fish oil, gunpowder in the magazine, all the shots, and barrels of rum (AGAIN!? Murdoch roared) all strapped with explosive tags were set off all at once in a massive explosion, dwarfing even that of the Archangel's initial explosion. The four ships were ablaze, and with the direction of the wind gauge, the flame spreads to the other four ships in a flash. 8 Barges were turned into infernal wreckage in an instant. Knights partially burned or on flames jumped to the ocean. Some forgotten that they're still wearing their heavy armor when they jumped, thus they jumped into momentary watery salvation from the fire and into death by sinking in the ocean. Others were too burned to swim. Between the mighty crash, the fire, and the explosion… Marco had effectively lost 2/3rd of his fleet in a matter of half an hour into this naval battle, and he still hadn't done any damage beyond superficial wound.

And now, there are only 4 Battle Barges left and if one thinks about it, the enemy had not even fired a single shot. And just like Kage had suspected… Marco is clearly losing it. The first five minutes after seeing another four of his ships go up in flames, the elder knight was still in denial and now he didn't even know where to start with his oh-so-precious-codex.

In the meantime, Kage enacted the finishing touches of his master plan. "Turn around, arm the Portside Lohengrin, and drop the anchor on the Starboard side on my mark!" By turn around, the paddlers of the Archangel going nuts and start spinning. The Ship began turning 360 degree, and then they start sailing away at full speed. At the same time Kage gave the instruction: "Drop starboard anchor. JUST the frontal starboard anchor if you please?"

The port frontal anchor of the ship fell and went full dive into the sea. The anchor starts dragging at the bottom of the sea, ready to snag something… anything.

Meanwhile, Marco had regained some bits of his senses and saw the Archangel is (seemingly) making a break for it, what's with the ship had turned around and sail forward at full speed, away from them, as if running away right in front of their noses. Consumed by fury, Marco's immediately ordered: "GO AFTER THEM!"

"My lord?"

"WE CAN OVERTAKE THEM! LET OUT THE OARS! READY THE GUNS! WE'LL OBLITERATE THAT SHIP!" By now, Marco had obviously lost it. He's lost his composure as a strategic military command. The madness was so apparent even to his fearful men, that even they were confused at this sudden change in behavior and for a moment, they were too confused to follow said order, not seeing how any sane man would come up with such an order. 4 ships against whatever else that man has?

"But My Lord! We can't fight them as we were! We don't have enough firepower to take on that ship! We've lost so many of our men in that crash! We-" The Knight's comment was cut short when Marco suddenly whipped his harpoon and slit the Knight's throat, killing him instantly, shocking the other knights.

"I SAID: GO AFTER THEM! FULL SAIL!"

Upon seeing the dead knight, the other knights were frightened enough that they finally began following Marco's orders. The four barges began moving, its oars stretched out and began rowing at great strides. But, with an enraged and blinkered mind in command, the small fleet began making a grave mistake.

A disastrously grave mistake that Kage immediately see through upon seeing the formation that the four barges had taken: clustered together in a single line, encircling the fiery wreckages in the direction exactly as Kage wanted them to go. "Oh… My… God… I want to crack the guy up, but it looks like I've cracked him a lot more than I should have."

"What?" Mwu blinked.

"Look at that." Kage pointed at the Barges. "They're clustered together into a single line like that; they're fishes in a barrel. That's a really big mistake… stupid mistake. And here I was thinking he'll be smart enough to at least split his fleet in two and we can get at least half of them, and intimidate the other half."

"Well… I guess that's what you would call winning a gamble and getting the jackpot." Mwu frowned. He looked at his student. "You're gonna do this anyway?"

"We don't do this, we're dead. They're right on our stern." Kage sighed. "Let's go. Canard, you have command! You know what to do."

"Aye, Capt." Canard replied. "Course correction, 15 degrees to starboard!"

And the Archangel began changing direction. The convoy of barges had yet to go around the wreckages, but they are catching up. What's more, Archangel's starboard Anchor had finally reached the Ocean bottom and due to it carving the ocean floor, the whole battleship began to slow down, allowing the pursuing Barges to catch up. Apparently, Kage wanted the Anchor to snag on something. And with a sizable coral at the bottom of the sea just ahead of the grating anchor, that moment is fast approaching.

"Ready the boarders!" the knights began climbing at the siege tower, getting ready to do some close combat wet work. Marco was so eager to do this, so angered he was at Kage's ease in countering his every move, his ship and one other were a bit ahead of the other ships. The other 2 are catching up just behind him though.

And just as the foremost barges are but a few hundred meters away…

The Anchor snagged on the coral.

The whole ship jerked violently and instantly went to a sudden full stop. The snagged anchor caused the whole ship to turn, her stern swinging forward violently while the frontal bow side that was snagged by the anchor remained in place. The Anchor's chain was stretched to its limit, close to breaking. Their starboard broadside now faced the incoming Barge fleet. And it stopped moving. The Barge halted for a second when they saw a whole array of cannons pointing at them. And yet, they do not fire so much as a puff.

But Marco quickly rallied his men. "No need to worry! They're not firing, that means my suspicions are true: they really have ran out of ammunition! ATTACK! FULL SPEED AHEAD!" And the battle barges close in ever faster.

"Let loose the Lear and the Destroyers. Have them ready to move ASAP." Canard continued. "…and start moving backward… slowly."

On the Underside dock, the soldiers was informed of this and cut the line binding said ships with axes. The Archangel began to move again, this time with some difficulty due to the anchor limiting their movements. Using that though, the Archangel began to position themselves on the right spot…

The barges are closing in… and then…

"Fire the Lohengrin."

The deafening thunderous roar of the gigantic 12 foot caliber Lohengrin cannon was immediately coupled by a long burst of fire spitting out of the barrel. The gigantic bullet burst through the ocean, cleaving the seas wherever the bullet thread. First glance, it was as if the Lohengrin shoot at nothing but air… but that was never Kage's goal.

The reason the firing of the Lohengrin requires the whole battleship to be anchored down was because without the full set of anchor, the kickback has enough power to throttle the whole ship at dangerous pace, even something as big and heavy as the Archangel, as was clearly shown when Kage used the Lohengrin to tore off the dreadnought from its fortress foundations, back during the ending of the Archangel Siege crisis. And with only a single anchor currently nailing the ship down, the Battleship was inadequately able to withstand the kickback… and, with the stuck anchor as the center pivot, the ship was immediately swung back in a sudden burst of speed, a few hundred meters BACKWARD in a giant roundhouse half rotation.

The violent movement shattered the already overstressed anchor chains, and, still carrying the momentum from the spin, the Archangel was hurled right towards the Barge fleet.

The whole battle barge fleet didn't even had the time to scream for their gods when a gigantic impromptu hammer made of the Archangel's metallic stern worth tens of thousands metric tons of solid steel is right in front of their nose. It missed Marco's Barge by a fluke, but it smashed and pulverized the remaining 3 battle barges to oblivion before stopping a mere 200 meters from Marco's barge's stern.

Kage grinned seeing his plan worked like wonders. "Like I said… if we have to, we'll ram through them ships one at a time." Seeing the ruins of the three ships though, Kage had to rephrase a bit. "Or in this case… several ships at a time."

Marco and his crew were still having a hard time believing what the hell just happened. "What… what… what the… what was that… what just?" He was completely at lost. One instant that ship was a few hundred meters away in front of them, pulling back at snail's pace and a roaring explosion sound later that thing came at them like a meteor fall in a speed faster than the doomed crew can scream any word.

And they barely recover from the shock when a thunderous roar of explosion echoed from the other side.

BTOOOM!

One of the siege towers of the barge was smashed asunder by a familiar cannonfire. "What?"

And then, Marco looked at the scene in disbelief:

The Battlecruiser Lear and its two destroyers escort are right on their portside, opening fire at them.

"Where did they…!?"

Initially, the Lear and the Destroyers were shackled on Archangel's empty underside dock, well protected by the two hulls. As soon as before the Lohengrin was fired, the ships were unshackled. When the Archangel boosted backwards by the propelling Lohengrin, the unshackled Lear and the Destroyers were left behind in the waters. Now the last barge is trapped: with Archangel's Lohengrin cannon is right at their stern, its bulk is like a gigantic iron wall that blocked their way back, they're like a slab of iron trapped between the anvil and the hammer.

"All cannons! OPEN FIRE!" The hammer in question is the 20 Gottfried on the Lear's broadside opening fire at them. The Destroyers also fired their smaller caliber cannons, and more importantly, their destructive Helldarts rockets. The smack-dab Barge was mercilessly barraged by shells and rockets. "RELOAD!"

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Marco gritted his teeth, but he refused to give up. "Full speed towards that battlecruiser!"

"My Lord?"

"Get into the minimal range of those cannons and rockets! And return fire at those ships!"

"But my lord, shouldn't we worry about that giant ship?"

"Look at that flag on the battlecruiser! There's a member of the Logos list in there. If we get him, we can use that as a bargaining chip! Now full speed ahead Knight!"

"But the giant ship? Did you not see the way that thing moved just now?"

"Yes I saw it. But I doubt that thing can do such movements in repetition. And just because the Lohengrin can fire once, that still doesn't change the fact they're still out of ammo." Marco, true to his veterancy as a senior knight, partially recovered from the shock. "I can say that, because even at this condition, with us at point blank range of their cannons, and they still haven't opened fire at us." BTOOM! Another shot from the opposing battleships enforce the point. "The only thing we need to be worried about are those ships! Let's go!"

The last barge charged in at full speed towards the Battlecruiser and the Destroyers. The battlecruisers and the Destroyers continue to shower the incoming ships with shells and rockets. There's a lengthy interval in-between each hail of rockets, and so far, the Barge had somehow survive two full salvoes. However, by the time the rockets had been reloaded for the 3rd salvo, the barge is well within the Helldart Rocket's minimal range.

Realizing this, the Destroyers stopped firing.

Marco smirked. "Yes. I knew it! Set a course to that battlecruiser!"

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Kage tapped his foot several times. "This is crazy. You know that?"

"Hey. You know what's crazy? A guy still ailed with a brain damage suggesting a solo solitary airstrike charge into a battle barge filled to the brim with Knights. That's crazy." Mwu countered. "Plus, I still disagree with you participating!"

"And what are the chances you survive this crash?"

"What are yours?"

That's when Marco noticed the two arguing Captains. Both of them are standing on top of the Hellfire rocket batteries. "…what… are they…"

"Seriously kid." Mwu caught on. "I think you should sit this one out. We can do this."

"That's a negative Mwu. I don't send my boys where I don't wanna go." Kage replied in return.

"Where you'll go, you'll be dead!" Mwu warned him again.

"I never remembered of doing this kind of thing guarantees my life."

Mwu gritted his teeth. "Hey, Doc! Say something! He's your boyfriend for God's sakes! UrgH!" Mwu's comment was cut short by another cannon fire. "Shit!"

BOOM! BOOM! Marco's Barge finally began to return fire. Their time is running short.

Hikari also looked at Kage with great concern. 'Kira-kun… you're going to overdo it again, aren't you…!'

"Look, we'll be at this all day. Let's just do this thing and be done with it."

"Tch." Mwu groaned. "Ready…"

The gunners made ready, looking incredulously at the two daredevils.

"Set…" Kage muttered.

And by set, it means they primed the rockets to launch.

"FIRE!"

The two batteries launched a single rocket from each battery. The rockets zoomed to the sky, heading towards the battle barge, but given the elevation and trajectory, it was obvious that the rocket would've missed the Barge completely by at least a mile above the said ship.

…that is… until Kage and Mwu simultaneously performed a shunshin and landed on top of the still flying rocket, pushing down its trajectory to collision course with their added weight, steering it like a skateboard.

Marco jawdropped. "What the hell are they thinkin-"

The two rocketboarders steered their ride, curving the rocket's path, heading straight towards the Battle Barge's bridge. The crew nested on the Bridge ran in horror to no avail. Mwu jumped at the last second as his rocket collided with the bridge on the left side, while the rider landed harmlessly and safely on a pole. Kage however, went into the offensive. Like Mwu, he jumped at the last second before his rocket crashed through just beneath the bridge tower's window in a fiery blaze of explosions. Unlike Mwu, Kage transformed into his Kurenai Shiki form midflight, and while the occupants of the Bridge Tower is still in disarray, charged right in through the window, unleashing a new variation of the Gurren Shahadou in the midst of the shattered window shards: "Gurren Shigure!"

At first glance, it looks mighty similar with the Shahadou, but instead of unleashing a single straight all cutting beam, Kage generated a wide crescent wave beam, which immediately dispersed into thousands of tiny razor sharp red feather-like beam dagger. The panicking Knights were riddled with countless holes and ripped apart in an instant, while the walls where they were standing remained intact… at least until the mangled body before the said wall can no longer shield it. The half blown to hell Bridge Tower finally exploded unable to handle the power, instantly turning into a fiery torched stump.

Mwu grunted. "Geeze… You're WAY too reckless kid!" Mwu barely able to do anything, the fiery blaze had turned, changed shape into a fiery bird construct.

"Katon…" In the midst of fire, Kage had finished a series of handseals. "Phoenix Housenka Arashi. (Phoenix Balsam Storm)" The newly formed fire bird zoomed straight into the sky and then began spinning, launching countless small fireballs that riddled and subsequently toast the sails and mast to cinders, burning through the siege tower, toppling them all down while simultaneously raining fire towards the entire ship, rendering the barge completely immobile and on fire. The flame phoenix continue the rain of fire until it burnt itself out, and by that point it has incinerated the masts, Kage cast another jutsu: "Katon, Karyuu Endan!" This time, using the flames burning across the ship, he gathered them all and formed a roaring fire dragon and brought it slithering down towards the knights below. The knights screamed in horror and many jumped overboard, risking sinking due to the weight of their armor over getting burnt alive by that dragon. Those who did not escape in time were consumed by fire, incinerated to ashes in their armor.

Within seconds, the flame would reach the ship magazine and blow everything up to kingdom come. And yet, there are still some, among the survivors of the ship who can still glare at Kage, itching to fight the black devil. Kage, standing undaunted amidst the sea of fire and ruin, simply gaze at them with blazing eyes, half closed in a bore. The same way one would look at a bug at his feet.

"Kage! Come down here and face me like a man!" one of them challenged.

Thinking quickly of his limited combat time, Kage merely snarled. "I don't have time to waste on small fries like you." Kage lifted Shiki, and raised the gigantic Aoiro Shiki to the sky with one armored left arm. The Knights paled upon seeing the sky cutting sword. "It's 30 miles to the nearest small island! You may make it if you swim for your life!" Kage jumped to the side, raising his sword high with both arms, and with a single stroke, he cut the entire ship in half right in the middle of the hull with a loud crash.

The ship slowly and irreversible began to sink, with both half began to submerge. Kage and Mwu calmly parched at the top of the descending front half of the drowning ship, calmly waiting the ship to completely recede into the water, sizzling as all the fires were put down by the sea water, whereas the knights removed all their armors and weapons, jumping into the ocean and began to swim away from the sinking ship.

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The crews of the Lear gazed in disbelief at the feat. Hikari was also on board said ship, holding a pocket watch. "(koff) Combat time: Exactly 1 minute and 30 seconds. (koff)" Hikari sighed in relief as she closed the pocket watch with a snap. "That's well within safety margin." Then again, the sound of Zaft knights screaming to their gods as they were being burned or drowned alive reached her ears, and clearly it made her somewhat nauseous.

"1… 1 minute!? He took out an entire battle barge just like that in 1 minute!?" Artes gaped in disbelief.

"And 30 seconds!" Tolle happily added while rising three fingers.

"Is that guy… is that guy really a Natural?"

"That's what they often say about Blacklist Captain, was it not?" George commented with a smile.

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Kage looked at all the swimming knights; to scared shitless to even think of fighting, retreated away from the two. Mwu whistled. "Well… I'd say, that'll be the last we see of them."

"I somehow doubt it…" Kage nodded. But then, one of his eyes twitched involuntarily. '?'

It was sudden. Both fighters were completely caught unaware. A giant arm, holding a massive barbed harpoon burst out of the wooden floor. The harpoon reached towards Kage who barely dodge it, nicking the side of his temple. The two shinobis back away to the base level of the sinking bow, looking back as the mysterious attacker made himself known, bursting out of the floor where they stood until a second ago.

For a moment, seeing two long sabre tooth extending down from a thick short pink snout and grey, wide, hairless girth and the first thought that crossed Kage's mind was a walrus. But then, the said Walrus stood on two legs, with arms with fingers instead of fins. With pronounced swelled but muscular belly, a very humanoid muscular upper torso and pair of arms, the creature's snout is also decorated with orange beard more characteristic to a man rather than an animal. Said man Walrus is also covered in thick armor, not dissimilar with that worn of the Forge Corps Legionnaire, with the nautical watery designs of a Water Knight.

Looking at the anthropomorphic animal, the two realized: "Zoan type… Walrus?"

Red streams of blood flowed from the transformed and angry Marco's temple. His entire fleet, wiped out in a single day. All while they're under his command. There's no way he can return home in honor anymore. He'll never be able to live this one down. This is it for him. This is the end of Marco Morassim. His bloodshot eyes looked at the ones responsible. With nothing left, he might just as well take as many enemies with him down to hell. He saw a black clad warrior and he immediately lunge forward with a roar, smashing his harpoon at him.

With a spray of splinters, the harpoon caved a crater on the wooden floor. But Kage had departed to the sky using Kurenai Shiki but before he can get far, the man walrus, in a speed far beyond what his bulky figure would suggest, throw out a chain linked hook that grabbed Kage's leg, pulled him down before slamming him crashing to the floor with a smash. Marco glared at the grunting downed Shinobi. "So you're the newbie Blacklist Captain?" Mwu roared and lunged forward to save his student. But Marco had anticipated it and simply turned around and swing his harpoon, swatting Mwu by the waist like hitting an overgrown fly. "And you… you're that upstart Raww's so called nemesis?"

"Gak! Up…start?" Mwu cough blood.

"Phooey!" Marco snarled.

"Katon…" The Man Walrus blinked when he heard a growl from Kage, gripping at Marco's chain tightly. "…RYUUKA NO JUTSU! (Dragon Fire Jutsu)" A ferocious dragon like flame burst out and snaked across the chains, encircling Marco's arm before suddenly expand and incinerate the owner of said chains. The chain was shattered by the explosion. Kage narrowed his eyes. 'Did I get him?'

A red murderous glint shined from amidst the smokes of the explosion before the barbed harpoon pierced through the veil of smoke. Kage blocked the stab just in time with Shiki, generating sparks of fire as the two steel grated one another. For Kage's part, Marco's sheer strength made his fingers felt like they're about to come off and his joints screaming to unlatch from its hinges. That made him unable to do anything for the incoming sideswipe that hit him by the side and would've thrown him overboard if not for Mwu managing to catch him midair at the last second.

Upon landing the two made eye contact, and in unison, both finished the same set of seals: "Katon, GOKYAKU NO JUTSU!" the two breathe a torrent of flames that condense first into a pair of identical fireball, before the two fireball joined together and forming a fireball far larger than any individual fireball.

Marco merely sneered seeing a fireball twice his size heading towards him at speed. Ramming his harpoon to the floor, his lips let loose a few quick chant of Water Knight's magical arsenal, and the ocean water, lifted by the fishlike spirits of watery undine sprang to life, joining together forming a mass of whirling water before Marco. "Aqua Shot!" Marco punched the water ball and it burst forward in a forward stream of water. The giant fireball vaporized the water upon contact, but just as it's halfway from reaching Marco, the fireball dissipated, and so is Marco's Aqua Shot was dispersed. And yet, Kage and Mwu charged through the dispersing droplets of water, both of their arms were fully charged with a mass of swirling chakra.

"SOU SHOGEKIGAN! (Twin Shockwave Sphere)" the two fists of Kage and Mwu, using the same jutsu, joined together as one and smashed through Marco's armored gullet. The armor was reduced to contoured scrap metal, and one can see the man Walrus's stomach deformed in swirling pattern, its shockwave rattled the uneven combat arena, pushing the Zoan by at least a few meters back with a swirling hole on his stomach.

And yet, as Kage and Mwu witnessed in shock, the gaping crevice on the stomach began to reform, like they're watching how the hole was made in reverse, and when it's done, only the Man Walrus' spotless girth can be seen. "Ah, that actually itched." Marco snarled as he gave an approximation of a sarcastic smirk with his animal visage and rubbed his stomach.

Kage and Mwu quickly altered their strategy. Blunt force trauma is right out. Now, they made ready their edged weapons.

Fully expecting this, Marco snarled and shouldered his harpoon. "A newbie Blacklist Captain and the so called Hawk of Endiminion? Phooey!" The Zoan spit in disgust.

Facing such insult, Kage and Mwu's only reaction was that of amusement and a lot of confusion, not understanding one bit of Marco's animosity towards them. "What's his problem?" Kage whispered.

Mwu shook his head. "No idea. Never saw him before all my life. Sides…" Mwu tilted his head. "I never pissed off anyone I've never met."

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Kage sighed.

Mwu looked at Kage's state. His breathing is erratic, and his fingers on his free hand are shaking badly. "Stay out of this."

"What?" Kage looked incredulously at Mwu.

"Just stay back." Mwu took a step forward before Kage. "I mean, us two youngsters gangin up on an old man? That just ain't right."

Again another jab at his age, and Marco became visibly angered.

Kage looked at this and shook his head. "You live up to your reputation." With that, Kage sheathed his blade and took a step back.

Marco roared and charged at Kage, but Mwu simply swing his Kodachi forward, and barely a few steps forward, something hit Marco, by the stomach and on his chestplate. Sharp pain cut across his stomach and blood burst out of his stomach. Marco looked at his belly, red blood streamed down from the cut. 'What?' Marco looked at his stomach, and then he looked at Mwu.

Mwu gripped his kodachi tightly, and taking up his collar, he also closed his mouth in a black mask of a shinobi. His blue eyes glowed fiercely. The kind of gaze he usually reserved for the likes of Raww. But of more particular interest, was the Kodachi he held. To Marco, there's nothing. But to Kage, he blinked and squint his eyes. The space in front of Mwu's kodachi… they looked distorted. Outlining the shape of the distorted air and he get… '…an invisible… katana?'

Marco roared again and Mwu swung his kodachi again horizontally. This time, blood burst horizontally across Marco's bloodied belly.

Kage blinked. '…the length… changes…'

"Lookie here…" Mwu groaned. "I got no grudges on you, and I certainly don't know what's with you and Raww… but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to beat the crap out of ya if you don't pull back now."

Marco growled and charged anyway.

"MOU!" Mwu swing his invisible blade once again and the wooden floor split forward, heading straight at Marco. Marco brought up his shield from his back the blade merely scratched said shield, generating red sparks of fire. The Walrus man quickly closed the distance between them and swing his harpoon to Mwu. The said captain was split in two, but moments later, the split man vanished into thin air. Marco snarled and ignored the illusion, glaring at the closest enemy within reach, Kage. Roaring, he swing his harpoon towards him, but by then, Kage had already jumped away from the spot. Using Kurenai Shiki, he gently glided away from the sinking front half of the ship. Marco grabbed his chains and attempted to wring Kage back in again. But just as the chain was about to grab his leg again, a sharp razor sharp crescent of literally solid wind burst from the side and rip the iron chains to shreds.

"Fuuton, Kaze no Yaiba." Mwu growled.

Marco glared at Mwu, and then he turned to Kage, who by now had gently and safely landed on the other also sinking half of the barge.

Marco growled again at Kage, standing so calmly on top of the wreckages of his ship. "COME HERE AND FACE ME COWARD!"

Kage merely frowned and he noticed his trembling fingers. '…I may not even have 15 minutes…' making a mental note to prioritize his healing with Lacus later, Kage replied. "I'll pass." At which point he grabbed Shiki and stabbed a survivor straggler who tried to sneak up on him from behind by the gut without looking back. "And I suggest, rather than worrying about me, you concentrate on the enemy before you." Kage yanked his sword away and let the lifeless knight fell to the ocean. He flicked his sword to swept the blood away from his blade, spraying the woodwork. And then, to bewilderment of everyone, he sat on what used to be the railings of the Barge's stern. "'sides, Mwu-san may act like that… but he's still my teacher who taught me everything I know."

Marco's eyes widened and turn to find a battle ready Mwu approaching him. "So the kid says." And with that Mwu suddenly disappeared, followed by a loud clanking sound of their weapons colliding. Funny thing is, while everyone can easily see Marco was blocking an attack from Mwu using his harpoon, one would probably having a hard time understanding why he was blocking thin air emanating from Mwu's under length Kodachi. The force was real enough to push both Mwu and Marco back.

"Well, then. My dear apprentice had gone through all the trouble of doing all this planning and startegizing, and in the end, he came up with quite a stage for us. Might as well use it, eh?"

Marco growled. "You and that cocky apprentice of yours should've gang up on me."

"Ahahaha… No. I alone is enough." Mwu is in really good mood. His student has become even better and he's got the attitude to boot. He can't be slacking off again. "Truth be told, this is perfect. Ever since I learnt the four cardinal seals, I've been re-training myself like heck. I've got a slew of new techs… Never get the chance to use in full force, not even against Raww."

Kage blinked in excitement. 'Retraining eh?'

In an eyeblink, Mwu had finished his handseals, clasping his fingers together. "Mokuton!"

'Mokuton?'

"WORLD TREE CONSTRUCTION!" Mwu slammed the wooden floor, and suddenly giant tree branches literally grow out of the woodwork of the sinking ship. For a moment, the ship shook ferociously but then the wooden structure further stabilized the battleground, even evening the platform, creating a perfect arena.

The Battlefield is sturdy and even. Both fighters are now on the same ground.

Mwu cracked his neck and flicked his captain's coat. Like Kage, it's also a haori, sleeveless with a kanji Kyuu (9) written on the back, denoting his position as Captain of the 9th Division, and it was long enough to reach down his ankle. However, unlike Kage, his haori is of the standard white color, there aren't many rend and tear around its smooth edges and of greater interest, the coat was split into four section on the lower edges, each section is covered in an orange and white armor.

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"Oh ho… he's serious." Murdoch observed this situation with great interest aboard the Archangel, together with Murrue and Natarle.

"How can you tell?"

"The suit he wears. That vest. That's his battlesuit." Murdoch grinned. "When he's like that, only Raww had ever managed to last more than several minutes against that. And now… well… just watch."

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At this very moment…

Back in his cell, Raww sighed as he looked at his cell. There has been no word. And now he starts fearing the worst had indeed come to pass.

The Kind Lady Knight who was his warden looked at the masked Hakutenkun with concern. "My Lord? Is everything alright?"

Raww looked at the Lady Knight and smiled kindly. "I wish it was. I'm a little worried about Marco. I fear he bit more than he can chew."

The Lady Knight became more enamored upon seeing Raww's smile. "If I may, My lord, I may overstepped my boundaries a little?"

"Yes?"

"Well… the relationship you have with Marco Morassim… we all know it was anything but friendly, but do you not underestimate Marco a little bit? I mean… I may have spoken out of the line here but… I know him by reputation." The Lady Knight took the liberty of taking a seat. "He's a bit of a hardcore old school codex adherent kind of person. But… it's not his stubbornness is without basis. He's one of the few veteran Knights out there who had seen through this war from its very beginning (AN: He's 90, and the war has been going for 72). He has pretty much seen it all, done it all… While Kage is indeed a terrifying strategist as you say he was, don't you think you should give Lord Marco a benefit of chance?" The Lady Knight quickly flabbergasted. "I'm sorry it's just my personal opinion, I didn't mean to offend you or anything."

Raww chuckled lightly. "Mademoiselle, you have a splendid analytical mind. You should consider progressing beyond being a simple warden."

The Lady knight blushed furiously upon hearing such compliment.

"Yes. I would give Marco a benefit of chance. That is if he was only facing Kage." Raww quickly added. "Marco's priceless livelong experience, combined with his solid understanding of the Codex, I would say that would give Kage a run for his money… but there's only one problem: the fact there's one Mwu La Flagga among the military assets that Kage can use."

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Mwu readied his kodachi, but more than that, he unveiled his true weapons, stored on the backside of his four pronged combat captain vest. Four pieces of four bladed Fuuma Shuriken, when flipped open, each was as long as Mwu's legs. The Fuuma Shuriken body is colored in orange, with white blade. Across the surface of the shuriken, etched a series of seals and symbols which Kage recognized as jutsu seals, although he do not know for what purpose.

Mwu began playing around with the enormous fuuma shuriken, juggling it in front of him. But then, he threw them to the sky, and while his opponents is still wondering what is he doing, Mwu had finished another handseal in a blink of an eye. "Fuuton… Shippuu Busou! (Cyclone Armament!)" Mwu's mouth swelled and then he unleashed a massive gale upward, enveloping the four Fuuma Shurikens in the air. The ferocious wind blown by Mwu enveloped the Shuriken, covering its blade in wind element, while making it spin around and around even more ferociously, until finally, the 4 whirring Fuuma Shurikens became four masses of shuriken shaped mini cyclones.

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"Mwu La Flagga? I know that name! He's the one they say was your only equal?"

"Without a doubt." Raww nodded.

At this, the Lady Knight was a bit skeptic. "I don't understand why you value him so highly. If he's so powerful, why he didn't even make it to the Blacklist?"

"Fair question." Raww chuckled, thinking about his half brother. "I've fought with mwu la Flagga so many times… I daresay I know him better than anyone. First of all, he is DEFINITELY not… the brightest bulb you can find. I'll say that one for him." Raww laughed at this point. "But what Mwu lack in intelligence… he more than makes up for it, with insane courage, unflinching and stubborn ironclad willpower that doesn't know despair, and unpredictably creative mind coupled with the ability to think on his feet." Raww gave his analysis. "More than once, he defied my strategic prediction. I would even say he's as unpredictable as they come. You just can't guess what he would do next. That gives him an edge."

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Marco's eyes widened. He can hear a sharp ringing in his ears. 'Wh… what are those… things? I can't let those things hit me!'

Maintaining the dragon seal with one hand and his enhanced Kodachi in the other, Mwu brought the four storm Shurikens under control and now they floated menacingly around him, each a mass of cyclone all packed up in a compact form, creating localized gale around the area, circling around Mwu like stormy planetoids with the Jounin at the center. "Now then… get ready to face an all new and enhanced Mwu La Flagga!"

Marco gritted his long fang, preparing his harpoon.

With a jerk, two of Mwu's Storm Shuriken whirred forward at blinding speed, heading straight towards Marco. Thinking quickly, Marco used both hands, bulging veins allover, and use all his strength to smash the first Storm Shuriken. Even with his full zoan brute force, Marco gaped in shock at how difficult it was to knock the wind chakra enhanced Fuuma Shuriken away from him. And the other one is fast approaching. His hands were already numb from blocking just one, he had to dodge this one. Jumping is right out, so he ducked. The physical Fuuma Shuriken barely missed him, but the wind chakra shuriken enveloping the Shuriken grazed his armor… just a scratch… and said steel armor was ripped to pieces. 'What destructive power!' Marco gasped.

As if that wasn't enough surprise, Mwu instantaneously appeared right on top of Marco barely moments after the Storm Shuriken passed over his head. Mwu brought his sword down, aiming for a stab. In a quick thinking, Marco shifted his body a bit, using the remaining pieces of his armor and managed to block the stab, generating sparks of fire.

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"Was he… that strong?"

"Mademoiselle… there aren't many opportunities for me and Mwu to really duke it out seriously. Every time we had a fight… it's always been fun and games, or otherwise, we were distracted by a lot of things. Business before pleasure." Raww chuckled. "But… there was only one instance… where Mwu and I REALLY go all out, no bars hold. That was in Endiminion. The day he and I tested one another like never before…"

"Endiminion. Yes. That's where he get his nickname, the hawk of Endiminion, isn't it?"

"Indeed." Raww closed his eyes. "Indeed, it was a battle to remember." Raww remembered the battle of Endiminion all too well like it was yesterday. "See, by the time we were done, Mwu and I had become the most hated people in Paris. We are forbidden to show our faces in French soil ever again under the threat of death." Raww chuckled. "They were so furious at us, France sever all ties with the Alliance and rejected the Empire, joining up with the United Emirates of Orb soon after."

"Eh? Why? What does it had to do with you?"

"Well… it was kinda our fault… Mwu and I fought for 9 days, 9 nights nonstop; without rest, without sleep, without pause." Raww rubbed his chin nervously. "Our battle was so ferocious; by the time we were conscious enough to stop and look at the destruction around us, we realized the geographers had to redraw the map of France because of us."

The Lady Knight's jaw couldn't drop any lower.

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'What a nimble guy for a fatso…' Mwu inwardly complimented Marco on his smart safe. But it's not like his attack was over. The other two Storm Fuuma Shuriken floating just above him, combined together and began rotating. Mwu had finished another jutsu in a heartbeat. 'Fuuton…' the rotating twin Storm Shuriken condense all air around them, forming a column of tornado. '…Ten no Kanadzuci! (Sky's Hammer!)' Like its namesake, the tornado pillar descended upon Mwu and Marco like a gigantic hammer from Heaven.

Marco gaped when he saw the colossal wind hammer is descending upon him and Mwu. "Madness! You'll crush us both!?"

"We'll see about that." Mwu wasn't any bit worried. The Sky Hammer was but millimeters away from his exposed back… and all the sudden, there's nothing between Marco and the falling Sky Hammer but thin air. Moments before the sky hammer grind him, Marco can briefly saw Mwu reappeared instantaneously on top of the other Storm Shuriken. 'How did he…!?' "GYAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" Marco's thought was cut short as soon as the Sky hammer struck home and grinded him down the ship's hull with a thunderous crash, generating a massive shockwave that rattled the sky and sea.

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Everyone who watched the spectacle had almost forgotten how to breathe, and they were knocked down to their backs due to the wind blowing from the impact. "Sweetness…" Tolle swallowed a gulp as he gritted his teeth in excitement. "Mwu-san… he's really… strong, isn't he?"

"No. I was shocked too." Prayer was equally amazed at his brother's prowess. 'This level of power is also worlds apart from that time in Endiminion… if it's like this…' "Ever since he and Kage discovered the four cardinal seals, his strength had increased leaps and bounds far above anything he's ever done before."

"Four seals… and it can make so much difference?" Sai gulped. "To think 4 seals can amplify a jutsu's power like that…"

"No. (koff) That's not quite right. (koff)" Hikari commented as she rubbed her chin, thinking calmly. "Kage had also taught me the four seals… and their specific functions… back in Junius."

Prayer and the Shadowguards looked at Hikari, as do other warriors in vicinity.

"Based from what I've learned, the four seals main function is not to amplify the power of a jutsu… rather… it make them more efficient. Your jutsu became easier to use, more controllable, and they use far less chakra… naturally it means a vastly improved variation of the jutsu and its effectiveness as a whole… but all in all, they produce more or less the same level of power: highly dependant on the user's constitution."

"What are you trying to say, Hikari-sensei?" Prayer frowned. "You're saying my brother's power level won't change because of the four seals?"

"No. What I'm saying is… the four seals only made the jutsu became easier to use. The power of a jutsu will always be directly correlated to how strong the user."

"Heeeh… so Mwu-sensei really is THAT strong!" Tolle grinned in excitement and glued his eyes back at the spectacle.

"But… Fuuton? Wind element?" Sai frowned in confusion. "I don't remember him teaching us that…?"

"Oh. He didn't teach you about the Yin yang Five Elemental Star System yet? (koff)" Hikari looked at the stumped stare of the Shadowguards. It seems they never even heard the word Yin Yang.

The Shadowguards dumbly shook their heads.

"Ri~ight." Hikari nodded. "Okay… by the basic… Chakra can change into 5 elements in total: Fire, Water, Earth, Wood, and Steel. Yes, it's the same as denotations of the Elemental Knights of the Zaft Empire. It's not coincidence. It's a system that has been going for centuries now. As you might've noticed, there's no Wind element there. What you must understand, is that these five elements are not the only substances that exist in this universe. But they are, the main base elements of which many other elements were born."

The Shadowguards nodded in understanding. "So… wind is a… some kind of a sub element, a branch element that was born from these five elements?"

"Correct. To be specific, wind is a branch element… of wood."

"Wood?" The Shadowguards blinked in surprise. "Why wind came from wood?" The Shadowguards couldn't figure how wood and wind can come together.

"Because wind is, in essence, air in movement. The air we're breathing comes from plants. Leafs. They breathe in the carbon-dioxide that we breathe out, the plants use it for photosynthesis, and from it they breathe out Oxygen that we humans breathe in."

Smoke rise up from everyone's head was a sign they didn't get a single thing she says. 'Right… something like this is a bit ahead of Naturals…' "Umm… well… if I'm to simplify it, the air that we breathe in really comes from plants. Plants gave birth to air. And wind is air that moves. That's another way of saying, wind came from Wood."

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"I… If Mwu la Flagga is as strong as you say… why isn't he included in the Blacklist?"

"Well, I believe I've told you why…" Raww scratched his chin. This particular fact about his half brother is a bit embarrassing indeed… "Mwu's just not the brightest mind you can find. You could probably call him borderline idiotic by even Natural's standards, and he won't be offended, seeing it's the truth."

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Mwu stood calmly, flicking his hands and all his Fuuma Shuriken returned to him and once again began circling around him again like watchful satellites, guided by his wind chakra elementals. They gently returned to orbit the user. "Damn. Those cardinal four seals really worked wonders! This stuff is SO~O much easier without ropes now!"

"Ropes?" Kage blinked.

"Yeah. Before you taught me the four cardinal seals, I had to guide these Shurikens with ropes. Can you imagine the hassle of controlling them when they're like this? The number of times I cut myself… she~esh!"

Kage chuckled. "Well… I suppose we can be glad that what I've taught you was really useful."

"You sure did!" Mwu grinned widely.

But then the crater where Marco was standing began to crack. "Grrr… grRrRRRRRR!" They can hear the sound of Marco growling in anger. Suddenly, Kage and Mwu felt really cold and their breath turned to steam before their mouths. "GRAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaarhh…!" the floor burst open, and then out from the wreckage is half walrus… half icicle cave. Suddenly, the man Walrus that was Marco incorporated elements of ice to his being, with thick dense icicles adorning his armor here and there. His barbed Harpoon was enlarged with ice, turning into a diamond like great spear.

"The hell is that?" Kage gaped.

"I see… one of the spell repertoires of a Water Knight: Frost Armor and Diamond Arms." Mwu smirked. Cracking his fists, he got ready to fight again. The cyclone planetoids circle around Mwu. "Well, looks like you're ready for another whoppin'."

But unlike Mwu, Kage wasn't so optimistic. '…something changed… not just his armor or weapon…'

Mwu begin by sending his cyclone shuriken at Marco. But then, something happened. Midway, the cyclone enveloping the Shuriken dispersed partially. They dispersed even further the closer the shuriken went. And finally, the wind just disappeared, leaving a whirring Shuriken. But then, the cold air also began to freeze the Shuriken and finally stopped the spinning cold. Literally. Marco raised his hand and easily caught one shuriken and bashed away the other shuriken.

Mwu blinked dumbly. "Eh?"

Marco grinned as he gripped Mwu's Shuriken tightly, cracking it. "Heh. So without your wind, your whirring blades can't do shit, eh?" With a clench, the frozen Shuriken shattered to pieces, earning Mwu's roar. "Oi! You have any idea how much that thing cost per piece!?"

Marco couldn't care less, he smirked. Mwu growled in anger. How did that frost armor disperse his wind like that? "Temee… what did you just do!?"

"Be careful Mwu-san… it's not gonna be that simple." Kage rubbed his chin in deep thought.

"Ngh?" Mwu and Marco looked at Kage, still sitting calmly on the railings.

"It's the ice armor. The temperature around that man Walrus body is decreasing significantly. It was enough to make atmosphere in his nearby vicinity colder than the surrounding area. That's why the wind disperses."

"Huh?" Mwu reverted to his tare panda mode and brought a sign board: I'm an idiot. "Sensei, I don't understand. Could you explain?" then he turned to a dumbstruck Marco. "Could you give me 5 minutes to understand this? Okay? Good." And either he's so brave or so stupid, he sat facing Kage, showing Marco his back, listening to his explanation when there's one bloodthirsty man walrus right behind his unprotected back.

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Murdoch sweat-dropped seeing the silly side of his captain in full shine. Sometimes he wondered, between Kira and Mwu… who is teaching who… exactly?

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"More than once I was able to outsmart him. Not always, due to his unpredictability, but, from time to time I can outwit him into fighting me and only me. And a good thing too." Raww sighed. "I shudder at the thought of the destruction he'll cause if he ever went all out against normal knights. The casualty, I fear, would be astronomical in proportion."

"What will stop him from doing it now?"

"Conscience. Mwu is a very moral man. His morality had always kept his destructive capability in check. Which is good for him, and us."

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Kage sweat-dropped and sighed before beginning his impromptu lecture. "When temperature drops, the air in the surrounding area condense. They're trying to turn into water then they turn to ice. When that happens, air pressure in the atmosphere increases."

"Uh-huh, uh-huh. And…?"

"Wind is air that moves. There's one constant: air moves from a place with high pressure to a place with low pressure. When the Man Walrus freeze the surrounding atmosphere, he condensed the water in the air, thusly the air around him, creating a high air pressure atmosphere, higher than the surrounding area. When that happens, the wind will be forced to move away from the high pressure area, that's the man Walrus there, to the low air pressure area… that's anywhere where the Man Walrus are NOT, hence why the wind disperses the closer it gets to him. Do you understand?"

Mwu nodded dumbly. But then… "…I still don't get it."

BAM!

Kage collapsed so hard he nearly fell off the railings.

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Some few miles away…

BAM!

Hikari also fell off on her back after hearing Mwu's dumbass reply using her sharp ears. Like… Kira just gave the simplest explanation about junior high physics that even someone like her can understand, why is it someone like Mwu can't?

"Uhh… something wrong, Hikari-sensei?" Sai, Tolle, and Milly looked at her.

"It's just… (koff) nothing (koff). I just heard something so silly I just don't know what to say… (koff…)" Hikari quickly get back up. "Now… (koff) where were we (koff)?"

"You said something about the relationship of elements."

"Yeah… right." Hikari get back up on her feet. "The elements go like this." Hikari draw a star. "Water, Fire, Steel, Wood, Earth." Lacus traced each point of the star with each element. "This star shows the relationship between each elements. It's logic if you think about it: Water douse Fire, fire melts steel, steel cuts through wood, wood drained earth of nutrients, earth absorbs water. And as you noticed, it's a cyclical relationship, and it's a 'killing' relationship. But the five star elemental systems are not that simple. Other than killing other elements, some elements also strengthen one another. Fire strengthens earth, earth strengthens steel, steel strengthen water, water strengthen wood, wood strengthen fire."

Sai frowned to take all this information in… but then something struck him in delight. "Hold up! Back up a little bit! Did you say: Water strengthen Wood!?"

Hikari nodded as she looked at the situation on the ship as a practical example. "That man there, the Man Walrus, is obviously a water Knight. While Water Knights and Jutsu users like Kage and Mwu use pretty different basis of spell casting, the relationship still stands. Water nourishes Wood. And Mwu-san is a wielder of wind, a branch element based from Wood. Yes. It's a good matchup for Mwu-san."

The Shadowguards smiled in relief.

But what Hikari added next caused their smile to vanish. "That is… IF the water Knight had not used ice."

"Eh?"

"If you go to the basics, it's quite understandable. Wood is nourished by water, that's true. However, while Ice is the branch element of water, its relationship with wood is the exact opposite. Most plants cannot live in a very cold environment. Ice will undoubtedly KILL wood. Its branch element also suffers from that weakness. Ice… will freeze the air that forms the wind, killing it."

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"Kage's true power on the other hand, is, as you might've guessed, is quite the opposite of Mwu's shortcomings. A single glance and you get the feeling that he was born to end lives. A warrior that can be likened to a lethal force of nature, killing his target swiftly through the smallest opening. A very deadly and powerful combatant. Yes. But where he truly shines is in his intelligence and ability to quickly formulate strategies that defies norm. Completely unorthodox and out of the box. I may not always been able to strategize against Mwu because I just can't predict his unpredictability, but Kage can completely outthink me. What's more, Kage possess what Mwu did not: ruthlessness. He's as brilliant as he is merciless, he doesn't afraid to get his hands dirty when he has to. This alone gave him a distinct advantage over Mwu."

The Lady Knight swallowed a gulp.

"But, even Kage also has his weakness. I fought him once during the Siege of Archangel. From there, I can tell with absolute certainty: he is NOT made to take in too many hits. He fights quickly, strike accurately and deadly, efficiently and effectively inflict a brutal amount of damage in a fight… but he cannot afford to receive too many blows back… that is, assuming one can land any hits at his being at all."

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"Just think about the air move like how you squeeze juice out of fruit and that's about it in the nutshell." A sickened Kage finished explaining/giving lecture (for the umpteenth time) to Mwu about the nature of the elements who simply nodded time and again like some elementary school student. "You get it now?" Kage sighed exasperatedly.

This time, Mwu nodded clearly, thank God. Just… "I just don't get about the nut and fruit thing… but I kinda get it that with the matchup of ice and wind I'm pretty much fucked."

Kage face-palmed himself in despair. Despair of hoping his teacher will ever fully get it. "Anyway… I think we should switch." Kage stood up at last, his hands no longer shaking. It seems he had recovered quite well enough.

"Switch?"

"Unless you forgot… I think I've shown you many times, fire is kinda of my forte." Kage cracked his neck. "Fire got doused by water that's true… but a hot enough fire can vaporize water… and melt through ice."

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"Yes. Kage has a very strong disposition of Fire." Hikari nodded. "At least that's what I figured out when he moved an inferno the size of an iceberg to melt down an entire fort back in Junius."

The Shadowguards and the soldiers as well as troopers stare dumbly at Hikari's testimony.

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"Nah! You stay right where you are Mister." Mwu shook his head.

"Mwu-san…!"

"I picked up this fight. So it's mine to finish." Mwu smiled.

Kage sighed. "Okay. Okay. But if you still wanna win this… would you like to hear some tips?"

Mwu instantly shunshin-ed to where Kage is, all ears. "Onegai-shimazu."

Kage whispered calmly. "I'm just saying… to fight him, you have to use more than one element. You can use fire, can you not? Not all elements kill one another. And the relationships between elements don't always go one way. You understand?"

Mwu thought for a moment… "Probably."

"You're sure?"

"Like I said, probably."

"Just… think of it logically and you'll get it. What makes a fire go stronger?"

At this point, Marco just couldn't stand it anymore. "What is it with you people…!?"

"Hm?" Kage and Mwu looked at the Man Walrus trembling in barely containable fury.

"If it's not one guy, it's the other guy. WHAT IS IT WITH YOU BASTARDS!?" He finally exploded. Mwu and Kage cringed upon hearing the roar. Lacus who heard the roar also stopped her lecture for a moment to listen.

"Not just Raww… but you too! You call yourself teachers, but you both would so easily bow down to brats that should've been your inferior! Where… Where's your pride as a veteran masters!? You dare to call yourself a teacher when your so called 'student' is lecturing you, besmirching your experiences!? You've shamed yourself by even bowing your heads like an idiot to the one who called you master! Do you even deserve to be called a master with such shameful attitude!?" Marco then turned to Kage. "And you. You call that man your master, while it was obvious that you are, in every way, superior to him. Are you insulting this man's pride by pretending to be his student!? Aren't you ashamed!?"

Mwu and Kage looked at each other. Now that Maro put it that way, the two had to admit their relationship is quite unique… but…

Kage solemnly sighed before he narrowed his eyes to Marco. "Before I answer your questions, I'd like to know to whom I am speaking."

Marco growled and slammed his spear to the floor. "I'm Marco Morassim! Senior Water Knight of the Zaft Empire, and conqueror of a thousand battlefields!"

"A thousand… hmph. So this is the first battlefield you have not conquered or you just don't bother counting the battlefield you've lost?" Kage retorted. "And when you speak of pride, were you talking about his pride or your pride?" Marco's face reddened in anger. Kage pay no heed. "Well, Marco Morassim. You asked why I would lower myself to the position of a student when I'm seemingly superior in every way to my teacher. I wish to correct your statement of me insulting Mwu's pride. Quite the opposite. If I didn't become superior to Mwu-san… than he has no reason to be proud of anything."

Marco gaped, while Mwu's eyes gleamed.

"It's a teacher's job is to teach their students, it is their duty to impart everything they know to the students, paving their way for the path to the unknowable future. On the other hand, is it not a student's duty to become the pride of their master by learning from them and then surpassing them? A teacher's greatest happiness is when their students finally flourish and bloom brighter than their master, is it not?"

Marco choked on that answer. But Mwu also has something to say.

"And I've got an answer for you too buddy." Mwu stepped forward. "You told me it's shameful of me to bow down my head in front of my student, asking him questions when it should've been the other way around. I ask you: what so shameful about it? You think once someone became a teacher, then they have to stop learning and studying? A good student learns from their masters… but there's nothing shameful when a master learns from the student, especially when the student are smarter than the master. At which case, it became the obligation of the master to learn from the student."

Mwu pointed his kodachi at Marco. "I've learnt something from my student today… and if I have to, I'll do it again." The remaining Cyclone Shuriken began circling around Mwu again.

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"I'll be honest with you my Lord… I'm more scared shitless if it was Kage that stood in my way, compared to Mwu La Flagga that is… but on second thought I guess I really wouldn't want to fight Mwu la Flagga either."

"Your analytical skills continue to serve you well. A single one of them present a very genuine threat to our army, and I do believe that Kage is a bigger threat of the two with his intelligence and ruthlessness." Raww nodded. "But may I ask you to reserve your greatest fear to an even worse situation?"

"You mean there's something way worse than either Kage or Mwu La Flagga standing in my way?"

"Much, much worse. And I fear Marco is currently facing this horror in full."

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Marco growled and readied his great spear. "Your cursed cyclone won't work on me!"

"I got plenty of other tricks that don't involve cyclones." Mwu bite his glove and pulled out a string with his teeth. With the strings in hand, he made a series of handseals, ending with dragon seal. By then, the strings had vanished, and once again the Cyclone Shuriken zoomed towards Marco. Marco grinned, preparing to counter the Cyclone Shuriken the same way, but then the Shuriken went wide to the side, away from Marco's freeze armor ice zone. Marco wondered for one second on what is going on.

Marco's eyes widened: interconnecting the two spinning shuriken, is 4 glimmering steel wires that Mwu pulled out earlier, connected with both of his shurikens, and they are now heading towards him, threatening to slice him to pieces. Marco roared and brought both of his heavily ice armored arms forward and crossed it before his chest, creating a guard. Moments before the strings make contact, Mwu flicked his finger, pulling a single wire, and then 3 dozen explosive tags unfurled from the strings. Marco's eyes widened. 'What is that!?' the strings collided with Marco's guard and as expected, the strings can't penetrate. Snagged by the strings, the two Cyclone shuriken spin furiously around and around with Marco at the center. After a half a dozen cycles, the Shurikens let go the strings, and Marco is now wrapped in layers after layers of Explosive tagged steel wires. However, his frost armor quickly freeze the explosive tags.

Mwu tried to blow them to no avail. 'Well, if I can't blow it using jutsu, I had to blow it up manually. And that means… Katon jutsus!' Once again, Mwu created a furious set of handseals while calling back one of his Cyclone Shuriken. Once the Cyclone Shuriken is within reach, Mwu spin once and throw the Shuriken straight back at Marco.

"FOOL! How many times do I have to tell you…!"

"KATON!"

"Ka-what!?"

Kage balled fist. 'That's right! One element… Wind alone can't penetrate ice! But add another element… with fire…!'

"HOUSENKA NO JUTSU!" Mwu unleashed five set of firebirds towards his own Wind Chakra enhanced Shuriken.

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"Fire jutsu! Yes! That's right!" Hikari was also excited upon seeing the maneuver. "Wood gave life to fire, strengthening it. Wind is no different! A fire jutsu enhanced by wind chakra will have its power explosively increased!"

"GO MWU SENSEI! GO!" Everyone cheered.

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The Firebirds consumed the shuriken, and the fire chakra and wind chakra mixed, and in the next instant, a giant conflagration occurred and a moment later, out from the firestorm, the whirring superheated Infernal Shuriken with feathers made of flame spinning at its edges burst out and headed straight at Marco. The Man Walrus didn't need to guess at what would happen if the Shuriken hit him. Using whatever strength he got, the man Walrus roared and jumped as high as he can, barely avoiding the fiery shuriken.

Kage gaped. 'Missed!'

But Mwu had one last trick to play behind his grin. Suddenly, the blond shinobi vanished, instantaneously reappearing right on top of the Inferno Shuriken in a flash.

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Lacus' eyes widened upon seeing the way Mwu just teleported. That was not Shunshin or Shukuchi…

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"Kage… has a gift. He has this ability… this aptitude to amplify the value of the men he commanded with his strategic brilliance. What Mwu lacked in intelligence department, Kage had more than complement it with his own. When you put Mwu's incredible endurance and unpredictability under the command of someone like Kage…"

The Lady Knight paled.

"The frightening combination of those two master and student working together… quite frankly, I just couldn't imagine anything that can stop it."

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Marco's eyes also widened in disbelief. His big girth is still midair, he can't move anywhere. He's practically a shooting gallery. 'Oh no!'

Mwu grabbed his Shuriken midflight and with definite bullseye, he threw the flaming Shuriken right towards Marco.

Marco gritted his teeth upon seeing the Fire Shuriken that will inevitably pierce his body. 'No… this cannot be…!'

The Inferno Shuriken is right in front of his nose.

'How could I lose to… these… brats!'

The Shuriken crashed on Marco's body, its superheated blades penetrated Marco's frost armor like hot knife through butter.

'How… could I… lose to anyone… but Raww…!?'

The fire blade ignited the strapped Explosive tags…

"RAWWW!"

Marco's scream was completely engulfed by the following deafening explosion.

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"YEAH!" Every bystander cheered at seeing the triumphant bang.

Lacus also felt somewhat elated. Of course it doesn't feel good when she's watching how Kage easily disposed her people, but somehow, she still feel relieved that Kira survived the day without overstressing himself. It seems Kira really knew his own body better than she does. Other than the initial recklessness and his crazy planning, Kage clearly kept watch on how much he took direct action. Maybe she should trust Kira's judgment ability a little more.

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A giant ball of fire and smoke fell from the fire and fall all the way to the ocean. Mwu and Kage looked at the giant lump that was obviously (what was left of) Marco. "Whoa… you think he's still alive?"

"Not sure." Kage rubbed his mouth. "You did strap 3 dozen explosive tags on him, they were frozen when they explode… but 3 dozen tags. 3 dozen tags. That's more than enough to vaporize an entire battalion. Frankly I'm surprised there's anything left of him…"

"Well, he's a big strong tough guy, what do you expect?" Mwu snorted. "Can't afford to hold back."

"Guess you're right." Kage nodded. "Let's go. I'd say we're done here."

"Yep." Mwu also nodded.

But before the two can move another muscle, a sudden surge pulsed on the ocean. Kage and Mwu looked at the source, the spot where Marco fell just now.

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"KYAAAAAAAARRGGHH!" "GYAAAAAARGGGHHH!"

Everyone aboard the Lear gasped when they heard the sound of woman screeching. They all looked at Hikari, the source of the sound. But on second observation, it was not her at all. It was two of her toys, the blue Haro, Ghienny, and the Light Blue Haro, Levi. "Ghienny? (koff) Levi? (koff) What's wrong girls? (Koff)"

"Pain… Haro… so much… Haro… cries… haro… pain… haro…" The blue haro moaned.

'Pain?' Lacus blinked. She looked at the spot where Kage and Mwu are still waiting. She stretched out her hand, closing her eyes, concentrating, sensing the ebb and flow of magic, realizing a large scale spell is being enacted. 'What is this? The flow of ether is going crazy! And these… water spirits… Undines? And in the sky… ice spirit Celsius… But… this many…'

"Hikari-sensei? What's going on?"

To normal people, there's nothing going on. But Hikari, who is a proper witch, can see what's going on in the magical sense. And what she saw… the whole ocean is flowing with countless tiny mermaid like creatures, each were made of droplets of water, while in the sky, it was blotted by countless flakes of ice, each forming the shape of tiny minuscule ice princesses. All of them are flowing towards that one spot where Marco just fell. 'This is… one of Water knight's most forbidden spells of water and ice, banned by Lord Veia himself!'

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At about the same time, the sea began to rumble and the water became turbulent. The temperature dropped drastically as Kage and Mwu's breath turned to steam before them again, and the ocean even started to freeze. Both quickly realized the battle is far from over.

The rumbling frozen water parted, and from it arise a gigantic elemental monstrosity. First glance, it looked like Marco's Man Walrus form… but it has been greatly malformed. Icicles bursting out of his shoulders, and its fur had turned completely from initial grey to white, as do Marco's red beard had turned into ice. The sabertooth had grown disproportionately long with ice spikes growing out. Other teeth fell off, a series of extra razor sharp fangs made of ice forcibly bursting out of his maw. Another set of oversized fangs also burst out from the lower jaw, creating tusk.

His right flabby arm had grown huge, bearing weapon whose size proportionate the massive arm that holds it, but his left arm had grown disproportionately bigger and longer, with giant walrus fang bones bursting out of the frozen arms, and it was completely made of ice, its nails made completely of fangs. What's even more surprising: Marco's overall size had swelled. The large girth of the Man Walrus had become even more prevalent… exaggerated even. So big that it rivaled the wreckages of the barges Kage and Mwu were standing on. And with giant razor sharp icicles bursting out of the stomach, it is nothing to laugh at.

"AQUA MAGIC: FROSTHEART HYDROMORPHOSIS."

And all the sudden, the giant ice creature turned to Mwu and without warning, brutally slammed a gigantic barbed ice pillar right on top of him. A flicker of red light later, and all the creature that was Marco did was shattering the barge wreckage and the makeshift wooden arena that Mwu made earlier to shreds. Kage, donning his Kurenai Shiki carried the slightly surprised Mwu by his back. "You're alright, Mwu-san?"

"Yeah… I'm good."

The Walrus Monstrosity roared and swing its pillar of a weapon. Carrying Mwu, Kage tried his best and flew as fast as he could away from the waving weapon. But the pillar was too big and its coming too fast, they'll never make it. In that crisis, Mwu think fast and throw his final Cyclone Shuriken at the incoming ice pillar. Seeing the Cyclone Shuriken on the fly, Kage quickly caught on and throw Mwu upwards with all his strength, away from the danger area. With both of his hands free, Kage furiously made the needed handseals and fired: "KATON, GOUKYAKU NO JUTSU!" straight at the cyclone shuriken.

The dense fireball engulfed the cyclone shuriken, and just like with Mwu, the fire jutsu was also amplified, but this was even more powerful by a significant margin. The Cyclone Shuriken was superheated, and it transformed into a large but dense shuriken of flames with rotating blades of fire of incredible heat. The grand inferno shuriken was still dwarfed the incoming pillar, but the shuriken easily pierce through the icy pillar, melting through it, creating a sizeable hole. Kage dashed forward to follow the flaming shuriken, right through the small hole it created on Marco's weapon. The Shuriken went through Marco's weapon with a splash of melted ice, followed closely by Kage flying through the gap, chasing after the shuriken.

Kage caught the still flaming shuriken and winced in pain when the fire seared his hand. 'So the Dragon seal only protects the user from the portion that was 'owned' by its respective users. Half of this thing is 'owned' by Mwu-san…' Kage tossed the Shuriken to the empty air, and Mwu suddenly reappeared right next to it, one hand caught the cooled of fuuma shuriken and the other caught Kage's outstretched welcoming hand. "The heck is that thing?" Kage asked the dangling Mwu for some advice, staring at that gigantic battleship sized Frost Walrus.

"Whatever it is, it ain't friendly." Mwu has no smart answer but the simplest.

"Then let's return the unfriendly gesture in kind!" Kage flew to a large floating debris and landed Mwu there. Both quickly made a series of handseals, Katon for Kage and Fuuton for Mwu. "Katon, Karyuu Endan no Jutsu!" Kage blew up a stream of a solid fireball.

"Fuuton, Senpuudama no Jutsu!" Mwu blow a solid ball of wind, a wind element version of Goukyaku no jutsu. The two elements combined, creating a gigantic larger than life firestorm dragon with gaping maw of swirling inferno.

"GATTAI JUTSU: SENPUU-KARYUUDAMA!" (Fusion Jutsu: Cyclonic Fire Dragon Sphere Jutsu)

A giant solid bullet of whirling fire tornado almost as huge as Marco burst out full force towards the elemental man walrus and literally drilled him head on, spinning furiously against the Walrus icy body. "GRrrr…ROAAAARGHHHH!" Marco roared and smashed his fist against the fire tornado and finally managed to cleave through it, only for the infernal tornado to explode full force to his face. The fiery explosion engulfed the ocean and vaporized some of the sea water, occasionally charring unfortunate sea creatures that accidentally caught in its path. The aquatic arena was momentarily fogged by a mass of vapor arising from the ocean, clouding the view.

But then, Kage and Mwu caught sight of a figure arising from the cloud of steam. It was Marco, and the giant Man Walrus still stands. But a portion of his body was grinded off. A huge portion of his right shoulder of the frost walrus was melted off and charred, his right hand is dangling by a single lump of frost flesh. His pillar like spear has been reduced to a sharpened stump. The many ice parts of its unnatural body are steaming and some are dripping wet. But it was obvious he's still alive.

"Okay… that is one tough old man." Kage whistled. "So… how are we going to do this?"

"Weapons check. See what we got."

Kage did a quick check on his arsenal: "I got… 8 kunais, a dozen shuriken, 3 flashbangs… and Shiki by default."

Mwu also did a quick check: "4 smoke pellets, 7 kunais, half a dozen shuriken, 2 strings, my Kodachi, and this is my last Special Fuuma Shuriken."

The two looked at each other, noting one important equipment they've completely exhausted, and yet they sorely need it right now.

"I used up all of my explosive tags on that Archangel Trap."

"Ditto on the Marco guy."

"…"

"…"

"Well… we already injured him. We'll think up something, won't we?" Mwu grinned.

Kage wasn't as optimistic. If even at that state and Marco still intends to fight then he must've had another card up his sleeve.

Suddenly, Marco began to growl, and finally, let loose a loud howl that reverberated across the ocean. And then, it was as if Marco took a deep, deep breath, and then water droplets began to splash up before floating towards Marco's mouth, just as the air around him was distorted, sucked into his dark maw. And then, before Kage and Mwu's disbelieving eyes, the damage they had inflicted began to regenerate. "What the hell…"

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Lacus' witch eyes saw things differently compared to others. And what she saw that others do not was the sight of thousands upon thousands of Undines and Celciuses being swallowed by Marco's gaping maw. "MADNESS! (KOFF!)" She shrieked in pure horror and fury as she banged her fist upon the railings, surprising other onlookers. "Forcibly draining and enslaving the powers of the Celsiuses and Undines is one thing… (koff) but to CONSUME them directly!? (koff) that's outright suicide AND GENOCIDE! (koff)"

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"Holy… he can regenerate? I've heard Zoans had enhanced healing factor, but this is…" Mwu gaped in disbelief.

"No… that's not bloodline limit." Kage grunted.

"You're sure? Or perhaps it's a Water Knight disposition? I mean… Veia was pretty much immortal-"

"Don't you dare to compare this to him! Veia's immortality was his bloodline limit going overdrive, but it's still within the laws of natural order. This… abomination… is nothing short of a blasphemous affront to all creation, a true freak of nature." Kage gritted his teeth. When he first faced Marco Morassim earlier, he can at least maintain a modicum of respect. But now, seeing this creature, and he felt nothing but disgust and anger. "Take him down. Here and now!"

"Then I guess we no longer had to get picky about the method to do it." Mwu gave out a few hand signals.

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Aboard the Lear and the Destroyers, spotters noted and recognized those hand signals. "Captain Mwu just ordered us to open fire on that thing!"

Artes naturally quick to react. "Gunners to your stations! Ready all guns down to the last peashooter! Danger close! Friendlies in the area!" The troopers quickly rushed to their stations. The cannon squad quickly made adjustments to their cannons, elevating it to face the target. The crews of the two destroyers quickly reloaded all their missile batteries. Before long, with an order of: "Give him Hell!" all ships began to open fire again, target: that giant monstrosity that is Marco. Giant High Explosive shells from a battery of Gottfried 16 inch cannons zoomed across the sky, followed closely by rockets blazing, leaving a trail of fire and smoke behind.

The giant Marco's icy body was flayed bit by bit by the shots. Shell after shell, within moments, the Lear and her Destroyer escorts had used enough bullets and rockets to flatten a small town, but the giant creature is practically unscathed. But, it did distract him a little, giving the two Alliance fighters a brief chance for respite and brainstorming.

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"Okay… this might be a bit difficult…" Mwu nervously smiled.

"When something has a strong exterior, its interior is usually pretty soft. We hit him from the inside. Maybe we can put some hurt on him." Kage made a motion to ready the green Shiki.

"Yeah… but even with the green death arrow you can't shoot his mouth from up here." Mwu looked at his last remaining Fuuma Shuriken. "I can also hit him with this, tear his insides out but I only got one shot. Just one."

"I can't fly you up there while dodging his attacks at the same time." Kage reminded Mwu of the fact when they were almost squashed the last time they tried that. "You're too heavy, and my flying speed is getting too slow."

"But you CAN fly fast enough there if it's just all by yourself… can you?"

"Gurren Shahadou has penetration power… but it didn't cause that much large scale destruction. I can switch quickly to Midori Shiki Agni Kai… but…" Kage looked at the extensions, he only got 1 left, plus his sleeves. Comparing that with the amount of damage Marco had soaked up, that's far from enough. "Honestly I don't think I can take him on alone. Even if it takes the both us, I doubt that'll make him feel an itch."

"Yeah… but what's the guarantee he won't close his mouth while we try?"

"When he took in damage… he opened his mouth to absorb water and air… then he regenerates. We have to damage him again to force him to regenerate. Big time."

Mwu smirked. "Well… I got an idea if you wanna listen… or you got something better?"

"At this point I'd usually ask for a minute, but we don't have that. So let's just go ahead with your plan, whatever it is."

"Right." Mwu suddenly pulled out a brush and a bottle of ink.

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Hikari watched as the Lear mercilessly showered Marco with cannonshells. Even without the mask, it was obvious to everyone that the giant Man Walrus had earned her ire somehow. Problem is… they don't understand a single thing what she just said. Milly dared herself to come closer to the angry doctor. "Hikari-sensei?"

Hikari blinked and looked at the timid Milly.

"Does something bother you? You're… seem kinda upset."

"Upset…? (koff)" That's when Hikari also realized that in her anger, she gripped the wooden railings so tight, she cracked it with her fingers, and thus the reason everyone looked at her scared. "Well… (koff)… yeah, I guess you could say I'm quite upset. (koff)"

"Very upset is more like it." George pointed at the crushed railings.

"Well… there's this and that… hm?" Hikari suddenly noticed something coming towards them. A brief moment of observation revealed that to be Torii. Kira's loyal petbird. It landed on Lacus' hands and revealing a scroll. A small memo. The message was short but clear: "Call Fuji. (koff) Ready the Lohengrin. (koff)" She announced for everyone, and they quickly understood what's about to happen. They also saw a red spark that is Kage flying out from amidst the cold steam of ice, heading towards a certain direction.

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Meanwhile, Marco continues to be battered by cannonshot after cannonshot. Body pieces cascade down rapidly due to the destruction. But damage aside, it's no use when they kept regenerating back. While it doesn't even register to Marco as more than an itch, it does getting on to his nerves seeing that he's unable to concentrate on his enemies. What's more, the troopers aboard the Lear is starting to grasp which aim would nag him the most. After the umpteenth time getting hit in the head area, Marco decided enough is enough. Icicles formed on a part of his body, and with a pulse of a thought, the icicles were launched towards the Lear.

"INCOMING!" The crews of Lear yelled in time as a rain of icicles landed upon the ship, severely damaging it. Several crew were punctured by a long ice spike.

But even such destruction is of no consequence to Marco. He no longer had any interest in capturing George. He just wants all his enemy dead.

So naturally, he wasn't expecting when an Anchor smashed against his face. ARGH! For the first time when Marco entered this form he let out a form of pain. He looked at what hit him. It was an anchor. A massive anchor… Its angelic design shows it belonged to the Archangel. But what surprised him the most… was the wielder.

That being said, the wielder was none other than the giant Fuji carrying his sword in one hand and an anchor chain in the other joined the fray, using waterwalking personally taught by Kage some time ago, said person currently standing on his shoulder. The man's size is only slightly smaller than Marco, but he's still huge! His legs floated firmly on the surface of the Ocean, though his own prodigious weight caused his feet to sink at least a knee deep. Fuji yanked the chain and caught the Anchor back in his hand. "Why don't you go pick somebody your own size?"

WHAT SORT OF MONSTER ARE YOU!? Marco incredulously looked at the giant human.

"Monster!?" Fuji snarled. "Hah! You're the last person I wanna hear that from! Besides, I had the Advanced to thank for turning me into this! Now I can squash them all underfoot!" And then Fuji began spinning the anchor again at the top of his head before swinging the anchor straight at Marco's head, accurately aiming to his eye. The anchor chipped a piece of his face. Marco was clearly enraged. Roaring like a monster he is, the monster walrus charged at Fuji. Fuji also charged forward, sword at the ready. Upon entering range, the two swing their weapon. Fuji his sword, Marco, his oversized left arm. The impact rattled the ocean, sending a shockwave across the battlefield. Fuji gasped as he felt his hand went numb. For the first time in his life, he fought someone whose strength quite possibly above him.

But that was the least of his problem. The blade began to feel cold. Extremely cold.

Kage was the first to notice something was seriously wrong. "FUJI! LET GO OF THE BLADE!"

Fuji let go just in time. Once he let go, the giant steel blade break and shattered like glass. It was frozen to breaking point. "Whoa… okay… this is bad." One second late, and his hand would've been frozen along with the blade. "I can't touch him, can I?"

"You don't have to. You can just swing the Anchor like a kusari gama or something. Last I recall, the last time we fought you have a particular proclivity with it."

"You think so? But… if I do this… he'll just freeze the anchor again, won't he?"

"Let's see if I can do something about that." Kage quickly responded by creating a series of handseals. "Katon, Endan!" Kage breathe a mass of extremely hot flames at Fuji's readied anchor. Fuji grunted, holding on to the heat. But his thick skin was like a natural armor protected him from worse damage. By the time Kage was done, his anchor was gleaming yellow hot. "There. That should make your sickle frost proof." 'For a while anyway.'

"Understood." Fuji grabbed his only remaining weapon, the Anchor. Now he had to use them like a sickle. Fuji swung the anchor and once again it accurately hit Marco's face, chipping his face while Fuji kept his distance. The superheated sickle anchor literally cut through Marco's face like butter, ripping apart some of his face. Naturally, it earned roars of pain and wrath from his opponent.

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Meanwhile, Mwu oversee the preparation to fire the last Lohengrin shell by drawing something on the insides of the cannon barrel, under the watchful horrified glare of Murrue, who had briefed by Mwu about his latest, and by far craziest plan to date; hence the reason she's screaming like mad in protest. "Are you CRAZY!? What kind of plan is this!? This is plain insanity! And you call Kira-kun's plans as insane!"

"It'll work! Haven't I told you? I'm the man who can make impossible possible!" Mwu grinned as he finished the last touch in his work. "Now go! You know you won't be safe here."

But Murrue will not be dissuaded. Mwu's record of recklessness was as infamous as it is legion, but this… this is nothing like that! "But even if this Jutsu did what you said it does, we're talking about 100 ton tungsten tipped high explosive shell that flies at a speed in excess of 1200 km/hour! You won't make it in time!"

Mwu's answer to that is only a big grin. That certainly was not enough to convince Murrue. "Mwu! Please! Think of another way! This is insane!"

"Then, if you're that worried of me… could you go to the Lohengrin's gunner's room?"

"What!?" Murrue's eyes widened.

"I want you to pull the trigger." Mwu smirked. "If the plan works, I'll be fine… if it's not… well, at least I wanna die knowing I got done in by a beautiful young woman like you."

Murrue blushed at the praise, but she quickly became enraged. "Don't be ridiculous! You're asking me to pull the trigger that will kill you!? NO! I will not! Mwu! Please! Don't you dare ask me to do such a thing!"

"Na… Murrue…" Mwu suddenly stopped working on what he's doing. "You know I'm not much of the bright side. All this time I've been doing things using only my guts. When against Raww… against any opponent I've faced up until this point… my guts and luck has been only thing I've been relying upon… and then, in Amaterasu… that attitude caused us to end up with these children. One particular brown haired Japanese kid, who really… really turned our world upside down."

Murrue blinked. Indeed. Who would've thought? Back when she first saw Kira, when she saw how easily the boy gets flustered, who would've thought the boy would be capable of all this?

"When I took them as students, it was out of pity, and the need to take responsibility over my reckless actions. But then… time and again… instead of us protecting them, what happened so far, was the exact opposite. It was they who kept saving us." Mwu had lost count on how many times these children had performed the impossible, surpassing his expectations at every turn. "When I saw that… I began to think… am I really worthy to even stand side by side with these wonderful people? They were obviously far greater man and woman than either you or I could hope to be."

Murrue narrowed her eyes.

"But… you know…?" Mwu's voice trembled. "That… Marco-guy… pointed out my many inadequacies and flaws as a master… and guess what? The Kid defended me, proudly declared that I'm his master. A kid whose intelligence far surpasses the brightest mind of any Alliance scientist, a kid whose skills had skyrocketed beyond anything I could ever hope for, a kid whose position is more than adequate to stand as equal if not above me… he acknowledged me. ME! The most incompetent master in the world, and he acknowledged me as his teacher! He even tried his damndest to make me proud… that idiot Kid giving it all… he didn't realize how proud he made me already…" A droplet of tear formed at the corner of one of Mwu's trembling blue eyes. "My student is risking his life, giving it all out there. I'll be damned if I didn't do the same here!"

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Meanwhile, the clash of the giants continued. Fuji continuously kept his distance, swinging the superheated anchor again and again at the other giant, ripping chunks of the ice walrus' body. Marco, feeling confident of his cold aura and regeneration ability will protect him anyway, charged recklessly forward, immediately closing the distance while his mutated left arm raised high, lunging forward for a stab with a fresh howl.

"Jump to the side!" Kage's instruction came just in time as Marco's claw was just seconds from piercing Fuji's chest. Fuji managed to dodge the said claw, and reacting quickly, he stabbed Marco's outstretched arm with said superheated anchor, nailing it. The heat of the anchor prevented Marco's freezing aura to freeze the anchor, albeit momentarily. Fuji quickly roared and run to Marco's right side while pulling the chain connected to the anchor. The left arm was yanked back and was forcibly slammed against Marco's own right shoulder, puncturing it with his own claws.

After that Fuji continued to run in circles, strapping Marco's body with chains. Meanwhile, Kage cast a fire jutsu to superheat the chains as they circle around. The act quickly drained his limited stamina though. Marco grunted as he struggled to break the heated chains. His body is melting, he's taking serious amounts of damage at a very rapid rate! Marco snarled and opened his mouth wide again, absorbing the Undines and the Celsius to recover.

And that is EXACTLY what Kage and Mwu was waiting for.

Kage used what's left of his Kurenai Shiki and flew at top speed towards the maw that is Marco's mouth. Once Kage entered inside, Fuji yelled in panic: "MWU-SAN! KAGE'S INSIDE!"

Marco's eyes widened when he heard that. 'Wait… what the hell is that brat doing, flying into my body?'

Mwu's nervous smile grew wider. He yelled. "Now or never Murrue! Fire the Lohengrin!"

Back in the gunner's room, Murrue finally agreed to take control of the gun, but she was still perplexed and in complete disbelief of what Mwu was trying to do. It sounds so impossible…

"MURRUE! FIRE THE LOHENGRIN! I CAN TAKE IT! FIRE!" Mwu yelled again.

Murrue, in the gunner's room, with her trembling finger on the trigger, still hesitates…

"MURRUE! HURRY UP! THE KID'S FREEZING IN THERE!"

True to Mwu's words, now that Kira's inside, he's practically standing at the center of a blizzard… and Kurenai Shiki's coat is the only reason he hasn't turned into an ice block. But the blizzard inside Marco's bowels is rapidly corroding his protection.

"MURRUE! TRUST ME! FIRE!"

Murrue's trembling finger slowly squeezed the trigger…

"MURRUE!"

Murrue gritted her teeth, squeezed, closed her eyes, and hope for the best.

The firing hammer clashed with the primer, and with a thunderous roar, the Lohengrin exploded and fired its last shell.

Mwu, still standing inside the mouth of the Lohengrin rifled barrel, can briefly see a corona of fire at the bottom of the Lohengrin right in front of him, the armor piercing Hi-Ex Shell burst forth and coming at him full force at top speed…

Here it is. Moment of truth…

Kage gritted his teeth. His temperature tolerance is reaching its limits…

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A~AAAAAAAnd we arrived at the most sadistic cliffhanger I've pulled out to date…

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The Alliance

Part 2

The history that follows afterwar the formation of the army was that of continuous battle. The troopers marched from the barracks, spears and shield at the ready, with the Samurais charged forward. For countless ages the battles of the Great Crusade tore the planet. Many great names were made and then forgotten. And finally, after centuries of endless war, victory. The Oni had won. But at a terrible cost. In their pursuit of war, the Onis had completely expended themselves. They will now walk the path of diminishment and extinction with utter surety. However, they were content. The time of the Immortals has ended. Now is the time of mortal men. They left most of the administrations of the Empire to humanity. Humanity, their greatest pupil, who had greatly evolved from primitive men to educated and civilized beings. However, the Onis took note of a particular situation: their meddling with humanity's gene had left the humans divided into two distinct species. One part is the small portion of humanity, humans who had been gifted by the Oni's gift, developing special powers, the Advanced race. On the other half, is the vast majority of mankind, now dubbed as Naturals. Initially, fresh from wars that hound them all, both races, bound together by the bonds of friendship and camaraderie forged in the fires of war, both race embraced one another as friends and brothers. Even when the Onis began to fade bit by bit, humanity proved them that they can remain organized, maintaining the civilization that the Onis had taught them how to build.

Pleased by what they've evaluated, the Onis readily vanished into the histories, hoping that mortals will take over their place as benevolent masters of the world. Initially, bereft of guidance from their divine masters, humanity can still somehow manage their affairs. But then, the inferiority of humanity began to show, with many administrations blunder and various kinds of corruption began to spread, corroding the Empire. Humanity had been spoiled too much by the Onis, and have grown decadent and complacent as the result. And then there's the mismanagement on how humans dealt with the Samurai's ordeal, which resulted in their 1000 generation long isolation. Tension reached a boiling point when the Samurais finally and explosively broke out of their imprisonment, first wiping out their weakened navy, and then nearly obliterating the entire Empire in a vengeful rampage. And then the Emperor made them the regular army of the Empire, but clearly it wasn't enough as in the short subsequent years, they caused another destructive civil war across the world that brought down dozens of nations and countries to ruin. The Emperor, then the Last Oni in the world, took matters into his own hand and brought the chaotic rampage of the Samurais to full sudden stop. The Samurais vanished soon after, leaving the Empire in tatters. But from the ashes of destruction, a personal victory: humanity learnt a harsh lesson. And in this hardship, they wake up and opened their eyes: The world is a harsh dark place, and they can't rely on gods or anything. They had to rely on themselves. The Gods are gone.

A new governing system was created in the wake of the White Emperor's departure, where Naturals and Advanced will rule the Empire by taking turns. The Advanced took the role of ministers and scholars, whereas the Naturals took the role of workers and warriors. Corruptions were purged and weeded out, inefficient and bogged administrations as well as lacking and deficient military infrastructures were torn down, rebuilt from scratch. And while the Advanced managed the administrations and political side of the empire, the Naturals strengthen the military. At the time, the existing army is really pheasant militia army. Little trained, even less armed, their only strength came in numbers. However, learning a harsh lesson from their experience during the Samurai Breakout, they learned the value of possessing a highly trained elite professional waged army. A new system of recruitment was created, along with a new military chain of command, and a new stricter military training regime as well as increased military budget for paid professional soldiers. When a citizen reached a certain age, they are under obligation to spend 3 years in military disciplined training to be graduated as Troopers, and then spend another 5 years of service. After which they may either reenlist, and get promoted into what is now equivalent to Sergeants or retire, and receive a gift of service in form of fixed contractual payment of raw cash. To better aid the protection of the Empire, the ministers then divided the entirety of the world into 12 sectors, each sector will be protected by what is now equivalent to Force Commander Captains (or just Captains), and their deputy Lieutenants. The 12 Captains will command their sector regional troopers, and all answer to the central command: the Central Chief Marshall Captain (or just Chief Marshall or Chief Captain), the highest military authority of the Empire.

To further aid the Troopers, the imperial Forge began developing a conceptual weapon designed during the Great Crusade but they never had the time to finish. Said weapon in question is simple in concept… but monumentally difficult to create in practice. The Samurais had mastered its use a long time ago, and back during the Great Crusade, due to the complexity of the weapon, they were used in very limited number, and only a Samurai's superhuman capability can use it. Now, they seek to create a version that is cheap, easy to use, easy to create, and thus can be deployed in vast numbers. After years of labor, the Forge finally began to produce satisfactory results: a hand held weapon. A smaller variant of their cannons, breathes sparks of fire, spitting metal, and more importantly, they can be used easily by Naturals. The initial testing results were beyond encouraging. Within a month, the Emperor (Blue Emperor at the time) signed a new budget allotment that quintuple the funding of both military infrastructure and R&D department. In less than a year, every Trooper in the Empire is now armed with the latest of Firearms. R&D produced myriad kinds of firearms weaponry every month: flamethrowers, line gun, rocket launchers, to name a few. It was also during this time that the scientific department begun developing the concept for a Steam Engine prototype.

The Administration, now also free of corruption and inefficiencies, also ensured that the funding is allotted to various kinds of progressions. Troopers' payments are ensured and well paid, ensuring high morale, and a very dedicated and committed disciplined army. Its borders protected by a disciplined army that can rival the now long lost and forgotten Samurais, the Empire grew wealthy and prosperous, and became a crown jewel of the world. Thus the time of the Two Emperors was considered to be an age that was said to be humanity's very first and very own Golden Age, one they achieved without the interference of the Onis. Yet all this was not to last.

As years dragged on, the Two Emperor system had began to betray a pair of fatal flaws: jealousy of the Naturals, and the arrogance of the Advanced. Naturals became jealous of Advanced's inherited superiority of mind and physical capability whereas the Advanced generally became tested by Natural's apparent inferiority. Over time, animosity began to grew, and tensions began to rise. One particular accident during the Crimson Emperor reign in which a high councilor of the Advanced race was killed in a debate that turned into full physical brawl seem to ensure the eternal enmity between these two originally peaceful races. After that, the rule of the two Emperors continues to deteriorate up until to the point of near collapse. The prosperity of the Empire decrease sharply. It was during that time that several Naturals, Traders Billionaires, Merchants magnate, Industrialist, and Businessmen alike, gather together and convene. Foreseeing that the Empire is on the verge of reverting back to the way it once was when the Onis are disappearing, these Businessmen and Industrialist finally decided to take matters into their own hands. Forming a secret society of Military Industrial organization, they pooled together their resources and using their massive cache of funds for the grand scheme ahead, they began to literally buy their way up to the top of the political and military arena. With corruption and avarice rive in the governmental court, it was but a simple chore for these businessmen to take control and placed many agents on various strategic points of the government. Pretty soon, the military was also firmly in their hands. All seem set for this secret society of merchants, later known as Logos, to take over the Empire.

Ironically, it was the Advanced who attempted to draw the first blood. Wary of how Naturals possess the military supremacy at the time, the Advanced Ministers attempted to oust power from the vocally anti Advanced Natural Ministers in what supposedly to be a bloodless silent coup. The plan was to coerce and bribe the current Chief Marshall Captain, Calron Azrael to call in all 12 Captains and their respective regional troops to central command in the Capital in what supposed to be a training exercise. And then Calron would use that army as leverage in support of the Advanced Ministers for a bloodless coup, coercing the Natural Ministers to refrain themselves of their overly radical anti Advanced ideas, and they are to be peacefully 'retired' and to be replaced with a more compromising Natural Ministers. The Advanced justify themselves that it was not out of lust for power, but for the goodness of the Empire. They promised Calron a hefty boon, and a high position in the new ministry. Outwardly, Calron agreed to that sentiment. What the Advanced Ministers didn't realize, was that Archibald had long since been a supporter of the Logos… and one of their most prominent and vocal members to boot. The Advanced offer was the proof he needed to push forward the anti Advanced Sentiment to its zenith. On the day of the coup, instead of a bloodless coup that the Advanced Minister hoped for, a full blown violence occurred which saw the murder of all Advanced supporting Natural Minister candidates that the Advanced Ministers had prepared to replace the original ministers. Worse, due to Logos machination and bribing of the right people, the Advanced Ministers were framed for the act, and the news were spread to all Captains (most of which, by that time, had also been indoctrinated in the anti Advanced sentiment) that the Capital of the Empire is under upheaval, and that the Advanced Ministers had murdered and massacred all Naturals in the capital.

The training exercise suddenly became an all out assault into the capital which saw the murder of the entire Advanced Ministerial Court. Calron himself denounced and condemned the Crimson Emperor as a blinkered psychopathic dictator and spawn of demon, hell bent on the massacre of all Naturals in the world. He had the Emperor poisoned to death before he can defend himself. Soon, the Logos Foundation made itself known and took the overall control of the Empire, abolishing the two Emperor system and thus ended the time of the two Emperor… and began the long Bloody days of the Holocaust: the systematic slaughter of all Advanced in the entire breadth of the Empire.

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Till the next chapter…