Where'd everybody go? This story not exciting enough for you readers? Either way, I'm continuing this story regardless of the number of reviews, though I would appreciate it if people say something.
Chapter 7
Sweet Commander—Part 2
Kaga kept her distance from Oven while throwing blue fireballs at him, but the latter easily plowed through them like they are nothing while attempting to close in on her to punch her, but with swift movements, Kaga was able to avoid them and even took to the skies.
"Come down here and fight me!" Oven angrily said to her.
"We're not fools to take on enemies up close when we specialize more in fighting from a distance," Akagi said to her as she took out her "scroll." Sliding small paper planes across the scroll, she created miniature jets that flew towards Oven while firing missiles at him.
While small, the missiles still did quite a damage to Oven, who held up his arms in defense and was forced back by the surprisingly strong but small explosions. When the jets attempted to kamikaze into him, he pulled back his fist, heated it up, and threw a fiery punch at them, destroying them.
He then bent down a bit before jumping a great height towards Akagi, who was caught by surprise. He grabbed her by the collar and then forcefully flung her onto the sand below hard. As she was attempting to stand back up, Oven got behind her, grabbed her head with a burning hand, and then slammed her face onto the sand over and over.
Kaga came to her sister's rescue. With her hand covered in blue fire, she charged into Oven and tried to him with it. However, Oven caught her hand and then punched her back in the face with his other hand. Akagi used this opportunity to get up and away, spitting out sand from her mouth while doing so, and then launched red fireballs at Oven.
Oven charged through the fireballs harmlessly and slammed his fist into her chest hard, knocking her back.
The two fox sisters then stood side by side with color flames burning in their hands, while Oven stood across them with his fists heating up brightly.
"He's strong, Akagi," Kaga said to her.
"I know, but together, we will be able to beat him!" Akagi said with confidence.
"Don't say such confident things unless you actually do a score on me!" Oven said to them. "You'll regret facing against us Big Mom Pirates!"
Dido and Cracker clashed their swords against each other hard, and the latter sometimes used his shield to block her attacks. Likely because of the black mist surrounding her blade, Dido was able to create a powerful impact against Cracker's shield. He felt his shield vibrate with great intensity every time it got hit, though she was nowhere close to breaking it.
After trading blows a few times, Dido jumped back and pulled back her sword, and large amount of mist gathered around the blade until it was almost entirely enveloped. With a powerful swing, she unleashed a black energy blade at Cracker, who blocked it with shield. Though successful in blocking it, the impact was strong enough to make him slid back quite a distance, even though he planted his feet against the ground firmly.
The surrounding pirates were shocked to see this.
"She is able to put up a fight against Commander Cracker!"
"How is she so strong?!"
"Hmph! I can't say it's that very impressive!" commented Cracker. "You'll have to do a lot more than that to put a scratch on me!"
"Then I shall do so," said Dido, getting into a fighting stance. She pulled back her sword, once gain gathering black mist around the blade, and then dashed forward at a fast speed. Cracker brought up his shield to block the thrusting attack. Dido was able to push him back several feet before he used his shield to direct her sword aside.
He then swung down his own sword, but Dido jumped back and fired from her rigging upon landing, though Cracker reacted in time and pulled his shield in front of himself. He then charged at her to slam into her with his shield. She held up her sword like a shield and blocked the impact, getting pushed back as a result.
Belfast had been beating up various pirates by herself and managed to do a good job holding things up by herself. After clearing the opponents around herself, she turned and saw Dido pushing back against Cracker and figured that she should lend a hand.
She ran towards Cracker and then jumped at him with one fist pulled back. She threw a punch as she fell to punch him in the head, only to end up hitting his shield. Belfast bounced back and landed, and she got a better look to see that Cracker had sprouted an extra arm that was holding a second shield, much to her surprise. Dido was surprised by this as well.
"Think you can outnumber me? That's not going to happen!" said Cracker as another arm appeared on his body again, this time holding a second sword.
"He's growing more arms?!" said Dido in surprise.
"It must be the work of a Devil Fruit!" thought Belfast.
"Pulling out extra limbs is probably a bit overkill dealing with the likes of you, so I'll do you a favor and grant you a quick death so that you won't have to suffer!" said Cracker. Aiming for Dido, he pulled back both his swords and swung them together. The maid held her sword vertically like a shield to block the attack, and they struck with such a force that she was sent flying.
Belfast was shocked by her comrade getting knocked away, but she pulled herself together fast to focus on her opponent. Taking aim with her rigging, she fired rapidly at Cracker, who held up one of his shields for defense. After she was done firing, he charged at her in an attempt to bash into her with his shield.
Belfast leaped to the side and high into the air to avoid him, but she did not expect Cracker to turn to her almost immediately to thrust his sword at her. Left with no choice, she held up her arms in hopes of blocking the incoming blade, only to be snatched out of the air suddenly by something. She found that it was Koby who pulled her out of harm's way and was carrying her in a bridal manner.
"Are you all right?" he asked her.
"I am all right, but thank you for your rescue," Belfast said to her as he let her down. The two then turned to Cracker, who approached them.
"I think I might know you," Cracker said to Koby. "A captain leveled Marine named Koby, if I remember correctly."
"Surrender at once, or face justice!" Koby said to him while getting into a fighting stance.
"Poor choice of words coming from someone the level of a captain! You think you can take on me with that kind of level? That's plain laughable!" Cracker said to him.
"I am not here alone if you didn't realize it!" said Koby, pointing to the shore that was already swarming with Marines fighting the other pirates. "And regardless of who my enemy is, I will not back down! We will take you down right here!"
"Ha! Your little army isn't even enough entertainment for tea time!" mocked Cracker. "If you so wish to die, then I shall grant it to you!"
Meanwhile, aboard Cracker's ship, the battle was originally in favor of Ayanami, Hood, and Akashi, who for the most part used their riggings to deal massive damage to the pirates and the ships, though to their surprise, the ship was durable enough to withstand their firepower. Akashi for the most part used explosives in the form of miniature torpedoes to battle. She claims to have made them while at the Marine HQ.
However, the tides of the battle began to tip a bit with the appearance of a bizarre man named Opera covered from head to toe in white slimy substance that according to him is cream, made possible due to his Cream Cream Fruit.
Ayanami learned the hard way that this cream was harmful to touch in that it burned her skin when it came in contact with her, thus forcing her to fight more carefully.
"Haha! What's the matter? Scared of a little cream?" laughed Opera as a large amount of cream oozed down from his body and slowly formed an expanding puddle around him.
The ship girls backed away from the incoming cream, knowing well what it could do. "To think that the ingredient of desserts could be used as a weapon… This is unthinkable…" said Hood. "And also a waste of food…"
"I'm having a hard time believing it as well-nya…" said Akashi.
"My cream is to die for! Get them while they're hot!" said Opera as he manipulated the cream to rise into the air like tentacles and lunge at the ship girls.
In response, Hood fired from her rigging at each of the cream tentacles to blow them apart. Akashi threw mini torpedoes among the cream, and they blew up to clear away the floor.
With the floor cleared, Ayanami ran towards Opera with her sword pulled back and then swung it. "Whipped Cream!" Opera shouted as he swung his hand to unleash a whip made of cream. It collided with Ayanami's blade hard and actually managed to repel the ship girl.
Opera tried to hit her with the cream whip, but she dashed out of the way before pointing her rigging at him and fired. The shots were successful and Opera was blown on his back, much to the surprise of the pirates.
"Did they just defeat Opera?!"
"How is that possible?!"
"They'll pay for this!"
The ship girls got together into defensive stances as the pirates surrounded them. Just then, Hood received a call from her communication device hidden at his ear. "Hood! Are you there?" said the voice of Belfast. "Leave the ship for now! We need extra hands here!"
"Roger that," said Hood with a nod before ending the call, and then she told her companions. "Looks like we are needed at the shore."
"Are they having such a hard time there-nya?" asked Akashi.
"You're not going anywhere!" said some of the pirates angrily. They began to close in on them, but Hood responded by firing from every gun on her rigging at once. The combined blast was powerful, blowing away several of the pirates and leaving behind quite a damage on the deck. The ship girls then used this opportunity to jump off the ship and ran for the shore.
Cracker proved to be a tough opponent, even when Koby, Belfast, and Dido fought him together, though the latter three were also able to hold up well against him. The battle between these two had become something of a spectacle, as the pirates and Marines present had mostly stopped what they were doing to focus on their battle.
Koby traveled at an incredible speed through the air to get around Cracker and strike him from the back, but the latter held up his shield in that direction to block it. At the same time, Belfast ran at Cracker and threw a powerful punch, only for it to be blocked by his second shield.
Dido swung her sword to launch a dark energy blade at him, but he was able to deflect it with his sword. Dido then charged at her and thrusted with his swords rapidly, and the former was able to skillfully block them with swift sword movements.
Cracker was eventually able to knock her away, however, and then Belfast fired at him from the side. He blocked it with his shield before heading for her and swung both his swords. Belfast remained in place until the last second, where she stepped to the side at a fast speed to allow the blades to go past her. Aiming her turrets at Cracker's face, she fired at point blank. The explosions blasted Cracker back quite a few steps, but surprisingly enough, he wasn't badly injured by it. While he was still trying to recover his vision, Koby jumped at him and punched him in the side of the head.
Cracker growled in frustration as he glared at Koby, and all of a sudden, he was struck in the side by powerful explosives that engulfed him in a split second. Everyone turned to the source of the projectiles and saw that they came from Hood, who had arrived at the shore.
"Hood, you're here!" Belfast said to her happily.
"I can see why you need my firepower now," said Hood. When she saw Cracker getting back up, she said, "I'm honestly surprised that the people of this world are capable of withstanding firepower from battleships! Any human back in our world would be in pieces just after a single shot."
"You think cannon shots are enough to take me down? Such confidence will be your downfall!" Cracker angrily said to her.
"Indeed, I do believe my cannon shots can take you down. Would you like to have some more?" asked Hood before pointing her arm at him to fire from all her guns.
Cracker held up his shields to block the shots, which struck with such a powerful force that he had a hard time keeping his footing. He was in fact on the verge of getting blown back. "What firepower!" he thought. "I don't think I can…"
One of the shots struck his legs, causing to be blown into the air. While he was spinning through the air in, Hood aimed at him and continued firing, blasting him all over the body with cannon shots. The pirates were shocked to see their commander receiving such blasts.
"COMMANDER CRACKER!"
When the explosion and smoke cleared away, Cracker fell down onto the ground motionlessly with a badly charred body. "I can't believe it! She actually beat a Sweet Commander!" commented a Marine in shock.
"Never underestimate the power of a Royal Navy battleship!" said Hood, sounding proud.
Oven, on the other hand, didn't look as shocked as the others, though he still had a displeased look on his face. "You guys just had to do this!" he said.
"Are you still going to underestimate us?" Akagi asked him with a smirk.
Oven then smirked. "You shouldn't be celebrating so early! Cracker isn't the kind of person to go down so easily! Mama chose him as one of her elite subordinates after all! He may not be as powerful as big brother Katakuri, but his strength and skills in combat are still one of the best in our crew! If you think something like that can easily defeat him, then you've got another thing coming towards you!"
Everyone continued to eye the seemingly dead Cracker, and they were surprised when his body burst open. A man wielding a sword came out of the body. "What the…?" said Helmeppo.
"My, my… I can't believe you actually destroyed my favorite armor!" said the man who was smaller in stature and younger than Cracker. "I can't remember the last time I showed this form while outside Whole Cake Island! I guess I have to give you a round of applause, eh?"
"What is this? Who are you?" Koby asked him.
"Shouldn't it be obvious? I am the real Cracker!" replied the man. "What you saw just now was nothing more than an armor I created using biscuits! I really hate receiving any kind of pain, so I made a fine armor to hide inside of in order to avoid receiving hits during battle!"
"What?! I've never heard of anything like this before!" said Helmeppo in shock.
"Pretty much nobody outside of our crew knows about my true form! You Marines even used a picture of my armor as my wanted poster!" Cracker said to him.
"Excuse me, but may I inquire something… You said earlier that you made your armor out of… biscuits?" Belfast asked him.
"It's just as I said, biscuits!" said Cracker as he clapped his hands. Biscuits of various sizes materialized out of thin air around him and floated in the air. "This is the power of my Bis Bis Fruit! It allows me to create biscuits and shape them into whatever I like! Behold!"
The biscuits then broke down into small pieces and merged together to form shapes. Eventually, two armors resembling Cracker's "fake" form were created.
"I can't believe it…!" said Dido in awe.
"Those are made using biscuits…?" said Ayanami in disbelief.
"Nya… This isn't what I had in mind when I read that Devil Fruits can sometimes provide strange powers…" said Akashi.
"Haha! Surprised? These biscuit soldiers move according to my command!" said Cracker. "Unfortunately, I can only transfer my armament haki into them when I am inside one, but even so, one soldier is durable enough to withstand impacts from solid steel! I can create a large amount of them to overwhelm you all if I want to!"
"But I have already proven that my rigging is powerful enough to destroy them," Hood reminded him. "I shall gladly destroy them using the same method again!"
"I'd like to see you try!" said Cracker. He commanded the biscuit soldiers to attack Hood, and they charged at her.
Hood fired at the incoming soldiers, who held up their shields in response. The shields were destroyed in a single shot, and then soldiers followed suit afterwards. While the explosion and smoke had yet to clear completely, Biscuit rushed out of them and towards Hood with his sword held over his head. Hood was caught by surprise and seemed like she was going to get hit, but Ayanami got in between them and blocked the attack with her sword.
She tried to slash Biscuit horizontally afterwards, but he jumped out of the way. He summoned biscuits immediately after landing, in just a few seconds, two biscuit soldiers were created.
Cracker didn't stop there, however. He kept on moving away from everyone else while summoning biscuits nonstop, and in no time, close to ten biscuit soldiers were created.
"Haha! Try beating them all if you can!" Cracker said while laughing evilly.
TO BE CONTINUED
Again, I feel like this chapter has gone long enough, so rather than ending the fight here, I'll save it for the next chapter. I hope you look forward to it!
