Hatchet stood directly across from Raymond. He wasn't foolish enough to underestimate an opponent he didn't know much about...but considering the species of his opponent, it was hard not to. "Your honestly not afraid? Most humans who see us fishmen, turn on their heels and run."
"My hearts beating pretty fast, so SOMETHING must be happening. Maybe I am afraid...or maybe its my adrenaline already", Raymond replied. "Honestly, I find you fishmen interesting. From your ability to survive on and off land, to the water manipulation"
"Is that so? Well, I applaud you...it may not be smart, but you don't seem to show the same spinelessness most humans have. I bet under a different circumstance, we could have been friends...maybe."
"Yeah, maybe."
"Now then! Water Pistol". Hatchet shouted. A small bubble of water flew out of his hand and straight at Raymond. It flew faster than any regular person would have processed...but Raymond swiftly dodged it by moving to his right. "Hm? Whats this!?"
"Whoa! I barely saw that!"
"How were you fast enough to dodge that?"
"I have good reflexes...I think. The move looked like it slowed down or something. Its hard to explain", Raymond said as he reached into his pocket.
"I think I see now. This explains a lot actually. Are you perhaps able to use Haki?"
"Haki? I've heard about that from somewhere. As far as I know I never learned how to use it. Yet you're not the first person to ask me if I can use it"
"Oh, but I think you can indeed use it. Some people use it without realizing it even. You said my attack slowed down...and you noticed my presence before Jabra did back at that restaurant. If anything, you may have advanced in it...and you didn't even know you had it. Maybe this fight won't be as straightforward as I thought it would be.
"Haki? I've been using Haki? The thing my so-called mother used that day", Raymond asked himself.
"Venom Pistol", hatched said. He charged at Raymond, with the intention of stabbing him like he did to Jabra.
"Meteorlight!" An explosion of lights was set off by bang snaps thrown by Raymond.
"What!? Cant see! What kind of trickery is this!?"
Raymond quickly hopped backwards. "Try this one on for size!" Raymond swung the silver colored bat he had at Hatchet. It hit him right on his side actually managing to knock him back.
"That actually hurt", Hatchet said as he rubbed his side. You really are going to be a pest, aren't you? Fine. Shave!" Hatchet vanished.
"Oh no...I haven't thought of a counter to this yet." Where did he go? Raymond tried to concentrate...but he had no luck locking on to the roaming fishman. He still didn't know how to use the supposed Haki. It only came to him at the strangest times. He prepared the bat again.
"What's the matter, you can't see me now? Am I moving too fast for you", Hatchet asked mockingly.
Raymond clutched the bat ready to attack...but it was all for naught. A punch was thrown right into his face, sending him flying into a tree a few feet away from him. A pain shot up all through his body just from that one punch. "Ack! Dammit!"
Hatchet ceased his shave technique. "Did that hurt? I didn't use THAT much of my strength. Do you see the power of the advanced cipher pole agents now? A basic human like you wouldn't even stand a chance against a regular trained agent. I'm on a whole other level!"
"I don't actually care what "level" you're on. I told you, as long as you have a beating heart, I can beat you. I know you are stronger than Jabra...but I'm smarter than him. I can be very dangerous when I want to be." This time, Raymond grabbed a white cap from his pocket, and stuck it at the end of the roman candle.
"Another firework show? Didn't you learn your lesson the first time, you peasant?"
"Peasant...hehe. I never once used that word on one of my people. And actually, I did learn my lesson. Learning and thinking are what makes me so dangerous you know, mr..."
"Hatchet. The name's Hatchet", he replied with nonchalantly.
"Hatchet...your words just so happen to remind me of something. I have a saying, that I made up long ago. A peasant is like a gust. It can be harmless when it wants to be...but in the blink of an eye, if can blow you away. Maybe not the best saying, but it motivated someone once."
"And is that supposed to motivate you?"
Raymond smiled. "Never mind that. Just come at me." Hatchet vanished again, with the intent of finishing it in the next strike. "If there were ever a time...no would be it", Raymond thought to himself. His wish had come true, and time seemed to slow down again. He managed to see Hatchet speeding toward him. "Perfect!" He jumped out of the way and fired the candle at the spot he once stood at. This time however, instead of fire, or water, an icy patch took the spot. "PLUTO SHOT!"
"Huh?", Hatchet stopped in his tracks, right on top of the ice. "You missed...and badly. You almost shot your own leg."
"I wasn't aiming at you directly. You did exactly what I needed you to do", Raymond said with a smile.
The ice below Hatchet's shoes quickly traveled up his legs, only seeming to stop at his knees. "What is this supposed to be?" Instead of getting a vocal answer...he got a physical one. He began to shiver, almost uncontrollably. "H-hey. What is this? What did you do!?"
"Don't play dumb, Hatchet. You may be stronger than a fish, but you're still a fish. With that fact in mind, I know exactly how to slow you down", Raymond said. He charged forward with the bat, and smacked Hatchet with it. This time however, there was an explosion along with it, sending Hatchet flying. "Fishmen can't regulate their boy temperatures that well, thus I figured your reflexes would slow in the sudden drop in temperature. Now I can deal with you on a more leveled field of speed."
"Very clever...and exploding bat? Well that's something you don't see...ack...every day", Hatchet said as he stood up. The explosion combined with the force of the bat injured him, but he was far from heavily injured. He was still shivering, indicating he was still cold.
"My special star powder. Really packs a punch huh?"
"Not bad, but you seem to have forgot that I don't actually have to move, to get you. "SEA HIVE!" A mass of water formed around Hatchet, seeming to make a wall of sorts. "Your explosion earlier, only helped create more moisture, and as long as there's moisture, I have another weapon!"
"Hm, a bad, but necessary miscalculation on my end. I still need that for my plan to work." The air around was actually beginning to turn colder. The power of the Pluto shot appeared to be expansive.
"BEE ARMY", Hatchet yelled. Suddenly, small little water droplets formed in front of the shield, and shot forward.
"Oh no!" Raymond crossed his arms and braced for impact. Lik a thousand tiny bees swarming an attacker, the water droplets crashed against Raymond, and stung his body.
"Feel the power of water manipulation!" Hatchet continued to fire the small water bullets at Raymond.
At first each bullet only crashed against his skin and hurt, but the intensity was starting to rise, even drawing blood from his arms. "Just...have to...last until the water runs out", he thought to himself. The force of the water began to force him backwards. "Just...have...to...", but the force finally knocked him over.
"Hmph! I can tell you're still breathing...but not for long!"
He was about to gather more water for another attack, but Raymond quickly sat up, and shot another fiery bullet at hatchet. Hatchet saw it coming easily, but he still had trouble moving duh to his body temperature still falling. The fiery bullet hit him, and while it did hurt quite a bit, it still didn't have quite the effect it should have. The frosty edge must have reduced its power. "Thawing me out? And here I though...huff...you were supposed to be...huff", Hatchet had trouble catching his breath. "D-damn it!"
"And now, the power of rapidly rising temperature. Your body will have trouble coping with it, due to your internal water rapidly losing oxygen. All part of that inability to naturally adjust your own body temperature. "On the off chance you pass out, you'll be wide open. Even if you don't, your performance has more than likely fell even more now.
"Smarter than I gave him credit for! I wont lose to someone like him", Hatchet thought to himself.
"Now this time I'll knock you out of the park!" Raymod ran forward again with the silver star bat prepped for attack!
"Iron body!" Hatchet's body solidified! He managed to reduce the impact of the bat, but his iron body was less effective duh to him rapidly losing strength. "Nice try! It won't end so easily for you. Especially with water being so close by", he said as he stared off into the distance. He could see a pond not too far away from the battlefield. If he could make into the water, then the rapid temperature changes Raymond forced on him will be null. "FINGER PISTOL!" He stabbed Raymond right in the side with his finger.
"Ahhg!" Raymond clenched his teeth, and stepped back, holding his side.
"Heh! Now's my chance!" He dashed away while still out of breath. His speed wasn't quite as crippled as it was a moment ago. His body was already starting to readjust itself, but only very slowly.
"Hey! Get back here, we're not finished yet!" Raymond gave chase to Hatchet. He had to stop him here, if he wanted to leave the woods safely. Not to mention stop him from going after Jabra.
"B-blue Vial. Blue vial", Jabra kept repeating as he struggled to look on the shelves. His vison was so blurred he could barely see anything. His strength was also nearly at its end, and he couldn't stand. He was almost sure he was out of time...until he saw a dark blue shine closer towards the top. "Gah, Raymond, it was the top shelf not the bottom, dammit! Sorry about this, but I can't stand up anymore", he said as he used what was left of his strength to crush a leg of the shelf. Whatever was left on the shelf, was now on the ground around him, but luckily the blue vial was capped and unscathed. There even seemed to be several others. He quickly popped the top off of one of the and guzzled down one of them. At first he didn't feel any different, and he was starting to think that it was not working. That or he was too late, but like a sudden wave of cold water on a hot day, that horrible feeling was washed away. "Ugh! Sweet relief! How the hell did he make this stuff anyway? Wait! No time for that! I gotta save Raymond!" He grabbed another vial, and sprinted back towards the battlefield.
"Danmt it! I wont catch up to him in time. He wont fall for the same tricks again", Raymond thought to himself. He could now see the pond ahead of ...but, no sign of Hatchet. "Where'd he go? Did he run somewhere else? Maybe he's close by? Gah, where's that Haki thing when I need it!?"
"Looking for me, Raymond", a voice called out. Of course, it was Hatchet's, and it came from the pond. He rose out of the pond, seemingly covered in a thick veil of water. I fixed the little temperature trap you set for me. AND now this shield will protect me from anything you can throw at me now. Your fire attacks will fizzle out, your ice attacks won't be able to freeze my stronger water forces, and your bat will only bring you closer to death. How do you plan to think your way out of this one", Hatchet asked. His smile was a that of someone whom was both intrigued and sadistic. Perhaps he really did wonder just how far Raymond could get in this fight.
Unfortunately, Raymond didn't really know what to do at this point. Hatchet had a way to adapt to all his current weapons...but then Raymond remembered that he had one more weapon. The only problem was finding a way to get a sure strike! "Well, I haven't given up, that's for sure."
"Well I now see how you could be somewhat of a threat if not taken care of, so I'm afraid I'll have to kill you now. Then rest assured, I'll send Jabra your way too."
"Put your money where your mouth is", Raymond said. He pulled out a bottle rocket, and pulled the string, prompting the rocket to fly down at his enemy...but just like Hatchet predicted, it simply collided with the water and became a dud. "Here's another one", he yelled as he fired another pluto shot. This Time Hatchet was able to predict the shot, and launched a mass of water at it, to cancel it out The frozen water simply fell to the ground. "Right", one more should...", he loaded a red cap onto the candle and fired, but this one was aimed at the ground in front of Hatchet.
The impact of the blast was strong enough to create a dust cloud around the two, even thick enough to where Hatchet couldn't quite notice Raymond approaching quickly. "You missed."
"I know, but only on purpose", Raymond yelled, as he jumped into the pond. It was actually a bit deeper than he thought it would be, and the water was surprisingly clear. It was no wonder the wildlife animals like to drink from it. He dove down deep into the water. It was like some sort of miniature lake.
"You jumped...into the water? Into the water!? I take back every compliment I gave you. That was without a doubt the dumbest idea. Thinking you can escape a fishman by swimming?" Hatchet followed suit. With his bag and jacket of goodies left on land, he was gaining speed. Raymond swam pretty fast from what Hatchet could tell, but nowhere near as fast as a fishman could. "VENOM PISTOL!" Shing! The tail pierced Raymond right through his shoulder. Not only was the pain intense, but it almost made him cough up the air he had in his body. He had completely stopped moving, and now he could even see blood from the puncture wound floating around him. Too bad that dog abandoned you, cause now you'll die from my horrible poison!" Raymond's eyes were wide from the pain, and he almost felt like he had frozen up. His wound continued to bleed, as he slowly began to sink towards the bottom. As far as Hatchet was concerned, Raymond was as good as dead now. The only thing left for him to do now, was get out of the water and go find Jabra. "Hmph! Brat gave me a small little run for my money, but at the end of the day he was just a human. Now then, which way could he have...", that was all he said, before he heard something splash behind him. An arm wrapped around his neck. "What!?" Raymond was a much faster swimmer than Hatchet anticipated.
"If there's one thing i'm good at, its swimming! Just thought I'd give you this!" Raymond jammed a stick he found in the water, into Hatchet's gills."
"Gah", Hatchet yelled in pain as he fell backwards into the water. Raymond had let go just in time to stumble forward. His legs felt like jelly, and he was getting dizzy, but he had to hurry and crawl over to his bag.
Hatchet sat up, and removed the stick from his gills. "Well that was a mild annoyance, but he wont help you much. That venom will finish you off without me having to do anything...though I guess, I wouldn't mind killing you with a stab to the neck. You know...an eye for an eye", he said as he stepped forward. He was still submerged up to his knees in the pond. "Did you honestly think you could escape from me through the water? Its basically my home!"
"He...hehehe. Weird huh", Raymond asked.
"Whats weird?"
"You call it home...but I call it...the perfect conductor!" Raymond pulled out a sparkler from his bag, but it wasn't a normal sparkler. He had modified it to produce a small bolt of lightning, and act as a taser. He pressed a button on the handle and dipped it into the pond in front of him.
"What!? Whaaaaaaaaaa", Hatchet yelled as the very water around him became the conductor that electrocuted him. The electricity traveled through his body rapidly, zapping everything it went through, including his heart. The zap was strong enough to do enough physical damage and end the battle. Hatchet's eyes were blank, and Raymond was still impaired from the venom, but he could swear he saw smoke coming out of Hatchet's ears. Without another word, Hatchet fell backwards into the pond.
"I told you, as long as you had a beating heart, I could beat you. He...hehehe...heh!" Raymond's conscience had momentarily slipped.
R..ymond! ...aymond! Raymond can you hear me!? Here, drink this", Jabra said, as he held a vial up to Raymond's mouth. Jabra's voice seemed to fade in and out.
"Jabra? Oh...hey...I think I won."
"Yeah, I can see that. Your handywork I take it", Jabra asked as he pointed towards the still unconscious Hatchet. Well truth be told, neither of them could tell if he was knocked out, or dead. Your amazing, you know that? Don't think your stronger than me though! You just got luckily is all!"
"Yeah yeah, whatever. I'm glad you came back though. I didn't expect to get poisoned."
"Of course, I came back for you. I can't leave you behind. Not after you saved my life or whatever", Jabra said. Come on...I think its time you meet my friends. I don't think any of us will be able to stay on this island anymore.