Author's Note: This chapter is all over the place. Again, I have to lie in the bed I made when I introduced so many characters with different motivations who needed to somehow make their way into this battle. And it's just getting started. Buah ha ha!
Ch. 18 – The Legendary Zoan
"Captain!" Helmeppo called, waving his hands about. He ran up to Coby where he still stood gazing out at sea with his arms clasped behind his back. "Captain, we've just received word that the main attack on Ilium has failed!"
The sigh of relief caught in Coby's throat as the Vice-Captain continued:
"They're calling for reinforcements. We're to turn back immediately."
Coby swore beneath his breath. It had just occurred to him that there was the possibility of his being blamed for whatever had gone amiss with the battle. If that was the case, Bags had threatened to annihilate him and his crew.
In truth, he hadn't actually told anyone the secret he had discovered through his observation haki earlier that day: namely, that Queen Helena and Roronoa Zoro had a daughter. He had watched as Helena had taken lunch with the little Princess. Not that he'd seen the little girl's face, but he detected her pure, childlike aura and immediately realized who she was.
It had been a simple report:
"Roronoa Zoro is not here," he'd told Regent through a transponder snail. "And I know who the Queen keeps likely keeps in her bed. It's just her daughter."
Just her daughter, Coby thought to himself miserably. He'd said it so off-handedly, never even dreaming he had just jeopardized an innocent child. Regent would inevitably go after her, and then what? Would she really be married off? The child couldn't have been more than two years old!
"Captain Coby-San?" Helmeppo prodded. "Your orders?"
Coby faced him, brow furrowed as he contemplated their options. After a pregnant pause, he turned to the crew.
"Turn her around, men," he called. "And prepare yourselves! We sail to Ilium, and to war!"
Murmurs swept through the harbor as Helena's people and their foes stared at the girl no one knew existed. By the Queen's reaction, and by the child's wild, green hair, no one doubted who she belonged to.
"You have a kid, mon?" Calypso spluttered in shock. "A living kid?"
"That's right, Home-wrecker," Zoro growled, not taking his eye off of Regent.
Kuina wasn't the least bit shy, nor the least bit worried. Twisting as she hung by the finger of her captor, she looked the grisly monster of a man straight in the face:
"You a heart," she informed him, patting his outside, more human looking cheeks. "Me like hearts."
Regent's two mouths curved into a misshapen grin. "What a sweet child-ild," he simpered to her parents. Taking her about the middle in one enormous claw, he stroked her hair condescendingly with the other.
"Ow!" the girl complained when his nail snagged in one of her curls. She clamped her sharp little teeth onto the hand that held her, but couldn't bite through the blue scales.
"Hm, feisty too-oo," Regent went on, letting her dangle by her teeth. "Just like her mother-er. Perhaps I should give her a scar to match-atch."
Kuina lost her grip on him and dropped, and he caught her in his free hand. Helena and Zoro, though they stood on the docks below Regent and several meters away, crouched into attack ready stances.
"Oh, I wouldn't move if I were you-ou," Regent told them, resting three sharp fingers on the girl's back. "A scar is one thing-ing, but these nails can pierce more than skin-in."
Neither Helena nor Zoro lowered their swords, but they didn't move to attack either.
"Put her down!" Helena snarled. Zoro could feel the waves of Haki still pulsating off of her, but Regent was far too strong for her to influence, especially from this distance.
"You're in no position to make demands-ands," Regent replied, jabbing the nails into Kuina's back. She let out an angry wail of pain and started wriggling.
"Why you hurt me?" she cried.
Zoro still didn't quite know how to feel or act toward his daughter, but upon hearing her innocent confusion at the pain and betrayal, a rage different than any he'd experienced surged through him. He fought it down with all the training and self-control he possessed – he couldn't afford to lose focus now.
"Drop your weapons-ons," Regent ordered, ignoring the child's sobs.
Zoro glanced sidelong at Helena, who looked as if surrender were the last thing on her mind too. By her livid expression, it was plain that the only reason Regent hadn't been eviscerated already was that she knew she wasn't fast enough to cover the distance in time. Zoro might be, provided Regent wasn't faster. It wasn't worth the risk. They needed some sort of a distraction.
Fortunately it came in a way they didn't expect.
Several meters above Ilium's harbor, a patchy blimp hovered through the air like a dead, bloated fish floating on the sea. – it smelled like one too. Used napkins, greasy take out bags and other garbage made up the outside of the balloon, and it was powered by the ghost of meals past.
A basket of woven candy wrappers hung from the balloon, carrying Circe and her litter-litter daughter.
"I can't even!" Nausicaa said as her mother yodeled on. "The Vice-Admiral, like, eats people, and now he's using a baby to threaten the Queen? That's pretty low, aye em aych oh."
Circe didn't answer. She had a goose to control. At her command, Cygnus looped back around. She intended to make him land submissively at Regent's feet. Knowing the Vice Admiral, he'd probably crush the king's skull then and there, and then Circe would finally be off the hook with this whole business.
"You know, when you said I should, like, come to work with you to get some direction in my life, I actually expected to be impressed," Nausicaa went on. "There have to be more humane ways to fight for justice. You and your boss treat people worse than animals. Seriously, dub tee eff?"
Circe's yodeling wavered.
"If I didn't know better, I might say Dad was right," Nausicaa finished. "You're nothing but a warmonger."
"That's enough, darlin'!" Circe snapped, rounding on her daughter. "You can try to get all high an' mighty, but the peace you and yer pappy enjoy is because a the stuff that people like me 'n Regent're willin' to do! Powerful countries that do as they please, countries like Ilium, are dangerous to all of us! I do what I hafta to protect yer future!"
"Well, I don't want to be a part of it!" Nausicaa snapped back. "You thought bringing me on this trip would make me want to be a Marine? I'm not following in your footsteps."
"Fine! Go home and open that stupid gluten free pizza shop ye keep jawin' about. In the meantime…!"
Nausicaa interrupted her with an involuntary squeak of surprise. She pointed back over her mother's shoulder, and the Captain whipped around. Her eyes widened.
"Tarnation!"
Her goose had broken free. And it was too late to take control of him now; he'd flown straight for Regent's head. Using both of his strong, flexible goose feet, the King grabbed Regent by both pairs of nostrils and hung on, honking for dear life.
Zoro and Helena didn't waste time thanking whatever lucky star had set Cygnus free at just the right moment. They had the few seconds they needed:
"Seven Sword Titan," the started together.
"Kronus…" Helena said.
"…Wrath!" Zoro finished.
They launched themselves forward with their special attacks, Oni Giri and Wrath of Zeus. Regent barely managed to bat Cygnus aside before Helena and Zoro's paths crossed over their mutual target. They cut an enormous X into the flagship in the process, mercilessly beheading the dragon man at their epicenter as Zoro caught Kuina safely in his crossed arms.
"Papa!" the little girl cried, hugging him about the neck in delight. Zoro clutched her in arms that trembled with relief as the residual anger and fear on her behalf shook itself out of him.
"Papa!" Helena cried at the same time, only hers was a cry of dismay. She bent down over the crumpled goose at her feet, not failing to notice the dried blood all over his face. "Oh, gods…!"
Looking at her through hooded eyes, Cygnus let out a feeble honk as Helena bent to lift him. He raised a shaking wing to caress his daughter's cheek reassuringly with his feathers.
"No…" she murmured. "Papa, you can't…!"
His eyes slowly closed, his wing went limp and dropped away from her cheek. His face fell to the side with his tongue lolling out of his beak.
"NO!" Helena screamed.
To her utter astonishment, Zoro started to laugh.
"Nice dramatic death there, Pops," he said with blatant indifference to Helena's distress. "One problem. Where's Hades?"
One of Cygnus' eyes shot open in bewilderment. When the logic that he wasn't actually dying sank in, the goose jumped out of Helena's arms, breathed a sigh of relief, and neatly dusted himself off with his wings.
Helena stared at him with her mouth dropped open, then turned that stare to her husband, who had Kuina climbing all over one of his arms while he held a katana out of her reach in the other. He was still chortling. Shaking, Helena snatched Kuina away from him, clutching the child to her chest in relief.
"Thank the gods," she murmured.
"There, there, mama," Kuina said, patting her mother's hair. "No cry. Monster all gone now."
Helena chuckled. "Well, I guess that's one way to introduce you to the kingdom," she said shakily. "There's no hiding you now. In a way it's kind of a relief."
"Want Papa," Kuina demanded, but Helena hugged her tighter. "Want Papa!" she insisted again.
Zoro sighed, but held his arms out to take the child back. Helena gave Zoro a meaningful look, but then surrendered the child without complaint. After all, Kuina got to see her mother every day, but Papa's presence was a rare treat.
Just as Kuina's weight left Helena's arms, she found her hands flying back to her swords. Regent's headless body had just twitched.
"What the…?!" she said, narrowing her eyes.
The headless corpse squirmed to its feet, but though Helena was closer, it lashed out suddenly toward Zoro and the child. The master swordsman easily parried the surprise attack, but then the claw extended and grew around him like a short, heavy cage, pinning him and Kuina to the ground.
Regent's claw wasn't the only part of him growing. His arms, legs, torso, everything expanded, including two lengths of neck, still headless. Like a pair of blue, reptilian giraffes, those necks towered over them as the scales that had once only covered Regent in patches spread to become his entire, glittering hide. In a matter of seconds Regent went from being a headless corpse to an enormous, headless…
"Dragon!" One of Helena's soldiers screamed.
"Rhea, Mother of Zeus," Helena cursed, her eyes wide.
The X she and Zoro had carved into the ship hadn't been through and through, and so wouldn't have sunk it, but Regent's weight made it creak and groan. Right before it snapped all together, Regent's claw closed around Zoro and Kuina, and the headless dragon jumped for the dock.
As he moved, two bulbous faces budded from the ends of the necks. When the two full heads finally bloomed in full – complete with rows upon rows of nasty, sharp teeth – they were both still grotesquely disfigured. One eye drooped, one nostril sagged, one head was missing a horn or half an upper lip.
Helena had jumped to the safety of the docks as the ship started to go down, her father fluttering beside her. She stared at Regent, a look of understanding spreading across her face.
"A Hydra," she breathed. "That's how you survived when Father smote you with the Mask of Zeus."
"Yessss," one head hissed at her, his tongue now forked like a serpent's.
"When your father attacked me, he threw me into the sssea as I used my power to grow back my headssss," the other continued.
"Unfortunately, the combination of sssea water and god lightning kept my headsss from fully forming," the first spat.
"Even now I am permanently ssscarred, no matter how many times I sssplit."
"And when I regain human form, I'm ssstuck as you sssaw."
"I would say I feel sorry for you, but…" Helena indicated her back with her rapier.
She and the goose at her side crossed gazes as she spoke. It felt strange to see her father in the eyes of a bird, but there was no question that the angry determination she saw there belonged to him.
She turned back to Regent: "Now, release my family if you would, please."
"Again you think you're in a possssition to make demandsss-andsss," both heads hissed together. They grinned as Regent tossed Zoro and Kuina into the air. He caught them both in one of his maws, swallowing them in one gulp.
Helena pushed down her own panic. "You really think that was a good idea?" she asked, raising a brow at him with composure. "Sheesh, you'd think a monster like you would know to chew your food."
Both heads narrowed their lopsided eyes at her. A moment later, as Helena expected, Zoro sliced his way free. Only instead of a clean, beheading, horizontal cut, he cut vertically along the throat. The neck and head fell limply to the ground as he jumped free, Kuina in tow.
"Yucky!" Kuina exclaimed at the stinky guts covering her.
"You said it, kid," Zoro replied, grimacing.
Helena chuckled. "That was a unique way of escaping."
"You said this guy's a Hydra, right?" Zoro replied, swiping his sword through the air to get rid of some of the gunk. "Best not to go chopping off heads, then."
Helena smirked at him and nodded. "Aw, I knew I married you for more than your good looks," she teased. "Now can you take Kuina back to the palace, please? I've got this under control…"
"And let you have all the fun?" Zoro replied, eyebrow raised. "Whoa!"
Zoro and Helena both jumped as Regent's active head viciously attacked the dead one. He gripped the limp neck in his powerful jaws, and then Snap! He bit it clean off. The headless neck quickly split into two more heads.
"Isn't that cheating?" Helena pointed out.
The three disfigured dragon heads loomed over her, grinning.
"All'sss fair…"
"…in love…"
"…and war," each head hissed in turn.
"And I do ssso love-ove-ove war-ar-ar!" they echoed. Suddenly the middle, most disfigured head opened its scaly maw and made a strange gurgling sound.
"Hydras can spit fire…" Helena murmured, remembering. Then she swore as she realized what that meant. "HYDRAS CAN SPIT FIRE!"
Just as she shouted it, the gurgling throat started to glow an eerie blue. A turquoise fireball shot from its mouth, straight at her. Zoro stepped in front of her, Kuina hanging down his back and out of the way.
"Hang on, kid! Dragon Twister!"
The cyclone of air bounced the fireball back, making it explode and shower the tangled up Navy ships with sparks.
Kuina started bouncing on Zoro's back with excitement now. "Yay, Fireworks! Do again! Do again!"
"Well, that complicates things," Helena said. Where the sparks met wood, red flames started to shoot up and spread. It was only a matter of time before the whole dock, and any trapped boats in it, started burning up. "I guess they're all prisoners now."
The beleaguered marines realized this too. Their frightened and angry shouts rang through the air, but fell on deaf ears.
"Yeeessss…."
"…burn the ssshipsss!..."
"…no retreat!"
The middle head started shooting fireballs at his own ships in earnest as though delighted with the idea. He didn't seem to care about the personnel still on board either.
"That's pretty messed up, mon," Calypso observed, casually walking up beside them.
Zoro shot him a glare. "What are you still doing here?"
Calypso ignored him, turning instead to Helena. "He's motivating his men to fight to the death, now."
Helena nodded. "But why? They can't win this! They're out-numbered, Regent no longer has any leverage on us, and they've lost the element of surprise! – not to mention, his men have already dropped their weapons. They're in no position to fight!"
"He may still cause problems though, mon," Calypso pointed out, jerking his head toward the Vice-Admiral. "Want my help?" He indicated himself, Helena, and Zoro with one of his machete, "That makes one for each head."
Zoro looked surprised to be included in the count, but that didn't do much to mollify him. "Hey! Back off! I already got a sword for each head; I can take him alone."
"I was just being polite!" Calypso retorted. "I don't need help from a dead-beat dad like you."
"You sure about that, Tiny? Seems to me your arms aren't long enough to reach him."
"I've had enough of this measuring contest, you two!" Helena snapped. "–I don't need EITHER of your help. Now Zoro, if you would, please take our daughter back to the palace before she gets hurt!"
"And leave you alone with him? Fat chance," Zoro scoffed.
"Thanks for the vote of trust!" Helena exclaimed.
While the fire-breathing head focused on its diabolical, ship-burning task, one of Regent's other heads snaked between them, jaw's agape. Still glaring at the two men, Helena stabbed Regent in the snout with her sea prism dagger. Regent shivered and fell with a deafening crash, smashing the dock on which he stood and sinking into the sea.
"And that, gentlemen," Helena pronounced proudly, "Is how the Princess slayed the dragon."
At least, that's how she'd imagined it would happen. Only when she stabbed him, her blade ricocheted off of his scales without piercing them. She thought she noticed something out of the corner of her eye before Calypso tackled her, saving her from being snapped up in the beast's jaws.
"His scales turned black," she said in surprise. "What in Hades…?"
"Are you all right, mon?" Calypso asked, straightening off of her. His arms lingered around her probably a little longer than necessary.
Zoro was already there, and he didn't look happy. "Back. Off," he said.
"What, and just let her get eaten?" Calypso snapped. "You were too busy playing baby sitter to save her!"
Zoro shifted Kuina to his side and snapped something back at him, but Helena was already up and dashing toward General Hector.
"Regiment C, fall in!" she shouted. "Everyone else, fall back!"
The General loudly repeated her order to make sure it was heard. He gave her a bemused look as, in the midst of her alarm, she still managed a moment to shoot her husband the stank eye.
"I don't get it," Helena muttered to Hector. "Zoro knows he won that bizarre sword…dance…fight…tango…thing. He knows he has me. Why is he acting like an imbecile?"
Hector chuckled uncomfortably, exchanging a glance with Cygnus, who honked and shrugged.
"I'm serious! He was never the jealous type before we got married!"
"Maybe that's because you weren't rightly his before then," Hector reminded her. "Anyway, if you ask me, you looked like you were kinda playing both of them in that little dance off just now."
"I was not!"
"Trust is something that takes time to regain, Your Majesty. Maybe he could use some reassurance, considering there's another man in the picture."
"But there is no other man! Calypso Blue was never in the running!"
"More's the pity," Hector muttered.
"What did you say…?!" Helena snapped.
"Come to think of it, you probably shouldn't have interrupted their fight in the first place. This is something they're going to need to settle between themselves as men."
"Zeus almighty, this is NOT the TIME!" Helena spluttered in a rage. "And men say women are confusing. Gods have mercy!"
The regiment had fallen in by this point. Zoro and Calypso were both verbally flaying (close to actually flaying) each other again as well, but Helena ignored them. She approached the smirking, three-headed dragon calmly.
"Vice Admiral Regent," she called. He made a particularly frightening picture, hellishly backlit by the burning navy ships. "There's something you forgot, and it's going to cost you."
"Oh…?"
"…and what…?"
"….would that be?"
Helena brandished her heavy dagger. "Our chief export."
She used her blade to indicate the large men standing in ranks behind her. They wore sea prism armor, beaten thin to counteract the weight. Each carried a military issue, sea prism dagger like hers, and a sea prism tipped spear.
At a word from her, her men lay down their spears with uniform precision, knelt into levels, and pulled out the muskets they had strapped to their backs.
"You want our sea stone so much?" Helena asked, flipping the dagger around her hand. "You can have it! Light him up, boys!"
At Helena's command, the regiment opened fire. Soon they lost sight of Regent in a cloud of smoke and a spray of musket fire.
Helena knew the weapons were dated. They may not have been as efficient as the rifles the navy had, but musket balls were easier to craft out of the finicky sea prism stone. Sure, they weren't exactly armor piercing, but it usually didn't take much to take a devil down, even one as big as Regent.
"Reload!" one of the lieutenants within the unit called.
Regent's three-headed shadow still loomed behind the smoke. Helena's eyes widened. Something was definitely off.
"Fire!" she shouted again.
More smoke and fire filled the night air. After a third and fourth round of musket fire, Regent's shadow still hadn't moved. His hissing laughter filled the air, echoing with three times the sinister intensity. Helena's nerves crawled.
"Damnation! I had a feeling," she swore to Hector. "Our sea prism isn't getting through to him. Ready the shatter cannons. Tell them to fire at will."
Zoro and Calypso had been obliged to shut up as the regiments' muskets rang through the night. When the noise cleared, and before they could go back to their insults, a sniffling sound caught Zoro's attention.
"You ok, kid?" he asked, glancing down at Kuina, who he still had balanced on his side, opposite his sword sheaths. She had her hands clasped over her ears.
"Too loud," she whimpered.
"This really is no place for a child, mon," Calypso said.
"Like I need you to point that out!" Zoro snapped, then turned his attention back to Kuina. "Come on, kid. I'll take you home."
Kuina nodded, and Zoro lifted her up onto his shoulders. She wrapped her arms around his forehead and clung to him, still sniffling.
"I'll be back," Zoro warned Calypso. He looked far from threatening with such an adorable turban on his head, though this didn't stop him from continuing: "Quit bugging my wife."
"Oh, I don't think she's particularly bothered by me," Calypso replied with a smarmy grin.
Zoro's lip twitched, but he decided not to retaliate further for Kuina's sake. He passed Helena on his way out. He knew she was busy at the moment, so he just kind of gave her a nod when they locked eyes, but she grabbed him by the front of his shirt as he made to dash by.
"Hey!" she snapped, glaring him in the eye. But then she yanked him closer and stole a quick, hard kiss. "I'm yours, ok."
He chuckled. "I know that. Just gotta make sure he does." He shot a triumphant look in Calypso's direction, and Helena rolled her eyes.
She quickly ruffled Kuina's hair. "Be good for Papa…"
Kuina still looked miserable, but she nodded. "Don't worry, Kid," Zoro reassured her. "Your mom will have the monster taken care of in no time."
His confidence in her made Helena grin. With that, he turned to go.
"Zoro, wait!" Helena called after him when he'd dashed off several paces. He turned to see her unamused expression. "The palace would be that way," she said, pointing with her thumb.
"Oh, right," he replied nonchalantly, changing his course.
Helena watched him run in the wrong direction again, then sighed. "Papa, maybe you should go show him the way," she said to the goose still tailing her.
Cygnus honked and nodded, then took wing. He half-tackled Zoro, a brief, honking argument ensued, and then Zoro seemed to understand what was going on and followed the goose as he flew away.
Only then did it occur to Helena that she had made a mistake. "Drat! Papa, wait! You're no better off than he is—!"
Three loud booms cut her off, and she didn't have time to worry about anything else. Her men had just fired the shatter cannons.
Helena turned a smile of satisfaction at her foe. He was doomed for certain now.
The shatter cannons, as they had been nicknamed, were really more like mortars. Helena had designed their ammunition herself after her fight with Troy du Noir. They had a pointed, torpedo-shaped exterior of brittle sea prism porcelain, and were packed with explosives and sea prism stone shrapnel. Any Devil Fruit user hit with one, if he wasn't killed on impact, would have a hard time recovering his strength with sea stone shrapnel embedded in his flesh.
To her dismay, Regent laughed at her again behind the curtain of smoke.
"Oh, Queen Helena…"
"…you really are…"
"…ssso naïve," the voices echoed.
"The world…
"…is ssso big…"
"…and Ilium, ssso sssmall."
"It will be-e-e my pleasure-ure-ure to crush it-t-t."
Helena narrowed her eyes as the smoke cleared, revealing the amusement on Regent's leering faces. Wait a second. Hadn't he been a blue hydra? When had his scales turned black?
"Have you noticed that he hasn't really been attacking us?" Hector observed to her in a low voice. "Not all out, anyway."
"Because he's smart enough not to try chomping on someone in sea prism armor?" Helena attempted hopefully.
"No," Hector replied. He pointed with his spear as the curtain of smoke finally blew away completely. There were lights out on the water. Lots of lights. Boats. No, ships!
"He was stalling until reinforcements arrived," Helena snarled. Her brow furrowed as she shed her humanity for the sake of the coming battle. She needed to be the merciless queen now; the one who executed pirates just for entering her harbor:
"Execute the prisoners!" she barked to her men, who still had the first marines on their knees and weaponless. "Ilium is at war. We can't risk…!"
A strange lowing sound cut her off. Was that some sort of cow? It seemed to be coming from the air.
"Mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"
Helena's men were usually quick to carry out her orders, but at that sound they froze. They started to glow with an unearthly golden light. Their armor, weapons, and clothes melded into them as they grew, and suddenly Helena found herself surrounded by a herd of slightly dazed cattle.
"Circe," Hector spat.
Helena swore.
A chilling howl came next from above, setting Helena's teeth on edge.
"A-woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"
"Is it just me or did that sound like…?" Helena started. The marine prisoners all had wicked grins plastered on their faces as they too started to glow. Those grins remained, though they lengthened and sharpened as their faces became canine.
"Wolves," she finished, drawing more of her weapons now.
"Dire wolves," Hector observed. "She must have prepped them ahead of time. She hasn't left our men entirely defenseless though."
Helena caught sight of what he meant as the bulls charged at the wolves with ready horns. Regent's men had obviously trained as wolves before though, because they moved with frightening speed and precision, leaving bovine carnage in their wake. That carnage multiplied tenfold when Circe started to yodel (if one could really call it yodeling), hypnotizing Helena's men…er…livestock into a stand still.
And it didn't stop there. With the sea prism weapons and armor now safely gone, Regent bit into Helena's special sea stone regiment with a will. Helena leapt to their aid, all of her weapons drawn. She wasn't surprised to see Calypso follow suit. Despite all the drama, she was glad to have someone fighting by her side.
"General, you know what to do," Helena called to Hector, who had already started to put down roots. "Sink those ships before they reach us!"
"Your…"
"…not going anywhere…"
"…tree man!" The hydra called.
Hector moved swiftly across the wooden dock like a wave on the ocean surface. He grew as he meshed with the roots and branches now sprouting around him, but the hydra quickly shot fire his direction.
Hector made to recalibrate, detaching himself from the wood that had already started to burn. Meanwhile Regent ignored cows, Calypso, and Queen, and jumped, lifting his enormous girth into the air. He landed squarely on top of Hector, presumably flattening the man.
"King Ghidorah!"
Helena heard Hector announce the attack before he grew into it. The roots in the creaking dock beneath Regent swirled and twisted like snakes, wrapping around the wooden General's tree-like arms and legs.
The General grew strong and tall as a redwood, pushing Regent away as Hector created three dragon-heads of his own out of wood and bark. They're long necks loomed over Regent, twice as tall, and a pair of wings, woven with leaves, flared out at his sides, making him appear all the larger and more threatening as he fearlessly stared Regent down.
The two ferocious behemoths locked heads in combat in a flurry of leaves and scales. Despite his size and strength, Hector was knew he was at a disadvantage. He quickly gripped the middle, fire-breathing head in the sylvan jaws of one of his own, pointing it straight up to keep the fire from hitting him directly.
"No, Hector!" Helena called angrily. "We need you…!"
"…to sink the ships?" Calypso finished for her. "Don't worry, I've got you covered mon. It's only too bad your loser of a husband isn't here to see it."
"You know insulting him doesn't impress me, right?" Helena said flatly, but he didn't hear her. He'd already jumped into the sky.
"Sky walk!"
Helena stared. He hadn't kicked off of anything but air, but he'd already passed up the two battling monsters in height. His blades darkened, just like Regent's scales. Calypso crossed the machete over himself as he focused his energy.
"Sinatra Slash!" he cried, lashing out with both swords as one
Calypso's combined slash hit the water at a Biblical scale, splitting the ocean down to its bed. The slash hit some ships, slicing them in half, but the real danger came from the gaping waters, which seemed extend all the way to the horizon, and sucked down anything near its edges. Soon it had swallowed an entire third of the fleet. The battle couldn't help but pause as shocked cows and wolves alike turned to stare.
Calypso flipped once as he descended, landing in a crouch beside Helena. He smiled at her with his pretty white teeth as she stared at his handiwork, mouth agape.
"Are you in love with me now, mon?" he chuckled, throwing her a wink.
...
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A/N: Surprise! It's the Author again! - so I have a silly little contest for you. In a future chapter, I need to have some bad (as in corny, cheesey, awful) poetry about Zoro, written by Helena. This is never-meant-to-see-the-light-of-day much less Zoro's eyes type poetry. I mean, seriously, the first title that came to mind was "An Ode to Zoro's Abs" - THAT type of ridiculousness. And this is where you come in! Submit your poetry via review or PM. I will pick one to feature later in the story, and give full credit of course (unless you wish to remain anonymous, buah ha!)