Disclaimer: One Piece is the property of Eiichiro Oda. Many of the characters in this story are property of me. Do not use this story or its characters without my permission. Thank you.
"This is taking forever..." one pirated groaned with weakness.
"I can't even remember" another said "what the sky is supposed to look like anymore."
"Come on guys" Marco called from the front of the bear-steed they all rode on, "we can't be too far away! The captain and the rest of the crew need us!" Marco had led the pirates that were foolishly willing to go along with him in a deathly circle that never seemed to end. They had circled the sea-level marsh of the island at least once and had spent what felt like a lifetime in the woods. It had only been an hour, if that, since Araly left the crew to their own design in search of Bard.
"Just listen for me" Marco commanded. "If we can hear that from here we'll be able to make it back to the crew, at least."
"That?" a crewman asked. "You mean Max's snoring?"
"It's unmistakable for us" Marco said positively. "Just keep your ears sharp." Light shone in through the leaves of the trees and then faded away quickly. The orange and brown of perpetual autumn was starting to aggravate and depress the crew respectively. Marco was the only one who stayed psychologically calm, as he knew the sheer importance of reaching his captain and the rest of the crew took precedence over everything and anything else that may come up.
"I hear it!" a pirate shouted. "Take a left! A sharp left!"
"We're pirates, man" Marco shouted. "Left is 'port'!"
"So that's what that is" a stupid, burly pirate said dreamily. The bear cavalry took a sharp lean port and came into the Buster clearing. All the pirates were surprised but not jostled to see Marco actually find his way back. He hopped off the bear and landed on both feet, then began striding across the camp to Birdman, whom he left in charge.
"Welcome back" the beak-nosed man said. Marco grabbed him by the collar and hoisted him up to his face level. Marco was biting his lip and furrowing his brow demonically as his bandanna followed it. He was mad, obviously.
"Gather the crew" Marco growled. "We need to move out now!" He set his comrade down to his bow-legged feet and marched off to the edge of the clearing. He looked up past the trees to the sky and sighed. "Who knows what kind of trouble they're in right now...and we can't help them at all."
"Watermelons" Maxwell mumbled. The strange utterance was like lightning hitting Marco's brain, and he was struck with genius!
"That's it!" Marco shouted. "Grab a squad of mortars and a flank of bazookas! Every man gets a gun and ever gun gets a man! Ready-up, troops, we're forming an army!!!"
"Huh?" the collective crew grunted. Marco turned with his eyes deep with excited rage and a sneer across his face.
"We'll show these bumpkins" he growled "how Bard's Buster Pirates handle things!"
"UUOOOHHHH!!!!" the burliest pirates roared. The Buster Pirates are now going to war!!!
And, not a moment sooner, Bard finally re-arrived at the island via the main fishing docks. A slight chilling fog was starting to set in at the bottom of the island where the swamp met the dry un-farmed land. The frightened and defeated Sea King that Bard had so simply conquered lowered its huge head down to the cobblestone curb where the docks were shoddily built from and Bard hopped off.
"Thank you!" Bard called. The Sea King was quick to vanish before Bard could give it another thrashing, not that he would now. "I'll see you out on the sea!" This frightened the Sea King, and in its rush to leave its tail whipped up and shattered the docks to pieces. "...OK! Now, to get back to the castle!" Bard set himself up for a mighty dash, and before he could utter out his magic word he stopped himself and froze in a mid-step.
Wait a second Bard thought. The only reason I was nearly lost at sea was because I used Soru...Maybe I shouldn't use it right now. If I sprint up that steep incline I could end up sprinting straight up into the sky!...hmmm....I guess I'll just run all the way back normally. So Bard go up on the balls of his booted feet and started sprinting up the hill towards the plateau where the King and all his men were stationed and fighting...hopefully.
Meanwhile, in the courtyard, the battle intensified!
"Agh!" Rupert gasped. "These metal-eating beetles are eating through my metal armor!"
"Oh, really?" Ramone exclaimed sarcastically. "Well, that's not what they're supposed to do, you STUPID!!!" Ramone threw his arms forward and forced his wave of insects to press even harder. The bugs chomped away with their sharp, metal pincers. Rupert's armor on his arms was wearing thin and he could already hear the buzzing get louder from behind. In a snap decision he threw his arms apart and spun away in leap.
"How can that help?" Ramone asked, commanding his insects to follow and bite away the armor near his heart. The insects tried to charge in, but Rupert countered their advance by throwing his lavish, royal cape around his body. The bugs stopped in utter confusion and stared flying in circles. Ramone was angered and scowled.
"Mohohoho!" Rupert laughed. "Your bugs can't eat through my cape because it isn't made of metal!"
"Maybe not" Ramone said, "but I can still kill you from here. Look below you..." Rupert became curious and cocked an eyebrow. Then he looked down. Mi-Go was already there, wiggling around inside his cloth wrapping, tearing apart the cape that mantled the king so elegantly.
"Gah!" Rupert shouted. He detached the cape quickly and jumped high into the air, away from the dangerous monster insect. Mi-Go made an instinctive thrust into the air to chase, but in the end it couldn't reach and slithered back into Ramone's body. Ramone sighed and watched the king land. "Is that the best you can do?" Rupert asked, visible marks of shallow holes in his gauntlet metal. He was without a cape now, but Ramone didn't summon the metal-eating beetles. Instead he started to summon something else and lowered his head. His greasy bangs covered his face with shadows and a terrible low growling came from the area of his mouth.
"Can't come up with a new attack?" Rupert asked. "I'm a bit disappointed. Come now, you wanted to fight me for so long, and now that the chance to vanquish me rears its head you just freeze up and stop working completely? What a total disappointment, Ramone Cervantes!!!" Ramone slowly started to lift his head up, the dim light from the stormy sky slowly revealing his face. There was nothing there, his face was blank and smooth.
"Come out" Ramone growled through an unseen mouth, "OMUKADE!!!" Suddenly his face broke apart. Shards of the waxen material that had been his skin fell to the ground while some giant, slithering beast came out of his body through the hole in his face. Rupert felt the need to retreat, and his skin was crawling end on end. The beast straightened out and revealed its dastardly weapons, long bladed legs with a single elbow-like joint that came from either side of its segmented body all the way from the two clutching at Ramone's neck. Two especially long legs clacked together near its forward-facing end with two joints each, right next to its horrific, screeching face. It had a huge, clamping vertical maw that covered a tooth-lined jaw with a long, spiked chin that stuck out between the teeth like a bony tongue. Its antennas weren't even traditionally insectoid, as they were long pincers like its legs with many more so they could bend and lex in any direction it wanted.
"Mi-Go!" Ramone summoned as well. "Yi-Go!" The two centipedes came bursting from Ramone's arms, sending shards of the waxy material that had long ago replaced his skin flying away. Ramone's true face was seemingly nowhere, the three demonic creatures replacing most of his real body. "Kill him! Rip him to shreds and devour his putrid flesh!!!" At his growling command that trio of hideous beings took control of Ramone's body and made his legs pump to drive them swiftly forward. Rupert was so taken aback in disgust and horror that he was nearly hit by the lunge of all three chattering mouths. He rolled away at the last moment and came back up ready for a lunging jump.
"You won't kill me so easily" Rupert said. "I will break apart your cursed body!!!" Rupert made a charging tackle into Ramone's back, visibly cracking the fragile, waxy skin but not breaking it. Omukade turned around and made a strike with its insanely powerful segmented body. Though he dodged it, a gash still formed on Rupert's cheek.
"Don't underestimate these three" Ramone warned. "Out of all my hellish legion, every poisonous insect and barbed-stinger bee, these three have time and time again proven their power to the masses. Mi-Go and Yi-Go are 'Steel-Skinned Centipedes' who can break through even Sea Stone walls with enough force. Omudake is a rare breed, one that has been left as an 'undocumented species'. Some of the men it has killed claimed it wasn't even a real creature, but some imaginary terror that their minds conjured to replace what was really there..."
"That doesn't make sense" Rupert said, brushing away the blood on his cheek. "That monster is as real as the cut it made...and the poison it carries is more deadly than anything else."
"Oh?" Ramone grunted, turning his body around. "You noticed that, eh?"
"It doesn't hurt" Rupert said, "this cut it gave me. It has a natural numbing toxin in its saliva that it spat onto its front pincers for longer reach. It won't feel it if it injures me, and therefore I won't know just how much damage I have sustained unless I can see it."
"You're smart" Ramone complimented, wobbling forward as his three new limbs wiggled and writhed around menacingly. "To know that poison is so dangerous at a glance...no wonder you're a scientist." Ramone continued his attack while Rupert went on defending for dear life. He let Yi-Go and Mi-Go clash with his hardened, tempered steel armor while he avoided Omudake completely. The hideous creature of black and purple continued attacking with its orange and yellow brothers regardless, slicing its front scythe-like pincers through the stone of the courtyard ground.
"You'll run out of energy eventually" Rupert said. "Just like before, you can't sustain all of those demons within you for long!" Rupert waited patiently as he dodged, keeping his fists knotted and ready to swing. Ramone was in no position to notice. The fact that he was able to keep moving towards a retreating target was an impeccable mark of his skill as a fruit user. No eyes or ears, just an echoing voice coming from the gaps in his body where the monsters came from.
Ggggg..... Ramone growled silently. Unfortunately...that bastard is right...Commanding these pheromones to keep these monsters under control is difficult. I don't have the energy to wait with...Come on Omudake. You know I'm counting on you!
'Oh, it's gruesome!' 'I can't watch!' 'They're hideous!' 'I'm going to be ill' Such were the mixed reactions to the fight so far. The villagers were disgusted by Ramone's newest and most dangerous trick, and those feelings of sickness overshadowed their feelings of pride and loyalty for their king. Gretta observed the fight and the crowds reaction to it.
They aren't watching father at all she observed. No matter how you look at it, they're only watching the Demon King. Of course, not for the same reason that I am... Her red eyes were sparkling as she watched those three winding, evil monsters that came from within Ramone's tight, muscular body. She was also watching that body as it awkwardly moved under the influence of the beasts rather than the fighting that was going on. Each long-ranged thrust and desperate bite went by the wayside, as she was smitten by this curious demon.
Such a strange fascination took its roots one year ago, during the Ghost Killer's initial attack on what they thought was a Government island...
"Kill them!" Ramone commanded. "Kill them all!!!"
"UAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!" his strong, determined, healthy crew shouted back. The town guards, all built like marines, stood firm with their metal bucklers and wooden-shaft spears as the pirates charged in with their pistols and sabers. Metal clashed and thunderous cannons roared as Ramone's flagship, Bohemian Nightmare, strafed around the shore with its starboard side aimed at the town. Houses exploded, the cobblestone of the street was blown high into the air, bullets flew and men died. So many men died.
That's when the Argent Fist came down from the hill with their weapons poised high overhead.
"Hold tight, men!" the year-younger Arthir ordered with his crushing hammer held in both hands. "We will banish these demonic invaders to the hell they came from forthwith!!!"
"Ggggg...." Ramone growled with a sneering smile. He tensed up his hand and started a buzzing cloud of tiny insects all around it. Once the troop of armored warriors drew close to him and his men Ramone threw his hand forward and unleashed a thick swarm of buzzing gnats on the paladins.
"Gah!" one armored warrior shouted in pain. "What be these?"
"Be these bees?" another asked.
"Nay!" another growled. "They just be gnats! Charge at them hence!!!" The Paladins started running forward, but all but Arthir fell to the ground.
"What!?" Arthir shouted.
"Those aren't normal gnats" Ramone gloated. "They're poisonous! Those soldiers of yours will be steadily dehydrated until they're completely dead!"
"Die, demon!" Arthir shouted. He ran forward, feeling the stinging weakness brought on by the gnats, and swung his mighty hammer. Ramone dodged simply and threw up his arm. His hand had transformed into a vicious, bloated hive of crawling barbed-stinger bees that were ready to fly at once.
"Gggggg...." Ramone growled with a smile. This determined attitude and fierceness is what caught Gretta's eye. She watched from her tower with an extra-long looking glass as the village was sent into a chaotic panic. She saw the grimly grinning face of that demon man as he leaped about, shooting bees from his hands through some twisted force of magic, and she reveled in his victory with a shy, hidden smile.
"What an amazing man" Gretta amorously mused. "Are all outsider men...as fascinating as he? Are they all so...terribly amazing?"
"My lady" a waiting woman pleaded, "I beg you to stop watching! You father, the king, will be quite angry if he sees that you praise a villain!"
"Shut up" Gretta commanded flatly. She saved all her limited emotions for fawning hopelessly over the powerful maniac who was rampaging through the town and heading for the hill.
"What is that?" Gretta said, noticing something down in the courtyard. A dark-green figure with rough, graying black hair was sprinting away from the castle ,kicking up a trail of dust as he went. "No...Drakengard...I hope that man can hold his own..."
Of course, as the story went, he couldn't. Now that man is fighting his truest enemy, using every force that his life can handle at once in a desperate, vindicated attempt to gain retribution for 365 days of pain...
