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.
The fight carried on, with Bard and Reginald leading the primary offensive. Rez finally managed to scrape enough energy together to get on his knees and reload the cartridge of his gun with a spare ammo pack from the inside of his beaten jacket.
Explosive slugs Rez noted as he loaded the magazine and cocked his gunblade. Yeah. That should work. He twirled his gun and lifted himself up along the wall behind, palming his way to a stand with his tender hand. This guy's ridiculous! To think that all these drugs were made under Government authority! What would they use them for...? Regardless, all of those drugs were being used by a single man to become an army in himself, and he was performing admirably.
With the carnivorous grin of a wild beast Rupert exploded forth and punched at Bard. He weaved past the punch and ran past Rupert who continued a berserk dash across the room. Everyone within his arm's swinging distance was blown with tremendous force off their feet and into the air as the creature skid to a stop just in front of the wall and started breathing erratically. Bard spun around with the sword in both hands and prepared to intercept him once more. Reginald broke out and made a mad dash forward with his spear held like a javelin.
"Take this, you bastard!" Reginald roared. He made a steep lean forward and threw the spear with all his muscular power, diving and rolling back to his feet as a result. The halberd lance flew through the air, straight at Rupert's exposed mechanical back, but hit the solid stone wall with an explosive force. Rupert stepped to the side and was making a fast run around the width of the room to the doors he had entered from. Once there he stopped, gathering the tension of his body's energy in his legs, and exploded toward Reginald. His old warrior sense demanded him to heed its sharp perception. He jerked his head back and went sailing backwards just as Rupert stopped and punched an explosive ripple in the air where his head once was.
"ORYAAAHHH!" Bard roared as he charged in. Rupert grinned in his direction, meeting the steely resolve of the blade as it descended to his brow. A few strands of hair were trimmed before Rupert hopped away and the sword crashed to the ground. Bard jerked it back up and swung before Rupert could close on him. He kept him at bay with his powerful, quick swings to the side and ended by making a kick forward and swinging the sword down with the same sided arm. Rupert only retreated from the attacks. He wasn't circling or maneuvering past them. Bard took the weapon up once more, this time keeping the blade flat and aiming from his shoulder, and prepared to stab.
"Soru!" he called. A short, unseen dash later the sword was stabbed and Bard slid forward with its force. Rupert sailed backwards, his feet just barely above the dusty surface of the floor, and both stopped at the same moment. Rupert jumped away, rebounded off the wall and landed behind Bard, all with the speed that rivaled Bard's own trained Soru. Bard turned with a clenched jaw and received a devilishly strong backhand to his face. Keeping a conscious grip on the sword handle Bard began tumbling away until his own gravity stopped him and he slid along on his side.
He's not fighting right Bard realized as he gathered himself back to stand. Rupert made a rush in, one barely visible in its speed, with both fists drawn back. Bard rolled onto his back, the upper part of his back, and countered his charge with a spinning kick and a roll into a sword slash. Once back on his feet Bard began hopping to the left while Rupert stayed a fair distance away, his skin crawling and his hair moving on its own from the constant coursing of fluid rage that flowed within him. Bard reached the wall, the border of some deep impact, and grabbed Reginald's halberd to double his offensive power. He grinned and began charging again.
Fighting isn't just a back-and-forth game Bard thought. You can't just use two dimensions to move! You need to use all four! Bard began stabbing and slashing as gracefully as he could with two heavy weapons. He carried their weight around by spinning in the direction of his attacks and exiting his constant motion with a stab or a vertical slash. Rupert continued to retreat, unaware of his surroundings, until he found himself in a corner. Then Bard backed off with a long jump backwards where he was joined by Reginald.
"Here" Bard said, tossing him his weapon. He panted heavily from his relentless attacks. Reginald took a careful notice of his condition.
"You're overworking yourself, aren't you?" Reginald asked.
"I can feel a second wind coming on" Bard said with a grin. "I'll be fine. More importantly, I figure something out."
"What?" Reginald asked.
"His fighting style" Bard mentioned. "He's too simplistic. He isn't moving from side to side at all, just forward and back when he fights. The only way he can attack is from a center line."
"Center line?" Reginald asked.
"Yeah" Bard said, assuming that Reginald knew what it meant. "If you can move from the center line he'll try to retreat. If he has to fight two people he has to make sure at least one of them is connected to his center line before he can attack, then he'll either force them to retreat or get them far enough away to engage the second. He's fighting like he's in a competitive duel!"
"A...duel?" Reginald noted. He looked over at Rupert, who was twitching and stirring in the corner, his eyes glowing white and this tubes shaking from the motion of liquid exchange occurring in his body. I see. Even in this state he tried to retain his kingly status. Fighting against us all honorably, always giving us a chance to at least anticipate his attacks...that sick bastard. He's pitying us! "Stay near me Bard. We will go for his precious mechanism this time!"
"Alright!" Bard exclaimed. They charged in from opposing angles, Bard curving to the left and Reginald running in from the right. Rupert glanced back and forth between them, jumped up and thrust his feet and fists through the wall, guarding his box in the stone corner with a grin. "I got it!" Bard exclaimed. He jumped up and swung the sword in order to gain momentum as he spun faster and faster, charging a devastating Rankyakuu kick. Gretta drew an arrow back and fired at her father. The combative creature saw her motion and caught the arrow in his teeth but not before the other one sunk into his shoulder. The full force of an Amazonian arrow had pierced through his shoulder and staked him to the wall.
You deserve that she said, drawing now four arrows into her bow. I'll give you no mercy for taking my father...you beast! The white-hot rage of her heart blazed forth as she fire her arrows. Not wanting to risk another stab he withdrew all his limbs and deflected all the arrows, leaving himself fully exposed to bard below.
"Rankyaaaaakuuuu!!" Bard called as he spun. He finally stopped himself with a huge kick that made a dull explosion as the blade formed and flew through the air. "RAZOR WAVE!!!" The attack hit Rupert into the wall where his metallic machine was smashed and beaten. The tubes stopped working for a few beats of his dying heart. Bard landed and stabbed into the ground, using the sword to regain his balance and stop the room from spinning. "Take that!" Bard shouted, pointing off in a random, incorrect direction. "NO ONE MESSES WITH THE BUSTER PIRATES!!!"
Rupert groaned and growled from his new spot in the wall. Bard regathered his comrades and moved the unconscious bodies away from the floor in an attempt to make them a bit safer. Rez was up and moving around, though with a bit of a stagger that he couldn't fight off. Bard grabbed him and planted his sword once more while Rez made a weak swing with the butt of his gun to his head.
"Don't just stab it wherever you please!" Rez chided while bard kept him from falling over. "Be more gentle with it, alright? There's only one person in the world who can fix it and he's in the South Blue. Unless you feel like leaving the Grand Line before you even get there I suggest you keep my stuff intact when you use it."
"I'm not doing that bad with it" Bard said, sounding hopeful for appraisal. Rez looked up and smiled at him.
"You're a pro with that thing" Rez admitted. "Granted, you're about twice my size in muscles, but you really know how to use that thing!" Bard grinned with pride.
"I mastered using a three-part staff when I was a kid" Bard admitted. "I also got a staff that was just a regular staff and I was pretty good with that too!" Rez was gawking with shadowed eyes.
"As long as you get to hit people with something" he said "you're just a natural with it, aren't you?"
"I guess so!" Bard pleasantly admitted.
"Jackass!" Rez growled, making Bard flinch. "Don't lord that over people all the time! You could get killed for bragging out on the Grand Line!"
"Granted" Reginald said, stepping in to interrupt and pull them away, "you could get killed on this ocean for just about anything."
"Listen guy" Rez said, "I've got a full clip of piercing explosive rounds loaded up. If you want that thing destroyed in one shot I'll need you to give it to me. Get him stunned, frozen, somehow immobile and get me to his back so I can end this."
"Understood" Reginald said. He traded Bard his halberd for Rez's body and helped him to stand. "Just say when and we'll move out."
"Right" Rez said, leaning down to a knee to keep himself up. "Bard...you keep doing what you're doing. I trust you."
"Thanks" Bard said, favoring the halberd over the sword. He kicked the staff end and began spinning the spear around his hand with the simple, minor circular movement of his arm. He let the shaft tap against his other hand and reverse direction with just a flick of movement, then stopped it when he got a proper grip on it. Reginald was impressed. Rez just scowled.
"'Right!" Bard exclaimed. "I'm off!" Before he could get his legs into a good sprint he sensed something coming and stomped his feet flat to the ground. He turned his torso around and swung the blade to deflect a bullet shot at long range. Then he gripped the spear and reset his feet to deflect several more as some mysterious assassin unloaded an entire rifle in his direction. Once the shots stopped Bard glared hard in the direction of the sniper while Rez and Reginald heeded his own silent commands and went off with Rez running along with an arm around Reginald for support. Rupert fell down from the wall and climbed slowly up to his feet again, his machine ruptured but still working at more halted intervals.
"GGGGGG" Growled some maleficent voice as the rifle hit the floor. "As expected, you're a sharp fighter. But how're your reflexes against me...?" Bard suddenly heard a dull buzzing coming from above. He looked up at the ceiling but couldn't see past the cloud of insects that circled over head. Ramone stood in the doorway, more specifically the hole where Rupert had been forced through before, a stolen sword in his hand and his jaw detached. A dark mist swirled around inside his exposed throat, a miasma of insect origin, the toxic product of his Poisonous Cloud Stink Bugs. His tired eyes were cast at Bard, and no sooner had Bard taken full notice to his situation then did Ramone attack, sending his hand up and then throwing it palm-side down. "CLOUD OF ABADON!!!"
Bard began a flighty run across the room while his crew stayed as together as they could. Ramone moved his hand to the side and the descending cloud moved to target the pirates instead.
"CRAP!" a pirate shouted as he fired into the crowd of bugs. A small hole formed and only a few small insects fell from the air, but their bodes were lost amidst the terribly noisy living cloud that encroached. Bard stopped and turned swiftly around. He jumped and made several spinning kicks that propelled his body upwards, ending in two wide slicing Rankyakku kicks. The energy blades flew up and glided through the crowded cloud of bugs, flying all the way through into the wall on the other side. Gretta witness this attack in tandem with the assault that Reginald and Rez initiated on her former father. As she looked back and forth from point to point, battle to battle, she found it necessary all the more to clutch her head and shut her eyes tight...
...what do I do...?Her mind ached to make a decision.
What do I do? She thought. I can't help everyone...though, I don't need to help everyone. Only those I wish to help. She stood straight and glanced to the side where an unlit torch was. She aimed an arrow at it and shot it so that it perfectly struck sparks off the wall and lit the torch in a blazing fire. That's it then. It's up to me to decide who receives my help in the end...isn't it? How troublesome. I should have seen this coming from the beginning. She took the torch itself and drew it back with her bow, aiming for it to arc through the air and land in the heart of the cloud. Ramone's eyes were instantly drawn to the light high up and across the room, and now his insects were given new direction. He aimed them at Gretta just as she fired the flaming bolt.
"No!" she exclaimed. "They changed direction!" Her dread was amplified as she discovered that the bugs were heading in her direction now, an unstoppable living plague of pain and darkness. Her arrows would be useless, her only method of defense would serve to quicken her own demise, and all at the hands of that demon man she spent so long fawning over. In a rage she turned her aim to him and sent an arrow slicing through the air that shattered his arm into a flaky dust.
"Nice reaction" Ramone said. His arm was already growing back, his worker bugs hurriedly rushing to reform his arm as a solid piece. He raised his other arm up with spread fingers and clenched a tight fist. The cloud tightened up and started to spiral at her as a dark, reaching entity. Gretta froze up, predicting the horrible and obvious outcome.
"YA-HOOOOOOO!!!" Bard shouted. He was soaring upwards, chasing after the cloud with the brave halberd in one hand and the torch Gretta shot in the other. He drew his right leg up and slowly lit his pant leg on fire. Then he drew it back and began, with a rolling of his tongue, calling his attack. "RRRRRANKYAAAAKUU!!!" His leg began to vibrate, which fueled the fire with motion and kicked the flames up drastically until the licking flames fully surrounded his black leg and boot. "Imperia Dragon LANCIAAAA!!!" Bard jerked his shoulder back and made a flat kick straight at the dark cloud. Ramone tried to move it away but his motion wasn't fast or early enough. Now a spiraling funnel of fire, a Rankyakuu spear kick fueled by a raging inferno, sliced straight through the living cloud of insects. In an instant the bugs were all burned to dusty ashes and fell, one by one, in smoking little clusters of former matter from the air, all while Bard landed with a spear kick to the ground that dissipated the flames in a wide explosive force.
"HOOOOO!!!!" called Rupert in his flying charge forward. With his mighty hands stretched forward and his wide mouth gaping open for Bard's throat, he resembled a lion in mid-pounce. Bard simply ducked under him and delivered a spear kick straight to his gut which stopped his forward motion and lifted him up. Bard kicked up and spun around to kick Rupert yet again as he stayed above his head. Rupert flew over the floor in a wild spiral but caught the ground with his one hand and feet. Bard leaped away as Rez and Reginald came circling around with Rez's gun aimed directly at the protruding machine on the man's back. Rupert caught sight of them just a second too late.
"Say G'Night, bastard!" Rez shouted. He shot an explosive slug that Rupert drew his arm up to block. The flames of the explosion and then the billowing smoke covered Rupert from sight. The pirates were so sure of their victory that they had allowed Ramone to come running in with both his hands drawing back with single index fingers pointing out.
"Fatal Mark: Eighteen-Point Star!" Bard turned around just as Ramone launched his nerve-pressing attack and saw a flurry of fingers that ended with a deadly eighteenth finger that pierced through Bard's skin and went bloodily into the center of his body, right under this sternum, right between his ribcage, right into his diaphragm. Bard dropped the halberd and fell forward as Ramone drew back. "You're all...worthless to me." Ramone growled. He looked to the smoke screen as his jaw skittered up on buggy legs and reattached to his face. Rupert was breathing heavily and standing upright. His arm was scorched from deflecting the bullet and protecting his device and his eyes had been drawn out from the shadows as piercing and narrow glaring orbs of anger.
"You can't even kill an old man properly..." Such an insulting remark. Bard reached out to grab Ramone's leg, but given how slow his heart seemed to beating he decided it would be better to simply let him get away with asserting his reborn rage... "I'll show you how to fight on the Grand Line, newbie..." Ramone took the liberty of joining the fight now, only after dispensing Bard as quickly as possible. Gretta was at such an crossroad that she became stunned with indecision and couldn't act on any of her sprung nerves. She wanted to kill Ramone, but he was helping now, but only after he had killed Bard! Gretta had an arrow nervously strung to her bow and her hands both shook violently.
Bard groaned down on the floor, under the noise of the room and out of the reach of everyone's ears. He made no effort to move or make his life status known. He just took the opportunity to rest as it came to him and recovered the stamina he had expelled in his last major attack.
An obnoxiously loud buzzing sound came to the air finally, and Ramone's army of insects was reborn. He raised up his right arm and glowered down at the beaten white-maned king. Then, with a nasty grin, he growled out his command.
"MI-GO!!!" The voracious giant centipede exploded from his body and formed his new right arm. He extended his left arm as well. "YI-GO!!!" And the second centipede burst from his fragile skin, clicking and hissing in its alien way, casting its hideous face and snapping jaw around as it pleased. "Come on, you lonely, lowly son-of-a-bitch bastard!" Ramone growled. "See if you can crush this bug under your heel!!!" The giant writhing creatures wiggled around above Ramone's head while he parted his legs and leaned back against their pulling weight. "GGGGGGG!!!!!"
"MOHOOOOO!!!" Rupert growled back with all his muscles tense and ready to spring. The Buster Pirates, pleased as they were to get an outside aide, were still drawn back and tearing up with anger over their fallen captain. Rez and Reginald had frozen in place, beret with the terror of losing Bard in such a sudden way.
"Damn" Rez cursed. He stabbed his gunblade into the ground and cursed once more, and with greater feeling. "DAMN!!!"
"That poor boy" Reginald said solemnly. "He was a fantastic fighter...if a bit strong-headed..."
OWWWWW!!! Bard painfully exclaimed to himself. My whole body just got shocked from being numb! PINS AND NEEDLES! PINS AND NEEDLES EVERYWHEEEEERE!!! And so the final stand off ensued between Ramone and the object of his eternal rage. An entire year of torment, and the time he spent in Hell only to reemerge a stronger monster than he had ever been before, was all about culminate in his ultimate act of justice. Ramone Cervantes, a man proclaimed universally to be dead via guillotine, had undergone his ultimate transformation as he controlled not only his subservient centipede limbs but a cloud of hornets and stinging poisonous bugs and acid-drooling dragonflies just overhead.
From this terrible image, portrayed many times in the Marine documents, the mysterious and unnamed 'Lord of the Flies' had been born. Now that demonic creature stared down another terrible being, barely alive in any sense of the human word, a terribly destructive monster breathing only the fumes of its own aimless hate and fury. All sound and action to signify nothing, a monster without a purpose.
Ah, what a fight it will be!
