"Wake the fuck up, you damn scallywags!...We might've had a few minor setbacks, but that's now behind us. I was going sink that giant scrap anyway, he just saved us the time." Krieg justified to whatever was left of his already depleted crew.
There's only a few dozen of them left, half of them from earlier either killed by the attack, the shockwaves of the fight, not having eaten quickly enough, or from passing out and drowning because they fell in the sea. Now the numbers between the attackers and defenders of Baratie are closer, with the slight advantage still on the side of the attackers.
"Look at that dumb ship...With that, we could take over the Grand Line. It's better than posing as a Marine ship or waving a white flag. We can approach anyone without suspicion, and ambush them. It's foolproof." Krieg added.
"Aye, nobody would expect a boat like that to be filled with pirates."
"And these days, assembling another fleet is child's play."
"But Don Krieg, if we go back to the Grand Line, won't we meet more people like Hawk Eye-" before he could finish the sentence, the Krieg pirate goon was shot by Krieg.
"Anymore cowards?! Do you really think a normal man could split a ship like that?! He obviously had a Devil Fruit! The Grand Line is filled with people that's eaten one...But Zeff was able to sail there for a whole year. He must know a trick to deal with those freaks. I bet it's in his logbook, and if we're lucky, he'd also know where the One Piece is!" Krieg, the manipulative tyrant that he is, expertly employed the carrot and the stick.
"With that logbook, we could find that legendary treasure."
"Alrighty, ya sea-wolves, let's capture that wooden fish!" Krieg shouted as his remaining men roared.
Back in the Going Merry, everybody was still looking over Zoro. Both Johnny and Yosaku woke up a few moments ago and rowed over, worriedly looking over their old friend. Zoro recovered enough to at least sit up on his own.
"The old man said that I could pay off all the damages if I take care of that guy." Luffy explained, already readying to slingshot towards Krieg.
"Luffy!...Nami has something to say, so make it quick." Zoro said while glancing at Nami who looked both nervous and resolute at the same time. "Also, don't fuck around and let this guy hurt you, or else we'll have to wait for you to recover. It'd be pretty embarrassing for the future Pirate King to get hurt by a guy of this level."
"Like you just did? Heh!" Luffy clapped back, sticking his tongue out at Zoro.
"Hmph! I didn't fuck around, Mihawk is the current World's Strongest Swordsman, and it might be true that I was...am badly injured, but even as I am right now, I could still destroy their entire crew by myself without getting hurt." he justied himself.
"Fine, I'll be quick...ten steps as one, right?" Luffy gave Zoro a knowing smile.
"You studied." Zoro was overjoyed, but only showed a small smile on the outside. 'Now he's utilizing his talents more actively.'
"I watched. This is a big world, and I'm not even close, right?" he reiterated Zoro's words.
"They'll squash you like a bug...Give 'em hell Captain."
Luffy just smiled, and then threw himself towards the Krieg pirates.
Usopp then posed himself in front of Zoro, his shield in front of him. "Have no fear Zoro, I'll be right here to protect you while you recuperate." he said confidently, his shield completely blocking his upper body.
"You mean you want to take shots at them from afar while having me protect you in case somebody manages to come close." Zoro said without any bite to it. He then saw Nami looking at his injuries.
"Having second thoughts?"
"Of course, the main reason I thought you could realistically beat Arlong was because I saw you fight. After your next fight, I saw you face flat on a puddle of your own blood." she nagged at him.
"Don't worry about it, similar to these guys, I could beat Arlong and his fishes even as I am right now. Not to mention everyone is stronger now, except for that shithead prince."
Baratie deployed its fighting decks to allow a battlefield that isn't inside Baratie itself. Both the chefs and the Krieg pirates engaged in melee on there.
But even though the numbers were somewhat close, the Krieg pirates were still stronger per man.
Patty and Carne then brought out Sabagashira, Baratie's fish head gun boat, to bombard the Krieg pirates who still weren't on the fighting decks. Then they stupidly charged at Don Krieg. Don Krieg then proceeded to grab their fish boat and threw it at Baratie. Sanji then kicked them away before they hit Baratie.
"Were you trying to kill us Sanji?!"
"You almost killed 2 of our best fighters asshole!" The 2 men said, as they climbed out of their boat then proceeded to beat up several of the Krieg pirates.
Out of nowhere, a big man with circular shields around him rose up from the water and hammered Patty and Carne to the back of the head. The man, Pearl, then proceeded to posture, which gave the Krieg pirates a second wind. But they were instantly shut down by Sanji taking several of them out in a few seconds.
"You beat them down with your kicks alone. Is that your fighting style?" Pearl asked.
"A cook's life is his hands, I can't risk damaging them in battle. I'll beat you with only my feet too." Sanji replied.
"You? will beat me?! I've fought 61 death matches, and won all of them, with not a single scratch on me. You protect your hands, I protect my entire body with my shields! I'm the invincible iron wall of the Krieg Pirates! Not even a cannon can hurt me!"
"We'll see about that!" Sanji said as he launched attacks at Pearl's upper body, all of which was blocked. Pearl tried to counter but he was too slow to catch Sanji.
'The bigger you are the harder you fall.' Sanji thought, as he feinted going high, then targeted Pearl's unshielded thighs.
This caused Pearl to go lower in blocking and also try to hit Sanji more. When one of Pearl's legs finally couldn't take it, he took a knee, which Sanji capitalized on.
"Escalope!" Sanji shouted, as he sent a jumping kick to Pearl's face, pushing him back and drawing blood.
"What?" Pearl muttered, as touched his face and felt wet, with some pain on his face. He looked at his hand and saw red.
"Oh no... It's blood!" some of the Krieg pirates cried out.
"Danger! Danger!" Pearl shouted as he banged his shields, causing them to ignite. "Get away from me! Fire Pearls! Burn! With my fire and burning shield, I'm super invincible!" He screamed while throwing burning pearls around, causing fire everywhere.
Sanji jumped through the wall of fire around Pearl and he tried to kick him off, but then he got promptly blocked by Pearl.
"Is that guy insane?! Which sane person runs towards an inferno like that?!"
"Idiots, you can't be cook...if you're afraid of fire."
"Damn you! Flaming Pearl Surprise!" Pearl threw an overextended shield bash at Sanji, to which Sanji moved under and sent a heel kick towards Pearl's face. The combination of the force of Sanji's kick and Pearl's momentum forward from swinging too much forward caused Pearl to get knocked down backwards.
"How dare you! Eat this! Pearls of Fire!" Pearl threw more burning pearls, now some of eat capable of reaching the kitchen, which could cause Baratie to blow.
But Zeff, even with his peg leg, easily killed the fires of the pearls heading for Baratie itself, purely from the winds of his kick.
"Why are you always complicating things, Pearl?...Before you burn everything down, I'll sink you first!" Krieg finally made his move and threw a giant morningstar at Pearl and Sanji's location.
This was the time when Luffy finally joined in the battle. He kicked the morningstar away, and using a technique similar to Shakushi, he appeared in front of Krieg and threw his right hand towards Krieg's face.
"Bullet!"
Krieg got blown back a fair distance away from the punch, and his underlings couldn't believe what they saw.
"Captain Krieg!"
"That kid...looks like he's far more than what I gave him credit for." Sanji said while smoking another puff of his cigarette.
"Gunpowder Star!"
An explosion then occurred directly behind Pearl's head, completely knocking him out. Sanji approached the unconscious Pearl and kicked him towards one of Dreadnaught Sabre's still floating pieces.
"Argh!"
Sanji looked back at the direction of the painful grunt from a very familiar voice.
"Hold it right there Sanji." Gin said while holding a gun towards Zeff's head, the old man's peg leg broken. "I don't want to kill you."
"You want the old geezer to live, don't you Sanji? Then just get off this ship!" Gin pleaded.
"I refuse."
"Sanji! Don't provoke him, head chef is-"
"You look pathetic old man. You're setting a bad example for the cooks." Sanji cut them off.
"I don't wanna hear shit from you, eggplant."
"Don't call me that! And stop treating me like I'm still a kid!"
"Sanji, now's not the time for that shit!" the other chef wanted to intervene.
"Gin, point your pistol at me instead."
"Why?! It's easy! You...All of you could leave if you just leave the damn ship! Everyone can just walk out of here alive."
"I won't let you have this restaurant, and I won't let you kill the old man either!...He sacrificed himself to save a worthless boy...So take me instead. So that I can repay my life to the geezer."
"Are you stupid?" Luffy landed on the platform near Sanji. "You don't repay the guy who saved your life by killing yourself!"
"Then how the fuck do you think I should repay my debt?!" Sanji shouted back.
"Repay your debts?! I don't want any favors, and I certainly don't need a baby eggplant to protect me!"
"Who did who a favor? If you hadn't eaten your foot, you could've easily protected yourself from these fools."
"But...why?" Gin after listening to them argue, then asked Sanji.
"So that for even a moment longer...this place can remain a restaurant." Gin dropped the gun on Zeff's head, at what Sanji said.
"I'm sorry Don Krieg, but we still owe Sanji both of our lives." Gin pulled out his weighted tonfas. "So I'll...send him to the grave with my own hands."
"You're my battle commader, Gin! What are you doing?!" Krieg shouted now just recovering from the punch.
"Sanji, I hoped to send you off this ship without getting hurt, but I guess that won't happen."
"Afraid not."
"Then the best I can do is kill you fairly...by myself."
"Gee, thanks" Sanji replied sarcastically.
"Here I come!" Gin said, opening the fight by destroying Sanji's footing. Sanji tried to counter but Gin dodged easily and then trapped Sanji's neck with his tonfa.
"Shit! I got too caught up watching!" Luffy, just realizing that he let Krieg recover, went back and tried to finish Krieg quickly.
"Why don't you watch this cannonball?!" Krieg shouted, shooting his shield that opened up as a cannon.
Luffy planned to backhand the cannonball away, but when he made contact the "cannonball", it exploded into a bunch of shurikens. Luffy managed to dodge most of it, but still got cut on his left hand, which is the hand he used to try and backhand it.
"Zoro's gonna nag at me for that." Luffy said, literally licking his wounds. Krieg then peppered wherever Luffy is with small javelin-like projectiles the he knows can penetrate Luffy's skin, but Luffy kept his distance and dodged.
Sanji and Gin went back and forth, both getting clean hits on each other, but Gin's attacks are much stronger than Sanji's. This led to Gin eventually winning out and getting a mount position on Sanji, ready to deliver a killing blow...
But he couldn't do it.
"Don Krieg...I can't do it..." Gin said, with tears pooling on his eyes.
"What did you say?!"
"I can't kill him...That was the first time in my life that...anyone was so kind to me...I-I can't!...kill him."