Chapter 4

[Antonio Flags]

Blade met blade as he parried Winston's attacks, sending the axes away from him as best he could. Antonio wasn't one to complain about unfairness, but he really could have used at the very least a sword more suited to him, if he were honest. Nevermind the fact that he was all but dead on his feet.

"You are pretty strong for your size, you know?" said the Captain as he swung his axe again, making him dodge. Antonio felt his arms starting to numb slightly due to the particular heavy blows of the man. He could practically hear the smirk on his helmeted face.

It made him angry. Was he really in such bad shape that he was unable to take this guy out? Were this the New World, this man wouldn't last a fight against the rank and file, let alone any of the Yonko crew members that he had driven off before.

He swung his sword again, taking advantage of the limited movement of his enemy's bulky weapon, almost cutting his head off. Almost being the operative word there. His previous wounds and exhaustion made him slow down just enough for the man to get out of the way with a slight mark across the helmet.

"LEAVE THE KITTY BOSS ALONE!" screamed the loud man yet again, completely disregarding any opportunity for a surprise attack. He felt the need to remind him what would happen if he kept calling him 'kitty' but given the situation, Antonio would have to let it go. For his part, Winston just used the flat side of his axe as a shield for the upcoming punch, taking the brunt of the attack and pushback.

"No need to scream at me like that, you know?" the Captain said. The same infuriating mocking tone in his voice from before making an appearance. A second later, the loud man was, again, thrown a few meters back, only to immediately rush back in a melee of axe slashes and fists.

After he made sure that his comrade wasn't just going to instantly die against the man, Antonio took the much-appreciated seconds to regain his breath. That back-and-forth had been going on for quite a while already, neither side being able to take the other out. Yet, it was more than clear that Winstone had the upper hand for the moment, much to his chagrin.

'It won't stay like that for much longer, though,' Antonio thought to himself, sparing a look towards the deck of the ship, which they had left at some point during their fight. Their two companions, the blonde captain and the one with black hair and nasal voice were steadily taking care of all the remaining guards as quickly as they could. Meanwhile, the one with no tongue was currently bandaging one of the brothers that had been taken out by Winstone previously, It seemed like one of them had survived, at least.

As soon as things were over, they would be free to provide assistance to both of them and would tilt the fight in their favor.

Admittedly, Antonio hated the idea of needing assistance to end a single opponent rather than face them head-on in honorable combat. However, he wasn't exactly in a position to complain at the moment. Lord Inuarashi had made sure to shove the importance of fighting as a group with your comrades when the need arises.

His pride still hurt just thinking about it though, even if he knew it shouldn't. Antonio couldn't help the anger and shame bubbling and simmering inside him. It was so… frustrating, to see himself falling so low as to have trouble against someone this… this weak.

What had he trained so long for? For what had he spent so many nights and days swinging his sword? Why had he pushed his body until he passed out again and again?

His dream had never felt farther away from him than at that very moment. He would have to brush up and increase his training after they got out of there and back in the New World. Pedro and Wanda would nag him if he didn't.

Antonio focused back on the fight then, pushing all other thoughts aside. He had recovered enough for the moment. Grabbing his sword, he rushed towards his opponent as he found himself distracted by the loud man. It left plenty of openings for Antonio to end this already.

Winstone let his axe descend on his companion, only to be parried away by Antonio. It left the idiot who somehow looked even bigger and more brutish than before free to land another hit. One of the loud man's meaty fists landed directly on the Captain's face then, knocking him out.

Or at least that is what should have happened.

"Tekkai!" Winstone screamed with some urgency, Antonio took pleasure in noticing that the mocking tone was gone for a second. The loud man's fist met against the helmet, that should have crumpled and crushed the head hidden inside. Instead, all that happened was the sound of loud 'Klang' resonating through the clearing as Winstone skidded back, heels digging into the ground.

"That made me even more angry, you know? To think you would make me use my trump card-," Winstone continued to say with a dangerous voice as he righted himself.

Just to be interrupted.

"No," said the loud man, with an uncharacteristically low tone for once. "You killed Blond Guy and the Funny Brothers, then you attacked Kitty Boss. I don't like you."

Antonio felt it before it happened. The loud man seemed to grow both in threat and body as he talked. His muscles ripped through whatever rags he had on. He felt the hair on his whole body stand on end as the earth where the man stood seemed to give in to his weight. Now, he was practically twice the size he was before and he kept growing until he was almost half the size of Señor Giant.

"W-what the hell?" Winstone muttered, taking a step back in what seemed to be fear. His smug facade breaking truly for the first time.

"I don't like you. I don't like you at all. I don't want you here! LEAVE US ALONE!" the man roared as spit flew everywhere and Antonio had to hold his hat to not let the sonic boom take it away.

"Boss!" he heard someone call behind him. The two captains rushed towards them. It seemed that they had finished the guards already. "What is happening?" said the one with a nasal voice with some fear on his face as he looked at what once was the loud idiot.

In terms of appearances, there wasn't much change to him, but he was somehow more… feral-looking. Besides the obvious growth in size, his lower jaw seemed to become more pronounced, similarly, his forehead seemed to become far thicker and without eyebrows leaving his now almost comically small eyes sunken. His arms, chest, and legs grew enough hair to remind Antonio of one of the gorilla minks back in Zou. His muscle definition seemed to have multiplied and his skin looked more like leather than regular human skin he had grown accustomed to seeing.

"I think I know what is happening, Antonio," said the blond captain as he looked at the rumbling pseudo-giant move. Slowly closing in towards Winstone, who seemed to have frozen in place torn between running or fighting this… new enemy.

"What do you mean, mi amigo?" Antonio asked the man, who he still didn't know the name of. Granted he didn't know the name of anyone other than Lacuba and William, but he would admit that thinking of them as the blond or black-haired captain was getting old in his head.

"Captain Byron, of the Virtuoso Pirates," said the man as if reading his mind with a smirk before grimacing for a moment. "Ex-captain of the defunct Virtuoso Pirates, I guess would be more accurate now."

"My condolences, Byron. I hope they passed with honor," Antonio said solemnly. He was no stranger to death after all. In the Grand Line, many were the ones who found their end. Pirate crews and even countries appeared and were decimated often enough. All that one could hope was that when it was your turn, you did it fighting without regrets.

"That they did. Bastards fought to the last man," Byron said, recovering some of his cheer before he shook his head and looked back towards the Loud Man who seemed to have engaged against Winstone. Antonio found it very satisfying that the Captain seemed to now find himself hilariously outmatched. Most of his armor was already destroyed and one of his axes crushed to pieces to the side. He seemed to be regretting his decision to stay and fight instead of taking his opportunity to flee. Only the fact that the Loud Man seemed to have even less finesse than before in his fighting style allowed the Guard Captain to not die.

"I heard this from some of the staff at the auction house. Apparently, some kingdom had to take him down by shooting cannons at him from ships away from shore," Byron explained as Winstone screamed in pain as one of his arms was ripped off his body by the grip of the walking pseudo-giant. "Even then, it seems like he shot boulders back at them, somehow. The kingdom seems to have sold the man to the slave traders to recover from their losses. They got quite the prize because of the rare fruit he ate. An Ancient Zoan type."

If before Winstone was outmatched, now the fight was decided already. The guard captain seemed to try to beg for his life just to get grabbed by the neck by the Loud Man who now had the other axe in his hand.

"And what Devil Fruit would that be, Señor Byron?" Antonio asked in morbid curiosity as the man threw the disgraced captain up into the air and prepared the axe in a crude stance to catch him as he fell. It was a show of brutality if he'd ever seen one. Somehow though, the mink couldn't bring himself to care much.

The only thing he regretted was not getting to finish his duel, really.

"Human-Human Fruit, Model: Neanderthal," Byron answered.

The loud man roared as he swung the axe down when Winstone entered his range, dragging him down and bisecting him. The axe impacted against the ground lifting dirt and resin alike in a gigantic explosion. Antonio looked at the sheer demonstration of might in awe. Even he could admit that he would have trouble surviving that if he had to take it head-on. Be it in his prime or not.

'Perhaps, there is more than what meets the eye.' The mink felt the first inklings of respect grow for Señor Loud as the man came out of the giant crater he had made. It seemed that the man was back to his original form.

"KITTY-BOSS, I WON! THE MEAN GUY WON'T BULLY YOU ANYMORE!"

Said respect died a sudden, cold, and merciless death.

"Tendras cojones- What did I say about calling me Kitty?!" Antonio pounced on said idiot claws first. Ancient Zoan or not, he will teach him to respect the mighty lion. Even if there was a threat of painful death, nobody called him that, and left unpunished.

[}-o-{]

[William Pew]

"Is that… Kuma?" he heard the giant ask and he felt himself pale immediately. They already had to take a longer detour than they'd thought they had, which was bad enough. But now they were going to cross paths with one of the seven Warlords?

'The fuck is up with my luck?' William wondered bitterly.

"Can you avoid him?" he asked, not really expecting much of that. They were traveling by giant. It wasn't precisely what one would call inconspicuous, that was for sure. It was a wonder they didn't have a small army of marines behind them, really. Thanks to the chaos that was going around the place, he supposed.

"He's fighting someone else though," he heard a man point out, relief plain in his voice and William fully understood. That was great news to get.

"Is that one of the Supernovas?" a second man asked and William tensed up. The Worst Generation of pirate rookies, because of course. All of them were infamous for one reason or another… Which brought up an important question.

"Which one?" William asked.

"The one with wings?" the second man answered then, a little confused. William relaxed then. Urouge wasn't so bad. Better than fucking Kid. Bastard was liable to kill them for fun even while fighting a Warlord…

"Let them fight each other. Get us away from here, even if you have to take a longer path," William said, turning to look roughly towards where the giant's face was. "We really don't want to get involved in that mess."

"Of course, Boss," the giant replied, making William's hand twitch. Why was everyone calling him boss all of a sudden? Actually, why was he making decisions for them at all? He was fucking blind.

There was a high pitched sound then and there, which passed close by, making him stiffen. Next to him, he heard the women screech and the men scream. Even the giant seemed to twitch violently.

"Did Kuma just shoot a laser?" one of the men asked, making William pause. That didn't make sense. Kuma couldn't do that, as far as he knew. 'What's going on?' he wondered, sighing as he lamented the loss of his sight. Then again, it'd probably help little to understand things, but he likely wouldn't feel quite as helpless as he did.

Fortunately, a few giant steps – literally – later and the people with him seemed to have calmed down, which William took as them getting away from danger. He took a deep breath in then, trying to process the information he was getting and come up with an estimate of what was going on. He needed that, especially if people were going to expect him to make decisions for whatever reason.

On that note…

"If someone could tell me what's going on, it'd be great," he said, having no hopes of that happening. The giant was the most reliable one around but… "Except Mr. Giant, we need you to focus on moving right," he added, just in case. Last thing he wanted was to distract the guy that was carrying him at a considerable height.

"Sure thing, Boss," one of the men there said, immediately starting to describe their surroundings and what he could see to him. William was actually very surprised but pleased by that. So much so, that he wasn't even annoyed when he heard the maid grumbling a complaint off to the side. He had more important things to focus on than that woman's problems.

As the man relaying his surroundings to him said it, they were getting away from basically everyone. On the bad side, they were being delayed once more from reaching their destination, which was worrying. He didn't know if the people they'd sent for that boat would be enough to get it. William knew Antonio seemed to be capable and maybe the others were too, but they were ex-slaves that were starved and weak after so long in captivity. He knew he was, after all.

As they were, anyone could be a threat.

"We see them," the man informed William. "The cat guy is… standing on top of the loud one? And there's two of the pirate captains there with them. I don't see the rest of them, might be on the boat? There's no fighting going on."

They'd been enough? William was a little surprised by that. He'd fully expected to arrive and have to help but then again, it was really fortunate that things had gone well for that group. With how much they'd had to delay their arrival, if the group of combatants had needed help, they'd likely have died before they managed to get there.

"If you could set me down, Mr. Giant?"

"Are you sure, boss?"

"I'd prefer to stumble on my own two feet but have them on the ground, thank you," William informed the giant before he was brought down. "Thank you."

"There's guards lying all over the place, boss," the man that had apparently decided to become his eyes informed him. He was actually surprised that the other man had stuck to his role even then. He'd half expected him to stop by then, but he was still grateful for it.

"Finally decided to arrive?" a nasal voice asked and William smiled wryly.

"We came across some complications by the name of Kuma and Urouge," he commented, and nobody said anything after that, likely taking those news in.

"What is Kuma of all people doing in Sabaody?" Antonio asked what had been in his mind. It is not everyday that you cross paths with a Warlord after all.

"Maybe it is related to all this chaos? The whole archipelago seems to have gone crazy from what we saw!" exclaimed William's self-assigned eyes.

"I take it things went well here though?" he asked, tilting his head as if he were looking around.

"I PROTECTED KITTY-BOSS FROM THE BULLY, BOSS!" He didn't need eyes to know who that was. What followed was the sound of someone getting hit and a body hitting the ground.

"What did I just tell you?" Antonio voice came both angry and tired, like he had had that same conversation a few times before.

"You did great, buddy," William replied to the loud man blandly, hoping against hope that the man would remain silent after that. He should have known better though.

"THANK YOU, BOSS!"

"We… had some complications, but things have already been taken care of, caballero," Antonio informed. "We are still looking for the Eternal Pose but we managed to secure the ship already." His tone took a slightly sadder tone after that as he continued though. "Sadly, some of the brave warriors that came with us didn't make it. But fret not, for their memories and dreams reside within us now, they paved the way for the rest of us so we may live. The best we can do is to do so proudly and with honor to remem-!"

"'Oss! One o' 'em i' 'till a'ive!" came Lacuba's voice from somewhere further away and higher. Presumably from the ship.

"That's good," William said, pursing his lips. Some of them dying was regrettable, but it was sadly not unexpected. Their situation was so bad that William was actually surprised so many of them seemed to have made it. "We need to get out of here. Look for an Eternal Pose, if there isn't one, we'll have to look elsewhere and fast. You said there's guards lying around?" he asked, turning to where the man that kept describing things to him had spoken last.

"Yes, boss," was the response he got.

"Search them, they might have it on them, if they were important enough. If not, they might at least have something valuable. We'll need all the money we can get if we get away from here. Be quick though," he said then, his mind racing. They didn't have time to waste, but without the Eternal Pose, they wouldn't be going anywhere. "Can someone tell me what the ship's flag looks like?" he asked then, something occurring to him.

"A white knight on a black horse and a black knight on a white horse facing each other, boss, over a light blue background," the same man that kept telling him everything said. He really ought to find a way to thank the man more meaningfully than with words, because he was being a godsend, honestly.

"Roschette Kingdom," he recognized. "That's from a polar desert island halfway across Paradise. That last part at least is good for us, it'll take us far if we can actually go there."

"Paradise?" a man asked confusedly, clearly not knowing that was how some people called the first part of the Grand Line. The sweet summer child likely didn't know that the hellhole he likely knew was nothing compared to the second half, the New World. Poor bastard.

"What are you waiting for?" William asked. "Or do you want me to start searching for our way out?" he added, holding back his emotions as he tried to calm himself down. He was really not up to dealing with things. Maybe the maid's words had gotten to him more than he'd thought.

"You heard the man, move it! Byron and Lacuba help search the bodies. You and the señorita go and finish looking inside. Señor Giant, Idiot, with me! We need to prepare the ship to set sail," Antonio continued after him, barking orders before William heard the stomps of the giant moving away and a bunch of human sized ones moving in every direction in a hurry.

"So, you aren't going to do anything?" hissed the maid.

"As opposed to all the good you are doing?" William asked, turning to where she had spoken from. "Nobody is stopping you from going and helping, you know? And you can actually see."

Unsurprisingly, no response came and neither did he hear someone moving away. 'Because of course,' he thought with an internal sigh. He wasn't liking this woman at all. At best, she'd be an annoyance. At worst, she'd be trouble.

"Uh, what should we do, sir?" a man asked, so fearfully William half thought he might just have a heart attack then and there. "The, uh, cat didn't tell us to do anything."

William took a deep breath in.

"I should have four people here, right? Moaning Maid and three others?"

"The fuck did you just call me?"

"Yes, boss," the man that seemed to be his eyes now answered, which gave him an idea.

"Ok, keep an eye out, just in case, while everyone is distracted. Except you," he said, turning to look at the man that was keeping him updated on everything. "You are coming with me… And I'd appreciate it if you told me your name."

"The name's Luca, boss," the man answered. To that, William nodded. Good to know, since it seemed he'd be stuck with the guy for a while. It was already getting confusing and irritating to not know anyone's names but especially so with this one, since he was interacting with him more.

"Wally," a second voice said then, and William paused.

"Rufus," a third came then.

Unsurprisingly, he heard who was definitely the maid walking away. Not that he cared that much. He hadn't even actually been asking for everyone's names, but they were good to know anyway.

'My mind might be a lil' bit scattered,' he admitted internally, if nothing else.

"Ok then, Luca, let's go towards the ship," William decided. It wasn't like he could do much else, even if it was incredibly frustrating. The most he could do was go to the ship and wait for everyone else to be done with their jobs, hoping for the best. He was useless, as it was. 'Is there something I can do?' he wondered, pursing his lips.

Then he remembered what he'd heard before.

"There was an injured man, right?" he asked, frowning.

"Yes, boss."

"I'm William Pew," he said, realizing that maybe he should have introduced himself before. "And we are going to check on him. Then we have to move him inside, if possible. There might be a medical bay we can use… Rufus," he called then, hearing a set of steps pausing. "Come with us. We'll need another set of hands."

"O-of course, sir," was the fearful response he got. William didn't trust someone so afraid to be effective at keeping watch. He was more likely to panic than anything else if he saw something, so he'd prefer to take the guy away from an important position.

Some time and a few embarrassing stumbles later, William with Luca and Rufus had made their way onto the deck of the ship. There, Luca informed him of everything there was to see in regards to the man that seemed to be half-treated and in terrible condition. He was alive though, and that was good enough. If they could move him to a medical bay and someone in their group of unfortunate bastards knew any medicine at all, maybe he'd survive.

Thus, a moment later, the three of them – more like two, since William couldn't really do much – were taking the man inside after asking if someone had found a medical bay. As it turned out, they had.

"Mic?" William heard the man cough out. "Where's Mic?" He was asking about his brother, if the tone was anything to go by. That was William's best guess.

"Worry about yourself for the moment," he replied, keeping his voice calm and soft. With some luck, the man would think everything was fine. "Try not to talk too much. We are taking you to the infirmary," he explained, his hand on the wall of the corridor they were moving through. "You'll be fine."

"And Mic?" the man coughed. "What about Mic?"

"... We'll do what we can for him," William answered, which was all they could say. There was literally nothing they could do for the man though, but that was left unsaid. At most, what they could do for him was give him a good funeral, depressing as that was.

"Thank you, boss," the man replied and William felt himself grimace. Eventually, they set the man down on a bed at the medical bay. After that, William found a seat there while sending the other two to see if anyone in their group had medical knowledge they could use to save the remaining brother. He really hoped there would be someone.

"We found the Eternal Pose!" a voice called from another part of the ship and he sighed in relief.

'Thank God for small mercies.'

[} Chapter End {]

Adrian: Well, things happened.

Arc: Yep, lots of things. I will miss Winstone, though. He was a good guy…maybe.

Adrian: Sure he was, buddy, sure he was.

Arc: But thanks to his noble sacrifice now the group has all they need to escape the frying pan that is Sabaody and go right into the fire that is the Grand Line rearing for war!... Yay?

Adrian: Fun times ahead… For us, not for the characters. But who knows? Maybe they'll have easy travels through Paradise.

Arc: Hah! Good one! With all that said, we hope you enjoyed this chapter and look forward to the next one.

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