Noa's POV;
“We have no need for people below the rank of Lieutenant Commander to go to the front. The assault unit will consist out of Captains and Commanders only.”
A few hundred mean and battle-hardened faces were glaring down at us from their positions on the taller super-sized warships. They all had either some unique weapon, adjusted clothing or other things that discerned them from the common Marine soldier.
It was evident that these were stronger than the normal Marine we have fought in today's battles.
“Hea... headquarter captains should all be on the same level as that smoke bastard Smoker. And there are so many of them,” almost cried the masked guy that must be Ussop. Never met him, but from what I have heard he seems to be as cowardly as he was told to be.
Hopefully, the remaining Straw Hats are stronger than him. And if not then they are not the only ones here who could fight. I don't know about the Straw Hats, but us Kage Pirates are hardly in any danger of dying by a mere two hundred of these Marines.
Not with Lia and Lara on our side.
The next instant all of them jumped down from their ship. Well, a lot of them slipped more than jumped and a good ten dozen fell into the sea between our bridge and their ship. Many of those were even Devil Fruit user and started to drown.
Shocked and surprised looks were exchanged between the safely landed Marines, some even jumped off as well to save those that could not swim.
“Why did so many misjudge the distance?”, asked Nami for the rest of us. I looked at Lara and Lia for an explanation, those two are almost always the cause for something strange.
“I made the wood under their feet vibrate in such a way that they had no grip and slipped off,” explained Lara with a shrug.
“While I simply lowered the pressure they put on the wood when they jumped off, it cut their jump quite short,” was Lia's reply to the whole thing. A good hundred of Marine Captains were taken out by two simple and none damaging attacks.
“Charge!” The suddenly shouted order came from one heavily scarred Marine and as one the remaining soldiers attacked us.
Some started to shoot at us with their handheld cannons, guns, or rifles. The few cannonballs were shot out of the air by either Nojiko or Ussop. The exploding balls were raining shrapnel and heat down on the charging Marines. Sadly nothing that was really hurting them, but it stopped the shooters from trying again.
Not that anything more than a second volley would have been possible without risking friendly fire, to begin with.
We luckily had the stairs to the escort ship in our back, so these Marines could only attack from the front for now. Which didn't mean that at least one of us stayed aware of that side. There were some Marines still in the water and could easily attack from the back after all.
Nojiko, Robin, Ussop and Nami staid behind us, they were more effective at a distance. While Josef, Luffy, Zoro, Franky, and I stayed in the front. Lia, Lara and Mrs Chicken Wing were at the far back and keeping their eye on anything too dangerous.
That's how I found myself facing a man with a large cleaver-like sword, not unlike Yosaku's first one. His looked a little less heavy, however. And he was also slower than Yosaku, a lot.
His downwards swing was easily sidestepped and then countered by a burning hammer to the chest. The flat side of Midir impacted with his chest and shattered his ribcage before a fire explosion detonated point blank onto his torso.
He started to scream in pain, but it got cut off when I kicked him away from me and into two of his friends. A third one has jumped over them and was just about to attack me when three holes opened up in his face and his body turned instantly limp. His body got punched off the bridge by a stray flying fist from Franky.
Yet, I had no time to even thank Nojiko. Another one was charging at me from the side, his body was transformed into some cat species. I don't know which one, just that its claws looked sharp and it has had really pointy teeth.
I twisted around the clawed swipe with the unfinished Kami-e I was able to use and swung Mjölner at him. His body moved out of the way in a way more refined Kami-e and I would have missed him entirely if it wasn't for the electric discharge that jumped off of my hammer and locked his muscles up.
A second swing of Midir hit him in the side of his head and caved his skull in, there was no need for any addition of fire. The guy was dead before he hit the ground, or would soon be.
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I refocused on the two Marines that caught the first one I downed. I had already mentally counted two of five down when I saw that there were already six more to fill the gap.
Luckily not every one of them could fight me at the same time, and these guys were fighting with some pretty obvious flaws in their movements. Maybe Lia is playing tricks with their minds, or Lara is tricking their inner ear. There is no way that these guys are as weak as this.
The next Captain tried to cut me diagonally with his long sword, a sword that shattered when it got faced with the pointy side of Midir. I headbutted him, rather than following up with an attack of Mjölner.
The electric weapon was rather busy with crushing a large spiked metal ball. The weapon was being thrown by one of the more distant Marines but held no competition with my hammers. Lara's weapons are masterpieces and can easily shatter lesser weapons. Some random Marine Captain will hardly have something that could match them.
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Third Person's POV;
Contrary to Noa's believe, neither Lia nor Lara was doing much at all. Lia's whole focus was on the five Vice-Admirals. These troublesome individuals could pose a real threat to them. She was keeping track of their position, aura and mood. None of them felt happy and only three were close enough to step into the fight. One of those was also a lot angrier than the other two, probably the Vice-Admiral that jumped off of the ship Lia has destroyed at the start of the Buster Call.
And while Lia was keeping track of the dangerous Marines, Lara was keeping track of those who could endanger their crew or the Straw Hats. So far she has pointed out the afro-wearing ball Devil Fruit user that has had evaded Franky's attacks easily. The mentioned Captain was then easily killed by a well-placed sea stone bullet through the head.
And while there were many Marines left standing, not one of them has had wounded a single one of the Kage pirates. The Straw Hats were also holding up pretty well, but it was clear that the fights they have had until now were taking their toll.
Luffy was panting heavily, Zoro has lost his sword against the rust Devil Fruit user and Franky was almost out of cola. Nojiko's swift aim and deadly weapon has had saved them numerous times, but not that could keep the onslaught off forever.
Which was proven when one of the Marines, who seemed to have a Devil Fruit that allowed him to shoot his hair out like needles, managed to hit Luffy point blank.
The piercing needles were sharp enough to penetrate his rubber body and inflicted the first wound. Luffy retaliated by punching the guy in the face and sending him over the bridge, but the damage was done and the wound on his stomach has reopened.
Even his stupidly high endurance was approaching its limits. Lucci's King Pistol has done its damage on Luffy's stomach before and these needles started the blood to flow again.
Another captain tried to use the momentarily stop in Luffy's fight by striking at him with a large axe. Unfortunately for him, Robin has seen his attack and used her Devil Fruit to sprout a pair of arms that broke the poor Captains neck.
“We need to get out of here, they are too many!” Shouted Nami over the noise of the fighting. Not a second later a large explosion erupted from behind them. She turned around and saw with horror how the escort ship was lit up in fire and in the process of sinking.
The Marines were intelligent enough to recognise the danger in having that vessel this close to the pirates and destroyed it. Luckily none of them was on board, as Lara has made sure that they stayed off of it.
Still, the escape ship was now burning wood. Nami and Ussop were the first two to freak out. They were crying tears of despair and clung to each other.
That was when Ussop perked up and spoke about a voice he recognises. He let go of Nami and looked over the bridge, only to start grinning widely and crying tears of joy.
“Guys, we have to jump into the sea,” he then announced with relieve and true happiness in his tone. Naturally, the Kage Pirates were looking at him as if he has total batshit crazy.
But the Straw Hat members, who were able to, risked a peek over the edge as well and said the same, also with a wide smile and happy tears.
That made the Kage Pirates look at their captain, who shrugged and jumped over the edge. Lara had every intention of using Geppo if something turns wrong, but there was no water under her. Rather a well used, but still cared for wooden plank.
The Going Merry, the ship of the Straw Hats, has placed herself under the bridge and in a position from which she could catch her crew and the Kage Pirates.
One after the other the pirates landed on her and the Straw Hats celebrated the unexpected, but definitely not unwelcome arrival of their friend.
Yet, it looked as if their transportation wouldn't swim long. Three of the now six close super-sized warships were aiming massive cannons at the tiny ship. Each cannon alone was larger than the Going Marry and there were dozens aimed at the tiny thing.
A second later the command to fire was shouted and the first cannonballs were shot out, only to hit another close ship. The other ships fired as well, but their payload did not hit as well. They either shot their allies or the sea.
The reason for such an unlikely massive miss aim was making itself visible quickly after. There were massive whirlpools forming under and around the giant Marine ships. These deadly currents were starting to shake and rip at the warships with unstoppable force.
Meanwhile, the little and agile Going Marry was sailing through the currents with Nami and Nojiko's masterful guidance.
But still, there were enough cannons aimed at them to raise an island, which was proven by them not an hour ago.
The Marines kept firing, hoping to hit them with at least one cannonball, as that would have been enough to sink the tiny ship. But not even one came close enough to do any damage. Lia was shooting down any of them that were in the air.
It was strange, but none of the Vice-Admirals made any move to catch them. A mystery that neither Lia nor Lara wanted to question. Maybe it was because the Going Marry was still trapped inside the whirlpools, together with the Marine ships.
A mistake that they were regretting moments later when Franky used his last cola power to propel the ship into the air. Lia helped in lowering the mass of the ship, which made it faster and airborne for a longer time. Effectively escaping out of their immediate reach.
They would have chased them if it wasn't for the order to not do so, given by the Admiral Aokiji. He was giving Robin a gift for finding true friends, as well as making up a mistake he has done years ago.
That's how both the Kage Pirates and the Straw Hat managed to escape from Enies Lobby. Some, Lia and Lara, have had hoped for a prolonged battle, but even they could see the high risk of death if they had done that.
Not theirs, but that of their crew.