Gerard was at the end of his rope.

CLANG. CLUNK.

None of his attacks were threatening this woman. She blocked each one with her fists flawlessly, eyes digging away at his form as she looked to find even the tiniest dent in his defences.

He ducked as her fist flew past the top of his head, and swept his leg across the floor, right through her feet. It certainly hurt his leg, but she momentarily lost her balance.

BANG! He was just a bit too slow to react to Cassian's bullet that buried itself into his shoulder. He didn't need to look; the feeling of warm blood against his skin was not something unfamiliar to him. "Well Madame...I suppose I should apologize for looking down on you." He said, bowing his head a bit as she brought her fist down.

"But unfortunately..."

"Pirates don't apologize!" Allen finished, bringing his own gauntlet forward to stop her. He met her glare with his own steely gaze, and pushed her away. Or rather, she pushed herself away. Gerard immediately began to run, aiming to circle around just outside her range and search for an opening. Allen saw through his plan and directed himself where Lyza was standing with her fists raised. With a grunt, he slammed his fist against her gauntlet, sending a loud BOOM through the air. He felt the bones in his arms rattle, even through his Advanced Ley.

"Not bad!" She said, the furrowed eyebrows with glistening beads of sweat displaying her concentration. "LYZA, LOOK OUT!" The boy on her shoulder screamed, but it was a futile attempt to stop the man speeding towards her from her behind.

With frightening speed, Lyza immediately pulled her fist back and let Allen's arm go forward and hit the floorboards, while she blocked the swing of Gerard's axe that came just above her neck. The attack was hard enough for him to rebound off her arm and back to the floor. "Impressive, Madame...but for how long can you keep it up?" He asked, spinning the axes in his hands like spinning tops. Still spinning them, he whipped his arms back and thrust them forward one at a time, tirelessly chipping away at Lyza's gauntlets despite barely making a dent in them.

No need to make a dent. The key here is Allen, of course.

And right on cue, he slammed his smoke-covered fist into Lyza...but was unable to bring her to her knees this time. He heard the frustruated cry from the boy as he missed his shot, and ignored it. The boy was no trouble as long as he avoided hitting him. The trouble was the fact that Lyza had simply shrugged away a hit that had sent her to the floor earlier. She's getting used to the attack...but in an abnormally fast manner. He had to double his efforts now.

Gerard saw the difference in her reaction to the hit and quickened his swings, trying to limit the space she had. Wide arc at her neck. Blocked. Low thrust at her waist. Blocked. Double swing at her chin...once again blocked. "What's this? Can't go any faster?" Lyza asked, the smile starting to creep across her face once again.

He focused his eyes on the edges of his axes, and saw the steel of Lyza's gauntlets begin to melt once more, with the blades of his axes firmly stuck in them. Without hesitation, he let go of the weapons and leaped back.

"Oho, great! Great reaction! You knew didn't you...that you can't take these outta my steel?" She said, clearly impressed at his quick thinking. It was quick, but now he was disarmed and helpless.

Or was he?

BOOM.

Another, much more firm punch hit Lyza's waist, just an inch too far from the boy to deflect it back to Allen. The force sent her skidding across the slippery deck, but she managed to somehow keep her balance. "M-Mom, I'm sorry!" Cassian cried, reloading his pistol.

Ignoring his apology, Lyza narrowed her eyes at the kid before her. "You're annoyingly quick to avoid hitting Cassian like that. Maybe I should've taken you a little more seriously." Her words were respectful, but her tone was insolent. Allen dissipated the smoke on his right arm, and raised his hand to the cigar between his lips. "You should have taken me seriously from the start. Because now, you're going to reap what you sowed." He took a long drag from the cigar and exhaled, only this time an entire cloud of smoke streamed out from his mouth and nostrils instead of merely a puff. The cloud spread out wider and wider with ease, keeping its form despite the drizzling rain.

Lyza observed the smoke around them closely. There didn't appear to be any sort of poison in the smoke, judging by the fact that he was freely releasing it in spite of Afro close by.

"Is this some little trick of yours or something?" She asked, and was met with a quiet chuckle from Allen.

He replaced the cigar back between his lips and smiled. "Not at all. This isn't a simple move. It's a move that needs a lot of teamwork...and I figured we could use some of that right now."

"What teamwork? Afro's weapons are-" She looked down suddenly, and saw that her gauntlets no longer had his weapons sticking out of them awkwardly.

She heard Cassian gasp, and her confusion increased further. How could he not have seen them be taken? Afro was fast, but not that fast.

Was it the smoker? He still doesn't seem like he's gone all out yet.

She looked up, and squinted through the spreading smoke. The boy was gone. So was Afro. "Quit your hiding and fight!" She yelled, glancing around rapidly. Their Ley was here, but she couldn't pinpoint where. It was as though their Ley had spread with the smoke, and now surrounded her.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Cassian. Can you sense their Ley?"

"Yes...but its everywhere. I've got no clue where!"

ZWIP.

A fountain of blood sprung up from her shoulder, sending droplets flying onto her face. "What the-?" She saw Cassian lift his pistol and point it aimlessly at nothing more than grey smoke. "It was a woman! I-I couldn't even react in time..."

Lyza's attention was elsewhere. The Ley around them was expanding. She focused all her attention to the smoke, and suddenly saw a huge, fist-shaped mass rise through it right in front of her. "That's not very stealthy of you, kid!" She said, and punched the oncoming fist. The shockwave of the punch was easily absorbed by her gauntlet-

CLANG!

And just as she thought, an attack came from elsewhere. "Good afternoon, Madame." Gerard said cheerfully, his reclaimed axe grinding against her left gauntlet. "Let us dance together, three against two." He swung his second axe, and this time met Cassian's shoulder with the blade.

"Oh!" He was unable to hide his surprise as the slice almost immediately disappeared from the boy, and transferred to his left shoulder. With a slight sideways glance at the damage, he reassured himself that the damage was minimal and returned his concentration to the battle. "Now, Allen!"

Allen heard, and swung both of his fists at Lyza's chin, only to hit the steel from her gauntlets as they liquified and hardened right beneath her jaw. The smoke immediately returned to a shapeless cloud, making her and Cassian start coughing at the sudden inhalation. "Dammit...tricky bastard." She muttered, glancing around, alone once again. Afro had just said something about three against two...was the third one causing this confusion?

Another fist formed from behind her and struck, but she remained firm. As she was collecting herself from the hit, something sped past her, leaving a deep cut in her forehead as it did so. She felt warm blood roll down her face, and decided to resort to something else. Not a fan of doing crap like this, but there's no time to be egotistical. She thought, and reached into her pocket once more. She pulled out a handful of silvery orbs identical to the ones she had used to weaponize her arms, and tossed them to the floor. They rolled away through the smoke in all directions soundlessly, spreading out as Lyza used her Ley to control their movements.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" She said softly, and put her armored hands together.

With a rumble, the orbs suddenly began to expand and extend, popping out in sharp, conical shapes through the smoke from all directions. "Shit!" Allen muttured as he leapt from the steel spikes. All at once, their greatest advantage had been turned to their greatest disadvantage. "Dissipate the smoke, now!" Gerard yelled from somewhere in front of him, and he had to comply. It was either that, or get skewered by steel.

Though of course, she won't be able to get away with an attack like that unharmed. Isn't that right...

Lyza stepped back in shock as a massive spike shot up right at her face, just barely missing the tip of her nose. "What the-"

SPLAT.

"AAAAAAAAAIIIEEEE!!" Cassian screamed in pain, gripping the wrist that had formerly connected to his left arm. The blood flowed rapidly through the dark red stump, and spilled onto the alarmed Lyza's shoulder. Even her, who had seen far more gory and nauseating scenes in battle (and causing several of them with her own hands) felt her heart begin to race at the sight of her wounded son. It was the worst injury she had witnessed him go through in quite some time now. "Calm down! It's going to rebound back to whoever did that in a second!"

Even as the words left her mouth, she found herself wondering if that was really the case. The rebounding process always took about two seconds, five at worst. So why the hell was it taking so long now? The charm on him was long lasting, so-

She whirled around and hurled her fist forward as a shadowy figure zipped past her, leaving behind another long, far deeper cut on her forearm. The blood ran down her arm like red snakes, staining her shirt as they did so.

...Keya? Allen thought, silently watching as she toyed with Lyza. There were many words that could be used to described the woman. Eccentric. Elegant. Ruthless.

Doubtlessly, she was one of the crew's shining lights, and he knew how important she was against a powerful enemy that relied on endurance and strength over anything else like Lyza.

"Oh, would you look at that...the smoke is thinning out." Keya said, looking up at the wisps of smoke weaving about in the air. She stretched out every word as she spoke, akin to the voice of someone in a dream, or perhaps half-asleep. Her black hair was long and silky, and her bangs were long enough to cover her eyebrows. The long knife in her mouth had fallen when she spoke, and she now eyed it as it lay on the floor. "Hmm. This is going to make things harder. Prey should remain confused and scared."

It was only when she reached for the knife lying on the floor with her foot (the pair of which were covered with white stockings) that the bewildered Lyza realized she had absolutely no arms. Her torso was partly hidden by a red and white cloak that had been draped over her shoulders, making this harder to notice.

No doubt she's the one spinning shit around.

Lyza found herself amazed at the fact that she somehow managed to force through her anger to think at all. If the one who cut off Cassian's hand had no hands herself, that meant he was never going to get it back. "Cassian. Tie up your wrist and stop the blood flow." He tried to resist as she slowly brought him down from her shoulder, but he may well have tried to fight a stone wall. "Stop! You need my ability!"

Lyza smiled. "No. That's not your ability. You're damn weak now, and you'll probably be damn weak as a man...but you'll at least lose that damn charm on your body in time. We'll figure out your own strength after this fight." She stared at his tear-stained face and brushed his messed up hair from his eyes. That's right. You might be a twig, but even a twig can be strong...in its own way.

My greatest mistake was trying to raise you to become me.

"Hey, Limbless. Did you think you could get away with chopping my son's hand off like that?" She growled, turning to face the woman.

Keya stared at her in silence for a moment, her mouth busy holding onto the knife. Lyza prepared to strike, assuming she was done talking.

"Limbless? Huh...so rude, Captain of the Lyza Pirates." The voice was definitely the same one as hers, only this time it channeled directly to Lyza's head, as though her voice was coming from inside her ears. "Are you wondering why you can hear me?"

Considering the strange things that had been happening since the kid released his cloud of smoke, she probably would have been disappointed if there wasn't another gimmick with this woman. "Not in the least. But if there's something more you've got to show, then let's get to it!"

As she spoke, she brought forth one last handful of the orbs she had used to create the spikes. The steel once again turned to a metallic liquid and smoothly glided around her body, hardening and shaping itself to form an intricately designed suit of armour. The steel rose to her face and solidified in a cuboid shape, extending a bit at the jaw of the helmet as the rectangular face slid down to the bottom. Two screws clicked into the helmet at the sides with a loud CLICK, fixing the face to the helmet.

She looked through the six eyeholes in the otherwise designless face at the woman before her. It didn't matter that the other two weren't visible. The suit was the ultimate defence, and the perfect counter to physical fighters like these three.

"Don't start running now. By the time I'm done with you, you're all going to be lying facedown." Her voice was slightly muffled, but the way she raised her fists up made her message clear.

Time to get serious.