Jeanne kept backpedaling, cursing as she noticed the Fishman busting out a different technique. Ugh. He was a lot more versatile than she needed right now. She did however notice the final iron ball careening towards her and made her play. As the ball would start to connect she'd turn that part of her body into steam, clutching it as she sent herself falling backwards.
"FUCK!", she'd blurt out. Acting as if it were a direct hit to her stomach. She kept Architronito to her side as she panted. Hopefully he would take the bait. She would scramble back on the ground. Pretending to be able not to get her footing from the hit Arch had supposedly inflicted on her. False fear plastered on her face. Hopefully this fishman was as sadistic as she assumed and he would go for something she could use. She didn't want to waste this shot. Sure her Dispersione shot could inflict cuts and puncture wounds as opposed to the blunt force of her Acciaio shot, but that wasn't her aim this time.
"Finally...A Direct hit!" Archer hadn't seen the steam, the view being blocked by the trees. Taking time to revel in his victory, he approached the woman in the trees, walking up the grass fields slowly before eventually becoming coming face to face with the limp body of the Logia user.
"Seems like that Drink ended up not being my last after all!"
"But let's make sure you're truly dead" Archer said taking yet another quick swig of the alcohol before bringing the lighter up to his lips, ready spray a geyser of fire onto the Sniper!
There! Jeanne would smirk as she pulled her gun up. At this distance it would definitely hit! She would blast at the bottle with a deafening POP of Architronito, iron shrapnel of course digging into the Fishman. That wasn't her intended target though.
Her target was the bottle of booze! As the liquor splashed over Archer she burst into steam once more to escape the impending gout of flame. Once far enough away she would load another round of Dispersion shot into her cannon. She needed to ensure this guy went down. If the fire wouldn't take him out, then she had easily enough time to load up a shot or two into her gun to finish the job!
Archer was engulfed in flames! The liquor in his mouth ignited and caused an even large plume of fire to spew upwards into the air! The Fish man Dropped to his knees and began rolling around as he let out a loud, blood-curdling scream of pain! It took only a few moments for the flames to be extinguished, but as he stopped rolling, he ended up falling onto his back, black smoke coming off of his body as he succumbed to the pain and passed out...
Jeanne groaned as she brushed herself off. She looked down at Archer before letting out a sigh. She would groan as the adrenaline wore off and her whole body began to ache from the impact earlier. She groaned a bit as she moved a bit towards Arch. It would be best to ensure he can't get back up, but she didn't exactly have the heart to just go out and kill the man in cold blood. Instead she grabbed a rope from her pack and began tying the man up.
Effective? Maybe not, but it put her mind a bit at ease as she began limping back towards the compound. High with victory, but stiff from the combat. She wondered how the others handled their opponents. Given she was a less physical combatant and Arch pretty much slammed her through a wall? Probably considerably better. She couldn't help but give a chuckle at it.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
*
As the fights in the compound were underway, the people of Cocoyashi were busy with their own battle. Although, internal.
"We can't stand Idly by!" Confessed the Goldfish Fishman, Crock. His brow was pursed, eyes shut as he shook his head in a moment of indecisiveness "Those people...They actually seem like they could help us! Clearly we were wrong!"
He opened his arms up in a pleading gesture before pointing arms to Kirk
"I mean, look at him! Even if he Was a full member of Barnum's crew, which doesn't make sense that a kid would be, even now as an adult...Look at 'em he's ragged! Looks like he's been through hell!"
"Hell that girl Oliko is dead! After she tried to stand up to him and we never saw her again? Even worse she could be some slave off in the Grand Line!"
Everyone around him had a look of distress on their faces, sweating beading down their faces. An angle fish, fishman spoke up.
"But what could we do! We don't have weapons or anything to actually use against them!" She rubbed her arm, hanging her head slightly.
Then, by the surprise of everyone, the grouper fish fishman, Betty spoke up. "Crock Is right though...We were wrong about Kirk...And we shouldn't just stand by while some strangers come and fix the problems that we never had the backbone to do!"
Another woman, a human, nodded her head in agreeance "Yeah...We should at least...Be there to see that bastard fall! Right?"
Kirk listened to the clamor around him, still just trying to calm down from everything that had been going on. His sobs were finally falling silent, his eyes were red and burning and his breathing was returning to normal. He gave no reaction to the voices around him. What they said about his crew, Oliko, himself.
But he sure listened. He had never wanted them to figure out what was really going on until he finished with it. Then they would understand. His hands slowly moved down from the sides of his necks, across his shoulders, and to his arms as he hugged onto himself. Kirk really wished he had a shirt… but that could wait.
Like that woman just said, he had a fight to watch, didn’t he? Kirk solemnly stood up, not caring to brush himself off or anything from the dirt he was kneeling in. He kept his hands wrapped around himself as he got up, head still down. It took him a moment of standing silently before letting his arms slip from his upper arms down to his forearms and his head finally lifted. Taking a small glance around the village.. ..he smiled.
“Well, what are we waiting for then? Like hell I’m gonna miss out on this either. I’ve been dying for this moment.” Kirk turned around and was the first one to start striding out of the village, going towards the compound. “I can catch everyone up along the way.”
They all looked amongst themselves and slowly nodded. Each of their breathing was heavy and anxious. But they followed after the Koi fishmen tentatively