(Bellamy POV)
“It’s quite the reception party you’ve got there.” I quipped, my gaze wandering across the deck. Frankly, it was a sorry sight. “Should I feel honored?”
Around three dozen goons, Needless and General Gasparde, as well as the half-dead body of a certain bounty hunter. It wasn't a lineup that felt particularly challenging, which was a good thing considering my crew was going to do the fighting. After all, if I was remembering things correctly, there should be a cyclone arriving soon and it would be grand if my crew could finish things up before then. Granted, the race was taking place at least a month after it did canonically so who knew what sort of butterflies were flapping their wings.
“Bellamy the Hyena, one has to be prepared when facing someone like you.” Gasparde answered, but contrary to his words there was no hint of apprehension to be seen on his face. It was probably because he still had a higher bounty and because he was a logia user while I was not. “So, what do you want? You want to end up like this punk too?”
“Probably not. I’m no bounty hunter.” I said, barely sparing the wounded bounty hunter a single glance.
The wounded Shryer didn't even react when Gasparde began kicking him with a boot. “He came for my head. He did…show me a good time.”
I’d call him condescending but then again, I had met Enel. Compared to that guy, Gasparde was pretty much a little girl scout with flowers. What did bother me however, was his aura of absolute ease, which he kept up even as my crew began lining up behind me. Not in a way that alarmed me, but enough to annoy me.
“Well, I hope you can show me a good time too.” I told him just as casually, earning me a tick mark on his temple. He assuredly did not like having his words thrown back in his face like that. “Though, I won’t be the one fighting you. My crew should be more than enough to deal with you.”
“…are you joking?” The poor man looked like he couldn't decide between getting angry, being dumbfounded or being suspicious and hence he tried his best to be all three. As one would expect, this didn't work particularly well and had near disastrous consequences for his barely acceptable facial appearance, so it fell to me to try and help him resolve his conundrum.
“Not at all. Thing is, if I were to fight you, I'm afraid that it would be over far too quickly. So, this is more like a little game I play to stave off my boredom.” I drawled. One common trait amongst arrogant pufferfish was, that they absolutely despised being on the receiving end of their own attitude. Gasparde treated everyone weaker than himself as a source of entertainment and as a haven from his boredom, which primarily stemmed from his dislike of the sea.
Now that I was treating him like he was MY entertainment, his rage meter had to be shooting though the roof and an angry opponent was perhaps a ferocious opponent, but a much simpler one to fight. As this fight was meant to give my crew a much needed boost in confidence, it simply wouldn't do for them to struggle too much and as such, I had no qualms about stacking the deck a little in their favor.
“You dare?” he hissed out but I wasn't ruffled.
“I dare nothing. One only needs to dare something if there is a risk and in this case, there really isn’t. Only the weak must dare things. I do not.” This was utter bullshit by the way. Everyone risked something every time they did anything. The risk may be trivial and the price negligible, but I was not in such a situation and I was definitely not powerful enough to justify such an attitude. But it didn't really matter as Gasparde was rapidly losing the mental capacity to think clearly and rationally.
“I took to the seas and left the marines because this was the quickest path to power! And I have become more powerful than a boy wet behind his ears could ever imagine!" Gasparde growled at me. "You will beg for death when I am done with you!”
“Promises, promises.” I replied, casually blowing on my nails to clear them of some imagined specks of dust, before glancing at my crew. “Like we planned guys. Nero, Ross, you two take Needless. He's the guy with that X-shaped scar on his face. Sarquiss, Lily, Mani and Hewitt…Gasparde is yours.”
“And the rest of his crew?” Eddy asked to which I pointed at my doctor.
“Why, I think Muret needs some exercise.”
“No, I don't!” she said in protest, which I dutifully ignored.
“Anyone have any objections?
“Yes, I do!”
“Great! Go and kick some ass!” I shouted, as I gave Muret an encouraging pat on the back, motivating her to go…’figuratively’…flying into battle. Spurred on by her enthusiasm, the answer from my crew was almost as earnest.
“Aye aye, captain!”
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(Muret POV)
Her captain was an asshole, Muret reflected as she did her best to stay alive, dodging all manner of sharp implements being swung at her from all sides. Having made her mind up, she wasted no time in letting him have a piece of said mind.
“Captain, you’re an asshole!”
“You’re doing great, Muret! Keep up the good work!”
To think that she had once thought the days of the sadistic Bellamy were behind them, but no...it had been still there, waiting just beneath the surface. Only a psychopath would even dream of putting someone as cute and fragile like her into a combat situation…the accident with Ohm notwithstanding.
“Didn’t anyone teach you morons not to attack a doctor!” she screamed, ducking beneath a wild haymaker from one very burly thug. One syringe later, he was twitching on the deck, grasping his side while Muret twirled away. “Who’s going to keep you dimwits alive if you take out the medic?”
However, when she registered just what profanity had tumbled out of her mouth, Muret had to pull up short. Lily was rubbing off on her, the absolute horror!
The moment’s pause almost cost her dearly, as two pirates took the opportunity to try and spit roast her from both ends with their swords. Muret vacated the space in a hurry, leaving only a small satchel of powder in her place. By the time those two were enveloped in a small cloud, she was sliding underneath another to jab a needle into an unprotected thigh. The sound of three bodies hitting the deck like sacks of rotten potatoes, ushered in a small lull in the fighting, as the pirates realised that the cute and fragile woman wasn't quite as harmless as they'd first assumed. A lull which Muret used to the fullest by drawing out eight more scalpels, grasped between her fingers.
“You know something? Doctors spend most of their time putting bodies back together.” She growled at the assembled pirates. This was really out of character for her, but after being thrown into mortal danger, Muret found herself rather short on patience. “But that also means, we know the best way to take one apart.”
Brandishing the tools of her trade, Muret took a small step forward. The crowd took a large step back.
“Eight spots. The Larynx, the spine, the lungs, the liver…the jugular and the subclavian veins. The kidneys, the heart.” She intoned with a deadly calm voice. “Eight vulnerable spots on your body for certain death.”
And with that, she released her scalpels with pin point accuracy, eight pirates keeling over moments later, spurting blood everywhere.
It was not very becoming of a doctor, but Muret could feel herself wanting to grin. And once she drew Funkfreed out of his sheath, she indulged in that desire with a pearly-toothed smile.
“Welcome to Anatomy 101.”
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(Ross POV)
Man, Muret was really letting them have it. In fact, by this point one really couldn't call it a fight anymore, having more similarities with a game of tag. On the other hand, the fight between Needless and Nero wasn’t quite as one sided.
This didn’t mean that their new instructor didn’t have the upper hand. The former government agent was hounding his opponent, firing off air blades with his feet whenever the man tried to gain some distance. Not that Needless had found more success in close quarters fighting either, as Nero just wove around everything the man threw at him, almost like a flag fluttering in the wind.
In fact, Gasparde’s first mate was so hard pressed that he couldn’t spare any attention to Ross, leaving the sailmaker free to observe the fight. And honestly? Ross had to admit that he was impressed.
When the captain had first mentioned that they were going to be learning a new martial art, most of them had been skeptical. They all knew how to throw a punch, so how useful could it be? Very, as it turned out. The rokushiki, as the techniques were called, were difficult to fully appreciate without witnessing them first with one's own eyes, but now that he had, Ross was liking them a lot.
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Not least because he would probably have an easier time learning them than the others, because many of the techniques seemed to rely very heavily on a well-trained lower body. And what had Ross been doing ever since Skypiea? Training his lower body and his core.
In fact, he was pretty certain that he could match Needless when it came down to a contest of pure strength, though the man easily trumped him in the speed department. Then again, that was what Nero was there for.
Now, how was he supposed to join the fight without getting in the way?
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(Sarquiss POV)
When the captain had told them that they would be fighting a 95 million belli pirate without him, Sarquiss hadn’t known what to think. No, to be more precise, he had too many thoughts bouncing around in his brain that he couldn’t focus on any one of them. Much of it revolved around “Is Bellamy crazy?” or some variation thereof, but for some reason…some inexplicable reason, his mouth had refused to cooperate and protest the decision, putting him in his current situation.
Namely trying to stay alive while Gasparde tried to squash him like a bug.
“Stop buzzing around!” Gasparde shouted at him, but like hell was Sarquiss going to listen to him. That would be plain silly.
The man was a tricky opponent for a whole different reason, when compared to Satori. With the round, sadistic priest...you just couldn’t hit the guy, because he knew everything you were going to do before you did it. But Satori had been a baseline human, if one extended the definition of humanity to include the sky dwellers, and was thus bound by the physical limits of the general human form.
Gasparde had no such limitations and he used that freedom well. Sticky appendages stretched out to grab Sarquiss out of the sky and it was taking nearly everything he had to maintain his flight. At the same time, the man was creating even more ‘arms’ to fend off Lily and Hewitt.
Things would have been much worse, had Hewitt not covered the man in flour in the opening moments of the battle. There had been a moment of stupefied incomprehension on Gasparde's part after he had punched an incoming projectile, releasing a cloud of the white powder into the air.
And that single, simple act had turned an untouchable logia into a functional paramecia, whom they could kick the shit out of. Of course, that was if they could get past these tentacle limbs to get at his main body. At least Gasparde’s efforts to scrub the flour off of him had been spectacularly ineffective. Flour tended to stick to candy syrup, what a surprise.
As he watched Hewitt and Lily dance around Gasparde’s many extremities, Sarquiss really wished that they had some long range support right now. But no, the captain had decided to keep both options back to take care of the Black Pearl. It would be too easy, he said. You need training, he said. Why was Bellamy becoming more sadistic with every island they went to?
And where was Mani anyway? Wasn’t she supposed to do something too?
Diving back into the fray, Sarquiss allowed his body to enter free fall towards Gasparde. The expected counter was interrupted by Sarquiss stabbing the offending limb with his new stingers and injecting some of his toxins into it, causing it to jerk back as if burned.
Unfortunately, that didn’t end the fight because Gasparde detached that appendage before the toxin could reach his main body. He'd probably not even known what Sarquiss had done, but between ignoring it and taking a risk or removing an easily replaceable limb, the man had gone with the latter option.
Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Sarquiss nevertheless kept going, this time aiming his new weapons at Gasparde’s heart while his two crew mates were doing their best to keep the former marine occupied. It almost worked, but Sarquiss had to swerve off course at the last minute to avoid being sandwiched between two limbs.
“This isn’t working.” Lily groused when he rejoined them to regroup and plan. “He has too many of the fucking tentacles.”
“Think we should get the others to join in?” Hewitt asked, “The captain didn’t say we couldn’t ask for help.”
True, the captain hadn't said that they couldn't, but Sarquiss didn't want to. Currently, Bellamy looked completely at ease as he was sat on the stairs with Aisa beside him, giving her the occasional head pat. Which meant that he had faith in their ability to handle Gasparde, and Sarquiss didn't want to fail that trust.
“No, we’re doing this.” Sarquiss insisted. At the very least, this didn’t seem impossible. Difficult? Certainly, but not impossible. “If things really get dicey, the captain back there is going to step in.”
“You know what the most annoying part of this whole thing is? The fucker hasn’t moved at all since we began fighting.” Lily pointed out. A second glance confirmed her observation that Gasparde’s feet were still firmly planted where they had been at the start. He even had the audacity to cross his arms and smirk at them. “That’s it, I’m killing the fucker!”
“Hold it!” Sarquiss said, grabbing Lily before she could rush off. “You can kill him after we plan how we’re going to do it.”
“Got any bright ideas, shithead?”
“No, but…” He’d been hoping his Lily would have something. She was the smart one. Then, unexpectedly Hewitt piped up.
“Actually, I have something that may work.”
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(Bellamy POV)
“You sure you don’t want us chipping in, captain?” Rivers asked, looking decidedly uneasy as he watched his crew mates seemingly make no progress.
“They’re going to be fine.” I reassured him. “They’ve got several things going for them. First, thanks to Hewitt’s flour, Gasparde is vulnerable. Second, Gasparde is severely underestimating them. And finally, all of them have forgotten about Mani.”
“Huh, you’re right. Mani was supposed to be there too.” he replies, scratching his head.
“U-huh.” I nod, but don’t explain further. They would learn.
“Captain, we do want to wrap this up fairly quickly.” Eddy called out. “There’s a storm coming.”
“Don’t worry, this won’t take long.” I called back. Even as I said this, my trio of combatants began to move, remaining bunched up together to guard each other’s flanks.
Personally, I felt that spreading out and forcing Gasparde to divide his attention would have been better, but they probably had a plan. Still, I made sure to be ready to jump in at a moment’s notice in case anything went wrong. For a moment, it looked like I might need to, Gasparde’s tentacles converging on them from all sides. However, some flour and axe dials later, most of them were sliced clean through, clearing the way.
Come to think of It, we’ve used flour in combat twice already, once against Shura and now against Gasparde. At this rate, people were going to start calling us the Flour Pirates.
But even as they get closer and closer to Gasparde, he kept sending more and more tentacles their way. And unlike the beginning, they were often covered in spikes or candy plates, the latter of which were clearly meant to function as protection against the axe dials. But the plates did hurt their mobility a lot, which turned out to be a mistake when my crew pulled out fire and breath dials to start baking his syrup into solid candy.
Visibly alarmed, Gasparde finally shifted away from his arrogant pose into a ready stance and right on time too, as with only a few meters to go, Sarquiss suddenly sped away from his teammates onto a direct collision course with Gasparde’s chest.
Sarquiss dodged the first punch, Lily took care of the second with an impact dial but my crew were caught off-guard when Gasparded kicked Sarquiss away. Probably because that was the first time the man had used his legs.
“And that is why you never assume your opponent isn’t going to use everything at their disposal.” I sagely explained to Aisa, who nodded along diligently, her eyes glued to the fight. She'd honestly come a long way in a very short amount of time. I was no psychiatrist, but I think confronting her with her fear and praising her afterwards, had probably done a lot to reduce the fear she'd once felt from voices disappearing. She still didn't like it, but I was glad to say that she no longer felt crippled by it.
“You thought you could take me down! With such pitiful…hurghk?”
“And that is why you never let your guard down during a fight. It’s not over until its over.” I finished as Gasparde stared uncomprehendingly at his unblemished chest before his head rotated mechanically backwards to see Mani digging her knife up to the hilt into his back. I’m fairly certain he wanted to say something from how his mouth was moving, but all that came out was a bloody gurgle. Mani must have gotten him in the heart or something.
Nearby, Ross and Nero have also dealt with Needless, Ross having tackled the wolverine wannabe to the ground, before getting him into a grapple hold and dislocating both of his arms. Nero finished him off with a pistol shot.
“What do you think Muret?” I asked my pristine looking doctor, who wandered over and began affectionately rubbing Aisa's scalp.
“Can’t really tell, but I’d give him a minute, max.” she said, while Funkfreed sat down on the last of Gasparde’s underlings.
And wouldn’t you know it, the great traitor fell to his knees before slumping over…dead.