– Eddy –
The nice thing about Observation haki was that it usually told you when you were about to do something monumentally stupid. With a bit of practice, that limit could then be lowered to account for more mundane inconveniences such as not stumbling over a length of rope for instance. Or avoiding one of Aisa's many pranks. Having thus honed his haki to achieve the required level of competency, Eddy had no issue with heeding its warnings. He hadn't regretted it since.
Which was also why he had decided to deflect the incoming projectiles rather than cutting them in twain as had been his instinctive response. He was glad he'd changed his mind too, because their explosion had scattered patches of sticky glue everywhere. Getting covered in it would have been a rather unpleasant experience, not to mention the nightmare that trying to clean it out of his hair afterwards would have been.
So no, Eddy was happy to listen to his sixth sense whenever it chimed up. Especially when he was treated to the gobsmacked look on his opponent's face as a result. Judging by his disbelieving stare, Eddy would infer that Perseta hadn't ever faced a haki user before. Or at least not one who had bothered listening to his inner voice.
Which was a tad odd in Eddy's opinion, because as one of Silver Bill's two senior officers who'd made it to the New World, Perseta really should have come across haki by now. Then again, while they were both members of a Super Rookie's crew, Eddy and friends had spent most of the past year training and preparing themselves with a Warlord's crew in mind.
It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think that Perseta, and Bill by extension, simply hadn't been experienced enough. They'd likely not understood how risky an unprepared incursion could be nor would they have had the knowledge required to shore up their weaknesses.
On that count, the Bellamy pirates had been lucky to not only have had a prudent captain, but one who had successfully recruited some very talented instructors. Which was just another reason why he couldn't help but adore both his captain and his crew. Honestly, Eddy was realising again how getting Izou's personal attention was a luxury that other paradise crews couldn't even dream about.
If he'd signed up with any captain other than his own, Eddy wasn't sure he'd have ended up any different from Perseta. A one trick pony, trapped in a hopeless situation against an opponent he was utterly outmatched by.
"With a subpar trick to boot." Eddy thought as he lazily deflected another volley of cannonballs. A slight flick at the end even sent the projectiles flying back in Perseta's direction faster than he'd launched them. "Well, and that's that."
Turning his back on the now immobilized and harmless pirate, Eddy sat down to watch the rest of the battle. Not that it was much of one to be honest. Eddy had noticed that whenever they found themselves in a combat situation, things tended to go one of two ways. They were either forced to desperately fight for their lives against an opponent who – at least nominally – outclassed them. Or they'd curbstomp whoever was unfortunate enough to be in their way. Though, seeing as those two choices covered all bases, maybe it was only natural that one of those two cases always occurred?
...logic had never really been his strong suit.
Anyway, the rank and file of Bill's recently founded Silver Alliance were being swept aside like a sand castle before the flood. Not only were the Revolutionaries heads and shoulders above them in terms of combat ability, the Sweet pirates were also wreaking havoc amongst their ranks.
Somehow, they'd repurposed their few remaining fishy rides to function as land roaming vehicles. Very quick and mobile ones at that with lightweight cannons attached. The result was that the Sweet Pirates were, for a lack of a better word, racing circles around the Silver Alliance while bombarding them with artillery shells.
Funnily enough, the Silver Alliance had attempted to respond with fishriders of their own. However, as if trying to prove that they were not only the best racers of the East Blue but also the Grand Line, the Sweet pirates had obliterated the opposition within only a few minutes. Which also had the unintended side effect of essentially reducing the enemy horde to a sitting duck amongst a swarm of angry piranhas.
Most of Eddy's crew mates hadn't even needed to get involved. Case in point, apart from the few fighting Bill and Avelon, they were all lounging around having an impromptu picknick.
"Oh, finally done are ya? Took you long enough, Eddy. You really need to up your game, ain't that right, Hewitt?"
"Yup. Hopefully your performance in other matters is more satisfy… hey, wait! Wait a goddamn minute! Muret, let's put that needle down and talk about it, alright? No need to go that far."
"Talk."
"…I've got nothing. What about you, Ross?"
"I was talking about navigation?"
"Funkfreed."
"Funkfreed? What about him?"
"Arouu?"
"Sit."
"Gaakh!" "Ooof!"
Speaking of Avelon, that fight was wrapping up too. Eddy wasn't sure what had prompted Mani to volunteer for the task of taking the locomotive wannabe down, but she had. If he'd been his pre-Jaya self, Eddy would not have given his friend very good odds of coming out of this alive. After all, Avelon had a lot of weapons, including cannons and bombs. Mani did not. Avelon had a devil fruit. Mani did not. Especially the devil fruit would have drastically shifted the scales in Avelon's favor.
However, after spending a bit of time around devil fruit users, Eddy had come to realise that their powers weren't automatically as overwhelming as he'd once believed. Like any tool, their effectiveness varied drastically depending on the expertise and imaginative power of the user. In that regard, Avelon was about as imaginative as a brainless rock.
Seriously, the ability to turn any part of his anatomy into wheels and all he did was transform his hands and feet? Eddy could think of no less than twelve different ideas on how to make better use of that fruit off the top of his head. It didn't even have to be anything complicated. Just turning himself into a giant spiked wheel would have been more effective than trying to hit Mani by throwing bombs at her.
Not only that but why had he limited himself to moving about a set of pre-laid train tracks? Even if Avelon occasionally jumped between tracks, it made him very predictable. Predictable meant vulnerable, which was doubly true if your opponent had observation haki. Avelon quickly found this out the hard way, when Mani snuck up behind him without her target noticing a thing by taking advantage of the smokescreen created by Avelon's own explosions. A few moments later, she was walking towards her crew while casually flicking some blood off her dagger.
So, yes. Eddy had noticed that whenever they found themselves in a combat situation, things tended to go one of two ways. They were either forced to desperately fight for their lives against an opponent who was at least their equal. Or they'd curbstomp whoever was unfortunate enough to be in their way.
Today was definitely shaping up to be the latter.
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– Sarquiss –
Fighting Bill felt good.
After the danger fraught experiences of Tequila Wolf and Bonbori's gut, being able to easily dominate a combat situation was a refreshing change of pace. Sarquiss would almost call it a relaxing experience if it weren't for the tears and the crying and the heightened emotions of his temporary partner.
Desire clearly had a bone to pick with Bill. Not that Sarquiss could really blame her, because one, he would have reacted in pretty much the same way if someone had dared to harm or threaten his friends. Scratch that, he'd already lost his cool at least once with Satori way back when. Gods, it felt like that had been a lifetime ago instead of a mere 16 months.
And two, Bill's reasoning would have infuariated anyone. Seriously, what sort of sick mind decided that…
"Hey, that girl looks useful. Let's kill all her friends and cast her down into the deepest depths of despair, all so that I can 'rescue' her and become her hero. Once I'm her hero, I can manipulate her into doing my bidding as a competent underling. Later, when I get tired of her or she no longer proves useful, I can always dispose of her without any consequences. "
…was a good idea? That Desire had ultimately lost none of her crew in Perseta's failed ambush was inconsequential in this regard. Once Bill had run his mouth like some sort of cheap cartoon villain, the East Blue racer had blown a gasket. Like any human being with a sense of personal pride and dignity would have, really.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The problem was that in a competition between a pipe-wielding 50 million pirate and a devil fruit using 150 million super rookie, the super rookie usually won quite handily. Unsurprisingly, Sarquiss had been forced to bail Desire out near immediately, catching a silvery blade with his bare hands mere inches before it would have relieved the girl of her head. Thank goodness for armament.
To be honest, Sarquiss had been unsure if he was going to be able to keep Desire alive from Bill's relentless assault like Bellamy had asked of him. After all, Bill was a super rookie who had taken the world by storm in the year following Bellamy's own debut. He had twice Sarquiss' own bounty and his devil fruit was the real deal, while Sarquiss had only eaten a SMILE. However, the moment his hand had made contact with Bill's blade, Sarquiss had realised something.
Bill was weaker than him.
A lot weaker. It wasn't just the rookie's lack of haki either. Bill was slower than him. Had less punching power than him. And most critically, Bill had no idea how to fight someone stronger than him.
Unlike Sarquiss who had his ass handed to him on a regular basis by Bellamy and Izou, Bill barely seemed to have any experience at all. Thus, when Sarquiss danced circles around him while subtly nudging his strikes away from Desire and disrupting the rookie's pace, Bill panicked. Of course, if panicking were a viable tactic in a crisis situation, everybody would do it. But as it wasn't, the fragile mental balance Bill had been maintaining until then completely shattered. As a consequence, the fight which had already been an unfair 2 vs 1, turned into a very lopsided affair.
It didn't matter what sort of weapon Bill tried to create with the metal ores he'd smelted within his body. With his concentration shot to pieces his creations soon followed; axes, swords, spears and even guns breaking down at an ever increasing rate. Desire, for her part, seemed to be having the time of her life beating Bill like a percussion instrument.
"Enough!"
Pushing Desire away with a surprise shoulder tackle, Bill began extracting knives out of his gut and hurling them at Desire at an alarming rate. She parried the first but soon her hands lost their coordination, requiring Sarquiss to abandon Bill in order to cover her. The moment he did so, their opponent turned on his heels and ran for the hills.
However, like Sarquiss had noted earlier, he was faster than the leader of the Silver Alliance. It didn't take long before Sarquiss caught up, only to find that Bill had given up on running entirely and was in the process of stuffing himself with a mine cart's worth of iron ore. His eyes were bloodshot and it was obvious that Bill was straining himself by attempting to digest more than his body could physically handle. But as people said, where there was a will there was a way and sometimes, a strong enough will could make things possible that reasonably should not be.
"You. This is all your fault."
Glowing red hot from the heat of melting ores, Bill's bloated form lumbered towards Sarquiss, liquidating earth and stone with every step.
"Why couldn't you guys have left me alone? I wasn't harming anyone important."
In response, Sarquiss' expression turned serious for the first time that day as he allowed himself to fall into a ready stance.
"Like seriously, what's your beef with me? I certainly don't remember picking a fight with you or the revolutionaries. Was it because I threw in my lot with the Monster of the New World?"
The air warped and wavered while the grass withered and turned to ash.
"Surely you know what it's like to be faced with power you can't comprehend? Didn't you guys follow Doflamingo for the same reason? I just wanted to ride Gild Tesoro's coattails for a bit too."
Sarquiss closed his eyes and concentrated, his senses painting a more vivid scene than his eyes had done.
"The Casino King ordered me to claim this island so I did. Didn't even want his name involved for some reaon. His man told me I could keep whatever excess I had left over once I had paid Tesoro his share of the silver. It was supposed to be my chance at an easy life."
Black began to spread from his toes and his back, slowly creeping across Sarquiss' entire body.
"All the silver I could ever want, extracted by idiots and guarded by fools at my behest. All because I sold them a stupid dream of everybody reaching the top. Why should I struggle to survive against monsters when I could live in the lap of unimaginable luxury? What other dream could I ever need?"
Eyes were opened, adding a final dash of clarity to the picture.
"And you ruined it. But I can recover from this. No, I will recover from this. I can always gather more morons and rebuild the alliance. Capture more dimwits to work the mines. All once I've killed the lot of you."
"I sort of felt sorry for you at first. Like you said, we had no beef with each other until now and it isn't like I can't see where you're coming from."
A wave of liquid metal. Bill was trying to submerge everyone and everything in a wave of liquid metal, but the path was open and the target unguarded.
Sarquiss frowned.
"I used to think like you, you know?" Wings came to life, propelling Sarquiss towards his opponent who ineffectively tried to shoot him out of the air. "I left home because I wanted adventure and a better, easier life."
"Fucking Insect!"
"But you know what I've learned since then?" Sarquiss asked, swerving out of the way of a right rook before going for the kill. "Money isn't everyhing."
"Of course it is! You can buy everything you'd ever wa…hrrkk?
An ebony fist met shining armor. The fist won.
"I can't buy Lily's love with it. I can't buy our happiness with it." With all the air forcefully driven out of his lungs, Bill could not even offer a token resistance as Sarquiss gently lowered him to the ground. "Not even with a treasure worth half the world. So what use is it to me?"
Without the devil's power to support it, the red hot tsunami died down before it could really rise, the metal cooling by the second. Fingers scrabbled aimlessly at Sarquiss' pitch black wrist, before a listless head came to rest against the ground.
"…lovestruck f-fool…"
"Maybe. But a happy one."
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Grudge Match?
Welcome to Marineford Daily News, your only source of accurate and unbiased truth – coming to you from Bernie, the twin brother of Ernie who is most definitely missing and not impersonating a non existent sibling.
It's been near a full year since Whitebeard so foolishly challenged the invincible marines. And as we all know, the arrogant pirate paid for his hubris with his life. That his end was marked by the betrayal of someone he'd once called his own son was as inevitable as it was befitting the phrase: poetic justice.
It's been near half a year since Blackbeard stepped in to start filling the gap left behind by former patron's demise. While he hasn't made any big waves so far, it was only a matter of time before he turns his greedy gaze upon the largest share of Whitebeard's legacy.
Unsurprisingly, Blackbeard's flottila has been becoming bolder as they test out the waters. Repeated incursions into territory still claimed by Whitebeard's remnants have become the norm in the New World. The resulting instability and lack of security for the locals is clear evidence in support of Fleet Admiral Akainu's decision to move his HQ into the New World. They are surely waiting for their liberation and will welcome the heroic saviors with open arms.
But it seems as if the Fleet Admiral will wait until the criminals have finished slaughtering each other before making his move. And experts are predicting that the fateful day is not that far off.
Marco the Phoenix has been quietly but steadily marshalling his forces, gathering his men and allies to Whitebeard's home island. What is suprising is the utter silence coming from the former 2nd division commander's direction to what could be considered a de facto appropriation of his adoptive father's inheritance.
While it is yet unclear just how Marco has so successfully sidelined his rival for the empty throne, marine intelligence is predicting that anything less than a decisive victory will mean the end for Marco's inept leadership. Most likely at the hand of a man he'd once called brother and now has become his greatest rival.
But what else could you possibly expect of the son of the Pirate King?
This was Marineford Daily reporting.
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