– Urouge –

Well, shit had just hit the fan.

Quite of bit of it too if he was being honest, because Doc Q's Shrinking Disease had been a game changer if there ever was one. All over the battlefield, Whitebeard pirates suddenly found themselves fighting relative giants while needing to get used to their new knee-high stature. For someone like Urouge, who'd been the big kid on the block for most of his life, the experience had been an unsettling one.

Thankfully, the disease could be resisted with enough haki, but that came with a cost of its own. While their size could vary a lot, one's haki reserves were a finite resource. Meaning, that whatever was used to counter whatever the fuck Doc Q had done to his body, was hence no longer available to Urouge for use in other matters. Important matters, such as punching this annoying candy syrup in the face.

"Kakakaka! Don't you want some candy, little one? Open wide~" the green blob cackled. "Everyone loves syrup~"

Naturally, when faced with the choice between losing his familiar body or his haki, Urouge had opted for the latter. Some had made the same choice as he. Others had opted for the former instead, with more or less success. Regardless of what they chose to sacrifice however, there was no questioning that it had been a crippling blow for the Whitebeard Alliance.

Panic had set in all along the frontline, the enthusiastic advance turning into a bumbling retreat. It would have likely resulted in a total rout too, if it hadn't been for a couple of factors. First, the commanders and the veteran captains had enough haki left to keep Blackbeard's heavy hitters at bay, proving once more why the world was right to fear them. They wouldn't be able to keep it up indefinitely, but for now their mere presence exerted a stabilizing influence. Second, Weevil was wreaking havoc to their rear. Well, more havoc once the Shrinking Disease weakened what little opposition had been left. And last but not least, most of the Blackbeard Pirates were struggling to advance beyond a certain point.

"It's time for you to have some sweet dreams! One from which you'll never wake up~"

"Has anyone told you that you're damn annoying?" Urouge growled, trying to splatter the candy syrup logia across the street. Unfortunately, it moulded itself, for lack of a better word, around his attempt. Stupid logia with stupid observation haki. "Oi Pinky! This is all your fault. Why'd you have to use all the flour yesterday?"

"It was an emergency!"

All because of three people.

The most visible of the three was Urouge's first mate, Brunhilde. Unlike her captain, the giantess had opted to forgo the use of her own haki, deciding to rely on her natural gifts instead. While it was a pity that she had no haki to spare, a giant's strength was not something that most people could handle. Especially when that giant was fully capable of going toe to toe with one of the weaker marine Vice Admiral under normal circumstances.

And if someone appeared who wasn't blown away by his stunning first mate? Say, someone like a certain syrup logia who couldn't keep her sticky hands to herself? Well, that was what Urouge was there for.

"Karmic Retribution!"

Thankfully, the Shrinking Disease did just that. It shrunk the victim but left their strength and speed untouched. Which was why Urouge had no problems wielding his – now perhaps slightly oversized – pillar to teach this unbeliever a lesson. Unfortunately, with his limbs significantly shorter than they'd been this morning, he missed.

"Ahahaha! Praise be to Blackbeard for he grants power to the worthy! The offerings he desires are sweet victory…"

"You can stuff your sweet victory where the sun don't shine!"

But as the saying went, 'if you fail, then try, try again.' Urouge tried again, catching the heretic squarely on the chin. From there a brutal beatdown followed, the dazed logia unable to run away. Urouge would later swear that it had been for the heretic's own good with no ulterior motives of his own. After all, it was a universal truth that if you clobbered someone long enough, you could convince them to your point of view eventually.

"Stop playing with your food and make yourself useful dammit!"

"Shut it, Pinky!"

"Make me!"

Unfortunately, teaching this pink haired brat some manners would have to wait. Mostly because just like Brunhilde, Bonney was one of the lynchpins holding the horde of enemies at bay. If one had to find a difference, it would be that the Blackbeard pirates were far less willing to approach Urouge's currently diminutive peer than they were his first mate. Regardless of how hard Blackbeard's mid-tier officers spurred them onwards, nobody wanted to be turned into helpless baby. Especially not in the middle of a chaotic battlefield, where one was more likely to be trampled to death by their own comrades than not.

"Oi, Beanstalk! You ready yet?"

"No! I wasn't ready when you asked me five minutes ago and I'm not ready now! Don't rush me, Monk-ya!"

Meanwhile chibi Law had set up a field lab of sorts, tinkering away with hundreds of vials and samples and whatnot zipping around in the air around him. Urouge couldn't make heads or tails out of any of it, but the doctor had begun muttering about antibodies and passive immunization before commandeering the entirety of the Whitebeard medical staff for his project. Coincidentally enough, the lab was functioning as a rally point as Whitebeard pirates, wounded or otherwise, flocked to it in droves.

Apart from these few bright spots however, the overall situation remained fairly dire. While Urouge's own ship was safe as of yet by virtue of having been moored further away, the number of allied ships was decreasing at an alarming rate. A trend that was only accelerated when Sanjuan Wolf broke through McGuy's desperate defense to join up with Weevil. Sure, they still had a few ships out at sea and the distraction squads should be returning soon, but it was already obvious that not all of them would be able to make it out alive. Not unless they somehow forced the enemy to surrender.

Regrettably, that scenario was looking increasing unlikely. Whereas before Blackbeard had been surviving by the skin of his teeth, now the tables had turned. Regardless of how strong Marco, Sabo and Ace were, their foe wasn't someone they could defeat with such a large handicap. The revolutionary Chief of Staff was struggling in particular, as unlike his comrades he didn't have a devil fruit to fall back upon. Even if he seemed oddly comfortable wielding a pipe with a tiny body.

"Getting tired already, Ace? Is it just me or have your flames gotten colder? Maybe you need a nap? I've got cells prepared just for you, complete with bars and everything."

"Flame commandment, Hibashira!"

Watching Ace engulf Blackbeard in an azure inferno hot enough to turn the surroundings into glass didn't offer much reassurance either. For as dazzling as the display was, it paled in comparison to the haki infused black hell the second division commander had unleashed prior to Doc Q's appearance. Without sufficient haki to protect it, there was nothing stopping Blackbeard from simply blowing it apart with his Quake Quake Fruit.

Still, struggling or not, for now the three were doing an admirable job tying Blackbeard down. Same with the other commanders, who for the most part were leveraging their numerical two to one advantage to keep the Titanic Captains far away from the main fighting. Thankfully, Catarina Devon had retired from the field after losing an eye to Speed Jiru, which meant that Vista could reinforce Islewan against Weevil and Sanjuan Wolf. Same with Haruta, who hadn't been needed by Izou to keep Van Augur in check for a while now.

However, unless something changed drastically, the Whitebeard pirates were going to be ground down sooner rather than later. But until then, all Urouge could do was do what he did best. Namely beat up heretics until they either returned to the true way or croaked. All while waiting for the winds to change, holding onto the firm belief that no matter how dire a situation may at first appear, an opportunity would always crop up. He just had to persevere until it revealed itself.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Ships on the horizon! It's Whitey Bay and Epoida! I see the Decalvan ship too!"

"Captain Sleepy and the other distraction squads are back!"

"Wait, but whose ship is that red one over there?"

Hopefully, the Midget had been having a better day.

----------------------------------------

(A little while before Urouge's POV)

– Lily –

Lafitte was a dead man walking. There was no place in existence where he could run to, nowhere he could hide from her wrath. The heavens wouldn't stop her from hunting him down and exacting her vengeance. And that was what it boiled down to in the end. Not justice, but revenge pure and simple for what he'd done. Obliging her to fight her fiancé…that she could perhaps accept. But hijacking his mind to make him hurt her… that went too far. Not because of the injuries she suffered in the process. Those were a non-issue.

Yet, every nick and every bruise Sarquiss inflicted upon her would become an emotional dagger rammed into his heart when she inevitably broke him out of Lafitte's mind control. Between physical wounds and mental suffering, it would always be the latter which cut deeper and lasted longer. To damn Sarquiss to such emotional pain was simply unforgivable. Lafitte would pay. It might not be today or tomorrow. Maybe not even next year. But he would pay eventually.

Lily would make sure of it.

And by the looks of it, she wasn't alone in that sentiment. Up in the air, Aisa seemed to be winning the contest of observation haki, always staying slightly ahead of their two snipers. Whatever hangups their sensor once held about going on the offensive had obviously vanished as wave after wave of crackling blue exploded out of her. After all, drawing the situation out wasn't going to help anybody and the sooner she could immobilise her friends, the sooner they could go about getting them back to normal.

Muret and Mani had redoubled their efforts as well, no doubt buoyed by their captain returning to his senses. Who could have known that Hewitt's culinary deviancy would come in useful? If feeding the victim a disgusting combination of squiggly seafood and peanut butter was all it took to break Lafitte's hypnosis, then things were looking up. They just needed to be kept still for a moment.

On that note, the substance used in a medical cast had the useful property of going completely rigid within a very short amount of time. Something, which Nero found out when he dodged around Funkfreed's tusks and ran straight into a small wave of the stuff, courtesy of their resident doctor. Their elephant-nurse helped things along by slapping him deeper into the pile with a well-placed trunk to the back. Finally, Mani inserting one of Muret's sedative syringes into his neck sealed Nero's fate as he slumped into unconsciousness.

Showcasing an amazing amount of control, Aisa's lightning strands formed up into a net that covered the sky. No matter where Fuza flew, there was no escaping the enclosing trap and soon enough the pair were dangling from the riggings in a brilliant blue net. Laki followed suit not long after, immobilized but unhurt, the electric construct doing no harm despite crackling ominously.

Which left only Sarquiss who needed saving. Theoretically, it should have been easy, seeing as Lily's Rust Rust Fruit was perfect for the task. The problem lay in getting her hands on her fiancé, who kept flitting around her at speeds Lily simply couldn't match. And getting stabbed by an opponent for the sake of bringing them to a halt was not an option, no matter what Bellamy claimed. Her brain going into overdrive, Lily called upon her own considerable intellect and academic background to find a solution. Thankfully, one presented itself immediately.

"Oi Dickhead," Lily called out, spreading her arms out and leaving herself wide open. As was only to be expected, the hypnotized Sarquiss took the bait. Both his stingers were out ready to impale her with a singleminded focus on causing her grievous harm. That would change soon enough. "I'm pregnant."

The words had a near magical effect. Lily could tell the exact moment his brain had registered her words, for clarity returned to Sarquiss' once emotionless eyes. Of course, he also tripped over thin air and decided to imitate an out of control wheel until the main mast got in his way.

"You're what?!?" Mani screamed while just about every head snapped in her direction. Sarquiss was far less eloquent in his response.

"Bloubdeljijojhku?"

Naturally, once the shock wore off and Sarquiss was back to his senses, she needed to explain to her crew that no, she was not in fact carrying a baby and that yes, she'd told a fib. Thankfully, Muret had supported her claim and the matter had been laid to rest, though Sarquiss had seemed somewhat conflicted.

Still, with Lafitte's hypnosis broken, the crew quickly made their way over to the Decalvan ship to provide what support they could. They arrived to find a scene of carnage. Obviously, Lafitte hadn't managed to replicate his trick a third time, perhaps because the Decalvan pirates hadn't given him the time to create enough circles with his walking stick. Yet, that had only resulted in a far gorier situation. Corpses and wounded littered the deck, including the unmoving form of the younger Decalvan brother. The elder wasn't looking that much better, exhausted and on his last legs. His clothes were soaked and newly dyed in crimson red. Lafitte on the other hand looked fine in comparison, tired but not critically injured.

"Well, lookie here. What a surprise." Lafitte grinned, beginning to make circular motions again. "You're here a lot faster than I thought you'd be and with all your crew members alive to boot. Obviously, I haven't given you enough credit."

"Do you think I'll let you?" Bellamy snarled, his fist forcing Lafitte to block it with his walking stick. "That trick isn't going to work a second time!"

"That would certainly prove a bother, wouldn't it? Oh, but look at the time…I'm running behind schedule." Lafitte claimed. "It's been a pleasure, but I'm afraid it's time to call the curtains on this act."

"You're not getting away!" Decalvan Sr. ground out, leaping into the air after Lafitte, his claws at the ready. They never reached Lafitte, as sadly his arms turned into white, feathery wings which carried him up and away. "Get back here!"

"I'd love to stay and chat, but I simply have to leave. Got places to be, people to kill and Ace is a far more tempting target than you lot. Ta-ta."

And with those parting words, Lafitte ripped a hole into Aisa's lightning net and flew off into the distance. It went without saying that everybody gave chase, including the elder Decalvan, whose eyes had taken on a distinct fanatic glint. Case in point, every scrap of canvas was hoisted to catch as much wind as possible, both ships desperately racing for Hachinosu.

Lily dearly wished that Lafitte's parting words had been nought but bravado and empty threats. Yet…despite her own wishes, a dark pit was forming in her gut as she watched Lafitte disappear over the horizon. It got worse once they reached their destination, only to come across the sight of their reserve ships fighting a losing battle against Sanjuan Wolf.

As much as she hated the thought, between the main force and the Bellamy Pirates, the latter had clearly been having the better day. Though, things were possibly looking up. For in the distance, a familiar set of red sails were approaching the island.

After all, she was an ally, right?