164 Stop! Friendly Fire!

This was an uphill battle, both literally and figuratively. For as the four marine vessels drew near the water around us began to cascade inward, the surface below us becoming the bed of a massive wave that rose from behind us. It seemed like the World gave us a verdict. Stand and fight, or be drowned.

As the water behind us receded, the sails could not help but flap noisily, the mast twitching under the strain of the rapid and rabid pulling of the ocean currents.

I could see it now, the officer on board the ship smiling cruelly. The water had turned us into a prone target. Even though, I could survive for a time under the water the same could not be said for the other devil fruit users on board. This was what could only be deemed checkmate for us.

With determined eyes I made contact with Fawkes, we needed a burst of power to get out of this.

"Sorren! Get down here!" I roared at the top of my lungs, my voice turning slightly hoarse amidst the wail of the waltzing winds.

The resident doctor on board perked up from the crow's nest before immediately scampering down the netted ropes that scaled the side of the mast.

"Terrick, to ME!" I roared, grabbing the assassin's attention. Within moments the small ensemble was formed, me at the very forefront gripping tightly to the slightly splintered wood of the wheel. On any other day, this situation would not have fazed us. The world was not so cut and dry though.

One day you would find yourself on par with an emperor of the sea and the next you would find yourself potentially losing your life to a child.

As a group we blazed our Haki, mine as the most massive immediately forming a fore to the group. Though intangible, the pressure seemed to collate, the mad and unfretted wave that was my conqueror's Haki forming the forefront and the stable yet heavy Haki forming the bedrock of our collaboration.

If one were to ask anyone on the crew at this moment what they saw, there would be a wide variety of answers. For as the auras collated the world shook, the tempest around ground to what seemed to be a halt as an almost tangible figure formed over our heads.

The groaning of the boat stalled as it too began to emit a force that supplanted ours. An unwilling and sharp force formed at our back. The rain around us seemed immaterial at the moment, for the strain on my mind that holding the ship together entailed had been briefly alleviated. With it my observation rose to an unprecedented height.

His dull eyes met mine, the stubborn fires that had been lit when he had stood up to Borsolino burned with a renewed vigour.

Then, Fawkes threw him.

********

Rear Admiral Marcus grinned a bloody grin as his moustache fluffed upwards. He was enjoying the chase quite well.

For as long as he could remember, this was the most cooperative the sea had ever been with him. Whenever the pirates seemed to snatch at a chance to escape his enclosure, the seas would seemingly rise up to slam the route shut.

When he had been told to survey the area and take over rounds that worked on pretty much clean water, he had been quite unsatisfied, after all he was a mere few credits from being able to afford one of the devil fruits from the Marine's storehouses!

A devil fruit! As a Rear Admiral in the New World he knew how important it was for a soldier to hold a Devil fruit. He had been storing and stockpiling for the better part of five years to finally redeem a paramecia that he had his eyes on.

Heck he had made it his duty to hunt down pirates in his past post, so much so in fact that he had gotten the attention of the notorious Sakazuki! Things unfortunately just had to go south for him, when he had been so close to apprehending the pirate crew that he had been following! It was infuriating.

Now however, his intuition was blaring in all directions. These were cash cows! They would get him what he wanted and much more! Judging by the way that they had taken down the other ship at least.

Unfortunately, for Rear Admiral Marcus however, he had overlooked one thing. Because of the high tide that had obscured his vision for most of the encounter, he was of the opinion that it had taken the joint effort of the entirety of Lorean's crew and a few cannon rounds to take down the marine vessel.

Thus, when he saw a spark of light zoom out of the other vessel he could only stare in dumb horror as a man raced through the air. To add insult to injury, the man that had thrown his crewmate instantly turned around, heaving a massive axe in one hand as he raced to the very back of the ship before brandishing it heavily against the impending massive wave.

This was where the scene turned black for the marine Rear Admiral, for by this time the spark of light had already cleaved through his throat with a dagger before turning on his entire armada to slaughter them. The sad part was, that though he was the cause of the slaughter, more marines lost their lives to friendly fire then they would to his wicked curved daggers as he danced through their convoy.

They barely had time to pull out their pistols to fire blind shots, let alone notice that the man that had leaped into their midst had a slight limp on one side and a obviously weak non dominant hand.

Then, with practiced ease, he would walk over to the side barred cannons wheeling them to the very corner of the ship's sides.

Just like that, a Marine Corps lead by a Rear Admiral fell to the dreaded blade of a smurf and the confused hunting of friendly fire.