164 Stop! Friendly Fire! (1/2)
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.