Linnea's progress was palpable. For some reason, it felt as if these few days spent in the South Blue - nearing Reverse Mountain - had a greater effect on her strength and power than the past 20 years in Amazon Lily and the North Blue. She was still convinced it was due to how close she was to the first goal of every pirate's journey. Soon, she'd be travelling through and past Reverse Mountain, and from then on, into the Grand Line. She was born there (The Calm Belt more precisely), so this first stage could be qualified as an unusal type of homecoming. True, she could come home at any time she ran into a Kuja ship, but this was the equivalent of taking the longer, most difficult path to get there, the kind where she'd be forced to carve her own way instead of just following others. If she could arrive back home like that, she'd be hundreds of times stronger than if she never left in the first place.

All in all, this was not only a great form of motivation for her to train harder, but also motivation to work harder. More than just training, she required experience. Decades of Training in Amazon Lily would never make up for the experience she'd acquire during this journey. So as she wandered around at night inside the village, Linnea was blessed with the sight of Karate Island's nightlife. As expected of its location, said nightlife was brimming with loud, gruff looking pirates that had her timidly lowering her hood and discreetly pressing forwards in hopes that something would catch her eye. Surely enough, something eventually did even if hardly the kind she was looking for. A lean, young pirate being viciously flung outside a tavern by other patrons, and threatened into never coming back...

Most of the bystanders steered clear of the threatened man, as if he'd been marked... Actually, all steered clear of him; all except Linnea. Offering a hand to help him stand up, she asked as her curiosity outweighed her shyness:

"Are you alright?", she'd speak with soft kindness, "What was that all about?"

"Some fucking cheater hustling the night away. He drove me nearly broke trying to win my money back...", the guy glanced back at the tavern angrily then back at the blonde. Perhaps he could use her to enact his revenge in some way?

The man rubbed his chin as he figured out how to go about this, and even Lin could tell he was plotting something. He obviously had no money to pay her, which meant

"Think you have what it takes to expose him?", asked the man, as if issuing a challenge, "He has a lot of money on him; win and you can take all the money you loot."

It didn't take an idiot to figure out he could only offer his own share of the money, but even if she was forced to give everything else away, it was still easy money for her...

His offer was tempting, the man would be able to see at least that much just from the faint glimmer in her eyes. Linnea was still a pirate, even if was kind had other goals in life other than treasure, money still tempted her as much as any other pirate. But being rewarded for doing what she felt to be the right thing was the best, hands down. It was the kind of blessing she had a hard time rejecting, even at this time of the night. Before answering, she already had some ideas regarding how to go about subverting this greedy hustler. She was good at playing cards, and had quite a few decent skills in slight of hand, so she'd simply have to do her best to decieve and outwit him. Once he was exposed and backed against the well, everything else would come easy:

"Alright, I'll give it a shot! But... How will I find you when I'm done?", she wondered, raising an eyebrow sheepishly.

"There will be no need to.", he nodded negatively, "If you do this right, I'll know without even stepping in there..."

No doubt the hustler would meet the same fate as this man and be thrown outside for all to see. People didn't take kindly to cheaters any more than those who skip their tabs. With the deal settled, Linnea wandered inside the tavern. The place was loud and crowded, exactly the way she hated it, leading her to pulling down her hood and averting eye contact with anyone. The hustler should be at some discreet corner, gambling away some careless person's Beli. She hung around for a while, carefully eyeing all of the gaming tables as if she were just some interested spectator. Most of the crowd was fortunately focused around the bar, so at this discreet part of the tavern she could actually avoid being surrounded by burly, sweaty men... She disliked crowds ever since her time in Amazon Lily, but she found crowds of men to be far more offputting... Perhaps she just wasn't used to them? Regardless, she finally noticed a single player effortlessly defeating everyone who dared challenge him. This must be the hustler the guy was talking about. Catching Linnea innocently staring at the game tables, he eventually took the bait and challenged her to a game... So, it was finally game time. Taking a seat and pretending not to know much about poker, she ensured her opponent would drop his guard against her; after all, if she unskilled, he probably wouldn't even need to cheat.

But once they finally stated playing, the dynamics slowly changed. Lin lost the first hand to a flush on the Hustler's part, but from then on she seemingly grasped the basis of the game. Her sharp eyes clearly detected occasional foul play from the hustler, and from that moment on, she decided to beat him at his own game. Both of them kept drawing progressively better hands, and Linnea had actually won four times in a row now. But she had yet to expose him... And then it happened, the final slip up; by baiting him into going all in, the hustler would be desperate to take home this win and completely defeat his opponent. At that moment, when he thought he had won, thats when he'd be at his weakest point:

"Four aces; I win.", he said with a triumphant smile, laying down his cards.

"Oh really?", asked a curious, confused Linnea as she laid down her cards, showing a simple hand; aces high. The ace of spades in her hand proved exactly what she wanted as she narrowed her eyes at her opponent defiantly. Spectators all around were now angrily looking at the hustler, many of whom had no doubt been tricked by him, "I've never of a deck with Five Aces..."

She got him... The man was trapped, he'd no longer be able to weasel out of this simply by cheating and spilling out more lies with his silver tongue. Still, Linnea watching him carefully, knowing he was soon to try something stupid, and that she needed to stay sharp in order to avoid it entirely. The guy was visibly sweating now, whatever he was planning would be attempted very soon... She could see him wriggling his hand inside his jacket, and at that moment she knew where the attack would come from.

It was fortunate that she had yet to put away her bow... The moment the man stood up and flashed his knife, Lin had already leapt back quickly drawing an arrow and shooting it at his chest, making her enemy stagger back, coughing up blood. He looked around with a wide, panicked gaze like a cornered animal. As a huntress, Linnea knew well enough that this was the moment prey became the most dangerous: Once they no longer have anything to lose but their lives.

"YOU GUYS!! WHOEVER PROTECTS ME AND KILLS THIS BITCH WILL GET 10,000 BELI!!!", the man announced out loud, openly hiring accomplices right in front of everyone else.

Almost as soon as he said it, two burly men took his side, breaking their bottles into weapons and preventing most of the other spectators from acting upon their urges and killing this little trickster like a pack of rabid dogs. One of the men stood close to the employer while the other dashed straight at Lin, being stopped by an arrow to the knee. Sensing the other two ready to come at her again and attack once more, Lin kicked the table at the trickster and his bodyguard, and took aim to as to put down all resistance with a single attack. Drawing two arrows, she tilted her bow slightly and exploited the close proximity between the two enemies.

Letting her arrows fly with her sharp gaze deadset on her prey, the two projectiles soared the short distance and embedded themselves into each enemy's chest, to the cheers of the remaining spectators, filling Lin with a sense of accomplishment as she had actually managed to leave her foes alive, even if likely not for long. Even if they didn't bleed out from her arrows, the remaining roughnecks in the tavern would surely kill them. With a quick dash, Lin crouched next to the downed hustler, looted all his Beli, and darted off before anyone else could try to steal it from her... This was a fine plunder!


OOC: 4 arrows used, all enemies beaten.