Task Name: Military Leadership
Tier: 2
NPC or PC: PC
Location: Baterilla Island
Crew, Team, or Personal: Personal
Description: Ensign Frost has been commanded to accompany Lt. Roland D. Boyle the Third, in attacking and apprehending the target, Eremes Guile. Guile's base of operations and ties to illegal operations have been confirmed by his former smuggler partner Masum Penso.
Enemy Details: 20 t0
Boss: Eremes Guile



Boss Name: Eremes Guile
Tier: T2
Description: Eremes is the owner of most of the muscle for responsible for the illegal substance trade. His boys are perpetually contracted out to smugglers, dealers, and all manner of disreputable types. Personally, he is sadist who wields two arm blades and excels a inflicting terror on his foes.
Devil Fruit: N/A
Haki Aura: N/A
Equipment: dual armblades, trick pistol
Specs: weapon specialist 3, marksmanship 2


Warning: Content is considerably graphic



Frost slowly walked down the plank to the dock keeping her eyes constantly looking for her contact. The description she was given was a portly man with a swiftly growing bald spot. His only note worthy feature the good captain had described to her was such that his nose never left 30 degrees above the horizon. She wasn't sure what to make of that, but there was in fact a portly, balding man in his early 40's leaning up against a post reading orders.

She approached the man, and upon getting close enough to be just outside his personal space she snapped a crisp salute. "Sir, Ensign Frost reporting for duty, sir."

The man seemed to startle for a moment before recovering himself; an effort that took several 'hmm's and throat clearing coughs.

"Right then, as you were. Mark me now Ensign. While you are under my command you are to obey my orders without a word of complaint. I will broker no insubordination, do you understand me?"

At first she felt somewhat taken unawares. How could the man sound that pompous with words alone? Still, this was a superior officer, and clearly he had gotten there for a good reason. Swiftly she rallied.

"Yes Sir, I understand."

The man seemed to nod for a moment approving of the response.

"Very good. Now then, we must be off."

With that they began to walk from the docs to what could only be the large warehouse complex that was their destination.

"Now Ensign. Our target is bound to be quite strong, so it only makes sense that I must save my strength to fight him. That means that you must engage any and all of his lackeys and pawns. I trust you can handle that much?"

She almost tripped on the cobbles upon hearing that. It was ridiculous, the idea of her taking on everything. There contact had alluded to  anywhere from 5 to 100 men in that warehouse at any given time. Swiftly she moved to voice her opinion.

"But sir..?"

She was swiftly cut off before she could utter another word.

"Ensign! What did I say about insubordination? You will do as you are told and you will do it without complaint."

Sullen and downtrodden she resigned herself to silence. There was clearly no way to remedy the situation, she would just have to hope several of the tough men would be on vacation or something equally as involving.

Finally they reached the large door to the warehouse that no doubt housed their ignoble enemy.

"Well? Open it up already. I don't have all day you know."

The girl flinched at the man's words before moving to open the door even going so far as to hold it open for him since she knew he was going to expect it.

Inside the dimly lit building 10 men stopped what they were doing and began to slowly approach the two, they arrayed themselves in a semi-circle until a loud voice called out. The man who had until recently remained in the far shadows of the building hailed them, an evil grin upon his features.

"What's this? Two marines get lost in my turf? And only a few days after Masum vanishes? Yeah, did you really think I wouldn't be prepared? Boys, swords."

The sounds of ten men drawing all manner of edged weaponry filled the building for a moment as Frost glanced back to the officer.

"Wh-well, don't just stand there, stick to the plan."

The officer's dismissive tone no longer matched up with the man's posture or perspiration. He was generating his own little river as droplets ran down his face with ever growing haste.

Faced with orders from a superior officer, Frost really only had one choice; win. She drew her blade and held it aloft. This was not a weapon designed for taking on many foes at once, but maybe it didn't have to be.

The first man rushed at her swinging his massive battle axe with reckless abandon. It took nothing more than a simple side step to completely avoid the down swing of the weapon. Her blade's reprisal was far more accurate and far more final.

Another man had managed to sneak up on her side and she barely rolled under a quick thrust that would have added additional breathing holes. Once more he was dispatched with withering strikes in rapid succession.

This time 4 men decided that they would be brave and attacked with slashes from all around her. This was beyond difficult, it took everything she had to simply avoid the strikes and their persistence was providing her no opportunities to  reply.

Her mind was beginning to pick up speed as the world devolved to parries, counters, thrusts and slashes. No need to worry about the commands of officers, no need to worry about emotions, just simple hack and slash. Still, even she had to admit she was being pressed hard and needed to acquire an upper hand. With a smile she noticed her opportunity.

With a dodge she worked herself behind only one of the man, and as he adjusted and thrust after her she took her opportunity. With a flashy collection of swordsmanship she disarmed the man and flipped his sword into her waiting hand. Now she had two blades.

In an unusual display of flourish she brought both blades into a slash and dispatched the man swiftly. She could almost feel the old drill captain yelling at her for the action, but she had always wanted to try it.

The men around her were a bit concerned to say the least. Already three of their number down and the girl just got another pointy object to direct towards them. A loud voice filled the void of their hesitation though.

"Will you quit panicking already! Look at her, she's sweating and breathing hard, and the tub o' lard behind her is making a salty pool. Should be easy pickings. But should you think otherwise, I would be more than willing to provide you with Additional Motivation."

The man's message came through loud and clear as the men rallied almost instantly and as a single unit began trying to attack her. 7 on 1 is not exactly favorable odds, but she was holding them back admirably.

Many things were conspiring together to keep her in the fight. The men were large and bulky, preventing them from packing too tightly, their weapons tended to have large ranges, and the sword she had pilfered was proving to be very reliable.

A man swung his axe with a bit too much gusto, easy to dodge and easier still to punish that mistake. Another advanced too quickly and was cut down like an uneven hedge. One man's thrust was turned away and plunged into another man's chest. With the numbers cut down to a more manageable level she dispatched the four with broad strokes of her weapons, leaving no small quantity of blood everywhere.

The man wrapped in shadows slowly walked forward until he was only a few short meters away from Frost.

"Well, color me impressed. That was pretty neat and best of all, you're all colored up in my favorite colors. Now let's see if we can't make more of that blood yours, eh?"

He had begun to grind his arm blades together, creating an ominous sound that could be felt as much as heard.

Frost looked back at the Lt to find a considerably more shaken up man than she had expected to find. He was drenched in sweat, his demeanor had changed to a man awash in panic and his eyes moved about swiftly as if to search out some escape. With some trepidation he eventually coughed out.

"W-w-well then. I can see that my presence here is not needed. Ensign, clean up the rest of this rabble, I'm going to go get a head start on the paper work."

With that, the man turned on his heel and ran at full speed out of the warehouse and down the street uttering a noise between screaming and crying.

Both frost and Guile stared for a moment, watching the man run, sheer shock apparent upon them both. Shock was swiftly replaced with absolute crushing despair. She had been abandoned, left to die at the hands of this monster who even now was beginning to comprehend his good fortune. Longingly she eyed the exit to the warehouse and the potential escape it offered her as she moved one foot to start running.

"What was all that about boss?"

A large muscle bound man walked in, followed by another and another until 10 more men had entered the building. Conveniently and completely blocking off the exit beyond any hope.

"Oh nothing too much" The sneer could be heard as much as it could be seen."Just a marine girly and all the many ways we could make use of her is all."

The man licked his lips in what a very blunt show of his intentions; a sentiment his boys seemed to mirror as their cheers of approval showed.

Frost's despair had grown so complete in the past few moments that her mind seemed to shut down. Her right eye had begun to twitch in rapid succession as her mind unwillingly pushed through the many scenario's that this would result in. Needless to say, none of them looked pleasant, and most of them promised to not end any time soon.

No options. No retreat. Slowly her mind moved, forcing itself out of panic and into fight or flight. There was no option of flight, there was really only one option left. Her grip on her blades intensified, and all at once the world simplified.

With strength summoned out of desperation and adrenaline she closed to the nearest enemy and began to stab and slash with reckless abandon. The man's defense was slow, barely getting his sword out in time to block a single strike. Unfortunately the next three cut deep into his flesh, killing him before he fell.

She was upon another man before he even realized what was going on, severing his hand from his body before it even got to his sword. Her sword on the other hand pierced deep into the man's chest, and withdrew just as swiftly.

As she moved to another man her sword swung out behind her catching a would be ambusher in the throat. His precious life blood spraying out and catching her in a light mist leaving her clothes more than a little tinted. As the straight sword was busy with making the rain, her sabre blocked the next man's strike and retaliated with a deep slash across his chest.

Swiftly bringing her foot up she kicked the now dead man into the arms of another keeping him occupied while she cut down the man next to him with both of her weapons besting his slow movements. With another spin of her body her blades found their mark in the man's neck as he dropped the body he had been holding.

Bringing both weapons to face backwards she took a hard step back, thrusting both into the two men who had managed to get behind her, and with a twist of her weapons, they were out of the fight. This left just two more fighters.

She turned swiftly, staring at the two men and began to calmly walk towards them. For some reason she couldn't understand they seemed terrified of her, backing away and sputtering. Both of them fell before her weapons when she brought them down with enough force to break their poor guard attempts.

With the last of the lackeys dead at her feet a strange sound filled the air. Eremes was clapping, the grin he wore split his face from cheek to cheek as he clapped.

"Wonderful! Excellent, beautiful! So much blood, such cruelty, such ruthlessness! Gods, why couldn't you have dropped into my life earlier? The things we could have done to people! to each other! Alas, you are a marine, and so it will bring me no great joy to end your life. "

With a swing of his arms, both his arm blades extended from the gauntlets that sat upon his forearms extending well past his fists. He crossed the room in seconds brandishing both arm blades in rapid, practiced precision.

Frost vaguely remembered something about wanting to leave, or being afraid, or priorities but they all seemed to wash away in the simplicity of the moment. Once more there was only slashes, stabs and parries, and it pleased her. How long had she been wearing this grin?

She blocked, guarded, parried and counter attacked to every action the arm blades attempted against her. Yet she found herself in turn guarded, parried, countered and blocked with every sweep of the man's weapons. The matching was too perfect, the speed too close, the technique too refined. They we're at an impossible stand still composed of hundreds of strikes in minutes.

Using the momentum of a recent guard, Eremes jumped back pressing a button on his left gauntlet. He seemed to be waiting for her, and while a calm and collected Frost might have understood, she was not even distant cousins with that Frost right now.

She charged towards him with all the reckless abandon of a bull towards red. Closing to a distance of only a meter or so, he made his move. Using a punch to create the momentum his left arm shotgunned forward, the blade however kept going as if spring loaded and fired.

Frost stopped dead. Or rather, she had been stopped. There, sticking out of her stomach was a large arm blade it's clean steel colors swiftly being painted a crimson red. Her simplified mind focused on this for a moment, noting how it didn't seem fair. No, it was not fair at all, she couldn't stop like this. No, she had decided this wasn't going to stop her. Her eyes looked up, dismissing the problem sticking out of her abdomen and focusing on the problem ahead of her. Slowly her legs began to move again.

Eremes looked somewhere between shocked and horrified at the revenant slowly making her way towards him.

"No, no, no. You should be dead after a hit like that."

Slowly she closed upon the man knocking away his guard with a lazy strike only to proceed with tearing into his flesh with both swords. Unlike most of the foes of the day, she did not stop when he hit the ground, she kept stabbing and stabbing until at last he stopped breathing entirely.

She left the borrowed blade sticking out of the man and began to walk until her foot made a splash and a plop sound. Her mind, no longer needing to fight or flight took it's time to consider what she had just stepped in, what the eyes were telling it.

All around her were pools of blood, and bodies in  varying degrees of horrendous damage. Her knees gave in as she fell to them, her hands barely caught her, only to paint them selves red in the blood. At this point her stomach surrendered to the growing horror of realization and revolted, spilling the contents of her stomach all across the floor. With strength rapidly failing her, she managed to fall to the side away from this new mess and into the sweet embrace of unconsciousness.

She was found shortly afterwards by the old captain, and carried to safety where she would spend the next three months recovering from a near fatal wound. Any investigations into the event were hampered by a fire that destroyed all evidence, though many suspect the old captain had something to do with it.

[End]