Task Name: Treasure in Ennies Lobby
Tier: 3
NPC or PC: PC
Location: Ennies Lobby
Crew, Team, or Personal: Crew
Description: While walking around Ennies Lobby, you'll come across a group of Pirates being escorted towards the courthouse. You'll notice them dropping a piece of paper, and

when you grab it, it turns out to be a map of their hideout: They got arrested while waiting for their Log Pose to reset. If you investigate their hideout, you'll find it swarming

with Marines. Beat them all and collect the Pirates' treasure. They won't miss it now...
Enemy Details: 5 T3 Marine Captains, 5 T2 Corporals, 50 T0 Grunts
Boss: No

Ennies Lobby was a troublesome place... Walking around it, adventuring and exploring, was by far the most difficult location Linnea had ever set foot upon, with all the Marines walking around, and the proverbial dark cloud looming over their head - considering the absense of any form of darkness or actual clouds in here - the slightest mistake here would cost them all their freedom but no way Linnea would ever accept being deprived of the main reason why she became a Pirate in the first place. She would explore this island, just as she'd done with any other in the past. Granted, just getting inside and moving around was harder than any Marine Base she ever infiltrated before. But now she was inside, and the three Uroboros had time to kill while their Log pose finally reset. During that time, they had all gone their separate ways, investigating the island in secret would be better than grouping together and drawing attention, only taking care to set a meeting place for their next move.

So, Linnea did what she did best: Keeping her strongest Kenbunshoku Haki active, and walking around the rooftops to avoid being spotted by some of the many marines down below.

Still, there was more to her rooftop adventuring than simple concealment: From this high up, she could see a lot further away, and explore the island without actually having to wander into every nook and cranny. For all the Marine presence down there, the roofs were mostly deserted, as far as the eye and Observation Haki could see anyways. It made her job all that much easier, since she could at least adventure and scout without being bothered. She'd have to make her presence known eventually however... Linnea paused for a moment, shielding her eyes as she looking on into the horizon, and from there trailed her steely blue eyes down towards the streets. She was right above an intersection, meaning she had quite the vantage point from all the way up here.

Linnea still had the Marine uniform she stole from a dead marine a while back, thus even if she was detected at a distance, her enemies wouldn't be able to see clearly enough to identify her. Plus the obvious lack of personell on the rooftops could easily lead a more zealous marine to take their patrol route up there. Regardless, she could maintain this position for a while longer. It was a very favorable one after all, and in the few minutes she spent on the edge of the roof - watching the ground blow - she accurately calculated the patrol routes of at least four Marine squads. But even more kept coming through and before long there would be way more of them than she could keep track of. Even a spacial positioning and strategic genious like Linnea couldn't track the movements of ten thousand individual Marines. Thankfully, their discipline would likely compel them to move as a whole if the worst came to pass, making her calculations a bit easier on that front...


Used A-rank Kenbu (20 HS Used)

But she didn't have to wander around for long until something interesting happen. Auras kept popping in and out of her Haki radius, but this time she wasn't interested on the Marines, but rather what they were dragging around behind them. Even before they stepped inside the Kenbunshoku Grid, she could see a rather large group of them, as if enclosing something. Her eyes narrowed: What were these Marines up to...? Oh... Linnea didn't have to wonder for long. Then again why would she? This was Ennies Lobby, the so called "Island of Justice". There was absolutely nothing to do here other than bringing criminals on the way to Impel Down, through the fated Gates of Justice. Not to mention there being absolutely no manner of justice in the way Marines did things, but then what else could she expect from the World Government? From all the things she's seen wandering around that Island, the rumours she heard, any and all trials were simply a distasteful joke. That didn't stop the so called "law" from taking them seriously however, and countless people - not even just pirates - would be gruesomely punished for disproportionatelly small crimes.

And so here they were, dragging another group of Pirates in chains towards the center of the island, wherein lay the massive courthouse. With this, Linnea took to watching the mockery of a Military Parade, pulling some of her hair behind her ear and out of the way as she scanned the roughly twenty two marines individually, followed by the ten Pirates. Their leader was obviously a lot stronger than the rest, standing at the front of the squad with several medals adorning the lapel of his jacket, and even sparing a moment to glance upwards at the "scout" standing on the roof. Doing her best Marine impression, Linnea simply saluted the officer and he just turned back ahead. Still undetected...

But as the Prisioner escort left both her sight and observation Haki, Linnea saw something fluttering in the wind... Even from this height, her keen eyesight was more than enough to identify the object as a sheet of paper left right on the trail of the prisioner escort. It was enough to coax her down from the roofs and onto the streets below, where she promptly caught the paper under her heel and picked it up. And as she did, her eyes glimmered as she smiled gleefully...


Active A-rank Kenbu (20 HS Used)

A treasure map! Who would have though she'd find such a pirate-y thing on this god forsaken Island?! Of course it wasn't that hard to guess where it had come from, and the very idea was enough to send a shiver of dread down her spine. Pirates like the ones who were just dragged around this place... Pirates like them who had to stay in Ennies Lobby till their log pose reset. It was a precarious position for a pirate to find herself caught in, and here they were, trapped in the Lion's den. These guys were unable to evade the Marines long enough and would now be taken to Impel Down without so much a fighting chance. Already memorizing the map, Linnea gritted her teeth and crumpled the paper in her hand... She could do nothing for these men without putting her own crew in grave danger, but she wouldn't let these Marines have their way. The treasure this Pirate crew had stashed and hidden. It would remain in the hands of free men and women. Turning around Resolutely, Linnea slipped back into an alley and quickly headed towards the shore. Judging from their map, the pirates had been hiding inside a cave, under a cliff. There were plenty of those in Ennies Lobby, offering a seemingly decent hiding place, but the Marines were clearly not dumb enough to ignore them. In the end, these caves were a death trap. The sound of crashing waves signalled her appoaching the shore, and before long the lone ranger stood alone at the edge of the cliff. Looking south and following the coastline with her eyes, detecting the cave was easy as pie. But she had to be close enough to approach it.

Locating a shaded angle to scale down the cliff, she did so quickly enough, and trudged through the sand. Using rocks and reefs for cover, she kept a steady, stealthy approach and soon got close enough to spot three Marines guarding the entrance, as well as another one patrolling back and forth along the entrance. Quickly drawing and nocking four arrows, she took aim and awaited the perfect moment... once the entrance patrol poked his neck outside, four arrows flew in tandem, lodging themselves in the four marines' throats and permanently silencing them....

Linnea studied the map, and quickly trailed a path from the entrance to the treasure room. She had no need or intention to wipe out any and all Marines at the entrance, so instead of doing that she just planned on silencing whichever of them she could find along her path, just as she'd done with these four. With a simple yet effective plan in her head, she dashed towards the four downed Marines, and scavenged the arrows from their necks. Even if she couldn't use all of them again, she could at least hide anything tracing back to her, the infamous Naga of the Uroboros Pirates...


Used A-rank Kenbu (40 HS Used)

Used four T1 arrows, 3 scavenged (1 expended)

4 T0 marines defeated

Spoiler:

The information war had already been won by the lone Uroboros Captain. Linnea alone knew of her coming to this cave, and she not only posessed the one bit of information the marines didn't - the Map they so desperately needed - but also a strong Kenbunshoku Haki and a Black Den Den Mushi. With the former she could see through walls and locate patrolling Marines, steering clear of them as often as possible, as well as listen in on their radio chatter whenever it happened. She was on the clock after taking out the sentries, they would be missed sooner rather than later and so she had to get to the treasure as fast as possible. Tugging on her hood as her keen eyes scanned the path ahead into the dark and dank cave; even from all the way up here she could hear boots steadily marching around. The Marines had obviously not yet found what both them and Linnea were looking for...

Soon enough, she spotted another group of Marines... Only three of them this time, a somewhat stronger leader (likely a Corporal) and two rank and file soldiers. Hiding behind a rock, she did her thing... Watching, studying, observing. Then finally timing, aiming, and shooting. These three Marines were mostly unaware of what happened at the entrance and though Linnea could detect auras further away, they were all past a few tight turns and corners. Marines scurried around like rats no doubt looking for the treasure these Pirates had all stashed away, but so long as they didn't detect each other's limp bodies, they wouldn't be on the lookout for a sneak attack, just content with casually chatting with their friends.

Thus when Linnea's three arrows whizzed through the air and caught all three targets with an eerie piercing sound, they couldn't see the attack until it was too late and they had all been shot in the lungs or throat, silencing them. Linnea then moved on and scavenged her arrows, dragging the three bodies behind a rock; hiding her tracks by kicking dirt over them. Moving on through the cave, she heard a voice from her black den den Mushi, "Sentry team, how's it looking out there?!"

This was bad, they would be onto her soon. As Linnea arrived at an open clearing, she spotted roughly nine Marines scurrying around... It wouldn't be long before they grew suspicious of a potential intruder and she wouldn't have such an easy time with catching them off guard. She had to take as many of them out before then.


Active A-rank Kenbu (40 HS Used)

Used three T1 arrows, 1 scavenged (3 expended)

6 T0 marines, 1 T2 defeated

Spoiler:

Ten arrows... Thats how many she was going to need to wipe out all of these guys at once... But aiming and scoring ten arrows and successfully silencing all nine marines in one go was a tall order even for her. But there was no better option if she wanted to enjoy what time she had left to be sneaky. Even if she hit the bodies and arrows, there were still Marines missing and once the others became aware of it they would grow more cautious. This cave was fortunately a complete maze, and often she could feel aura signatures popping in and out of the edge of her Haki. According to the map, the Pirates had stashed their treasure behind a rock, hidden inside a crevice. She had already passed by some trails of their presence here, but none was as obvious as the room she now stood over:

Bedrolls, weapons, supplies... This was obviously where the bulk of the crew was hiding when they were ambushed, and there were still traces of the battle if she looked carefully. Refreshing her Haki, she nocked the ten arrows, five on either side of the bow, keeping a particularly attentive watch on the two strongest auras. Among all the Marines present, these two were obviously the ones she just couldn't afford to miss, no matter what... If she did, they would sound the alarm. Sweat trailed down her forehead as she aimed at the marine Captain, knowing she could neither waste time waiting for the perfect shot nor could she miss it. And with a deep breath, she let all ten arrows fly. One of the Marines further away was actually able to see the arrows and call out to his friends, "Look ou-!!", but by then it was too late. He was silenced by an arrow to the throat, but much to her chagrin, the Marine captain she so desperately aimed two arrows at managed to sidestep not only one, but the other one as well.

Clicking her tongue, Linnea strained herself once more as she used her Blitz shooter to quickly draw two more arrows. Instead of counter attacking, the Marine captain hid behind a pillar for cover, grabbing his den den mushi, shouting into it as Linnea let loose another arrow "Intru-!!", was all he could say before the arrow pierced though the stoned and pierced his throat.

The whole thing she got a lot harder and a lot more tense...! Wasting not a single moment, the archer sprinted down the stairs, retrieving her arrows - even the broken ones - and watching her Haki as some of the Marines were now closing in on her location, "Captain Douglas!! Come in!!"; she heard in her black Den Den Mushi...





Used ten T1 arrows, 7 scavenged (total 6 expended); used 1 T3 arrow, 1 scavenged


Used A-rank Kenbu and D-rank buso (65 HS Used)

Spoiler:

Roughly 20 Marines were converging on her location, the Pirate Crew's Living Quarters as they called it... She was sweating, breathing heavily but in a way she was glad. Glad she had trained her Haki so much, and most of all glad she had gone to the trouble of acquiring a Black Den Den Mushi. This labyrinth of a cave was as much a death trap as it looked, even more so given where it was located. For anyone else, being trapped inside a dungeon while being chased by a platoon of Marines was foolhardy, in Ennies Lobby it was a death sentence. But thanks to her treasured tools, she was one step ahead of the Marines. Once they finally got close enough to reach that place, she had already taken a tunnel and moved deeper into the Cave. She was so close...

But up ahead laid her biggest threat... Two powerful Marines were walking her way, and before long she would be running into them. With no better options, Linnea took cover and drew two arrows, coating them both with Haki. This would be a gamble... She couldn't use any more Haki than this and have any hope of making it out of the cave if any other powerful enemy came upon her. Linnea grabbed two Steel tipped arrows and coated both with Haki, then drew her bow. She had to time it perfectly. These guys weren't talking on their Den Den Mushi, and the way they seemed to be walking back to back implied they were expecting an ambush. So she would have to surprise them by striking from the only place they wouldn't see her coming: The walls. Isolating their position, Linnea exhaled calmly and steadied her aim, and biting her lip, she released the arrows and watched the fly.

Twin Fangs was one of her strongest skills, and easily lived up to its reputation: The two projectiles went through the wall faster than most bullets could even dream of - thanks to their Haki coating - antecipating and catching the unsuspecting Marines off guard as they pressed their backs against the wall to peek past the corner. A normally effective scouting action that cost them gravely thanks to the Kuja's Haki. From then on she pressed forth as fast as she could, sprinting and pulling her arrows from the downed Marines, heading straight for where the map mentioned the treasure would be. But much to her chagrin, it looked like this had been a mostly wasted trip. There was indeed a pouch hidden where the map mentioned, but there weren't even a million Beli inside!

Frowning with disappointment, the Kuja ranger headed right back out. Exiting the cave from the way she came would be a futile, idiotic effort given the sheer amount of Marines concentrated around the living area. But there was another path. By following the weaker, isolated auras, she was able to find a secondary route and thus avoid the bulk of the platoon. Using so many skills, sprinting such a distance and firing so many arrows put a strain on her, and as she ran her way out of the cave Linnea found the exercise a lot harder than the way in.


She managed to catch two weak Marines off guard and shoot them before they noticed her, but that was it for the freebies. The entrance had a Corporal and five more underlings swarming around them, and judging by the Black Den Den Mushi, the Marines only now realized where the intruder had fled to. Quickly hiding behind a wall, she found the sentries significantly more on edge than when she came in, as would be expected. Loading two arrows onto her bow, she awaited her opportunity as patiently as she could, but eventually she could wait no longer and took her shot... She caught one of the weaklings, but the corporal jumped out of the way just in time, commanding his underlings to flush the attacker out of cover with a grenade.

Linnea gasped. This was bad! Wasting not a second, she rolled out of cover with two arrows in hand, loading and shooting the two under the hail of gunfire, taking down two more grunts but yelping as a single bullet grazed her torso. As the three still in fighting condition took cover and shouted for help, Linnea could do nothing but sit tight and time her shots. Thanks to her Haki, she could swiftly peek her head out and intercept the enemies attempts to lay down suppressing fire, finally catching the Corporal who shot her with an arrow to the eye. And from then on, she ran... She ran as if the devil himself was chasing her. Through the sandy shores, behind rocks - narrowly stepping out of her enemies' line of fire - and back into the safety of cover before the Marines called for help. Some of her weaker arrows remained stuck on enemies, but she fortunately got most of them out... As she sat down under a secluded spot to lick her wounds and check her earnings, she could only hope this wasn't enough for those Marines to identify her...


[EXIT]



Used 7 T1 arrows (4 recovered), 2 T3 (1 recovered) // Total expended: 10 T1 and 1 T3

 Active A-rank Kenbu and D-rank buso (70 HS Used)


21 T0 marines, 3 T2, 3 T3 defeated

Spoiler: