Pressing against the Lieutenant's sword, Susanoo slowly found himself getting overpowered. The man's strength was greater than his and Susanoo's shoulder wasn't allowing him to release his maximum strength as well. It was all bad. Bailing out of the deadlock, Susanoo hopped backwards and slammed his war fan's iron rim into the ground. He's fast, so this should stop him from closing in the distance right away. The result of the gunbai hitting the ground was the surface shattering and becoming unstable. If you stepped on it you risked stepping in a puddle of rubble that'd bury you up to your shin's in loose rock. No real damage unless one was especially clumsy, but an effective deterrent to speedsters.
With the time he bought himself, he reeled his Gunbai back. He wouldn't get far fighting the Marine in close quarters, but at a distance, even this shallow, Susanoo could be slightly more effective. "I'm not some amateur swordsman." The Lieutenant chuckled as he quickly swung his wakizashi into the open space between him and Susanoo. His mind was so occupied with the battle that he had forgotten the Lieutenant had that ability. An air wave quicker than Susanoo's retreating hop was projected at the young Navigator and he found himself back on the defensive, but exposed since his gunbai was reeled back ready to attack. It can cut an iron cannonball in half, I don't stand a chance. The thought flickered through his mind in less than a second. It meant he couldn't just take the hit or even block with his gunbai. In mid hop, he couldn't move himself as his feet weren't on the ground. "Shit!" It hurt, but he pushed through and swung his war fan off tot he side it was prepped on. It wasn't a full swing, so it lacked 100% power, but it had enough to push Susanoo two meters to his left side while in mid air. "I'm impressed. I knew you weren't like the rest of these Pirates when I first saw you." Obviously the Marine was still playing with Susanoo as he could have easily zipped in and impaled the Navigator while he was carrying out his on-the-fly dodge.
Coming to a skidding halt, Susanoo's peripherals barely caught sight of the projectile zooming by. Not daring to take his eyes off his opponent and observe the foreign technique, his breathing was a bit labored and blood began to leak through his bandages on his shoulder. "Hm? Looks like you're leaking. No fun taking out someone who's already a bit hurt." Susanoo still didn't take his eyes off the Marine though he wanted to see how bad the bleeding was. He didn't notice it until the Marine commented on it, but now he could feel how warm his shoulder was from the blood soaking his clothes. "I don't suppose that means you'll let me go then?" Susanoo joked as he watched the Marine barely toss his wakizashi up maybe two inches or three and twirl the handle so it spun like a drill, before catching it. He did this over and over in a lax fashion. "Nah, just means there's no point in drawing this out to see how strong you really are." Just as he finished his sentence, he vanished from sight, Susanoo's eyes failing him once more. His mind didn't though. Slamming his gunbai into the terrain, he would work it like a sledge hammer and keep slamming it into the ground all around him. As long as he stayed in this ring of crumbled terrain he made, the swordsman couldn't run up on him, for he'd risk fucking up his ankle if he did so at extreme speeds.
Where's he at. Susanoo looked around himself frantically, the Lieutenant yet to have appeared until he heard a whistling in the air above him. It was the wakizashi blade sailing through the air downwards with the swordsman holding it to potentially drive it straight through Susanoo's body from above. "Fuck!" Jumping forward, more so diving as he landed clumsily on his belly, he heard the Marine land and his blade slide through the earth. "That was a horrible dodge . . . Oh well."
Unearthing his weapon, the Lieutenant stood up from his crouched position which worked to absorb the shock from landing on the ground from so high up. Walking calmly over to Susanoo who had turned over to his back he readied his sword to stab the pirate. In secret though Susanoo was plotting something. Vaan had given him the single that he was ready onboard the ship while Susanoo was looking for the missing Lieutenant. He didn't acknowledge the boy or give him a single though to avoid alerting the Marine of the boy's presence or a secret plan.
While on his stomach, he secretly unhinged his Clima-Tact from his Gunbai, but made it seem like the weapon was still all in one piece. This Clima-Tact rod had the Thunder Ball shaft at the end furthest from Susanoo's hand. The shaft was also longer than the Lieutenants own wakizashi. Praying he could take advantage of the Marine's confidence and appear so scared he lowered his guard to Susanoo, he'd launch his attack on him out of nowhere. His confidence would lead him to be calmer than normal with his execution and the length of his wakizashi ensured, Susanoo would be in range with his Thunder Ball rod. With eyes wide opened and his mouth twitching in a panicked manner, Susanoo watched the Marine approach him. He was trying his best to sell the idea that he was hopeless, even though deep down Susanoo wasn't sure this plan would work. It was the best he had though, either this or die trying to actually fight the guy.
Just as he suspected the Marine stopped very close to him in stabbing range and reeled his wakizashi back to plunge it into Susanoo's chest. He took his sweet time though. As fast as Susanoo could, he then lifted his thunder ball shaft and jammed it against the Lieutenants leg. It didn't matter where he got him, as long as he made contact with the end of the shaft. Before it even touched the Marine, Susanoo had activated the Taser, something that was saving his ass a lot lately. When it made contact the Lieutenant's body began to seize up, but only for a moment. "SHOOT VAAN SHOOT!" Still on the ground when the boy fired the cannonball it ended up not scoring a direct hit on the Lieutenant, but it managed to knock his whole left arm and a bit of shoulder off. Not his sword wielding arm, but that didn't matter. The guy would die of profuse bleeding, but pass out in seconds from blood loss if not pain, shock, and trauma. "AHHHHHHHHHH!" He clutched at his severed arm wound, the Taser not even on his mind anymore apparently, but Susanoo would use this lapse of attention to hopefully take the guy out. Pushing up off his free hand, he jammed the Taser into the Lieutenants chest. He didn't expect it to penetrate, but it did and it made his skin crawl. He could tell it stopped at bone though. "Fuck!" He was still scared to take a life, but he had to do what he had to do and he activated the Taser ability once more as close to the Lieutenants heart as he could get with his capabilities.
"FUUU- FUCK! AHHHH!" The battlefield seemingly froze as those who were still alive and well watched the spectacle that was unfolding. Freaked out by all the yelling and the blood of the fresh wound being on his face and a bit in his mouth, Susanoo just lifted up his foot and kicked the one-armed Lieutenant in his gut knocking him backwards and over after a few stumbles. To stop the terror and panic that was seizing his own body from the actions of his dying enemy, Susanoo lifted the rod of his Clima-Tact and swung it at the Lieutenant's head. With a direct hit, the yelling finally stopped as the Lieutenant fell over unconscious at Death's doorstep. Looking down at the mess of the man, Susanoo was experiencing a variety of emotions that he couldn't even define. Anger, guilty, fear, disgust, joy, strength, weakness, there were contradictions all over the place and he couldn't anymore of it.
In a daze he stepped back from the body in a fatigued manner and fell back on his ass. He knew a battle was still going on, or was it? Regardless he couldn't bring himself to care about it right now. He was exhausted. "Secure the ship! Their Lieutenant is down!" The pirates let out a roar of joy and the violence only intensified from that point on. This was all background noise to Susanoo though, at least until a hand was placed on his shoulder. It made him jump and automatically enter combat mode as he spun around partially with his Clima-Tact ready to wail on whoever he saw, but it was Rakim. This made him stop of course, but also soothed his nerves. "This first one will stick with you for awhile. You'll shake it eventually though, lets go." He then extended a hand to Susanoo and helped him up, then grabbed his idle war fan piece that was on the ground. "Don't forget this." "Huh? Oh" Susanoo honestly had forgot one of the most important pieces to his arsenal, it was evident he was a bit shook right now.
Rakim supported him physically as he walked through the battlefield that was beginning to settle down as the Marines began to accept defeat. He didn't even eye the World Government dogs as he walked through though. His eyes were on the ground in deep thought and in need of rest. Lupe was also being carried to the ship, though because he was truly wounded. The Lieutenant pierced him right through his gut earlier in the skirmish, but surprisingly he was full of vigor. "Thanks for getting payback for me man." Susanoo didn't respond or even look up at Lupe. "Stop talking, you need to get treated." Kyte was right beside him looking worried as ever. They made it safely on the ship and what was left of the pirate forces were running about preparing the ship for departure.
"You going to be alright?" Susanoo nodded, then looked up, but not at Rakim, but to the island they were leaving. The Marines were gathered around their Lieutenant's body, some of them were maliciously eyeing the ship. They would be left and stranded on the island for God knows how long, but that was the way of the sea. Losers were forced to endure the conditions the winners put them through and this was the price they had to pay for losing.
With but a single sigh, Susanoo shrugged off the feelings he was dealing with and stood up. Rakim was surprised by this and grabbed at Susanoo's shoulder. "What are you doing. Take some time off." Susanoo shook his head side to side as he handed Rakim his Clima-Tact rod. "I'm the only Navigator onboard and I'll be damned if we end up somewhere else crazy because some newbie is steering the ship." He knew he didn't have time to feel any type of way right now. He'd have to deal with that later, besides he wasn't even really wounded, there were others in worse condition and still working to ready the ship for departure. Taking his spot at the wheel, Rakim had followed him and stood right beside him with his gunbai on his back instead of Susanoo's. Next came the scavenger who arrived with a map like he did last time. "I figured you'd need this." Susanoo had forgotten he'd need a map and was grateful the scavenger's brain was working while his wasn't at 100% yet. "Shit, you're right. Thanks." He grabbed and opened the map and scrolled his finger about until he found Ilusia and their current placement in the West Blue.
"To Ilusia we go." Witht hat the rag-tag team of pirates stole yet another Marine vessel and set their course to Ilusia.
[Exit]
- Spoiler:
Taser x3
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