The Marine

Launched dozens of miles away into a floating island, Shiki was wracked with pain and fury. Unable to stop himself from skipping across a landscape his body shattered stones, trees, and everything else it came into contact with.

Not even the monstrous EvoBeasts dared get near the scene.

Unfortunately for the Flying Pirate, standing up on slightly shaking legs, he was met with the one responsible for his current predicament.

The one responsible for the pain, the green skin, the everything.

Too consumed in rage to care, the only thing that came from Shiki was:

“RRRRAAAA!”

[Yellow Scream!]

Using his Devil Fruit to power his voice, Shiki screamed at a pitch that would burst eardrums.

But how could this hurt Bill?

Shutting the mad pirate’s mouth with an uppercut, the two began wailing on each other while destroying the ground beneath their feet.

Fighting on and on, the landscape around them turned into a sea of sticky mud that had every kind of plant, stone, and local beast shredded inside of it.

It was a battle between opposing giants, a battle between the power of unnatural evolution granted by [SIQ] and the spiritual power granted by [Life Return].

Fighting back and forth, Bill’s body subconsciously adapted to the incredible forces being exerted on it. Like back when he battled Vergo and his body protected itself from the Bends, now it was doing the same against a new kind of foe.

With ivory spurs protruding from his knuckles, elbows, and knees, Bill was beating on Shiki like an old rug that wouldn’t get clean no matter how many times it was hit.

On the other side, Shiki’s body coiled in a green mass of muscle. Evolving ever faster, even in the midst of battle Bill had noticed the shocking changes.

Sharper claws and fangs were attached to a body that was adapting with each hit. Turning less and less human, and more into an abomination in rough human form.

With his mind now addled by the fight and by the SIQ working in overdrive, Shiki suddenly snapped when at least a dozen major explosions were heard in the near distance.

“By thunder and cannon fire! We've struck true! Direct hit, lads! Direct hit!!” shouted out Nelson over the fortress loudspeakers.

Originally designed to be island killers, the King Cannon would naturally atomize any average wooden ships they hit, and the force of fifteen such cannons would stir even an armada of 500 fly ships.

Reaching into his pocket, the Commander of the New Haven garrison picked up his personal snail and after receiving a rare enthusiastic answer, said: “Bell, hold fast! The boys are reloading and we’re going to pound them once again!”

Besides pure power, one major bonus that the King Cannon had over its traditional counterparts was that it relied on artillery shells and not cannonballs.

The breech-loaded King Cannon only took a fraction of the time to reload as the muzzle-loaded smooth bore cannons, and now that the fortress’s armaments were adjusted to the right height, the choir of fifteen massive guns sang again.

Watching fifteen more lines of smoke headed their way, most pirates of Shiki’s armada trembled, but there were some who looked for another way.

After all, though most of these people had been pressed into the Flying Pirates service just over 75 crews had joined of their own accord.

They each had their own reasons for throwing their lots in with the Golden Lion. Whether it was for the promises of revenge, the chance for power, wealth, fame, or simply to be a part of something bigger than themselves.

But no matter the reason, each of those who joined Shiki voluntarily had done so for their own selfish reasons.

Among the many who had come to Shiki, several were powerful people in their own rights, and one of those was the Captain of the Black Cat Pirates, [Kuro of a Hundred Plans].

After being defeated and having his decade-long plans ruined by Monkey D. Luffy, Kuro had escaped from Syrup Village with nothing but the cloths on his back and a wrecked ship. With a small and weak crew surrounding him, Wanted Dead or Alive, for years Kuro lived by constantly looking over his shoulder.

Until, one day, he heard that the [Golden Lion] was reforming his armada.

Forming the plans that he was known for, Kuro came to the conclusion that if Shiki was to conquer the world then he would need a Strategist, and clearly, getting in at the start would have enormous benefits in order to reach that goal.

Having long thought of the risks involved with being on a floating ship, Kuro ordered his men to put on their parachutes and without hesitation, he jumped.

The Black Cat Pirates were the first to abandon their ship, but not nearly the last.

From the ground, just before the second volley of King Cannon hit, the Marines watched as ship after ship had men jumping overboard. Most of these pirates had parachutes but some didn’t.  Rather risking the fall than the artillery shells.

With another series of booms, explosions obscured the Marines view, but it wasn’t long before the first of the parachuting pirates could be seen emerging from black smoke clouds.

Having no real anti-aircraft guns, Nelson ordered the garrison to hold their fire and for Yoko to standby, planning that once the pirates dropped to a certain altitude, he would have them turned into mincemeat with a massive volley of rifle fire.

This was a good plan, but what Nelson couldn’t have known was still somewhere in the flying armada was the pirate [‘Blue-Winged’ Din] who had eaten the [Flock Flock Fruit], and seeing that an aerial bombardment would be impossible, had other plans.

Watching dozens of wrecked ships falling below and scores of pirates jumping with parachutes, Din called to his captain – a hammerhead Fish-man named [Gad ‘the Whirling Tide’] – to politely ask if he was ready to attack but was cut off by their crews’ doctor who told him to ‘hurry up already!’ and to ‘grab those bastards on the other ships, too!’

Shrugging his shoulders, the kind-looking man put his two arms in the air and shouted: “Birds of a Feather!”

Responding to his call all birds nearby began to stir and ‘Blue Wing’ Din commanded them to hurry.

The Flock Flock Fruit gave him the power to either summon flocks of small birds or to control larger existing ones, and in the shadow of Merveille, the choice between the two was obvious.

From New Haven, Nelson and the others watched as the nearest floating islands turned alive and a smoke-like haze seemed to obscure them.

Looking through a pair of electronic binoculars Nelson, Masterson, and Toma were naturally the first to realize that the haze was instead a mass of monstrous organisms.

‘Bloody hell!’ Nelson screamed to himself, but quickly finding his wits ordered the cannoneers to target the hazy cloud as soon as they came into range.

The force of pirates was already very large. Figuring that each ship likely carried fifty men meant that on those 500 ships were at least 25,000 pirates bearing down on New Haven.

This number, while staggering, had not caused Nelson to worry. Thinking that so long as Bill could defeat Shiki, he could prevent most of the rabble from landing on the island.

The introduction of EvoBeasts made things different. Turning and running towards his office at top speed, Nelson knew that Flock had thousands of birds and that made it impossible for them to hold back.

Huffing and puffing, he gave orders to Yoko and the other key fighters left on the island, and by the time the King Cannons were heard thundering again, this time it was accompanied by smaller cracks of rifle fire.

Rushing into his office, by now many parachuting pirates had landed on the beaches, with sweat pouring down from his face, Nelson heaved the top of his desk clear and tapped a code on the side.

With the correct code input, steam bellowed from the floor and slowly a shoulder-mounted laser cannon lifted from the floor accompanied by a small metallic exoskeleton.

Quickly strapping the exoskeleton over his cloths, Nelson grabbed the weapon labeled “Big’Un” and rushed to Bill’s office where he activated the eight Iron Wardens left on the island.

Doing everything he could have done; Nelson ran back to the fortress which had lit up with activity and using the exoskeleton in addition to the Pulse Boots blasted himself back up to the overlook.

The King Cannons thundered again, and their explosive shells devastated the invaders, but 15 cannons could not hold back tens of thousands, and just before the flock of monstrous birds came in range, Nelson shouted hoarsely over the intercoms one last time.

“It seems the very devil himself has unleashed his horde upon us! But fear not and drive back the foe! Strike fear into their blackened hearts!"

Then, hefting the laser cannon over his shoulder, the last thing he said was ‘Show these scoundrels the might of Marines!’

*Swish!*

*Swish!*

Unable to fully dodge, Bill was cut deep on his shoulder and despite not bleeding, the effects of constant healing were slowly wearing on him.

Matching Shiki, fist for blade, the area around their clash resembled a natural disaster. Besides the snowy mountain peak in the distance anything was broken, brown, and wrecked.

Steeling his nerves, after delivering one hit after another Bill knew something had to change, and gritting his teeth he moved at top speed, landing under Shiki, and as he kicked upwards shouted: “[Quake Kick!]”

Though the effects of the kick this time weren’t as dramatic as before, they didn’t need to be.

Catching Shiki before he could go flying off, Bill ripped him out of the air and shouted again: “[Seismic Punch!]

Connecting with the Golden Lion just under his chin, Shiki’s teeth burst into powder and his face sunk in, only to be flung up high once more.

Knowing this was what he was waiting for, Bill let it all go and using Moon Step to his maximum ability virtually teleported above Shiki and slowing time by 25% bellowed: [Tectonic Hammer!]

Bringing his fist down in a pounding motion, Bill hit Shiki so hard that with a flash of light his neck sank into his chest and a bit of the wooden wheel in his head dislocated.

As soon as his fist connected, Bill stopped slowing time. Breathing deep, he watched Shiki rocket to the ground like a meteor.

[Time Warp] took a mental toll on him even at perfect health, but now after fighting with his life on the line for over two hours, Bill felt as tired as he had back on Foodvalten.

Thinking the fight must be over, Bill dropped to the crater created by the Flying Pirate, ready to fish him out, but suddenly felt himself lifting into the air.

Alarmed, looking around he quickly noticed it wasn’t just him. The entire area was lifting up, as if divorced from gravity, and Bill heard a guttural grow.

[Lion Menace: Lion Palace]

Not one to despair, Bill nevertheless thought for the first time that the only way to defeat Shiki was to reunite his soul.