NOVEL NEXT Battle of New Haven 151
*KABOOM!*
*BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!*
“Grenades!”
*BOOM!*
At the heart of the fighting, a brutal slog was taking place.
Not knowing where their officers were, squads of Marines were tasked to defend the King Cannons and in the halls of the stone fortress overlooking the harbor, they did just that.
Some time ago after the first waves of parachuting pirates landed on the beaches, the gun towers were attacked by a flock of two- and three-meter-tall birds.
Thankfully armed with their 30-06 caliber semi-automatic rifles, the birds were mostly able to be dealt with but not before the pirates could besiege the fortress.
Mostly fighting in a staggard retreat as they had been trained, the older members of the Department gave their attackers hell causing scores of casualties in barely any time at all.
But for every one pirate they killed two pirates would take their place, and as ammunition dwindled, the Marines were forced to be more selective with their shots.
“Switch to axes! I’ll hit’em with the pulse, then we bash’em!” one Special Operator yelled to his squad that was mostly made up of former Foxy Pirates.
Getting frantic nods for an answer, the Ruluka Island native used a mirror to look around a corner and when he was ready, jumped out.
Pulsing five rushing attackers to the ground, he rushed out with the former pirates to do their work – axes in hand.
Passing by a window slit the experienced man saw a momentary scene of carnage and destruction, with an auburn-haired teenage girl skipping through the air with a dark green staff in her hands and a Coat of Justice billowing behind her.
Quickly turning his attention back in front of him, the Marine from Ruluka Island readied to brain the fallen pirates but was met by the pistols of three pirates who ran into the corridor at an inopportune time.
*BAM! BAM! BAM!*
Briefly looking wide eyed, he didn’t hear the shots, the young Marine simply fell to the ground with nothing but his parting groan.
…
Outside the fortress Yoko was livid that she couldn’t get her hands on the pirate controlling the flock of [EvoBeast] birds.
Using a power that she had never heard of the enemy she was fighting could not only control birds but also meld into the flock and escape unharmed when she swung at him.
The pirate himself hadn’t attacked her but had used a mixture of sharpened feathers and summoned more and more exotic birds to the flock to successfully thwart her every attempt to get at him.
Birds that breathed fire, snorted ice, and even spat glue were accompanied by those that had razor-sharp iron talons and bone tipped wings.
To make matters worse, despite the harbor now being littered with avian corpses the flock hadn’t shrunk in size. Her efforts could have been said to lessen the beasts’ attack on the fortress, but that was about the extent of it.
Gritting her teeth, she swung the [Compliance Tree] sideways, killing a blue bird with a long multi-colored tail, and drove headlong towards the area where the ‘Birdman’ was.
Now breathing heavily at just 16 years old Yoko was pulling her weight and more, but with the great majority of her Devil Fruit sealed away, that also included the Superhuman Strength and Endurance it granted.
She had never blamed Bill for suppressing her power, perhaps because she didn’t have it for long enough to realize what she had lost, but now breathing heavily, with rifles firing in the distance and the fortress starting to burn, she couldn’t help but think angrily about how different things could be if she had a few dozen immortal clones of herself aiding in the defense of her home.
But given the situation, that wasn’t a thought she could afford to dwell on as she made another few swipes, killing more monstrous birds in the process.
With more and more Marine assets flooding towards the harbor, Nelson had to hold them back.
Of course, he saw the fighting from a distance, and he had been there at the start, but with the enemy having the ability to fly the hastily given orders from before had to be altered.
Deciding to sacrifice the middle levels of New Haven was good tactically, but with thousands of people still rushing towards the upper level to reach Bill’s laboratory, it was naturally impossible to cleanly segment his small force into two distinct forces – one to the harbor and one to the bunker.
With this in mind, Nelson had prompted the [Mind] to protect the skies over the inner island with the [Iron Wardens] and had been running hither and tither cleaning up messes created from the fleeing civilians.
Despite having lived on one of the safest and most prosperous islands in the world over the last several years, nearly every single inhabitant of New Haven had once been subjected to brutality.
When the islands had been finally spotted in the sky, hundreds workers from the factories – men and women alike – had rushed to the barracks or to various Marine personnel for the weapons needed to protect their new haven.
And if the invaders had been simple pirates, Nelson would have armed them and organized a defense with their inexperience in mind.
But the invader this time was one of the most powerful men on the sea, followed by a host of monstrous beasts that would make the bravest of men tremble. For Nelson, these people needed to retreat not only for their own safety, but for the safety of the Marines who would die trying to protect them.
Getting back to the lowest level, the evacuation was proceeding more or less as well as could be expected and turning to go back to the fortress something in his mind screamed for him to watch out.
Moving without thinking, Nelson threw his arm up just in time for a metallic clash to be heard, and only seeing a blur he jumped back, fired the laser cannon strapped over his shoulder upwards, missing by several feet.
But even though he missed, the weapon caused his attacker to pause in shock, and Nelson saw it was a well-dressed man who wore glasses and wielded two bladed gloves that resembled cat-claws.
Having read over most of the operations going on in the East Blue, Nelson naturally knew this mans face, and steading himself sneered: “Well, well, well, if it isn't Kuro, the mastermind behind all those so-called clever plans! Heh, you must be running out of wit to have signed up with that madman, Shiki, and fully run out of luck to have failed your assassination attempt just now!”
Knowing how dangerous Kuro was, Nelson didn’t let the pirate respond but hefted the laser cannon over his shoulder and fired again – all while summing a couple of the [Iron Wardens].
Obviously unable to dodge a laser, Kuro was fast enough to move before Nelsons finger did, and just like that their battle started.
Across the island battles naturally shaped out as described. Each side had their strong forces who sought each other out lest too many of their allies be killed.
Even if Shiki himself did not care for his crew, on the battlefield the armada of pirates was forced to look out for each other or risk forfeiting their own lives.
During Nelsons battle with Kuro and his crew, when the [Iron Wardens] had come to assist him and they looked like they would take the [Black Cat Pirates] down, they were interrupted by Dr. Indigo and Foxy who had started their battle when the Doctor attempted to ‘boost’ the strength of Din’s flock of birds using concentrated [SIQ].
During that same time, Masterson ended up being intercepted by Scarlet – who for some reason kept looking towards the harbor.
Gad the ‘Whirling Tide’ and several other pirate Fishmen were being held off by Capote and an assortment of former Foxy Pirate Fishmen – resulting in a battle between long hammers and those users of Fishman Karate.
Toma used his quick-draw swordsmanship to bifurcate enemies, taking his place on the left side of the harbor, moving slowly and methodically he expertly paced himself for a long battle.
Carrot fought in a courtyard using Electro, striking down pirates and the occasional monstrous bird with fearsome speed.
Adelle brawled in her hybrid Honey Badger form in the corridors of the fortress, her thick skin impervious to standard musket fire and her long claws shredding through whatever they hit.
Rapanui took his place on the top of the fortress throwing javelin after javelin at whichever enemy he saw first – tallying up more confirmed kills than anyone besides Yoko since one javelin usually penetrated multiple attackers at a time.
With few exceptions the Marines were superior to their attackers, but quantity had a quality all its own and with ‘Blue Wing’ Din’s Flock Flock Fruit summoning a seeming never ending supply of monstrous birds – both to fight and to transport more and more pirates from the floating ships to the ground – the defenders of New Haven found themselves in a bad way.
The pirates could afford losses, but the Marines could not. At least not until Bill finished off the Golden Lion.
In fact, even as everyone was fighting with their lives on the line, pirate and Marine alike understood that the outcome of the battle depended on whichever sides leader won.
Even though the pirates did not know of Bill, they knew how powerful Shiki was and simply killed in hopes to survive for long enough for their captain to return and carry the day for them.
For the Marines it was only slightly different, after all they were the defenders so fought for their immediate survival, however like the pirates they placed their hopes in their Commodore. Hoping to just survive for long enough for him to come back and clean up the savage pirates in front of them.
Yet while they all had the same hopes, neither pirate nor Marine could imagine the scale of the battle between the two leaders. In a scene of total devastation, the last generation of pirate fought the next generation of Marine.
