"C'mon man, we just got her!" Mayando shouted at the Germa soldier who held a blade to his throat. The navy blue coat with the high collar that he wore made him seem like he should be part of the marines, but Mayando had heard the tales about Germa when he was young. While the World Government was their mortal enemy, at least they pretended to be decent. Based on the stories that he had heard from his old crew, Germa had no issues with looking like the bad guy.
"That's unfortunate for you, fish," the massive man responded, his deep voice nearly causing vibrations in Mayando's ears. "I was going to let you live if you didn't talk," he said coldly as he raised his massive great sword above his head.
Mayando looked up with massive terrified eyes, his snark immediately leaving him as the gravity of the situation became clear. As he closed his eyes and could hear the whoosh of the blade coming toward his head, the sudden crack of a leg hitting a ribcage and a high pitched yelp caused him to open his eyes again.
"Get away from our whiny navigator," Zeff said as he landed back on the deck, the embers of his attack still flickering off his right leg.
"Mayo, are you and also the treasure alright?" Rocks said as he climbed aboard behind Zeff, only vaguely trying to hide which of the two he cared more about.
"I'm fine, thank you," Mayando said with shaky breaths as he stood to his feet. As he dusted himself off, he saw the unblinking stares of his captain and chef before sighing deeply. "And the treasure is still locked up tight, they didn't get a single berry," he said which elicited a much more excited cheer than the results of his own safety.
"Thank God, I don't think we could have done another month of raiding like that. If the World Government gets news that you're still alive, they might send one of those new warlords after you," Zeff quipped as he looked toward Rocks.
"Enough with the jokes Zeff, this is actually a bit of a problem. We're obviously not getting any kind of break in Spider Miles if Germa's attacking, but we need to find that kid that Gil told me about. We're not coming back to the North Blue for a long time, so this is our only chance to try and recruit him," Rocks said as he looked back toward the currently burning town.
"Do we have time for that?" Zeff asked as a chorus of screams and the sound of gunfire rang throughout the small town.
"Yeah captain, if our ship gets caught in the crossfire, all the money we earned in the last month would be for nothing," Mayando said fearfully.
"You have a point," Rocks said in an annoyed tone while not taking his eyes off of the town. "Ok, new plan. Zeff, stay with Mayando on the ship. Mayando, swing it around to the coast on the opposite side of the island and wait for me by the southeast port," Xebec said as he began walking toward the steps.
"What are you going to do, Rocks?" Zeff asked, though he couldn't get all of his words out before his captain leaped off of the ship.
"Just keep an eye on the ship and treasure Zeff, don't worry about me," Rocks said with a lauh as he started to run back towards town. Zeff sighed and looked toward Mayando, who shrugged his shoulders and began making his way toward the ship's wheel.
"Oh it should also be implied that you're protecting me too, I assume it just slipped his mind," Mayando said as he took the helm.
***
Rocks tore through the chaotic docks outside of Spider Miles, ignoring the random pirates and bandits taking advantage of the chaos to loot whatever wasn't actively burning down. He smiled widely and unsheathed Eclipse from the holster on his back. Between him and the town's main gate stood an organized group of about 40 Germa soldiers, each of them wielding massive great words with shotguns strapped to their backs.
"These numbers just aren't fair," Rocks muttered to himself as he launched toward the first soldier, infusing Armament Haki into his blade as he struck the surprised soldier directly in the chest. The force of the blow rocketed the man into a nearby building, shattering its structure completely as the remnants of it came toppling down on Xebec's latest victim.
The two other soldiers nearest to him attempted to quickly bring their blades up into a defensive position, but Xebec crouched down low, completely ignoring their attempts to stop him as he swung the flat side of his blade to completely take out their feet. Each of them fell to the ground with a harsh thud, the wind being knocked out of each of them before Rocks stood one foot on each of their throats.
The remaining 39 soldiers looked towards him in shock, and Xebec lightly flipped his massive sword up, casually resting it on his shoulder as his eyes narrowed and his smile widened. While his usage of Conquerors Haki was still far too draining to be reliable, his handle on Armament had improved at a fantastic pace. The strain on his body was minor in comparison to the toll it took in his fight with Zeff, and even Observation took less out of him than before, though it was never his strength in the first place. With the boost in confidence from slowly returning to his old form, Rocks sneered as he caught the eyes of several shocked soldiers.
"There needs to be at least 1000 of you to take on me," he said coldly as the soldiers raised their weapons toward him, though with just a bit of trepidation that one would not expect from an army of fearless killers.