The annoyed smile I had put on my face began to fade as I walked slowly over to Metalbeard. I held onto my weapon with a tight grip while moving forward.
Without any hesitation, I thrusted my spear towards Metalbeard's chest and was met with a loud clanging sound. The grip around my weapon loosened just enough for it to become unstable, allowing Metalbeard to see an opening for a counterattack.
Or so he thought.
I quickly flipped the spear over and slammed it down on Metalbeard's cutlass. With the new opening I made, I bashed my shoulder into him as a way to knock him down but nothing happened.
"It's feels like I'm pushing metal!" I grunted, trying to put more force into my shoulder bash.
"It feels like that because you basically are. I mean, my name is Metalbeard after all." He yawned while easily pushing me back.
I readied my spear again and took a defensive position for an attack that was yet to come. All Metalbeard did was stand there and give off the impression that he was thinking.
"I'd rate your attack a seven out of ten. It had a nice flow to it and all your movements led into each other nicely." Metalbeard said.
"Oh yeah? What stopped me from getting the last three points?" I snapped back at what he said.
"Speed and power."
Metalbeard suddenly appeared right in front of me and delivering a powerful punch to my stomach. The strength of the punch was enough to make me drop my weapon and begin to lose my vision. It didn't take long though for me to regain it just to find myself partially in one of the cave's walls.
I coughed out some spit and fell onto the floor. Just trying to pick myself up sent painful shocks all over my body and sent me right back down. To think that all Metalbeard had to do to leave me in this sorry state was get a strong punch in angered me.
"Woah! You're still conscious? I could use someone with a strong will like yours on my crew! What do you say? All you have to do is leave that loser of a leader and join me." Metalbeard sheathed his cutlass and reached out his hand for me to shake.
Just hearing those words replaced all the pain in my body with anger. I slowly began to get back on my feet, pushing through all the pain.
"A loser?" I mumbled quietly, letting some of my anger slip out in my words. Metalbeard clearly didn't notice it though.
"That's right. That leader of yours is a complete lo-." Metalbeard got cut off.
"Shut your damn mouth! You don't know anything about John or what he's done. I owe my life to him for what he's done for me." I brought my hand close to my chest and began to think of how he had helped me save Emma without so much as even asking for a thanks.
"If he's not a loser then what would you call him? A hero?" Metalbeard laughed.
"Yeah. One that I want to be equals with." I finally stood up straight and gave Metalbeard a determined stare.
Metalbeard took a step back from shock when he met my gaze. Or so I thought until I realized that his eyes were looking at what was around me.