Upon hearing the urgent shout, all marines began to move rapidly left and right, arming themselves for the upcoming attack. When the three of us ran up to the deck, we were granted the sight of a pirate ship with a size much greater than ours.
At the edge of the deck, Barthur stood with his arms crossed.
"Commodore Barthur! The identified enemies are the recently reported Mammoth pirates! The one standing the middle," The Marine Captain with glasses, who stood on Barthur's right, gulped as he sighted the incredibly obese man on the pirate ship, "that's Mammoth the 'fatso,' wanted with the bounty of 20 million Beli!"
"Do not worry," Barthur said with a serious face, as he kept his posture confident, "and bring me the speaker."
Immediately gripping the megaphone brought by one quick marine, Barthur placed it in front of his mouth and spoke at the approaching pirates, "You filthy scums of the sea, I will say it just once."
With an intimidating expression on his face, Barthur said in a low tone, "Surrender immediately, or there will only be deaths..."
However, it seemed to have no effects on the pirates, who simply laughed savagely with their weapons high up in the air.
"But of course, if this was enough to persuade you, you wouldn't have become the pirates in the first place." Barthur therefore ordered, "All marines, fire—
—HALT!!!"
Before shouting in an urgent manner as the pirates all moved away from the center of their ship, revealing numerous civilian hostages, all bruised and injured.
"S***," From the back, I muttered while standing next to Hina and Bastille, knowing that the situation has taken a turn for the worse.
"I can't see properly. What's going on, Smoker?" Bastille asked me.
"Take off your mask and see for yourself, tall guy," I responded with my eyes locked on the front.
Boom! Now, with the marines unable to do anything but keep their rifles fully loaded and aimed at the pirate ship, the pirate ship directly collided its wall with our ship. With the hostages tied around the pole of the pirate ship, the leader of the pirates, the obese man known as Mammoth the 'fatso,' slowly walked up to us, with a dark grin on his face.
"Greetings to you, my friends," Mammoth opened his arms wide, as he spoke in front of countless guns, unfazed by them, "if you don't know, I am Mammoth from the West Blue. It's been quite a while since I've got to come across you marine folks, and I got to say, I am full of delight at the current moment."
Barthur stepped up and faced Mammoth directly, "Shut your mouth, coward."
Upon sighting Barthur's confidence, Hina whispered to me, "Is a fight going to happen?"
"It's inevitable at the current rate," I replied, calming myself down as much as possible.
'Running away after sighting hostages is considered something that a marine should never do. If I am not wrong, Barthur values his reputation above all. He knows very well, of what consequences await him if he were to fall back here,' I gazed at Barthur seriously, 'and I believe that he indeed does possess some confidence in himself as well; is it because of his devil fruit ability?'
Pointing at the hostages, Barthur demanded, "Let them go. Now."
"Hm..." Mammoth placed his hand below his chin jokingly, "How about no?"
"Then you die."
As the atmosphere was becoming more and more intense, with Barthur and Mammoth looking at each other, the marine soldiers kept their orderly positions. On the other hand, the pirates cheered wildly, chugged down their rums, and occasionally placed their weapons against the hostages, as if reminding us of what will happen if we were to begin our attack.
"But hey," Then, Mammoth said all of a sudden, "we don't really have to fight, ya know?"
Then, he pointed his finger all the way back, to... Hina.
"I'm willing to make an exchange! In return for the lives of all these people, give me that little girl!"
"What. The. Freaking hell?" I immediately stepped in front of Hina and growled, unable to conceal my rage.
"I mean, think about it! From what I can see, she's a marine too, right? You save the hostages and become a hero, while she becomes an unfortunate marine who dies during the fight!"
"We have a pedo here," Bastille said with an equally angry tone, "but there is no way that Commodore Barthur will consider that—"
Barthur seemed to be contemplating, much to the shock of the two of us.
"You are kidding," I whispered in disbelief.
He seemed to have noticed our shocked gazes, as he quickly turned his head away from us and answered,
"How about no? Instead, hand over those civilians and surrender!! My stance won't change, no matter how you try to persuade me!"
But what happened has already happened. We already witnessed Barthur considering the option, no matter how brief it may have been.
I was speechless, and so was Bastille. This was enough for us to lose the last streak of respect we had for this man.
"Mann, I thought we could reach an agreement here. Dang it~!" Mammoth whined as if he believed Barthur was going to accept it, before all of a sudden, snapping his finger.
BANG!
Immediately after, a bullet was fired from one gun-holding drunk pirate, which pierced through Barthur's exposed right shoulder.
"GAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" And Barthur immediately reacted with a girly shriek, while holding his bleeding shoulder with his trembling left arm, "M-medic!! Medic!!!!"
And just like that, gone was the previously confident man; Barthur was reduced to nothing but a wimpy guy. Even with the Spring Spring fruit, this was all he managed to become.
"C-Commodore?" One marine soldier remarked with a dumbfounded expression. Watching the leader of this ship crumbling down into a coward was discouraging, after all.
"Pfff—nyomnyomnyom!!!" Mammoth burst out a laughter upon sighting Barthur's pitiful state, before raising his club up, "Boys, begin the raid!!"
"Ya—hoo!!!"
"Heheh, I was waiting forever for this, captain!!!"
"Aoefhsilrgaegoiaehggoaw!!!!!!!"
"Take all consumables!! Steal all valuables!! Kill all men, and catch all women!! It's time for the feastttttt!!!!!"
Along with Mammoth's inhumane scream, all pirates jumped onto our ship fearlessly, with their eyes showing nothing but craziness.
At the same time,
PUK!
Mammoth brutally slammed his club onto Barthur's head, instantly squishing it into a bloody mess that squirted out the brain matters in a gruesome manner.
"A-all marines, fire!!!" In dead Barthur's stead, the Marine Captain with glasses, the one who previously told the information about the Mammoth pirates, ordered the soldiers,
"Kill them before they manage to land on us!!"
Bang Bang Bang!!!
signaling the beginning of the bloody clash in the middle of the sea.
And in midst of this crossfire, I saw, Mammoth's greedy eyes heading to Hina.
However, Hina thankfully wasn't scared. Instead, she angrily pushed me away from her front, and made a disgusted frown at Mammoth, "Don't you dare treat Hina like a weak person, Smoker. Hina can handle herself, and age means nothing."
"Well, aren't you a brave one," I said while quickly looking around our surroundings, trying to see what choices we have here.
Bastille seemed just as concerned as me. He asked me while touching his mask with his left hand, "What should we do, Smoker?"
With Barthur dead, our side was notably demoralized. The marines had terrified looks on their faces as Mammoth dragged Barthur's bloody corpse across the marine ship, slowly walking at us. At this rate, it was only a matter of time before we become wiped out, and all women on the ship will be taken to...
'As if I will watch that happen.'
Raising up the mop that I held, I broke it in half, before wielding the part without the mopping part.
"Fight, of course. What else is there to do?"
This was the battle that we couldn't afford to lose, no matter what.
"If we want to live here,"
Jumping up in the air to face one pirate, who was dropping on top of us, I slammed the sharp end of the broken stick into that pirate's heart, before kicking the man away from me while snatching the cutlass in his hands.
Tap.
I landed back and faced Hina and Bastille,
"We have to kill all pirates off this ship."