Chapter 37: Chapter 32

The night watch had been quiet, and so had been the start of the day.

The pirates got to work where the others had left off, and for the few hours they had made good timing. Bill had thought they would finish their project by afternoon.

Then, with the sound of breaking trees in the distance, all fourteen men working looked up.

As Bill focused in on any further sounds coming from the distance, Hollandaise spoke up quietly: “Ay, sir, wat’us tha sond?”

Shaking his head and waving his hand, Bill continued to listen. Figuring he would get a better view from the air; he jumped up above the tree line.

Holding his elevation steady, he looked towards the source of the noise, and what he saw was a fleshy bulb poking from the canopy and a line of trees start to shake as something pushed their way through.

The line was heading in the direction of the fort.

Bill was fast, but something had turned the forest alive. No sooner than he landed to warn the crew, he saw a six-legged cat, standing perhaps three-meters tall, pounce through the brush at the dumbfounded men.

The beast was fast, but he was faster. Catching the big cat in midair, Bill smashed it to the ground, grabbed the tail, and threw it back where it came from.

But as if to take their place in line, one after another strange beast leapt from the brush.

As Bill fought on his back foot, the thirteen men began to run around like sheep surrounded by wolves.

There was no order, or even clear direction to where they ran. They would suddenly stop, suddenly start. Run right then turn to run left.

Bill didn’t have time to watch, but he would have sworn it was the most disorganized and shameful show he had ever seen by grown men, whether or not they were running for their lives.

Unexpectedly, today Bill would be given two lessons. First was an introduction into crowd psychology. Second, was how to fight while surrounded by monsters on every side.

Swinging left and right, with fists that could have casually destroy concrete walls, Bill was never sure if he actually wrecked any of the animals.

Their skin was tough, and their bones seemed to shift just enough to make it impossible to break them without significant effort.

Had it not been the case that for half of the animals he hit ended up being food for their compatriots, Bill would have been simply overwhelmed by bodies.

Stomping on the back of a large woolly lizard, Bill heard a wet crunch and gave it a kick to be eaten. In the few seconds that it took for the lizards to be devoured, he turned around to see how the pirates were fairing.

Out of the thirteen men, he saw a meager seven. He didn’t have the time nor inclination to search for the missing six.

Of the seven, he saw there were two groups.

The stupid pirate captain was fighting off several smaller rat-like monsters with three of his men holding wooden shovels, while the other group was fighting back a single large, oddly bent, badger.

In that instant, Bill knew he should just take Hollandaise and run.

He knew it, but despite the fact these men were likely predators, and the fact in a different situation he may would have had to kill them. He just couldn’t let these men get eaten by beasts right in front of his eyes.

In this situation, the bent badger was both the best and worst target.

The thing looked gnarly and had two eyes on each side of its’ head, but Bill knew he could more easily deal with one larger creature than multiple smaller ones, just so long as the one wasn’t too strong.

He didn’t have time to consider, with a leap he landed beside the badger and hit it directly on the side of its head, crushing one eye and stunning the thing.

“GET BACK TO CAMP!”

Not waiting for the men to reply, Bill followed up with an upwards kick snapping the creature’s jaw. In that instant, he didn’t know if the thing was dead, but it no longer moved.

Unfortunately for the badger, it’s compatriots either saw or sensed it’s weakness.

As the badger was being preyed upon, Bill saw the remaining pirates regroup and run towards the camp, in the process shaking off the rats.

He decided to cover for the pirates as they ran, but before he could go far a red tentacle burst from the trees.

The tentacle was large but couldn’t cover the huge creature it was attached too.

‘Octopus?!’

Bill didn’t have time to consider why this octopus had so many tentacles, or what it was doing on land.

For the first time during the battle, he was hit square in the chest and was sent back flying dozens of meters, spit flying from his mouth and air out of his lungs.

Groaning in pain Bill got up fast, wiped the spit from his mouth, breathed heavily, and dodged another couple tentacles before closing the gap between he and the land octopus.

“Seismic Punch!”

Reflexively yelling out a name for this punch, which otherwise looked like any other, Bill landed a fist directly between the octopus’s eyes.

Punching a target without bones, his fist instantly deformed the things face as a crater appeared some five meters in diameter.

Surprisingly the creature didn’t directly explode from such impact; it instead flipped over backwards, end over end, before landing several dozen meters away, the octopus’s great mass breaking dozens of trees in the process.

*Huff huff*

By now Bill was tired.

Though this battle hadn’t lasted long, he hadn’t eaten a good meal or enjoyed a full night’s sleep in days. All while working practically nonstop.

But though he was weary he couldn’t afford to rest.

Sucking in air, Bill turned to follow in the direction of the pirates. Although he still fought nonstop, the number of beasts dropped considerably.

These creatures were acting like starving piranha. They wouldn’t attack their compatriots if they were healthy, but if they sensed or smelled a wound, they’d feast.

Loud crashes from the direction of the Land Octopus signified to Bill that the thing probably took his place; he only hoped it would last long enough for him to regroup with the Captain and his men.

Running hard, but sporadically having to fight off monster sized animals, it took Bill roughly fifteen minutes to cross a mere two-hundred meters.

After he was hit by the octopus, he had completely lost sight of the pirates, but that was of no concern to him as he finally reached the dry reservoir.

It was just past midday, like the day before, the Marine crew had performed a miracle and had constructed several fifty-feet high watchtowers.

These watchtowers were much smaller than what Bill had seen the plans for the walls were, but the fact that they were all bound by iron made it clear at once that it had been Captain Hina who constructed them.

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Almost as if he had been the signal, once Bill saw the watchtowers, a red flag was raised, and the cannons placed on top rang out with fire.

As cannonballs flew over his head, Bill picked up his pace and started down the hill on the beach when he was met by a formation of Marines.

These men and women were arranged in a long line, two deep and thirty abreast, all aiming muskets.

Bill wasn’t sure whether he’d die from musket fire or whether or not he could dodge the bullets, but in that second, he almost came to a stop before he heard a series of shouts.

“HOLD!”

“Hold!”

“hold!”

Bill didn’t have time to think that he may have just boosted his reputation with the Marine crew by not stopping, but in one leap he jumped over the line of Marines while shouting: “Nothing cannons can’t kill!”

When he got to camp, it was a mostly organized scramble with so few people that Bill started to worry.

Still, everywhere he could see there were men and women running either towards the ship or…

‘The ship!’

Seeing the large frigate, now upright, caused Bill to stop in his tracks.

It seems that while he had been working to the bone, Captain Hina also hadn’t been slacking off.  In just half a day the lady had constructed and armed six watchtowers while also putting the ship upright.

He didn’t know if the thing could launch, but this effort made it impossible for him not to respect the women.

After all, though her crew had skilled sailors there was no one besides her and Bill who were clearly superhuman; this meant it had been she who authorized the plans while also doing the physical labor others couldn’t do without the help of time or machines.

His awed mentality couldn’t stop him for long, and after just several seconds he grabbed a Marine by the shoulders, spun the man around and said: “Where is the Captain?!”

“Huh? Load the water back on the ship!”

Looking confused, Bill followed up: “The Captain is loading water on the ship?”

“No, I’m loading water on the ship!”

Clearly during this stressful situation this man had developed tunnel vision, normally it be best to leave a man like this to his duty, but Bill needed to know: “I ASKED WHERE CAPTAIN HINA IS!”

“Uh? The Captain…” the man slowed down, light somewhat began to shine back in his eyes: “Sorry Sir, I don’t know, I was given orders by Ensign Zan. I’m just a Carpenter’s Mate Second Class.”

Nodding to this, Bill released the man and told him to get back to his duty then ran off to the command tent.

It had been less than three minutes since he returned to camp and thankfully hadn’t heard any additional cannon fire, but he knew that he had to hurry.

Getting to the tent, Bill found the remaining pirates, only six now and all bound by iron bars. They were in the same spot they had been when Bill first saw them.

Of course, as he saw them, they saw him.

“Sir o’er ere’!! Iz telled tha Cappen whas on’dwn ins tha for’st an sheh slapt uz en chayns!”

Bill didn’t have time for the pirate’s complaints and said: “Where is she now?!”

“Runoft!

Dun eave uz!! We’z an’ elp!”

Bill didn’t know what to make of this pirate. The man had lost two-thirds of his crew in less than a week, but he didn’t seem to have any reaction about it.

In fact, despite it all, Bill noted that Hollandaise had been nothing but a good worker. The pirates, in fact, had taken the shipwreck better than most of the Marines.

Trying not to let his opinions of these men raise, Bill stopped this line of thought and asked: “Which way did she run off?”

“I’dunno may’haps tha boat whay?”

Giving a nod, Bill turned to leave but suddenly stopped.

“Do you know how to relaunch a beached ship?”

As he spoke, he knew he ought not to but told himself that there had been at least eighty Marines defending the fort whether on the cannons or holding a musket line.

This estimate was already tiny, Bill knew that a full gun team was ten Marines. So, his estimation only allowed each cannon only had two operators.

Out of the hundred-fifty shipwrecked survivors, it was no exaggeration to say that represented two-thirds of the able bodies in camp.

“Ay, sir, id alf ta be igh’ tyde bah me bois noe ow’.”

Bill didn’t know if he’d regret it, but his body moved faster than his mind.

Standing in front of Hollandaise, Bill grabbed the iron bindings and started to pull.

Bill had obviously seen Captain Hina use her devil fruit, and the process of making these bindings seemed so easy.

But as he pulled harder and harder Bills face twisted more and more, and it wasn’t due the fact that he couldn’t budge them.

His face twisted from the fact that it made him feel sick to even touch the things.

Touching the spawn of a devil fruit somehow made Bill smell rotten eggs or sulfur.

The longer he pulled, only seconds in reality, the more Bills Will urged him to cast the things out.

“UUAAHH!”

Then with a shout, Bill didn’t notice his arms were pitched in black, he pulled the binding apart.

As it broke, the wrecked iron dissipated into smoke.

Then with no other thought, as if on a singular mission, Bill went pirate-to-pirate breaking the bindings made from by Devils Fruit.