Chapter 67: Chapter 57

Into the crowd of pirates, Bill and his crew were wolves in a flock of sheep.

With every swing of his hammer three men and women fell down with bent frames. Did he kill them? Bill didn’t know and he frankly didn’t care.

Seeing these pirates all dressed the same, Bill knew the two middle aged engineers hadn’t been lying. These people were predators; and as a man, it was his duty to hunt predators down.

Moving like hurricanes Bill, Sasha, and Ricky only went forward. Ranse having immediately targeted Stunk One was nowhere in sight.

After several minutes of fighting, hundreds of pirates laid in heaps on the ground, but more still came carrying a wide variety of weapons.

Clubs, mallets, sabers, and machetes were the most common types of weapons, but there were some gunners mix in. They were the most dangerous as they were armed in something other than flintlocks. Their rifle barrels looked more like long screws which gave their ammunition a dangerous spin.

Not needing instructions, the trio had targeted gunners first and after several minutes there seemed to be none left as dozens of part-giants rushed from the castle barracks.

Seeing this, instead of being scared they were relieved, all these part giants were to them were larger targets.

Swinging his hammer high, Bill hit a large fellow square in the chest and the pirate instantly caved inwards. Another swing had one throw up the contents of his stomach and passing out.

Glancing over the Sasha and Ricky, Bill found Ricky to be more effective fighting off a large number while Sasha was putting the part giants down nearly as fast as he was.

Both of them had become incredibly skilled, he thought.

As Ricky zipped around wielding his two blades, static electricity could be seen with the naked eye. Sasha on the other hand moved with mathematical precision, every slash came down at a perfect angle, her power came from her directness as her blade never went off its path.

Her favorite guards were the Side and Plow stances, fighting these kinds of opponents she apparently didn’t see the need to use Fool or Ox.

After dealing with the part giants the rabble ran away. Looking around Bill didn’t see Ranse but also couldn’t smell Stunk One.

Bill had complete faith in Ranse, after all, Ranse was an expert with every leg-based technique of the Six Powers. It was true at the tender age of eighteen Ranse hadn’t completely mastered them, but he was well on his way.

That fact added with his natural superhuman strength gave Bill little reason to worry about him.

Thinking this, Bill rested his war hammer over his shoulder and regrouped with Sasha and Ricky.

“Since it’s come to this, we’ll take control of the area. We can’t allow the island to be put at jeopardy.”

Nodding that they understood, the trio entered the castle through the front door.

The space was large and was very ornately decorated. Bill thought it would have been nice without the graffiti paintings of Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs and Spades everywhere.

Looking around it was obvious that the throne room was some kind of elevator, with the elevator raised they had to look for the stairs.

It was Ricky who found the passage and they as they started running up spiral stairs they were met with sporadic resistance. If the crowd of hundreds couldn’t stop these three, the groups of six to ten barely slowed them down.

Running through a spiral staircase they soon reached a circular room that housed a rotating pillar. Looking in awe Ricky asked quickly: “What is this?”

Eying the object, Bill answered: “This is probably the island key that middle aged couple spoke about. It’s like the fulcrum point that keeps the island balanced.”

Taking a few steps near it, Sasha touched the glass barrier gently and asked: “It looks weak, why would they risk their lives on something like this?”

Shrugging his shoulders, Bill answered the best he could: “The island probably didn’t start off so high up. The way the gears are positioned makes it seem like the people built on the original design.”

Nodding helplessly, Sasha didn’t respond, and the trio continued forward.

The hallway with the key ended with a final staircase, but now there weren’t any pirates stationed and the Marines were able to go straight up to the throne room.

As they entered the large space, a jester lookalike shouted: “Where’s Stunk One?!”

He was answered by a fat pig who spoke with an oink: “He’s just sending those Marines off.”

Answering this man, the group still hadn’t seemed to notice Bill and the others, a large fellow with a hairy face yelled: “He can take his time! As long as he doesn’t miss the wedding!”

Bill didn’t think much of this as he and the others prepared to attack, but he was stopped suddenly when he heard the yell of an orange headed girl: “I’m not marrying you, let me go!”

‘Kidnap?’ Bill wondered, and suddenly he didn’t think it right to attack everyone in the room. In this situation, he naturally shouted: “Do Not Resist! You Are Under Arrest!”

“EH?!”

“WHO?!”

“Wha?!”

“Marines!”

Seeing the group of Marines the orange headed girl, who was in a wedding dress, held on to her straw hat and ran in their direction.

“He’s crazy! He kidnapped me away from my friends! Help!”

Chasing behind her, the bearded man cried: “Do you know what you’re saying?!”

Seeing the big man give chase, Bill moved forward to stop him. Dodging by a hands distance a rapier suddenly aimed for his heart.

The swordsmen wasn’t able to give another stab, as no sooner than Bill dodged, Sasha was there delivering a forty-five-degree angle slash of her own.

Ricky had also run forward to intercept the fat pirate, who had rolled himself into a spikey ball and was aiming for Bill as well.

With those pirates of the way, Bill reached the orange headed girl and after quickly getting between her and the bearded man gave an upward back-handed hammer strike that landed with a hard ‘thunk’.

The pirate was a large man, twice Bill’s height and several times wider. He also must had weighed a ton because as he crashed down, he kicked up shards of tile and concrete.

“Are you ok?” Bill asked the orange headed girl.

Around him Sasha and Ricky were fighting, but Bill knew they’d be fine and so waited for the girl to collect herself.

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“Wh..why are you here?” She asked looking shaken.

Bill didn’t think much of this, for a small woman like her to be kidnapped and nearly forced into marriage, it made sense she was shaken up.

So, looking at her with a sincere face he put his big hand on her shoulder and said: “We had a report that these pirates took the island hostage, but don’t worry, with the Marines here we’ll certainly do our duty. You’re safe now.”

Hearing him say this, the girl looked down, the straw hat covering her face. As she did so, she started to shake and then collapsed to the ground.

Looking back up to him with tears in her eyes, she said: “Thank you. I just knew the Marines wouldn’t allow this to happen.”

After she said this, Bill smiled again and nodded, hearing a commotion behind him he turned back to see the big man stand up.

“Are you the one they call Bear King?” he asked authoritatively.

“You really pack a punch!” said the man, ignoring Bill’s question he continued to speak: “But that’s not going to be enough!”

Walking towards Bill after he said this, the mans huge fists started turning red hot.

Bill also moved forward. Hammer in hand he wanted to move away from the woman who was still on the floor.

As they neared, the man shouted out: “Hot Burning Special!” and his large fists turned a red hot.

Ready to do his worst, Bill was momentarily stunned by how this large pirate fought. With red hot fists Bear King flailed his arms like a child.

‘Windmill?’ was what Bill thought as he took a few steps back.

Bill’s confusion wouldn’t save the pirate for long however, as after he processed the fact that this man did not know how to fight, he dodged under the flailing arms and delivered a nasty hit to the big man’s tiny knee.

With another ‘thunk’ Bear King lost his balance and fell but was more or less undamaged. Standing up with his hands burning into the floor he looked at Bill and roared with laughter.

“You’re strong! But so, what?!

I’ve eaten the Hard Hard Fruit! My body is strong as steal and can’t be damaged!”

When he said that, Bills eyes narrowed. Of course, he knew the man had an ability, but he thought it was related to fire.

If the mans devil fruit was related to durability, that just meant he’d have to hit a little bit harder.

With Bear King still laughing about how great he was, Bill appeared in the air beside him and delivered a crunching blow to the side of the pirate’s head.

The power of the devil fruit wasn’t a thing to take lightly though, and as Bear King fell over from the force of the hit, he flailed his arm to attempt a hit.

But what the man had in size and durability he lost in pure reactive speed and strength.

Bill wielded his hammer like a baseball bat and hit the man over and over and over again. During a fight like this Bill would not get tired and each hit was stronger than the last.

After several minutes of being hammered like a nail and tossed around like a ping-pong ball Bear Kings expression was ragged and Bill decided it was time to put the pirate to sleep, as his hammer was now deformed, he judged it capable for one last strike.

Closing the distance between them again, Bill kicked upwards and launched Bear King into the air.

Then moving before Bear King could react, Bill used Moon Walk to his greatest ability and materialized in the air above him.

“TERRA SMASH!”

Hit so hard the war hammer splintered into thousands of pieces, the concussive force launched Bear King down destroying part of the castle and shaking the entire island.

For the first time, Bill took in a deep breath. Turning around he found his crew mates had already finished their fights and were looking at him with open mouths.

The orange headed girl held in her hands a jar that showed a crying face, Ranse had his foot on Stunk One, the joker was cut from his collar bone to his hip, and Ricky sat on the fat pirate who was missing a couple teeth.

As they collected themselves, Ranse was the first to talk and laughing he went over giving a slap on the shoulder: “Dang Bill! It felt like you almost brought the island down!”

Giving an awkward laugh, Bill just said he didn’t think the island would fall as long as the key wasn’t damaged.

After that, Bill got the name of the girl, she said her name was Nami and she was from a village not too far from here.

Talking to her, he also found out the actual names of the pirates. Since he didn’t have Wanted posters he hadn’t known.

The fat pirate was Boo Jack, bounty 3.2m Beli.

The jester was Pin Joker, bounty 9.9m Beli.

The liquid girl, who really did have a Nature System but turned out to be a coward, was Honey Queen, bounty 7.8m Beli.

He knew of the name Stunk One, and now learned he had a bounty of 6m Beli.

Finally, there was Bear King who had a bounty of 11.6m Beli.

Surprising to Bill, Nami was quite insistent on the fact she deserved the total bounty for Honey Queen, because she had caught her, and half the bounties for the rest of them because she had given the information about them.

Bill didn’t know whether or laugh or cry when this seemingly innocent looking woman turned into a secretary lawyer when it dealt with the money.

In the end, he just said: “We’ll give you a lift back to your island and discuss the payment then. I have to go tie up Bear King, ok?”

Hearing this, the girl deflated and said: “I… can’t go home, just give me the 15m Beli for Honey Queen and we’ll call it even.”

When Bill was about to say that Honey Queen’s bounty wasn’t 15m Beli, he heard rumbling from the bottom level of the castle. ‘He’s up?!’ Bill thought.

Then just as he was about to jump down the hole Bear King had created, Bill saw a blonde headed man fly in from the staircase. Deliberately aiming a kick to Ranse, who was nearest Nami, he was screaming out:

“NAMISWAN!”