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As the group travelled further inland, they soon went away from the docks and came into a slightly more pleasant atmosphere. As they came into the town itself, there were stalls littered everywhere with people trying to make a profit off of whatever they might have had laying around, or in some cases, offering food, drinks, and Vance even saw someone offering a tour of the island somewhere. It was by a guy with an eyepatch, a scowl on his face and a sword at his belt though, so he quickly shuffled along, keeping near Kuzo and Morgan while glancing around the market.
He peered over at Lotte who began to skip along, happily chirping away about buying dresses and all kinds of nonsense. Vance couldn't help but smile a little at her innocence, but he hurried up next to her to lightly pat her on the shoulder, not wanting to grab onto her in case she started shouting at him.
"Hey, Lotte, be careful, okay? Don't wander too far off, this is a -really- dangerous town. There's alot of bad guys around, so be sure to stay somewhere near us." He muttered under his breath, so that none of the supposed 'bad guys' would hear him and be offended. He perked a little up as he heard shouting behind him and turned around to see Morgan looking... rather angry, and Kuzo just messing about with a stall.
Uh-oh... He proceeded over to the two, standing near Kuzo while glancing between the two. Apparently Morgan wanted that fight Kuzo had promised him, and Kuzo was... not getting a hint at all. Vance was surprised Morgan even -tried- to make it a hint and not just outright saying it to him. His eyes widened a little as Morgan conjured up a fireball which he threw towards Kuzo, but Vance had seen the man stepping into the line of fire (Literally!) before then.
Deciding to leave the making-up with the firey-butt-pirate to Kuzo and Morgan, Vance turned around again to watch Lotte once more just skipping happily away, headed deeper into town. He winced and stepped forwards while raising his voice. "Lotte, wait! Don't go anywhere, please!" His voice was more pleading than demanding, he wasn't the type to be demanding things off of others, he was just hoping she'd listen.
However, as fate would have it, she apparently didn't hear him over the ruckus now going on, so he picked up speed as she shuffled in between the crowd that had gathered around the small town square-type area. Just as Vance was about to squirm between the people in the crowd to catch up with her, he heard Kuzo behind him. "Sure do. I'm his Captain. I'm also the Captain of Tunnak, Vance, Lotte, Mason, Leon, Skellen, Bass..."
Turning around, he saw Kuzo pointing towards him, Vance's face quickly paling as the pirates in question had now turned to look at him, looking particularly angry, or well, at least some of them did. "... Eh? Eh?!" With his eyes wide in realization of what was happening, he quickly spun around again, sprinting for the crowd to try and go after Lotte. However, a pair of men, a few heads taller than Vance, placed their hands on his shoulders and shoved him backwards. Both of them were wielding weapons in their hands, one had a large club and the other a sword.
Vance stumbled a little backwards, arching his neck as he peered after Lotte, who'd now been lost out of sight. He didn't even see if any pirates had followed her. He turned his attention back to the two in front of him, taking a step or two back. "H-hey now, let's all calm down here! It was just a simple misunderstanding, right? We can talk this out! Right? ... Right?"
The man with the club took at step forward, grinning down with malicious intent at the smaller Vance. He raised his club above his head. "No chance! This is what ya get for messin' with the Cap!" He cried out, wildly swinging down his club with the intent to fatally harm Vance. The other man with the sword, who was missing most of his teeth, elected to charge in as well, wildly flinging his swords as well, trying to slice him up.
"I didn't mess with anyone!" Vance yelped as he hopped backwards, the club flying down, slamming into the ground which Vance could feel through his feet. As the other guy began swinging his sword around in an attempt at hitting him, Vance was forced to duck, roll, tumble and generally keep moving to avoid being sliced up by the aggressive man.
"Liar!" The man with the club roared, grunting as he tried to remove the club from the hole in the ground he created with his slam. After pulling on the weapon a few times, he finally managed to pull if out and raise it over his head victoriously. His vision returned to the evading Vance as he glared the man down. "No one messes with the Strays!" He announced, and ran back in to try and swing the club at Vance's head in the hopes of removing it. The sword swinger in the meantime began growing bold with his cuts, wildly swiping from one side of his body to the other, extending his cuts to a wider range.
Unfortunately, both the club pirate and the swordsman now came in range of each other with their own attacks without realizing it. While the man with the club now prepared to hit Vance in the head, a huge motion of the sword struck at him on his side of his torso, causing him to yelp in pain and flail. As a reaction to the hit, the clubbed man swung his weapon wildly from the pain, and accidentally hit his comrade on the back of the head. The sword man's teeth smashed together and his eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his body, before he fell forward, presumably knocked out. The clubbed man, meanwhile, fell to the ground and clutched his side.
Sena Albert, who had been deciding who she should take a smack at, saw two of her nakama fall to her side by the 'evil' pirate they were facing. Having not seen the two take each other out before, she angrily approached Vance.
"Vino! Shek!" She cried out her comrades' names. Her eyes were worried and sympathetic, but as they turned to Vance, they became enraged. "You're heartless! Those were my friends, my nakama!" She yelled, bringing her giant mallet from down at her side to over her shoulder, ready to swing the heavily dense object toward her new opponent.
Vance had come to a stop as the pirates began wrecking each other rather than himself, just watching the two collapse into a heap with his mouth hanging slightly open.
L... lucky. How stupid can you be to knock each other out like that?!
Just then, his eyes turned to the woman storming towards him, grasping the large hammer with both of her hands, Vance's eyes quickly widening as he turned towards the rapidly approaching girl, bringing up his hands in front of him in a vain attempt at trying to calm her down. "W-whoa, hey hey hey, no! I didn't do anything, they hit each other!"
Vance's words didn't seem to register with Sena, who rushed forward, trying to slam her hammer right over the head of her opponent. She took another step forward, but had somehow slipped her foot along the body of her comrade that she
somehow managed to avoid seeing during her tirade, and barely managed to avoid hitting Vance in front of her. The hammer instead slammed down at the ground right before him, but it quickly showed the intensity at which this woman was somehow capable of wielding such a large weapon in her form.
The ground broke apart instantly and collapsed, cracks forming around the place of impact before it broke down and sank below. A sizeable hole of about a meter wide now encompassed the area of impact. "Grr...you're fast!"
After having jumped back from the attack that, thanks to her slipping, he saw coming a mile away, Vance stared at the massive impact the hammer-wielding girl had made on the ground in front of her. "But you-" he started, but quickly shut up, clenching his jaw.
There's no way around it. These guys only see what they want to see, and if I get hit by that thing... He swallowed down and brought his hands up in front of himself, one hand slightly in front of the other with his fingers seeming ready to grab an invisble ball being thrown at him, taking a deep breath.
If you want to be a pirate, you have to act like a pirate! And acting like a pirate means fighting other pirates. No matter how innocent they look.
Sena grunted and lifted the hammer above her head again, charging forward while screaming something along the lines of a war cry. She began to bring her weapon down, trying to hit her opponent from above. This time, she didn't slip, her hit becoming more precise and sharp, and her hammer came down much swiftly.
As the girl raised her hammer again, Vance spread his legs slightly apart, one being further in front of the other, and his breath became more controlled, looking less panicky in general. He watched her as she charged towards her, the hammer moving quickly through the air. As it made it's way down towards him, he exclaimed "Soru!" and disappeared in a blur of motion, the hammer crashing onto the ground where he had been standing a moment ago, creating another heavy impact.
Before Sena could even register what had happened, Vance appeared again off to her right in mid-air with his leg drawn back, swinging it through the air while shouting "Rankyaku!" which sent a semi-transparent, dull blade of 'force' flying towards the girl, the kick causing Vance to spin around himself once, before landing on the ground, ready to resume his attack.
Sena found herself in shock as Vance appeared to have disappeared in front of her, before reappearing and sending some sort of attack which swept her off her feet, and flung her down. She crashed onto the ground, her hammer flinging further away from her to the right, out of her reach.
"Oww," She groaned, unable to fully comprehend what had just happened to her. She pushed herself off the ground with a bit of trouble, but soon found herself facing her opponent again. Reluctance set in as she found herself against someone she didn't quite know how to beat, or how to fight. All she ever knew was how to handle her hammer, and he seemed to fight it off rather successfully. She tried to put all of that out of her head, and strike again.
She shook her head, and ran forward, charging in at Vance again with her arms raised above her head, prepared to hit him again...before she realized, as she brought down her hands toward the man's head, that she forgot to pick up her hammer again.
Giving a confused blink, Vance didn't quite know what to expect from the girl running at him with her hands raised as if she was still wielding her hammer. Her hand flew through the air, and even though she wasn't wielding the hammer, the stunned Vance simply watched her as her bunched-up hands was brought down on top of his head, which prompted him to duck a little before raising his hands to rub his head where she'd hit him.
"Gh! Ow! Look, I don't want to fight you! And you've lost your weapon! So... so just give up already!" He said, still rubbing the top of his head.
"Eh? What the..." She looked around for her weapon, but through the other fights and crowd of people around, she couldn't spot it anywhere. "Oh man..." She turned her gaze straight to Vance's eyes, and fell onto her knees. "Alright, then, just make it quick," She said, presenting her neck to him.
"Wha-" Vince started, his eyes widened a little as the girl fell to her knees and bared her neck, apparently ready to die at a moment's notice. Vance felt conflicted. On one hand, he wanted to prove to the others of his crew that he was truly a pirate and ready to commit to this new way of life. On the other hand... he wasn't ready to take another's life. Especially over such a stupid thing!
Looking uncertain for another few moments, Vance finally raised his right arm without a word
and jabbed his hand swiftly downwards, two fingers stretched out. His fingers jabbed Sena in the neck, knocking Sena unconcious, leaving her toppled over on the ground. He placed his hands at his sides and took a deep breath, having forgot he was still in the middle of a battlefield.
I can't believe that just happened... are we going to meet alot of... weirdos like these guys further on? He glanced down at the downed girl again, raising a hand to brush his fingers through his hair.
At least she'll get to keep going. Maybe we'll even meet again at some point. Turning away from the downed people, dashing off towards the crowd watching on, in an attempt at finding Lotte.
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