Asus just barely dodged the blade aimed at his chest and knew he was in serious trouble. He had no fighting skills outside his DF powers and his only purely offensive move wasn't exactly made for close range, not to mention he was running low on hornets. The situation didn't improve at all when the other members showed and a couple of marines dropped nets in an attempt to catch them.

His opponent commenting on it did give Asus an opening to use Bachi Bachi no Kamen. He sent out ten hornets with the order to not only cover the swordsman's face and blind him, but also too crawl into his mouth if possible. Asus actually didn't like to use that version of Kamen since it had a good chance of killing both the target and any hornets that got into their mouth, since if the roof of someone mouth got stung it would swell up potentially causing suffocation and crushing of hornets.

---

Total number of hornets in Asus' body is 75. Number of hornets used for combat 50, hornets currently in use 40/50, dead hornets 0/50

Things were starting to get crazy pretty quickly. They had barely gotten on the island and already they were starting a fight with the marines. As Lenwood, Satoru and Zypha made their way up the trail they were suddenly ambushed by marines up in the trees. They were being rather tricky little buggers as four nets, two on each side of the trail, tried to capture the pirates.

They had been too busy trying to find the marine base and their companions so they had been caught unawares, but Zypha had quick reflexes and a keen mind to keep her safe. Zypha jumped up in the air, hurled a chain-scythe into a big tree branch and swung herself out of harm's way, narrowly missing being caught like a fish in a net. "Looks like they have some brains at least, but ya missed your chance to pin this one down, now come here!"

Continuing her swing she climbed up into the trees on the right side of the path, surprising a few hidden marines who did expect someone to join them up in the tree. She quickly charged them with remarkable balance, wielding her scythes to great effect as she started to slash at the marines while attempting to knock them out of the tree and onto the ground. The battle was on!

'Tch...I knew it,' Satoru grumbled to himself in his mind when a few Marines revealed their presence to them from the sides by tossing down the nets. 'Shoulda kept my distance like I wanted to.' Had he really wanted to, he probably could have escaped the nets somehow. Especially if he was able to get hold of some kind of sturdy material, like the handles of the pistols that were being carried by one of their crewmates right now. He would be able to coat himself in the material and break himself out. The forest path below wouldn't do because it was covered in either dirt or grass: materials he couldn't copy. But if he did that, then he would be giving something away, his Devil's Fruit ability. And it would probably be very beneficial for all of them if he kept the Marines out of the know for now. It could be a good trump card to pull later.

So instead of escaping the net, he instead chose to stay where he was and not even try to avoid them. He looked up at the falling nets, grunting as they fell down upon him and dragged him off of his feet and onto the ground. However, there was a way he could assist his allies from here, regardless of his own captivity. Thanks to his observant nature, he had managed to spot the nets as they came down...and was more than able to pinpoint which trees they'd come from, which he couldn't guarantee that the others knew. Zypha or Lenwood, it didn't matter who heard what he had to say. Anybody who was free to attack could still do something. "Hey Captain," he said, looking to see if Lenwood had been caught or not. However, by the time he'd gotten his words out, Zypha seemed to already be on it. So, he amended his words accordingly. "The nets came from the trees on the opposite side too. Don't forget the ones hidden on that side."

He sounded rather calm, despite being trapped in a net he wouldn't be able to break out of without outside help. That would mainly be because he felt comfortable in letting his companions take care of this. They'd more than proven themselves already, after all.

Of course, if Lenwood had been caught as well, he would add, "...If you can, anyway." Otherwise, he'd remain silent and wait for him to respond.

Lenwood's eyes stared directly to the front, only the front was caught on his eyesight. He spotted few marines on the distat but he did not notice anything and everything happened quickly. His ears were twitching when he heard metals clashed together and the sound of something went uncontrolled. He stopped himself and turned his head only to find everything was a mess. Satoru was trapped in a net and he saw Zypha was doing an acrobatic show. Lenwood was dumbfounded, "Did something happen?" He really was too ignorant and could not notice that they were being ambushed by a group of marines. Without any hesitation, he pulled the net that covered Satoru. It was quite heavy but he managed to move it slowly. He dragged the net, letting the upper body of Satoru to come out. "Where does these nets come from?" He inquired.

Thanks God, Satoru was able to refresh Lenwood's mind. Satoru mentioned about the nets coming from the trees and he realized that this was part of a planned action rather than an incident. After he's done with Satoru, he moved himself up on the trees. His hands were clinging on the branch while he tried to pull his body up. When he managed to balance himself on the branch, he noticed there were hidden marines. "So, you are the ones who use these nets. How dare you!" Lenwood surprised them as he delivered a kick onto the face of one of the hidden marines.

"Did that work?" Abigail blinked down at the marine she struck down. It was hard to believe but the body at her feet and the wet red liquid on her blade meant it was impossible to continue doubting further what the end result of her attack had been. "I didn't think it would be that easy." Her stomach lurched at the thought and she was completely unaware of the attack coming towards her.

It was hard to tell what it was exactly that brought the swinging blade to her attention. Perhaps there was a glint of light in the corner of her eye, or maybe she noticed a change in the air around her. Whatever the reason was it came just in time. The slicing blade rushed towards Abigail. With a yelp she raised her blade up to parry the attack, which was successful as far as not finding herself cut in half was concerned, but her grip wasn't the best and the blade sailed out of her hand and landed in a sand dune a few yards behind her.

The face of the Marine who attacked Asus was covered in bees, and blinded. Seven bees managed to leave his mouth, but three of them were crushed in the man's mouth as his mouth went shut and he suffocated, collapsing on the ground. The man who assaulted Abigail didn't stop his assault. He readied his blade yet again, slashing horizontally at her chest.

The marines who were on the right side of the path were completely surprised by Zypha's quick moves. There appeared to be only two of them. They attempted to scurry away to other trees, but Zypha outspeeded them and cut them down with her scythes.

As Lenwood climbed the tree, he was soon greeted by a rifle aimed at his face. Before the man was capable of pulling the trigger, Lenwood had already kicked him out of the tree. The man crashed head-first into the ground, knocked out instantly. The last remaining marine who was near Lenwood, in the tree on the left side of the path, took aim at Lenwood with his rifle. He fired a bullet at Lenwood's chest.

While Asus was relieved he managed to beat the marine, he didn't like that he had to resort to killing another person. Not that he had a lot of time to think about what he did as Abigail was in serious trouble. Since he didn't want to have to kill or risk losing any more of his hornets he could think of only one thing to do.

He took out the unloaded pistol he stole back in Arlen's Bar and aimed it at the remaining marine just after they were done trying to slice Abi's chest open. "Why don't you drop the sword?

---

Total number of hornets in Asus' body is 75. Number of hornets used for combat 50, hornets currently in use 37/50, dead hornets 3/50

"Damn it." Abigail shouted as she turned back to watch her sword said off behind her. "Stay in the moment. That's what the books always say. Stay in the moment." She turned her attention back to her opponent, realizing she'd broken the primary rule again as the sword flew towards her chest. "God damn it!" She shouted as she twisted her body away so the blade didn't cut her open. Instinctively she pulled away and lost her balance when the back of her foot came into contact with a small dune and she fell backwards.

"A time out wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility would it?" Abigail said as she scrambled backwards in the sand. She stopped when she heard Asus threatening the marine with a gun. "I bet you wish you would've taken the whole time out thing now, don't you." She tried to smile something confident but the fact she still kept going backwards betrayed her nerves.

Lenwood was utterly shocked by the sudden shot from a marine. The range of fire was so close and Lenwood could die at that moment. Thanks God, his reflex was being quick and Lenwood generated five strings from his hand, easily blocked the incoming bullet. He disliked the idea of the marines seeing his true power. It was no time for mercy, Lenwood slashed the marines around with his strings, inflicting severe cuts that can cause death. He would not stop until the marines die, he did not want anyone to see him in his devil fruit ability. He did not worry for the other teammates to see as he noticed they were busy with their own plans and he did his technique in secrecy. "Time to die, shitty faces!" Lenwood exclaimed.

"H...Hey, don't shoot!" The Marine shouted, who had Asus's gun aimed at his face. He stopped his sword mid-swing before it reached Abigail and dropped it. The marine who had fired upon Lenwood in the tree had been ripped to shreds by Lenwood's attack. The battlefield was now eery quiet, besides the panic breathing that the Marine was doing.

Yami Hubreez's scruffy voice howled through the trees as if it were the sound of god himself musing over the pitiful actions of Lenwood's little crew of misfit pirates. Truth be told, he was standing several yards away, behind a large collection of trees, watching as he men were torn asunder by the combination of raw melee skill, and devil fruit prowess. Needless to say, he wasn't too happy about that, but what did Yami have to worry about? These pirates weren't going to be a match for his elite navy troops, especially when they were funded by the nearby Village's hard earned gold! Foolish Pirates! They should take their idiotic ideals and turn right the hell around, back where they came from!

"Why don't you take your cute little crew, and back the hell out of my territory, before I lay down some mortality on your worthless asses!" Yami roared, revealing himself in the distance, and blocking their path. "I guarantee you're gunna be havin' one hell of a hurtin' if you keep going forwards, pests!"

Yami talked a lot of smack for a high ranking Navy official, despite the fact that he rarely ever had to fight against the likes of pirates. His position was cushy, but he wasn't worthless, especially not with his 4 fellow high ranking Navy officers by his side, several of which were still guarding their HQ behind where Yami stood. The arrogant, self-centered officer glared at Lenwood and his pirate crew, waiting for them to turn their asses around and go back to where they came from. Of course, there was no guarantee they would do that, or even consider Yami a threat.

A small man appeared next to Yami with a wide grin on his face. "Looks like a bunch'a STINKIN LOSERS if ye ask me, Cap'n! Heheheh! Gunna be fun to cut em up!" Lenny muttered, rubbing his hands. The man seemed rather excited. He was looking forward to cut up Lenwood and his companions, and take his time doing it. "I sure hope they keep coming!" He shouted, jumping up and down. The man remained on a safe distance next to his captain as he spoke all this, however.

Asus was glad the Marine fell for his bluff. While he was willing to kill in combat if necessary, he knew he probably couldn't bring himself to kill someone out of combat except to save another person's live. He didn't get to remain glad for long though as he heard someone threating them to leave the island.

The yeller was no doubt tough seeing as he could probably tell what happened to the other marines and still felt confident enough to make threats.When Asus looked over in the direction the yelling came from he saw two people both of them no doubt tougher then the marines they just beat. Knowing he might be in a tough fight soon the navigator ordered his hornets to return and they immediately did, except for the ten he sent out as long distance scouts. Those would unfortunately take a while longer.

---

Total number of hornets in Asus' body is 75. Number of hornets used for combat 50, hornets currently in use 10/50, dead hornets 3/50

Satoru looked on as the events all around him began to reach their conclusion. Ever since Lenwood had pulled that net off of him, he had been simply standing around and watching. It wasn't like there was anything he could do right now anyway. He had no weapons and nothing to coat with. Lenwood was obscured, so he couldn't see what he was doing very well. But it wasn't difficult to make out the red spray falling from those trees. He shook his head slightly and groaned. He had been hoping to avoid fatalities, as some of these marines were merely doing their jobs or trying to keep themselves alive from an abusive commander. He made a mental note to bring this up to his crewmates later.

Once the situation started to die down, however, the real thread suddenly appeared in front of them. The loud shout attracted his attention, as well as the attention of his crewmates...or so he assumed at least. So, was this the captain of the base here? He couldn't deny the fact that this guy might just be a commander, but he supposed the assumption was reasonable enough. He certainly did have that kind of air about him. On top of that, the smaller man that stepped up to his side called him "Captain." While he supposed it was possible that he was lying, he had his doubts.

He knew better than to think too lowly of this captain. He knew the strength of the Marines first-hand. And while base Captains were usually nothing to write home about, they were still in a whole separate league from the usual ensign grunts. He silently kicked himself for being so foolish as to not study the current chain of command more closely than he had. He didn't recognize this man, so he couldn't identify his name or potential abilities. How could he have overlooked something that would have been so valuable?

"Be careful guys, Captains are not to be underestimated. Sure, they're not in the Admiral ranks yet, but that doesn't mean they can't be dangerous." he finally said aloud, advising his crewmates on caution. "I would recommend waiting him out and see what his strengths are. From what I know, most Captains like him don't hesitate to start with guns blazing. Sometimes literally."

As soon as he was done with his mini-stratagem discussion, he turned to look at Asus. He needed something to work with. At the moment, he had nothing that he could use to coat himself with. The forest path was all shifty dirt and the trees were still alive, so he couldn't use the bark either. But, he knew that the Hive Human wouldn't need a pistol like the one he had pointed at the Marine soldier. Especially not when he would have to spend the extra time reloading the gun. "Hey, Asus right?" he said. He was pretty sure that that was the name he had heard back on the ship anyway. "Mind tossing that my way? I could probably make some good use out of it."

Abigail retrieved her blade and hurried to stand by her fellow pirate. There was yelling coming from far off. She leaned forward, narrowing her eyes to get a better look. "Whose that? He doesn't look familiar to me, but he's talking as if he's someone everyone should know." She scratched the tip of her nose and took a step forward. "He's definitely a marine." She turned back to the guy, arching an eyebrow. "Should we go see what's going on with him?"

She didn't wait for a reply but started moving towards the guy who was yelling. "We need supplies so we're going to have to deal with them sooner or later." She stopped and thought about it for a second. "Unless there's something further up this trail we could use?" She turned back to Asus and put her hands on her hips. "What do you think? I'm on the fence with them, but I"m sure its better we stay together because who knows how many other marines are on the island. "

Zypha took only one look at the sliced up marines to make sure they were not in any position to shoot her in the back and then descended from the trees. As she had thought all she really had to worry about was her opponents as the rest of the crew managed to take out their enemies one way or another. "Barely put up a fight, guess we'll be seeing what the rest are capable of."

She joined the other crew members and glared at the marine captain and his lackey who were now standing in their way. "Mortality my foot, I already know about mine, guess Mr. Big Shot forgot about his own." While the village had brought out her 'kind' side, the marine captain very quickly pulled out her cruel side. Zypha gave her scythe a quick look over, some blood still left on the blades from her previous assault.

She smiled thinly at the sharp edges, "He seems stupidly confident," she turned to the other crew members and continued, "we should rush em now before help can arrive. They must have some skill, so taking them out will make the rest of the job a lot easier."

Lenwood finished his business in few sweeps. He was quite proud of himself and he sat at the branch of the trees, waiting for the others. A loud voice could be heard from the distant, a tough-looking marine guy appeared few meters in front of Lenwood and his mates. The marine had a companion that stood beside him, it seemed both of them had been a couple for a long time. Lewnood began to make a joke out of it,



Lenwood shouted on top of his lungs so all who present could hear him including his crew mates. Previously, he caught few words from the officer, something about laying mortality? Lenwood chuckled at the idea and he began to play around the branch. He showed the marines that he did not consider them as a threat, maybe not yet.

Zypha expressed her opinion and Lenwood caught Abigail's motivation to rush forward from afar. Once again he shouted, this shout was aimed towards Asus and Abigail.



Lenwood jumped down from the branch and wiped out any dust from his clothes. He smiled at the situation and suddenly, he turned his back and ran away, retreating from anyone's sight. He had a plan on himself. "WE'LL RETREAT!!!! EVERYONE, FALL BACK!"

He thought that it would scare the rest of the crew mates as they saw their captain running away, he would be marked cowardly. The marine might laugh out loud. Lenwood disappeared from their sight and faded away into the back of a tree. A gush of wind appeared suddenly. Lenwood jumped from trees to trees, heading at fast speed towards the marine officers. He made an epic entrance while the leaves blown into the air. He passed Zypha, Satoru, Asus, and Abigail, leading them in front.



"WHAT ARE YOU GUYS WAITING FOR?" He shifted his attention towards his crew mates as he maneuvered through trees. At that moment, he emitted an intimidating aura.

Yami stared at Lenwood blankly for a moment when he commented on his apparent relationship with Lenny. It didn't bother him all that much despite the fact that they were DEFINITELY not dating. But that little pirate had a lot more coming to him than a slap on the wrist if he kept up his tone. "Lenny, head back to the base. Alert the crew that we've got ourselves some-" Before he could finished talking to Lenny, the pirate leader ordered a retreat and sprinted into the thickness of the forest. "Ehhh?!? W-Well! Looks like we wont have to deal with them after-" Just as quickly as he'd been relieved to see the pirates running off though, Yami turned his head towards an approaching Lenwood who launched himself at him through the trees. Yami grit his teeth and shoved Lenny away. "Go now Lenny!" He shouted, jumping out of Lenwood's way.

Lenny ignored Lenwood's statement as he claimed that he and his captain had a relationship. He smirked as Lenwood charged at himself and Yami. He jumped to the left, out of Lenwood's way. He listened to his captain's orders. "Ye got it cap'n! Can't wait to mess with em...heh heh.." Lenny muttered, and bolted off down the forest path behind Yami. Some dirt and dust bursted out of the ground behind him as he speeded off. He appeared to be much faster then the average person. Before anyone could do anything to stop him, Lenny was already far away into the distance. Of course, he wasn't moving at the speed of light or anything as such, as everyone could still follow his movements. Regardless, he was still quite agile and quick.