Debris fired off in a shrapnel volley of absolutely lethal proportions. Most of the Rum Runners had managed to protect themselves fairly well, even if they still took some amount of damage. The same could not be said for the exposed crew of the King Crab. Those who had been knocked out in the previous battle found themselves shredded, a number of them dying in an instant. Those that could still defend themselves dove for cover, but most had still been struck. Some died, some merely lost consciousness from pain and blood loss, but none came out of it unscathed. All the while John Krabbe stared in horror, mouth agape and unable to move. Saban was completely out of control, he had to be defeated! It was pure luck that Krabbe had met Saban at a time he had already been split up back when, so he was able to convince the man to join his ship and never come back together with great ease. Split into so many bodies, Saban was an idiot. But this... This might as well be a horrifying force of nature. What could he do? He had no armor, no weapon, his ship had been totalled, there was nothing he could fight back with! Krabbe closed his eyes and accepted the incoming cloud of death.
"Urk!" Krabbe's eyes jerked open when he felt no pain, yet heard a gasp of pain. One of his men stood directly in front of him, arms outstretched. He took the hit for his captain.
"No!" The sailor fell to the ground, bleeding badly and losing consciousness. What could he do?! His men were dying like flies and everything that made him strong had been taken away from him!
Meanwhile, the Red Rum pirates were already hard at work with their counterattack. Kite had managed to completely avoid the attack altogether, performing a Yoshi maneuver with one of the bounty hunters to leap clear over Saban's thrown shrapnel. The craftsman came spinning down at the behemoth of a man with wrenches extended like some sort of bludgeoning helicopter, and the waru waru man took notice. He laughed a hearty laugh, throwing a single hand out to catch his attacker. He snagged Kite's left wrench with his bare hand, then prepared another fist to end the shipwright's life in one blow.
Splat! Oil from Slick struck Saban's fist before he plowed it into Kite's body. "What the-Ow! That kinda hurt!" In his confusion of the oil, Kite's second wrench arm completed its swing and clocked Saban in the side of the head. It seemed to inconvenience their foe more than anything, but it was enough for him to release Kite altogether and distract him long enough for more oil to cake itself onto his body, hindering his movements.
"Look sir. They're... Fighting back." Krabbe looked down. The man that had taken the attack for him was able to talk, albeit barely.
"They're gonna die. We're all gonna die. Saban is a freak, born and trained in the Grand Line. None of us can stand up to that."
"Yet they're making... A difference."
"Waru waru defense!" The oil Slick had been gooing up Saban with began spreading, multiplying from the use of the man's powers. As the mass of oil increased, its stickiness value diluted until it all completely slid right off of his body. All but one little bit in the palm of his hand, which he flung straight for Slick's flamethrower. "And Recall!" All the excess oil vanished in an instant, reconstituting into the original oil that Slick had used to trap up Saban. The gunk now covered up Slick's flamethrower and rendered it useless, at least for now. Still, he had gotten some fire out and Saban's chest had clear scorch marks.
"No," Krabbe shook his head. "They're only delaying it. He's too strong. Stronger than me, even with my armor and my claw. And he destroyed those."
That's when Lilliana was able to enact her plan. An ingenious little device she had tinkered up, she fired the grappling hooks charged with electricity while simultaneously being able to make her escape. Since Saban was focused on the ground, he failed to notice the aerial attack. The wires hit their marks and coiled on him, but he stood strong. Then the current flowed through, shocking him good. "AAAAAAGH!" The burn Slick put on his chest was worsening, agitated by the flow of electricity. The hair of his arms stood on end and his teeth chattered. "NO!" bellowed the giant. He grabbed hold of the wires, fighting against the current, and with one thunderous yank snapped the coils in twin. He had freed himself of being pinned, and the shock, but couldn't react to what happened next.
As the wires snapped, a cannon burst through from below deck, pointed straight for Saban. Still fatigued from the electrical current, still reeling from his power move, the cannon shot its ammunition directly at him, nearly point blank. Metal struck flesh as the fruit user was shot in the gut. He doubled back, spitting up at least two gallons of blood in the process while the cannonball fell limp to the deck.
"Looks like they're... Doing well."
"... Yeah. Yeah, you're right."
"They still need... Your help."
"There's nothing I can do without my-"
"How did you... Get... That armor?"
"I killed a giant monster crab. You know that, you were there."
"Did you have... Armor then?"
"Kookiookiooki, of course not, I hadn't killed it yet-OhmygodIseeyourpoint."
"YOU WILL ALL BE CRUSHED BENEATH DIVINE JUSTICE!" Saban wrenched the two grappling hooks from his flesh, pulling a nice bit of blood out with them, then began flinging the hooks around by the broken end of wires, striking anything and everything in reach. All the Red Rums, the surviving bounty hunter crew, the trashed infrastructure of the ship, absolutely everything. Caesar cried out in a roar and charged forward beneath the hook-whips, machete drawn. The half-mink was able to reach the giant man's underside, unnoticed, and stab his weapon straight down, pinning the foot in place and causing tremendous pain. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! SPLIT! SPLIT!" And on command his foot split into two slightly smaller feet, right around the machete blade. They reformed into a single foot again in a different position, no longer pinned down or stabbed, but still injured. It seemed that injuring any splits didn't affect the whole once they were recalled, injuring the whole itself still carried injuries forward.
Caesar let out a massive burst of electro into the leg he hadn't yet injured, sending the second electrical current of the day into Saban. He let out another scream of agony, coughed up a second helping of blood, then fell to his knees, hanging his head down in front of Caesar. The man wasn't moving, but his breathing couldn't be heavier, more forced. Then just as it looked like they had beaten this nigh unstoppable foe, out of nowhere with surprising speed Saban headbutt Caesar right in the face. The half-mink was sent flying back as Saban rose to on foot and swung both hooked whips at Caesar in middair. They would have connected too, but were intercepted... By John Krabbe.
The bounty hunter stood between Saban and others, grasping both wires in his two hands. "Let go," Saban commanded.
"No." His response was so simple, so short, yet it carried great weight.
"I said LET GO!" With a mighty heave Saban yanked back on his weapons, but neither they nor Krabbe had moved.
"I said 'no.'"
"Impossible! Nobody is stronger than me! I am Shotaro Saban! I am Divine Justice!" He tugged again with all his might, fruitlessly. Krabbe chuckled.
"You are weak. These pirates took a lot more out of you than you'd care to admit. They did the same for me, but I've still got some juice left in my batteries. But you, Saban? You're done for." The bounty hunter's words were punctuated by the sound of a gunshot, along with the words "Explosive shot!" Saban struggled to turn around, to catch sight of Cedric D. Boone, but he couldn't fight back against Krabbe's grip. Fearful, Saban released his makeshift weapons to turn around. That's when four cannons fired at the same time, every one directed straight for him.
"I can dodge that!" Saban tried to jump to the side, but found his feet wouldn't move. Confused he glanced down to find that a large amount of sticky oil had pooled up around his legs, cementing him in place. He hadn't gotten rid of as much of Slick's oil as he originally thought. "No! NO! WARU WARU NO-"
BOOM! Before he could complete his split, all four cannonballs collided with Saban. Teeth flew from his mouth, blood sprayed out, bones cracked and snapped, and all this occurred as his body contorted backward from the force. His legs firmly cemented in place, the floor snapped and flew up with him. Shotaro Saban, as well as a good amount of the upper deck, blasted off into the sky.
"REEEEEEECAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL!" And then he was gone. Only oil and wood flew through the sky as the entire man completely disappeared from sight. Did he... Did he have another body split off somewhere, to keep him safe? Well, that didn't matter now. Saban was gone, Krabbe's men had been defeated, and the bounty hunter had given up trying to attack them. The battle was over.
"Whew!" John Krabbe fell over, completely exhausted. He couldn't move an inch even if he wanted to. Even though Saban was so critically injured, it still took every last ounce of strength he had left to keep that monster restrained.
