Beloved Captain Ch. 1 Reunion[PG-16/IC/Started/Accepting]

[Piercer of the Heavens]

As Percy ran through the docks he saw a shadow within the fog, but a human one. So he quickly made his way until he was at the point to were he can see who it was. It turns out there was more than one person, Tsu Ruinna and Karim Hazem. "How-" Percy said before shaking his head. "Nevermind. Any idea on how to defeast these things, or even see at that matter." Percy asked both of them.

"Why yes" Karim replied. "Tsu" he said while putting his hand on her shoulder. "Your paper charms, can't they create some wind to blow this fog away?"

Tsu instantly replied, "Yes, yes the can." She took eight paper charms out and drew a [url="http://www.chinatownconnection.com/images/wind.gif"]symbol[/url] on each of them. She then laid them on the ground forming a circle pattern. She put her hands together as if she was going to pray and then yelled out "Ventus ring!" A slight draft at first could be felt coming from the circle, but soon a gust of wind shot out in all directions, scattering the thick fog. "It's clear now" Tsu stated with excitement. The three of them looked around only to see something terrifying. The crab monsters had taken over. There wasn't only a few of them, but thousands. Instantly the moral of the crew fell, facing something like this.

As the crabs began to surround the crew members the water began to bubble. Followed by a tower of water launching up into the air. From it a crab monster came out, but it was different. Unlike the other ones, this one was blue. He was also standing on top of the water. "All those that oppose us stand before me!" he commanded. "Now!"

Mostly everyone fighting was shocked that it could speak. "I say we do as it says" Percy yelled. "At least for now." Percy and the other two approached the blue crab, along with those that heard his command. Hopefully those that didn't hear Percy would do as the blue crab said, and join the group.

[Love of Ghibli]

Milli was quite amused he and Seouls massacre of food preparation. Everything was going according to plan. He had retracted the giant tree that his Chimera Cloth had becomed and watched as the two crabs fell over lifelessly with smoke coming out of their mouths showing that the luscious crab meat on the inside was cooked well. Milli smelled the air and faint scents of the his new dish lingered in the air mixing in with this fog. "What an interesting way to start the morning." Thanks to his fire the shadows were going to keep up so Seoul could continue her shadow ninja dance of death. Milli who had now become fully adept at fighting in this fog made his way to the roof where he could hear more beast gathering along the rooftops.

"Interesting and here I thought that I had to conserve on killing these beast. However if they are going to come at us with these numbers then I do not see the reason to be slightly more intense with my approach." Milli knelt down and took a runners start and he was about to charge at what would appear to be five crab monsters but he then stood up nonchalantly and gave a slight snicker. "Really those ninjas quite deadly." Just then all the crab beast that Milli was prepared to kill fell lifelessly to the ground and it was as if their exoskeletons had shattered. From behind Milli came the two pirate ninjas that he had engaged in combat with.

It was at that moment a large whistling wind came through and blew all of the seemingly troublesome mist away. "Hmmm I wonder which one of our comrades achieved this feat." Milli and the ninjas looked around nonetheless to say that they were all surprised at the vast amount of crabs there actually was. "Oh my we may actually be at this for a while..." Milli couldn't even finish his sentence before he and the ninjas were forced to turn around and bear witness to giant blue crab behemoth that demanded everyones attention. Milli and the ninjas quickly made their way as close to the creature as the could while still being able to dodge any attack if needed.

[ListenToLife]

Michael moved quietly throughout the city streets, listening out for anything suspicious. It was oddly quiet though, with little - if any - noise coming from his immediate area. Which confused him; he saw hundreds of the crab creatures - why were there none here? He could hear distant fights going on everywhere, but nothing in this particular area. Confused, he raised himself from a crouch and started to slowly stride towards the centre of a nearby clearing - a small park-like area in front of the city church. A short hypothesis that the 'holy powers of the church' were keeping them at bay swam through his mind, but he pushed it aside as almost laughable.

He walked around the clearing for a few minutes before the idea came back, but it was proven false as a women in oriental armour suddenly burst into the clearing, a single sword out as she jogged backwards, the other hanging at her sheath. Michael, having not noticed, had only chance to shout out "Rika...?!" before she collided with him, knocking them both to the ground. Following her had been a group of the crab creatures, a couple sporting various cut marks.

"My apologies, Michael." She said, smiling weakly before jumping away from him, retrieving her blade from the ground as the Crab-men entered the clearing, spreading out around them. Roughly 10 surrounded them now, even the few injured ones appearing stronger enough to break his spine like a twig.
Michael gulped and shook his head. "No apology necessary." He said, grinning. "You were pre-occupied." He followed with a short chuckled before focussing on the crab-creatures, having not drawn his blade.

"Michael, would it not be wiser to draw your blade at this point?" Rika pointed out, slightly worried his cockiness in the situation. It was never anything to be surprised about, but it was still rather worrisome. Did he think he could take on all of these creatures with his bare hand? Even her blades couldn't fully penetrate their shells, and he seemed to wish to take them on barehand.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leviathan watched the brother-master leaving with a sense of worry; there was danger here, and the snappy-food-monsters were not safe. He looked longing at the brother-master one more time before furrowing his face, and snapping his attention towards the snappy-food-monsters, determined to make himself useful. He could almost taste them here in the water, and they did seem rather delicious.

Leviathan's were the rulers of the sea, not these puny things. Well, at least from Leviathan's opinion. His face contorted into what could loosely be recognised as a smile, his teeth bared and his eyes bright. He watched the snappy-food-monster's moving towards the harbour, waiting for his chance. Which came as one of the larger ones tripped on a large rock, planting 'face' first into the ground. Laughing a little, the young Leviathan darted off, faster than the snappy-food-monster's could react to, and managed to sink his sharp teeth straight through the tough skin-that-is-hard of the monster, instantly killing the beast. He smiled to himself and rushed off to kill more of the delicious creatures, finding himself surrounded by them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Michael was still smiling, unaware of the similar situation that his pet had found himself in. He snapped his neck to each side, still grinning, and focussed his attention on one of the damaged crabs. "How strong do you reckon them claws are?" He asked Rika, obviously rhetorical as when Rika turned to answer him, he had already sped off towards the crab he had chosen. She looked at him for a moment, confused, before turning back to the creatures in front of her, his actions being enough to set them off.

He, meanwhile, had arrived next to his crab, ducking under the claws that were swiped at him. "You're very slow; perfect." He muttered, easily moving around the back of the beast. He leapt up onto the creature's shell and wedged his arms into small slits in the creature's armour, allowing him to keep his grip [i]and[/i] providing him a link to the nervous system, having found pressure points from which to control the beast. He grinned to himself for a second before applying pressure to these points, forcing the crab's arms to swing wildly. They almost immediately clamped around the two adjacent crabs, crushing them in half.
"I thought so." Michael muttered, proud of himself. "The sword is stronger than the shield, it seems."

[Piercer of the Heavens]

"Only when the shield is full of holes." Kibris responded to Michael's statement. Previously Kibris was trying to find out what was going on, but when he saw both Michael and Rika surrounded by the crabs he decided to help. "Now let me point out all the holes." he said as he raised his right hand. Two magic circles appeared from the ground, from them two [url="http://th08.deviantart.net/fs42/PRE/f/2009/088/3/8/Chess_Pkmn__Equinight_by_Esepibe.png"]familiars[/url] appeared. They didn't look like much, only standing at 3 feet each. "We got this" the white one said in a female child voice.

"Oh shut up." the black one said in a male child voice, but this one had an echoing sound to it. "You don't need o tell them what they already know." The black familiar began to run toward one of the crabs dodging a claw in the process. Once under it, it began to strike the joints of the crab with its lance; breaking off the four legs. As soon as the crab's body fell the black familiar attacked the joints that held the pincers to the body, breaking them as well.

"My turn!" the white familiar yelled charging toward another crab, this one had a few scratches on it. The white familiar leaped into the air thrusting its lance in between the point where the shell from above met the portion from below. The familiar pushed its lance down lifting up the shell, revealing what seemed to be white squishy meat. Before falling to the ground the familiar did a 180 in the air slamming its shield into the exposed portion. Although this didn't kill the crab it did knock it out.

[hr]

Some of the crew that fought began to approach the blue crab, readying for more fighting. "It is smart of you that you listened!" the blue crab yelled. "Now I propose you give up unless you want to die."

"You think this little amount of enemies can take us down" Percy responded. "Besides, it should be us saying that."

"I AM SPEAKING!" The blue crab yelled, followed by four more towers of water forming. From them four other crabs appeared, again different than the normal ones. These two were black, with red eyes. They then went to the side of the blue crab, two on each side. "Now I say we stop the bloodshed, I wouldn't want to harm any pitiful humans."

"You say that as if you were winning." Percy once again responded. "I don't know if you notice, but none of ours are down."

"Well I don't know if you notice, but those are the weakest of our kind." the blue crab stated. "Now I say we settle this with a duel. Four against four. These that are by my side against four of your-"

"We accept!" a female voice said, interrupting the crab. From a distance a girl could be seen flying, reaching the crew within seconds, it was Lélia. "Now who else is fighting with me?"

"A girl?" the crab said laughing. "If you wish to lose fine. Now pick the rest of your fighters. And while you do let me explain the rules to this duel. It will be one on one fights, after each battle the next in line will fight. This will continue until either side has no able fighters. Now be quick with choosing, and be smart too. You already lost one battle."

[encapturer]

Sharon ended up getting to the gathering a little late; only really noticing something was happening when the fog was lifted. The crab Soren and she were dealing with before fell easily enough to their combined might; though her strategy would not work as well with the fog no longer available. But when she noticed the blue 'leader' crab, she was in shock.

Something about it felt... odd... to her. She could not tell if it was really something wrong with it, or if it was merely reminding her of something else entirely. The way it spoke intrigued her as well. It wanted to gather all who were fighting against its grunts. She was nearing the gathering site now; and found out that the leader crab wanted to settle everything with a 4-on-4 duel.

[i]A chance...![/i] she thought. [i]Since he's trying to change the rules of the game, chances are that we can easily drive his army back![/I] She gave no thought to other reasons the crab may be doing this. They weren't human, after all. [I]There are many of them, but perhaps he is scared of something. All we need to do is to find the right way to aggravate him.[/i] Sharon was finally amongst her crewmates, and opened her mouth to speak...

Yet before she can, a "We accept!" pierced the air. It was Lélia, who somehow arrived at the gathering after Sharon did. Sharon could only sigh and shake her head. This was so like Lélia. On one hand, she was sure that her crew could easily win the contest; she could name a few members would would be easily suited for such battles. She felt like even she would do well, even without a fog and with one of her sword's enchantments not being tuned for her correctly. On the other hand... she had to prepare for the worst.

[I]Looks like I'll sit this one out,[/I] Sharon mused to herself. Win or lose, there was no way she was letting these crab creatures have their way.

[Love of Ghibli]

This advent of the giant crab beast had intrigued Milli to some extent, not because of its different color or ability to speak an understandable tongue more on the lines of how edible was it. Surely the amount of food that was now available to the crew and the towns folk was copious to put it mildly. But the amount of time it would take to single handedly kill these beast with these vast numbers was daunting to think about. [i]"Hmm what would be the most efficient manner to kill all of them, preserve the meat inside, and leave this town intact?" [/i]This question buzzed around in Milli's head like trying to figure out the answer to solving the Gordian knot puzzle. It was at this moment he over heard his captain and the beast exchange words. Interesting seeing as the pirate crew was scattered about in segments yet the synergy of the crew was top notch for people who hadn't seen each other in two years.

Milli listened in silence as the beast had proceeded to insult the crew, but luckily the new captain was quick with the retorts. Well more like factual information under the guise of retorts. "A four on four duel, how interesting, though I guess this would be the most efficient manner for them seeing as the grunts provide no contest even with their vast numbers. Though I don't see much difference in the physiology of these crab beasts outside of color and size. Is it really that much difference in power." Milli wanted to speak but then he couldn't help but hear the rambunctious little Leila stepping forth and accepting the challenge. His head dropped into a facepalm of course this is something she would do. Though her Herculean strength would be a major asset in the coming fight and it seems as if the crabs are looking down upon her.

In Milli's group was practically three ninjas and while ninjas specialize in combat this kind of upfront confrontation would not be the most efficient use of their skills. That and Milli's Chimera Cloth has enough unseen tricks in it that it should be able to relatively handle these beast. Milli then stepped forward and proceeded to say very loudly: "No this simply will not suffice how can we adults let children fight our battles for us. As this crew's resident chef it is my duty to vanquish you and repurpose the vast treasure trove of crab meat that dwells within those shells of yours. My only question is what side dishes would you like to be made into a soup or maybe lightly broiled and served over a plate of Jasmine rice?" Milli was quite knew to antagonization but it seemed to be quite a good plan to throw off the morale of these new black clad creatures. With his statement done he stepped back into the fold with his two ninja companions.

[Piercer of the Heavens]

"Well while you chose the rest of your fighter why don't we begin the first fight." the blue crab said as he pointed toward Lélia. With those words said one of the black crabs marched forward; Lélia followed. "Alright, remember this is a fight till either fighter is unable to fight. Begin."

Lélia hotheadedness quickly showed as she stabbed her sword on the ground and flew straight into the crab, using the speed of her flight to increase the damage of her punch. This was a good idea considering how skilled the other crabs were, too bad this crabs difference wasn't only it color. The crab was fast enough to not only dodge the punch, but to smack Lélia down mid-flight using his pincer. She was crushed face-down between the floor and the crabs pincer. It seemed that this fight was over. That is until Lélia could be seen sucking in air. That only meant one thing, she was about to do her strongest attack, Breath of Shadows. Lélia exhaled releasing a dark aurora from her mouth toward the ground with enough strength to un-trap her, by launching her into air. Once in the sky she again rushed the crab with a kick, but this time her limbs were covered in a dark aurora. This time though the crab grabbed Lélia leg and slammed her to the ground repeatedly. The crab then threw her toward Percy, where she laid he side unconscious.

"It seems that we win this round" The blue crab said laughing. "Bring out you're next fighter." With that the crab retreated and another took its place.

"You bastard, I wasn't going to join this fight, but it seems that you made this personal." Percy screamed as he picked Lélia up. "I will be the third fighter."

[Love of Ghibli]

Milli quietly approached as he had gathered a litany of information from watching Leila's oh so quick battle. Despite being so brief it did reveal the immense power class of these crab like monstrosities. They're speed was greater and for some odd reason they seemed to have excellent reflexes to go against one so small and still triumph victoriously. However while the crabs may have been stronger Leila's moves were far from efficient. In all honest the giant earth titan would have been a more appropriate choice if someone with pure muscle was needed. As Milli stepped forward he noticed his giant foe and was prepared to engage in combat. Unfortunately Leila never landed a successful hit on the creatures so he couldn't garner how strong their shells were. Though that shouldn't matter. He was barely using some of the finer points of his Chimera Cloth anyway. This would just require more force...hopefully that is all that this would require.

Milli and his opponent stood looking at each motionlessly for a couple of seconds and they didn't share any words. The black crab quickly drove his pincer down towards Milli and it seemed as if Milli had stood still and watched the crab attack miss but that was clearly Milli using his mastery of efficient movement to dodge the attack. He watched as the pincer dove into the ground making it quite a huge imprint for something for what Milli had gathered to be so little force. "Interesting, rather impressive I must say. Though to be honest I any creature that could do that to Leila there must have some strength behind it." The crab beast did not respond to this attack it simply continued attacking. This crab beast was steadily trying to hit Milli but it looked like Milli was effortlessly walking by the attacks. Eventually the crab beast grew tired of such futile efforts and did something rather smart he lifted a piece of the platform that Milli was fighting on and threw it at Milli. The area that this platform encompassed was far to vast to dodge and there was also the safety of the townspeople to consider. Milli quickly moved into action and revealed his Chimera cloth fully extended and with that the cloth begin to make a swirling pattern much like a hypnowheel and as it began to swirl it acted as a shield from this large chunk of platform. This large piece of cobblestone and cement collided with the force and much to Milli's surprise it sent him flying back. Sure the cloth was dense enough to stop the platform but it didn't stop the momentum. The crab creature nodded and grinned as he thought he had achieved victory in this battle.

It was at that moment a cloth spear struck directly at the giant beast head attempting to pierce it and end this fight immediately. Unfortunately the only thing that happened was that the crab beast was moved back into the water. The cloth barely even made a crack in the beast shell.Milli was seen walking from behind a building with his cloth in hand looking somewhat confused. "That was a lot more effort than I thought was needed and it didn't even do a dent. Milli began to run at the beast and threw one end of his cloth into the water. Like before it quickly branched out into tree roots and it firmed up so that Milli had a proper base to run on. The beast tried to swing at Milli while he was running on his cloth. Milli could only smirk as his cloth was being underestimated. The threads on the cloth grew small vines and locked Milli's feet in place. The cloth was seemingly blowing in the wind as Milli stood still. Milli's body was effortlessly dodging the attacks and this frustrated the beast. Even with his enhanced speed he couldn't hit Mill. Though Mill was getting a little agitated himself seeing as his cloth was not damaging this creatures shell. In fact the crab beast was swinging so violently it didn't even notice that the cloth was taking various shapes and attacking from various angles to kill the beat but nothing was working.

Milli had to focus and regain composure while he could keep this battle of attrition going on indefinitely, since he technically is standing still and his cloth is submerged in a large body of water, it doesn't matter if he couldn't break through his opponents defences. The mighty beast that is his Chimera cloth and this crab monster were simply going at it and as Milli closed his eyes he knew what he had to do. He let out a sigh as his chimera cloth knew what this meant. The cloth then attached itself to the bound it. The crab monster quickly found that it could not move but that was okay it would not be alive much longer. Milli walked nonchalantly up to the beast and his cloth launched him high into the air. As Milli seemed to descend behind the creature he was out of the line of sight for most of the crew. But within a few seconds he emerged from behind the beast floating on his cloth along the water's surface. The cloth let go of the beast and as he finally landed on the peer where his crew was he could be seen holding two small 7.5 inch knives. and as he regressed his cloth. His opponents was silent and then the beast screamed in pain as he was split in half from the top down. This fight was over.

Milli looked at the blue crab leader. "Silly crab this wasn't a fight, it was a meal." He quietly put up his signature knives and rejoined his ninjas. He grimaced in pain as that little flying trick into the building did a number on his body.

[Piercer of the Heavens]

Those who were watching were amazed at the spectacle Milli displayed. It was a flawless as ever, unlike most of the crew. "I guess it's my turn" Percy said as he handed Lélia's unconscious body to Karim. He slowly walked forwards along with one of the black crabs until they were only a few inches away from each other.

"Begin!" The Blue crab yelled.

With that the black crab swung its right pincer with extreme speed. Percy barely managed to block the strike by raising both his swords, but the force behind it was two much. Percy slid across the ground around 10 feet, leaving skid marks were he was. Although Percy had a serious face showing no pain, in reality he was in serious pain. His arms were aching from the block. "I must say, that is quite the strength you have there. I understand how you beat Lelia so quickly. But before you continue you should check your pincer, something looks off with it." Percy had a small grin on his face as he saw the crab look at his pincer.

There were two slashes on its pincer, but they weren't clean cuts. Instead they had a green puss surrounding them, indicating that the poison was dissolving the crab's armor. Although the poison was spreading extremely slowly do to the hardness of the shell, it was dissolving it. The crab then looked at Percy and charged him mimicking a punch with its right pincer. Percy easily dodged it now that he knew it coming and slashed the right pincer with both his swords. Although initially they bounced off the poison began to dissolve the shell. Although the bouncing of the swords did leave him open, enough for the crab to punch Percy with its left pincer. Unlike before Percy didn't have time to block the attack so he took the punch to the gut. Percy let out a yelp expressing his pain as he laid on top of the crabs pincer. The crab then opened his pincer and let Percy fall in, where his left pincer closed and trapped Percy. "Crap, I didn't see this coming." Percy said as he struggled to get out.

"Finish him." the blue crab yelled. "Split him in two."

Before the black crab could slice Percy in half, Percy slashed at the crab's right pincer, but unlike before is didn't bounce off. This time it went clean through, slicing the crabs pincer off. The pain was too much for the crab to handle, although it did not make a sound it let go of Percy. "There it's over.' Percy yelled at the blue crab. "Your warrior can't fight anymore."

"What do you mean!?" the blue crab yelled. "Our species are used to losing one limb, you think that something like that is going to finish off one of my elite wa-" before the crab could finish his sentence the black crab collapsed. "What!? How!?"

"As you saw in the beginning my sword has poison embed into it. It causes and organic material to break apart that come in contact with it, the only reason the effects of it were slow was because its shell was tough. Although once the dissolved through the shell, it entered the blood stream and started dissolving the crab from the inside out. Since there was no shell i was able to slash the pincer right off." Percy gave a smile to the blue crab before walking back to group checking up on Lélia, who was now waking up.

"Now hurry and choose your fourth fighter." The crab said trying to pretend the loss of another crab didn't faze him.