Doctor- Doctor! Challenges in Conomi!

'Ya mon' Came the baritone that was the jellyfishman's voice. As the new adversary complied with his superior's orders, Darius watched uneasily as the fishman, known as Serin, advanced. Meanwhile, the leader ran off; in his place another fishman.

Woah. Huge jellyfish on some kind of drug...crap - he stings!

Taking in the odd sight of the jellyfishman, Darius deduced that the thick accent coating the new target's voice was down to some kind of drug. He had given his gang of thieves some 'magic leaves' a man with a gourd was offering for pitiful prices when food was running low, and their effects had altered his old nakama's voices. It was only natural for the Hard-Hat's navigator to assume the same could be said in this case. However, he couldn't stare for too long; Darius' rushed thought was brought on by the fact that the swordsman was forced to dodge. Serin had attacked. A tentacle had whipped out the huge mass that was his body and nearly punctured a hole in his chest. Darius had ducked and placed an arrow underneath himself, making a quick getaway. As he slowed to perceptible speeds, the swordsman grinned. Sliding backwards still, the floor made horrible noises as he skidded. Coming to a halt, Darius felt the tension become nigh on tangible as silence draped the room.

He glanced at Taro, making sure the musician was still in fighting condition. It wouldn't do to have to protect his nakama now - a great fight was at hand! Still, Darius knew that if anything happened to the Hard-Hat's musician he would have to be the one to save him - something that was rather lamentable. He would have finally found a fight, only to have to run away. Despite the abject selfishness present in his current mindest, one would have to feel some kind of sympathy for the swordsman.

Darius stood up, uncharacteristically calmly, and walked a few steps. Steps which echoed throughout the room, as if the holes in the walls weren't there; as if the chamber was some dark cave. Looking up, the swordsman stared Serin straight in the eye.

'I am 'Stripe Jacket' Darius Fox. No one, and I mean no one, tries a cheap shot like that on me! DO YOU HEAR ME? NO- ooph!' Darius' angry rant was interrupted quite comically by the arrival of Imuka. Of course, the swordsman didn't know it was Imuka until much later; at the time he reacted irately, shoving the other body off of himself and getting up. Veins bulged in his forehead; his anger evident.

'OI! WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? WHAT THE goofy it! WAS THAT? WHY THE HELL DO YOU HAVE IMUKA'S...' Realisation dawned upon him as he trailed off. Putting the proverbial numbers together, Darius' rage was superseded by the sheer amazement at the sight of his nakama appearing from nowhere.

'...gun.' He finished.

'Hi, 'muka...d'you wanna like...kick some arse too?'

The impact from the shots fired from Imuka and her heavy landing in the tower definitely disrupted the area. The tower groaned and began to sway a little, mostly because it had picked up quite a lot of weight in an instant. Smoke choked the lower levels of the tower and worked its way up. The gunner did not have time to adjust to her new surroundings or the rapidly deteriorating condition of the tower as the person she had landed on angrily pushed her off and got up. It was Darius. "OI! WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? WHAT THE FECK! WAS THAT? WHY THE HELL DO YOU HAVE IMUKA'S..." His words trailed off as he realized who had landed on him. It seemed to take a while for him to process and compute everything. His rage was superseded by the sheer amazement at the sight of the gunner girl appearing from nowhere. "...gun." He finished. "Hi, 'muka...d'you wanna like...kick some arse too?"

Looking at him rather nonchalantly, Imuka nodded, "Sur..." But before she could finish her words a strong and very fast force struck her form behind through the thick of the smoke. Imuka's eyes widened as she gasped, pushed out of the hole in the side of the tower and disappeared from view. Whatever it was, she now found herself dangling out of the side of the tower, holding onto the bottom of the hole with one hand while the other clutched the Var. Her vision blurred and doubled as she looked down below. It was quite a drop. Saliva dripped onto her face as she looked up at her assailant. "Who's the fecking asshole who just...?" her words trailed off as she came face to face with the form of a small fishman. But what was different about it was its head and face. The thing's head was large for its body size. Its jaws were long and massive, with extremely long teeth, the longest erupting from its lower jaw. In fact, the teeth were so long that it was incapable of closing its mouth. Its eyes were massive, the size of small plates. Sprouting out from between its shoulders was a dorsal fin with a single long spine with a glowing end. The creature's neck and chest pulsated a red and white glow from several bioluminesent photophores. The whole being looked like a creature from another world, and that was partly true.

"Feck yeah! Tear her to shreds, Akos!" shouted several Fishmen from down below. The viperfish fishman, Akos, roared a challenge as he lunged forward, producing two katars and attempted to stab Imuka. However, she had let go, plummeting down the side of the tower. The sudden surge in speed made her eyes tear up from all the air being forced into her face. She had to slow down her descent, and she did just that. Imuka, with one hand, plunged the Var into the side of the tower with just enough room for her to stand on it. Imuka was now literally surfing down the side of the tower, and leaving a massive gash from the large blade of the Var. The Fishman, Akos, had taken off after her, running down the side of the tower with surprising speed and catching up to her. He slashed wildly with the katars like a maddened beast. Instinctively, Imuka put up her arms, deflecting the blows with her armor. "FFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU-this guy's...as strong as...he's...fast!" she grunted between blows. She was struggling to keep her balance on her weapon turned surfboard. Quickly she drew her pistol, firing several shots to try and keep Akos off of her or better yet kill him outright. Instead, he deflected the first shot, and then fell back, simply swerving out of the way of the other shots before picking up speed again and catching up to her.

With the ground fast approaching, Imuka rode the Var off of an extending piece of roof, sailing through the air while standing on her weapon. Imuka broke into a somersault, grabbing her weapon and using its weight to propel her down. She swung the massive blade down on a Fishman who had become awestruck by the impressive feats of the gunner and his comrade who was putting up a very good fight, cleaving him in two while the others scattered. She had not forgotten about Akos, who was hot on her tail. Her quick reactions snapped into place as she swung around, the blade of the Var meeting the katar blades of Akos. The massive weapon, combined with Imuka's strength, overpowered Akos and his smaller weapons, however, the viperfish simply rode the blade and leaped off, landing quitely some distance away from her. The other Fishmen had formed a circle, cheering on the viperfish. It seemed as though they felt that they were not needed to take down the ex-Marine gunner. Sweat rolled down her face as she panted, catching her breath while the ugly Fishman stared at her, his face fixed in a permanent, open-mouth underbite. A low raspy chuckle came from him. "Aye'n shuprished you lashted thish long againsht 'nee." he said. His speech was clearly affected by his abnormal jaw structure, the raspiness of his voice made him seem even more sinister and menacing. "Just ta let you know, I washn't even trying."

"Oh yeah?" Imuka retorted. "Good, 'cuz I woulda been disappointed if that was all you had." At this point the two were having a rather lengthy stare down, sizing each other up for the inevitable all-out fight.

"You got dem real 'urrteh lipsh," it said creepily. "Shame ah hafta keel ya. Ah like 'dem girlish figuresh."

Something clicked in the back of her mind. Girlish? On top of being just creepy to look at, he was into that sorta stuff? Cool anger crossed Imuka's face as she glared at Akos. "You're a fecking sick pervert." she snarled. Only one of us is getting out of this alive, and it's certainly not you or your seafood friends!"

Akos hunkered down and hissed at her remark, his fins and glowing tendril shook while his teeth rattled. "You take dat back you bitch!"

Imuka closed her eyes as she inhaled deepy before they opened as she shouted out, "COME AT ME BRO!"

The viperfish fishman gave a deep, low roar that seemed to completely contradict his thin, raspy voice. He seemed to disappear as he ran extremely fast, appearing as a glowing blur. In reflex to his sudden movement, Imuka pulled the trigger on the Var, firing a single HEI round straight at him. Though at this point, she missed entirely. The fishmen in the path of the round all became pale as the color drained from their faces as they knew what was coming. The round sailed into the crowd of fishmen, striking the ground in the middle of them and detonating. Several of them were instantly incinerated while others flew through the air in all sorts of directions. In the foreground of the explosion, Akos came straight at her and lunged into the air, striking forward with both katars. Both blades clashed with the massive blade of the Var. It was on.

A pair of fast blue eyes darted about the chaos surrounding them, the information they retrieved wasn’t as assuring as the owner may have hoped. Both Imuka and Darius, giants of carnage in Taro’s mind, were struggling. They were on even grounds and this was quite disconcerting, particularly because the musician had never seen the arrow-wielding swordsmen truly matched. However, no time was available to really assess this situation as pure rage was in close proximity to the scruffy swashbuckler.

From the cheers and jeers of the still upright henchman he had deduced his opponent’s name, Rufiek. His strength and stamina were truly something Taro had never witnessed before or perhaps that was untrue... a flash of memory in both picture and feeling overcame the musician for just a moment. It was like fighting a spiky, assumedly-poisonous Captain Brick – although perhaps not as strong and certainly slower. Subconsciously he had felt out Rufiek’s pace, he was angry and so not thinking rationally, swing after crushing swing was thrown, but if not in a state of extreme peril Taro may actually have stated avoiding him was easy. ‘Yet one mistake and this is over, with each miss he gets angrier and angrier and those spikes protrude more and more, I have to be cautious of them when I spring my counter.’

Taro’s eyes widened as his body move backwards of its own accord, he let out an unintended sigh as the hook scratched the air just inches from his face. Retreating wasn’t a tactic, it was stalling and there was no way he could keep this up when his opponent was literally a well of stamina, it was unreal to think just a few moments ago this creature had lost an arm. Yet... the fact was he had, he must be himself tired and certainly not feeling a hundred percent – ‘I have the advantage here, even if I don’t feel it and I have to start pushing back’

With that Taro dropped to the floor, performing what would normally be a leg sweep. However the outstretched leg in this instance was just a counterbalance allowing him to hold his steely axe fully outstretched as he swung in an arc.

Ching!

The sound of clashing metal rang out and for a moment drowned out the background noise of the other battles simultaneously taking place. Occasionally the unmistakable sound of Imuka’s gun going off would be heard over all else, as Taro’s fight too was taking place in the courtyard. Yet the fates of his nakama remained a mystery as his own fight pressed on. The monster that was Rufiek had blocked the axe singlehandedly, or more accurately singlehookedly. To do so he had to bend down and that provided a second opening, lifting one hand from his weapon and planting it from the floor the musician twisted quickly planting his foot firmly in the puffed face of Rufiek. The result was much like letting the air out of a balloon, the sound of rushing air burst from between his lips as the spikes littering his cheeks retracted drastically. Pushing himself away from the now slightly deflated bundle of rage, the two now stood once more in a face off.

“Weren’t you going to cave my ribs in... seems you’re full of... HOT AIR!”

The musician’s taunt was met with general disapproval as the surrounding crowd moaned and shook their heads.

“Aw come on... I’m fighting a freak, not a lot of time to work on my lines... give me a break.”

“I’ll give you a break”, Rufiek’s taunt was met with cheers and laughter, accept of course from Taro who just let out a long sigh.

“...Really? Really? This crowd is so biased.”

Bouldering forward the fishman began his onslaught anew, yet again the Hard-Hat was forced to make a choice, begin his retreat again or meet muscle with... well less muscle. Gulping worriedly, the musician made what he felt was the worse choice and charged forward swinging a full force cut with his axe-tar.

“Crap!”

Rufiek had somehow anticipated this and had managed to evade the swing, this left in his eyes a puny human with his back exposed and so naturally he launched his fully inflated still intact fist toward the open target. The human in question was himself very aware of what had happened and knew what was coming, yet the only option he could see was to see it through, go for it. So as the fist came hurtling towards him, the Hard-Hat’s instrumentalist continued his attack performing a full circle and he was faster. To his dismay that familiar sound of metal clashing hit his ears, no time was left to think. Taro found his feet leaving the floor, the force of his attack being blocked was enough to physically move him as he felt the fist skim passed. Acting on reflex, the musician slid his hand along the hilt and pressed the release button. Next thing that he knew purple blood spilt onto the floor, at some point flesh had been pierced and Taro found himself stood with his left hand holding the detached smaller blade fully pressed into his opponent’s torso.

“Well boy... just going to stand there?” Rufiek’s deep voice pierced the eerie silence, as Taro stood wide-eyed mouth agape. “Some advice... don’t wield a weapon you’re not prepared to use.” A grin flashed across the beastly face of Rufiek, as for the final time he launched his mammoth fist at the musician. Adrenaline and instinct over-ruled all else and Taro’s right arm moved like lightning, then came the most horrific sound the well-trained ear had ever heard. The cleaving of bone and flesh, each ligament snapping sent a vibration down the blade and then... a thud.

There was a gasp as Rufiek’s head hit the ground, his body still stood fist pressed into his opponents gut, resilient to the end, but not even he could carry on through that. Taro had won, and all he had to show for it were three small holes in his stomach, grinning he turned to the now still onlookers, silenced in the jeering. He started forward and they retreated, but they in all honestly could have probably finished the exhausted musician. Slinging his axe-tar over his back he began to walk across the courtyard he looked for somewhere safe to collapse as his vision began to blur.

“Stupid poison” he muttered as he decided on the rubble of a wall that Imuka had destroyed in her entrance. As he wobbled toward it, something caught his eye. ‘Shit fishmen... maybe Darius will have to save me again after all... wait two of those look human. One’s... yes... one’s Torin, helmet and all. Good... that’s nice... that’s good.’ Thumb raised Taro collapsed to the floor, rolling onto his side he grinned, luck had favoured him and not for the first time, the Captain as always... timed things perfectly.

Rage coursed through his body, a livewire fueling his madcap actions. Darius stared down Serin, blue-green eyes locking with the jellyfishman's. Serin didn't look as confident as he did before, however fear was the last thing on the Hard-Hat swordsman's enemy's mind. Rather, Serin was feeling a deep sense of satisfaction. He had finally found a worthy opponent, and regardless of the result he was going to have fulfilled his goals. Smiling dimly in the face of sheer power, Serin flexed his serpentine appendages before gesturing to Darius that he wanted to continue this fight.

'Mon...I'm all for it.' Said the jellyfishman. That was all Darius needed. Those words heralded the end. The 7,500,000 bounty head thrust his arm forward, extending it into a fist before pointing at Serin. The force of the action sent a small wave of air at the jellyfishman. Serin was blown backwards, but not enough to seriously trouble him. However, Darius was not intending to display fancy moves. Instead, the swordsman was aiming to distract. Darius appeared behind Serin, leg in mid-swing. The swordsman performed a brutal roundhouse kick, connecting with Serin's permanently capped head. Darius' adversary flew for a few seconds before the 'Stripe Jacket' followed up, appearing behind the jellyfishman sheathing his sword.

'~Shiten~' The name of the attack echoed around the room; it seemed to come from everywhere, as if a million little sycophants of Darius had brushed up on his move roster, and as if this was one huge show to them. As if such was the intensity of the fight that these tiny groupies were overcome with emotion and yelled out the name; their one release from the pent up pressure of being so close to the wanted swordsman. Accompanying the resounding murmur was the sound of a bunch of tentacles dropping and hitting the floor. Darius appeared for a second, the redness of his face accentuated by the faint silhouette of multiple miniscule arrows on it.

Serin, meanwhile, was speechless. The speed of the cut was so great that there was no bleeding from the dismemberment or even any jagged edges. It was as if some kind of high-tech laser cutter had performed the slash, rather than the slightly above-average blade of the Hard-Hat. The jellyfishman suddenly glowed; a balloon filled with flashing lights. He too was upping his game. Red electricity surged from his body, and his face was eerily illuminated. Serin spoke, however his voice had taken a different tone, as if it were another speaking.

'You. Will. Die. Now. Resistance. Is. Futile. Fear. Me. I. Have. Killed. Thousands. Like. You. And. Will. Kill. Many. More. Be. Privaleged. To. Witness. Even. This. Much. Of. My. Power! Serin's voice was disjointed; Darius quickly ran out of patience listening to him. So, he made to attack again. The 'Stripe Jacket' disappeared, reappearing at point blank range in front of the colourful jellyfishman with a palm strike in mind. Darius thrust forward, intent on placing an arrow on Serin's head. The attack missed however, for Serin had deftly ducked underneath his outstretched arm. Darius' adversary then wrapped the stubs of his tentacles around it. It was clear what Serin was aiming to do by the malicious glint in his shrouded eyes. Darius panicked, and tried to wrench his arm free. It didn't take a genius to figure out that another one of the jellyfishman's electric blasts would send him packing. Darius made to scream his defiance, but a tentacle wrapped around his neck and covered his mouth.

So, he bit.

His teeth, fueled by his devil fruit's boosting abilities, easily cleaved through the tentacles. It tasted weird, but now wasn't the time to be put off by odd flavours. The Hard-Hat spat the tentacles in Serin's face before unsheathing his sword. The motion of unsheathing brought the pommel of the sword up to the jellyfishman's chin, elliciting a gut-wrenching Crack!. Serin fell backwards, however, not before loosing a wild volt of electricity into the swordsman's chest.

....What?!

He fell backwards, smashing through the wall into the room Torin was in. Darius was in disbelief. He was so close to ending this guy. If only he could just pick himself up and kick some more arse! The fireproofed jacket protected him from burns, but that electricity had done him some serious damage. He struggled to his feet, but keeping in mind that he was using his devil fruit to power his body, Darius knew that he wouldn't be continuing much longer. Painfully, he stole a glance at Serin. The jellyfishman was on one knee, coughing blood onto the floor. The sight of the foe that nearly bested him in one blow filled the swordsman with anger; fuel for fighting. Darius surged forward, closing the distance between he and Serin in a few seconds. Irately, he picked the jellyfishman up by the neck and tried to ignore the volts coursing through his body.

'NO ONE WILL COME CLOSE TO ME EVER AGAIN! I WILL ALWAYS GIVE IT ONE HUNDRED AND TEN PERCENT! DO YOU HEAR ME? ONE HUNDRED AND TEN! THIS? THIS WAS A FLUKE DAMMIT! I WILL BE...' As he spoke arrows appeared on Serin's body. Small ones at first, but as his speech grew in intensity so did the size of the arrows on the jellyfishman's body. All of the colour flushed out of Darius and into the 10,000,000 bounty head before him as he culminated his speech.

'THE STRONGEST!' With that Serin's body exploded into pieces; brutally ripped apart by opposing forces placed there by Darius. So sudden and violent was the move that one was able to see a skeleton of the fishman's blood in the air before it splashed down to the dirty tiling before. The flies came for the smell and soon the rats for him. Darius, completely exhausted, managed to struggle back to the room in which he had seen Torin, and collapse.

Surrounded by a megaton of explosives, the most volatile man in Conomi lay unconscious.

The city was safe.

Man, these Fishmen seemed to appear out of nowhere. The more Imuka cut down or blew up, the more Fishmen appeared to replace the ones that were lost. It seemed as though even though a sizeable portion of the Fishmen who were watching her fight with the crazy Viperfish Fishman Akos. Even with her extensive training and fighting record when fully equipped with her armor and the Var, she was never really meant to take on multiple swarms of enemies at close range. "Goddammit I've had enough of all of you!" she shouted as she charged through the thick crowd of Fishmen. She swung the Var left and right, cutting through several of them and knocking others into the air. She charged on through towards the tower where all of this had started.

Imuka leaped high into the air, aiming the Var down and firing. The recoil and the subsequent explosion propelled her high into the air again. She spun in mid-air, firing off three more rounds at the crowd of Fishmen. Their numbers had truly dwindled now as more and more escaped. However, as she was about to fire the final round away from the tower, a stray rifle round from one of the Fishmen hit her shoulder guard, pushing her to the left and putting her off target. The shock from the impact caused her to pull the trigger.

...Right at the tower.