Last Witness

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #16

Kaede clearly underestimated the sturdiness of Daneille´s shins as she didn´t expect the treasure huntress to simply endure her attack and then bring her to the ground. Well truth be told, she wasn´t the only one who was surprised, as Hariyama nearly didn´t manage to stop his charge in time, missing the treasure huntress only by the skin of his teeth.
“You filthy little mongrel…”
The blonde secretary growled, her red varnished fingers clawing into the wood of the upper deck, leaving terrifying marks in them.
“REMOVAL!”
As she yelled that word her skin suddenly changed its color turning dark red, almost purple, with veins popping all over her body. Her muscles were suddenly too hard to be cut by a mere blade, she twisted out of Danielle´s grasp, jumping at her feet.
“You little…”
Hariyama cursed trying to hit her with a palm thrust, but the impossible became reality when the slender woman stopped the massive sumo wrestler´s strike with a single arm.
“What kind of man is picking on a little girl you a**hole?!”
She yelled, throwing the massive warrior overboard with a single flick of her arm.

Above the ship, Gabriel and Catan clashed again with a combination of strikes, before they broke apart to regain some altitude. Mastering the ability to jump from the air was one thing but aerial combat that suddenly allowed to fully use all three dimensions was completely different. It needed extensive training to adjust to such conditions yet both men seemed to be evenly matched in this discipline. Landing on the top of the masts of their respectable ships, Gabriel glanced down to witness the transformation of Kaede.
“Did you expect anything else from one of the Sela Family?”
Asked the elder warrior with a smirk on his face as he realized what Gabriel was looking at.
“Sela?”
The Professor repeated after him with a hint of confusion as he knew at least two with the same surname.
But Catan didn´t intend to answer his question, only shaking his head in return.
“Never mind…Military Boots!”
Jumping high in the sky he flew above the Professor, ready to bring down another wind blast at him.
“MILITARY RIFLE!”

[Bobbie]

The transformation that followed look like nothing short of the birth of an absolute monster, albeit a more attractive one than those portrayed in folklore. As Kaede’s skin shifted in colour and became tougher, veins protruding from under her skin, Danielle tried her best to hold her down but was ultimately overwhelmed by the sudden increase in strength and the horror of what she just witnessed.

As the woman twisted out of her grasp, Danielle fell back onto the deck, which had suffered the abuse of Kaede’s fingernails that clawed into the wood and peeled away the top layer of varnish and then some. Forcing her body to move, she hurriedly scrambled to her feet, scimitar in hand, just in time to watch Hariyama launch an attack at her, but it was for nothing. With incredible ease, the man was disarmed, and in an instant, the massive sumo wrestler was flung into the air like he weighed nothing, his body tossed overboard as if he were nothing but an insignificant nuisance to this woman.

“Hariyama!” Danielle rushed past Kaede to lean over the taffrail and catch a glimpse of her friend falling to the ocean. She was thankful that he wasn’t a Devil Fruit user - had that been Beast or Sigrid, they might be dead.

Just like that, that feeling of invincibility in Danielle was gone. She supposed it was for the better, as such a feeling could easily lead to overconfidence, and that could be fatal.

Danielle didn’t keep her back to Kaede for very long, quickly turning around to face her once again, her sword held out between them in a protective stance. She couldn’t help but wonder what sort of technique the secretary was using, as curiosity mingled with the adrenaline and fear of battle. It was entirely different from anything she had seen The Professor or Namkhai use, yet her captain, Catan, seemed to fight in a similar enough fashion to Gabriel, the two of them facing off mid-air above them… at this point, Danielle began to wonder who this pony-tailed lady really was.

Charging at Kaede in similar fashion to Hariyama’s last attempt, Danielle raised her weapon to strike at her left shoulder. “Huntress hop,” Before her attack would connect, the treasure huntress made a sudden leap in a different direction, leaving a faint after image in her wake that seemed to travel forward toward its target as if continuing the assault. Faster than the average human eye could track, Danielle moved to the right side and swiped upward from Kaede’s hip after two gentle taps on the deck.

---

Danielle: #fffd17
Rosalina: #ffaaff

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #17

The large sumo warrior landed in the water with a large splash, but quickly emerged above the surface, looking basically unharmed.
“Eyes on your opponent!”
He yelled when he noticed Danielle watching him, just as Beast from the deck of Invincible Reason shot her “lasgun” at Kaede, forcing the woman to dodge instead of jumping on Danielle´s back.
“What an interesting doggo, maybe I´ll keep her after disposing of you.”
She offered Danielle a sweet smile, before rushing forward with a blinding speed.
“Avidya!”
Her hand slashed horizontally and would probably take Danielle´s remaining eye if she hit anything more than just an afterimage the treasure huntress left behind.
Growling out her frustration, she suddenly turned to the side, blocking Danielle´s assault with her forearm, the blade cutting through her skin, but failing to go deeper, thanks to her steel-like muscles.
“The Professor…he is more than just a friend to you…I can see the traces of his style all over your techniques.”
She growled, bringing down a headbutt that could crush a stone on Danielle´s head.

---

Every fiber in Gabriel´s body was screaming at him that he should be down there helping his puppy in her fight, but his opponent wasn´t giving him enough time to glance there, let alone actually go and help his favorite blonde.
As Catan jumped above him, releasing a swift and focused blast of air, the Professor unleashed another Dragon Tail.
“What´s up? Too afraid to dodge above your own ship?”
The elder warrior mocked him, following directly behind his own attack, which was negated by Gabriel´s technique.
“Military Shotgun!”
Making a swift but very short punching motion he released a swarm of small air projectiles against Gabriel.
They were too close for the Professor to use his technique again, forcing him to jump of the main mast, only watching with his peripheral vision as they punched a big chunk out of it.
Gabriel frowned, Catan was right, fighting above the Invincible Reason was too disadvantageous for him, but somehow he doubted that his opponent would be kind enough to move to a different location so he had to force him.
“Dragon´s Roar”
Falling towards the deck of his own ship, Gabriel assumed his striking stance, releasing a gargantuan blast of compressed air, that smashed into Catan almost instantly.

[Bobbie]

Danielle was grateful for Beast’s attack that saved her from the mistake that Hariyama chastised her for, and she was able to move quickly enough to avoid a deadly outcome thanks to her intervention.

As her blade cut into Kaede’s flesh but went no deeper, the swordswoman frowned as she connected the dots. Whatever technique she recently used to get out of her hold must have given her muscles some hardened quality, but not her skin. There was no outer shell to protect her, yet no matter how hard she pushed her blade into the woman’s arm, it simply wouldn’t budge further.

Looking at the secretary with a mixture of apprehension, curiosity, and anger, Danielle heard the comparison made between her techniques and Gabriel’s style and it made her snicker.

“Yet your captain’s style doesn’t appear to be anywhere in yours,” she replied, swiftly lurching back to avoid the impact of Kaede’s headbutt. She wondered if this apparent detachment between their two enemies was advantageous to them or not, but didn't have the time to think about it much at the moment. “Burning slash.” Gripping the hilt of her scimitar, the gold remnants molten into the blade suddenly heated up to impossible temperatures with a soft glow. As subtle tongues of fire lapped the sword’s edge, Danielle swept it out of its place in a slicing motion, assuming it would do little damage but hoped it would at least sting a little bit on its way out of Kaede's arm.

It was a technique she didn’t get to test often enough to know the true extent of its damage, but decided it would be better to underestimate it than the opposite.

In spite of Hariyama’s most recent warning, the treasure huntress repeated her last mistake and couldn’t help shooting a little glance toward the Invincible Reason where a second fight was going on. Kaede was right, but she couldn’t have known how right she really was. The Professor was more than just a friend to her, and while she could easily put blind fate in his abilities, she couldn’t seem to ease the sickening feeling in her gut that he was facing a very powerful opponent himself and could meet his end right here and now. Perhaps more worrying than that, was the beloved malamute that was on the deck of that ship, the very same battleground where Gabriel and Catan were now fighting.

---

Danielle: #fffd17
Rosalina: #ffaaff

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #18

Hearing Danielle´s remark Kaede snorted as if the treasure huntress insulted her somehow.
“Maybe it´s because he is no captain of mine. We both are the captains of Grey Company.”
She frowned as the blonde backed away from her headbutt, suddenly alerted by Danielle´s next technique, swiftly dodging the fiery blade.
“You…”
Kaede cursed only to realize that instead of capitalizing on her sudden advantage Danielle glanced back at the Professor and Beast, stopping her attack completely for a moment.
“moron...Eightfold Demolition Fist!”
Suddenly rushing forward, the Grey Company´s captain released flurry of punches so fast that it looked like an eight fists attacking Danielle at the same time from eight different direction, each one carrying enough force to smash stone.
Above the fighting women a giant blast of compressed air smashed into the older man, sending him flying, like a shockwave from a large explosion, crashing him into a large building.
Under normal circumstances, the Professor would follow up and made sure the man wasn´t thread anymore but these weren´t normal circumstances.
As he sent Catan flying Gabriel glimpsed down to make sure his puppies were save only to meet Danielle´s eyes just at the moment Kaede launched her attack.
“Sh*t...New Moon: Flaming Clouds”
Suddenly hit by a wave of adrenaline the Professor moved on an instinct, throwing himself between his golden puppy and her assailant.
There was no time or room to block her and so Gabriel caught the full brunt of her technique. Because of that he didn´t stay between Danielle and Kaede for long as the eight fists knocked him back, crashing him into the taffrail on the other side of the ship.
“Dad?!”
Panicking Beast threw herself to the taffrail followed by Eponine, who stayed on the upper deck, leaving the care for Rosalina to her underlings.
“Sh*it, he isn´t getting up, DAD!”
As the Professor was lying there unconscious both woman and the dog jumped on the deck, rushing towards him.

[Bobbie]

As their eyes met, what may have under other circumstances been some source of comfort quickly fuelled panic within Danielle. Staring up at Gabriel, even for only a brief moment, the worry in his eyes was immediately apparent and she knew she’d made a mistake.

In an attempt to follow his movements, she lowered her gaze only to find that he already reached the deck before she had the chance to defend herself against Kaede’s attack. Thanks to him, she didn’t need to, as the man caught the full brunt of her technique instead, the pair of them displaying a terrifying level of speed that she wasn’t sure she was any match for, certainly not if she allowed herself to keep getting distracted. A mere flinch was all she had the time for as Gabriel’s body was sent flying back into the taffrail and she mentally scolded herself for making the same mistake twice in a row and taking her eyes off her opponent. This was a consequence of that.

“Professor!” The treasure huntress made a step toward him, before forcing herself to a halt and promptly turning to face Kaede again, determined not to let her out of her sights again.

Don’t look away… I just need to stand my ground until he gets back up. Gripping her sword firmly in both hands, she masked her fear behind a furious glare at the woman who had just hurt her dear friend. That mask, however, shattered with Eponine’s words… Why isn’t he getting up? He always gets up!

Her heart was racing in her chest and she tightened her hold on the hilt of her weapon to stop it from shaking. Immediately, Danielle was overwhelmed with guilt, aware that if she hadn’t looked away from the secretary, this might not have happened, and all she wanted to do was turn her back to Kaede and rush to the Professor's side with Eponine and Beast, make sure that he was okay, and call him an idiot for stepping in the way to take the full force of her attack. There would be a thanks in there somewhere… Yet she couldn’t do any of that, and had to keep her gaze fixed on her opponent this time.

Dismissing the worst case scenarios that her imagination insisted on flooding into her mind, Danielle now put herself between Gabriel and Kaede, keeping the dog and medic in her peripheral vision as well just in case they were targeted next and she was ready to act fast. Without the guilt to take her over, however, the fear and regret in her eye was quickly replaced with rage, which was evident by a tremor in her voice, "You b-tch... you're going to pay very dearly for that..."

“Flashbang gold,” with a growl, the blonde tilted her sword to reflect a golden blinding light that appeared to come from within it, and a sharp wailing sound emanating from the metal filled the air, muffling all other commotion happening around them. Lunging forward, she drew her scimitar back to a position to strike, before muttering, “Golden blur,” and was suddenly replaced with a blurred, fiery afterimage instead. Swiftly moving behind Kaede at incredible speed, she slashed her sword aflame horizontally across the woman’s shoulders at the same time the burning wispy figure attacked from the other side.

---

Danielle: #fffd17
Rosalina: #ffaaff

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #19

The surprise that originally appeared on Kaede´s face turned into victorious grin as she realized that instead of her original target she got something that was much more valuable, at least in her eyes.
“I know I said he was more than just friend to you, but I would never imagine you two are lovers.”
She taunted Danielle, her skin slowly turning back into it´s natural state as she released her technique.
“Has to be a sh*tty feeling to know that he will die because of your incompetence.”
Kaede continued with her mockery, before covering her eyes with her forearm as the treasure huntress released a blinding light from her blade.
However despite releasing her technique Kaede didn´t seem to be careless or completely surprised as with her eyes still covered she leaned forward, kicking back and up to block the hilt of Danielle´s sword with her steel like heel.
“You are getting predictable sweetheart.”
She smirked.

“Sh*t, sh*t, SH*T!”
On the other side of the deck Eponine was kneeling next to her fallen captain, controlling his vitals.
“Is dad alright? Eponine, will he be alright?”
Tall blonde with a glowing aura next to her was panicking, unable to to stay still or keep quiet in her helplessness.
“Shut…”
The dark haired medic growled, but stopped herself, realizing that the puppy didn´t deserve to be the target of her anger.
“Yes, I hope so...he has several broken bones and got quite the hit to the head, but he is breathing we should…”
She paused as someone heavily landed on the deck behind her.
“Yeah, sorry about that but I don´t think that´s accurate.”
Muttered Catan.
“Get away from him! Force…”
Beast turned around, swinging her arm against this returning foe. However before she could release her wave of light the older man captured her wrist and threw her over his head.
“S*it!”
Cursing, Eponine jumped to her feet, stepping between Gabriel and Catan. The older warrior wasn´t in a good shape. The last hit he got from Gabriel took a great tool on him, but he was still more than match for the young medic.
“Beast, run for Namkhai, I´ll hold him back.”
The black haired girl snapped as the tall blonde whined and transformed back into her massive doggo form.
“Brave.”
Catan muttered.
“But foolish.”

[Bobbie]

Danielle’s sword was caught in the woman’s heel with perfect precision from Kaede and the strike was brought to a sudden halt. Her balance and strength were impressive. It was a reminder that Danielle didn’t need that she was at a disadvantage against her opponent. As she continued to apply force into the nook Kaede’s shoe, the treasure huntress growled in anger.

“We’re not lovers!” Danielle snapped, speaking through clenched teeth, before trying to push harder to disrupt Kaede’s balance. Her second comment also struck a nerve, but not because she was called incompetent. It was the fact that she was entirely correct in her assessment of how it felt, as well as the fact that it was her fault the Professor got hurt. Had she the luxury of going to his aid, she’d have been able to process what happened, but she didn’t. Thankfully, that also meant she didn’t have the time to be stuck with her own guilt for the time being.

Tightening her grip on her weapon, Danielle’s eyes darted from the woman’s heel to her blade, to her own hand and then Kaede’s ankle, and lastly up along the woman's leg. She needed a new trick, as her assailant so generously pointed out that she was indeed becoming predictable, but it was hard to focus with the woman’s annoying commentary and while hearing Beast whining somewhere behind her.

Mustering all the willpower she possessed to not turn and look at Beast, Eponine, or Gabriel, she twisted her scimitar, allowing it to hook into Kaede's heel more securely before swiping her sword to the side and taking the woman's foot with it to create an opening.

It was a gamble, but she realised that relying on her sword right now was working against her, her strikes quickly becoming obvious to a trained opponent…

As she swiped to the side with her sword, Danielle swiftly stepped forward and made three rapid strikes at Kaede’s exposed knee, ending with an empowered Golden Palm.

---

Danielle: #fffd17
Rosalina: #ffaaff

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #20

Seeing how frustrated Danielle was after her remark Kaede´s face twisted with a victorious smirk.
“Oh, did he already proposed to you?”
Her smirk didn´t disappear even after Danielle hooked her heel and pulled it sideways as she pivoted on her remaining feet to face the treasure huntress.
“Silhouette“
The blonde whispered as Danielle tried to hit her knee for the first time. Moving with a blinding speed, she dodged the strike, making her way around the treasure huntress to appear behind her.
“Lion´s Bite!”
Crossing her arms, Kaede tried to grab the both sides of Danielle´s head and then twist it while sweeping her legs, to slam her head first against the deck and damage her neck.

---

“Will you shut up?”
On the other side of the deck Eponine snapped, taking her stance.
“I´ll tear you into ribbons even before that gorilla gets his a** here!”
Lunging forward, she swung her leopard fist against Catan´s arm.
“Cutting Fi…”
He didn´t even bother with blocking her attack. Lunging forward, the older man hit her solar plexus hard enough to sent the black haired girl flying across the deck with enough force to knock even the massive malamute of her feet as the two of them collided.
“Sorry, but your chance of winning died with the Professor.”
Catan muttered, turning towards Danielle´s and Kaede´s fight, only for his attention to be drawn back to these two puppies.
“Don´t you f*cking dare to talk about my dad like this!”
“Dad isn´t dead! And when he gets up he´ll kick your butt!”
Both too furious to feel any form of fear, Eponine and Beast climbed back on their feet. The black haired woman wiping blood from the corner of her mouth, while the doggo transformed into hulking, werewolf resembling monstrosity that was her hybrid form.
“Oh dear…”
Catan sighed.

---

And while the battle raged on around him, the Professor was lying unconscious on the deck, his consciousness drifting through a dark ocean, finally calm. Well at least for now as the soothing darkness and silence was slowly pierced by voices. Voices that demanded his attention. Only if he could muster enough strength to open his eyes...

[Bobbie]

While the treasure huntress found it impossible to hide her frustration and control her temper, she didn’t verbally reply to Kaede’s further taunts and only growled as she focussed on her attack. However, she once again felt demoralised as her opponent dodged her strike and was gone in an instant.

No longer having vision of her target, Danielle quickly looked around her as panic rose in her chest until she spun around and came face to face with Kaede once more. Straight away, she tried to put some distance between them, but wasn’t fast enough and immediately found herself in the woman’s dangerous clutches.

Danielle had no doubt in her mind that the intention was to kill - if not right at this moment, then the deathly blow would come eventually when Kaede was done playing with her prey. Treating every attack as a threat to her life, all of the blonde’s attention was now placed on preservation of her own life, shifting entirely onto the defence as she let go of her sword and raised both arms in an attempt to protect her head and absorb whatever impact was to come with her trained reactive stance.

Landing on the deck at quite an awkward angle, she could feel the tension in her neck muscles, but thankfully was able to shield her skull from the impact with her arms. Danielle had one advantage in this battle, however, and she planned to use it - feeling considerable discomfort but no physical pain, she was able to swiftly transition back into an offensive mode with little more than a bit of stiffness to hold her back.

With her palms pressed against the deck, she pushed away from it to slam her heel into Kaede’s chin before flipping herself back onto her feet. It took Danielle a second to get her bearings, and after turning her head to flex her neck slightly, she charged forward to release the absorbed energy in a powerful strike at Kaede from the front instead of behind.

---

Danielle: #fffd17
Rosalina: #ffaaff

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #21

As Danielle landed head first on the deck, Kaede moved one leg backwards as if she was about to kick the treasure huntress in the face, but quickly changed her plan and back stepped to avoid the sudden upkick from her adversary.
“Not bad.”
She smirked, watching the second blonde jumping back on her feet and charging against her.
“But not good enough.”
She grinned charging forward.
“Heavenly Fang!”
As they were about to clash, Kaede jumped almost as if she was about to do somersault while turning her whole body limp and flexible, absorbing the energy of Danielle´s strike without taking much if any damage, using its energy to speed up her own body, directing her whole momentum down at Danielle´s head in the for of downward elbow strike.

---

Meanwhile, on the other side of the deck Beast launched herself against Catan, all fear forgotten in sudden surge of rage, sweeping her paws with large claws from left and right in an attempt to tear this man into pieces. Injured from his fight with Gabriel, the elder warrior however still outclassed her, dodging every single of her attempts without breaking sweat.
“Alright, that´s enough…”
He muttered, suddenly blocking one of her paws, with one hand while the other one was clenched in fist near his waist.
“Military…”
However before he could unleash whatever technique he was planning to use, he had to raise his remaining hand to block a powerful head kick from Eponine, who used the time to run around him in an attempted ambush.
“There you are.”
He grinned, grabbing Beast´s wrist and Eponine´s ankle, before spinning around with both women, throwing them each at a different end of the ship.
“Alright now…”
He tried to step in Gabriel´s direction, when his attention was caught by a large and exceptionally heavy projectile that was moving his way with an incredible speed.
“ZADZUKI!”
“Sh…”
Turning to right, the experienced warrior took a stable stance and raised his hands, stopping the giant charging sumo wrestler dead in his tracks after being pushed several steps backwards.
“New friend, wonderful…”
He growled into the face of the sumo wrestler who finally climbed back up on the deck and joined the fight.

[Bobbie]

Watching Kaede dodge her initial attack, Danielle knew she’d have to control her frustration as she aimed to land her second attack - which it seemed she did. Unfortunately, that didn’t quite go as planned, however, as her opponent used her own force against her.

The treasure huntress was fast, but not fast enough to evade the elbow strike entirely, as moving to the side only protected her head. Instead, Danielle felt an incredible pressure in her shoulder as Kaede’s elbow collided with it at full force, and while she could feel the tension in her twitching muscles, and the cracking sensation in her shoulder and collar bone, there was no response to any physical pain.

Her inhuman stability enabled her to stand her ground and in a fit of adrenaline, she raised her injured arm and grabbed Kaede’s arm to secure it to her own shoulder. Her other hand clenched into a fist as she threw an uppercut into the woman’s underarm and then spun around to throw her overhead while she still had a good grip on her assailant's arm, aiming to slam her as hard as she could on the deck.

Then her arm went completely limp, as it no longer cooperated with its owners commands to move and simply hung down by her side. Her fingers twitched, but it was like there was a disconnect between it and the rest of her body. The sensation of her muscles throbbing felt unusual without the typical accompanying pain, but there was enough evidence for Danielle to know that something was wrong even without it. Her heart raced as she took a defensive stance once more. Not only was she without her weapon, but she was now also one arm down, her neck was stiff and limited her field of vision unless her entire body was turned with her head, and she was starting to feel lightheaded. Danielle's leg had also taken quite a blow from the woman's sharp-tipped heel, but the limb still functioned.

Things didn’t look good for her.

All the while, she had to resist turning away from Kaede to look back and see what was going on on the other side of the ship. She heard another fight unfold and wanted to check if The Professor was okay, and whether Beast and Eponine were hurt. 

---

Danielle: #fffd17
Rosalina: #ffaaff

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #21

Kaede didn´t really expect Danielle to dodge and even if she did this technique didn´t leave her much space for additional maneuverability so the young blonde didn´t have many problems capturing her arm.

“Sh...REMOVAL!”

As Danielle´s fist collided with Caede´s chin the other woman´s skin suddenly turned color into dark red, her muscles bulking and veins popping all over the body. It was already too late to stop the strike, or the throw that followed.

“You...little...sh*t”

The woman panted, climbing to her feet as her body turned back to normal. If anything she looked more tired than actually hurt as her technique protected her from most of the damage but took a great tool on her stamina.

“Why don´t you just die already?”

She growled, charging against the treasure huntress.

---

“I would hardly call us friends!”

Hariyama yelled from the top of his lungs, releasing powerful barrage of open palm strikes each one blocked by the older warrior with visible effort as the combined strength and weight of the sumo wrestler was nothing to be taken lightly.

“You two, I´ll handle him, go and help Danny!”

He yelled at Eponine and Beast, who looked into each other, unsure what to do, before they nodded, rushing to the treasure huntress´s aid. Trusting the man who was ranked third among Gabriel´s disciples.

“Oh you won´t.”

Catan growled, ducking under one of Hariyama´s strike, before hitting him with powerful punch of his own.

The sumo wrestler staggered, showing off a bloodied grin, before continuing with his assault, not even bothering with guarding himself from the counters. He was just attacking while Catan was slowly retreating, waving between the strikes and countering with heavy punches of his own.

He was taking damage, lots of it and it hurt, but he was confident that the body he was so proud of could take it long enough. Long enough for him to push Catan backwards, long enough to reach Gabriel. Because the sumo wrestler knew something the mercenary didn´t. Something that made Eponine and Beast rush to Danielle´s help.

Gabriel came back to consciousness and he was furious.

[Bobbie]

As Danielle stared at Kaede, she was horrified to see the woman simply climb to her feet again, looking like she had merely endured an inconvenience rather than an attack that Danielle put all of her strength into. Strength that was now fading.

Her body shook as Kaede ran towards her, charging at full speed, like a terrifying, unstoppable force that just kept coming no matter what.

Clenching her teeth tightly together, Danielle let out a low rumble to silence her own fears and suddenly crouched down to the deck of the ship. Burrowing her feet into the wooden boards as firmly as she could, she probably looked quite similar to Hariyama, which may have been a comical sight for anybody who caught it, without all the added weight.

She tapped the floor twice, remaining in a steady stance.

At the last moment when Kaede was closest, Danielle lunged forward to ram her wounded shoulder into the woman’s waist - the arm was useless anyway - while slamming her palm into the secretary’s hip with an enforced Golden Strike, aiming to inflict as much damage as she could to the joint.

With clear inspiration from Namkhai, her tackle transitioned into a grapple in a matter of a second, her arm wrapped around Kaede’s body to lift it off the ground. Danielle twisted her body with a deep groan to slam her opponent head first into the deck.

On the other side of the ship, she hadn't noticed any of what was going on - not Eponine and Beast running toward her, nor Gabriel stirring.

---

Danielle: #fffd17
Rosalina: #ffaaff

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #22

Despite all the injuries he sustained in his fight with Gabriel, Catan pressed on, landing flurry of strikes on the large sumo wrestler, who was soon covered in so many bruises, that he resembled a giant blueberry, but he pressed on, using his superior size and weight to push the far superior combatant step by step towards Gabriel.

As for the Professor he was a mess. That technique Kaede used against Danielle hit him good. His left arm was wreck and simply refused to move. It was painful to breath, his head was spinning and he could barely hold a coherent thought. But there was one thing he remembered well, his puppies were in danger and they needed his help.

Reaching out with his right he could grab onto something a taffrail maybe, he didn´t know, but it was stable enough to allow him to pull himself up on his feet.

He could stand, although his legs were shaking under him and the word started spinning far more than before. He stumbled forward, eyes focused on Catan´s back.

The older warrior has his view obscured by the large sumo wrestler that was towering over him, but his instincts were great. He realized something was going on and tried to reposition himself so he could face both Hariyama and a possible attack from behind.

“Sh*t...TSURI…”
Noticing what was going on Hariyama hardened his whole body and lunged forward, he however never got a chance to execute his whole technique as Katan ducked under his shoulder and hit him with a devastating uppercut aimed at his solar plexus.

“Military Claymore!”
Shockwave from that punch pierced the wrestler´s body, bypassing his steel like muscles and sending him to the ground unconscious. He was too big for Catan to simply sidestep, he had to push his body away before turning around to face the new incoming threat. It cost him seconds, precious seconds that allowed Gabriel to drag his broken body forward.

“Gibbous Moon”

Covering the few remaining steps, he released his muscles, putting additional strain on his already broken body. It was anything but a smart move but needed every once of his strength to drive his spear hand through Catan, every last one of bit.

It was as if time stopped for these two men, then both of them collapsed to the deck.

“That was one.”
He felt tired, so tired. His legs refused to carry him anymore but there was one more. His puppies still weren´t safe. Reaching out, he clenched his fingers against the planks and tried to drag himself forward.

Just one more and than he can rest.

---

Eponine rushed Kaede, followed by Beast in her large, half-beast form. The blonde pretty much ignored both of them, focusing solely on the enemy in front of them.

The reason was fairly obvious as the wind blade of Eponine´s Cutting Fist couldn´t even scratch her hardened body and even Beast´s Lasgun failed to do much damage as the focused ray of light left only a small scorched mark on her shoulder, forcing annoyed painful growl out of her. Growl and a flinch, that created an opening for Danielle to execute the attack. Although running shoulder into Kaede in her current state was similar to a running into a steel block, the blonde ended up with her face planted deep in the deck.

She stiffed for a moment, before bursting out again, swinging a backwards elbow in a direction where she expected Danielle´s face.
“You damn fu…”
Kaede paused as she noticed Catan and Gabriel lying on the deck nearby.
“Fu...surrender! I surrender!”
She yelled out of nowhere, still keeping her technique up, making both Eponine and Beast go to a full stop from their all out sprint.

“Just let me take care of my partner and this fight is over.”