Devil's Luck Pirates

-You call that freedom?! – Ragnar shouts.

-YES!! – Valve responds in ecstasy – That is the ultimate form of freedom! To bring chaos to this world and get rich while doing it, is the definition of being free!!!

Valve reaches for one of the gears in his chest and turns it without breaking eye contact with Ragnar. A wave of electricity surges through his body, even more steam emanates from him at higher speeds, and his skin goes from a pale white to a faint pink.

Ragnar readies his ax, expecting an attack.

-Hihihihi… lets kick this into… HIGH GEAR!

In the blink of an eye, Valve rams his elbow into Ragnar's stomach, making him spit out blood.

Ragnar couldn't even see him move. It was as if Valve teleported to his position. And his strength has greatly increased too. Ragnar almost falls to his knees when a second attack hits him on the back, pushing him forward a bit.

Eustass Valve blitzes all over the room, hitting the barbarian from all directions seemingly at the same time while all he can see and hear are the faint steam trails he leaves behind and his manic laugh.

But there is something Ragnar can sense even better now.

Since the start of their fight, whenever Valve gets close enough to strike Ragnar, he can smell the scent of burnt skin. And it would disappear the moment Valve got away from him. That is how he managed to land all of his attacks on Valve.

This is the only way for him to win now. Wait for Valve to get close from the front and swing his ax with all his might. However, he will also have to do it when Valve's attack connects with him. Too early and Valve might be able to dodge, too late and he would already be out of Ragnar's range. And at the rate this is going, he doesn't know how many of Valve's attacks he can endure.

It's no use to keep thinking about this. Ragnar closes his only good eye and takes a deep breath. He clasps his ax with both hands and raises it slightly above his head.

-What!? Did you give up already?! – Valve screams – You think I don't know what you're trying to do, you stupid animal?!

It takes everything he has to ignore the high-pitched voice of his opponent.

-Fine! If it's a clash you want… – Valve declares, landing on the opposite side of the corridor far away from Ragnar – Then I'll give it to ya!!!

-HIGH GEAR: – He readies his fist and unleashes a giant cloud of steam that propels him towards Ragnar at almost supersonic speed.

-STEAM PUNK!!!

Now!

…

Steam engulfs the two as the pirate captain collides with the barbarian at the same time blood juts out into the air. It falls to the ground with a sizzling sound.

Ragnar's knee hitting the floor dissipates some of the steam. Showing him back in his human form, coughing out blood. The blade of his ax is covered with boiling hot blood.

A couple of seconds later, Eustass Valve stumbles back out of the cloud, astonished. An enormous gash in between his neck and shoulder spews blood as if it were a geyser. He mumbles something to himself, but Ragnar can only make sense of the word 'kid' before the Loose Canon Eustass Valve shuts up for good and drops to the floor.

Back inside the throne room, Pearl had just rescued Verona from suffering the same fate as Atom. She stares down Captain Marrow, who studies this newly arrived foe from top to bottom. He smiles and starts to walk towards the dragon girl, manifesting a spear from his closed fist.

The moment the Navy Captain jabs towards her, Pearl quickly dashes towards the man's head, delivering a devastating kick to his cheek. Marrow didn't even have time to cover his head with bone this time.

At the same time, Pearl notices Jasper lying on the floor with a bone spear impaled on his leg.

-Brother! – She screams and swiftly glides towards him, leaving Marrow behind – Are you ok?! – She asks concerned while removing the spear from his leg with ease.

-Don't worry about me… – He responds after wincing – Just focus on taking down Marrow. – He adds. Meanwhile, Marrow spits out a tooth and smiles. He wipes a bit of blood from the corner of his mouth and takes out his last carton of milk.

Pearl rips another chunk of fabric from her shirt, revealing more of her scaled stomach; and wraps it around Jasper's leg to stop the bleeding. As she does this, she looks around and notices Duros slumped over a couple of meters away from them.

-Duros! – She exclaims.

-Don't worry about him. – The Prince comments while sitting up – He's alright, just taking a breather.

Pearl's eyes light up in anger after taking in the full scope of Marrow's wrath. She's about to turn to face the Navy Captain when two giant spider-like legs made of solid bone come down on them. Pearl quickly picks up her brother and dashes towards the throne where William just finished melting the piece of bone that was pinning him against the throne.

-I'm impressed. – The man stated with a crushed carton of strawberry milk in his hand. Two more "legs" slowly manifest from his back. Unlike before, the bone now surges in an almost liquid form from Marrow's body before taking shape and hardening instantly.

-Keep my brother safe, Captain. – Pearl declares without taking Marrow out of her sight.

-Alright. – William responds with confidence. He would like to gush about how cool she looks now, but he will have time for that during the victory feast. They will win this, no matter the cost.

With no more words left to say, Pearl pounces towards Marrow; who responds by sending two legs towards her. She dodges the first one, while the second strikes her in the shoulder without going through. The girl simply keeps going unflinchingly towards the Navy Captain.

Marrow then lifts his arm forward. A mass of liquid bone extends towards the girl, almost enveloping her. However, she manages to move back with a flap of her wings in the nick of time. The liquid bone still goes after her, eventually taking the form of a giant skeletal arm. It tries to grab her, but Pearl's enhanced speed allows her to evade it. She then flies alongside the skeletal arm towards Marrow, who takes this opportunity to finish off Verona with his skeletal legs. Pearl sees this and changes course toward her fallen crewmate.

Grabbing one leg on each hand, she stops them from going through Verona mere centimeters away from his body. Marrow then molds his giant arm into a myriad of spikes aimed at them both.

Pearl in desperation bites one of the legs she's holding, breaking it; and throws it towards Marrow who tries to protect himself with his bone-covered arm, but the sheer force of Pearl's throw shatters both the protection and the projectile on impact. Meanwhile, she snapped off the other leg and also threw it at Marrow before grabbing Verona and flying towards William.

Marrow tries to stop her using his two remaining bone legs plus the mass of spikes, now transformed into several other legs. Many of them pierce through her scales, and some even brush on Verona.

Luckily, the two manage to reach William with no serious injuries.

-Perfect! – Marrow declares with a twisted grin – Now I can get rid of all of you at the same time!

The multiple spider legs coalesce on Marrow's right arm, forming a great mass of white bone that keeps on growing. Several spikes begin to bubble up from the liquid bone pointing at the crew. William, seeing what is about to happen, tries to cover both Verona and Jasper with his own body while Pearl turns her back on Marrow and extends her wings hoping to shield the others. Then, with a sadistic smile, Captain Marrow shouts:

-BONE BONE EXPLOSION!!!

CLUNK!

The sound of something hitting against iron echoes through the throne room. Pearl and William both open their eyes slowly, hoping for the worst. But all of them, including Verona and Jasper seem to be completely unscathed from the attack.

Pearl retracts her wings and turns around to see the same iron-covered back that protected her nine years ago. With tears running down her face she screams…

-DUROS!!!!

The knight stands proud with his shield raised in front of him. Multiple spikes have gone through the armor around his shoulders and legs, but his head remains intact thanks to the shield tanking the majority of the spikes.

-I promised… – The knight lets out with a weak voice amidst his heavy breathing – to not fail… ever again… – And with that, the man with an iron will falls on his back unconscious.

William and Pearl hurry towards Duros and begin to strip away his armor, trying to stop the bleeding.

Marrow, on the other hand, is furious at this. He grunts in silence while gripping his forearm. That attack also took a toll on him. Nevertheless, he can still finish them off.

The Navy Captain takes one step toward the crew when a voice shouts out from across the room.

-MARROW!!!

He turns around and sees a very tired Ragnar holding onto the door that separates the throne room from the corridor he was just in – Time to finish what we started! – He declares pushing open the door, almost breaking it off its hinges, and resting his ax on the shoulder.

-You lot really don't know when to give up, huh?! – The Captain responds shaking away the pain in his arm.

Ragnar simply smiles and shifts to his hybrid form. The two towering men slowly walk towards each other, picking up the pace as they get closer and closer until they clash.

Ragnar brings down his two-handed ax while Marrow parries it with his bone-encrusted arm. They stay in the bind for some time, desperately trying to win this contest of strength while glaring and growling at each other. Eventually, Ragnar's ax cracks Marrow's bone. The barbarian almost managed to slice the Navy Captain's arm if the latter didn't break away in time.

Wasting no time, Ragnar swings yet again at his foe. This time across Marrow's armored chest. Shards of bone break away from the impact. Marrow responds with a bone-reinforced punch aimed at his opponent's face, breaking a couple of molars.

For a while, the two of them stay in this brutal dance of fur and bone. Chipping away at each other until one of them succumbs.

Ragnar swings his ax violently, putting less effort into cutting and more into sheer strength with each attack; while Marrow's liquid bone takes on all manner of forms and shapes to damage his rival.

The man bear brings down his ax once more, digging into Marrow's shoulder not unlike he did with Eustass Valve. However, this time his attack didn't manage to cleave open Marrow's shoulder. Instead, the latter traps the ax with bone. Ragnar tries to pull it out with all his strength, managing to slowly crack the osseous tissue. However, Marrow manifests something resembling a scorpion's tail from his back, aiming at Ragnar's eye.

It stops mere millimeters away from blinding Ragnar. Marrow looks up and sees a furious Pearl, grabbing his makeshift tail with both hands. She violently rips it out of the Captain's back, causing severe pain. Ragnar also manages to free his ax, making him stumble a couple of septs back, allowing Pearl to unleash a flurry of attacks on Marrow from all directions.

A spin kick to his chest, an uppercut on his chin, a left hook followed by a right hook to the face, and a drop kick on the head that completely shatters his skull hat. Pearl tries to connect yet another kick, but Marrow clutches her leg before it can connect, covering his hand with bones to lock it in place, then slamming the girl on the ground with full force. She grunts in pain before he lifts her to do it again, but Pearl responds by spitting a wall of flames at the Captain who lets go of her in the process.

Meanwhile, William is doing all he can to stop Duros from bleeding out. He used all the bandages he had on his bag, but there were still many puncture holes on the knight's body.

While he panics, Jasper slowly limps over to them with his sword in hand. The first thing William sees is the tip of Jasper's sword and immediately thinks the worst.

-I'm not going to mercy kill my friend! – William snarled – He can still make it!

-He shed too much blood to protect me… – Jasper stated, ignoring William's comments – It's time for me to do the same.

William looks at him confused. Jasper kneels beside Duros and hands William his sword – Make him hold onto this.

Even more confused, William grabs the beautifully crafted sword and wraps Duros' limp fingers around the hilt.

-I know you are worthy of this… – The Prince whispers, holding the tip of his sword and cutting his arm with it.

-What the hell are you doing?! – William exhorted having reached the limit of his confusion. The Prince says nothing and simply continues to cut himself with his own sword, drenching the blade with blood.

William is about to stop this lunacy when he notices Duros' wounds have stopped bleeding. They even seem to be closing ever so slightly – But… how? – He inquired.

-Don't ask me how it works. – Jasper responds – This blessed blade is capable of converting some of the damage it does to others into healing for its wielder.

William is about to protest this unbelievable statement but then remembers that one of his friends can turn into a dragon, and the other can turn into a bear.

-Wait, then… – He looks back at Verona near the throne. He is slumped over with a hand over his wound.

-I already tried it on your friend. – The Prince blurts out – It didn't work. Only those who are "worthy" may benefit from this blessing. But don't worry, your friend is at no risk of death.

-And what makes someone worthy, then? – The pirate Captain asks.

-Hehe… Sometimes I ask myself the same thing… – Jasper responds while looking at Duros' face fondly. William, not wanting to be considered less when it comes to friendship, also cuts his arm with the Prince's sword. He winces from the pain a little, but compared to what he's gone through all day, this is nothing.

A couple more cuts later, Jasper covers his wounds with pieces of his ragged shit and stands up.

-This should be enough to stabilize him. Let's go finish this. – He declares reaching out with his hand towards William, who does the same and hands over the sword to his owner before unsheathing his own.

While all this is going on, Ragnar and Pearl are still fighting tooth and nail against Marrow. The latter is now covered in cuts, bruises, and burns thanks to everyone's efforts. But, the two Zoan users are in the same boat. They need to finish this now.

Pearl goes for the Captain's head while Ragnar swings low. Marrow covers his legs with bone and creates two additional skeletal arms to stop Pearl. This continues for a couple more times, with both parties managing to damage each other in the process.

-GRAH! I'm getting sick of this! – Marrow bellowed, creating two bone spears and chucking them towards Ragnar and Pear. Ragnar deflects one of them with his ax while Pearl manages to catch the other one.

-Heads up, Ragnar! – She shouts to her comrade, throwing the spear at him while dashing full speed towards Marrow. Ragnar catches it with ease and aims it at the Navy Captain.

Pearl tries to slash Marrow with her claws, but the latter grabs her wrists with two skeletal arms that rip out of his shoulders. Pearl then lets out a plume of fire that engulfs both of them. Marrow steps back with his face singed and eyes closed. Perfect for Ragnar to land a precise shot on Marrow's left leg with his bone spear.

He growls in pain for a moment and leans down to take it out, but a surprise slash from William to the back of his right leg makes him fall to one knee.

-Always the coward, William! – He accused looking at the smug pirate next to him. He quickly recovers by patching his would with bones to reinforce his leg and stand up.

Marrow tries to land a hit on William but is parried by Jasper's sword. Pearl then follows with a well placed flying punch to the jaw, leaving the Navy Captain lightheded.

Now, for the coup de grâce.

Ragnar steps forward, he sets down his ax on the ground and raises one of his clawed hands up while the other stays down, resembling a giant maw.

Then, since all the strong ones always call out their special attacks, he roars:

-KUMA SHREDDER!!!

Ragnar brings both of his claws together, ripping through Marrow's chest.

-GAH!!!! – The man cries out while stumbling back, blood and bones all over him.

-Y-you… – Marrow blurts out – really a-are… strong…

The man with the deep voice's eyes go blank, and his back hits the ground with a loud thud.

Captain Marrow has been defeated, the Steam Pipe Pirates are beaten, and the king is dead.

The battle for the Tarako Kingdom has come to an end.