Lara's POV;

“And Start!”, shouted the commentator.

Noa instantly placed the oar in a position that would give us some speed and I moved the sail into the wind. The sail bulged and then the ship almost jumped out of the water from Lia's added pressure.

Both Noa and I were almost thrown off of our feed and the Fox was already passing by the other ships in the second line.

“What is this? The Fox, sailed by Noa Franklin, is already the first of their group”, shouted the commentator. People from the harbour cheered loudly and I even heard Jonny and Yosaku's cheers. Having these ears can be helpful. Even if I have to apply Haki on them most of the times so that I won't get bleeding ears from cannon fire or Lia's training exercise.

The ship then moved to the top position of our starting line and we quickly grew closer to the first line. There were six ships in each line. One of those in front of us was the warship Noa spoke about. How someone thought that a warship would be good for a race is beyond me.

The answer came shortly after when the same ship steered to the side and crashed into a smaller ship. The higher mass and sturdiness of the warship was overwhelming and it simply sailed through the other ship.

“And the Rosewelts used their ship Big Bang as a battering ram. The smaller Ölü stood no chance, we can only hope that they got off quick enough”, shouted the commentator cheerfully.

“They will try the same with us. The Rosewelt shipyard is buying their starting position every year and use it to take out the smaller and weaker ones. It may not give them the first place or a good reputation, but is promoting their warships like nothing else”, informed Noa us before he turned the oar to the side and overtook another ship.

Now we were directly behind this ship, Big Bang. “Lia?”, I asked and looked upwards, but Lia shook her head.

“This thing is too large, I can't stop it”, she replied with a frown. So slowing it down is not an option, what about taking it out? It's ruder is in plain sight, I might be able to attack it.

“Noa, are we allowed to attack them if we don't use cannons?”, I asked to be sure.

“Sure, anything is allowed. The rule only states that the firing of a cannon has to be aimed at a race target. That's how Qual Shipyard can fire at other ships without getting disqualified. They align themselves with the target and fire. Only that their real target is in the middle and gets hit. This way they can claim that it was unintentional.” He was now steering us to the right side so that we could start to overtake the Big Bang. The bigger ship also began to move in the same direction, just slower.

“That's cool, so we can technically attack all of them?”, I asked once more.

“Sure, but it wouldn't show the good sides of my ship. This race is not meant to simply take out the opposition, but to do it while showing the craftsmanship of your vessel.” So just slicing every other ship in two isn't helping. And there they say that violence is always the solution to your problems. But then, they also say that you haven't used enough if your problem isn't gone. Wait, enough violence...

“Lia, can you make us fly when we are already in the air?” My new idea might work if Lia is strong enough.

“For half a minute at most”, she replied and I couldn't stop my grin. It's easier for her to apply pressure to something that is already moving in the same direction.

“Then let's do this!”, I shouted excitedly and jumped to the front side of our ship. There I looked down into the water and concentrated while also pointing my hands downwards, it helps to concentrate.

And then suddenly the water under us froze and the ship slid on the now frozen sheen. A frozen wave made us do a small jump. Lia added her power and the normal skip turned into a massive jump. Our ship sailed upwards and barely over the big frame of the Big Bang.

The flight held only a few seconds and we started to descend back down. Lia even managed to lower us slowly. A crash might have damaged the ship.

“I won't be able to help for some time now”, she then said between deep breaths of air. I nodded in understanding, lifting a multi-ton heavy ship wasn't easy for her.

“That was so cool!”, shouted Noa excitedly. Behind us was the dumbfounded crew of the Big Bang. And a small iceberg. I slowed the molecular movement of the water so quickly down that it froze. The ice then acted like a small ramp and we flew upwards. Not by much, but enough for Lia to work with something.

“That should be enough for us until we reach the currents”, informed Noa us. Behind us, we heard a loud crunch and I saw how Big Bag managed to drive over another ship.

“How many do you think are in front of us?”, I asked and watched how Noa started to manoeuvrer the ship from the left to the right and back. Always staying in the middle of an almost invisible current. On each side of us were small stone tops jotting out of the water. Their larger bodies were hidden beneath the surface.

They all were sharp enough to rip our ship apart. How will a ship like the Big Bang cross this part?

“They sail around. It takes longer, but is allowed”, said Noa suddenly. Your expression, you were watching the rocks. I thought you were thinking about the bigger ships”, he explained.

“Thanks”, I said and helped him by arranging the sail. Once or twice we came across another ship. They were not lucky enough to evade the sharp rocks and collided with the unforgiving stone.

The Fox was small enough and more importantly mobile enough to cross this part of the race safely.

“Over there are the targets. My cannon can only reach the second closest one. Anything beyond is too far away and also too sturdy”, said Noa while pointing at a group of red rocks.

“I might be able to reach the fifth line”, came from Lia. I had to squint my eyes to make the red rock out that was placed in the fifth line. There's no way I can reach this far with my power. More like the third. Maybe, with a lot of luck, the fourth.

“Sorry, but I think farther than the third won't be possible for me,” I said and both of us looked at Noa.

“Hmm, the second line would give us two points, the third 4. You sure you can't reach the fourth?”, he asked me. I nodded. This far out was certainly beyond me. Especially when I have to concentrate on a small object that flies away and has to be put under a precise amount of power.

“Not when I have to use my Devil Fruit on a flying cannonball.” Noa accepted this with a shrug.

Then let's shoot at the third stone to the left of the third line. It is one of the more sturdy ones and will add another 3 points.” He pointed at the stone.

“It has a three pained on it”, explained Lia to me. She could see them perfectly fine.

“Good, let's do this then!”, shouted Noa with confidence. He moved the ship in line with our target and I loaded the cannon.

“Ready? Then fire!” I burned the fuse and the cannonball shot out. It got instantly trapped in Lia's power and corrected some mistakes in its course. I then managed to also hold focus on it and applied my own power. The black ball left my eyesight but was still in my focus. Then, ten seconds after being shot it hit our target and a red fireball consumed the rock.

The smoke cleared and we could see that the red rock had lost a good chunk of its body.

“Thank you, this would have definitely taken longer and wouldn't have given me so many points without you.” Noa smiled at both of us and then turned our ship back around. Next were the sea kings.

A loud roar was the first thing that informed us of the nearby sea monsters. A series of cannon shots told us that those were not the only ones behind the next corner.

“Get ready, from here on out it gets dangerous”, warned Noa. And not too soon. The moment we were around the corner we could see three sea kings swimming at a ship that was shooting at them.

A line of fire shot out of the ship and half a dozen cannonballs impacted with the closest sea king. It was a giant eel with a squirrel face. It got hit directly in the face and screamed up in pain. The high pitched scream would have damaged me and Lia if we haven't learned from Lia's training.

A good thing, such a weakness was too easy to exploit.

Anyway, the sea king turned around, heavily wounded and dived down to flee. His two friends had no such intentions and reached the ship before they could reload. One of them 'jumped' out of the water and crashed into it. The vessel, at least two times our size, was split in two and sunk within moments.

“Oh shit”, cursed Noa. He was already pulling the oar around. Firmly believing that this is beyond him. True, if we weren't with him.

“Stop, we can handle them”, I called out and jumped off of the ship. The distance was too great for me to reach them with a force blade and I didn't want to risk them getting too close.

A few Geppo were enough to bring me close enough. And a mighty kick of my leg sends an air blade down at the second sea king. The first was busy eating the swimming crew of the sunken ship.

The blue arc hit the face of a mouse directly over the eyes and pushed it down into the water, but did not wound it more than a small red line.

It squeaked loudly and jumped up to swallow me whole. This was exactly what I wanted. These things are giant targets and there is one thing every big living being has in common with each other. Pierce the brain and it dies.

This was also true to this sea king. So with a drawn sword, I used another Geppo to propel myself into its open mouth, through the back of its throat, followed by the brain and then back out of the skull.

I stopped myself from falling into the water with another Geppo and jumped back to our ship. There I was greeted by Lia who looked at me with a smug grin.

“What?” I asked in confusion.

“You forgot that you can't clean yourself now”, she said, her grin grew in size and I noticed that I was soaked in blood and even had some brain stuck on my shoulder.

“Ah fuck. But wait,” I started to jump up and down and let my whole body vibrate. The vibration loosened the fluid and with my jumping got off. Soon I was 'clean' again and stuck my tongue out to show Lia how false she was.

“What was that?”, asked Noa amazed and in pure shock.

“Nothing just took care of the sea king problem”, I replied. And true, the other sea king, who has noticed that his friend died, took some distance from us.

We were then able to sail forward without getting disturbed from any more sea kings.

“Okay, what's next on the list?”, I asked and looked at our back. There, almost out of my sight was the sea king nest. I could just barely make out how the Big Bang fired its lines of massive cannons at a sea king. The explosion was dwarfing the small high powered cannonball of the Fox by a wide margin.

I want one of those....

“An almost clear path to the finishing line. There is only a riff and most likely some of the other participants who are waiting for an opportunity for a good boarding”, answered Noa, completely focused on the sea.

“Lia, can't you make any impact less damaging?” Should be possible in theory.

“I could if I knew when we are going to collide with something.” Her answer could as well have been a no.

“A pity. Hey, Noa, why would they wait for a boarding? Wouldn't a quick finish give them more points?”, I then said. Is there some quality difference in boarding action? So far we only sailed up to them, jumped over and killed everybody.

“Yes and no, there are designs for ships that specialise in boarding. But these guys want to take out those who have scored high in the first two tests. They might not get high scores at the end, but their competition won't get any at all.” His answer made sense to me.

“Oh okay, then am I allowed to simply cut them down?”, I asked with a hopeful smile and drew my sword.

“Sure, we don't need to fight them, I'm hoping to get a high score for finishing the race quickly.”

I almost jumped off of the ship to meet these guys in between but decided against it. Noa could get in trouble for too much aggressiveness. I think he could, not sure about it.

“There they are. Seems like three ships are it this time. One of them is already occupied”, warned Noa a few moments later. There, in front of us, were two ships who were coming at us. Another one, a third ship, was next to a smaller one and out of reach.

“Lia, can you make us faster?”, asked Noa. He got no verbal reply but the ship got faster. This left one of the would-be attackers also out of reach. Now only a single ship was coming at us and that directly from the front.

“Hehe, I got this. Just hold course. They won't ram us, they are not big enough”, I said and jumped on the fox head. My sword raised to the sky and the power of vibration already focusing on it.

The ship grew closer and then began to move to the side. A few men were standing on the railing with tows in hand. Probably wanting to swing over while passing by.

It was, however, not meant to be. I cut down and send a force off. It cut the water in half and reached the other ship in seconds. Only a light crunch told of the connection. And then a third of the ship decided to move to the left, while the rest wanted to go forward.

Both parts slowed down quickly and were soon starting to sink. Its crew screaming and jumping off the boat. The coast was near enough for them to reach on their own.

They could do nothing but watch how we sailed past them and then over the finishing line. Where we were greeted by the cheers of the viewers and a then two marine ships. They were easily twice as large as the Shadow and had at least two dozen more cannons.

“I thought your bounty wasn't over a hundred million?”, asked Noa with a frown from my side.

“It wasn't at least not a week ago”, I answered while being slightly confused. What have we done to get a bounty raise? By Noa's reaction, this is not normal.