Lara's POV;

I was watching the Raptor coming closer when Jonny and Yosaku finished with their scouting of the ship. Jonny had a bag made of cloth in his hand and a large grin when he came back out of the ship.

He tossed me the bag, I take a look and saw a grey Devil Fruit, most likely that of the recently deceased fog Devil Fruit user. Good that it materialised on the ship and not on board of one of the sunken ones.

Is it even possible for a Devil Fruit to exist inside the sea? Their power gets cancelled out by it, would this one get destroyed if I throw it overboard?

“And why did they attack us?”, asked Yosaku, waiting alongside me for the Raptor to come close enough to place a plank between both ships.

“For loot, well a little bit more complicated, but that's the gist of it. I'll explain once the others are here. Did you find something other than the fruit?” I replied and asked back.

“Yeah, some stuff we can use, food and their treasure room. I also think we will find a map to a nearby island if we take a closer look at their rooms. Their food was too fresh for a long raid trip.” Chipped Jonny in before Yosaku could answer.

I nodded, we waited for the remaining few minutes that the Raptor needs to line up with us, in silence. Noa put a plank over to us, connecting both ships, and Jonny, Yosaku and I stepped back over to our ship.

“Thanks for the support Nojiko, your sniping was spot on,” I praised the blue-haired woman. She grinned proudly and patted her sniper rifle. “You too Jonny and Yosaku, great work in taking out the crew.” They gave each other a high five and grinned. “Well, let Jonny and Yosaku start with what they have found on the ship and then I will fill you in with what I have learned from the fog user.”

“Yes well, Jonny and I found a storeroom with spare parts like tows, nails, daily necessities, wood and so on. It looked to be in fairly good condition. Then we found a filled kitchen, enough food to last for a month with most of that being fresh stuff. Those guys were out here with a base close by. And lastly, we found their money. A room filled with gold and money, maybe enough for a few hundred million Berry.

We haven't yet searched their quarters, but I'm sure we can find some useful stuff and a map to a close island.” Explained Yosaku to the rest of the crew. Nojiko was grinning like a child when she heard that those now dead guys have a lot of money. We are pretty broke since we build the Raptor with everything we wanted. Not really a problem with me as a goldsmith, but still something that Nojiko pretty much disliked.

Yosaku gave me a nod to signal that he has finished his report, so I continued with what I have found out by questioning the fog guy. I only had to break a couple dozens of bones and use some vibrations on his nose, preventing him from breathing, to open up.

“The fog came from a Logia Devil Fruit user, he wasn't really imaginative with his powers and easily taken out. After killing him Jonny and Yosaku have even found his fruit on board. So now we have, again, an unused Devil Fruit. I'm pretty sure that none of you wants the fruit, but if you do, tell me,” none of them voiced their desire on the fruit, so I continued with a small nod, “right, thought so. However, the fog user did tell me some pretty interesting stuff before dying.

He was part of a small kingdoms military force. They aren't affiliated with the World Government, but not for lack of trying. They aren't able to pay the tribute to the World Nobles, which prevents them from joining. Or more like rejoining.

Their attack on us wasn't done to get rid of pirates, but a tactic of them to gain money and jewellery. Apparently, there is a large Sea King living close to their island that loves shiny things. It has learned to associate humans with his desired shiny stuff and demands a tribute in form of gold and gems.

When this Sea King first arrived it destroyed the vessel with the tribute to the World Nobles. The kingdom at first tried to fight the Sea King, but it's a large one and they were too weak to kill it. It then destroyed the Marine ships that tried to investigate.

The World Government then dropped the island, their lack of any importance made it easy for the Marines to simply ignore the plight of these people. After failing to pay the Tribute a second time they got kicked out of the World Government and left them alone to face the trouble.

The Sea King is quite intelligent and has learned to use the people of the island for his desire for shiny things. It allows them to sail out, but only up to a specific point, and attack other vessels.

The soldiers of the Kingdom then raid other ships, no matter which allegiance. The raided gold, jewellery and gems are given to the Sea King, while the food and spare materials are taken back home.

This started a few years ago and the people of the Kingdom have become used to the Sea King, it wasn't much different than the World Government really, both demand a tribute in form of money. Only that the Sea King is also protecting its income of shiny things by fighting off strong pirates.

These guys would never have attacked us if they knew we were us. They still thought that the Kage Pirates have the Shadow, our new ship is just that, new and unknown. So they risked it and attacked.

Their normal tactic of using fog to get close and overwhelm the enemy ship was thwarted by us and they had no real back up plan.

A search of their quarters will surely reveal a map and we can sail to their island, but that will also make the Sea King take notice of us. From the description of the fog user, I can safely say that this specimen is at least ten times the size of a super-sized warship. It has the appearance of an eel with wings and a birds beak. The body has black scales with a white colour on its wings underside. Not unlike that of a magpie. It is also able to speak, if only limited.”

The crew was silent for a moment, processing what I have explained. Nojiko had Berry signs in her eyes, surely in the middle of imagining all the money this Sea King has hoarded up till now. Noa was in slight disbelieve of the story. Jo looked disgusted by the World Government. Fiara was asking Lia if these soldiers were the same as the Marines, to which Lia answered with a definite yes, which made Fiara declare them as enemies to life itself.

Yosaku and Jonny were eager to fight the Sea King and possibly the kingdom. And Lia, after having explained Fiara some things, was too.

“So what do we do? Our ship is strong, but depending on the Sea King it won't survive a direct attack. If it decides to attack us from the underside and not from one of the others we are in some danger. A Sea King of that size will be able to eat a third of the ship in one bite. We do have a defence against attacks from the underside, but those aren't very precise and I don't know how effective they are against a Sea King this large.” Said Noa, he stressed the danger of this Sea King to our ship.

“What kind of defence?” I asked interestedly.

“Water Bombs and mines. Fiara has made some high explosives that we can shoot over board and into the sea. There they either drift until something comes close enough or they sink and explode after a set amount of time. The first is against pursuers and the second against submarines and Sea Kings. Only that we don't know how effective they are, never have tested them in actual combat and they weren't designed against a Sea King of that size, at most against something twice or trice the size of a super-sized warship. Really, we thought it might be good against Marine ships or, if we are flying, for bombing a target.”

Seriously, how much fire power does our ship have? The cannons alone are damn dangerous against hostile ships, then the laser/particle cannon, now we have water mines and bombs. Fiara also told me about automatic guns in case we are raided. Those things are not the puny one shot rifles, no she made miniguns.

“We could fly over the sea and attack from the air, its large body would be rather easy to spot from an eagle point of view.” Suggested Lia.

“That would work, but so long as it is out of the water. The bombs would explode upon impact with the sea if we throw them off board. The cannons aren't designed to shoot downwards and the particle laser is a front mounted weapon. We would have to rely on your attacks and what little we can hit with our bombs.” Agreed Noa, albeit reluctantly. Lia is strong enough to damage the Sea King, but her attacks get weaker the deeper under water she has to hit. And I won't be able to use my Devil Fruit at such a distance.

“We might be able to protect the under side of our ship with my and Lia's fruit. I can freeze or boils the water, the Sea King will only reluctantly swim through that, while Lia can compress the water. If the Sea King attacks us then this compressed water will slow it down and possible make it slow enough for us to evade, we just have to sail fairly fast.”

Fiara jumped up and down in agreement of my plan. “That could work, the Raptor is designed for quick manoeuvres and high speed fights. It can, with a little help on Lia's side, easily do 180° turns. With a lot of help even close to 90° turns.”

“Do you think our cannons are strong enough to penetrate the skin of such an large Sea King? I know that my force blades and Lia's bullets will most likely be.” I then asked next. If only me and Lia can damage that thing at all then fighting it will be difficult. We will have to take care of a lot of different things at the same time.

Fiara thought for a moment and then nodded. “They should be. I have a variation that set things on fire,” “Of course she does.”, “even if it is under water. We also have a variation that is specially effective against armoured targets. It won't do much area effect damage, but should be able to punch through almost any armour.”

Good, and if it becomes to dangerous we can always fly off and get out of here. I looked at the group in general. “Okay, so we have a possible way of defeating this Sea King. That leaves us with baiting it. We could sail directly to the island and hope that it will attack us, but we could also sail around the island and take care of any other raiding group they have.

The fog guy was in charge of the biggest raiding group, their ships have had the most weapons. But there are two others with faster ships for raids against merchant ships that pass through these waters.

What do you want to do? Fighting close to the island will force it into shallower water, but then there are at least two groups of hostile ships left that can and would come to it's help. They are connected via transponder snail and already know of us.

The alternative is to hunt down the remaining two groups and force it out to attack us before we can reach the island and its nest. The sea is deeper, which allows it to move more easily, but there won't be any possible reinforcements.”

The crew thought about both possible plans before we took a majority vote. In the end, we decided to....