Battle Log Four

Captain Cotton vs the Left Flank

"What a terrible line." Leonardo muttered, jumping up to the wall besides Cotton.

"Agreed. You can do better than that." Borris said, stepping to her left. In his hand was an old sabre, with a curved blade so rusted it seemed incapable of cutting thread, forget flesh. The handle and C-shaped guard were all a faded red, which had clearly once been far brighter and more radiant some time ago.

Cotton had heard about that sword, but had never seen it until this moment. He had only ever fought using a makeshift dagger till now, since the battle at South Africa three years ago. "So is that the infamous Unborn Blade I've heard so much about?" She asked, eyeing his weapon.

Borris nodded, and swung the blade back and forth, getting a feel for the weight of the sabre. Just touching the hilt made the hair on the back of his neck rise up.

"So what's the game plan? You two are the leaders here." Cotton muttered as the first round of cannonfire began from the Blackbeard Pirates. In response, Borris pointed at the ship that had been cut in half, located one ship away from Blackbeard's ship to the left flank.

BANG. BANG. He ignored the cannonfire slamming into the wall below them and replied, "Veltmann's ship is disabled for now. So the plan is to target that weakness and distance the ships from each other. Seperate them, and take them out slowly. Fighting them all at once is suicide."

Cotton grinned. "So you need my Den and offense to get forward without needing to worry about protecting the fleet." He nodded, and suddenly swung the sabre up to cleanly split a speeding cannonball in two. The dust and smoke scattered in the air, whipping past his face.

"I have no doubt that our crews are strong and cunning enough to win against theirs. But the Captains are going to be a pain in the ass." Leonardo murmured, and looked up as he sensed a spike in Ley.

Let's see how quick you can move, boy.

A loud BOOM, and Leonardo had less than a second to react to the bullet that soared towards his head. He unsheathed his longsword, but Cotton reacted with unbelievable speed to block the projectile by extending her Den. The water curved in front of them, absorbing the massive explosion from the bullet that followed.

Covered with water and tiny bits of iron, Leonardo readied himself the moment the protective barrier dissolved and fell to the sea below. "Franco Materazzi, I assume?" He asked.

"No doubt about it. We need to split up and move." Borris replied, waving his hands around to dry the water from them.

Without warning, a huge wave of concentrated fire slashed through the surface of the sea, and just barely missed the ship to the far right, directly ahead of Caine's ship. The three pirates turned to the source, which was the ongoing battle between the two Fleet Captains.

Whitebeard, with his superior speed, was currently running riot around Blackbeard, whose Ley seemed to know no bounds. Every hit Whitebeard delivered, Blackbeard blocked smoothly.

Borris took note of the amount of force the two were unleashing as they zigzagged across the air, and nodded. "Lenny. We're going to attack the inner right flank together and disrupt them as much as possible. Leave the oncoming two ships to Caine. Cotton, can we trust the left to you? One of the ships is disabled and the other one has no Captain, if I'm correct."

As usual, she merely gave a small smile in response. "I'd win if the entire flank was at full strength."

Leonardo doubted that.

"But I've got to tell you, Borris, that the Den won't last long. Not that we should hide behind it either. The minute we fuck things up enough, I'm bringing the walls down and getting my full strength back. Got it?"

"Got it. Solidify our path for us, hun." He said, and jumped off the wall with Leonard behind him.

I'll do better than that. She thought, and focused her Ley to the waters below. Immediately, the rough and unforgiving waves which had returned after the creation of the Den disappeared and sunk into the surface, leaving behind a grey, but incredibly smooth and calm sea.

The two men landed casually on the water and ran for the Lonely Angel, dodging cannonfire rapidly as they got closer.

"Hurry up, Borris. Get to whatever ship you need to get to so I can take my Ley off the sea." Cotton said to herself, and leaped off the wall as well. She landed on the surface and placed all her strength and Ley on the water beneath her, before repelling from it and heading straight for the ship right in front of her.

So that's the Captain-less one. She thought, as she was unable to pick up the presence of anybody strong from the ship.

Though lacking a captain, the ship itself was armed to the teeth. It kept firing at her without pause, though she simply brushed them off without a care in the world with her arms. Such a waste of ammunition. Without so much of a second spent on thinking, she dove into the water and disappeared.

"OI! Where did that Captain go? Keep yer eyes open!" Germaine's vice-captain was his 40-year-old former butler, Alec Romain. The entire crew was in a state of panic, and Alec could only do so much to keep them all composed.

"She went underwater. And if there's anything I know about Water Ley users..." Olsen, the skinny and narrow-faced shipwright who stood besides him with his pistol in hand, bowed his head with defeat. "It's been a pleasure to serve Germaine and you, Alec."

With a shaky hand, Alec took off the thin-framed glasses he wore and looked at Olsen. For just a moment, through his blurry vision, he thought he saw the face of Germaine behind Olsen.

I've been a selfish man right to the end.

"It has truly been a pleasure to have led you all." He was happy with those being his last words.

Even as the floor beneath him began to tilt and the sound of screaming and panicked cries deafened him, Alec closed his eyes and accepted. For one last time, he would close his eyes.

Never to open them again.

"COME ON!" Cotton screamed, and raised the entire ship above her head with ease. "Ha...ha...AHAHA!" With a final cry, she tossed the massive corvette into the air, and watched it sail through the howling winds.

SPLAAAAASH.

The tremendous impact immediately shattered the hull and split the vessel into three pieces. With the monstrous waves engulfing anything and anyone that fell into the churning waters, there was no chance of survival.

The eleventh ship was gone.

Cotton stood just beneath the water for a moment, catching her breath. Probably should've used a bit of Water Ley for that throw.

"Nice warm up. Now...who's next?" She asked out loud, raising herself to the surface of the water. And in response, a massive explosion of water slammed into her side, sending her flying across the sea. "WOOOAH!" She cried, and quickly brought her foot down to the water and skidded to a hault.

Before Cotton, in the slowly increasing rainfall, stood a tall man in a white waistcoat above a black shirt. His dark hair was glued to a side of his head, and a gold monocle shone on his left eye. "Madam Cotton, was it?" He asked, walking towards her. His boots were perfectly polished, and almost shone despite the weather.

"I am here to bring an end to your life." He said, and raised a thin gold baton in front of him. It was a little over a foot long, and had a small oval shaped blue jewel at the end. He grasped it with his hand as professionally as a conductor would, swinging it up with a kind of respect and dignity displayed in his body language.

Cotton found his entire appearance to be laughable. "What kind of clothes are those supposed to be? A monocle? As a pirate? What nonsense..." She raised her fist, and engulfed it in water that rose from the ocean below.

Though his getup was laughable for a pirate, she remained wary of this man. For one thing, he was walking on water, which meant he was a Water Ley user. And his eyes. They aren't blackened, but they have a certain dullness to them.

"If you think I'll be beaten by a fancy butler like you, I've got quite the news to deliver." She bent her knee down and propelled herself forward, bending the currents beneath her feet to close the distance between her opponent.

The man remained standing, and stepped to the side just before her fist struck. Her attack hit the sea, and a massive explosion of water bloomed in every direction. "Perhaps you have misjudged me based on my appearance, Captain of the Cotton Pirates." His voice remained as cool as ever. With his raised baton, he materialised a huge ball of water as big as he was at the tip, and blasted it towards her.

BOOOOOM.

It was hard to tell what was rainwater and what was seawater now. Not that it mattered for either one of the fighters. Water was a weapon now, and both could use them to full capacity regardless of origin.

"Oh? Someone misjudged alright." The mist from the blast began to fade away, revealing Cotton standing with her arm raised, fingers tightened to form a fist. Her arm was completely covered with a designless guard of water, which reached her shoulder. "Your mistake was to believe I truly am so much of a fool to believe an enemy can be predicted by appearance alone."

Her opponent ignored this pointless statement, and brought his hand to his chest. "My name is Alexander Luciano Martinez. I was chosen to join this excursion specifically to combat you, Cotton." There was a certain pride in his voice when he said his name, which Cotton found to be amusing since it was a quite common one.

Well. If I must be polite...

She copied his movement and raised her own hand to her chest. "Well then, my name is Sue Cotton. And I've chosen myself to combat you today, Captain Martinez." She found herself extremely eager to begin fighting him.

When was the last time she had fought a strong Water Ley user? Not since childhood, definitely not.

"Come, then. Let me see for myself...how strong Blackbeard's lackeys really are!" She cried, waving her hand at him fervently.

Martinez straightened his body and waved his baton around smoothly, scooping up water and directing it behind the jewel on his wand in a single line, as though he really was conducting an orchestra.

"You are quite the odd one, Cotton. I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy this." He murmured, preparing the attack with utmost care.

The Ley around them was now breaking down even the extraordinary winds from Blackbeard's hurricane, and sent shivers down the spine of everyone aboard the Marigold.

Lilian gripped her umbrella tightly, as though it was the last thing she may have to hold on to Cotton's memory. "Dorothy...the Captain is fighting." She said, unaware that her voice was trembling.

This was without doubt the worst situation the fleet had faced in years.

"Lilian. She will win." Dorothy said, looking at the Den that rose above the ship.

"Captain Sue always wins."