After the immediate black flash, the face of the man under the yellow hat is filled with terror, his eyes expanding and mouth above the beard dropping in shock, for such swift action was taken without even a given moment to counter.

In that split second after the shot, that terrified expression forms almost instantly, but it holds for longer as he already assumes himself as struck, letting his body freeze without even attempting to take action, for any move he can make now would be made after already being struck. So instead, he just stands in place, right on target, already having been shot at, just waiting for the sensation of the shot to reach him and for the effects to follow.

Though in truth even without his realization, about a foot in front of his forehead where the shot would land is a long black katana blade with jagged white edges, the long side facing the same direction as the man, providing just the bare minimum coverage to absorb the energy of the black bolt as the flash disperses through the blade, dissipating the energy without delivering the aftereffect.

For in actuality, the leader in the red shirt isn’t the one directly in line of the shot from the silver pistol in the Spirit’s hand, but rather in front of the leader is the man in the purple hakama whose bent forward in follow through of the dash, his right hand tightly gripping the hilt of one of his katanas, that one being the one angled upwards to absorb the black bolt.

So in that one split second stretched infinitely, the shot failed to land in its intended target, and as reactions follow that target realizes such as he stumbles backwards in speechless awe.

Even the Spirit subtly tilts his head in surprise to such a speedily reaction, though he’s quick to straighten his neck and fire a triplet of shots.

This time though one of the other pirates has the time to step forward, a man in a midnight purple cloak who extends his hand out to project purplish blue tendrils of plasmic light that spiral in front of his hand at accelerating speeds such that they form a vortex, one that reroutes the trajectory of the second set of shots to instead be fed into said vortex.

Next to him, the swordwielder wastes no time sheathing his blade and turning around, bending down and wrapping his arm around the pirate leader’s torso before then lifting his whole body off the ground which warrants his confused cry.

Though in negligence to the pirate leader’s perplexion, the man bends his knees before springing the other way, sprinting down the training room with the leader in his arm, carrying him effortlessly while passing the army of reinforcements some of whom glance at the escape but then focus back on the intruders.

Some of them draw firearms from holsters on their hips or they’re transported from beams of light that project from their bodies for quick equips, while others empower themselves supernaturally such as one who wrap themselves in many strips of linen, transforming them into a beast with the resemblance of a mummy, strips hanging from their arms in excess.

After the initial simple plan fails, the Spirit relinquishes his pistol and instead transforms two long metal batons in each hand, or rather nunchucks as a second set of batons manifests too, chained to the handheld ones by a translucent chain which allows him to spin them before simply briefing, “I’ll get him,” before springing forward propelled in a blue dash, flying straight into the cluster of pirates and slashing them in quick succession, maintaining the speed of the nunchucks as he slides along the center in his pursuit of the leader.

Behind him follows the Artificer whose back protrudes six different golden tentacles, two of them projecting flat shields made of golden energy like panels as two others begin firing golden bolts and the last two have large claw hands that spark as they grab pirates and slam them into each other all while her own hands reshape longer into conal cannons which she raises and immediately begins heavily firing.

Opening up the space, next enters the Vanguard who runs alongside the Artificer as she expels pink arcs from all around her body, aiming her hands for direction though not in the same one, specifically focusing on two streams to each form their own fields around clumps of pirates to toss them and throw them in the air, allowing the last warrior to slip through the doorway, finally able to get sight of the action.

While the Artificer does march forwards, her pace is slowed by the concentration of pirates, though up ahead the Spirit’s pace shows no drag as he instead zooms forward, stampeding through the horde and allowing the suppressive fire behind to distract them, for his focus remains stuck on the leader himself.

That leader doesn’t run, but is instead carried by the swordsman who keeps sprinting ahead without turning back, though the leader’s naturally oriented to face the other way as he glances from side to side at all the chaos.

Entering the training room, the Alchemist sighs before raising his handgun up straight forwards, getting a glance of the center of the room, though at that very moment he freezes up, his eyes expanded in an instant in utter shock, his jaw dropping as he just lightly gasps, unable to speak any words.

For his focus has caught far down the bandit forces, past the Spirit and to that Spirit’s target, specifically the face of the leader whose gaze instantly locks with the Alchemist’s, and his expression too falls to utter bewilderment.

Though it’s him who’s able to speak a word even if in a tone completely stunned: “Ekitai?”

That question is directed all the way back down to the entrance of the car, where the Alchemist just stands still in the middle of the gunfight, petrified in dread, unable to move as though his heart just stopped.

Earlier he showed hesitancy to the initial prospect of the trip, and wasn’t particularly enthusiastic yet followed nonetheless from his best friend’s persistence. Though once he was able to get a look at the pirate’s fortress and confirm unfamiliarity, a return of calm was able to relieve him, letting him revert to his old adventurous self, unworried about consequences to those he’d be battling.

Later just now he was more apprehensive to remain on the base, not particularly because he wasn’t certain who his opponents would be, for he had surmised they were ones he’d simply not have any prior knowledge of. Though simply remaining in the depths of a pirate’s fortress was unnerving to him, just being around that world for an extended time beyond the original scope of the mission put him off, and yet ultimately he followed due to his friend’s motivation.

However at this moment, that first fear finally clicked, a chance astronomically low but one he dreaded the moment he heard what type of group they’d be chasing after. Though through every point when he had the choice to drop, he didn’t know this chance would be the reality, thus he never truly weighed his decisions properly. He had already decided to stay onboard and let the pod leave, and the only being capable of creating an escort was already far from reach only seconds after the battle began, though even then he couldn’t simply retreat after he made his confirmation. He was stuck in this battle, a battle at the high he hoped to be nothing more than a short skirmish with faceless dummies he could play against, dummies he wouldn’t have a history with, dummies who wouldn’t mean anything to him.

But with that expression alone, it was clear that for the first time that he’s embarked on a mission with this group, he was facing an opponent who he couldn’t simply laugh at and fight mindlessly.

For the first time in a battle, he couldn’t truly smile and enjoy himself.

Frozen in place, the Alchemist faces onward in a daze as a pirate in a green tunic charges at him with a dagger that emits a forest green mist, though before he can plunge it into the gunslinger, a golden tentacle wraps around his body before throwing him backwards in the air only to be shot by another tentacle all while the Artificer glances at him and bellows, “USE MY SHIELDS AS COVER,” as the two shielding tentacles lowers down to provide shielding for the two other warriors, one of them covering the Alchemist’s vision as he blinks twice and turns to face her, snapping out of his trance.

He steps back and shakes his head as forward steps the Vanguard while raising both arms to project dense swarms of pink arcs that flicker white before surrounding two heaps of bandits who are then pulled into each other, keeping behind the Artificer whose tentacles produce heavy fire same as her conal cannons which she aims not only on those on the ground floor but those on the higher balconies as the explosive action has dispersed the pirates to more broadly cover the room, utilizing the structure of their base to gain higher altitude with thinner openings for retaliation as many of the golden bolts miss their targets and instead strike the various machinery. Scattered around the room are pirates of many different varieties in zany outfits, some of them more armored than others, though most of them have a similarly fanatic expression as the majority of them allow their faces exposed, unconcerned for their identity for in their home they have none to fear. In fact, one of the few exceptions to the rule stands a being by the shooting range who watches down in nearly all black like a silhouette, watching faceless from afar amongst the crowd. As many of the pirates charge to the edge to gain better aim for a shot though, that being vanishes in the flood.

Regardless they continue to move on their slow march, all while further on ahead at a speed detached of weight races the Spirit carried by a consistent blue burst, his cape waving in the air before he then aims his left hand up to the side to project a cable that zips him away from the charge of a brute, flinging him in the air simultaneous as another bandit on one of the higher platforms is thrown off given that they were used as the anchor point before the cable is detached to let them fall.

Reaching the next floor and running alongside the shooting range he raises his hand up to equip a small circular shield made of blue metal to protect himself from a gang of gunmen further ahead, though all the shots both of light and ballistic metal are absorbed and instead replaced with blue bolts that project out of the shield in an artificial ricochet, knocking back those gunners with no deceleration thus allowing him to leap off the edge of the platform in a flip, diving towards the swordsman carrying the leader towards the far end of the car that more pirates pour out through, many of them noticing the evacuation and focusing on the Spirit to center their firearms. One of the more brazen pirates leaps off the ground with great might, arching his arm back as his fist is surrounded by the emergence of rock clusters, not exactly forming an armor but rather hovering on their own for additional impact, though the Spirit relinquishes his shield to form and throw a single throwing knife that bursts right in front of the man as smoke screen, letting the Spirit grab the pirate by the throat while boosting himself at a downward angle, driving the bandit towards one of the boxing rings and straight into the center in a swift chokeslam right before he springs off towards the ropes in a flip, planting his feet on the top rope which bends down from pressure before he again springs forward at just the right angle to evade what looks to be a gorilla but with a more human face, grabbing the head and springing forward without question, purely focused on the swordsman further ahead.

In quick zips, the Spirit projects cables that pull omnidirectional treadmills off the ground towards him, functioning as platforms for him to run across to keep above the majority of the horde for a few steps until there’s none left, leaping off the last one to focus on that swordsman whose already reached the end of the car, though focusing in that direction also alerts the Spirit to a whole training dummy being thrown his way, giving him not half a second to use his right hand to project a cable onto its shoulder and pull himself such that he narrowly dodges it shoulder to shoulder, that momentum pushing him also to the end of the car where the open door stands which the swordsman has run into.

Through into the next car, the pursuit continues into a large open room largely occupied by a huge block about a story tall but nearly devouring the whole room but for the edges, a block with two doorways both of which are open and flooding reinforcements who roar with firearms and fireballs in hand. The Spirit thrusts forward in blue bursts to try reaching the swordsman, throwing his hand out for the shoulder, though that hand’s wrist is grabbed by another hand detached from an arm but instead reaching out of a ray of radiating blue rings that lead all the way ahead to those reinforcements, particularly the wrist of an African descendent man with long black bangs and a militaristic vest. That man then produces a ray of far wider blue rings in the same direction, one that consumes his whole body and instead transports him instantaneously right in front of the Spirit as he lunges for a strike though one swiftly dismissed by a slide to the ground from the target who raises his left hand up to project flames that form a temporarily floating shielding wall to ward off the gunshots above from two gunners hovering above the block by means of jetpacks.

In quick retaliation to the constant hindrances, the Spirit throws his left arm to the side timing the extinguishment of the shield with the raise of his right hand to project a cable onto one of those gunners, reeling him up in their direction but detaching the cable and strafing upwards to avoid a shot before he then arms himself with two long whips though with ropes made of rigid metallic segments and ends that have robotic claws, each grabbing the leg of two different gunners after a thrash, letting the Spirit spin both arms forward which flings both bodies into the block itself, which from high up appears to be a large platform focusing on a central swimming pool given the multiple lanes of vibrant blue water.

As the two bodies crash into the water, the Spirit dashes down at an angle in return to chasing the swordsman just as he slips into the right door of the block which the pursuer enters next, forming two long daggers of plasmic blue energy to slash through the compact corridor that then leads into a larger locker room given two main rows with the second to the right. The forward row has a long array of lockers along the walls with benches down both sides, though the swordsman slips into a doorway to the right row which the Spirit follows in, swiftly deploying a thick metal wall over the first room to block off the horde running straight down.

Into the next room, the pursuit enters a wide shower room given the many shower heads hanging from the ceiling in the design of rain shower heads, the room also being noticeably steamier and the floors slippery as some of the pirates who enter into the room from the corner left doorway stumble when trying to stop the Spirit who isn’t affected by the slippage but instead uses it to slide forward with greater distance, surrounding himself in flames that create a cluster of small disks with plasmic blue sawblades that all spin at great speeds, forming an aura around the Spirit which neutralize any bandit who gets within the blade’s range, letting the chaser focus on the swordsman who slips into another hidden doorway to the right, one leading to a bathroom given the row of stalls most of them open to reveal stationary white bowls wide enough to be seated on, and on the other side are a row of slabs with panels above, one of those slabs being grabbed by an intruding pirate and ripped clean off the wall to be thrown at the Spirit who narrowly evades with a left angled dash before he then extends his hand towards the pirate, commanding the aura of sawblades to disengage defense and instead all swarm into the man, relinquishing the Spirit of the aura but quickly neutralizing the bandit and those accompanying him.

At the end of the bathroom on the left is another doorway which the swordsman takes same with the Spirit next, leading back into the shower room but the swordsman makes a line straight to another left doorway past which leads back into the main locker room, able to swiftly navigate through the dense crowds as the Spirit struggles to maintain speed given the lack of vertical space, for he can only drive through the opposition rather than simply avoiding them all.

Though alas the Spirit reaches into the main locker room to find the swordsman just now slip through the door on the far end, slipping out of the whole room and into another car which is followed immediately, that car also having a more constrained space as now only the base floor is in sight as there’s a full ceiling right above, no longer allowing for sight of the whole interior at once. In this base floor too there’s only a narrow hallway that directly follows the exit of the locker room, a hallway the swordsman runs down while carrying the stunned leader who just watches as his reinforcements charge at the Spirit who wraps his whole body in flames which grows that body taller and wider, or rather encases it in a large black exoskeletal mech about twelve feet tall, his central body exposed but all his limbs reinforced inside heavy metal parts rather it be the thick legs that charge at greater rumbling speeds or the weighty arms that form a cross over the body to shield it in that charge, driving into the crowd as the mech discharges electric shocks outside its shell to propel the bandits away from the metal body yet disallows for further movement given the immediate neutralization.

The reinforced Spirit rams down the corridor, picking up speed now that there’s no weaving needed to be done, as he begins accelerating towards the swordsman who doesn’t glance back to know he’s being gained on despite all the reinforcements trying to hold the pursuer back.

One of those reinforcements actually comes from the back, that being the man who enters through the blue rings and grabs the mech’s back, roaring as he lifts his arm and deploys a ray of blue rings forward which actually curl in front of the mech on a path straight for the main body with such speed that it’d land its hit if the mech didn’t grab the bandit’s back with its large metal arm before then throwing the body into the mob.

Though knowing that being a larger target meant it’d be easier to be grappled, the Spirit dashes straight out of the mech and allows it to self destruct in a great blaze of azure energy, further propelling the Spirit to his intended target who meets with another bandit dressed in orange pants and a white tank top who raises her right hand further down the hall and her left to the floor; on the floor a sudden oval doorway appears with a glowing blue outline, one that the three fall in through though causing them to somehow slide out of the wall further down the hall where the right hand was raised.

The doorway shuts right before the Spirit could reach it, and in an irritated grunt he makes chase down the hallway with the distance increased so suddenly, requiring more intense tactics as he leaps in the air and wraps himself in a spherical shell, one that from all angles fires a bombardment of blue and black bolts, these ones far larger than those fired out of his handguns, as these bolts are larger than the size of his own arm. They have far more impact too, as on top of simply neutralizing the bandits some of whom flash black before falling, the sheer force of the bolts propel them backwards.

The bombardment lasts not even a second though as it’s effect was swift, allowing the Spirit to dismantle the ball and zip forward with both hands projecting quick cables before his hips do the same, reeling him down the hall right below the ceiling to make best of his limited space, nearly reaching the swordsman again at an intersection as the woman in the orange pants again aims her right hand down the right corridor and her left to the wall right beside them, again summoning that same doorway this time embedded in the wall, though now that the Spirit is closer he can examine that through the doorway seems to lead directly into the other doorway formed further ahead which has an glowing orange outline, as though a door was opened in space.

This doorway is taken by the swordsman and portaling bandit, and closed right before the Spirit can reach his hand through, again forcing him to continue chase down this next hallway as he shows more desperate focus to movement, keeping his hands on the sole task of zipping down the corridor to the newly emergent presences of the targets while his body produces tendrils of blue flames that manifest a grid of small balls that all accelerate down into the floor where they bounce off at great speeds, bouncing off and into either another wall or a bandit before bouncing again, able to maintain their own momentum such that they continuously bounce at rapid speeds in such great numbers that it drops bodies every second with the only one capable of navigating them being the Spirit himself as he draws ever closer, watching the portal summoner lead the swordsman and leader into a small doorway against the wall.

With two cables projected from his hands, the Spirit lunges himself back down to the floor and crashes straight into one of the brutes right in front of the doorway, turning to find what appears to be a stairwell of sorts though with an elevation pad in the center, one that rises up as the three stand and watch.

Hastily the Spirit dashes into the stairwell room, though the room is rather compact and along the edges is a series of ramps built into the walls which snugly fit with the pad such that there’s no space in between the ramps and the pad, blocking the Spirit off.

Without a moment to lose, the Spirit immediately devises a plan, aiming both hands and projecting cables to the bottom of the pad, thrusting himself up into the bottom of the elevator before then kicking himself onto the immediately reachable ramp followed by another pair of cables upwards to the bottom of the ramp right above him which completes the next revolution, zipping up to that next level which pulls him above the pad itself, letting him look down on the three pirates right as they fall through the pad itself, or rather through another portal gateway to make escape, causing the Spirit to raise his head up to find another gateway on the ceiling of the stairwell right above the end of the ramp which the three fall out from as the doorway here functions like a hatch, letting them land on their feet and run through the exit door which the Spirit hastily chases now without the hindrance of space for he’s able to make quick zips on the various ramp cycles to reach the ceiling in under a second as he spins such that he’s already oriented with the door upon gaining sight, letting him simply boost forwards down into this next hallway.

Making a sharp turn, the Spirit immediately locks focus on the swordsman and portal summoner through the dense horde of bandits who all charge at him, though that fails to change his focus as the Spirit again propels himself straight for the three specific targets, the summoner being the one to fretfully throw her arms with one forwards at an upwards angle and another to the side in formation of another portal which the swordsman immediately runs through followed by the summoner just as the Spirit makes a sharp boosted turn right in front of the portal, zipping towards it much closer than before.

Entering through the portal is like entering through a door to another room, though whereas the entrance is oriented upright like a door, the exit is oriented facing down like a hatch as the swordsman falls to his feet which the summoner intends to do as she runs towards the floor. Though her shoulder is grabbed by a translucent blue cable, and she raises her head up in fear to watch the Spirit throw his arm back, instead pulling the summoner back through the portal away from the swordsman just as the Spirit passes through, the two switching places as the summoner falls forward and the Spirit lunges downwards.

Reorienting himself properly upright in his drop, the Spirit emits flames that wrap around his boots and extend down to form thicker soles both of which then protrude a construct long as the boot itself and shaped somewhat like a bar handle, or rather in this case like an ice hockey skate, and as the construct materializes it reveals the sole to be black with the majority of the construct being white like the mask but for a thin black metal strip along the bottom. Those strips both emit a gentle blue light, and they suspend the Spirit’s landing by just a few inches off the ground, though his entire stance changes as he bends his knees more.

In fact he moves not in sprints but in strides, kicking his right foot forwards as the black blade flashes bright blue like a dash that propels him further down the air synchronous with an immediate flaming burst from the hand behind him that expands over the full stretch of the hall, forming a great crystal wall that barres the two sides from each other, walling the portal summoner off.

Furthermore, there’s only a few pirates left as reinforcements this deep as most of them had moved further ahead, leaving the swordsman and leader more isolated than ever as the Spirit shows no fatigue but rather only greater perseverance.

Not too much farther on there’s an end to the hallway, leading into another room albeit darker which the swordsman makes chase to same as the Spirit strides in the air at speeds accelerating as though he was on ice as a blaze expels from his back upwards in expansion, forming a barrage of small darts that each autonomously bolt forwards in swiveling trails, all of them targeting the remaining pirates one of whom manages to block it with his forearm that hardens to steel, though he doesn’t protect his face before the Spirit leaps to drive his crystal shoulder straight into it, knocking the final pirates out and leaving only the swordsman and leader.

Finally rid of the other obstacles, the Spirit relinquishes the skates on his boots, instead focusing on aerial movement when he projects a cable onto the swordsman’s shoulder and zips towards him, reaching his hand out just as that swordsman swiftly grabs one of his katana hilts on the left hip and swings it back without even turning, forcing the Spirit to dash backwards before then equipping his own hilt in his hand which projects a blue blade, though this one has a notably stronger hum and more violently bright blade. In fact, as the Spirit drops back to the floor, the blade pierces straight through the metal wood itself like a laser, cutting a small wound in the floor as the Spirit then launches for a rebound swinging his blade as he clashes it with the katana again in hopes of slicing straight through the physical blade, though strangely enough the swordsman relinquishes the grip on his blade, then unsheathes the other on his same hip, clashes it with the laser blade though manages to hold its own as the blade itself is made of a strange translucent black metal that reddens yet miraculously absorbs the heat, though that blade is then dropped as the former is grabbed to slash straight at the Spirit’s chest as the swordsman juggles the two swords in one hand, forcing the Spirit to again dash backwards to avoid a cut straight through the abdomen, watching the swordsman juggle the two blades while running for the door.

Realizing even with one hand the escort could use two blades, the Spirit arms his other hand with a blade before then projecting cables off his hip straight onto the swordsman, reeling in for another round and swinging both just as they both clash with the swordsman who juggles with such intense speed that he manages to fend off both blades by wielding both of his own simultaneously by swapping grips at such speeds.

Though while the swordsman could hold his own against the two blades, the Spirit has already deployed a blue flame at his feet which drops by the swordsman’s feet before manifesting a device similar to a bear trap in terms of its disk shape with a solid bar down the center, and similarly it traps the swordsman feet through instead of gruesomely closing it instead emits a flurry of cables off the ring from all directions that grabs the man’s ankle, holding him down to his surprise, throwing off his balance for just a moment for the Spirit to relinquish both blades concurrent with a right dash before then dashing forward and snatching the leader right off the guard’s hand, finally managing to separate the two as now it’s the Spirit carrying the leader by the collar as he completes the race into that next room as the swordsman grunts and uses his newly freed hand to help wield the other katana, able to hold both stably so he can cut straight through the bear trap in a single slice, dismantling its electronics as the cables then vanish and liberate him, letting him focus ahead to race forth towards the Spirit who turns back and extends his free hand, firing one last blue blaze in the direction of the guard, though it actually stops early instead in the doorway between the two cars, expanding out and crystalizing into a frosty wall that barres the last reinforcement out.

Now inside the dark room which is notably wider given the inability to see the far walls, the Spirit finally focuses on his true target whom he grips tightly as he pulls his arm back, and finally throws straight into the floor with all his might, his black cape waving valiantly as his parallelogram eyes glare bright, his prey slamming into the ground with a thud as now he’s finally isolated from his army.

Now, the only reinforcements each leader would have would be himself.