16 Bow to Fate

"Set sail.", Zephyr's words carried much weight, as the captains immediately ordered their ships to depart.

As expected, Sakazuki and Borsalino were on captain Ajax's ship together, Zephyr was on his own, while Pabulum and Venator was on the last ship.

The three ships departed and went their own separate paths, each heading to an island where pirate activity was last reported.

While on the sea, a crowd was gathered around Pabulum, each of them clamoring to get his attention.

"Pabulum, hunt with me! I'm a long range specialist, so I would compliment your style perfectly."

"No no, he needs someone that he can trust to watch his back. With my trusty sword, I can do that perfectly fine."

It was understandable why they clamored for Pabulum's attention. With his strength, Pabulum was likely going to be a Vice Admiral in the future, if not at least a Rear Admiral. Having connections with someone like that would likely be very useful.

The captains on the boat looked on in distaste, disapproving of the cadets' actions, but they remained silent. After all, they were once like that, too.

After a while, they were starting to reach their destination, and their captains called for attention.

"Focus up! We're about to reach Basati Island, so we'll be in pirate vicinity soon!"

At his announcement, the cadets became focused and fearful, the latter more than the former.

After all, they didn't have Zephyr with them. They only had two captains.

"Don't worry, I'm here with you guys. They might as well hand themselves in to us."

Pabulum announced to the cadets under his following, and their morale shot through the roof.

"Yeah! They can't do sh*t to us with Pabulum here!"

"Come on! Hand yourselves over and save us time!"

The chatter increased yet again, but this time, the morale was also high.

That was also the reason why Venator had a bad premonition.

He whispered to Stes discreetly, "Go up into the crow's nest and assist us from there. If pirates start firing at you, use your training to get down safely."

Stes looked at Venator in surprise, and nodded, heading for the crow's nest shortly after.

No one noticed Stes climbing as they were too focused on shouting insults at the pirates, and Venator was thankful for that. He didn't need Stes to have a coward's reputation.

Venator then erased his presence and discreetly found a spot where he would have sight over every part of the boat, excluding its interior, of course.

He was ready for his hunt.

The cadets were his bait.

...

"Sir, we see the Marines. Should we engage?", on Basati Island, a pirate reported the situation to his captain.

"Get the ships ready, but don't engage yet. We'll wait for our crew to circle them and then strike. Be very cautious, Venator Sova is on that ship."

"Sova? That's...", the crewmember nearly had a slip up by mentioning Erobus's name, but he noticed that quickly enough due to his captain's glare.

"Don't mention him in front of me."

"I- I'm sorry!"

The captain then ignored the crewmember, opting to head for his ship.

On his way there, he passed a bar, where a bounty board was hanging outside.

On the board, there was the name; "Erobus Sova".

The man gritted his teeth as his sight drifted down below, seeing his own poster there.

"Tiberius the Slayer"

He used to be proud of his bounty, letting his arrogance overtake him everyday, until he met Erobus.

A 50 million bounty amounted to nothing in front of Erobus' 200 million.

He bit his lips as he recalled the humiliating experience.

(Flashback)

"Why!?!? What did we ever do to you!?"

"You looked at me wrongly."

Tiberius was speechless as he looked around, the bodies of his crew floating on top of the water, their blood tainting the ocean red.

It was all because of one man.

"Now, you're pretty strong compared to the cockroaches I've met before. Hmm... how about you come under me?"

"Go to hell!", Tiberius said as he spat onto 'that man' shoes.

The atmosphere was frozen as 'that man' glanced at the spit on his shoes.

"Now, now, that wasn't a question. It was a demand."

He walked forward to Tiberius' kneeling body, and he created an ethereal bow from thin air, as he pressed it down to Tiberius' shoulder.

"AGHH!!"

Tiberius screamed in agony, thrashing uselessly under 'that man''s strong grip.

After what seemed like an eternity to Tiberius, the man finally took his bow off of his badly burnt shoulder.

Tiberius laid their in his sweat, as the man grabbed his fair, forcing them to face each other.

"Good luck."

The man turned his back against Tiberius, his black coat swaying behind him as he left.

(Flashback ends)

...

"Be careful, Stes."

Venator whispered as he jumped onto the crow's nest silently, surprising Stes.

"They have us surrounded. You need to watch your back as well."

Venator decided to warn Stes instead of the other cadets.

After all, they were the bait that was needed to succeed this hunt. Of course, he'd try to save as many as possible, but he wouldn't go out of his way to do so if there was an opportunity to kill more pirates.

He needed the merit points in order to get more training, after all. The current training was too easy for him.

There was a guilt gnawing at him in the back of his mind, but that was easily snuffed out as he thought about this brother.

"We see them! Prepare for battle!"

"Sir! They have us surrounded!", a cadet reported to their unofficial captain, which was Pabulum.

"Good, then we can fire in every direction.", Pabulum said as he cracked his knuckles

The cadets loaded up cannons and prepared to fire at the enemy ship.

"Firing!"

Everyone covered their ears, and a deafening *BOOM* was heard by the pirates in the distance.

The cannon ball flew straight at a pirate ship, and would've decimated it if not for the person on board.

Tiberius used his devil fruit powers, the Distortion fruit. The fruit allowed him to distort any inanimate object in his line of sight, and distort anything that he touches.

Of course, if the object or person has a strong constitution, the fruit would do little to them.

That was proven by Erobus Sova, the man who annihilated his crew.

The cadets and captains were confused at what just happened, until someone happened to recognize him.

"Wait, that's him! Tiberius the Slayer! He has a bounty of $50,000,000!"

At the mention of the man's bounty, the Marines onboard turned fearful, until 'he' came along.

Pabulum once again raised the morale of his followers, "Don't worry, I'll beat him. After all, I'm the strongest in the elite camp!"

Venator did not understand how that was supposed to reassure them, but he was grateful that it did. Now, his bait will have more of a fighting chance.

"They're coming closer!", the cadet on look reported once more.

"Reload the cannon!"

"We can't! There are no more cannon balls left!"

That was an oversight on the Captains' part, as they only brought 10 cannon balls, not expecting to fight a sea battle.

Venator noted in his mind that he would need to load his ships full of ammunition in the future, preparing for the unexpected.

"Tch. Wait until they get closer. We'll decimate them in a battle."

It was understandable why Pabulum's mindset was like this. In his mind, most of the pirates in Tiberius' crew were no less than above-average civilians, and the 34 recruits on this boat has experienced training harsher than any of them would've went through.

With each passing second, the pirates got closer and closer to the boat, and eventually, the first one was close enough to lay a board to climb over.

"GET THEM!"

"DIE!"

The two sides, one of Justice and the other of Crime, charged at each other.

That was when the criminals' advantage came into play.

The other 3 ships surrounding them used the distraction as an opportunity to board the other sides, two on the back, and one on the front.

The cadets and Captains split off to fight the four ships surrounding them, with each Captains taking one, while Pabulum and the others took the one with Tiberius on board.

That was a dumb move in Venator's opinion, but he overlooked it in favor of picking off pirates who were baited by the cadets.

With each arrow that he drew, a pirate fell to the ground in agony and died shortly after, and his endeavors were noticed by the pirates and cadets alike.

"That's him! Venator SOVA!"

At the mention of his family name, Sova, the pirates and recruits alike widened their eyes, linking it with the notorious supernova, Erobus Sova.

The pirates' vigor was reignited, hoping to kill Venator in order to avenge their crew members, while the cadets' opinion was conflicted; they were fighting with a criminal's family on their side.

For now, the cadets would tolerate it, but when the battle was over, Venator would have to face his punishment.

That was unanimously decided among the cadets and captains, Pabulum included.

Speaking of Pabulum and the Captains, they were fighting Tiberius the Slayer, and were losing badly.

Tiberius easily distorted the bullets fired at him from one of the captain, while he distorted Pabulum and the other captain's movement, allowing him to dodge their attacks.

This stalemate would shortly be ended by Tiberius' hand, as he knocked the two brawlers away from him and dashed at the ranged-specialist, grabbing and distorting his head.

The captain died instantly, and the other captain shouted in anger, charging at Tiberius.

it seemed like the captain forgot Tiberius' earlier display of power, as Tiberius effortlessly grabbed his arm and ribcage, distorting it and ripping the unfortunate man in half.

Pabulum was now getting nervous, looking around for any kind of assistance, and when he couldn't find any, he finally showed his trump card.

"RAWR!"

Pabulum' body shifted into the hybrid form of a lion and a human, claws extending from his hand, his back covered in a mane.

Pabulum then charged at Tiberius, taking the initiative to attack, while dodging any attempts at a grab from him.

Pabulum wounded Tiberius with his claws, creating fresh scars all over Tiberius' body, and Tiberius also retaliated as he distorting one of Pabulum's arm, breaking it and kicking him in the stomach.

The two brawlers charged at each other one more, tearing pieces of each other off like wild animals, not caring about one another.

By the time Venator finished picking the pirates off, he ran out of arrows, and he looked around the ship as he observed the battle going on.

The cadets were slowly gaining the advantage, and with their numbers, they overwhelmed the remaining pirates, although many of them died in the process as well.

When Venator counted the number of survivors, there were a mere 13 compared to the 34 at the start, and he found that adequate for the number of enemies that they had to face.

The cadets then headed over to assist Pabulum with his fight, and Pabulum gladly accepted the extra help.

The cadets slashed at Tiberius with their blades, but they slowly backed off when they saw that Tiberius was killing more of them as they managed to wound him.

Tiberius grinned at them, and he got into a charging position.

"BRACE!"

Pabulum shouted a command before bracing his body for the incoming impact that he expected.

Only, there weren't any impact from Tiberius' charge.

Tiberius instead put his hand on the ship, and screamed to the heavens, "DISTORTION: MAXIMUM"

The world seemed to freeze around him as he screamed his ultimate move, devoid of any colors, the ship's body twisted and twisted until they exploded in a shower of splinters.

The splinters killed nearly all of the remaining cadets, with the exception of Venator, Stes, and Pabulum, who managed to dodge all of them.

Venator heard a grinding sound and saw that the crow's next was falling down, and told Stes, "MOVE!"

Stes nodded and he jumped off the nest, just before it crashed onto the deck and exploded into splinters.

Pabulum was now heavily wounded, and he looked towards Stes for any assistance, but found none when he saw that Stes was busy relocating and dodging the exploding splinters.

He then turned to Venator, and saw that Venator showed his empty quiver and grimly shook his head.

In the small amount of time that Pabulum looked away, Tiberius took the opportunity to dash forward and grabbed his beastified body, before grinning madly.

"Goodbye."

Pabulum's body weirdly bent and exploded in a shower of blood and gore, with much of it splattering onto the deck.

Tiberius relished in the blood that covered him, before turning towards Venator.

"It's your turn next.", and Tiberius madly charged at him, distorting any obstacles.

Venator coldly glanced at Tiberius' maddened eyes, and he aimed his bow at him.

"You are no hunter; I am the hunter."

Blue energy gathered around his hand and in an instant, a blue beam pierced Tiberius and parted the seas, sailing across the air freely.

Tiberius' eyes widened in shock, and he looked down only to see a hole in his chest.

"Why...? WHY CAN'T I KILL YOU BROTHERS!?!?!", he said as he gurgled and choked on his blood.

Venator walked forward towards Tiberius' kneeling and broken body, before creating an arrow and nocking it on his bow.

"I guess I wasn't meant to be killed by you. Blame fate, if anything."

The arrow flew a short distance before piercing Tiberius' head.

As Tiberius' vision faded, he saw Erobus mockingly smiling at him.

"You were meant to serve me. Bow to fate.