CH - 60

Darmichal raged. He threw a heavy fist down at Halcen, but Halcen was able to deflect the momentum with the pole, then swung around the side and smashed the pole end into Darmichal's ribs. The beast groaned again. This time Halcen was able to do damage.

"I finally get it!" Halcen cheered. But he didn't have time to explain.

Darmichal grabbed the pole, and as Halcen was still holding onto it, picked them both up and threw them across the room. Halcen fell to the ground with a thud, but it was only so rough. He didn't take any real damage.

Kazuki rushed to him, tending to his comrade. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I'm fine," he said. Halcen got up onto his knee. He had lost the pole, so looked about and picked up a couple pistols of his own. "These'll do." And then he looked to Kazuki. "Listen, I figured out how his weakness."

"What? Really?"

"Energy can only flow in one direction at a time. That means he can either absorb our attacks, or attack us; he can't do both at once. So if we keep him on the offense…"

"… We can actually do some damage!" Kazuki said.

"Exactly."

"So we gotta make him think he's got the upper hand, so he'll keep himself open," Kazuki said.

"Or... wait… I think-"

But they didn't have time to actually formulate an attack. Think what you will, but most of the time, enemies don't just stand about and wait for their opponent for strategize. Commander Darmichal came at them with all haste.

Halcen rushed to the side to divert Darmichal's attention. He didn't quite have a plan yet, but he knew to watch for openings. He lifted up the guns and began firing.

Darmichal had time to stop and prepare himself as he saw Halcen raising the guns. He stopped short from his chase and turned his absorption power on. He took the bullet fire and both Halcen and Kazuki began to fire their rounds upon him. His body jolted like he was having a seizure, and it hurt like one.

Halcen and Kazuki rained steel upon the Marine, until their guns were empty. But once again, the bullets all fell to the ground with clattering tinks.

Darmichal's body was sore. He had just absorbed all that energy and it was surging inside of him. He groaned as it began to ache. A mortal body can only contain so much energy and he was filling up quickly. He had released a bit here and there, but not enough to keep his body safe. He was going to need to end this quick or pull something big. He breathed deeply, and he teeth grinded together. "Is that all?" he asked through clenched teeth.

Halcen saw what he thought was his opening. He dropped the guns and picked up a longsword and began another rush at Darmichal.

That was a mistake.

Darmichal thrust his leg down in one fast stomp, creating a wave through the ground that knocked Halcen off balance, and then jumped at him, knocking the pirate down and locked him under his foot. Darmichal had Halcen's torso pinned between his foot and the floor. He began to press harder. He began pouring the energy he had gathered into this.

Halcen let out a groan of anguish. "Oh, fuck!" His body was being crushed by this Marine giant. Not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet! And then he grabbed his knife and began stabbing Darmichal in the ankle, as fast as he could. Blood spurted about him as he mutilated the Marine's leg. "Take this, bitch!"

And then behind him, Kazuki began firing with his rifle again. The heavy machine shot a heavy bullet at the back of the giant Marine, throwing him across the room and smashing into the far wall, causing another massive blast. Blood sprayed from the bullet wound as the metal sank into the man.

Halcen breathed in relief. "Thank fuck." He turned himself over and started rubbing his chest. He had taken a pretty decent beating there. He was definitely going to bruise, but nothing was broken.

Darmichal stood up from the rubble he had caused from smashing into the wall. Metal and concrete fell about the area. It looked like a structurally damaging explosion. He breathed heavily and he had wild eyes. "ALRIGHT! THAT'S ENOUGH!" he roared. "I'M TAKING YOU BOTH OUT, RIGHT NOW!"

"And how do you expect to do that?" Halcen jabbed. "You haven't been able to hold us down for more than a couple seconds. We know how your powers work, we know your weakness. All we gotta do is hit you when you go offensive. You can't maintain a solid defense when you're attacking."

"Oh, you know what they say," Darmichal said, sinisterly. "The best defense is a good offense!"

"What the hell are you getting at?"

Darmichal didn't answer. Inside, he began his retaliation. He picked up a random blade on the floor, and then chucked it into a pile of more that were just lying about. This was where things got bad. Darmichal took his Kinetic fruit power and used that one little blade to catch more, and follow it, in a stream of weapons. They picked up off the ground and began to flow around him in a flurry of metal and death. And with each passing second, the amount of weapons in the flurry grew and the speed continued to increase as well. And over all the metal scraping, they could still hear Darmichal laughing maniacally.

"Well… fuck me," Halcen said.

Kazuki was still standing in the back and he began to lose it. "We're dead…" he said, and fell to his knees. He began to stammer. "We… we came all this way… There was so much that stood in our way… and we managed to just barely get by… but this? Now? There's no way we can handle this. We're dead."

Halcen looked back at Kazuki and went off on him. "What the hell are you talking about?" He walked over to Kazuki. He grabbed the man by the collar and began yelling at him, trying to get him to snap out of it. "You really think this is going to stop us, now?! After everything else we managed?!"

"Don't you get it, Halcen?! This is it for us! This is where our journey ends! The experiment is over, we failed!"

"SNAP THE FUCK OUT OF IT!" Halcen shouted, and then punched Kazuki in the face, but didn't let go of Kazuki's collar. "WAKE UP!"

But they didn't have any more time. Darmichal was on them. He began to push the stream of weapons across the air toward them, in a massive storm.

Halcen saw what was coming their way. He clutched onto Kazuki, and coated himself in black Haki, protecting them from the weapon storm. He could feel the massive amounts of pressure being thrown into each piece of metal and wood. His body took the brunt of the force, but nothing got through his armor. He struggled to keep it that way too. There were so many weapons that he could scarcely keep his own self from dying, not to mention Kazuki underneath him.

But when the dust cleared, and Darmichal was sure he had won, they were still alive. Halcen chuckled as he stood up.

Kazuki looked up at Halcen. He had saved Kazuki's life. "You… we didn't die…"

"I've got a lot more life to life," Halcen said. "I'm not stopping now! I won't let it end with some random Marine." He turned around and stared down Darmichal.

"What… the fuck!?" the Commander roared. "You're supposed to be dead!"

"Guess we're going to have to hold off on that funeral, huh?" Halcen laughed.

"Haki?!" he said, staring at Halcen's black sheen. "You've had it all this time and you kept it hidden."

"All according to plan. I knew it'd pay to save it."

"We're alive," Kazuki chuckled. "I can…" he stood up, and then he looked spitefully at Darmichal. "We can do this," he said, confidently.

"That's the Kazuki I know," Halcen said.

"So what then?" Darmichal asked, interrupting. "You intend to be a human shield for this man? So we both just sit here and wait each other out?"

"Hell no!" Halcen said. "I'm gonna kill you here and now!"

"Halcen?" Kazuki asked.

Halcen turned back for a second. "He can't absorb any damage while using this move." Halcen pointed toward the still moving weapons above. They had slowed down after the attack, but they were rearing for another go. "All we gotta do… is get him when he tries."

Kazuki nodded. Then he readied his rifle. This was going to be it. This was going to be where they decided. "We're not going to die here," he said, smugly.

Halcen nodded back. Then he turned his attention back toward Darmichal, his body still black. He knelt down to pick up one of the few weapons that hadn't been picked up in Darmichal's storm. It was a long spear with a heavy metal head. Halcen had never liked spears much, but there were few other options. "Here we go!" Halcen said, rushing towards the Marine.

"HERE WE GO!" Darmichal roared. Darmichal saw Halcen coming with the spear. He knew the plan. The pirate was going to attempt to penetrate his body while his focus was on the weapons above. He laughed at the poorly constructed plan. They had no chance. Darmichal released a lot more energy this time, pushing the storming weapons into overdrive. "NOW DIE!"

Halcen ran as fast as he could. It was a straight shot from him to Darmichal, but he was met with resistance. His body was railroaded by a swinging blades and hammers and maces. He had hoped to close the distance before the Commander had time to react. Halcen's Haki was holding up, but he kept getting knocked from side to side. There was a vicious wind carried inside, howling to get ahold of him. But he doubled down, holding his ground, and slowly made his way. He saw a giant club fly in and was able to just barely duck. It continued on in the storm and disappeared. That was too close. Halcen was able to maintain standing through most of the attempts on his body, but some of them hit hard enough for him to feel the pain, even through the Haki. It was strong enough that he almost lost the spear.

Kazuki stood in the back and watched closely. There were moments when he needed to be ready to fire upon a rogue weapon if need be. He shot down a few that nearly decapitated Halcen. The pirate Captain was reckless, but impressive. "You can do this," he said lowly over and over, talking to both himself and Halcen.

And then Halcen was right in front of Darmichal. He had broken through the barrier and began to run even harder with the man in sight. THIS IS IT! He pushed as hard as he could and threw himself, spear first at Darmichal with a loud roar. He caught the fear in Darmichal's eyes as his body was penetrated.

At that exact same moment, Kazuki was able to fire off a perfect shot through the storming weapons. A heavy rifle slug blasted into Darmichal's stomach, right alongside the spear. They hit simultaneously.

Darmichal's energy had been spent on the weapon storm, and he hadn't thought that these tiny men could actually do anything against him… But they had… They had accomplished what no one had been able to in his entire life. He watched these men mortally wound him, against everything he had done to put them down. He let out a load groaning cackle as he felt his body be pierced by the spear and rifle bullet in his stomach.

Suddenly everything froze around them. The weapons hung in the air for a second, and then all dropped around them in an echoing loud clatter, and Darmichal fell to his back.

He moaned and coughed blood. "You… fucking pirates. Do you think you're gonna get away with this?"

Halcen looked at the massive man in relief. "Yes, I do. We got what we came here for. Now we can disappear and nobody will know we were here." And then Halcen went about digging through the now grounded weapons, and found himself a longsword. "This ought to do."

"No, you're not gonna kill me!" Darmichal raged, trying to get himself back up.

Halcen kicked his leg and knocked the man back down on his back. "You're not going anywhere."

"Fuck you," He spat at the pirate.

"See you in Hell," Halcen laughed.

And then they heard a banging of a door from the entrance of the requisitions room.

"Shit," Halcen said lowly, looking at Kazuki.

They heard voices talking. "What the hell is going on in here?" someone called from far in the entrance.

Darmichal was about to call for help, but Halcen stabbed the massive blade down into the man's throat, cutting off vocal chords and oxygen. Blood splattered about. Halcen watched as the man panicked and choke for a few seconds, until he finally died.

"Let's get the fuck out of here," Halcen said to Kazuki.

"The lights," Kazuki said.

They went about quickly extinguishing the lanterns that hung about the room, returning it to its original dark state.

"What the hell?"

"Did you see that?"

"There was light down there, now it's gone."

"Something's going on."

"Hey! Who's in there?!"

Halcen and Kazuki could sense the interceptors coming. Kazuki grabbed Halcen said "Sshh." He led Halcen around the side against the wall so the Marines would pass them. Even in the dark, he could see better than anybody else.

They waited for the guards to pass them and come upon the first lantern and light it. From there, the Marines could make out the figure of a man. They carried the lantern over to Darmichal's body. "Holy fuck!"

"Dear God! Somebody killed the Commander!"

"Search the area!"

But it was too late. Kazuki had lead Halcen silently through the hallway that lead to the outer door, and they had vanished. It was over. They had succeeded.