Chapter 40

(Might want to check out the part before this. Kid died, and Conqueror's Haki gone. Wanted something dramatic, but Nothing would've changed. Anyways, here's the first out of three promised chapters!)

____________

Watching Killer and Wire standing side to side, Dan tensed up, readying himself for the continuation of the battle. However, Carina seemed unfazed in contrast.

"That's what I should say, really." Carina smiled mysteriously, which induced wariness from Killer and Wire. "The most troublesome one is down; I can finally go all out without any worry."

Carina reached for the pouch strapped on both of her legs, and revealed four small daggers on each of her hands, and each dagger was held in-between her fingers. Killer and Wire, who have never seen her use such weapons before, became increasingly nervous.

'I see!' Dan inwardly thought as he saw thin metal wires between each dagger and Carina's finger. 'Using that in front of fire-breathing dude and Carmen would be suicidal, since the fire would heat up the string and melt her hands!'

*BOOM* Suddenly, a booming noise was heard nearby, before Rowan appeared right next to injured Carmen.

"Seastone, huh. Hang in there Carmen." Inspecting Carmen who was weakly lying down on the ground, Rowan inspected her and realized that she has been wounded with a material that he's quite familiar with. "Carina, how much longer?"

"Three minutes. Don't interrupt in my fight, Rowan." Carina said before dashing towards Killer and Wire at a rapid speed.

Dan stood in his spot, not sure what to do. "Uh, guess I will be the doctor then." He moved over to help Carmen.

Wire, staring at the scene, looked grim. "Grimheart is here, and he doesn't seem that injured. Which means..."

Killer seemed to be worse. His whole body was shaking in an inexplicable emotion, as he experienced sorrow and fury at the same time. "Kid, you're still alive, right?! You got to be!! You better be, you bastard!!!"

Tilting his head to sideways, Wire dodged one of the dagger thrown by Carina. However, the dagger bent its trajectory path in the middle, and turned behind Wire.

'A metal string?!' Killer and Wire thought as they saw a faint line connected between Carina's hand and the dagger. Killer quickly deflected the dagger before it struck Wire.

Right at that moment, Carina reached right in front of Killer and Wire, prior to throwing all seven daggers at once.

"As if!!" Using his swift speed, Killer quickly swung his scythe-like blade to deflect rest of the daggers. However, Carina swiped her hands in wide motion while jumping backwards, causing the abrupt shift in the movement of the daggers. Ultimately, Killer's blade failed to hit any.

Immediately afterwards, Carina took hold of two larger daggers in her hands, where the metal strings are still intact. Now, Carina is controlling ten daggers at once!

Wire, who was circling around to reach Carina from the back, stopped his approach as he saw Carina crouching on her spot, with eight small daggers in midair behind her back.

'S***, here it comes!!' Killer thought as he grabbed onto his scythe-like blade and a random metal sword and raised his guard. Wire simultaneously jumped back next to Killer, getting ready to defend Carina's attacks.

"Ten times ten..."

"...Storm of Hundred Blades!!" With a sudden burst of speed, Carina abruptly appeared right in front of Killer and Wire, with their weapons crossed together to clash against the larger daggers on Carina's hands. At the same time, the small daggers attached onto the metal string were seen to be circling behind the two, causing their eyes to widen in realization.

"Checkmate."

At the next moment, all that was seen were the incredibly fast daggers slashing towards Killer and Wire at a speed so fast, that Rowan, Carmen and Dan could only identify the bloods spilling out of Killer and Wire like a flood, and Carina was nowhere to be seen within the chaos. It was as if they were placed in a grinding machine!

'Kid... I... I-' Killer thought as all he saw was a red colour all around, before his vision darkened out with a horrifying sound.

*Thud* *Thud* Two individuals fell on the ground, with gashes all around their bodies. Simultaneously, Carina appeared out of thin air, holding ten daggers dripping with the blood.

"*Phew* Finally. That fight was quite annoying, you know." Carina took out a handkerchief from her pouch and wiped the blood off her face. "Thankfully, the fire dude was down. Or else, it would've took longer."

Carmen and Dan seemed to be amazed by Carina's mastery over daggers as they watched her casually walking back towards them.

Meanwhile, Rowan pointed his finger towards unconscious Heat. "How about that guy? Is he still alive?" In response, Carina threw one of her dagger towards Heat, which flew very swiftly and penetrated his skull.

Everyone in Rowan's crew understood that Kid's crew must be annihilated; they could not risk any chance for a revenge. There is no place for compassion within the Grand Line.

Dan's face seemed grim, staring at the corpses, killed by his very own crew mates.

Carina sighed looking at Dan, "Wake up, Dan. It was either them or us. If we don't kill them, they will return soon or later to kill us. This I can guarantee you. Just think about how the fight broke out in the first place."

Not even paying attention to the conversation or the deep wound on her left arm, Carmen seemed to be gloomy over the spilled contents from the bags she was holding prior to the battle. "What a waste, now I shall have to purchase another portion... such fine ingredients, gone to waste!"

Dan sat down on his spot out of fatigue, as the effect of adrenaline in his body slowly wore off. Carina seemed to have returned to her main occupation: thief; she was busy searching through the dead bodies of Killer, Heat and Wire, but to her dismay, found nothing worth.

Rowan too was exhausted, but they had one more job to do. "Well, now it's your favourite part Carina. Let's see what Kid pirates got to offer."

They were efficient pirates after all.

______________

After searching for some time, they managed to find a ship with unique features, such as the dinosaur-resembling head with sharp claws attached in the front. The large jolly roger was painted on their front-most mast, in which anyone could recognize as Eustass Kid.

"Ehehe, wow, it seems that they managed to rack up quite a fortune!!" Carina roamed around excitedly with her hands full of valuables. Most of them were weapons, but Carina knew from the sight that they can be sold at good prices.

Rowan was initially a little reluctant, as his mind kept telling him that this isn't a right thing to do. However, he then realized that he was being a hypocrite, for he has already killed over a thousand in terms of number. He was a bad boy, not a good one.

"Hmm, this gun doesn't look too bad." Therefore, Rowan let go of such worries and began to plunder without a control. After all, these items no longer had an owner.

Carmen was interested in taking some cooking equipments, but saw that they were very poor and inefficient; she quickly lost interest in any further exploration.

Dan seemed to be focusing on exploring the layouts and structures of the ship itself, in order to quench his curiosity regarding the unique characteristics of the ship.

"Ah, so they placed the rows made out of metal; their captain has the ability to control magnetic force after all. I wonder how they made them so light. Make the inside hollow?" Dan was muttering to himself as he peaked from here to there.

"Hey Rowan, why don't we take the whole ship?!" Carina said with her eyes sparkling, earning a sweatdrop from Rowan. Rowan already has thought of this, and shook his head in a disagreement.

"Perhaps we could've, if we were to have more members than this. I doubt four people are enough to sail with two large ships at once."

Carina pulled her hairs in frustration. "Ahh, if only we had a shipwright!! We could've ripped off all the useful pieces and modified our Prominence!" Rowan chuckled at Carina's antics, before taking out a new revolver he found from his holster.

It seemed to be custom-designed, by whom he doesn't know. However, unlike the typical revolver he was originally carrying, this one could be loaded with twenty bullets at once; it was quite bulky in terms of its appearance due to this big load size. At the same time, there were two Barrels in the front, which meant that two bullets can be shot at the same time. Rowan was giddy to try out his new toy.

'My control of devil fruit power has already improved quite a bit since the last time I've used revolver. I remember only being able to manipulate only one bullet at that time, but just before, I controlled four at once. Am I actually a genius?' Inwardly praising himself, Rowan gathered his crew and returned to their ship, Prominence.