We kept defending the ship as the cloud water pushed further and further into the tunnel. Even though the attacks kept intensifying in quality and quantity, we pulled through, suffering no injuries or damage to the black pearl.

"I can already see the exit. Hang in there," I exclaimed as soon as I saw the exit to the tunnel, but whatever or whoever was attacking us wasn't willing to let us go.

The roof and walls of the tunnel suddenly began to merge, turning into one gigantic could lance, heading straight for the ship, wats more the lance also became black and crackling in electric arcs.

"Stay back. I got this," I exclaimed once again, activating Geppo and charging towards the incoming attack. "Dread Tide," I murmured, moving Triton behind my shoulder, swinging it downwards with all my strength.

(Author note: New sword, new attack. Ancient Greeks knew Triton as the dreadful god of the sea, hence the attack's name.)

Triton's blade began releasing a silver hue which contrasted with its golden color, creating a beautiful scene. Still, the result was anything but that as the aura turned into a colossal sword slash, which then transformed into a silver wave.

The silver wave clashed with the incoming cloud lance, engulfing it with no resistance and resuming its charge without losing any momentum, gouging out a massive piece of the cloud roof.

"Hopefully, that's the end of it," I remarked with a frown as I landed back on the ship. "I didn't know you were that good of a swordsman, captain-YA," Law commented from the side with an impressed look.

"Did you think I was carrying such a great sword by chance?" I asked in an amused tone, raising my eyebrow. "I didn't see you use it before, so I assumed..., you know," he replied, trailing at the end of his sentence.

"Rehahaha, well no. I'm not that vain," I said while laughing, not taking any offense. "I'm not only a swordsman, but I can also shoot and brawl with the best of them too," I added, shamelessly smiling while Elly cheered for me, and the others rolled their eyes.

"Look, we're already out," I remarked with a smile as blinding light engulfed our vision, and my smile waned as soon as I was able to see clearly again.

"What the hell is this?" I asked with a frown while looking at a deserted dock with no sign of human activity. "Look, there are signs of a battle over there," Elly said while pointing at several demolished buildings to the east of the docks.

"Let's go check it out," I said with a frown, making my way there, causing Laffite, Kozue, and Elly to follow behind me, as the rest remained on the ship for now.

"Whatever destroyed these buildings, it did it with brute strength," I observed while looking at the remains of what could have been a restaurant.

"Indeed, there are no burn marks and no traces of gunpowder anywhere," Kozue said while crouching and running her finger at the ground and sniffing the air.

"There are some blood stains over here," Laffite shouted from a distance away, causing us all to make our way towards him. "These bloodstains don't look old," Kozue said while pointing at the bloodstains that haven't dried up yet.

"There are more broken buildings up ahead," I said while pointing in the buildings' direction, and we all moved there to investigate.

"The same thing destroyed these buildings," I remarked with a thoughtful look. "There are bloodstains too, but these look old," I added as I noticed some dried-up bloodstains.

"It looks like there's someone or something on the loose here since there seemed to have been multiple battles at multiple different times," I reasoned as I continued to eye my surroundings.

"We should go back to the ship to inform everyone of what we found and then have everyone check the surroundings," I instructed after looking around for a couple more minutes and finding nothing.

-0-

"In conclusion, there are people on this island, and there is someone or something attacking them from time to time," I remarked after explaining what we found when we went out to investigate.

"So we need to know what's happening here before we can do anything," I instructed. "Then we need to find out who attacked us when we first came here and make the bastard pay for it," I concluded.

"So find out who is attacking the people on this island, and why they're attacking first?" Kozue asked, and I nodded at her.

"I'm not interested then. I'll stay on the ship," Wilson said with a yawn as he took out a bottle of alcohol and went somewhere to indulge in it.

"I'll stay too," Bob said while twirling his mustache, but he stayed to listen. 

"You stay too, Doc," I instructed as I turned to look at the sickly doctor. "It'll be good to have a doctor stay on the ship, just in case," I added, causing him to nod.

"It's settled then," I remarked. "The rest of you split into groups and go out to investigate, but be careful and keep your eyes at all times, and don't hesitate to call for help if necessary," I added in a firm tone.

"I'll be making my way to the center of the island on my own, so you guys take over investigating the areas near the docks," I concluded, turning around and making my way towards my distention.

-0-

I made my way towards the island's center while stopping to investigate the occasional battleground whenever I spotted signs of destruction.

Still, I didn't find anything interesting, and all trails have gone cold, with the usual destroyed buildings and bloodstains.

My best find was a building with an enormous sigh that had a shell painted on it. I immediately stopped and went to investigate it, and I wasn't disappointed in the least by what I found.

I found Dials, water dials, Vision Dial, Tone Dial, Flavor Dials, Fire Dials..., etc. Sure, there weren't any super rare or extinct dials like the Reject or Eisen dials, but what the store lacked in quality, it made up for in quantity.

I Promptly picked my transponder snail and contacted Laffite immediately after finding the dials, informing him of the store's location and instructing him to take everything back to the black pearl.

Having guaranteed my crew and me a lifetime supply of Dials, I left the store with a smile on my face as I resumed my flight towards the center.

The next thirty minutes of my flight was mostly uneventful, with only one minor incident of cloud wolves ambushing me by jumping from the rooftops of tall buildings when I decided to fly low.

Although I wanted to get mad and beat up the wolves a little, I couldn't bring myself to while looking at their appearance when they stood on two paws and howled at me, trying to look fearsome.

They only looked adorable in my eyes, so I just shook my head and left them behind without harming them.

Still, cloud wolves weren't the only type of wild creatures that made their way to the cloud city as I spotted a giant dog like the one Ohm had in Skypeia, and I swore to come back for it later.

I also saw a bunch of Sky Lampreys, disgusting worm-like creatures with circular mouths that were too big to have any reactions for them, except for Kill it with fire.

So I did just that when one of them attacked me. Sparing the beautiful wolves while killing the disgusting worms is discrimination, you say? Well, yes, but something deserves discrimination, these Sky Lampreys, and Apples! But I digress.

I had to stop again as I finally spotted the signs of human activity, which were the sounds of fighting and screaming.

Still, it seems that I arrived just as the fight was over, with only one man standing over the unconscious bodies of his foes.

He was abundant in both height and width. His face somewhat resembled a smiling totem mask with his grin. Apart from his broad grin, he also has what appears to be a stitched-up scar vertically descending over and falling short just above his left eye. He had a prominent, jet-black, scruffy beard that extends upwards to the sides of his jaw and then converges with his equally dark side-burns.

"More pirate reinforcement, eh?" the man said, his grin still on his face as he dusted his white garment with severed sleeves, which covered all of his body while exposing tattoos patterned like flames on both of his biceps.

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