LIGHTNOVELONLINE Volume 1 Chapter 15
“Gather up! Squad A will infiltrate and secure the royal palace. Squad A will be led by me, Ezra you are with me.
To the remaining apprentices, you are all in Squad B. Petty officer 1st class Mago you will oversee this Squad B. You are to engage in combat with the rebel forces at the harbour, and clean your way through the cities.
Our informant in Oykot kingdom has confirmed that the criminal organisation had already taken over the kingdom and civilians are held as hostages, as a means for their escape or ransom. There are currently 400 confirmed members of the criminal organisation who have landed, all with cold weapons. We would be able to neutralise them with our firepower while engaging them from range.
We must move fast before a massacre is left for us to clean up.” Commander Gion said while reviewing the battle plans.
As soon as the pale crescent moon shone like a silvery claw in the night sky, Squad A was made up of 25 people. Ezra could tell they were all strong just from the aura they released. Over this month he had only met with Commander Gion, the others were probably in closed-door training until today. Onboard a lifeboat, 25 members of squad A sailed away from the main ship.
“Ezra, speed us up,” Commander Gion said.
Ezra immediately immersed his hands into the sea, increasing the speed of the boat.
Ships coming into Oykot kingdom will have to go through the harbour at the first city. There are 4 cities to cross before arriving at Royal Oykot where the royal palace is located.
According to the plan, Squad B with 570 marines will be fighting the ground battle to take back the kingdom, while Squad A will head directly to Royal Oykot to secure the palace.
Ezra controlled the speed of the boat, as the squad shot through the waters silently. A marine at the corner of the boat also decided to use his power to provide cover for the boat. He activated the power of his devil fruit Kiri Kiri no Mi (Mist Mist Fruit) as mist rose until the entire area around the boat was covered and hidden in the fog.
Ezra was nervous, this was going to be his first battle, his palms were sweaty and his back was already drenched. He checked over his equipment once again; a water flask and 2 water bottles were secured on his back and waist respectively. Ezra knew that from this point on it would be kill or be killed.
There was only one entrance into the harbour from the palace. The surrounding area of the harbour was secured with high walls which had handcrafted designs embedded in them. This made climbing silently almost impossible. A majestic golden gate was erected at the entrance. This was an ideal place to set up an ambush.
Whoosh! was all he heard as he saw the others scale the wall.
He could only laugh to himself; they are all elites. Since they were still at the harbour, there was no shortage of seawater. Ezra willed a platform under his feet that raised him to the top of the wall.
“1 - 5 go take back the harbour. 6 - 10 secure the perimeter. The rest of you follow me, Ezra will watch our backs. Let’s get moving” strict orders were given by Commander Gion.
A group of five arrived to patrol the palace grounds. They looked no different from normal civilians, each of them had on them a skull symbol in various parts of their body or clothes, signifying that they were part of the skull organisation.
Commander Gion turned to Ezra; giving him a silent command to neutralise the guards.
Ezra decided to use a skill that he had developed over the past month “Water Bullet”. Using the water in a bottle Ezra shot out 5 water bullets at the heads of the patrolling team.
Thud! 5 of them fell to the ground instantaneously knocked out.
This attack showed the marine elites that Ezra was still soft-hearted as he did not finish them off directly. Even though some thought being soft in this type of battle was just asking for death, no one could undermine the results of Ezra’s skill.
“Just continue as you are doing, we can’t force you to get your hands bloody” a marine elite mentioned as he drew his machete slashing the knocked-out bodies, killing them all.
Silently, gang members were knocked out and killed until they arrived at the royal palace. At this stage Ezra has used up his 2 bottles of water, leaving just the container on his back.
Getting to the courtyard, 5 people were waiting for their arrival.
“You are under arrest Don Skull Boar and the henchmen of the Skull criminal organisation” a marine announced!
“We knew you would come straight here; I’m guessing the capture of all my subordinates in the East Blue is your doing. That is why I prepared a surprise for you! Every single member from every corner of East Blue is present in this kingdom numbering around 2000. It looks like your spy knew which side to choose. We have survived the Grand Line; one battleship is not enough to capture us.” Skull Boar replied as he laughed.
Skull Boar was a large but muscular man, his chubby face had a scar on the left side, from his eye to his bushy beard. He was topless, a chunky skull chain necklace could be seen shining in the light of the moon as his fat bulged over the short white pants he was wearing. The veins in his muscular arms popped out, as he sat on the step leading to the palace.
Commander Gion was angry, she bit her lips until blood trickled down the side of her mouth. At this point everyone knew the situation was no longer in their favour, all the plans which were made were based on the information received. ‘How will 570 marines in Squad B handle this change.’ These were the thoughts in everyone’s mind.
A bang sounded out as smoke poured out of the barrel of a rifle on the top of the palace. The body of the marine who announced the arrest warrant fell limp on the ground.
"They have snipers, everyone take cover!"
“Ok boys, give them hell” as soon as the Don mentioned this, the barred windows and doors of the building surrounding the courtyards were flung open as rifles were drawn pointing in the direction of the marines.
“11-15 find a way to break out, you need to search for the royal family. Ezra, I need you to trace your steps back to the harbour, and inform the others to reinforce us.” Commander Gion said with urgency as she drew her sword.
Don Skull Boar who pretended to not be paying attention to the whispering of the marines, noticed the young marine retreating will probably send a signal for reinforcements. “I won’t let you leave, Yama Yama no Mi model Boar, Hybrid transformation.”
Upon getting up his fat jiggled on his stomach. His body hair grew rapidly and became hidden in short fine hair; his hands and feet turned into hooves as horns broke out of his chubby head, his arms and legs became similar to a boar’s.
Everyone was engaged in battle, Commander Gion was surrounded by two swordsmen who kept her from helping Ezra. There was nothing more she could do; this was the nature of war.
Ezra ran out of the courtyard with all he had only to notice a Hairy boar-like man charging in his direction.
‘It seems I won’t be able to escape without fighting. Unfortunately, I am still too far from the sea. The fight needs to end before my water runs out, or I will be in real trouble.’ The initial fear that he felt was now replaced with excitement. He had always wanted a life subject for testing the effects of his fruit powers.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the island, the triple barrels in front and sides of the battleship along with the 6 cannons spat out cannons towards the docks at the harbour of the first city.
The 570 marines were split into 6 groups, Group 1 led by Bellmere was a bunch of apprentices in charge of protecting the harbour which had already been secured. Groups 2 to 6 had to make their way through the cities, Group 2, 3,4 and 5 were to occupy the first, second, third and fourth cities respectively. The last group was to make their way as reinforcements if needed until they arrived at the royal palace.
The 500 marines geared up and left as soon as the ship was docked at the harbour.
Bellmere was clueless about what type of command was needed but her quick thinking and mischievousness kicked in. Her job was only to protect a secured dock, there was a chance of little or no combat at all in this place. They needed the element of surprise, “can we get some snipers on the top of those buildings “she pointed to some half-broken buildings in the residential area. “Move some crates out of the ship we have to create obstructions. Our position is key, I have a feeling they will be coming here to destroy the ship trapping us on the island.”
As soon as the backs of the 500 marines could no longer be seen. A crowd of about 100 enemies armed with weapons made their way to the harbour to face the 70 clueless apprentices.
After a hard battle, all the enemies laid dead on the floor. The marines won this fight but at a great cost, the majority of the apprentices had bravely lost their lives in the line of duty. Bellmere was also on the floor with wounds that looked fatal: She had a gunshot wound in her shoulder and another somewhere on her chest. She had a large wound on her back that was gushing out blood.
‘This is not a bad place to die’ Bellmere thought. As she coughed, blood trickled down the side of her mouth. She slowly closed her eyes waiting for death to take her. However, at this point, a young light blue-haired girl was walking around the battlefield with a baby in her arms. She looked not much older than 5 years old, checking the corpses as if looking for something.
Bellmere: “Hey kid, what are you doing here?”
“I’m looking for my parents,” she replied.
Bellmere: “What is your name?”
“Nojiko” she replied.
Bellmere: “is that your sister?”
“No, she’s not. I found her on my way here. I was told to hide inside the cellar by my parents. I only came out when the battle had stopped” Nojiko said, looking at the baby who was smiling.
“The baby is smiling, she doesn’t have the slightest clue about what is going on… Help me up Nojiko, we are going back to the marine ship, we should be safe there.” Bellmere said while struggling to stand up.