Chasing the Warlord - Fishman Island Arc

Lexana looked at the fishwoman whose head was now on her lap. The imposing figure looked so small now. She had always offered Lexana fake kindness for the sake of diplomacy. She had never been good enough for Xadrian - not to the queen, who took relief in the lack of a relationship that was anything more than business. "You bought me - remember, mother? This is my home to protect now. Even from you."

Xan stood next to his brother who he had recently been fighting, hands clenched into tight fists and venomous spines began to emerge from glistening skin. Geki's words washed over him and after a moment his hands relaxed. He leveled a glare at their enemy who seemed willing to leave. His glare had not entirely faded when it landed on Yama as he gestured toward their mother and father, battered and bloodied. "This what you three bought with your clever dealings... now what did you get in return? I hope it was worth it."

......

Jades palms rapidly found her face and the cat appeared within the expected range of absurdity. "Remind me not to ask about you anymore." She starts to leave but observes that the cat has elected to go on pursue an assassination mission, presumably with her ship and without her. Her fist comes down on the cats head, her eyes dark and shaded by her hair as the cold look on her face remains unchanged. "So - you believe you are just going to take my ship, without me, on some absurd mission to save a princess that I --" She stopped herself, her voice catching in her throat as her anger almost got the better of her. She put a hand over her mouth for a moment and as collected herself. She spoke almost in a whisper now. "She -... This is my responsibility, my home, my ship - I'm going." She backed away trying to bury her fury and guilt about the entire situation and the home she was failing to protect. She would busy herself in preparing the ship for departure.

"Master Xan!" Mark shouted, as him and Brosko finally revealed themselves, slowly approaching them. "... My apologies, we were preparing to ambush that man, but something about his aura caused me to freeze."

Back to the ship, Catz was on a corner, rubbing the top of his head, growling in pain and frustration. Meanwhile, Hawks was apparently arming himself. "We should go, me and Jade. And either you Catz, or Ginji. Some should remain there to guard the ship, and act as a failsafe in case anything else goes wrong."

The subordinate of the glassy one named Martizen, now somehow sporting a mask that resembled a pineapple, extended his hand, and offered a handshake, while nervously coughing. "I-I can help, mister!" "Ah, right ... my lackey there has an ability that allows him to conceal things or people, for as long as he or they touch him. Could help you get very close for the kill." Martinez explains, while adjusting his glasses.

Xan raised a brow at the new comers her recalled from the ship, surprised to see them. He was even more shocked to see they had failed to do something stupid - but the fact that they at least thought about it assured him they were well. "You two - I presume you have not found what you are looking for." He thought it best to not mention their crew nor the princess in front of such dubious company such as his parents, Yami, the surrogate for the yonkou they had angered, not even Geki, who he trusted, would be informed. At least he could count of Lexana to be tactfully silent about their visitors and her "cousin"

.....

Jade returned to the deck, her katanas in place, her own sword belts and clothing restored, she felt more like herself and more capable of taking on their foe. She pulled her hair up into a high ponytail, before securing her clawed glove. She didn't give a damn if the cat assisted or not. He was annoying but also useful and reliable - his power vast, yet quite costly. Ginji was always good for a slice of chaos and possessed the rare and terrifying power of befriending foes. They were an formidable storm - difficult to repel, strength aside, mostly owing to their unpredictable nature.

She eyed Hawks for a moment, not indulging herself to let her gaze linger too long. After he disappeared before she was less than willing to let him out of her sight. He mysteriously turned up with valuable allies just as suddenly as he vanished. As much pain as she got from the magician over the years, she trusted him the most. He had suffered silently through it all, with loyalty she never deserved and never asked for. She would never let him go into battle without her and she'd tear out every last throat that stood in her way. She buried the feeling deep, never letting it show as she approached him quietly, green eyes focused and serious - business-like. The distinctive sound of steel hummed softly as she adjusted her blades. "Are you ready, Sir Hawks?"

Dagon shifted into the fray. He appeared powerful. Enough so that he checked the DIA's information network. The man's name was Cebros, known as Hellhound, a former commander of the black cross. Not much other information was available. Apparantly his records were old and not updated. Formidable still. Dagon curled his wing-like water shields around him. They were much stronger and harder to see underwater; he was going to take afvantage of that.

"I appreciate the favor. I suppose I'll have to return one now, won't I? Understand dog, the king of the namikaze does not fear you or anyone else, and I'm a parasite to meet ends meet."

Shift

Dagon launched at the man intending to dash forward, flip behind him from the side, and turn an instant after getting behind him at a right angle to try and slice of his legs. But he had an intuition danger right before his maneuvars, and instead unfurls his wings to perform the flip, creating a small but powerful pressure wave right next to the dog. Dagon knew from assassin's experience that the man would not just stand there. In that instant, dagon swiped his shifting leg, creating a ultrasonic water-blade 6mm thick and 12m wide, trying to take a moving target off guard, while propelling himself at extreme speed back from his foe in case he had a counter attack.

Judo Pause

Dagon began to use his blood judo. He had a feeling his foe was going to attempt to get the up on him, and this defensively mixed form would be a perfect. He could feel his muscles and bone being pulled against the surface of his skin, from where all unecessary fats in his body had disappeared; his veins became less pronounced, his eyes almost glazed. In this form he could detect his foe's high-speed movements with high-speed-vision-like accuracy with his other senses sound, smell, and touch, and his body resisted much more basic damage. The form relaxed him, and helped him get his bearings in combat. He had to be prepared if he was to capture the prey alive.

"Calling me a "dog" is not a particularly polite nor wise action, medium-sized fry." Cebros nonchalantly responds to the man's statement, then braces himself into a boxing-resembling stance, a stance that he only kept for a moment, as he observe his opponent's actions, concluding that a direct hand-to-hand brawl wasn't going to occur immediately.

Seeing him swirl around and nearby him at impressive speeds, but never really getting too close, it was emphasized that the Fishman had not too much information about his own set of skills and powers, and would most likely attempt to -quite fittingly?- fish out as much detail as possible before going 100%. This was further cemented when a sonic wave of, by his own estimation, moderate power compared to what the opponent could do if he was to fight at full power. Thus, Cebros resorted into a rapid movement of his right arm, which generated a crimson blast of a, outside of the water element packed into Dagon's assault, similar structure and power. He merely aimed to break the water-blade's part that would directly impacted him, rather than the whole thing; no need to spent more energy than needed.

"So, suppose you'll now test my physical prowess, too? Fine. Be sure not to underestimate it tho becase ..." Cebros applied a sizable amount of raw might into his legs, which he used to launch himself towards the target. He then clenched his right fist, ducked down just before he approached, and fired it off like a missile. "It might rip off a muscle or three."

Dagon was slightly surprised at how easily his water blade had been dissolved, when he realized it had not been dissolved by split by a disrupting force. He watched the blades fly off supersonic speed, one of them slicing through some stone and coral. The man was certainly used to mid range attack strategies. That could be problematic when trying to outmaneuvar the foe. Dagon braced himself, watching his opponent make a counter attack, as his opponent launched a close combat assault. Dagon waited for the punch to get just an instant away from touching him, and then he barred his fangs.

Deep Eruption

By the time the fist had reached his skin, it was already red and glowing from extreme heat. The 1st degree burn from the contact would likely give him an idea of dagon's plan, but he didn't care. Dagon attempted to grab Cebros's wrist as steam erupted from dagons body in a forceful plume cloud, like an undersea volcano had a smaller cousin producing a similar effect. Steam erupted all around dagon as the water instantly evaporated as he came into contact with it. But he wasn't done yet. He had to follow up. He tried to pull the man towards himself with steel rippin strength into the uppercut he was forming with his right fist.

(OOC: you said you had to refamiliar yourself with dagon so I'll remind you of one of his close combat tropes. He uses an attack that is clearly fishman martial arts and then uses a standard punch with a goro and gura ring on his right fist. He does this to pass off the added damage as fishman karate; in fact, derge himself attributed it to fishman karate. I figured you should keep that in mind when determining how react to the punch.)

There was no anticipation of a heat-related countermeasure from the side of a Fishman. Thus, this was the only thing he wouldn't expect from his opponent. On most challengers, that would surely be enough of a startle to allow Dagon to perform a powerful assault, with little to no interaction from the surprised foe. Cebros himself quickly realized that. But he also came to another realization once this took place.

The epiphany was that Dagon apparently lacked very basic and vital information regarding himself. Which was both a relief, knowing he had a lot in his arsenal to surprise the Fishman, but also something else. Aggravation. "Using a heat-related guard towards me ... do you not know who I am?!" A formidable plumage of heat instantly oozed from the man. A heat which was followed by a sparkling, intensely-hot pressure and aura. "Heat is my game!" he called, and, unfazed by his opponent's own heat-related move, pressed forward his own fist. He did noticed that Dagon had already thrown a punch on his own; surely he wasn't going to merely rely on surprise tactics, he'd surely attack immediately to close the gap and take advantage of the aforementioned, and failed probably only to Cebros himself, surprise "Deep Eruption" would cause to others.

But something about that fist felt dangerous. Quite dangerous. So, rather than attempt a dual exchange, he jumped backwards, no attacks immediately connecting. He opened his mouth, took a deep breath, and, as he was distancing himself, he grimaced with irriration. "That sensation ... can Fishman Karate feel that intensely shattering? My, boy, you must be stupidly strong .. but .. FRY BREATH!" He ejected a blazing plume of crimson flames towards Dagon.

His foe appeared to have a superior version of his own form, perhaps from life return, perhaps from a devil fruit, dagon did not know. All he knew was that they were at a stalemate as long as the battle was based on heat. Dagon would take no heat-based damage, and neither would his enemy. However, as it stood, if dagon reverted his eruption he'd be at an immediate disadvantage in close quarters. Another observation. The man likely had observation, or at least enhanced senses. He had been prepared to attack dagon to trade blows, but instead maneuvered with agility comparable to his own. The man was also clearly very experienced, as during the instant that his foe had realized dagon's tactic he had also had the ability to react accordingly despite their high speed and close proximity. It wasn't just a feat of agility. It was a feat of agility, skill, and intelligence.

Judo Flip

Dagon was grateful for derge and namor's training. Despite his apparent constitution, dagon was actually rather exhausted. If he had tried to fight a man of this caliber in the same circumstances before meeting them, then he would have been foiled instantaneously, and would have a 20% chance or so of dying. Far far too risky. Assassin's don't take those kinds of risk. As it stood, even exhausted dagon assessed his chances of dying at being less than 1%. With access to the Judo Flip and Deep Eruption, he felt that this foe could not hurt him. He felt the red on his skin darken as the nutrient-boost he was experiencing helped to both conserve stamina and amplify his physical characteristics. He thought lightly about what his foe must thank of him. Here he was, a man leech who manipulate his body in ways that would kill normal people, and how monster-like he was while in a combat form. Dagon had noticed for a long time that his appearance and persona reflected his form. It was this fact in and of itself was why he was thinking so intently about it. With the vibrant emotion of deep eruption and the passive nature of his judo flip were driving his mind into a introspective analysis and an empathetic analysis on his foe.

Dagon was completely lost in his own mind. If it hadn't been for the fact that he had enhanced senses, observation, and primal instincts, he would be wide open for attack. Dagon was very sensual however, and detect his foe's attack immediately. Dagon didn't know if his foe's fire had additional properties, but the only way to find out was to use a dummy. Given dagon's form and abilities, it was clear to him that the best idea was to just charge directly through the fire.

Shift

Dagon's shift was harder to control, but also faster than normal due to the extreme heat his body was emitting. He simply ran into the fire. Even if it had a secondary effect, dagon was confident in his tanking abilities. Derge had been the most useful tool in dagon's conquest for power, giving him access to the most powerful blood in the world. Blood that could heal even those whose hearts no longer beat; as long as a single cell in a body lived, the blood of derge namikaze could restore them. In fact, he could even resurrect the dead by fueling them with his own blood, and the "contract" he had made had ensures that dagon's own highly regenerative blood began to be fueled by the blood of derge on top of continuing to possess part of derge's own blood. Dagon's blood was the ultimate drug, poisoning with intense paralysis but also healing when including derge's own blood.  Dagon was positive that even if he was significantly damaged by the fire he would quickly heal, and could even heal while maintaining damage, resisting damage further.

Dagon was aiming, once again, for a classic straight forward superman-punch. Dagon was in fact attempting to intimidate his foe. If dagon was bold enough to break this guy's cool, dagon could capture him no problem. He'd just slip up, and dagon would capitalize on his mistake. But just because his main strategy for this attack was an intimidation factor did not mean it was not dangerous; it was every bit as dangerous a before, and even more so. With judo flip active, dagon could stretch his body. If he got close enough to landing the blow, it would be as easy as stretching out his malleable body, and it had even more brute force than before with his full speed shift; he had greatly surpassed ultrasonic, and just changing directions at all was creating powerful shockwaves, and everything he moved by within close proximity would be repelled by an inertial force, his blow-by-force, capable of cracking and destabilizing stone. This force alone would partially deter the flames, as the vacuum directly around him would not allow for air to be burned, and emitting a rumbling sound somewhere between a tremor and a sea-kings growl. Dagon was of course smiling widely, enjoying the fight maniacally, sharp teeth exposed.