Meanwhile, neither Ai nor Vivienne remained still. They too were furious at the mere thought of these bastards trying to kill their captain! They spun and charged into the group of six that had been behind them. The pair might not have been true fighters, but they didn't need to be due to the massive gap in strength. In mere moments there were six sickening crunching sounds as the two non-combatants literally shattered the skulls of the six men with a single blow each.
In seconds twelve men died and left behind only six bodies. Merlin looked away from the smoking piles of ash on her side to the crumpled bodies on the other. She nodded in satisfaction before addressing Ai and Vivienne, "Come, we should head back to the ship and let the Captain know what's going on."
Alex checked the position of the sun in the sky, trying to decide if he wanted to head back to the ship or not. He'd already accomplished everything he'd planned to in the line of his duties as the first mate. He'd placed orders at the shipyards for the materials that Valeria required for the ships overhaul. He'd also booked a dry dock for the next day that would let them do some maintenance on the hull. Mera could do it by herself since she could breath underwater and easily keep pace with the ship, but the Captain wanted them to do it as a team.
Alex could respect that. He knew he was created to learn the skills of the stronger people in this world and teach them to the crew, it was his primary function. However, that hadn't stopped the Captain from treating him as an equal, as a friend, and that was something Alex appreciated. He was also proud to be chosen for the position of first mate. It let him know that all of his hard work was appreciated and respected.
While he was trying to decide what to do next, his spider sense blared out a warning that had him instinctively tilting his entire upper torso to the right. Not even a moment later something flashed past him at a speed he was unable to track.
"Ho? You dodged? Impressive."
Alex spun gracefully to face the speaker. Standing across from him was a man covered in muscles at least twice the size of Alex himself. How someone so big could move so fast, Alex couldn't comprehend. Then again, from what he knew of this world thanks to Peter, he shouldn't have been so surprised. Even bigger people than the man across from him were capable of moving at speeds unheard of to most people.
Curiously, the man that apparently attempted to kill him and now smirking at him while holding a decent looking sword, was dressed in a Marine uniform. The man was bald, massive, muscular, and giving Alex a look that seemed to be a mixture of curious and hungry. It was fairly off putting. The problem was, Alex had no idea why a Marine would attack him. No one on the crew had a bounty yet, they hadn't even done anything yet. The obvious way to find out was to ask, so he did, "Why is a Marine attacking me? I haven't broken any laws and I am not a pirate."
Yet.
The marines smile turned cruel and bloodthirsty, "Doesn't matter. The Captain has decided the women of your ship belong to him while you and the other guy are just fish food."
Before Alex could ask anything else to get more information, the Marine moved again at high speed. This time Alex was on alert and paying attention. While his senses told him to dodge, he'd gotten a clear view of what the Marine had done to propel himself so fast. Once again, Alex easily twisted his body out of the way of the slashing sword blade and turned to face the Marine again.
"I see. So, this is the 'Soru' move the Captain spoke of."
The Marine's eyes widened in shock, "How do you know that?! No one is supposed to know that!"
Alex didn't answer him, rather, he disabled the resistance his body was always under then vanished from sight as he utilized Soru nearly perfectly. With his current level of strength he was at least five times as fast as the Marine. The man had no chance to dodge at all before an iron fist slammed into his jaw with bone breaking force. The marine's jaw was shattered into dust before his body rocketed through the air to slam through a store's stone wall.
Alex contemplated checking to see if the Marine was dead or alive, but decided against it. This needed to be reported to the Captain right away. Once more, Alex vanished as he used his newly acquired skill to travel swiftly while perfecting the move to make it even more efficient.
Peter walked with some pep in his step. It had been a great day! He'd gotten two named swords, one of which was one of the fifty skillful grade and that was huge! He just hoped Artoria liked Korikiru. It would be hers until they could find, steal, or make something better. He had no doubt that, in time, Vivienne and Merlin would be able to make swords that made the twelve Supreme Grade Blades look like garbage.
A well forged, sharp, highly durable, nearly indestructible sword sounded awesome. Until it went up against a sword just like it only with magical abilities. Though, he couldn't help wondering what would happen if they permanently 'blackened' a magical blade using Armament Haki. That would be an interesting experiment to try in the future.
He was brought out of his musing when he arrived back aboard the ship to find everyone else waiting for him. Before he could say anything they all began talking at once. Peter waved his hands, "Stop stop! One at a time!" They quieted down, "Alright, now Alex, you go first."
Alex nodded in acceptance then went on to explain what had happened to him. Once he finished Peter hummed, "So, the Marine Captain in charge of this island wants to kill you and I then capture the ladies?"
Alex nodded while Merlin chimed in, "That leads nicely into what happened to myself, Ai, and Vivienne. We got jumped by a dozen guys saying pretty much the same thing."
"Huh." Peter pondered on that before asking, "Anyone else get jumped?"
Erina and Mera both lifted their hands with Erina speaking, "We did, though not by so many men. Mera handled them easily."
His gaze shifted over to the last three, "But not you guys?"
Domino, Valeria, and Artoria shook their heads. Then Domino explained the conversation she'd overheard on 'accident' while they were exploring randomly. Peter chalked it up to her mutation simultaneously keeping her safe while finding her a juicy bit of information. He processed everything he'd heard and frowned, "So, the Marine Captain definitely wants all of you ladies as slaves with myself and Alex dead. Obviously he underestimated us this time, which means next time he'll come at us with even more men. Not that it'll matter."
He shook it off, "Right, we'll have to set a watch tonight. Tomorrow we move into the dry dock to begin work on the ship. That'll take a few days to complete. Until then we'll have to keep our heads down. After the beating that Marine got from Alex, the Captain should keep his head down... unless he's stupid. Which is highly likely as most corrupt idiots are. Mera, Vivienne, I'll need to pair of you to keep an eye above and below for incoming Marine vessels. The good Captain might call in reinforcements, though I doubt it. If he does he wont be able to sell you like he seems hell bent on doing. Still, better safe than sorry."
His gaze shifted to Valeria, "The rest of us will help you with working on the ship and getting it retrofitted as fast as possible."