AU: There is a chance that the information presented in this story may be inaccurate. I'm pretty confident of my knowledge, but if there is any inaccuracy with the GS storyline, then you know why.

A Sea of Adversity

Chapter 1

"Captain! We're under attack!"

The call of the crewmate rung through to Eoleo's ears like a harsh bell. As soon as it came into contact with his ears, he awoke from his light slumber at once. Impulsively grabbing his axe, he burst through his cabin door. As he scrambled through the ship to the stairs leading to the deck, he could hear the sounds of his crewmates yelling their battle cries, unsheathing his weapons. Mixed in with those sounds were the sounds of monsters screeching as the fighting up above started. Gritting his teeth, he sprinted up the stairs, holding his broad axe as tightly as he could.

Emerging from below decks, he gasped at the sight he saw. There was a very large group of sea monsters that had scampered up onto the decks. Lizards wielding blades, flying jellyfish, harridans flying just outside of the reaches of some of the crew's swords.

"Ah!" Eoleo shouted, running up to his first mate, Batta. He was an aged, relatively thin man with a broad, hairy chest and a strong frame despite his age, wielding a shining cutlass that outclassed the pirates' weapons around him.

"Batta, where did all these monsters come from!" Eoleo yelled. Batta, a scar covered man who had been a crewmate since Eoleo's father, Briggs's days of piracy, lowered his jagged sword to address Eoleo of the situation.

"It started off with that harridan over there!" he yelled, pointing to the harridan that was busy fighting with one of the crewmen. "We didn't want to disturb you, so we took it on. But it screeched, and then suddenly, all these monsters leapt right outta the water!"

Batta had accompanied his description with appropriate hand signals, emphasizing the severity of the situation. As Eoleo was listening, he kept his eyes on the harridan that Batta had described. Batta had turned his back to it, and as soon as his description was over, Eoleo noticed it swooping right for Batta, its beak ready to pierce a hole in the back of Batta's head.

"Batta, watch out!" Eoleo yelled, raising his axe. Batta gasped and quickly ducked as the harridan was about to strike. Yelling, Eoleo swung his axe, striking the harridan with unbelievable force. Smashing its neck with the swing, Eoleo's swing threw the battered and killed harridan right back into the waters where it came from. Batta, who watched the harridan land in the water, got back up to his feet quickly.

"Thanks, cap'n!" he said.

"No problem" Eoleo noted. "Now come and help me take those lizard fighters over there!"

They moved on to continue the fight against the monster frenzy. With Eoleo's unparalleled skill from his adventures in stopping the Grave Eclipse, the monsters were slowly dispatched one by one. As he fought, beating down monster by monster, he thought of all of his friends, including Matthew. It had only been a few days since the Grave Eclipse had been finished; he knew that Matthew, Karis and Tyrell must have had a very long voyage home ahead of them. His voyage was still heading back to Champa; having just dropped Himi off to at Yamata, he was sailing back to Champa when the attack happened.

About half an hour of fighting later, the fighting was beginning to subside. The monster invasion had been, for the most part, quelled. There were no casualties, yet Eoleo wanted to prevent any danger befalling his crew, so he fought on.

Crushing a lizard with his axe, he turned around to face a harridan, as he started to fight it, quickly gaining the upper hand, he heard a shout from one of his crew members.

"Captain, to your right!"

Slicing the harridan's wing clean off, he turned around only to see a floating jellyfish spinning right towards him. Its large, electrified tentacles swung wildly, laced with poison, and before Eoleo could stop himself from being hit, one of the tentacles struck him square in the shoulder. The searing sensation of an electric shock exploded from Eoleo's shoulder as he yelled, clutching his wound as tightly as he could.

"The captain's hurt!" he heard Batta yell. "Whose got the spare herbs?"

"I have!" a crewman yelled as he approached the reeling Briggs whilst another pirate killed the jellyfish with a perfect shot from his bow and arrow, hitting it square in the head and shooting it off the boat. The crewman approached Briggs to see his shoulder bleeding a little from a cut caused by the whip of the tentacle, quickly surrounding with a red, sore rash. It was partly concealed by the strap of Eoleo's leather chest plate.

"Don't worry Captain Eoleo" the crewman said, undoing the strap of the chest plate. "I'll fix you up in no time!"

Little did the crewman know, a surviving lizard had pushed one of the pirates to the floor, making his way for Eoleo. Eoleo spotted the threat and tried to push the crewman away to attack, but the sting surging from his arm caused him to stumble. The crewman, only suddenly realizing there was something behind him turned around, only to be struck aside by the lizard. Eoleo stumbled, fumbling for a strong grip on his axe so he could attack.

Like a flash, he watched in horror as the lizard fighter lunged forward, its jagged sword piercing through Eoleo's abdomen. The pain was unbearable as the sword cut into him; he could feel the cold, cold steel plunging right through his muscle, paralysing Eoleo's nerves on the spot as his mind was overloaded with shock and agony. Just as the lizard fighter pulled the sword out, Batta unsheathed his knife and slit the lizard's throat before plunging the knife into the back of its head. Leaving the knife in the dying beast, he quickly went to Eoleo, who had fallen to the floor from his grievous wound.

Eoleo could feel his whole world turning as he fell to the floor. The sword had managed to plunge about a third of the way through Eoleo's body. He felt his blood, cold as ice, seeping profusely out of his stab wound. He breathed erratically, unable to maintain control of his own body as it spasmed in reaction to the stab. He felt the pain pulsing agonizingly out of the spot just under his left lung; he struggled to breathe.

"Eoleo!" Batta yelled as he knelt down to his captain's side. "Someone, get a bandage, now!"

As the crewmen around him worked busier than ever, fending off the last of the monsters and working to try and save Eoleo's life, Batta dragged Eoleo up to the pole of the crow's nest, propping him up against it. Carefully, he removed the sword from Eoleo's stomach whilst taking extra care not to elongate the laceration with the spiky edges of the blade. After a relative easy effort, he threw the released sword over board. Ripping his shirt right off, he placed it against the wound to slow the bleeding, causing Eoleo to scream in pain.

"Eoleo, speak to me!" Batta instructed as soon as Eoleo had calmed slightly, dropping his captain's title in the heat of the situation.

"A-ah….Batta…" Eoleo breathed harshly, trying to contain his pain and remain conscious. "Th-there's so much blood….aaah!" he yelled. His face was quickly coating in cold sweat; Batta felt himself panicking slightly as he saw not only his captain, but also his friend slowly dying in front of him. He looked back to the sickening trail of blood that was left where Eoleo had been dragged, gelatinous and still warm. Shuddering, he saw two of his crewmen running towards him, one with bandages and one with bottles of rum.

As the two knelt down, Batta hoisted Eoleo slowly from the pole so that the bandages could reach around his back. As every wrap of the bandage went around, Eoleo yelled in pain. Batta closed his eyes, unable to watch Eoleo's agony, before gritting his teeth and looking at the bandages. The crewman had made a very good effort, tying the bandage cleanly. Some of the blood was staining through the white bandages, but the blood flow had stopped. As Batta rested Eoleo back against the pole, the second crewman opened a bottle of rum.

"Drink this" he said in a clumsy voice, bringing the bottle to his Eoleo's mouth. As he did, Batta gasped and grabbed the bottle furiously.

"No, don't, you idiot!" he yelled. "Can't you see he's abdomen punctured? The rum'll seep right through him, it'll cause more damage than leisure!" Batta then looked at the bottle of rum, usually used as a painkiller. He passed the bottle back to the crewman, before yanking the second bottle and handing it to the bandage crewman. "Take his shoes off and drench his hands and feet with the rum. Don't empty the bottles in one go, soak his hands and feet and wait for the rum to get absorbed, then pour some more"

The crewmen understood the instructions and proceeded to remove Eoleo's boots before drenching him in the cool rum. As they did, Batta looked back up at Eoleo, who was clenching his eyes shut and breathing through his gritted teeth in harsh breaths.

"Eoleo, how're you coping?" he asked, reassuringly holding his captain's good shoulder. The injury on his other shoulder had been overlooked, and the crewmen had forgotten an important detail that Eoleo was quick to remind them.

"Batta….ah, I feel s-sick" he breathed harshly. "I-I…I feel…u-ugh….."

"Eoleo, what's wrong, why are you going pale?" Batta asked, putting a hand to Eoleo's forehead. It was cold and moist to the touch.

"Jellyfish tentacle…laced….with poison….nnggaaaahhh!" he uttered. Every breath he took stretched his cut abdomen, causing him continuous pain. Batta looked at the wound to his shoulder, which had gone swollen and purple, oozing a sickly colored liquid from the wound.

"Your shoulder…" Batta said quietly. He quickly reached into his pocket for his antidote herbs, pulling out his entire sprig. Haphazardly, shaking with nerves, he rolled up the leaves vigorously with his hands, turning the leaves to a mush, before rubbing it delicately on his shoulder. Batta had used the antidote herbs before on himself when he had been jellyfish struck, the stuff worked wonders on him. As he finished applying the medicine, he looked at Eoleo, who appeared groggy and fading out of consciousness. He realized that Eoleo wasn't recovering with the ship's supplies.

"…Ah…shit!" Batta yelled, running out of ideas.

"Batta…" Eoleo groaned, opening his eyes. "Wh-what's the closest city from here?"

Batta quickly stood up and looked around him. During the battle, the ship had been aimlessly drifting, and to Batta's horror, he realized that they were nowhere near Champa. In fact, they had drifted further north, past Tonfon, during the battle.

Luckily, Batta, having been one of Briggs's best crewmen back in the day, had a very keen eye for landscape. He could tell where the closest city would be from the shape of the land he had seen so many times during his voyages. He looked at the faintly visible landmass in front of him, recognizing the shape of the city from the distance. He gulped in fear, knowing where they were.

"…The closest city from here is Belinsk" he said fearfully. Through his pain, Eoleo managed to twitch his eyebrows, showing his confusion.

"How did that…happen?" he asked.

"We must have drifted during the fight…big time" Batta explained. Eoleo groaned in pain, moving his head to try and stay awake.

"T-Take me there then" he ordered. "When you get to dock…raise the white flags and show them to me. D-Don't…show any aggression….or this i-is all for naught…." He uttered. Normally, Batta would be opposed to the idea, but seeing Eoleo in such a terrible state, he remembered his pirate's vows and started to recite a section of them.

"To dive into an endless sea of adversity for the captain…I swore that to your father many years ago, and I swear that to you to…Captain" Batta said, standing up, welling with emotion. "Set sail for Belinsk, NOW! All idle crewmen remove your shirts to keep the captain warm! I want all oarsmen and the drum beater down there moving as fast as possible; adjust the damn mast and catch the wind! We must save the captain!" he ordered. The crewmen obliged instantly and many moved down below, placing their shirts on whatever part of Eoleo was exposed to the outdoors, before taking up their places on the oars. Batta took to the wheel of the ship, steering it full speed towards Belinsk. Taking a deep breath, he suppressed his hatred for the beastmen. This was for Eoleo.