[Olympus]
The marine vessels' stress was far from over as soon as they sailed within 10 meters of the coast of Olympus.
Sharp whistles cut the air as above them a rainfall of spears is falling on them.
"Crap." Ramos grits his teeth, he raises his hands together to form a thin barrier of haki to protect himself from the hail of spears.
"Aaaahhhh "
"Huck–"
The marines who didn't possess haki were subjected to brutal deaths by the 2-meter-long spears, piercing their bodies.
Aramaki pushes through his wound to protect himself from the onslaught by pulling unlucky marines around him with his roots and using them as human shields.
"Vice-Admiral! " A mast worker screeches in panic as Aramaki lifts him to take a spear through the chest.
"Bastard. " Doll barks out as she uses Kamisori(Razor) to make her body intangible by combining the speed of Geppo, flexibility of Kami-e and base fluidity of Shave to make her body intangible.
"Cocoon. " Hina locks her fingers to summon iron bars to envelope her form like a caterpillar in the stage of metamorphosis.
Gion slashes her blade against the falling weapons.
Tashigi had the same idea as Gion, cutting the spears in half and occasionally sending projectile slashes at them.
Sonya's jitte slams the sharp steel edges with ferocity.
"Protect me, Marine!" Hancock hides herself behind Ramos, using the Admiral as a human shield.
"Are you serious?" Ramos scowls.
"Hisss." Salome, her serpent coils around his leg, trying to slither into his clothing.
"Hey–stop that!" Ramos shivers at the cold scales pressing on his skin.
"Enough of this." Ramos takes in a deep breath, his chest bloats up before releasing a gust of wind to counter the rainfall of spears.
WHOOOWH
Ramos disrupted the motion of the weapons and gravity did the rest as they fell into the waiting ocean.
"You could've done that earlier. " Gion clicks her tongue in annoyance.
"I was occupied–"
"FRAWNK–FRAWNK!" A rapid squawking invades their ears, and a figure shines in the sky, the image of a massive blue-grey plumage, long white neck and black stripes below its eyes.
A great blue heron birds soars above their vessels, the bird reaches 40 metres in length with a wingspan of 64 metres.
* the ratio of the Heron's length to wingspan is 1:1.6
"FRAWNK !" The giant bird screeches loudly, flapping its wings to create violent gust of winds to rock the ships.
The remaining Marines tried their best to gain leverage on the unstable ships but nature is testing their resilience.
"Ramos–" Hancock screams.
BOOM
The blue heron lands on their boat, its mass breaking the floorboards and adding further tension to the ship.
All hell broke loose as the bird latched its beak on Hancock.
Holding the snake empress like prey, it glares at the marines before soaring into the sky.
BOOOOM
The ship rocks violently, nearly tipping over into the cold sea.
"Hancock!" Ramos leaps into the sky using Geppo while the bird is flying back to the coast of Olympus, Boa Hancock in its grasp.
"RJ!" He calls out, forming his nimbus cloud to ride on him in his pursuit of Hancock.
"Ramos!" Tashigi calls him out as she hangs on to the ship by stabbing her blade into the deck.
The other girls are holding onto the railings, mast or thick ropes for balance.
"Cumulus." Ramos summons more clouds from the sky, particularly puffy white cumulus clouds to sweep the girls and the reluctant duo of Aramaki and Akainu off the near-sinking ship.
"FRAWNK!"
The blue heron is flying faster to the Island, the strong winds from its wings flapping make it hard for Ramos to catch up to them.
"Shxt!"
'Impressive.' A hoarse voice praises him.
"Huh?" Ramos whips his back at the voice invading his ears, "Who's there?" He spoke.
'I'm impressed you can hear me. You possess the voice of all things–frawnk!"
'Wait. Is this the bird!?' Ramos yells in his mind.
'My name is Anthus, outsider. '
'Great... now I can speak to animals. '
-I'm no mere creature, I am Lady Artemes's noble companion! ' Anthus squawks.
'Either way, you're going to cooked alive if you don't let go off her!' Ramos warns the heron.
'You're bluffing. '
'Wanna test it?'
Rumble
The clouds mosh together to form an ashy sky of rumbling thunder.
'You won't do it, I still have her in my beak, so if you electrocute me, she'll be collateral. ' Anthus calls out his bluff.
"Mxm.' Ramos clicks his tongue in annoyance.
'What do you want from her?'
'She has been chosen to be Lord Ares's betrothed. '
'That's nonsense!'
'It is her destiny to be wedded under the banners of Olympus. It's the only way to free Zeus.'
'Free Zeus? What are you–'
WHOOOSSH
Ramos's thoughts went blank at an uneasy feeling hammering his senses, unable to locate the threat with his observation haki nor his senses.
Thwack
"Huck–"
Ramos spits out blood as an arrow pierces his just below his left shoulder, the body of the arrow prickles the apex of his left lung, restricting his breathing.
"Huugghh..." He gasps for air, eyes frantic at the disturbance of the airways.
'Anthus, hurry up.' A feminine voice interrupted their conversation.
"Yes, Lady Artemis." Anthus descends to the evergreen forest of the island, and its giant form disappears into the forest.
"R-RJ...move faster. " He grits his teeth through his hoarse breathing.
RJ moves faster in its pursuit of the blue heron now hiding in the forest of Olympus.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
With Ramos off to save Hancock, the rest of the surviving marines move above the forest on his cumulus clouds.
Gion and Doll were on one puffy cloud, Tashigi, Sonya and Hina were trailing behind them on a slightly bigger cumulus cloud.
Akainu and Aramaki are the furthest behind of the group, their cloud is flying steadily to keep the injured Marines comfortable.
"That idiot Ramos is always making impulsive decisions, what kind of marine thinks like a pirate." Akainu curses, chewing on his cigar roughly.
Aramaki nods in agreement at his statement.
"Hopefully he retrieves her before we destroy this island. "
"Even if he fails to save them, we will still destroy this land, with or without him and those pirates. " Akainu clarifies.
"Yes, sir." Aramaki salutes.
"You know we can hear you?" Doll scowls at the scheming marines.
"Don't forget who your superior is! " Akainu barks out.
Thump...thump...thump
Loud marching halts them as the sight of an army of 30 metres( 98.43 feet) tall.
"Holy..." Sonya gawks out.
The army of Nephilims are wearing bronze armour consisting of skirts with sharp edges reaching their lower thighs, chest plates ending at their shoulders, leaving their arms open and helmets with red feathers.
"Onwards, Spartans!" The soldier is in front of the army of about 80 men in 4 rows of 20 holding dorys( 50 metres long thrusting spears. ) and some had xiphos ( a short, leaf-shaped sword) and aspis( dark brown spears).
"Humans, my name is Dienekes of 300, the general of the Spartan army." The head Spartan announces, wielding an aspis and xiphos respectfully.
"Surrender or face the wrath of Sparta." Dienekes gives them a choice of peaceful submission or a violent apprehension.
"Pfft–how about you go f#ck yourself!" Sonya curses at them, jitte in hand.
Sheath×2
Gion and Tashigi lift their swords slightly out of their sheaths, a menacing glow radiating from their blades.
Hina slaps her hands together. "Hina refuses to be a captive. " She growls.
"Aramaki, move–"
"ROOAAARRRR!" An ear-shattering roar vibrates across the battlefield.
"Leonidas!" Dienekes cheers.
Rumble
The ground shakes under the pressure of the beast in front of the Marines. A 67metres(219 feet) tall bronze coloured lion with glowing red eyes, pitch black claws and its mane curled together to form a circular shield shape, resembling the aspis.
"Leonidas is an aspis shield that ate the Raion-Raion no Mi. "
"A shield lion?" Tashigi looks on with awe.
"Last chance. " Dienekes warns, tightening his hold on his spear.
Bubble...
"Move out the way. I'll end this quickly. " Akainu stretches his magma arms at the Spartan army, the heat around him making it harder for his fellow marines to breathe.
"ROAR!" Leonidas pounces on the Admiral at blinding speeds.
"Akainu –ouff!" Aramaki's breath was forced out his lungs as Leonidas's massive bronze tail swatted him away.
"There goes one threat." Sonya deadpanned.
"Charge!" Dienekes orders.
The Spartans march towards the Marines in a rectangular formation, the 4 sides had spears and shield users, while the inner form had short blade wielders protected in the formation.
*The phalanx formation was used by the Spartans in actual battles.
The battle on Olympus commenced as the Gorgon sisters' fate was undecided.