The Bellators

4:8:3

 After the immediate black flash, the face of the man under the yellow hat is filled with terror, his eyes expanding and mouth above the beard dropping in shock, for such swift action was taken without even a given moment to counter.

In that split second after the shot, that terrified expression forms almost instantly, but it holds for longer as he already assumes himself as struck, letting his body freeze without even attempting to take action, for any move he can make now would be made after already being struck. So instead, he just stands in place, right on target, already having been shot at, just waiting for the sensation of the shot to reach him and for the effects to follow.

Though in truth even without his realization, about a foot in front of his forehead where the shot would land is a long black katana blade with jagged white edges, the long side facing the same direction as the man, providing just the bare minimum coverage to absorb the energy of the black bolt as the flash disperses through the blade, dissipating the energy without delivering the aftereffect.

For in actuality, the leader in the red shirt isn't the one directly in line of the shot from the silver pistol in the Spirit's hand, but rather in front of the leader is the man in the purple hakama whose bent forward in follow through of the dash, his right hand tightly gripping the hilt of one of his katanas, that one being the one angled upwards to absorb the black bolt.

So in that one split second stretched infinitely, the shot failed to land in its intended target, and as reactions follow that target realizes such as he stumbles backwards in speechless awe.

Even the Spirit subtly tilts his head in surprise to such a speedily reaction, though he's quick to straighten his neck and fire a triplet of shots.

This time though one of the other pirates has the time to step forward, a man in a midnight purple cloak who extends his hand out to project purplish blue tendrils of plasmic light that spiral in front of his hand at accelerating speeds such that they form a vortex, one that reroutes the trajectory of the second set of shots to instead be fed into said vortex.

Next to him, the swordwielder wastes no time sheathing his blade and turning around, bending down and wrapping his arm around the pirate leader's torso before then lifting his whole body off the ground which warrants his confused cry.

Though in negligence to the pirate leader's perplexion, the man bends his knees before springing the other way, sprinting down the training room with the leader in his arm, carrying him effortlessly while passing the army of reinforcements some of whom glance at the escape but then focus back on the intruders.

Some of them draw firearms from holsters on their hips or they're transported from beams of light that project from their bodies for quick equips, while others empower themselves supernaturally such as one who wrap themselves in many strips of linen, transforming them into a beast with the resemblance of a mummy, strips hanging from their arms in excess.

After the initial simple plan fails, the Spirit relinquishes his pistol and instead transforms two long metal batons in each hand, or rather nunchucks as a second set of batons manifests too, chained to the handheld ones by a translucent chain which allows him to spin them before simply briefing, "I'll get him," before springing forward propelled in a blue dash, flying straight into the cluster of pirates and slashing them in quick succession, maintaining the speed of the nunchucks as he slides along the center in his pursuit of the leader.

Behind him follows the Artificer whose back protrudes six different golden tentacles, two of them projecting flat shields made of golden energy like panels as two others begin firing golden bolts and the last two have large claw hands that spark as they grab pirates and slam them into each other all while her own hands reshape longer into conal cannons which she raises and immediately begins heavily firing.