Whatever was attacking them must have been a really high level to get past the protections put on them. Or just didn’t care. Not everything was perfect and worked as it advertised.

Xane was thrown against a wall as again the ship was violently thrown about. This time they must have been thrown for the creaking of breaking wood and bending of metal could be heard.

Xane didn’t have time to be sad at the damage to his ship. In time he could repair it. What he did was check on everyone. They seemed fine. Only Xane, Hatchet and Lyenn for company. “Well shit what are we going to do.”

“Die probably. I did say this was a bad idea. My vote was the island of pirates.” Hatchet chidded.

“I really have no idea what to do.” Added Lyenn. She lost her usual chipper lately.

“Ok we just need to survive. I’ll just have to hope some of the poison resistance or cure potions work.” Xane started to administer the potions

At first nothing seemed to be doing anything. Yet after a while their breathing seemed to steady a bit. Lyenn slowly spoke in Xane’s mind reassuringly, though it was filled with pain, “They’ll survive. But only if we can protect them.”

That was the problem: Xane wasn’t strong enough. No matter how much power he garnered in his time here it wasn’t enough. Not against something of this magnitude.

The worst part of this darkness was that it hid the aura of others. Even this monstrosity of a creature could barely be felt. Xane had to strain his senses to catch a whiff. He activated his godly sight in hopes of it being able to peirce just a bit.

He didn’t try before not seeing the point of doing so. But he was happy he did now. Light turning on a dim light he was able to see outlines of something in the darkness.

He saw a giant creature that looked sorta like a humanoid. It had the torso and arms of a human. With a merman tail instead of legs. And not one but 3 heads. All different shark heads. A great white, hammer head, and maybe a tiger shark. Xane wasn’t an expert on sharks. Also it was mainly just blurry outlines.

That wasn’t the only thing Xane saw. Another giant shape was getting into view and slowly moving towards the shark one. It was more like a serpent in its form or an eel. Accepted it had spike-like protrusions all across its body like a puffer fish. Electricity sparked from each spike to others.

Even trying to inspect them all Xane got was ???. That meant he wasn’t strong enough to inspect them.

As the shark one loomed over the island the Sierra’s song was beached on a surge of power came from the eel like one as it sped out of the water and towards the neck of the giant. It was fast. Faster than anything Xane’s mind could compute. The two colossus creatures slammed into each other sending waves of concussive energy around them.

Water evaporated from the sudden blast. More flying in all directions. Sierra’s Song cried in pain as it was violently shoved further inland. Xane himself was thrown off his feet for the 3rd time in the last few minutes.

It was odd to think of it that way. All this happened in such a small amount of time. Only 3 minutes had passed. Since he woke up. Xane re-oriented himself and looked back to the fight.

The eel had clasped onto one of the necks and was trying to pull the giant off its balance and into the water. The water churned with movement and sparks of electricity. If the ship was in that water it would have been destroyed in moments. The only reason it wasn’t drift wood was that Xane believed the first one was playing with its food…snack.

The shark creature might have been startled but it was a powerful being and wouldn’t be defeated with one single attack. The tree-like arms attempted to grab the eel to pull it from the depths. The spikes did as Xane assumed and sprung out puncturing the hand of the 3 headed shark. Yet even then it didn't let go. Not even as the shock coursed through it.

Smaller sharp teeth that were in his friends stabbed into the giant eel. Xane was amazed to see the brute strength of the giant pull what seemed like an endless string of eel from the water. Before all of it was pulled out the tail lashed out and struck the leg of the shark giant. It had another spike on the end, this one massive. A cry of pain finally came from one of the shark heads. It was a low deep verberation. Nothing Xane had ever heard before.

It even came with a debuff.

Petrified: You are scared to your core being

Can’t move while debuff is in effect.

Time Remaining: 25 seconds.

That was a really long timer. Xane couldn’t look away even if he wanted to. He wouldn’t have looked away if he could. The fight was so interesting.

In retaliation the sharks all bit down on the eel's body. The attack sent waves of force from the blows. The eel creature shuddered. Spikes protruded through the heads but still the giant didn’t stop. With its massive hands the eel was being pulled apart. Like the giant it was fighting, the snake didn’t falter in its attack.

Quicker than Xane could process another eel. This one smaller, but not by much, attacked as well. Grabbing onto an arm and pulling. This fight went on for a few minutes later. Even with the timer done Xane didn’t move a muscle from his standing position.

Both eels started to shock the giant with increasing intervals Xane thought that they would win. The giant was starting to violently shake around. Slowly it went down as if it was about to fall into the water.

Next thing he saw was one of them open their mouth and hundreds of small sharp teeth, relative to the shark heads. They all slammed into the skin of the first eel.

In the end the giant won. Both eels being killed and dragged into the depths. Xane and his ship completely forgotten.

There were some scares before the fight was completely over. Massive strikes of lightning and loud cracks of thunder threatened to kill Xane for just being close to the fight. Errant geysers of water and launched spikes rocked the land. Xane truly didn’t want to know the level of these creatures. That information would have been too much to handle.

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The giant started to pull the carcases into the depths. Xane finally truly heard a voice that was trying to get his attention. “Xane we should really make sure our friends are fine.” Lyenn said for the 5th time as Xane just stared out into the darkness.

It was 5 days later when the first one woke up. Calrin pulled himself to a sitting position, his mind a fog. He didn’t remember what happened. Looking around he saw his friend Huntress passed out next to him. Her armor was bloodied. And her mask she always wore was chipped.

This shocked him. He had seen many powerful attacks attempt to harm that mask. All had failed with not even a scratch. Whatever happened must have been bad if a chip on the wooden mask was made. A little more panicked he looked about.

The cabin he was in was a mess. Objects thrown about. He also saw Pyn in a similar state as Huntress. Hatchet was nowhere to be seen. Nor was Xane.

Calrin tried to stand up but his muscles barely listened. With a groan he managed a ponderous step. And another as he got situated and his body fully woke up. He walked to the door and opened it.

What he saw confounded him. The ship was a wreck. In more ways than one. A large hole showed the rocky land they were on. He knew something was wrong when he was sideways in the vessel but didn’t think this much damage was caused.

He tried not to trip on scattered bits of wood and other objects that had been placed about to spruce it up. Plants that never aged were splattered about. As well as some cheaper paintings.

Before getting to the main area Calrin picked up the painting he was forced to choose. It was just a man with a blade on his back. Yet it uncannily looked like his late master. Xane took Calrin looking at it for so long as a sign he liked it and bought it immediately saying, “This looks sick. Will look great on our ship.”

Now that ship was heavily damaged. And Calrin didn’t know how well they’d be able to fix it. The weird metal hull wasn’t strong enough against whatever attacked them.

A voice brought him from his thoughts. “You really do like that painting don’t you. Glad to see you awake.”

Xane found Calrin looking at the painting Xane bought him back in Crescent City. The thing wasn’t even that good. At least in Xane’s opinion. Though Carlin seemed to like it.

“How long have I been out?” Calrin asked.

“Only 5 days. When everyone is awake I’ll tell you all what happened. I’d rather not have to repeat it for each of you. Are you sure you should even be walking around? You still look tired.”

“I’m fine. Maybe a nap later.” He said the last part smiling. It looked strained. “What happened? I don’t remember much.”

“3 monsters fought each other. 1 giant 3 headed shark thing and 2 giant eels. The ship was heavily damaged and thrown on this island. I don’t think it’s seaworthy anymore.” Xane said sadly, putting his hands against the tilted hull of the ship. A rock having made a hole in it as if the ship was paper.

“What are we going to do now?” Calrin asked, leaning against what was once the floor.

Xane replied, shrugging, “Swim?”

Calrin didn’t at all look amused, “No way are we going to be able to swim our way around. I don’t think the boon will protect us from looking like bait on a hook.”

“You would make great bait though.” Xane said, looking Calrin over. When all he got back was a glare and a slight hidden smile Xane went on. “Fine, I bought a small row boat. Nothing fancy but I think us strong men can push it about. While I was waiting I had already started enchanting and running it. I think I can use a propulsion rune to make things go faster.”

It was a total of 3 more days before the others had woken up. Xane had explored the island to find nothing of true value. Signs that a mine had been started and caved in showed that others had probably been here already and taken the valuables. They weren’t far into the ocean so it made sense.

He did find some interesting fruits on a tree. It was like a coconut but had a blue liquid inside. When Pyn finally woke up he told Xane it was a skynut. A variant of a coconut that was also in Averinth. It gives increased mana regen if consumed. Though it was recommended not to eat or drink it too much as it was poisonous in high dosage. Xane stored what he could find. They could sell for a pretty penny.

When everyone was ready they got on the rowboat that fit them all comfortably-ish. Everyone took turns rowing but mainly to stave off boredom more than actually getting tired. With the compass in hand they went off to find their next target. Hopefully not being attacked.

On their second day of rowing they got to an island where a recent battle had occurred. A ship was nowhere to be seen. But signs that it had been there were evident. Planks of wood and a sail were draped over the rocky shore. As they got closer it started spinning around until he turned it to its side. Where the needle pointed straight down.

Something Xane had learned about these islands where they were more like large spires than mountains under water. There was usually less of a gradual slope and more of a sheer drop going straight down. At least he had put together if such large creatures lived under there. And he had a very short excretion into the depths. Something he wouldn’t be doing again.

A careful look over the island revealed only four pirates were alive. They tried to ambush and steal the rowboat but were quickly filled with arrows by Huntress. Even after a few days of recovering the three didn’t seem fully recovered after being hurt. A lingering sloth-like effect. They were left with some debuff that slowed their movements by 15% for 18 more days.

They decided after killing the pirates to make rest on that island. Xane finally started to look over all the loot he had been gathering from the kills. A morbid thought but one he wouldn’t dwell on.

Robes of Fire Magic(Rare)(Enchanted)

Increases fire strengths.

+19% Spell Fire Damage

-14% Mana Cost of Fire Based Spells

+22% Mana Recovery When Near Flames

Circlet of The Lighting Queen(Legendary)(Enchanted)(Affinity Requirement)

Become one with lighting.

This Circlet was once the crown of the Lighting Queen. A long dead Queendom of mountain folk who revered the skies. Not much is known on how it fell but only a few artifacts have been recovered.

+45% to Lightning Damage

-100% Damage Taken From Lighting

+25% Damage Taken From Any Other Source

Can travel along currents of electricity. Can come out at any time.

Only those with 85% or higher in lighting affinity can wear this.

Reading that last part made Xane slap his head in self anger. He had totally forgotten after all this time to check his affinities. For being someone with the ability to remember everything he forgot a lot.

Shaking his mind he had another thought. That is how the lighting mage got behind him. He had cast his own spell and traveled with it, landing behind Xane without Xane ever knowing. Xane could see the benefits of this item. The 25% increase to all other sources besides lighting was tough but if one was based on lighting it was a trade off anyone would take.

Xane had been told that only items with great history or items history that had been told ever get a description. This was probably one of the best items besides his ring he had ever found. An artifact of old. He would look up this queendom when he had a chance.

Xane also thought about just putting it on. But Lyenn yelled at him. “What are you doing? You don’t know what it does.” She had said.

“What are you talking about? The description tells me.” Xane stopped mid crowing. He kinda liked the idea of a crown. Though he did like his hat more.

“I mean what it will do if you don’t meet the requirements. I’ve heard of many tales where people believed themselves strong enough for an item they had no right using. Death usually occurs. I remember a blade that stole all the strength from a great warrior. They were a vegetable for a long time.” Xane put the circlet away.

“Fine you win.”

“You can do it after I get my body back.” She added teasingly.

Darkness came again and they went to bed in the portion of the mine that hadn’t been caved in. Xane put up walls of wood to protect them.