"Captain Morgass: Who goes there?!"
"Olivionion: Hey, you wouldn't happen to be the boss of this ship?"
"Captain Morgass: Indeed, I am the captain of this here ship! Now surrender intruder!"
Olivionion was sitting on the boat casually, it was tossed back into the water after the other party members were captured, the mood grew darker as the sun became obscured by rain clouds.
"Olivionion: Well capn' - looks like the odds are in my favour."
"Captain Morgass: How so? Ye don't be placing yer hopes in the rain to boost yer stats, fish-man?"
Olivionion didn't reply, instead, he just sat patiently, waiting for the rain to start pouring.
"Captain Morgass: Whatever, go capture him!"
As soon as the order was given a group of five or so seafolk leapt from the deck into the sea.
"Olivionion: Only 5? Some pirates you are..."
Captain Morgass gritted his teeth in real life.
"Captain Morgass: We're not going to waste our manpower on a lonely dagger-wielding fish-man."
Captain Morgass may seem hasty for going after such a confident target the way he did, he wasn't the captain of a massive ship for no reason, he had a group of more than ten players wielding guns waiting to take out any resilient targets, even Olivionion’s projectile dodge ability couldn't help him.
Captain Morgass marched over to the edge of the deck only to see Olivionion in the water ,this time, the water around him took on a red hue as parts of the crew floated up, arms, legs, fingers and heads.
"Olivionion: I expected your crew to be at least level 90..."
The captain cursed under his breath as the rain started falling around them and the waves go stronger.
"Captain Morgass: Surely ye know what you have done..."
"Olivionion: Hm?"
"Captain Morgass: My crew has an honour rating averaging below -200, if we respawn in a town we'll keep getting killed over and over again!"
"Olivionion: Killing "criminals" was kinda my thing up until a few days ago."
As Olivionion finished climbing the side of the ship he found himself at the end of twelve rifles pointed at his face.
"Olivionion: Hey now, capn' - didn't pirates use pistols?"
"Captain Morgass: Fire!"
The players each clicked their attack buttons but to no avail.
"Olivionion: I knew you'd go for the pirate-themed weapons - you didn't think I was stupid enough to ignore the possibility of ranged weapons, did you?"
"Captain Morgass: You son of a b#*ch! What did you do to our weapons?!"
"Olivionion: I'd expect a roleplayer like yourself to read the flavour text - you can't use normal guns in the rain =)"
Olivionion started slashing the crew one after the other - the rain couldn't keep up with the constant stream of blood covering the deck.
The captain stood and watched from above, a set of stairs leading up to the front of the ship.
"Captain Morgass: Stop it! We surrender!"
"Olivionion: Who said that was an option?"
"Captain Morgass: You're here to rescue your allies, no? We'll lead you to them!"
"Olivionion: It's nothing personal, man - it's just a game after all! So don't hold it against me when I tear your limbs apart and watch you try to swim to land!"
"Captain Morgass: What the f#*k is wrong with you!?"
"Olivionion: Don't you find the blood particles really amazing?" as he asked the question he was holding the head of one of the crewmates in his hand.
"Olivionion: The way it stains everything around it, the way you can chop off, break, slice, tear, stab, puncture, stretch every muscle, joint, bone and organ?"
"Captain Morgass: You're fuc#*ng disgusting, man!"
"Olivionion: Don't be that way! You remember that old browser game as a kid? Where you'd fling rocks at a castle and your goal was to kill everyone inside? I think it was called' Crack the Castle'"
"Captain Morgass: ..."
"Olivionion: Come on, man! You should get me! You slice people's a$$es off, right!?"
The deck was covered in corpses and blood, only two players left standing.
A door swung open as a dozen or so more players ran out.
"Olivionion: You called for support?! You really shouldn't have! Olivionion was struggling to keep a toothy grin off his face, it was as if he was just given a second serving of his favourite dessert and he still had the cherry from the last serving to eat."
"Captain Morgass: Get back!"
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"Faladin: What the hell's going on?!"
"Olivionion: Not much, how 'bout you?"
"Captain Morgass: Get to the portal!"
"Faladin: What about you? You'll respawn in a town!"
Captain Morgass replied with a thumbs-up emote.
"Captain Morgass: It's not the first time I've heard that line from you - and both times you were wrong."
"Olivionion: Third time's the charm!"
"Faladin: I'll be waiting for you at the portal,"
Faladin said before shutting the door.
"Olivionion: How touching."
"Captain Morgass: Isn't it? It's a shame I have such undisciplined subordinates though..."
Captain Morgass grabbed a flintlock pistol from his hip - it wasn't like the normal ones - it was a custom one designed to witstand many different types of weather.
He fired three shots and Olivionion, one of them landing in his left hand tearing it clean off.
Olivionion moved, well, appeared behind the captain using the kick ability which sent him down the wooden steps and onto the blood-covered ground, he took aim and shot again but Olivionion was crouched behind some barrels.
"Olivionion: Here I thought you'd be a total pushover! I can't stand people who act like a fu*#ing god with nothing to back it up!"
"Captain Morgass: At least we have that much in common. I needed the max level to keep my guild safe y'know..."
"Olivionion: I see you're not in character anymore."
"Captain Morgass: Yeah the pirate thing was Faladin's idea, sounds better than low-honour-guild."
Again Olivionion appeared behind the man slicing his right arm clean off and kicking him over to the barrels which previously served to shield Olivionion from bullets.
"Olivionion: So you're a goodie-two-shoes after all. Olivionion let out a sigh."
"Captain Morgass: How so?"
"Olivionion: The whole "fighting for your friends" shtick, not really my cup of tea."
"Captain Morgass: Whatever mister psychopath."
"Olivionion: Well, I have to go get that portal you mentioned so..."
"Captain Morgass: It's guild-restricted, you can't get inside."
"Olivionion: Well s#!t."
"Captain Morgass: Are you sure you don't want to listen to some of the captain's old sob storries? Maybe you'll change your mind?"
"Olivionion: Doubt it, I have a simple trick when it comes to feeling empathy for people, I always pretend you're all make-a-wish kids with leukaemia who asked to play this game before death, after a while, you just stop feeling bad."
"Captain Morgass: You really are a psychopath."
Olivionion removed the captain's remaining arm and legs with a few swift slashes before placing him in a barrel and closing it.
"Olivionion: Well, ahoy, captain! he said as he kicked the barrel into the stormy sea."
"Captain Morgass: I'll see you in the River Styx."
A few seconds passed as Olivionion waited for the rain to clear the blood off his clothes.
"Olivionion: Fu#*ing roleplayers..."
He made his way through the door and down the ship until he found the various cells, after kicking each one open (and in most cases stabbing whoever was inside) Olivionion eventually discovered the cell JohnWillStab and the party was in.
"Olivionion: Hey, new boss - how're ya doing?"
"Pedecree: Hello, Olivionion - good to see you're not injured."
"Olivionion: No worries, I always have a potion of healing on me."
"Bonifacius: I see thou hast not gone rusty when it comes to the art of pvp."
"Olivionion: Nah, though I see JohnWillStab dropped the edgy mask thing."
A chill went down John's spine.
"JohnWillStab: You're not still upset about that little squabble at the JGuardian's base, are you?"
"Olivionion: At first I was planning on tracking you down and chopping your body into a fine, red mist, before the whole Alexander thing."
"Olivionion: But now that the JGuardians aren't breathing down my neck about every little genocide I feel a lot better, so I should really thank you."
"JohnWillStab: NO THANKS NEEDED, JUST DON'T DO THE MIST THING!"
"XsuphicatR: Am I really the only one not disturbed by what I heard him say a moment ago..."
"JohnWillStab: YES! HE IS A PERFECTLY MENTALLY STABLE INDIVIDUAL WITH NO STABBING TENDENCIES!"
"Pedecree: I mean, they were pirates after all."
"Bonifacius: I have seen worse."
The party's attention shifted to Bonifacius.
"Bonifacius: ?"
"XsuphicatR: Who could possibly be worse..."
"Pedecree: The person we're on our way to see."
"Bonifacius: Yes, Bromy does have a thing for in-game brutality..."
"Olivionion: I'm intrigued..."
"XsuphicatR: I'm disturbed..."
"Pedecree: Hi, disturbed, I'm Pedecree."
"Olivionion: Now that was sadistic."
"Bonifacius: Indeed."
"JohnWillStab: Yep."
XsuphicatR was still recovering from a dad joke so bad he took psychic damage.
"Bonifacius: In any case, Pedecree - could you steer this ship to Bromy's place?"
"Pedecree: Now that you mention it - I should be able to do that."
The party walked out of the cell and upstairs where Pedecree made his way to the steering wheel.
XsuphicatR made his way to Olivionion.
"XsuphicatR: Hey, I heard you mention it earlier - did that JohnWillStab guy do anything to the JGuardians..."
"Olivionion: Technically it's the mysterious explosion that destroyed the base - but by then everything was over. He put on a fancy mask and started playing the general."
"XsuphicatR: I can't believe that waste of virtual oxygen did something like that..."
"Olivionion: Right?"
"Pedecree: We'll be there in five minutes or so, I'll have to log off then - I'll be able to pick you guys up tomorrow in the morning."
"Bonifacius: That does suit me fine."
As the ship moved towards the distant island covered in dense woods and little to no houses, Captain Morgass was following it - his skin now dark blue and flaky, bits of bones exposed and a beard of tendrils covering his face, his eyes glowing a sickly orange hue as he swam through the water at double the speed of the average seafolk player.
"Suildly: You have an hour before the tendrils will start to remove bodyparts permanently, you have to kill the last player who killed you, do you understand?"
Suildly was deep below the waves, bathed in the darkness where not even Captain Morgass could see him.
He saw the corpse of Captain Morgass floating in the depths along with a barrel and decided to use some magic to give him the grimtide auxiliary class.
Grimtide player are essentially underwater-undead, a very rare class - unlike werewolves and vampires there are very few players that even know grimtide are a thing, much less playable.
"Captain Morgass: Then I get to keep this auxiliary class, right?"
"Suildly: That's right - as long as you also uphold your side of the deal."
"Captain Morgass: I have the stats of a raid boss now, this shouldn't be a problem!"
"Suildly: Remember, you have an hour."
"Captain Morgass: Don't worry about it! Thank you so much for this, man!"
"Suildly: Don't mention it! We need to stick together to fight the land-lovers, right?"
Suildly was grinning wider than a child at Christmas eve, it's rare for someone to get down to where they were, their entire city, nay civilization was basically a secret, so there is no way they'd actually let Captain Morgass remain in-game, much less keep the auxiliary class - but there is always time to toy with players for the them.
A few minutes later...
The ship docked in an empty town - the place was completely deserted but well kept, the houses looked like they could have been in use minutes before - the candles still lit (not that they ever go out by themselves).
The houses looked Victorian, large glass windows on shops left clothes and food exposed.
The party jumped off the boat and onto the stone dock.
"Pedecree: I'll come for you guys around 10 tomorrow."
"Bonifacius: Right!"
With that Pedecree's character disappeared.
"XsuphicatR: What's up with this place..."
"Olivionion: Looks too clean for a battle scene..."
"Bonifacius: Perhaps it's Bromy's work, he always liked abducting NPCs and... doing stuff with them..."
"JohnWillStab: What kind of stuff?"
"Bonifacius: Bad stuff."
A chill went down JohnWillStab's spine as he heard that.
"Olivionion: Alright, I'm hyped! Where is this genius!"
Out from one of the houses walked out an NPC, they seemed normal at first but everyone realised they seemed too stiff for a normal person, the NPC resembled a woman in her mid-forties.
"JohnWillStab: What the hell is that?!"
The creature's arms twitched around and moved out of sync with the rest of its animations.
"Bonifacius: This is one of Bromy's "assistants""
"Please state your business." stated the NPC as its animations switched to a convincing standing animation.
"Bonifacius: We're here to meet Bromy."
"Please hold..." replied the NPC as it's head flew back revealing rows upon rows of sharp teeth as well as a gem which started to glow.
Bromy: Who is it?
The dialogue box appeared in a different font to signify radio-like static.
"Bonifacius: Tis I!"
Bromy: ...
Bromy: What do you want?
"Bonifacius: Don't be like that! We're here to ask for a favour."
Bromy: sigh
The NPC closed its mouth as it spoke "I will lead you to the house now." before starting to walk.
"JohnWillStab: He didn't seem too thrilled to see us."
"Bonifacius: Nonsense - I haven't seen him this happy in years!"
"XsuphicatR: He sounds fu*#ing depressed..."
"Olivionion: You're one to talk..."
The party followed the NPC.