Daniel had never used any sort of weapon before, the closest he had ever gotten to was a wooden sword and maybe a large kitchen knife could be counted as well. But as he grasped these two revolvers he felt like there hadn’t been a day that he didn’t wield them. Because Threy Darsol was a master marksman and with a smirk he rushed forwards. What? His shots only reached about five metres at most, otherwise that would be overpowered after all!
Tania had actually learned how to use a trident. Because she had decided that when she got her VR Model she wouldn’t just be posing boring with some trident fake! …it would be fair to say that she still had no idea how to actually use a trident. Gao Mako, however, was a natural and with sparkling excitement that washed away the terror of a wave of skeleton pirates rushing towards one, she readied her weapon to strike.
“RRRAAAAAAH—!” The rattling cry of the skeletons echoed through the air as the first few came into reach.
And the first got his skull promptly blasted apart by Threy as he slipped past them, cloak fluttering like shadows around him. A whirling burst of darkness surrounded a bullet of dark blue. The second shot struck another skeleton in the shoulder before it could go for him.
“Get back into the water, you bone anchors!” Mako exclaimed as she barrelled into them, skewering one and slamming it into two more. With a spin, the first was shattered apart and sent the others flying backwards with a splash.
A smug, satisfied grin flitted over her lips as she huffed in victory, oblivious to the fourth skeleton behind her that wound up its strike and awkwardly lost its balance after its leg got blasted apart. And its head.
“Why did you think it was safe?!” Threy exclaimed aggravated, sending another back into the water with a flying kick. It felt surprisingly satisfying but far from effective.
“I-I… I don’t have a 360 degree vision!” Mako squawked in an attempt of deflection, delivering a spinning kick to the fifths… that shattered its rips.
“Neither do!” Threy shouted, his third eye flickering back and forth rapidly to take in his surroundings. Three more skeleton pirates found their grizzly end of his shots.
“Could’ve fooled me…” She pouted, rapidly stabbing the skeletons that hadn’t been fast enough to escape.
Awkwardly the last skeleton had watched the one sided slaughter, frozen mid run towards the beach before coming to a full halt with nervous sweat - quite impressive for a skeleton without flesh. It stopped and slowly sunk under the waves, air bubbling from its skull as it submerged. Without hesitation it turned around and ran back into the ocean. Yeah, not. It wasn’t going to run at those freaks! It wasn’t suicidal even if it was already dead!
“Okay, let’s get to the village!” Mako exclaimed, trident held high, and rushed along the edge of the cove with Threy right at her side.
More skeletons had started to land on the cove’s beach and were now barring their way while the massive frigate slowly moved to land at the village.
“Ah, great. More boneheads.” Threy groaned.
“Hehe, let’s crush them…!” Mako grinned wide and then nearly tripped as a light bulb lit up above her head. “Wait… do we even need to?”
“Of course, we…!” Threy began only to blink mid sentence as realisation hit him. “We… don’t really? Huh, right. We just have to get to the village in time. There isn’t really anything else those for those boneheads to really attack, after all…”
“Then we just skip those bores~!” Mako cheered and they glanced at each other, evil sparkling within their eyes.
The poor barricade of skeleton pirates, ready to fight their all against the incoming outsiders, were sent flying to the sides as the duo just barrelled through them without sympathy. Stumped the skeletons stared after them, looking at each other nervously, and then shrugged before running after them with rattling cries.
———
They reached the village a bit before the frigate managed to land, finding it deserted for the most part. Already the dead grey had started to seep into the stone and some of the water locked pillars had dried out.
“Hey…! Mystery voice?! Where are you…?!” Mako called out as she looked around the edge of the village.
Threy poked his head inside some of the buildings, only to find nothing really interesting looking around. Both ignored the distant cries of the skeletons still on their heels.
“Maybe she got lost?” Threy offered aloud, leaning out of a window.
“…h-hey… D-don’t just….! Haa…! I’m not as fast as you two are!” The muffled voice whined, her heavy breathing growing louder until she sounded from right above to the eastern cliff above the village, distinctly pouting.
“Sorry!” Mako sheepishly called back, rubbing her neck.
“Muh… well, at least you managed to beat…” The girl began only to trail off as she rustled through the bushes and stared towards the eastern beach, the rattling cry of skeletons growing louder. “W-what the heck?! Why didn’t you smash those dummies?!”
“Ah, we thought it would be better to get to the village first.” Mako apologised with a nervous chuckle.
“And I get the feeling that ship there is the bigger problem than the horde of canon fodder.” Threy pointed out, jabbing his thumb towards the frigate as he hopped out of the window.
“…!” The mystery girl opened and closed her mouth, trying to respond but couldn’t really find anything to say to that. So she just grumbled annoyed and rustled out of the bushes above, only a streak of colour visible as she flitted down the cliffside and across the roofs of the village.
Stolen novel; please report.
“F-fine! Right, then get here already so we can get on with it!” She called out with a cute blush, unseen but heard by the duo.
“Not fast, huh…?” Mako glanced towards Threy.
“What a bald faced lie.” He drawled and with an amused grin they shook their heads.
Not wanting to keep her waiting they jogged after her, keeping their eyes on the ghost frigate as its bow started to silently ram into the sand. An ominous fog roiled around its deck and spilled out onto the land, obscuring its crew from view beyond dark, glowing eyes that glared towards them. Six eyes of piercing yellow stood out among them, towering above the rest as they gleamed with baleful malice.
The center of the fishing village wasn’t far anymore, just through the short street between buildings, when a small figure hopped into Threy and Mako’s way.
“W-well, you managed to get here fast enough, I suppose… even if you left a horde of skeletons to run after you…!” Reluctantly satisfied, the small dragon bean pouted at the duo. Her body of soft, red fluff while her horns and scales flowed bled from ruby into amethyst tips. She wiggled around on cute, stubby legs.
Threy blinked surprised and then slowly glanced at Mako.
The dragon bean meanwhile cleared her throat and built herself up with importance, large, baby blue eyes meeting them with solemn confidence.
“I’m Key! Your Guide here in Floreta and…! Eep, w-what are you doing?!”
Key flailed adorably within Mako’s arms as the shark girl had managed to hold out an impressive ten seconds before glomping the small, cuddly bean with an excited squeal.
“You’re so cute~!” Mako giggled happily as she nuzzled her cheeks against Key, the bean helpless in her hold.
At least until Threy came along and flicked the shark girl over the nose with a deadpan stare, plucking Key gently out of her arms to hold her much more loosely in his own.
“Let the girl finish her explanation, Tania.” He drawled and she froze, looking chastised and hung her head low in apology. His blazing gaze glancing towards the village centre where the fog was starting to spread and a low rumble had the sand shiver. “Because we’re losing our lead time.”
“T-thanks…” Key muttered awkwardly, a dark blush dusting her cheeks, and she cleared her throat again.
“As I was saying, I’m Key! You’re guide here in Floreta and keeper of all sorts of important stuff! Like these two starting Skills you were supposed to gain a bit later but you just ran ahead without any consideration for dramatic last second timing…” She grumbled smartly and the ribbon weave pattern along her sides flared with iridescent light.
A black pearl of writhing shadows and an azure pearl of rippling water floated into the air.
Without even really thinking about it, Mako and Threy reached out for them. Well, Threy was going for the black one but Mako cheerfully tried to grab both. Which had some slightly unintended results as shadow and water mashed into each other and the duo was knocked to the ground by the sudden blast.
“Pfwah!” Threy sputtered as he pulled his face out of the sand, his third eye of fire flickering and crackling before blazing to full potency again. “Damni, Key! What the hell was that?!”
Pushing and struggling, the dragon bean in question tried to get free from the sand hill she had gotten buried in before finally managing to pop free, rolling backwards for a moment before swaying dizzy on her feet.
“I don’t know…!” The dragon bean babbled dazed, eyes swirling. She shook her head and blinked back into focus, looking sick. “Urgh…”
Groaning, Threy dusted himself off and turned towards the primary suspect when things went wrong in any game related context, staring at Gao Mako better known as the Game Bane, Favoured Child of the RNG Goddess and Queen of Questionable Glitch Encounters. There was a reason why she had an entire FanForum dedicated just to calculating the actual odds of running into all of these glitches without fail, working closely together with various Speedrunning and Glitch Hunter communities.
“Tania…” Daniel deadpanned and Tania nervously chuckled, climbing to her feet.
“Ehehe, sorry…?” She said, sound not at all sorry, and summoned a sphere of water above her palm that seemed to have drawn from the deepest depths of the ocean trenches.
Threy sighed exasperate, massaging his temples as he felt his own Skill. As far as he could tell, it hadn’t been changed by whatever Mako had blundered with. It certainly didn’t have any feeling of water to it, unlike how Mako’s had a feel of shadows now.
“I really should’ve expected this…” Threy mused and made his way towards the village centre, picking Key up and rubbed her sides to calm her tumulting stomach.
“I said I’m sorry…!” Mako cried out and scrambled after him, oblivious of his amused grin.
But the levity bled away as the ominous fog had cast everything under an oppressing atmosphere, snuffing out the lantern lights while the last of the coral pillars withered away into a dead husk.
———
With a shuddering roar the ghost frigate ended its breach of land just as Threy and Mako managed to run onto the centre. The sound of creaking bones and rotten wood echoed across the beach, chains rattled and evil cackle came from the crew. For a moment it looked as if the damned were about to spill out onto the village but their bloodlust was kept in check as the massive figure that had rested upon the deck’s looming throne rose to full height.
Six piercing eyes of yellow shone from within its massive, whale-like skull. One arm after the next pulled away from its throne until three rows of them floated besides its hunched over frame. The maw opened into a dreadful smirk and with a leap that was far too quiet for such a hulking monster, the captain of this accursed frigate leapt onto the beach.
With a thunder it landed, whirling up sand and stone in its wake. But immediately something was wrong with its presence, flickering ethereal and with its bones shimmering transparent without rhyme or reason.
“Chehahaha! What brazen opposition I be facing!” The monster’s booming voice laughed. “Cha, not bad for a pair of blundering landlubbers! Now gaze upon yer mighty nemesis, the Skeleton Pirate King!”
He threw his arms out in mocking theatric and the gleam within his eyes grew sharper.
“But don’t be thinkin you be facing me here… tis but a seal for mine dunderest of mine crew! And I be the taker of what you seek… and what be your foe…” His voice turned low as its hands clasped down on an invisible force and the sand around the village centre was blown away.
The ground rumbled and from under Threy and Mako rose a circular stone plate, a beautiful green glow playing across its runes. The malevolent skeleton’s eyes gleamed and a wave of black snuffed out the green like candles, lighting them with flickering, turquoise black.
Not that the duo had been standing idle, but all of Threy’s shots just harmlessly passed through the Skeleton Pirate King’s body while Mako was suddenly pulled backwards midair as a shimmering barrier of interlocking, transparent black hexagons formed around the plate.
“Aw, unfair!” Mako squawked, rubbing her butt after landing inconveniently on her backside.
“Aye, tis be life… or undeath for that matter…” The king noted bemused and the runic matrix flared to life, a shadow of the real thing as it called upon the phantom of a real being.
Across the real Land of Meadow Beach a girl shivered within her chains and for only a moment awareness had returned to glow within her dulled, subservient eyes. Because a part of her chains had been drawn away to obey her accursed master’s command.
“Try and survive, ye warriors! I be waiting to face ye and it be disappointing if ye keeled over here already!” The Skeleton Pirate King laughed from without the shimmering barrier as his form dissolved into mist and his unwilling slave rose from corrupted magics.
Clanking chains stretched through empty space and pulled from a puddle of bubbling water a girl Threy and Mako were quick to recognise even as Lazuli’s outfit had been darkened by magic, her skin shadowed and pale, and with hair and tail turned black.
“Sarah?” Daniel and Tania spoke up, staring at the phantom refection of their newest friend.