A group of Diva Jones gorgon pirates, three in total, had broken off from the main crew to pick off stray targets. The lead snakeman was ambushed by a waiting attacker as they rounded the corner into the open area where the heroes had landed. With amazing grace, the gorgon leaned away from the pirate cutlass swing and caught them by wrapping his tail around the attacker's torso. With an angry hiss, he met the attacker’s gaze with their snake-like eyes causing the attacker’s body to quickly petrify into stone. With a quick snap of the tail, the statue of the foe was broken in half and tossed aside.
Radais spotted the gorgons approaching and quickly averted his gaze. “Don’t look into their eyes!” He cautioned the others as he began channeling his magic into an illusion spell. He had an idea and could only hope it would work.
The lead gorgon hissed and gestured with his sword toward the three, signalings a charge. They assumed the three half-dragons would be easy prey. Just as the leader was pulling back his arm to take a swing at Radais the dragon prince unleashed his spell, creating the illusion of a large reflective mirror. The three gorgons slid to a stop and, to their surprise, accidentally looked into the reflection of their own snake-like eyes. The three screamed as they turned to stone and thudded to the wood deck as three brand new statues.
Radius cautiously opened one eye when he heard a hissing stop and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his idea had succeeded.
“How did you know that was going to work?” Larxene asked as she noted the mirror illusion and quickly deduced what had happened.
“Well… the idea was sound,” Radais explained as he dismissed the illusion. “After all, reflections are just light bouncing off a surface, and illusion spells are magical light, so…well, truth be told, I mostly just hoped for the best.” He admitted sheepishly.
“Zhanatos?” Xion called out as she made her way to the building her friend had crashed into. She couldn’t tell what the building was from the outside, so she could only hope her friend had found something soft to land on inside it. She made her way to the door when it suddenly burst open, and the bear beastman stumbled out. Xion immediately jumped back, assuming a combat stance, and began channeling her magic into a lightning spell.
There was a tense moment as the beastman stood there silently, then fell over, revealing Zhanatos standing behind him. The berserker didn’t look the worse for wear despite his fall; in fact, Xion quickly noted he was now covered head to toe in rings, necklaces, and other gold valuables.
“Guess who landed in a treasure horde!” Zhanatos declared triumphantly as he walked over the defeated beastmen towards Xion.
True to her matronly nature Xion didn’t say anything, didn’t react to the treasure. She just quickly checked her friend for injuries and breathed a sigh of relief when she failed to find any. “Are you alright?” She asked, just to be certain.
Zhanatos grinned as he shouldered his broadsword, which was still dripping blood from the beastman. “I’m fine; the other guy took the worst of it. How are Larxene and the Boss?”
“We’re here!” Radais replied as he approached. He stopped and blinked in surprise as he noticed Zhanatos' newly acquired accouterments.
Larxene chuckled in an amused fashion. “Okay… you’ve provided your point. Melee fighters CAN kill and loot at the same time.”
Zhanatos grinned and shot her wink. “So, who’s winning?”
The team glanced around the city to assess the situation. Most of the heavy hitters had paired off to duke it out, and groups of the less powerful crewmates were engaged in mob fights throughout the city. Their target Redmane was still on the dock and looked to be fighting it out with King Maelstrom. The King held a clear advantage, Redmane’s men and summoned allies were throwing themselves at the King, but he was fighting them back with the overwhelming power of his storms. A group would charge in, and a blast of bright blue lightning bolts would knock them away. Another group would try firing bows, arrows, or throwing spears, but a shield of winds would deflect all, the same technique Larxene used earlier but on a much greater scale.
Redmane was backed into the proverbial corner and looking desperate. With a grimace, he took the Dragon Gemstone from his pocket and raised it to the sky.
“There it is!” Radais exclaimed as his team charged forward. They were so close. The next step closer to undoing their curse was right there; they only needed to go over and claim it; in his haste to lead the charge towards Redmane, the Dragon Prince nearly missed the nagging question yelling at the back of his mind. Why did the gemstone still have half its glow? Didn’t they conclude earlier that the Seaspeaker would have used up its power to summon the Kraken to destroy Wincam?
The answer soon came as Redmane bellowed out in a voice that thrummed with magic
power. “COME FORTH, KRAKEN!”
An odd silence fell over the city as the words echoed throughout the gigantic cavern. It was as if an entire town simultaneously asked the question: ‘Wait, did he just..?’
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The roar of the mighty Kraken shook the entire town as if there had been an earthquake. A massive tentacle-like that of a squid but the size of the giant trees of the elven forest shot up through the deck where king Maelstrom stood, forcing him to lightning teleport away. The creature's bulbous head rose from the depths, toppling one of the great stone spires as it did, crashing through walkways and buildings and sending the denizens of Neptune's Hold scrambling.
“I thought you said he couldn’t summon that thing again!” Xion demanded as the team scrambled for cover in the shelter of a building as another stone spire was knocked down by the titanic monster causing it to crash through the walkway they had stood upon a moment prior.
“I--I was certain he couldn’t! I assume he would have needed a fully powered gemstone to summon the Kraken. I guess he only needed half!” Radais explained, forced to shout over the racket of the city falling down around them.
“How do we get rid of it?!” Zhanatos asked.
“I don’t know if we can,” Radais answered quickly. “My best guess is we have to get the gemstone. Hopefully, if we cut off the power source, the summoned creature will de-manifest.”
The team was close now; Redmane was but a stone’s throw away from the building they were hiding in, and just beyond him was the Maelstrom’s personal ship, ready to set sail if only they could reach it. Of course, what was left of Redmane’s crew had surrounded him to guard him as he was controlling the Kraken.
“I think we’ve only got one shot at this; perhaps it is time to use our trump card, Radias?” Xion asked.
“Yes, I believe so. We need a plan, though… We can split the power of our gemstone four ways as we have done before. That will give all of us a short-term boost but we’ll be fatigued afterward. This will be our last push; either we escape, or we’ll be too exhausted to fight.” Radius added with a note of caution. “We have two main goals: grab Redmane’s gemstone and get to the ship so we can flee.”
“Redmane will be mostly focused on controlling the Kraken. If everyone else can take out his guards, I can swipe the gemstone.” Larxene suggested.
“We’ll have to be quick; the power of the gemstone won’t last long enough for us to fight it out. We’ll have to hit them hard and fast and keep moving.” Zhanatos added.
“Just get me an opening, and I’ll secure the prize!” Larxene nodded.
“That leaves Radias and me to prepare the boat to launch,” Xion noted.
“Right.” Radais agreed. He looked to Larxene, “How do we go about that? I know the basics of sailing, but….”
“Here’s the quick version….” Larxene began. “Cut the mooring lines; that's the ropes connecting the boat to the dock. Unfurl the sails, and raise the anchor. I’ll provide the wind for the sails, but someone else will need to steer the ship.”
“I’ll handle that part.” Radais volunteered.
“I’ll handle the sails,” Xion added.
“Leave raising the anchor to me; I have an idea I want to try.” Zhanatos chimed in.
Radais brought out their Dragon gemstone and held it out so each of his friends could touch it. “Remember, the power will only last a few seconds… Alright, good luck, everyone. Let’s all make it to the other side of this.” He smiled at his friends, and they all smiled back.
Drawing power from the gemstone was like trying to drink an ocean. The first few sips are overwhelming; one feels as if they’re about to drown. However, as the power and knowledge flow into the mind the nature of reality begins to shift, time begins to slow, fatigue, and exhaustion evaporate like the dew on plants in the morning light of the sun. All of one's fears and worries become refocused in a way that seems to make them shrink away to nothing.
Zhanatos was the first out the door with a simple kick he was able to knock it right off the hinges into the first of Redmane’s guards, but before the door could hit, the berserker was able to run ahead of it and strike down the second and third guards.
From the perspective of Redmane’s men, it was as if the half-dragons were moving in a blur, not faster than a blink of an eye, but fast enough that by the time they saw the attack coming it was too late to avoid it.
Radais fired off a concentrated beam of fire like a long sharp needle that cut through one target and then passed through four more.
Xion conjured a sphere of frost and slammed into the ground as he sprinted by, causing a layer of thick frost to rapidly spread across the deck, rooting Redmane and the others in place.
Larxene charged forward, then leaped into the air flipping into a spiral as she sailed over the Beastman’s head and snatched the gemstone from his hand.
Redmane blinked in surprise as the half-dragons blurred past, and he suddenly found himself frozen to the floor. He looked at his emptied hand in shock and surprise. Without the gemstone, he wouldn’t be able to maintain his control of the Kraken. He desperately tried to hold on to the beast rampaging mind with his powers, but soon his control was cast off as the mighty creature threw off the shackles of his control.
The team reached the boat just as the effects of the gemstone began to wear off. Time raced back to normal speed, and reality came back into focus; fear made a very quick return when they realized snatching away the gemstone hadn’t dismissed the Kraken rather, it was now flailing madly tearing through the city of Neptune’s hold as if it were made of tissue paper.
The mooring lines were cut, the sails were unfurled, and Radais jumped to the steering wheel as Larxene conjured the wind.
Zhanatos put his idea he hinted at earlier into action. Rather than pulling the anchor up with his brute strength, he willed his magic into it. He had to strain as the strength of the gemstone drifted from his mind, but with one last burst of effort, he was able to metal shift the chain and anchor, so he lifted off the seafloor and hooked onto the dock.
“POWER CHAIN BOOT YEET!” The berserker shouted with all his might as he forced the anchor chain to contract, yanking the ship violently forward towards the exit, just narrowly avoiding a stray tentacle that would have smashed the ship as if it were a children's toy.
The team breathed a collective sigh of relief as their newly acquired boat exited the cave and sailed out into open waters.
And so the heroes, flush with victory, let out a great cheer as they sailed away as the unleashed Kraken thrashed the pirate city of Neptune’s Hold. It had been quite the undertaking, but they now had the second of the one hundred gems needed. The other ninety-eight were out there somewhere waiting to be found, but for now, the heroes would rest. Of course, this was likely not to be the end of their pirate adventures. They stole the ship of King Maelstrom the Stormbinder, and who knows if he was going to seek them out to reclaim it sometime soon…