The Black Turtle pierced through the waves, its iron heart thumped as coal burned and steam forced its way through the pistons, transferring the power of fire and water into a mechanical dance of iron rods and lubricated joints that commanded eighteen oversized oars on each side of the ship to claw at the water and propelled the black tarred hull ahead. The young Captain Edgar Larson, a lean six foot two, long curly hair, brown hair and beard, stood by his helmsman and other officers, hands gripping the railing, overseeing his crew on the deck, all of them leaning out the railings, scanning the vast sea ahead of them.
Two other ships were running point in front of the Black Turtle, roughly three hundred yards apart, not too close so they could cover more of the sea around them, but not too far away they were out of each other's sight. The fleet of three was sailing in a simple V-shaped formation, all crew on high alert.
Forty minutes ago the crew of Sea Wolf lobbed a smoke arrow to her portside, signalling the fleet of something to pay attention for. Edgar motioned the helmsman to follow the smoke, and they found broken pieces of wood and ripped ropes floating with the waves, seagulls circling the areas in the sky, drawn by retching animal fat that leaked from the wreckage.
"Fresh wreckage, Captain," Cole, Edgar's First Mate, had informed him while inspecting the site through his binoculars. "I'd say at most two hours old."
Edgar's face was stern, his mind calculating. A pair of wings flapped by and a seagull landed on the railing by him. He glared at the flying white pest, miles away from the nearest land, now perched atop his ship, and then at its friends circling the sky. The wreckage and the birds were a clear sign that they were close to a sea beast.
Invinsible enemy lurking deep in the water, perhaps even right below them, eyeing the hulls of three ships swaying on the tides going round and round aimlessly in the open sea, hoping for a sight of the creature. They had no way of knowing if the creature was aware of the fleet or if it was keeping a distance, bidding its time to pounce.
"Send the red smoke, and man the weapons, ready to fire," the captain ordered.
Eagle, the Weapon Master, brandishing a fancy gold plated flintlock on his hip, pulled a cloth tipped arrow and lit it on fire. Thick red smoke spewed out and he sent the arrow flying. The Black Turtle paddled forward leaving the wreckage behind and returned to formation, resuming their patrol, a heavy shadow of uncertainty cast around them. The peaks and valleys of the tide were perfect hiding place for monstrous beast that feeds on ships. The fleet deployed buoys to mark the area, a simple floation device leaking animal fats with nets hanging in the water, made to lure beasts, and hoping the nets to stick and annoy the creature enough to surface and show themselves.
A lulling calm sea and clear blue sky devoid of clouds. Black Turtle continued surging forward, tailing Sea Wolf and Lady Charmer in yet another aimless patrol. The sun rose high above their heads, birds circling about, cawing loudly in indecipherable bird language, cleverly evading Black Turtle's steam sizzling out of the chimney.
An innocent thump, an almost faint knock on the hull, in the midst of bird cries, creaking oars, and waves crashing into the ship.
A single thump that vibrated through the hull, reaching Edgar's hand and knocked at the core of his soul, a deafening echo reverberating in his chest. A tickle on the back of his head prompted him to run and lean over the railing, eyes wild searching through the foam on the waters, and found it before Cole and Eagle caught up with him.
"THERE!" he pointed his finger at something below.
A piece of wood swept away by his oars, out of sight forever.
Cole muttered out of confusion, too late to see the submerged wreckage.
"SHOOT THE FLARE!" Edgar bellowed. There was no time to explain, but his officers understood enough.
Eagle sprinted back to his station and grabbed a hand cannon, loaded a four inches long metallic canister into the barrel and pointed the thing to the sky. He pulled the trigger and the flare shot out with a scream and exploded fifty yards above them. The noise should've been loud enough to alert the two ships ahead, when the watchers in the nest added to the chaos.
"MOVEMENT STARBOARD!" they shouted. Edgar leapt to the other side of the railing and found a strange wake forming, a bulging body of water breaking out of the sea surface, dark monstrous shadow below it.
"BEAST!!!!" his men hollered.
Excitement grew as more eyes noticed the majestic body moving under the water. Salivating stares after days of nothingness, grins growing on their unshaven faces, and a chant beginning to erupt and spread throughout the ship.
"CHASE! BEAST! CHASE! BEAST!" they sung with vigor. Fist thumping on any piece of wood within their reach, greedy eyes turning to their Captain, waiting for an order, any order.
Edgar met their eyes. As hungry and full of desire. He couldn't help but lick his lips, salty, and felt the soft hairs on the nape of his neck rising, blood pumping throughout his body. He turned to the helmsman and roared his order.
"CHASEEE!!!"
The fellow turned around and reached for a wooden handle connected to a link of chain leading to the chimney. He gave it a good tug and an ear-piercing whistle reverberated through the open sea, a cry for attention from the Turtle, a simple message that relayed his command even to distant ship.
Hunt.
It should've notified the two ships in time, but the beast was undistracted by the horn and continued forward. The wake it created swept the Black Turtle sideways, knocking her crews off their feet, groans and curses blasted off their throats along with spits.
"EAGLE!" Edgar called. "STOP THAT THING!" he ordered.
"Aye, Captain," the man answered. He untied a rope and swung through the mast to the ballistas at the front, avoiding the mess of men struggling to stay afoot on the wet deck. The short stout man deftly rolled on his shoulder and landed in front of his weapon perfectly. His hands palmed a massive steel-backed wooden contraption of a bolt shooter, four five foot long limbs of destruction connected with a woven string made of beast hair, the toughest string known by men, mounted on the shoulder of the Black Turtle, one on each side, and with Eagle's order, both aimed at the moving body of water directly ahead of them.
"Eat shit, monster," cursed Eagle when he yanked on the trigger. A loud clank followed when a hinge released a catch holding the string, releasing a violent potential energy that sent a six foot long iron tipped bolt flying along as the four limbs snapped forward, screaming as it pierced through the air. The beast however was covered by the water and the bolt exploded into pieces before it grazed the beast. Eagle jumped to the other weapon and shot another bolt toward the beast, another screamer with enough kinetic energy to pierce a boulder.
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"THAT THING IS STILL MOVING!" Edgar bellowed, binoculars planted on his eyes. No red in the waters, no blood. It was another shot wasted, and now Eagle had to wait for his men to wind the string back and reload the bolts.
The creature was unfazed and continued forward, aiming straight at Lady Charmer. Both Sea Wolf and Lady Charmed had reinforced hulls, iron plates with two foot long spikes lining their bottoms, but that was a last resort sort of thing. Their actual defense was the underwater net, made of one inch rope, thirty foot deep, two hundred yards wide the two ships had been pulling all along. That net would be useless if either ship was destroyed. It would be too heavy for one ship and it would just anchor it down.
It won't do. The captain turned and grabbed the wheel.
"Captain?" the helmsman inquired.
"I'm taking the wheel, Hank. Get below and tell them I need full steam, and tell the crew to brace," Edgar listed his orders.
"Aye, Captain," Hank said as he let go of the wheel. Hank hustled down the steps and announced as he made his way below deck, shouting, 'CAPTAIN AT THE HELM, BRACE, BRACE, BRACE!"
The men scurried for anything they could grip. When the captain assumed control of the ship, you would know he was going to be mad about it. The hunt was on and they'd better hold on tight lest they wanted to be thrown out the ship. The first crew who tied a rope around his waist brandished his dagger and pointed at the beast, hollering, "CHAAASE!"
His mate repeated after him and the chant began. And just as the words travelled across the waters, a similar echo could be heard from a distance, followed by bolts flying from both Sea Wolf and Lady Charmer, and the consecutive thunderous twangs of the full column of ballistas, and raining upon the beast. A couple bolts out of dozens finally pierced through and the wake turned red. A low rumble emanated from below, the creature stopped moving and a void formed where the bulge of water was, and then the beast showed itself.
It burst forth to the surface, two hundred feet long of monstrosity, thick layer of ridged skin bulging with muscle with destructive power, claws curling out of its webbed foot, and tusked jaw gaping open, an abomination of a two legged lizard with a boar's head. It roared in rage, writhing in the waters, creating wake after wake rippling out, sending the Black Turtle into a wild shake and sway. The hull creaked in agony and the oars threatened to snap.
Edgar slammed his wheel around, turning the ship away from the beast.
"That's one ugly boar," Cole commented, teeth gritted, wide-eyed. It was apparent that the First Mate was unnerved. It was not their first hunt, but there was generations of terror toward these beasts burnt into their genes. This creatures sunk ships and ruled over the sea for thousands of years. Meanwhile, there they were, a bunch of death defying sea men armed with a bunch of pointed sticks gathered on three big targets floating about on the waters.
You would be mad not to have a little bit of fear for your life.
"Oh yeah, Cole. It's bald and it's fat, and we gonna kill it!" Edgar hollered.
The captain believed every word he uttered. His eyes were burning with conviction and trust that his crew shared his conviction and that confidence was infectious.
"EDGAAR!" Hank screamed, throwing his fist into the air, inciting another chant the crew repeated. They were holding tight for their lives to whatever they could grip, yet threw their free hand into the air, pumped, nonetheless. Down below the Engine Master and his men had been dilligently feeding endless charcoals into the iron heart, turning the power up to eleven, and steam blasted off the chimney moving so fast the horn whistled involuntarily.
Edgar smirked and roared.
"FELLAS!! MAN YOUR STATION! LOAD YOUR BOLTS! OIL THE OARS! FEED THE IRON HEART! TONIGHT WE FEAST ON PORK ROAST!"
The crew erupted. The ship blared her horn, and the other ships answered in kind. With vigor the Black Turtle surged forward. The sea boar's four eyes were fixated on the Turtle, blaming the pain on its back on the noisy ship. Its jaw opened wide, revealing four tusks and rows of sharp teeth lining its mouth, and from deep within its belly roared in fury, sending a shockwave across the water that blasted the stern, jolting everybody forward.
Cole rushed to man the rear ballista, shouting for others to help him. The sea boar dived and began to chase after the Black Turtle. Edgar glanced over his shoulder. The bi-pedaled beast was keeping pace with his ship. He glanced at Sea Wolf and Lady Charmer, both maintained their direction while keeping on raining down the bolts.
The sea hunters, people like Edgar and his crew, had cracked the secrets on hunting sea beasts, knowledge passed from crew to crew, captain to captain. A brush with the tail of these giant sea monsters would wreck the largest of ships and their jaws large enough to swallow boats whole. But that doesn't mean these creatures could not be killed.
One, never hunt alone.
Two, attack from a distance, goes without saying.
Three, shoot very heavy sharp projectiles, one made to pierce through a beast's thick skin, not a round object like cannonballs or small rounds of bullets.
Four, never stop shooting.
The boar was easy picking for Cole's ballista. The bolts were shot head on and he scored most of his hits. Multiple bolts stuck out of its ugly bald head, and the creature left a trail of red sea behind it. But its skull was hard and its eyes, even though it had four, were hard to target.
"It's gaining on us, Captain," Cole informed.
"MORE SPEED!" Edgar hollered.
"NO MORE SPEED!" Hank relayed the Engine Master's message a minute later. The engine was already pushed as hard as it could be. Edgar glanced behind him, the sea boar took more of his field of view as time passed. His men stuck more than half of the bolts, even finally struck one eye, but the beast shook the damage off.
Wheels turned in Edgar's head. Shots from the other ships had also gotten dangerously close to the Black Turtle. The Black Turtle would eventually run out of fuel. They wouldn't be able to outspeed the beast with sails. They needed to kill the beast right then and there. He decided on a gamble, their lives depended on it bearing fruit. Edgar turned his wheel fast and hard, putting the ship into a sudden roll and dipped the oars into the water. The oars creaked as if it was on the brink of snapping, but Edgar kept it long enough to make a sharp starboard turn. The iron heart struggled from the immense stress, the hull threatened to tear apart. He eased on his wheel and the ship rolled upright, the oars hurried to pull the ship forward and evaded the beast's gaping jaws. He ignored the sound of his men belching.
"Send signal, we're going between the two," he ordered.
Three consecutive red flares were shot, three different angles. The red crown signal. Not like the captains of Sea Wolf and Lady Charmer needed any special sign when the Black Turtle was obviously leading a mountain of a beast toward them. The two ships stop firing their bolts and turned away from each other. Edgar maintained his trajectory, aiming directly between the two ships.
At one point Sea Wolf and Lady Charmer began to strain. Edgar checked his binoculars. A thick rope rose from the sea, revealing both end of the giant net they had been hauling under the water. The Black Turtle paddled furiously, aiming for the center of line. The crew on the other ships were already bracing themselves. The two ships were straining, all momentum exhausted on that little maneuver. The sea boar was blinded with fury, fixated only on sail-less black ship in front of it. The net rose above the water as they passed and not a moment too soon both end of the line was detached, sending the two ships heaving as tonnes of weight was suddenly released from them. Some poor sod was caught off guard and sent flying out of the ship, but it was a better fate than being dragged by the beast caught in the net.
The creature roared and rolled, writhing in a vain attempt to release itself from the net. It clawed at the net but the ropes dug further into its hide. The more it struggled the more tangled it became. Its flailing sent wake after wake across the water, but the three ships were already at a safe distance, circling around the beast, shooting bolts one after another. They wouldn't let a rough tide from claiming their prize. The fleet kept shooting until the sea turned blood red. A sea of blood spawned around them. The creature writhed weakly, losing too much blood from the many holes on its body. They easily got through its soft under belly and, when they got around to it, the inside of its mouth.
Edgar leaned from the main mast, rope around his arm, eyes locked on the beast. Another successful hunt on his shoulder, another terror of the sea killed. The eyes of the beast were losing its color, and in its last second, locked eyes with its hunters. With a last long howl, it stopped flailing and gave up its life.