Josiah sat on the blood stained deck, he threw the bodies of the old crew into the water just as soon as he got a whiff of piss. he remembered watching curse of the black pearl, so far as he knew the wheel was to steer, only problem was that when he turned the ship, the wind would turn the ship back by the front sail. He felt his frustration rising as he sat there contemplating finally his gasket blew and he slammed the tendril arm into the deck and felt the boat go still, he blinked, and stood, everywhere around him the sea was still, glassy, then it started roiling again. he smacked his tentacle arm down again, the water calmed, he saw his monstrous arm's rings start glowing.
He blinked, and raised his arm and the water rose, it was broad strokes but but if he could just... He threw his arm forward and the sea around and the waves surged forward sending the ship forward. he nodded, he didn't know how he could dial his abilities down. as if by design, two of the six rings went dark and the sea for about a mile around himself calmed now it was like his new ship was riding on a river in an ocean, only a stream of the water was moving the ship forward toward the shore, he stood there stunned though he stumbled a little as he the ship roared forward on the sea, he felt like he was trying to stand on a roller coaster.
He grabbed hold of a railing, he was sure he was able to breath beneath the water, he idly brushed a finger on the gills on his neck. "This is kind of weird, I didn't expect to have such abilities from the get go, that's not always the case in some of the fantasy books I've listened to online back in the day." He muttered to himself.
He watched the coast get closer really fast, it went from a distant barely visible silhouette to a very visible silhouette, and the he could make out the trees and rocks and sand, and eventually on his releasing the power he'd been controlling the ship seemed to slow as he saw a reef ahead, as it wasn't too far from the shore he thought he'd give it a look over, so he threw an anchor overboard, and the ship after a second jerked to a stop as the anchor hooked a large rock.
the ship bobbed as he blinked looking down at the rather shallow water where the coral reef was below, he sighed, and leapt inside, and he swam, he always loved swimming, it's part of why he had joined the seals. he could remember a time when he would swim to shore and slit the throats of pirates who took ships hostage. it got to the point that he'd been given the moniker of Mako. now he really was a predator of the sea who actually breath in the water, He looked at all of the different coral that was all colorful and even saw a small reef shark, he swam through a school of fish that were like a sparkling rainbow.
He swam and stopped next to an underwater cave, and just barely dodged a massive hideous head with jagged needle like teeth, a massive eel the size of a damn school bus. he swam to the side and stabbed his cutlass into hit's side as it swam past, a cloud of red colored the once beautiful colorful seascape. he swam back and watched the creature swim away leaving a trail of red behind it, he watched a massive rock covered in coral move and a massive grabbed the eel and a massive crab the size of a house started eating it. he swam back a bit, his tendril grabbing a rock and moving back. that was both terrifying and awesome.
He looked in the cave and didn't see much, it wasn't like a dragon's hoard, he wouldn't be finding any buried treasures there, unfortunate too he could use some coin, the sailors didn't have jack.
He swam forward toward the islands shore and the reef disappeared replaced with a slope of sand, occasional small crabs with pieces of corral growing from their carapace scuttled along the sand.
he eventually came crawling up and onto the beach, he looked back to the ship that was about a half mile from the shore. he walked along the beach, he had to admit he felt like a ton of bricks had been tied to him when compared to the low gravity environment of the underwater, he'd felt this way before when he went swimming but now that feeling was seemingly tripled. add to that the heavy wet clothes he felt like a lead statue, but he pressed on anyways, and felt significantly weakened, as if somebody had just cut out half of the muscle fibers in his body. he took a few steps back and as soon as the sea's water touched his toe he felt stronger again. god if he drew strength from the sea and that strength could be severed by walking a couple feet away from it then he should try to stay on the sea as much as he can, apparently being on a ship didn't hurt, but he could use a crew, that wasn't gonna change unless he found people and people weren't just gonna show up on his front door looking for him.
Then again, they might, if he was going to go looking for people and they treated him like the fishermen had, as in kill on sight, then he didn't want to be weakened like this, he moved to the sea and walked into the water until it passed over his head, and proceeded to swim across the shallows, occasionally grabbing a small colorful crab and looking at it. before setting it back down. he then just decided to sit lotus style on a large disc shaped coral the size of a dinner table and meditate on a few things, the goddess Neshi had called him a Paragon, what exactly was that, he felt like it was important and possibly tied to his ability to control the sea, her siblings had been trying to arrange her a paragon, one that would have a tie to her siblings, she wanted someone who wasn't tied to them apparently, evidently that meant him. but of all the people she could choose, why'd she choose him, sure he was former naval special operations but that had been nearly ten years ago. if he knew one thing about mythology and gods it was that they liked to think of themselves as being perfect in every way, but in reality were about as human as it got, Zeus was a womanizing unfaithful husband and Hera was a wife who has let's be honest, tried at least once to kill him in his sleep, and the gods he saw didn't seem very different in that regard, sun bro was a control freak and a narcissist of the highest order, his brother seemed a politician, and the sister Neshi was had turned him a monster of untold power, and he wasn't in the mood to try to play family councilor with beings that could pull an AM and turn him into a giant slug creature trapped in his own mind. and something told him that his opinion wouldn't be welcome.
He opened his eyes seeing himself face to face with a big fish that looked somewhat like a gold fish only green and blue with it's frilly fins that were in the colors of a peacock. he tilted his head and it moved to followed his eyes.
he was confused, at least until he heard that horribly soothing voice in his head. "You learned at least something since I gave you your gifts, but you've still much to learn, so I'm here in this form to teach you a little something."
Josiah blinked and tried to speak, it wasn't the average bubbles that he made if he was using average lungs, but instead what came out of his mouth was a clicking and squeaks like something from a dolphin. he frowned, clicking again, then blinked. he... couldn't speak. "No, you're speaking just fine, it's just not a language that humans can speak, you'll get a hang of it just fine." Neshi had said.
Josiah rolled his eyes and used his brain hole, he could hear her voice in his head, who's to say she couldn't hear his, he tried it. "So, what do you have to teach me?"
her fish couldn't blink, but he felt like it was just blinked in surprise. "Yes, I can hear your thoughts, and don't you think you should show some reverence toward your mother?"
He glared. "You aren't my mother, you didn't birth me, you just twisted what was already there." Though he could feel some part of him deep down felt some kind of love for her, he'd have thrown up if he had anything in his stomach, he shook his head, no like hell he'd love an eldritch abomination like her, she must have been twisting his emotions as well.
"You're making things difficult little mortal, but fine, go through your rebellious phase, now let's begin, as I'm sure you realize, those rings on your arm help you gauge how much power you're using, the less power you use, the more precise control you can do, using more power gives it more... well power, the control over it is minimal however in terms of destructive power accept no substitute, swim up a bit." her cooing voice spoke in his mind.
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He closed his eyes and swam upwards a little bit and she spoke again. "Use your with ability less power, just propel yourself forward a bit"
He looked down at his 'arm' and tapped into that pool of power, it's reservoir seemed... smaller than before, regardless the rings flared to life and glowed. He dialed the power down to just one ring and moved the water around him moving himself forward, then to the left and right, that's the best he could do.
the fish clapped it's frilly fins. "Well done, there are three facets to your abilities, scale, power, and control, the more range you have the more scale you have the more power but the less control you have." She explained again. "But the less scale you use the less power it will have and the more control you have with it, for instance." She demonstrated this by controlling the water down below and kicked up sand, and then controlled the water around the sand to look like a horse, she had it galop around the ocean, before shifting it to look like a shark and had it swim around. "This is perfect control, but if it hit someone it wouldn't have much punch behind it, maybe if you used another ring but that would make the control faulter a little bit." she demonstrated this by the sand shark changing course and swimming toward him with it's jaws open and it went through Josiah, or rather he went through it, and the most it did was make him cough up sand.
Josiah looked at the fish as an actual shark ate it, and he watched it turn toward him and swam around him. Neshi's voice speaking to him from it's body. "But it seems you've been having problems finding help to crew your ship. so, how about this."
Josiah let out a high pitched series of clicks that must have been the fish equivalent of screaming his head off, when he saw a massive coral crab swallow the shark and set down about seven corpses before him. "Try to raise them." Her voice came from the massive crab that looked like a microbe compared to the massive beast her actual body was.
Josiah blinked. "How?" He thought.
The crabs claw scraped on one of the large disc like coral. "well, we're going to begin you need to focus, put your tendril arm onto the first one, and press your energy into it."
He did so, grabbing one of the bodies that floated in the water and tried to press his energy into the corpse, he watched his mouth move, and then a crab crawled out of it's mouth, carrying part of the body's tongue with it. The body twitched and He felt it was it's body not just a hitchhiker. the body started moving, it's rotting body twisted and writhed in his grasp and he released it. it was the man with the mangled arm, their destroyed arm was broken in like thirteen different places and the skin was horribly ripped apart even seeing stray thick strands of frayed muscle fibers floating around in the water like pink fleshy strands of yarn. it looked at him and tried to attack him but in the low gravity environment it spun head over heels before landing on the table coral, it tried to crawl toward me but it's legs started rising toward the top and it lost balance when it let go and it's grasp slipped. He thought to the goddess. "Neshi, what's happening?"
"It's possessed by a sea spirit, by pushing your energy into it you opened a hole to where it's spirit used to be, but they're quite feral creatures but it knows authority when it see's it, it doesn't see it, so you're gonna have to show it, in other words, beat it up." Neshi explained, somehow shrugging in her crab body.
the creature finally realized how to swim and was swimming at Josiah, So he grabbed it by the top of it's head it's mouth chomping at open water, he swung it and threw it into a rock, the water slowing it's crash and making it almost harmless but also giving him the ability to pick up the full weight of a full grown man and use it like a rag doll, it turned mid flight? swim? fling? fling. and pressed it's legs to the stone and leapt back at him, it's human form rapidly deteriorating in it's place turning into a far more fish-like monster almost something out of the shadow over Innsmouth, a story from HP Lovecraft, It's eyes got larger and darker and it's jaws became wider and it's teeth became sharper, it's skin grew scales but they were in patches and they grew fins from their arms and backs and he watched it's tailbone rip from it's buttocks with flesh and scaled skin following ending in a large thick and sharp fin, it's tail propelling it through the water fast and it's fingers growing long jagged talons as well as webs as it swiped at him.
He unsheathed his sword and blocked the swiped, he wished he could say that it came with a scraping sound and sparks but they were underwater and the most sound it made was a thwump. Josiah grabbed it's bad arm which was still injured but healing fast and the creature let out a loud series of clicks and Josiah released it's hand with and swung, he then moved used his power to propel himself back as he kicked, he stepped on top of the massive crab's shell much to Neshi's combined chagrin and amusement. he saw it swimming toward him and he saw it's arm was completely healed, he grabbed it by the head once more and used his abilities to try and build up force against the creature and when he was satisfied the pressure exploded outwards pushing the creature backwards with immense speed, he slowly floated down and stepped over to the creature and pointed his sword down at it. the creature looked up at him, and then bowed it's head.
He'd done this five more times and finally got to the former captain, he glared down at him, but shrugged, and propelled energy into it and finally raised the final one, only this one turned out different, it's scales took over the body completely and it's spine was larger, it's scales were stark white and it's eyes a deep crimson. "An albino?" He thought.
"Yes, quite rare indeed, they're far older, smarter, and stronger spirits, and will be an interesting fight to see." Neshi's voice echoed in his head.
he watched as it grabbed his tentacle in it's clawed and squeezed the claws cut through his flesh like a razor blade through paper, he let out a series of loud clicks and squeals. he glared as his arm started growing back and his sword which was already unsheathed after number three had immediately grappled and tried to bite a chunk out of his shoulder. he swung his sword but it spun backward dodging his sword and smacked his sword aside with it's tail, it swam forward with speed of a spider that had just caught a fly in it's web. he brought his half reformed tentacle in the way of his attacker, it's large piranha like head darted forward and it's large jaws opened and clamped down on him, his arm was bitten off again, and he slashed his sword across his chest, his sword opening a wound and a cloud of red billowed and blinded him like a squids ink.
The creature swam around him in circles like a shark, he caught glances of the creature in places where the blood was thinner. then he couldn't see it at all, and then he saw a shadow fall over him. He propelled himself downwards with rapid speed the jaws closing where his head just was. it let out a screeching squeal and a series of clicks. He threw a blast of force at the creature from the half formed tentacle, three rings propelling the creature backwards and threw it out of the water above. he saw the creature's silhouette in above and then watched it for a solid three second before it slammed back in the water and become fully visible again. he propelled himself forward again and sheathed his sword grabbing it by it's throat and then propelled it and himself downward toward the ground below. it reacted in a rabid frenzy, scratches and cuts formed all over his body and but the thing about going full on kamikaze is that it was reckless tactic that threw away the very idea of self preservation for all out offense.
He kicked and kicked and finally they slammed into the sea floor and it along with the resistance of the water cushioned his fall, he floated above it unsheathing the sword and pointed it at the creature. it slowly got up and bowed to him.
He nodded, and sheathed his sword, he looked to Neshi, but all he saw was a very confused coral crab that dug itself back into the sand.
He swam up to the ship and the school of creatures followed him.