You know, when bullies feel threatened they always have a bigger bully to call. It’s a hilarious law of the world. Try pushing a bully too far and see what they do. I guarantee you won’t be surprised.
-Excerpt from ‘Power and Influence: How to Run a Nation’ by Sea-Emperor Vadaris Neptuna
The orange flames crackled and roared as they twisted into a cyclone of burning fury that threatened to incinerate her captain. Rose clenched her fist.
Despite her weakness, she would never forgive herself if she refused to help him. “I need to help. Take me to them,” she urged the octopus, placing a hand on its head.
However, the beast trembled, lifting a tentacle from the water and wagging it back and forth. It refused to budge.
She yelled and raised a hand, but then stopped herself. She couldn’t force the creature to move against its will and she wouldn’t stoop so low as to strike it.
The octopus had saved Felix’s life and helped her enact vengeance on her foes, so that would be a grave sin. The tentacle then pointed towards the column of flames, as if urging her to watch.
Underneath the roaring fires and Yasmin’s cry of anguish, the bone-shaking bass continued to rumble. With every passing moment it grew louder until the ocean became a frothing bed of fury.
And then, the ocean split. If she thought the octopus’s cry was loud, the deafening bellow that came from within was world-shaking. It drowned out all sound, leaving only a keening boom.
Then, a great geyser spurted into the heavens themselves, towering over the paltry flames. As the water fell it doused the fires, sending billowing clouds of steam into the sky.
The keening bellow that followed drowned out all sound and shook the world. In the distance she saw a soot-coated Trent facing down the commodore while both watched the rift in the ocean with caution.
Rose wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but she whispered another silent prayer to Sylack. He had certainly held up his end of the bargain.
Two gigantic islands broke through the waves, coated in seaweed and barnacles. Looking closer as they continued to rise, Rose gasped. They were no islands.
It was the jaws of a gargantuan whale, the beast dwarfing everything in sight. It was bigger than her whole village! It stared across the sea at Rose with an eye bigger than a ship. She felt the octopus trembling under the weighty gaze.
Trent and his foe were caught within those enormous jaws and she saw them splitting apart, choosing escape and a cessation of their battle in order to avoid their fate.
However, nothing could escape the whale.
Those mighty jaws snapped shut with a boom that made her stumble, louder than any thunderclap and faster than lightning. She paled, a bead of sweat rolling down her temple.
Wasn’t this monstrosity supposed to be on her side? Why then, had it swallowed her captain along with that bastard Saff?
She was powerless to intervene, her strength irrelevant when compared to that gigantic beast. All she could do was watch as it sank beneath the waves, dragging the two men to a watery grave.
Clutching Felix’s hand in hers, the pair watched and waited. She saw Yasmin’s inky form dip beneath the waves, but surely the woman wasn’t suicidal enough to attack the whale?
Then again, Rose had no idea how to pin that woman’s true personality down. She showed so many sides in the few weeks since they’d met that any one of them could be the real Yasmin. Perhaps all of them were.
With nothing to do but sit in shock, praying that her god hadn’t somehow turned on her, Rose opened her status.
Her blessing was still there.
Name: Rose Everblue
Blessings: Minor Blessing [Sylack]
Race: Human
Occupation: Apprentice Scholar 22
Title: Quintessential Skill
Available Titles: Slaughterer, Apprentice, Quintessential Skill, Ambitious Harvester, Godtouched, Traitor
Bound Items: Sunsplitter 51, Divine Serpent’s Lure ★27
Skills: Cleaning 12, Reading 12, Fishing 26, Swimming 10, Writing 16, Butchery 10, Cooking 8, Herding 2, Focus 17, Drawing 20, Sailing 15, One Handed Weapons 9, Blades 18, Pistols 11, Firearms 5, Unarmed Combat 2, Endurance 11, Precision 9, Arcane Attunement 14, Light Attunement 8, Stealth 8, Athletics 11, Toxin Resistance 2, Appraisal 3, Climbing 5, Crafting 12, Dual Wielding 13, Arcane Resistance 4, Divine Attunement 4, Water Attunement 7, Field Medicine 1
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Traits: Sensitive Line, Deft Hand, Good as New, Tunnel Vision, Endless Inkwell, Quick Consumption, Knot my Problem, Reliable Duelist, Steady Slash, Smooth Strokes, Agile, With the Grain, Ambidextrous, Thick Skin, Energetic, Inventor, Seductive Lure
Utterly ridiculous… was her only thought. She could return to the Bluestone Sea and live like a Queen with half of her status. Well, certainly the Emerlan Isle.
Given that Minenblum had its capital at the edge of Bluestone she wouldn’t dare claim to be untouchable, but a single prayer from her had claimed the life of one of its top naval officers. Perhaps there was a grain of truth in the boast.
She looked towards where the whale had fallen below the surface, hoping for a miracle.
Nothing happened.
Rose sighed, turning her attention back to her status. There has to be a better way to display this… she complained, wondering how on Earth someone like Trent or Nasar was able to read through their status given it had to be at least twice as long as hers.
Before her eyes the words began to shift, writhing and swirling like the ocean currents. This was becoming a pattern.
The tide never used to listen to her and now it had obeyed her idle thoughts twice. She wasn’t complaining, because the new layout was far prettier.
Name: Rose Everblue
Blessings: Minor Blessing [Sylack]
Race: Human
Occupation: Apprentice Scholar 22
Title: Quintessential Skill
Available Titles: Slaughterer, Apprentice, Quintessential Skill, Ambitious Harvester, Godtouched, Traitor
Bound Items: Sunsplitter 51, Divine Serpent’s Lure ★27
Skills:
[General]: Cleaning 12, Fishing 26, Butchery 10, Cooking 8, Herding 2, Crafting 12, Sailing 15, Field Medicine 1
[Cerebral]: Reading 12, Writing 16, Focus 17, Drawing 20, Appraisal 3
[Physical]: Swimming 10, Endurance 11, Athletics 11, Toxin Resistance 2, Climbing 5, Stealth 8
[Martial]: One Handed Weapons 9, Blades 18, Pistols 11, Firearms 5, Unarmed Combat 2, Dual Wielding 13
[Arcane]: Arcane Attunement 14, Light Attunement 8, Arcane Resistance 4, Water Attunement 7
[Divine]: Divine Attunement 4
Traits: Sensitive Line, Deft Hand, Good as New, Tunnel Vision, Endless Inkwell, Quick Consumption, Knot my Problem, Reliable Duelist, Steady Slash, Smooth Strokes, Agile, With the Grain, Ambidextrous, Thick Skin, Energetic, Inventor, Seductive Lure
Divine Attunement got an entire section for itself, which made sense given the potency of the skill. She figured it wasn’t one that most people would earn, even given an entire lifetime.
“Hey, octopus,” she suddenly yelled, “did your big friend eat my captain?”
The beast froze. She felt its surface get a little slimier and lifted her hands from its bulbous head to wipe them clean.
It seemed like this little guy was really scared of the whale. Which gave her a giggle. It had torn their ship apart like paper and now it was frozen in fear. Such was the way of life. There was always a bigger dog.
Eventually though it raised a tentacle to her face, wagging it from side to side. Her eyes lit up.
“Is that a no?! So he isn’t dead,” she cried, collapsing in relief, uncaring of the slime. “You better be right or I’ll get Nasar to grill… Never mind. Just don’t lie to me,” she sighed.
Fuck. If Trent wasn’t already doing it I’d kill that damned bastard Saff myself, she cursed inwardly, tears rolling down her cheeks.
Felix squeezed her hand tighter, but didn’t say anything. She let half a smile creep across her face.
After a while she sighed again and sat back up. “What about Yasmin?” she asked the octopus. “Is she trying to fight the big whale?”
Her stomach lurched as the octopus dropped beneath the waves, leaving only the top of its head above the surface. Moments later another tentacle breached the water, shaped into a question mark.
“What does that mean?” she muttered, then shrieked as the tentacle wrapped itself around her and dragged her under.
For a moment Rose thought the octopus had gone wild and was about to eat her, but then she realised it was pointing her directly at the whale. And Yasmin…
The woman was coated in black ink and held an abyssal spear in hand, gearing up to launch it at the beast. Then, she lowered it and shook her head.
This process repeated itself a few times. And then, seemingly deciding on her course of action she summoned two more spears and reared back to launch them all.
At that moment the whale bellowed and the spears of ink were blasted away. Rose’s body shook down the bones and she was just about to keep her eyes open to see the whale speeding to the surface.
The octopus lifted her back onto its head and she shivered as her drenched body hit the cold, salty air. A huge splash sent dozens of waves rolling across the sea as the whale resurfaced.
And then, it exploded.