87.

It's twins!  I finished the chapter and it was big enough to split in two, so if you haven't read 86 yet go check it out!

87.

There was something thrilling about storming a beach. Crouched below the surf, hearing and feeling the pounding waves so close, knowing that just out of sight was a territory that posed a danger to you, a territory you were about to claim.

I hadn’t practiced with Gnar on these before. Did it always feel this way? Or was it our shared paranoia that something had indeed claimed the beach we were occupying?

Gnar gave the word and the first line bolted, sprinting for the shore and breaking through the surf with a speed only magic could allow. In our case, a magical curse.

The first line dove to the sand and readied themselves for an attack. Scarcely before one could have been launched, I was bolting past with more warriors, diving to the sand further ahead. No one gave any war cries. If no one was looking in our direction, they would fail to see the invasive occupation by 40 warriors, most of them possessing a specialized profession for such operations.

A third line repeated the maneuver, and those in the center of the box that had been created moved to the edges to reinforce a perimeter.

One orc looked down and barked a word in orcish – human was our standard language but some relapses still happened. I looked at the bubbles in the sand he was pointing at.

“Clam,” I said. “But big.”

The orc nodded, then thrust his spear down through the bubbling sand. I almost told him not to bother, but that wasn’t my place, and to my surprise his spear stuck in something. He tried withdrawing his spear, but it was thoroughly embedded. He activated a professional ability, and I could practically see his muscles grow. He tried again, and this time unearthed from the sand a giant clam, nearly three feet across, his spear truly stuck in the shell.

He muttered something and I felt my own eyes go wide. I’d seen varieties of clam that got very big, but not that big! It must be the influence of the sea.

Besides the clam, there was no activity. I looked at Gnar, but found him having a staring contest with the giant lizards some distance away.

They weren’t approaching.

“Tighten ranks,” Gnar ordered, just loud enough to be heard by all. The perimeter seamlessly shrunk down, the warriors switching from claiming ground to reinforcing each other. Gnar moved over to me and spoke in my ear. “There’s something fishy about this spot, for sure. I want to transit the beach a few times before we send the all-clear to the ship.”

“Very well,” I said, letting him go with his gut. “Shall we signal the reinforcements?”

He pondered for a moment. “Yes. Have the reinforcements come. We’ll move to the dune and back to meet them at the surf.”

We signaled the ship with glowstones and they began sending the reinforcement team, another 10 warriors and Marcus. The members of my crew dropped to the seafloor and began running, while Marcus swam. What he lacked in skills he made up for in magic.

Gnar began moving us across the beach in a shuffle with weapons facing every direction like a sea urchin, ranged weapons overlapping fields of fire while defenders in heavy armor prepared to take a hit from anything. We were sure to keep eyes looking upwards as well.

The threat came from downwards, sand erupting in front of our formation and claws darting out. Sand spilled from the tan shell of a monstrous crab, a shell 12 feet wide and four arms with large pincers battering at the frontliners. Even ambushed, they proved their worth as they interposed their shields and braced for the heavy swings.

One orc was unlucky, a pincer latching onto his shield and pulling at it while another darted past his defense and pinched his leg. He shouted in pain and activated rage, trying to break loose. Gnar barked an order and two warriors focused on the arm pinching their comrade, attacks slamming at a joint in quick succession. The armor of the creature held, but it released its grip.

The orc took a step forward to get revenge but stumbled, Gnar pulling him back immediately and slapping his chest, activating a war-leader ability to knock his man from his enraged state. The orc immediately fell down and bellowed in pain.

His leg armor had been crushed around his thigh, the leg nearly severed.

“Drese!” Gnar shouted, pointing at his orc before returning his attention to the crab. “Surround it!”

Our sea urchin formation broke, and I darted out of the pack to the rear of the beast. The crab tried to spin towards the first person who attacked it on the side, but that offered no protection. The creature could attack head-on, but was weak at its flanks.

My own trident was enthusiastically thrust under its hard shell, penetrating the softer exoskeleton beneath. It a dozen other critical hits were landing every second, and the creature seemed to realize it was in danger. Activating an ability, it began to bury itself back into the sand.

“Hold it!” Gnar yelled. He didn’t need to, his warband already leveraging weapons under it or dropping weapons to grab the shell. We managed to stop it from digging itself further down, but it still tried.

“Frontline back,” Gnar instructed. “At the back: heave up!”

I didn’t quite understand what was going on, but followed along when those beside me began lifting the back end of the crab upwards. When we had it tilted, its face and front claws buried in the sand, its legs began punching at us. Most of the orcs had the armor for it, but I was only in light armor and felt a strike crack ribs, my lifting efforts suddenly becoming excruciating.

“Storm the back! Now, shove!”

And with another dozen people suddenly pushing, the crab flipped upside down. It immediately began trying to right itself, but there were plenty of people willing to hack its legs to keep it from doing so. The creature was defeated – it just took another minute to hack its HP down.

I clutched my ribs and used a healing spell on myself, nodding to Gnar to show I was okay. “I can’t believe you just had us flip it over – how much does that thing weigh?”

“We can plan a counter-ambush for any others, but turning it seemed the best option to restrain it.”

“Not disagreeing with your tactics, Gnar.” I said, realizing my comment was taken critically and disparaging Gnar in front of his men was a very bad look. “There’s a good reason I appointed you leader of the warband.  I just never pictured myself doing that to a crab that huge!”

Gnar nodded to me and ordered a perimeter while he checked on everyone’s health, stamina and mana levels. I moved to check on the orc who’d nearly lost his leg. I wasn’t concerned because I’d seen Drese tending to him, but the sight of the mangled, bloody leg armor they’d removed was disturbing, especially contrasted to the freshly healed skin the orc now sported. I knelt by him and rapped the crushed metal with a knuckle.

“You know as a boy I’d catch crabs by hand – one of the things we’d try is sticking our fingers into the water and letting them pinch you, pulling them out when they did.” I said, miming the action. “Of course, we did that to little ones. You’re certainly ballsy to try that out with something big enough to ride on!”

He chuckled. “Few inches difference, Captain, and it would have snipped my balls instead of my legs!”

“Drese might have hesitated before healing you in that case,” I quipped.

“Of course not Captain,” Drese said. “I consider timely medical treatment a prerogative. I would not be able to guarantee a full restoration, however.”

I knew Drese well enough to know he was bantering with his own dry humor. The awkward laugh of the orc showed that he did not know Drese that well.

Gnar approached me and saluted, the two of us stepping aside slightly. “Those lizards are still wary, Captain. I’d say this wasn’t the only crab on this beach.”

“They’re not very solitary creatures. Suggestions?”

“Knowing what to expect, we can clear them out easily enough. I want to know if that wizard can sense them, though. It would change this from a hunt into an extermination.”

“Smart, he does possess earth spells and I believe seismic sense is one of them. Shall we move back to the beach and wait?”

“Yes sir.”

We did just that, retreading our steps and not encountering another crab. It was likely that they could bury themselves in ambush, but couldn’t tunnel around. That remained to be proven, though, and I wholeheartedly supported Gnar’s cautious approach.

The reinforcements arrived, Marcus swimming behind them. Gnar explained the plan and selected two teams of 15, with Marcus using his spell to sense the surroundings. It had a limited range that was further muddled by the sand, but he was confident with the size of the creatures that he’d be able to sense them within 50 feet.

While the two teams roved the beach clearing out a swath between the shore and the jungle, I remained in command of the landing zone which we secured against any threat – from crabs or the sea. I sent messengers back to the Internment to let the others know what was going on and have the whaling crew escorted to shore.

Aside from scaring off a curious shark the crew made it to shore without incident. The extermination teams, on the other hand, were busy. It seemed that where we first encountered the crab was a demarcation line in the sand. They could hardly go 20 feet from the first carcass before encountering another. Gnar rotated his two teams, but the second sometimes had to jump in when another crab was too close.

They dismantled them efficiently once they appeared, several warriors distracting its head-on assault while the rest encircled it. Rather than trying to flip it over each time, they would attack the legs until it couldn’t easily move.

It was frightening to see the size, but they were still simple creatures.

The sun had climbed into the early morning and the tide had thankfully reclaimed more of the beach – assuaging the burning feel I felt after any amount of time on land – when Gnar declared the route to the jungle clear. The beach was hardly devoid of more crabs, but we had removed enough to feel safe, roughly two dozen carcasses leaking fluids into the sand.

“Gnar, it’s been about 5 hours since the landing team left the ship. Whoever you’re taking inland, return to the ship first to refresh their 24 hour timer.”

“Will do. Have some good food waiting when we return – the lads will be hungry!”

“Oh I will,” I said with a smile. We had enough crab meat available to satisfy a horde.

Gnar took his men first back to the ship and then led them into the jungle, whaling crew in tow. Jarek didn’t make another attempt to dissuade me, either judging I’d run out of patience or realizing that he had to begin shifting the narrative on his leadership abilities for his crew prior to finding civilization. At this point I had no idea whether he would curse my name in every port or claim that he’d talked me into doing everything I’d done. I was beyond caring.

I didn’t have the remaining warriors lag about waiting for Gnar’s return. I genuinely wanted to harvest the crab meat, but even if I didn’t leaving such a feast of carnage laying in plain sight was practically baiting wyverns. One by one, we grabbed the remaining legs of the carcasses or used rope if there were none to drag the huge things to the surf. I couldn’t bring the Internment much closer to shore and setting up any operation on shore was still dangerous, but that left a stretch of water between ship and shore where any of the many predators around could snatch our prizes and us with them.

The lizards to the north were eyeing us greedily, but a brave one had been ambushed and ripped apart by a crab that was still eating the remains. I ordered three of the more mangled carcasses dragged through the surf in their direction. When my crew got close the dam broke and dozens of the creatures charged, my men leaving the spoils and retreating. The lizards didn’t follow, instead laying into the crabs and then each other over the choicest bits.

I repeated the tactic with four more in the water to the north and south of our position to attract any other local predators. It left us with 17 – still more than we knew what to do with but I warned the men to leave one if something came hunting for it in transit. Remarkably, we made it to the ship with all 17, nothing challenging us for it.

I then had 17 super-sized crabs crowding my deck.

Gerald was a little overwhelmed but I gave him authority to direct all the remaining sailors in assisting him, and if there was too much gore coating the deck he’d signal me and I’d submerge the ship to rinse it away.

Our operation worked. I could tell from the shore that they stayed busy and kept a weather eye out for airborne creatures more dangerous than seagulls and sky-eels. On the shore, we fended off crabs that got curious but allowed them to rove the beach as there was a general movement towards where the lizards had feasted and fought. As long as our safe lane from the jungle to the shore was clear, the rest didn’t matter.

Gnar didn’t return by nightfall.

I could follow his general progress and he’d gotten bogged down in the jungle before making a single mile. His progress afterwards was slow, practically crawling. When he hadn’t started back by nightfall I worried, but trusted him.

I slept lightly, rotating in a shift with the others. Just after midnight, Gnar and the rest began quickly moving south. Why south? The only thing I could imagine was they had gotten to the road and were travelling along it, but why? What could have happened that would keep them from coming back immediately?

When they’d gone three miles south, I realized they weren’t doubling back. They’d passed the halftime mark on their requirement to return to the ship, they couldn’t retrace their steps now.

I roused the shore party and returned to the ship, where Gerald had set up watches to oversee the remaining cookfires for crab meat. Much of it had been cooked or disposed of already, but there had been a lot of it to start with.

I pulled anchor and set the ship sailing south along the coast. Gnar and his warband outpaced the hulk by a lot, but I’d try and cut the distance. Once underway, I pored over the charts I had of the area to try and get a clue of what my lieutenant was doing.

I saw a river a few miles south that emptied into the sea. I tapped it with my finger and pondered. It had taken over 12 hours to traverse the jungle. I’d assumed that was caution while escorting the whalers and that they’d be able to return much faster, but Gnar had other plans. Good plans. Taking the established road south, they could run at a pace they couldn’t through the jungle. Then they just had to cut to the river which they presumably could traverse much easier than the jungle as well.

He was counting on not meeting anything they couldn’t handle, and me relocating the ship to meet them.

He was thinking critically and making decisions on his own. I was proud of him and supported the initiative – even if he was worrying me.

It was the mindset I’d wished Jones had had with me, rather than act as he did.

Gnar did begin moving west where I judged the river to be, and the Internment arrived at the mouth of the river as the warband was approaching. Not on the surface, of course, even in the pre-dawn light we could see large crocodiles drifting. We threw several weighted lines over the side and waited until the warband had homed in on us, entering my Domain before swimming/climbing up the ropes to the ship, where they were enthusiastically greeted by the rest of the crew.

Gnar approached me directly and saluted, looking just as strong and intimidating as when he left – even if his stamina was nearly empty. Not half the reason was because of the thing he had lashed to his back.

“Captain, the shipwreck survivors were all safely delivered to the road and took a course for Dagat.”

“Well done, Lieutenant. You made it back with hours to spare. You have my approval. Now, would you mind explaining what in the world that trophy strapped to your back is?”

He grinned and pulled a pair of knots to quickly release his load, the thing dropping to the deck at his heels with a thunk. “This is the reason I decided against returning by the same route,” he said, kneeling and rolling the head over.

It was a snake’s head, as large as the orc’s torso. One eye had been put out, but the other was a vibrant, black slitted orange color even glassed over. “A juvenile titanoboa,” he explained, propping open the mouth to show the multitude of fangs. “We have stories of a few in Bandarn. While I felt pride in killing this one, I didn’t dare risk coming across a full grown titanoboa. Those are creatures that all earn an individual name.”

“Fascinating,” Rhistel said, appearing as if summoned. “Boa’s are common to this area but not titanoboas! I wonder if it’s related to the sea’s influence or perhaps a countermeasure to the creatures that were influences by the sea?”

“There are far reaching implications to that,” I said. “The difficulty of sea travel has gone up exponentially, but this looks like even coastal zones are being affected.”

“Everything is tied together – the question will simply be to what degree.”

“I thought the alchemist would like to take a look at the poison glands,” Gnar said.

“Of course,” I nodded. “The bragging factor involved with having such a trophy had nothing to do with it.”

“Of course,” Gnar said with wide grin. “Now if you’ll excuse me, Captain, it looks like there’s a feast of white meat to be had and a hammock calling my name.”

Gnar gave me a full story later and he and his men all got a chance to rest as we made our way south-southwest. The refugees had been safely returned, and we were back on our scheduled course. Culling dangerous beasts and saving other ships was the goal, of course, but I had my eye on a tool that would help me do the job much better.

To that end, I’d queried Hali on the intelligence that she had and identified a grid where we expected to find a particular shipwreck. One of the most important factors in claiming a ship was my personal tie to it, whatever it was impacted the effects of the curse, and the strength of it. I was going to claim something that I had a major stake in.

A week of travel brought us to the first part of our grid, but before we went to the sea floor I had to have a conversation that I’d been expecting. I had been given dominion over the surface, but the deepest depths were not mine. There were miles of sea floor closer to the coasts that I could access, but I could sense the boundary where I was not welcome.

I left the Internment above me and swam down to the invisible boundary. Hovering over it, I lightly dragged my finger through it. I could pass, but it was an intrusion. An intrusion that was immediately detected.

Davy Jones is requesting to establish mental contact.

The days of being summoned were over. I entered Tadra and felt it when Jones joined me in the mental realm. We floated in front of each other, the constructs of our ships backing us. His was a near replica of the Perdition. Mine looked more like the Raven.

“I was curious how long it would be before one of us felt the need to trip into the others’ territory,” Jones said, seemingly in fine spirits. “To be sure, I thought you’d be stubborn and refuse contacting me for much, much longer.”

“I don’t need to be petty with you.”

“No doubt because you see yourself as the victor of our little struggle, hmm?”

“Would you claim the same?”

“Hrmph. What business do you have in my depths, Seaborn?”

I told him. Not just about this shipwreck that I wanted, but making arrangements for another time I expected to breach his territory.

“Well, you’re coming for powerful prizes! Now tell me why I should allow it?”

“Tell me your price, Jones. And be aware that I’m leery of any deals with you.”

He smiled. “It’s good to have something you need then, isn’t it? You are looking to breach my domain on two occasions, so I will require to be allowed into yours for the same number. Fair?”

“I am giving you my reasons for entering, as well as an idea of the time I’ll be there. I won’t give you a free pass to come to the surface and stay as long as you please.”

“Understandable. I will not spend more than twice the number of days in your domain that you spend in mine. The reasons will remain my own – consider it the price of coming as the beseeching party. Deal?”

“The reasons you will share,” before Jones lost his temper I made a concession. “If I agree with your mission, I will not place a time restriction on how long it takes. If I don’t, I will still agree to your doubled time. Agreed?”

He pondered for a minute, staring off into the depths. “Agreed. I am looking to relocate some old acquaintances, monsters of old lore, from their current resting place or containment to my territory. The will be out of your hair, not to be stumbled upon and awakened by some greedy treasure-hunting fool.”

I nodded. “And is it sentimentality that drives this, or with those monster’s progeny return to the surface someday?”

“I have monsters you haven’t even seen being born in my depths every day destined for the surface, and you ask me about these?”

Fair point.

“Very well Jones, I accept. Don’t abuse the spirit of our agreement, or our future negotiations might not go so smoothly.”

“Likewise, young Seaborn.”

I exited and swam upwards to my waiting ship, navigating it down into Jones’ depths. The feeling of trespassing was gone, but I was being tracked. I expected the same magic would alert me to my counterpart’s activities.

Searching a grid is as tedious as it sounds, but I nevertheless felt a growing anticipation over the following days. For three days we searched, my hopes soaring at the rare wreck but they were quickly identified as false hopes.

Until the end of the third day, when we found it.

I hadn’t seen the ship since I was cursed, and found myself fending off memories. The wreck wasn’t in such good shape, having suffered damage before it sank and coming to rest on its side. Honestly, I was just happy that the masts hadn’t drug it down and been snapped. Damaged, naturally, but I could see it fixed.

The position on its side clearly showed the hole I’d blasted in the keel.

I left all of my crew behind on the Internment, making this foray on my own. I swam to the helm and touched it gently, before activating my Raise Crew ability.

Nothing. It had been too long.

Nervous, I spent my earmarked XP to increase my Raise Crew ability to the third tier and tried again.

This time … success! There was not a full crew’s list here, not everyone’s spirit would be tied to the ship. There was one, however: the one I was looking for here. I sent an offer.

A moment.

Another.

The spirit you are summoning requires a vessel. Invest mana to create a construct for use.

A basic framework filled my mind, and I began pushing my mana into it. 50 points, 100, 150 … I frowned and used mana absorption to pull in another 60 mana to my total. 200 points, 260 – my normal mana pool – I only had 320 with my absorption …

It took 300. After that, I couldn’t push any more mana into it. The large humanoid shape of mana flickered, then sucked water and silt into its form like a vacuum, the swirling form suddenly popping into the form I recognized.

Then the form heaved a deep breath, eyes flickering to mine.

“Hello Jack,” I said with a smile. “It’s been awhile.”