Jack turned the wheel, sailing the ship toward the middle of battle.
"Idiot, what are you doing?" Charlotte screamed from atop the crow's nest, almost falling. "Do you want us to sink?"
Jack smiled, turning the wheel as fast as he could. The ship groaned like a dying orc, he sailed directly toward the swarm of fish where he spotted it.
The moment they got close, he let the wheel go and rushed ahead, jumping from the quarterdeck to the front of the ship with his sword in hand. Running on the bowsprit and up the jibboom. Thud! He leaped into the water.
Splat!
"The idiot fell off! Throw him ropes and get his ass back on the ship!" Charlotte yelled and the sailors scrambled to get the job done. Jack on the other hand ignored everything as he swam deeper and deeper, chasing a single fish he spotted.
Swinging his arm, he caught the slippery bitch as tightly as he could. "Got you," He smiled and the fish started flapping around like crazy, trying to escape.
~Jack! Kill it, the fish are ranked and that's the number 1~ Cain immediately sent him a message, and Jack grinned pulling a shive from his pocket. "Jack Parrot is the name of the pirate who killed you, Umberlee." He stabbed the fish immediately.
The storm started fading slowly, the waves calmed and the wind slowed quite a bit. Jack immediately surfaced with the fish in his hand. On the ship, he saw everyone waiting.
He swam to the ship's side and climbed it to the deck, shaking the water from himself like a dog. "A nice dip."
"How did you know about it?" Cain approached him.
"Those types of fish don't live around here, the water should be too cold for them. They live south where the water is a bit warmer." Jack smiled as he dropped the fish on the deck, lifeless.
Umberlee's full avatar-creating concept was simple. Create one original fish, use it to control a whole school of fish, and then use that as a medium to channel her power. They do not know how many avatars she has on the sea, but they can be sure she won't mess with them anytime soon.
"By the way, what was that form of yours?" Jack wrapped his arm around Cain with a smile, "You looked like the son of an octopus and a human."
Cain laughed, "A monster from the times before gods ruled the world. You can say they are the ones who ruled the sea before Umberlee came to be."
"That is your last evolution…what now?" Alice approached him, using magic to check if any of them were injured.
"Enchanting armor and weapons. I still have from level 80 to 100 but I will focus on equipment now." Cain replied.
"Are fine? Feel any exhaustion?" Zaleria approached them with a smile. She scanned him with her eyes from head to toe and couldn't see any visible change.
"Yeah, I do feel quite drained. Not from the fight, but from evolution. How much do we have till the pirate heaven?" Cain asked looking at Charlotte.
"Five days, we already passed the red line." She replied as she got down with a rope.
"Then everybody can rest now, we defeated Umberlee." Cain lifted his staff and all the sailors shouted, cheering the victory.
Thud! Kayden grabbed Cain's hand glaring at his staff, "What is this?"
Cain grinned, "It's nice, isn't it."
"You didn't even use it in the fight, just what it is?"
"A weapon of mass destruction, I got from a lucky bargain in hell." Cain moved the staff horizontally, it quickly transformed into a sword with a crackle of flames.
"You modified it? I can't sense it anymore." Mary approached them. Taking a look at it. The presence of the weapons was alien to this world, hot, oppressive, and violent.
"It will be a great weapon, just wait for me to activate it. I won't do it here as it's dangerous." Cain replied heading toward the mansion door, he wanted to rest a bit.
The pirate threw a party on top of the ship, chanting all day as they feasted on what fish Umberlee left.
Days passed by quickly, and they were close to reaching pirate heaven.
In the morning, Cain woke up to a strange feeling. He cannot move or breathe, as if a heavy stone laid on his chest.
He looked around, Selena and Marina were sleeping beside him. He tried to speak but couldn't, something was clearly off.
[True sight] As he opened his eyes, he could see the horrid visage of an old hag sitting on his chest, strangling his neck.
'A remote curse? Spell, why is a hag here?' Cain tried to retaliate but he couldn't move, use magic, or anything.
The hag was strangled from the ethereal realm, he can't do anything to her unless he gets there. But he can't get there since she is blocking him. An inescapable trap.
But everything was fine, he can take it on for hours. No matter how much she strangles him he won't die. He doesn't need to breathe that much, in fact, he is amphibious now, able to breathe through his skin and lungs. Cutting blood to his brain was also useless as he has countless others in his torso.
Cain smiled, 'You aren't the only witch around here.' He immediately dropped his magic too low.
SWOSH! BAM! With a burst of flames, Zaleria burst through the ceiling into the room in an instant. Selena and Marina leaped out surprised at her sudden and violent appearance.
She coursed her eyes toward Cain, seeing nothing but him sleeping…no something was off…Using her draconic eyes, she peaked into the ethereal realm and saw the old, withered hag strangling him.
The hag turned toward Zaleria surprised, she could see her.
Zaleria disappeared, using the buff Cain gave her to enter the ethereal realm and leap at the hag. Swinging her fist toward the hag she growled, "Get away from him, Hag."
The hag disappeared before the punch could get her and Cain leaped up, "She ran away!" He yelled.
Zaleria popped out from the ethereal realm and rushed to inspect Cain. "Are you all right? She didn't curse you right?"
"Am fine, I have too much magic to be cursed. She had to resort to strangling me like that, guess it's my fault for not taking adequate protection against hags since I have four with me." Cain smiled, He has Zaleria, Bela, Jella, and Sofia as witches (Hags) with him.
Zaleria glared toward the door, her eyes glowing. "I'm going to burn her whole forest down, can you tell where was she using the magic from?"
"Probably the pirate's heaven. She must be relatively close." He said standing up, immediately catching Zaleria before she go into a rampage and burn the whole pirate heaven island.
"Let me go."
"You will burn the place, let us take care of the business first and then settle the dispute." It was true that Cain is the one who attacked, but he wasn't willing to waste time chasing a hag, he wanted to get the work at the island done and then keep going.
On the other hand, Zaleria was different. Another hag dared lay hand on her husband, someone laid her hands on a red dragon's mate…This is a bad thing on multiple levels.
"It's war!" Zaleria growled, fire gushing from her nose.
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