Chapter 44

The attack was sudden, and Captain Jack wasn’t sure he could win against that beast. Many powerful ones roamed around the oceans, and sometimes an attack of such beast means death.

It was a good thing he met Arthur, who would help him deal with it for a favor. A favor? What could Captain Jack possibly do that Arthur couldn’t? That’s what he had in mind when he accepted such an offer.

“Let’s go, Frostpeak. This is our first test together! Kill the beast!” yelled Arthur, to improve everyone’s morale.

A tremendous splash of water, and a gigantic beast came out of the water. It had at least 20 tentacles and was half the size of Jack’s ship. It was like a huge octopus with a scary face and teeth.

Arthur ordered the members of his crew to chant their spells and aim at the beast. He did not know how he would attack such a beast in melee combat. The only part he could think of attacking was the tentacles. So, that’s what he did.

With a skillful jump, Arthur got inside Jack’s ship. Everyone who was inside was surprised. Both ships were a little farther from each other and Arthur did that anyway, which only proved he wasn’t simple.

One tentacle was aimed at an important part of the ship. Arthur saw that and intervened. The huge tentacle came, and Arthur grabbed it with his bare hands. He did not stop there, and used all of his strength to throw the beast up in the sky, and it fell into the ocean again.

“Whoa! That’s fucking impressive.” said Jack with his mouth wide open.

“Don’t let your guard down. He’s coming back!” that sentence from Arthur made everyone wake up from their daydreams and realize the beast was still alive and well.

The huge octopus emerged from the water again, and this time it was even angrier. It had some fear of Arthur, who did something extraordinary.

.

It was that the spells Arthur’s crew cast before arrived. Many, but most of them were acid shots. Acid shots were good against these types of beasts, as water and fire spells were mostly useless. At least these low-level types of spells.

All spells hit the target, and the octopus roared in pain. Arthur noticed how a few parts of its body were melting. A proof that it was weak to the acid shots.

“Keep throwing acid shots. It seems it’s effective!”

Jack’s crew did not move yet, and only watched the situation unfold. But after hearing that, Jack yelled, asking for them to help to cast acid shots as well. It was an elementary spell, so almost all mages knew that.

“Attack! Our friend here is looking at us and thinking we are lazy. We are not lazy!” Jack yelled.

A quick glance from Arthur made Jack ashamed, as he thought he and his crew were useless in that fight.

The beast tried to attack multiple times, but it seemed it could only attack using its tentacles, or perhaps try to bite. It did not know any spell or special attack that could cause them trouble.

For that reason, the barricade of acid shots were too much for the beast to handle, and it returned to the ocean, hurt.

“Woo-hoo. We did it!” Jack screamed in joy after winning his first battle with his crew.

“Good job!” said Arthur.

~~~~

“So what are you doing around here, Jack?” Arthur asked. He and Jack came to the captain’s cabin of Jack’s ship to have a little talk.

“We’re also a new crew, and got a task not that far from here. But we met you, and I tried my best to act strong.” Jack scratched the back of his head, embarrassed.

He and his crew were on their way to their first task when he saw Arthur sailing in his direction. He couldn’t change the route or it would only seem like he was weak and afraid, so he stood up and confront Arthur. It was a good thing Arthur wasn’t one of these madmen who killed for nothing.

“Don’t worry about that. We are brothers in battle now, right? If you ever need something, you can always come and ask Frostpeak crew for help, or me.” Arthur got up from the chair and gave his hand for Jack to shake.

They did shook hands, and Jack couldn’t hold his smile. “You can always ask Captain Jack or my crew for anything too!”

~~~~

“How was it?” Kai was the first one to ask. He was curious about what both captains were talking about.

“He’s a good guy. I told him he could count on me or my crew for help, and he said the same for him and his crew.”

“Well, well. It seems we got our first ocean friend.” everyone of the crew laughed.

The fight against the beast was over. Arthur got nothing of value from the beast, but he got a new friend, which was priceless.

It was time for them to get back on track and go towards the Island of Death, which wasn’t that far from the place they were.

Arthur returned to his daily routine of brewing a few potions, talking to his crew to get to know them better, and sleeping. After he turned into a dragon, he was sleeping a lot.

After three more days, they finally reached the Island of Death.

From afar, one could already tell it wasn’t a normal island, as most of the vegetation was dead, as if a plague had passed on the island.

There was a village right on the shore, and it was empty. The houses weren’t destroyed or anything, but no one lived there. It was as if everyone had vanished in one night.

They stopped their ship and went out to explore their surroundings.

“What the hell happened here?” asked Kai as he moved his head from right to left, scanning the now ghost village.

No one had an answer for that question, because that was what they were there to discover.

“All right, everyone, split up in groups of two or three. Me and Kai will go together. If anything happens, scream and the others around will help you.” said Arthur. Everyone nodded their heads and thought it was a reasonable action. They had to investigate anyway, and it was hard to do that when everyone was together.

Arthur and Kai entered one house. It was a woody house, simple with only a few pieces of furniture. But everything looked in order, and you could still see the clothing and other objects inside the house.

“Doesn’t this feel like whoever lived inside this house vanished out of a sudden? Look at these belongings who are still here as if nothing happened.” said Arthur.

“Yeah, it feels that way.” Kai agreed with that line of thought.

They saw nothing out of the ordinary in that house, so they went to the next, and the next, and the next.

Each one house they went, it was all the same. All the belongings were still inside the houses, as if everyone had just disappeared in seconds. There was nothing new until Arthur and Kai went to the biggest house in the village, the chief’s house.

All villages had a chief, and it was easy to spot where they lived because usually it was the biggest and prettiest house. The one Arthur and Kai were going inside, for example, wasn’t woody but of rock. And it also got a second floor. Completely different from the rest of the village.

Once inside, it didn’t look like the other houses. Not because it had a lot more furniture and space, but because the belongings weren’t there, as if whoever lived there vanished. Someone packed their stuff and left.

“Let’s split and explore.”

“Okay.”

They both kept their guards up and explored everything in that house.

Arthur looked inside the bedrooms, the bathroom, kitchen, but found nothing, until he got into a library.

It was all dusty, but it had many bookshelves filled with books. Arthur saw a few footprints on the floor that lead directly into one shelf. He already guessed what it was. A secret passage.

With one pull, Arthur grabbed the books of said bookshelf, and a passage opened on the wall.

He went down some stairs and was inside a place that looked like a basement. It had more books in there, but once Arthur grabbed one of these to look, he gasped his mouth after discovering what these books were about.

“Rituals and demonic stuff. Damn it. Is it that fucking Doom Order again?”

There was even a strange circle on the floor, which looked like a place where they did rituals. It was at that moment that Arthur felt as if someone was watching him, and a mysterious voice made all of his hairs stood up.

It was supposed to be a ghost down. That was the first thought inside Arthur’s mind, and he quickly entered a combat stance.

“Who’s there?”