The Sea Dragon pirates had scraped a living on these waters for over a decade, yet nothing in their entire career compared to the sheer absurdity unfolding now.
First, they tail a bunch of obvious rookies sailing under cursed black sails, planning to scavenge the inevitable wreck. Then that same black ship comes barrelling straight at them like a battering ram. Just as they leap overboard in panic, a bloody iceberg materialises out of nowhere in the middle of late summer. CRASH. The black ship snaps clean in half…
Every ounce of common sense they possessed shattered in that moment.
Captain Sea Dragon and his crew scrambled back aboard their battered sloop in terror.
Only then did they notice: one half of the broken black ship was rapidly sinking, while the other half was being dragged away at terrifying speed. “C-captain, look!” a crewman stammered, pointing.
Sea Dragon followed his finger. A massive dorsal fin sliced the distant water. As an old salt, he recognised it instantly and went pale. “A… a sea shark beast. A full-grown adult…”
The pieces clicked. “The black-sailed ship tangled with a sea shark beast. That’s what was towing it. But… why the hell would anyone deliberately provoke a sea shark beast?!”
How could he possibly imagine someone trying to fish the damn thing?
Then he spotted something else and rushed to the rail. Below, the sea itself seemed alive, coiling into a gigantic water serpent that slithered toward their ship. Inside its translucent belly: Yechui and company.
Before Sea Dragon could blink, the serpent surged aboard, opened its jaws, and spat everyone out in a series of wet thuds.
Debbie, Lesa, Xiles, Green, Guni, Shalume, the Dragon-Turtle Trio, and one disembodied head all sprawled on deck, coughing up seawater.
Yechui finally dismissed the water magic, slumped against the rail, panting. He watched the remaining half of the Black Pearl sink beneath the waves and winced. My ship… thousands of points, gone!
(He could redeem another, but still… it hurt.)
Only then did he turn and realise whose ship they had nearly obliterated. “…Mantis Shrimp Captain!?”
“It’s Sea Dragon Captain!” the man roared, drawing his cutlass with a flourish. “What the hell did you do?! Where did that iceberg come from?!”
Debbie staggered up, soaked and furious, eyepatch dangling. She shoved it back over her left eye, decided it felt weird, swapped to the right, and bellowed, “We’re pirates! Hand over everything or walk the plank!”
Sea Dragon and his crew stared, then burst out laughing at the half-drowned, wobbly “pirates.”
Rich brats playing at adventure, clearly. Ransom material.
Sea Dragon’s grin turned predatory as he advanced, already counting gold.
Then a brick materialised from thin air and smashed his daydreams, literally.
WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!
Bricks rained from a cyan glow, dropping the entire crew like sacks of potatoes. Green leaned against the rail, looking exhausted but satisfied. Even tired, handling these small-time thugs was child’s play. He was, after all, a Turtle School master now.
They might be hopeless sailors, but in a fight? Veterans.
…
Deep beneath the waves, the severed half of the Black Pearl, still chained to the anchor in the sea shark beast’s jaws, streaked through the water. The adult beast, unable to dislodge the anchor without harming its trapped offspring, stubbornly dragged the wreckage deeper.
Suddenly, it sensed icy malice. Two enormous, glowing eyes ignited ahead.
A pressure more terrifying than any predator locked onto it.
The sea shark beast froze, primal fear overriding everything. Abandoning its young, it spat out the anchor and fled.
But escape was not permitted.
From the darkness surged a nightmarish silhouette, massive tentacles unfurling. Two whipped out, snaring the beast’s body like ropes around a tuna. Despite its strength, the sea shark beast was reeled helplessly into the abyss and devoured. Blood clouded the water.
The monster turned its attention to the broken black ship drifting nearby.
Black sails. The curse that summoned it.
It loathed black sails. All black-sailed ships must be destroyed.
A tentacle coiled around the wreckage and stuffed it into a maw lined with hideous fangs.
Yet pleasure was short-lived. Another presence approached through the depths, a tattered ship that moved like a living thing. At its prow stood a translucent captain, eyes cold.
A ghostly vessel.
The monster hissed, rage, disgust, and a trace of fear. It wanted nothing to do with the ghost ship.
Tentacles lashed. It fled into the dark.
The deep-sea horror was none other than the Church’s Apostle, the Sea Angel.
And the ghost ship’s captain was Dalin Proudmoore, soul fused with the phantom beast White Ship, eternally binding the Sea Angel to the abyss.
Whenever it stirred, the ghost ship followed.
…
Aboard the Sea Dragon sloop, Yechui frowned.
He couldn’t re-summon the Black Pearl.
Normally, even if destroyed, he could spend points to restore it. Fragments too far away automatically returned to the magic book. Yet only half had returned; the part dragged away refused.
“Only a seal could block it…”
His gaze turned toward where the sea shark had vanished. For an instant, he glimpsed a broken ship at the horizon, then it slipped beneath the waves like a diving fish.
A ghost ship.
He forced the bound Captain Sea Dragon awake with a splash of cold water. “Tell me everything you know about the ghost ship. Now.”
Moments later, the puzzle clicked.
Black sails were cursed because they attracted the Sea Angel, driven by hatred for Dalin. Whenever the Sea Angel attacked a black-sailed ship, the ghost ship appeared. That flash he’d just seen confirmed it.
The Black Pearl fragment was likely swallowed by the Sea Angel, an Apostle’s devouring acted as a powerful seal.
He could buy another Black Pearl, but… why waste the points?
An idea struck. He pulled out Jack Sparrow’s compass.
In the films it pointed to what the holder most desired; here it only tracked items “marked” by the Pirates of the Caribbean world. The Black Pearl definitely qualified.
He focused on the ship. The needle spun, then locked, trembling excitedly, onto a direction.
Jackpot!
Losing the Black Pearl had accidentally given him a permanent Sea Angel tracker.
And wherever the Sea Angel went, the ghost ship followed.
Now he could find both anytime.
Kill the Apostle Sea Angel. Claim the ghost ship.
Two irresistible goals surged in his heart.
But their earlier sailing disaster had taught him piracy wasn’t as easy as cosplay. He needed a proper ship and a real crew.
The flying vehicle was useless underwater.
Yechui looked down at the tied-up captain. “Mantis Shrimp Captain, where can we get a new ship and recruit actual sailors?”
Resigned to his fate, the man muttered, “Pirate Bay… paradise for pirates.”
