Chapter 75: The High Seas
<Main objective: Find and gain possession of the buried treasure of the dread pirate Nigel>
Water was sloshing around the floor. The ship seemed to have sprung a leak. We were shackled and chained in a cage in the belly of what I could only assume was a pirate ship, ankle deep in water, but I couldn't have felt more in control. I broke the shackles with my bare hands. Victoria broke hers as well.
Chad tried to break his but couldn't manage to do it, so I did it for him. I kicked the cage door open, breaking the lock. The pirate guard who was facing the other direction turned around.
He said, "What are you doing? Get back in there!" He threatened me with his sword.
I was feeling particularly snarky today, so I bit the sword blade and shattered it with my teeth. I spit a piece of the blade into the pirate's eye.
"Ahh, not my good eye!" he said.
I punched him so hard that he flew into the wall and blasted through it. Wow. I didn't expect that. I looked through the hole and saw that the hole was at least significantly above the water line.
So that was good, but unfortunately for the pirate, he was floating away in the ocean. I drew my sword and took an ice pill as I walked up the stairs to the deck.
When I made it to the ship deck, I noticed all of the pirates had abandoned ship and swung onto another ship that was next to this one. They must have been abandoning ship due to the leak. The ship was sinking. Slowly, but it was sinking.
[Secondary Objective: Find the treasure map and the Captain's cipher]
Now, I knew I probably didn't need the treasure map or the cipher because my domain allowed me to see money through solid objects. So as long as we made it to the island with the treasure, I could find it.
That said, I did like the extra reward that was always given for completing secondary objectives. So I would do it anyway, but I didn't need to.
I ran over to the edge of the ship and leapt off. I sailed through the air, landing in a roll onto the other ship and slashing a pirate back as I came out of the roll. I kicked another over, turning 180 degrees and slashed a man in half and then turned my blade the other direction and stabbed behind me. I caught another pirate in the head as it was about to stab me in the back.
I activated Blood Draw and realized with the ice effect, I could create larger caliber blood bullets. I didn't have to maintain their shape and density because they were frozen solid as soon as I sent them on their way.
I created three large caliber bullet shaped blood projectiles and aimed them at different pirates. I sent one through the eye of a pirate who was about to stab me with his sword.
Then I sent one through a pirate that was swinging on a rope towards me. And lastly I sent one into a big crowd of people hoping to get multiple hits. Four pirates fell and I only fired three bullets.
Unfortunately, for me, the fifty plus pirates that were currently on the ship noticed me and all realized I was the biggest threat. They came rushing at me from all sides. I ran over to Victoria who just roundhouse kicked a dude's head off.
Stay connected through empire
I grabbed her and pulled her close to me. Chad was behind me so I didn't have to worry about hitting him. I put my hand out over Victoria's shoulder and pulled blood directly out of my hand, ripping the skin, until I had a sphere the size of four of my fists.
Then I infused it with ice and dispersed it as a rapidly traveling cloud of blood mist. Everyone on that half of the ship was instantly frozen along with the deck of the ship.
Then, instead of turning around, I flipped backwards and landed on the other side of Chad. Chad was now facing me and I was facing Chad. I grabbed his shoulder with my right hand to steady myself.
Then without looking, I aimed my left hand behind me and pulled a large sphere of blood out of my other hand, and dispersed it as a blood mist cloud as well. This froze the other half of the ship and everyone on it.
I looked down and saw a sword blade coming out of my chest. I stumbled forward off the blade and fell to the ground. I began to convulse as I focused my Vi on healing the wound that went all the way through my body.
I laid on the ground for a full minute while I healed. "Honey, we don't have time for this," Victoria said. "The ship is falling apart! We have to go!"
I looked around while I trembled on the floor and noticed she was right. The frozen people and the ship began to break into pieces and fall away. We had to get off this ship fast before we ended up in the water with no way back to the other ship.
Victoria grabbed me and lifted me up. She grabbed Chad and hurled him a hundred feet onto the ship we had just left. Then she leapt with all her might with me in tow back onto the other ship, just as the ship behind us crumbled into icy bits.
I struggled to get up, but I eventually resumed a standing position. We were on a sinking ship with no crew and no way of knowing how to get where we were going. The captain couldn't have left piece of the map or a clue on the sinking ship, could he?
I wandered into the captains quarters and my eyes instantly fixed on the map built into the table in the center of the room. The map was designed as part of the table for navigation. On it was a compass.
I looked down at the map and saw scribbled notes about where the island was that held the buried treasure. This was it! We didn't need the treasure map as long as we could just find our way onto the island.
It was too bad we lost the secondary objective but I would get over it. "Victoria! Face us north-east! I know where we're going!" I said, as I passed out with my face down on the map.