Salt and Blood [A Pirate LitRPG]

What's scarier than a colossal sea monster? A bigger one.

-Excerpt from 'Silversea Saga' by Norris Howell

Rose froze in the water as the eerie sound reverberated through the surrounding ocean. The last time she'd heard a noise that deafening, it had been when she called on the ocean through her blessing.

There was one issue—she hadn't made a prayer.

Which meant that whatever sea monster was on its way had simply stumbled upon the battle by chance. Rose knew that the creatures that lived in the Bluestone Sea weren't as terrifying as the ones she'd encountered on her journey, but that didn't mean she or any of the other soldiers had the strength to stop one.

She could only hope that her blessing let her evade death.

The smaller fish that had been feasting on the flesh and blood carved off her shoulder scattered at the sound, racing into the darkness. They knew what was coming.

Despite her trepidation, Rose redoubled her efforts. If she could only use one arm to swim, then she'd flood it with power.

Arcane energy streamed from her core in rivers, winding and curling into ribbons as she braided it into her muscles. Her joints and sinews screamed in protest, but she refused to allow herself a single breath's rest until she had returned.

Everything depended on it.

She felt ripples in the water as she swam. Whatever had unleashed that keening wail was fast approaching.

Rose struggled and suffered, but she made progress. With every pull of her arm, arcane ripples pulled her towards the light.

The surface was only a few strokes away.

Three.

Two.

Something soft and slimy wrapped around her leg, curling its way towards her waist.

When it touched exposed skin through a rip in her trousers, she shivered. Rose looked down in horror, seeing a translucent white tendril gripping her from the ankle.

She reached down, but suddenly felt a sharp jolt in her leg where the slimy tendril touched her bare skin. Ignoring it, she grabbed hold of the tendril and ripped it off her leg.

With renewed desperation she continued to swim to the surface. She hadn't seen whatever the tendril led to, which was worrying.

This close to the surface there was enough light to see a dozen metres in every direction. Her vision was blurry thanks to the combined efforts of blood loss and the after effects of the crushing pressure, but even so she should've seen the creature.

Rose's head breached the surface. She gasped for breath. Panting over and over as the sweet oxygen filled her lungs.

She'd almost died.

Her arcane core let her breathe underwater far longer than a normal person and her blessing likely helped, but she'd cut it close. Suddenly, she felt the slimy grip slam into her leg once again.

Then another, followed by a third that wrapped slickly around her wrist. So cold.

Skill up!
Toxin Resistance 2 > 3

What?

Rose's stomach dropped as a mounting dread took hold. The sharp jolt which she'd ignored earlier.

She looked at the place the tendril had slipped across her skin. Throbbing, purple veins spread along her pale skin from where it touched her.

With a final gasp of breath, she was pulled back under the surface. She leaned on her blessing, imploring whatever the creature was to release her.

She felt nothing. No relaxing of its grip.

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Instead, the opposite happened. She was pulled in faster and another tendril snaked out to wrap around her flailing arm.

More sharp spikes as the other tendrils injected the creature's venom into her veins. She finally saw what had captured her as it dragged her towards its body.

A huge, translucent parabellum of soggy flesh floated in the water. Within the jelly, various organs floated. Pulsing blue veins snaked between them like rope bridges.

Skill up!
Toxin Resistance 3 > 4

A jellyfish.

All her adventures and battles and she was going to be eaten by a damn oversized jellyfish. Not that there was anything wrong with jellyfish—they were interesting creatures in their own right.

Rose simply had no desire to die to a lump of sentient jelly. Yet, the more its venom spread, the harder it became to move.

Her muscles felt as if they were made of lead, dragging her down towards her doom faster and faster.

When all hope was lost, Rose felt another sticky tentacle wrap around her waist. That's not…

Rose glanced down and saw that another creature had taken hold of her body. These damn hungry beasts were fighting over her meat?

What an ironic way to go. The daughter of the god of fish torn apart for food by two big fish…

However, the longer she stared at the new tentacle the more furrowed her brow became. She recognised the new tentacle.

How?

It came to her in a flash. The battle against Commodore Saff. A giant octopus came to her rescue when she called out to the ocean.

Turning her head took a monumental force of will, but she managed it. When she saw the bulbous eyes staring back at her from either side of a bloated blob, she smiled weakly.

Was her old friend going to save her from the jellyfish? Even if it could, she wasn't sure if this venom was simply paralytic or if it would kill her too.

Skill up!
Toxin Resistance 4 > 5

With every level that she gained, the venom was a little easier to struggle against. However, more and more was injected into her bloodstream with each moment and it was a battle she wouldn't win.

Rather than pulling her from the jellyfish's grasp, the octopus made a soft screech. Despite the species barrier, Rose understood what it was saying.

When her blessing had grown in strength, she was able to understand the speech of marine creatures somewhat. It was telling her to relax.

She narrowed her eyes at the octopus. Yeah, I bet it's easy to relax when you're a giant monster with teeth that can rip ships apart and tentacles that can crush steel like paper…

Even so, she wasn't sure why exactly, but she felt that she could trust it. So rather than continuing to fight the jellyfish she relaxed and let it pull her in.

As she reached its body, dragged into a forest of slimy tendrils, her body was soaked in jellyfish goop. So gross.

Skill up!
Toxin Resistance 5 > 6

When Rose was all the way inside the jellyfish, it wrapped dozens of tendrils around her entire body until she was in a cocoon of white flesh. Then, she felt a wave of cold wash over her body from head to toe.

Her shoulder twinged.

The pain… lessened.

She felt her flesh writhing and wriggling, but the pain was almost non-existent. After about ten seconds she felt a strange loss of blood pressure that made her head spin.

Then the tendrils began to peel away until she was floating freely in the ocean once more. The jellyfish hung in the water in front of her, giving her what she imagined would be a smug, gloating stare—if it had a face.

It had healed her.

She looked at her shoulder. It was whole once more, her skin glowing and lacking any sign that it had been torn apart by a storm of arcane energies less than ten minutes earlier.

With a resentful sigh, she nodded her thanks to the creature. She was thankful that it healed her, but she wished it had gone about it in a less terrifying manner.

The octopus' tentacle wrapped around her once more and pulled her towards its head. It gently placed her on the crown and kept a tentacle in her lap for support as it raced towards the surface.

They breached once more to a crescendoing chorus of shouts and screams of navy soldiers. Her eight tentacled friend, knowing her intentions, shot out half of its free tentacles and snapped a dozen boarding ropes in a single strike.

Soldiers fell into the ocean by the hundreds, their shouts of fear and rage blurring into a single deafening cacophony. She heard a crunch as the octopus ate the closest soldier.

However, she was worried. Even with its prodigious strength, if one of those ships managed to fire the arcane cannons it could blow a hole in the creature.

"Hey, we need to escape. Can you grab my friends?" Rose asked.

The octopus shook in denial of her request. She frowned. "Why? They can kill you if they fire the cannons," she protested.

Another shake. It was completely unbothered. Rose was confused. Then the ocean split and shot into the sky as eight orange arms exploded out from the colossal geyser.

As the ocean spray cleared, the first arm slammed down on the flagship. The metal bent, wood shattered, but it held.

With a groan, the metal continued to bend under the weight of the arm. Through the salt spray, Rose saw an eye larger than a ship staring down at them. An unfeeling gaze that judged everything it saw as prey.

Rather than fear, she felt her octopus friend shivering in anticipation and excitement. It screeched.

"That's… Your mother?" she exclaimed, a smile creeping onto her face.