Salt and Blood [A Pirate LitRPG]

No one is closer to you than family. Even if you are split apart by feuds and hatred, nothing binds two souls deeper than blood.

-Excerpt from 'Annals of the Endless Oceans' by various contributors

"Your mother is huge!" Rose giggled, watching as an octopus larger than her village pounded and smashed the navy's ships apart.

The octopus she was sitting on shivered in agreement. She didn't get words, only images and feelings, but they were all positive—the little creature's mum was its hero.

If my mother was able to smash ships apart with her bare tentacles I'd be in awe of her, too… Then again, my mum was impressive as hell in her own right. I miss her. Rose felt a tear welling up in the corner of her eye, wiping it away with a sniffle.

With the huge octopus now occupying the majority of the soldiers' attention, they were free to rescue Jason, Daniel, and the unconscious Everyn—assuming they'd kept themselves alive. Despite the situation, she noticed that the mama octopus had left the ship they were on untouched.

She was intelligent. That was no surprise. Everyone knew octopuses were smart, so it only made sense that a huge one which could wield arcane energy was super smart.

Her little octopus friend lifted her from its head and raised her all the way up to the metal railings of the ship. When she had stable footing, it released its tentacle and allowed her to step onto the deck.

To her right, a little further ahead, Everyn lay slumped where he'd fallen onto the deck. Her throw had saved him. On either side of the unconscious prince were Jason and Daniel, each fighting a navy soldier.

Quite a few had rushed onto the ship across the boarding lines before they had been snapped apart, but the numbers were manageable with their training. However, she saw the sweat on their faces and the way their movements trailed.

They wouldn't be able to keep it up forever.

Which was fine. She was here now.

Her arcane energy was drained from her earlier battles and her near death, but her body felt fresh and raring to go. Whatever the jellyfish had done to her had not only healed her wounds but filled her with strength.

Stepping onto the deck, she grabbed a random cutlass lying on the planks nearby. The soldier wouldn't need it anymore.

She heard a roar and ducked as a blade carved through the air overhead. She leapt up and slashed the man's stomach, his guts spilling onto the deck as he fell.

Her gaze darted around. She wanted to find that marksman who'd devastated her shoulder. Not only did she want revenge, but she wanted to try and figure out how he fired bullets of pure arcane energy.

Reloading a pistol in the middle of battle was time consuming and dangerous, so learning that trick would give her a comprehensive boost to her overall combat ability. And it was damn cool.

As she approached her crew, she cut down three more soldiers. Two men and a woman. None of them posed a challenge.

Most of the soldiers who remained were the dregs. Plenty of them had fallen into the oceans, now prey to the beasts that swam beneath the surface.

In all of the chaos, a single question stood out at the forefront of her mind. Why?

She hadn't called on her patron or leaned on her blessing, wanting to overcome this ordeal through her own strength. So why had they come?

That was something she could ask later. For now, her goals hadn't changed. Kill the navy. Steal the ship.

All that had changed was that the battle was now in their favour. More than that. They were guaranteed to win, the only mystery that remained was whether they could make it back to their island intact.

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She had a flash of greed as she thought about the remaining three tidestones that powered the other ships. However, looking out at them she saw that two were scrap metal.

The octopus had battered them beyond recognition. Whatever complex machinery lay within had been destroyed.

Consigning the tidestones to the depths was payment enough for the help she'd received. The one she'd managed to steal was one of the most potent she'd ever seen and there was another inside this ship, so she wasn't going to complain.

***

In the end, they escaped with the ship. The octopus' mama had ravaged the rest and devoured most of the men that had been aboard.

Her little octopus friend had a feast of his own. While the huge creature couldn't venture too far from the depths and had left with a loud wail of satisfaction, the little one followed in their wake.

Corpses littered the deck and it was slick with blood. They were gathered on the poop deck, where the strange controls lay.

It had taken a while to figure them out, but Rose recognised similarities between the controls and the machinery that powered the metal ships. By following the flows of arcane energy she was able to figure out which of the switches and buttons did what.

Actually, it was easy.

There was a button that turned the tidestone engine on or off. A lever that increased or decreased the power—and therefore the speed they travelled.

There was a small wheel to steer the ship, which she could handle with a single hand. It also didn't weigh a great deal the way a traditional wooden steering wheel of a ship did.

Honestly, if they were taught properly, a child could operate one of these beasts. Technically, a child was.

Rose was an adult by the standards of the Emerlan Isle but at the end of the day she was only an almost-sixteen year old. And she was stronger than most adults.

Daniel and Jason had collapsed against the railings nearby. They were drenched in blood and covered in dozens of wounds.

Most were scratches and bruises, but a few were serious. Daniel had a nasty cut from his shoulder to his stomach that was bleeding profusely, while Jason was missing two fingers on his left hand.

Neither had escaped unharmed, but they weren't scared witless. Both had turned their swords on Rose when she approached, until they recognised her face.

Even now they wore determination on their faces like a badge of honour. When it came time to fight again, they would follow her into the heart of battle without a second thought.

"You fought well. All of you," Rose remarked.

"Ha! If we'd fought well you wouldn't have almost died. I still don't understand what happened," Daniel scoffed.

"That big octopus was scary as fuck!" Jason exclaimed. "But it was also cool as hell. The tentacles were like… woosh! Crash! Why didn't it kill us, though?"

"Why do you think, idiot," Daniel said, elbowing the other boy and nodding towards Rose. "She's some kind of octopus witch."

Rose's jaw fell open and she looked at him with mock affront. "Octopus witch!?" she hissed, before bursting into a fit of giggles.

Honestly, it's not that inaccurate, she mused. Maybe fish witch is more precise…?

"Or something along those lines. It was you, right? Why else would that little octopus save your life and then follow after us like a lost puppy?"

Jason stood up, swaying as he fought to stay upright, before grabbing hold of the railings and looking down at the octopus swimming alongside them. "He's cute!"

"Yes, yes he is," Rose agreed. "Throw him one of the bodies."

Jason baulked. "What? I don't want to touch the dead people right now," he whined.

She fixed him with a withering glare. He sighed and walked over to one of the dead soldiers.

He grunted as he hauled it to the edge by the ankles and then tossed it overboard. The octopus snapped out a tentacle to grab it before stuffing it into its beak.

Well, even though I didn't ask, Sylack helped me once more. Thank you, patron, she offered to the empty seas. Or should I call him father? Too confusing.

No, she wouldn't call him that. Only one man in her life deserved that title. The man who'd raised her and told her stories of the sea and legendary pirates going on fabulous adventures.

Sylack had given her power beyond her wildest dreams and she knew that they shared blood, which she would always be grateful for. But she would never call him father.

If he demanded it, then she would have to add the gods to her list of enemies. Maybe I should start with Minenblum and work my way up before I get too conceited, she chuckled to herself.

Jason rushed back from the prow of the ship, waving his arms overhead with a gleeful smile on his face. "I can see the island! We're back."

Straining her own vision, trying not to use her arcane energy and overdraw her core, Rose made out the silhouette of the island they'd made their home.

One battle won, but how many remained until they defeated their foes? Rose didn't know, but she did know that she would be on the frontlines of every single one, fighting until her last breath.