The next several hours passed by peacefully. Most of us spent that time on the deck either conversing or assisting with the sailing of the ship. We even rotated turns manning the wheel to steer, though Pete warned us that it wasn’t as fun as it looked. And he was right. Keeping the ship in a particular direction on the open ocean was about as boring as it gets. Everyone seemed to feel this except for Hugo. He’d use Norris to steer and would sit on his shoulder talking like a pirate to the rest of us. It kept our spirits up and kept us entertained. All of us were having a good time. I should have known it wouldn’t last.

First came the storm. The sky had grown dark again and with it had come the wind and rain. Both attacked the ship relentlessly. Not only was it making us miserable, but it was also dangerous. Pete took command of the vessel and called for all hands on deck.

Hugo wanted to be involved until he saw the state of the weather and since he was the only one of us who couldn’t swim, he wisely decided to remain in the captain’s quarters. His goblin spirit summon Norris was still out on the deck though. He even seemed better at tying knots and hoisting sails than I was.

“Heave!” yelled Pete. “We gotta move to get out of this storm’s path!”

I knew what he meant. We were in the storm, but not in the worst of it. If we let the wind and waves keep hammering us like this, then we might get trapped in the center of it. I doubted the ship would survive that.

“How far are we?” I shouted up to him.

Pete glanced down at the map. “The islands are a couple of hours away.”

We were close, but still so far. None of us liked the idea of swimming if the boat sank. We were all too familiar with the creatures that lurked in the water.

“Don’t worry. We’re gonna make it,” Pete assured me.

The boat tipped violently to the side, and I nearly lost my footing as a big wave hit. Fortunately, Daisy was nearby to grab and steady me.

“No swims for you,” she joked.

I grimly nodded, in no mood for jokes. This teetering and bobbing on the waves was intolerable. I’d found myself dipping into my blood cache here and there to keep the nausea at bay. I don’t normally even get seasick, but this storm had pushed me over the limit.

I looked out at the horizon, trying to catch any sign that we might be close to getting out of the storm. But instead of seeing salvation, I frowned. Thinking it must have been a trick of the light, I kept staring. There it was again.

“Fuck.”

There were boats hunting us. Lots of them.

I rushed up the steps to warn Pete. If they had caught up to us this fast, then it was only a matter of time before we were in another fight.

Pete, not taking his eyes off the front, didn’t look too concerned. “I know,” he said.

“What do you mean, you know?”

He handed me the map, which now displayed our ship as being much closer to the archipelago, but it also displayed the ten other ships not too far behind us.

“They’ve been quietly catching up to us for the last few hours,” he said, already sounding a little defeated.

“When were you going to say something?”

He shrugged. “There wasn’t much we could do about it. We’re not in cannon range yet. Our best bet is to try to lose them in the storm.”

He may be right about that, but if they’d gotten this close, then they’ve either acquired their own map or their tracking us somehow. I wanted to argue with him. To tell him that he should’ve said something the minute he spotted them on the map. But it wouldn’t have done us any good right now, so I swallowed my anger and studied the map. The gap between our ship and theirs was shrinking.

“These guys are way too fast. It’s not right,” he muttered.

At this rate, we had maybe ten minutes. Maybe less. It was time to alter our tactics.                                       

“We have to go deeper into the storm,” I told him.

Pete looked at me like I was insane.

“It’s our only chance,” I said. “We can’t fight ten ships and if we stay the course, then they’ll catch us. Our only hope is to lose them in the eye of the storm.”

Pete rubbed his chin and thought about it. He hated the idea, but he couldn’t think of anything better. Finally, he said, “I don’t know if the ship can take it.”

“I do. You’re the best navigator on this artificially constructed sea. If there’s anyone who can thread the needle through the center of this storm, it’s you.”

My words lit a fire under Pete. He straightened his back and warned everyone to prepare for the turn. He spun the wheel hard, and we braced ourselves.

The other ships would’ve seen our turn. They’d be conversing, planning a response. I dared them to follow us.

After a minute’s deliberation, three chose to do just that while the other seven turned away to try and get out of the storm. They’re hedging their bets. However, none of the leaders of the group trusted each other, so it would be a safe guess to say that Carina, Kristoff, and Jason were on the ships pursuing us. With any luck, the storm might take one or more of them out.

That said, the other seven ships couldn’t be ignored either.

“Any chance those ships make it out of the storm and find a way to get ahead of us?” I asked Pete.

He took another look at the map and shook his head. He explained that the storm was simply too large for that to be the case. Also, while it looked like the ships were about to be right on top of us, their speed had actually been waning.

Finally, a little good news. It seems the System was content to give their ships a boost to catch up with us, but it wasn’t just going to hand them the victory. From now on, they were on their own.

I gave the map back to Pete and told him to keep it close. Something told me that whatever method they’d used to find our location had limits and that the map was still important. Personally, I would’ve preferred holding onto it, but he needed it to get us through the storm.

With that out of the way, it was time to address the rest of the crew. But before I could, a new System message appeared.

[Now entering The Sea King’s domain]

[Party Chat disabled]

I didn’t like the sound of that and I liked the fact that we’d lost the party chat feature even less.

The Sea King’s domain? There was nothing on the map to suggest we’d entered a new territory. It also didn’t say if that included the islands as well. In any case, I hoped that the storm would cover our tracks from this king. We didn’t need any more trouble.

“Lucas!” Daisy shouted as she grappled with one of the lines.

I rushed over and saw that one of the ropes attached to the mainsail had snapped. Already, I could feel the ship turning the wrong way. A deep, guttural groan followed, and terror gripped me.

Was that the ship? Is it splitting apart?

A glimmer in the corner of my eye caught my attention. I turned and grabbed a nearby lantern. There was something small and black embedded in the mainmast. My night vision hadn’t spotted it and I was lucky that the lantern had caught it. Pulling it out revealed it to be a piece of coral that had been sharpened and fashioned into a blade.

The rope breaking wasn’t an accident. It had been cut. This was sabotage.

“Warn the others. We’re about to be attacked,” I told Daisy.

“Wait, where are you going?”

“To keep the map and our navigator safe!” I said as I ran off. She nodded and took off in the other direction.

On my way there, I stopped in the captain’s quarters to fetch Hugo. I didn’t like the idea of him being alone in here. I wanted him out on the deck with the others where I could see him.

Hugo stood on the table wearing a tiny orange rain jacket and hat.

“Is it bad out there?” he asked.

I stared at the outfit, completely forgetting the danger we were in. Baffled, I asked, “where’d you even get a bird sized rain coat?”

Hugo shrugged. “I bought it from a store ages ago. You know I hate getting wet. My feathers take forever to dry.”

“Yeah, well you’re going to have to deal with it. We might be under attack, so we’re getting everyone together on the deck. Oh, and take off the raincoat and hat.”

Hugo looked down at himself and sniffed. “Why? Personally, I think I pull it off quite well.”

“You look like a traffic cone.”

Hugo held one wing to his chest in offense. “I do not! Besides, it’s not like I don’t have protection.”

“Whoever this was, they were able to throw a knife to cut a rope in the dark, on a moving ship, in the middle of a storm.”

“So… they’re a big deal?”

I nodded. Whoever had done it was skilled. A surgical strike to not destroy the ship but to slow us down enough. I suspected that it was someone from Jason’s team we hadn’t yet encountered.

Hugo agreed to come out without his neon sign of a fashion statement. He sat on my shoulder like old times as we went up the stairs to Pete, who was still at the wheel. He gave no sign at our approach, but that wasn’t surprising with this storm.

I looked down and saw that Daisy had collected the others who were mostly grappling with the lines to keep the sails where they should be.

Well, no better time to give Pete the bad news.

“I think we’re going to be attacked soon and possibly boarded,” I said. “If that happens, find somewhere to hide and don’t try to fight them. As long as you’re not a threat, they’ll probably treat you fairly.”

“You’re wrong about that,” Pete said, turning his face. On his other check were three bleeding claw marks.

Four black shapes climbed over the side behind us. They moved with a liquid finesse that spoke of a high agility.

A blood sword formed in my hand as the closest one approached. I spun around and struck, only to make contact with a short spear the thing was holding. Our weapons clanged together, and I finally got to see who I was dealing with.

*Beast Identified* [Shrikon Footman (common)] Level 65.

The Shrikon with the spear backed off to stand next to its companions.

Last time we’d barely manage to kill one of these things. How the hell were we supposed to take on four of them?

“I’m sorry,” said Pete. “They said they’d kill me if I did anything.”

They can talk?

I glanced back at my allies below and my stomach dropped. The situation was even more dire there as I counted over twenty Shrikon had climbed onto the main deck. All of them held spears or tridents. None of my team had attacked yet, which was good. After fighting one of these things, I knew we’d be overrun in seconds.

Perhaps we should flee and try to swim? The islands weren’t too close, but with our enhanced stats, most of us could probably make the journey. It would mean leaving Pete behind, though. His body wouldn’t be capable of keeping up.

Our navigator was gripping the wheel so tight that his knuckles were white. He was terrified of these monsters and despite my earlier assurances, I doubted they’d keep him alive if the rest of us jumped ship.

No, I couldn’t leave him behind.

“What do you want?” asked Hugo.

Right, Pete had said that they’d spoken to him. Good thinking, Hugo. Let’s see if we can talk our way out of this.

The one that I’d attacked opened its mouth and let out a series of undulating clicks and guttural sounds.

“It doesn’t have to come to that,” replied Hugo. “I’m sure we can come to an understanding.”

What the hell? He can understand it?

“What’s it saying?” I asked.

“He says that we’re trespassing and that we’re under arrest by the authority of the king,” explained Hugo. Pete nodded as if he’d heard the same thing.

Why am I the only one not understanding their language?

The fishman pointed at me and made another series of clicks.

“He wants you to put your sword down,” said Hugo.

“Yeah, that’s not happening.”

A translucent flesh colored ball appeared in the Shrikon’s hand. He threw it at my left foot and the thing painlessly latched on. It was some kind of soft blob. I tried to shake it off, but it wouldn’t budge. Whatever it was, it was making my foot numb and was starting to expand. It grew wider until it swallowed my other foot. Suddenly, I was locked in place.

“Hugo, get out of here!” I warned him.

The bird left my shoulder and tried to fly away when another Shrikon nailed him with another of those balls. The ball hit the crow dead center and grew fast enough to swallow him whole. He landed back on the deck with a soft thump.

“Hugo!” I cried.

I moved to swing my sword to free myself, but one of the fishmen was fast. He caught my arm and held it in place while the ball grew up past my legs and torso. It stank of old fish and there was thick liquid inside of it that further hampered my movements.

Thankfully, I could still see Hugo struggling inside his own ball. What had they said? That we were under arrest? This was some kind of containment device.

Looking back down at the deck showed a similar situation. The others were being captured with the same device, which, when fully grown, resembled a translucent sack.

I dismissed my sword and let the ball take me. When it reached my face, I couldn’t help but struggle as the liquid covered my mouth. I tried to claw my way free, but the soft material wouldn’t give. In my panic, I reached for a weapon and received a new notification.

[Powers and inventory denied]

*Item Identified!* [Aquatic Amniotic Sac] – These growing sacks are favored by Shrikon raiding parties to capture precious cargo and deliver it safely to their underwater kingdom. Living targets are partially subdued once inside and can only be freed from the outside.

I ran out of breath and forced my mouth open. The foul smelling fluid rushed inside but it didn’t choke me. Somehow, I could breathe within it.

A Shrikon picked me up and threw me over their shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Everything was blurry within the sac, but I could make out enough detail to see that the others were being treated the same. Each fish man held a sack and stood on the edge of the deck. A command was issued and all of them dove into the water.

The cold shocked me, but there was nothing I could do except endure as we were taken deeper into those dark depths. They would keep us alive until we met with the Sea King. After that, I wasn’t so certain.