Capítulo 21: Sea Monster
"MANN THE FUCKING SAILS, YOU FLACCID PECKERS!" The ship's Captain roared to his crew.
Rafel could almost feel the spittle spray of the man's mouth from where he stood at the helm of the NEPOLITA, his favorite frigate. Her awning was tight and slender, just the way he liked.
The Captain was a large man with the signature eye patch. He truly had one eye. An ex-Pirate—because Rafel seldom employed the heroes into his fold. He didn't trust the kind of man without some villainy to boast of.
The Captain currently clutched his red hat under the crook of his muscly left arm. With his right, he pointed and barked. The reason he shouted and cussed was because they had been caught in a storm. Apparently, the north wind had blown in sooner than expected.
While the man was roaring, he dutifully kept his hat under his arm lest the whipping wind pluck it out and send it sailing into the cold waters about.
"Where's the compass, wiener? Give me the fecking compass?" He yelled to his first attendant, standing nearby.
As they struggled in just which direction the wind was taking the ship, Rafel looked up from his place by the secure railing to the immense clouds above.
The skies were cold and black, full of dense lightning nimbus. It loomed over them like the fist of an angry Titan. Rafel should know. He was one—that is if he ever chose to transform into his Behemoth form. His original demon form.
The great stern of NEPOLITA was being tossed like a child's toy amongst these endless waters. She was steered by invisible hands of a sea goddess.
It was going to rain. Hard.
And they were caught in it. No backing out now.
Rafel hoped it was only the rain that loomed in the rapidly encroaching darkness, not for his sake, but that of his ship's mortal captain and crew.
Just few seconds of him thinking this, the sky broke apart like a burst barrel. The heavens were rent asunder and shattering discs of icy rain came rushing down. Slanting pellets collided like pebbles with the deck of the ship. Rafel stood in it, unbothered, as the host of his crew scampered about for dear life.
Corazón soon appeared at his side, a large umbrella unfolded and held over the both of them. She kept it from being torn apart by the gale with the force of her magic. The sea's rage was no contest for dark sorcery.
Rafel stood in silence with her for sometime as the tempest dragged the ship far out from the way that led home to Eldoria. The Captain's cussing was futile against the sharp frosty winds. But everything really went up a notch, when one of the crew lads lifted his watery eyes up to the ocean, gazing northward. His pale skin was littered with goosebumps as he pointed out, stricken in equal parts horror and cold.
"W—What is that? At sea?!" He yelled.
His frantic voice drew everyone's attention to him. And the skittering dozen men struggling to keep the ship from capsizing paused in their hustle to mill around the young man.
"What ails ye, boyo?" The Ship's Captain glared with his blonde hair stuck to his face.
"There!" The boy pointed again. "In the waves. Monstro Magnificus!" He added in his native dialect.
All aboard NEPOLITA stared out as one, Rafel included. Immediately, swears, curses, and gasps filled the rain. Fear, seeping out more than any other emotion.
"Good gods!"
"Dear Heavens!"
"Gaia's tits!"
"Fucking Hell!"
"What the shit is that?"
Rafel stared along with the stupefied attendants of his ship, NEPOLITA, to the colossal rolling mass of what appeared to be a serpent's tail, rushing in circles through the water beyond like a shark rounding its prey. It was a sea serpent. A gigantic python hidden partly underwater by the high cold waves.
Rafel couldn't see the end of it from their short distance away. But the extent of its circling tail was enough to tell him that he was dealing with a megalodon of the ocean.
A sea monster. And the mysterious thing it circled got clear in the rainy fog as the ship was dragged closer to it by the errant gale. Rafel began to doubt the appearance of a storm being coincidental.
His red-caped Captain breathed clouds of frost in the artic aquatic temperatures, struggling to stay steadfast in his soaked boots while his crew of pale men shivered by the posts they clung to, dehydrated by the sea water but forcefully swallowing more gulps of it. Rafel couldn't afford to pity them as they neared the massive water hole which the anaconda's swirling had deepened in the sea.
It gaped like a great watery abyss, swirling erratically, pulsing with strange dark mana, and pulling every sorry thing great and small into the open mouth to the deep.
The mighty ship was little more than a paltry contraption against the magnetic force of it.
Rafel beheld sullenly in the tempest as his dear favorite, NEPOLITA, gravitated to the frightful hole in the sea. The rushing wind threw pebbles of ice at them as the hull collided with other fragments of similar frigates, destroyed into nothing but remnant planks and floating bloated blue bodies.
All around them in the misty waterscape, great cyclones tunneled the air, reaching up to the sky in their ferocity.
The ship headed straight for the plunging waterfall, into a trench that was like the sky god had reached down to punch a hole in the ocean.
[🎶 Bismarck – SABATON.]
Just as Rafel was contemplating just how many of his crew he could save by teleporting away with his [Shadow Self] ability, for he knew the ship was already lost, the sea serpent seemed to notice them. Seeing this new band come to their Waterloo in its lair, the monster stopped circling the thing at the center and began slithering with rushing speed toward them.
Rafel stared forward, wanting to know what mystery toy had such a great horror so occupied.
He found the thing in the massive liquid crater to be a small dinghy made completely out of ice. Blue magic runes of an underwater faction shimmered around the structure, keeping it afloat in the storm.
A young woman sat in the dingy, her long blue hair wet and glued on her but glowing with the mana her system was using at the moment.
This far out at sea, only the mermaids survived the great pressure of the deep.
Sure enough, Rafel saw her tail sparkle and swish in the hail. It was elegant, of grand scales, more beautiful and desirable than that of a dragon. Certainly more lovely than that of Bloody Mary. Whew! Seeing the mermaid cling to her small pad for survival, Rafel got why the sea serpent was circling her.
This creature was ethereal. As ancient as the demon and celestial race. They were the first Lords of the earthly void. A mermaid's blood was an ambrosia with [Regeneration] qualities. Her scales were an [Epic] battle armor on the open market. And in the deathly black market, mermaid or merman tails were sold for a hefty sum as those mummified on stakes were rumored to attract riches.
And who didn't want to be rich?
Everything about the water tribes made them coveted. And so merfolk were now an endangered species in Eldoria.
Since his arrival on the mortal realm, this was the first Rafel saw of one. And she was on the verge of being eaten alive by a sea python.
"Ay! Ay-ay!" Rafel sucked in his teeth. "Isn't she lucky we showed up?"
The sea monster was barreling straight for them. The ship's hull vibrated with the incoming assault. Only Rafel, and Cora beside him stood on the wet deck like it was sunny out. Cora's magic had kept out the winds and hail. Rafel stood dry as hay under the rolling skies.
"Yes, my Lord. It would seem so. Though we are the unlucky ones." Cora replied.
Rafel smiled grimly. "No, we aren't, Corazón. The men with the shriveled balls behind are. You think this sea monster would require a sacrifice?"
BOOM!
THRAAAAAC!
The water serpent collided with the hull of the NEPOLITA, and Cora didn't get her chance to reply immediately as the entire ship rocked from stern to sail. The banners came crashing down, staking the poor lads squirming on the deck into the hard wood. Blood gushed out across the deck.
Desperate for survival, many men turned to rush down into the cabins at the lower level. But the serpent's body had crashed a giant hole into the ship's wooden side. Cold water flooded the hull.
NEPOLITA would be submerged in seconds.
"MY LORD GRACE! HELP US! We are but mortal men. Don't just stand there! Do something, please!"
It was the Ship's Captain, eyes wild and crazy at the beam jutting out from a young man's open mouth. His severed tongue flailed at the end of the stick, dead eyes open and unblinking. He begged Rafel, but seeing not even a backward glance from the Earl, the Captain resigned himself to his fate.
He turned to the gangplank dipping out the edge of the ship and walked to it. He held his red cap solemnly in his hands. His cloak breezed in the frigid winds.
"Ye would never have a taste of me flesh, you sodden sea monster. To hell with ye!"
And then the Captain jumped, surrendering himself to the ocean.
It was just a moment before the sea serpent lunged out of the water, revealing more than it's black corrosive tail this time. Its entire length was hundreds of feet long, extending, twisting, like tentacles on an octopus. As Rafel watched it, he discovered it was actually more of a centipede, with thousands of tiny hairy arms running along its sides.
Waves rushed down its immense slippery body and with the humanoid hands, it plucked the crew not staked or drowned from off the ship's deck, plunging them three at a time into its wide mouth. It gulped, swallowing them whole.
It was then that Cora was finally able to reply Rafel's question earlier.
"Aye, Your Grace. I think the water tribes might have sacrificed to this entity. But Gulpers get greedy. I wouldn't be surprised if it kidnapped the little mermaid over there.
This kind of unholy cross between centipede and anaconda species is what happens when stray dark mana spills into the ocean. Frightful hybrids as such are born of the eerie radiation. Oi Vay! Should we be on our way then, Your Grace?"
Cora tutted as the monster wiped its many arms drenched in human blood. No one was left on the deck save them. It turned with six red eyes on its basilisk head for them.
"No, Corazón." Flames entered Rafel's eyes. "We kill it."
Just as he finished speaking, the monster lunged with its many weird arms for them. Rafel, quick as light, pulled from his Hel pocket dimension one of the [Legendary] silver Shields gifted him by the Headmistress of [C. A. W], Dr. Shetty.
The monster's arms met with the shield in a lancing blow that would send any other man careening across the deck. But not Rafel. He parried off the monster's many reaching hands, pulling Cora into himself until they were both behind the shield.
And then he activated his crimson [Titan Grasp].
It appeared as an infernal giant arm, shooting out of his back to ascend dozens of feet into the slashing rain. In deliberate action, Rafel controlled the large red arm, closing it into a fist. He punched the anaconda in it's snake head.
Four of the six red eyes immediately winked out, blinded by the fury of Rafel's blow.
The serpent screeched out in pain. It turned, hurrying out across the water, trying to dissolve back into the sea. Apparently, it was just learning that it had underestimated Rafel.
"Oh no you don't! Hold this." Rafel said to Cora, pushing the magic shield into her hands.
His [Titan Grasp] retreated into his back. And quickly from the pocket dimension again, Rafel pulled out a saintly arrow and bow, made of the most pure gold. It was ranked [Blessed], and it glowed with angelic white light.
To Cora who stared at him, Rafel seemed to just reach out into thin air, these arcane weapons suddenly appearing in his grasp.
With a great accuracy, Rafel nocked and pulled back the arrow.
Rich golden light began gathering at the tip of it. The bow thrummed with mana, picking up more energy from his own demon core. Rafel let the golden pulse of magic gather until he was shining like a burst of sunlight on the sinking ship. The entire deck of NEPOLITA was bathed in this rare divine essence.
Ten seconds later, he let loose. And the arrow flew straight and blinding as lightning, brightening the gray clouds above as the streak dove directly for the retreating head of the sea monster.
The golden streal struck the serpent's face just as it turned to the onslaught, right between the remnant eyes. Its entire head immediately exploded.
Bloody bits of meat and bone went flying everywhere, landing with splashes into the sea.
The colossal headless body crashed into the water with so much force that it rose a wave.
Cora held up her hand, whispering magic.
"Up from the flame of Hel, a voice doth a dragon fell. As a sinner of a heart without repent, burn with infernal light this accursed serpent!"
The body of the sea monster instantly lit ablaze in the water. The fires raged into the rain, until the surface of the ocean was a steam of charring flesh. She had summoned [Hellfire], the kind many waters could not quench.
Cora and Rafel watched the sea snake burn until there was nothing left. Rafel put away his quiver and shield as Cora steered the loose plank of the destroyed ship they were floating on to the dinghy of the mermaid.
The hole in the sea was gone. The skies had begun to brighten. The rain had stopped. To any ship that would pass in a few hours, it was like chaos had never seen the horizon, except for the hundreds of frozen bodies and the full capsized frigate of NEPOLITA slowly making their way to the dark bed of the ocean.
"Who are you?" Rafel spoke to the mermaid without preamble.
"Someone who owes you her life," was all the blue-haired woman replied. Before she turned and hopped into the calm waters, her tail sparkling like a beacon as she swum away.
"A thank you would suffice!" Cora yelled to the disappearing tail.
Rafel laughed, pulling Cora to him on the plank. He spoke softly into her neck.
"Forget it, love. I like the mystery there. Something tells me we haven't seen the last of her. Come, Corazón! We must be heading back before the sky spills enough light to hinder our travel."
In the last vestiges of the stormy night, Cora embraced Rafel, tighter than was needed as he equipped his [Shadow Self]. The two vanished from the plank in a gust of darkness as Rafel teleported them right into one of the many dark corners behind a tasteful curtain of his bedchamber.
Their 'travel' from the deep northern marina of the vast Eldorian sea to Emberfall had taken less than a second.
Rafel released Cora and undressed for bed.
Admittedly, he was tired. Moving from a sumptuous office fuck to battling a sea monster in a storm was one hell of a day. His eyes were quick to close on the bed. And sometime during the night, he heard the door to his room creak open and the patter of small feet on his floorboards.
He smelled Corazón and Aya Naamah reach his bedside.
Quietly, they climbed in.
Rafel was sure they prayed he wouldn't wake up as they spooned him from both ends. But he was awake alright. However, he was glad for the bundles of female warmth filling his hands. And so he let them stay. Just for one night, he persuaded himself.
It was daylight behind his shut crimson drapes as Rafel pulled the blanket over himself and the two women. He smelled the scent of succulent plucked apples and cold misty snow until his infernal mind let of all battles and depravity.
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