The Kraken of this world is not just a giant squid/octopus, it is a creature that can be summoned from a purple scroll with ten times as many tentacles as it should have.
Quickly everyone ran to the deck of the ship. Jules was about to drag Jericho with her but Sky held her back. He could sense it, it was more dangerous to go above the ship. For now they waited underneath the ship.
As soon as all the Caribbean men ran outside they saw their Captain cutting the beast's tentacles down. The Kraken tried to grab Boris but he was simply too fast.
Boris cleared the magical mist using his wind ability. Boris and many high ranking officers have learned all the red scroll abilities but not everyone practices all the abilities as it takes too long to master one.
As the battle raged on between the two dozens of fishmen jumped on the ship armed to the teeth.
"KILL THE HUMANS! GET THE MERMAID!"
"KILL THE FISHMEN! LEAVE NONE ALIVE!"
The Caribbean charged bravely at the fishmen with a battle cry.
In a matter of seconds the entire ship turned into a battle ground between the two races fighting to the death. Many of the officers were no strangers to fighting fishmen and they used lightning bolts the most.
In the back of the ship where the bathroom was located was Jay trapped as the Kraken's tentacles blocked his exit. With his puny strength and lack of weapons he could not escape.
As Boris continued cutting down the Kraken's tentacles that were wrapped around his ship he sensed something running towards him at the same speed as him and it threw a projectile.
Horrified, Boris turned around, blocked the projectile with his sword, which was an ice trident that shattered, and clashed his sword with the figure who used a longer black sword.
It was a tall muscular fishmen with long white hair, and a creepy smile with rows of shark teeth. He had several tattoos on his body.
Boris recognized this man. He is one of the most powerful and wanted fishmen in the world.
"Balthazar!"
"Boris!"
They both jumped back using the Kraken's tentacles as a platform.
Boris shot lightning bolts at him. The majority of all Caribbean officers know lightning bolt as it is the one ability that hurts mermaids and fishmen the most.
Balthazar successfully evaded all the lightning bolts and got closer to Boris. They clashed weapons once again. Balthazar leaned closer to bite Boris but Boris generated lightning in his hands and pushed Balthazar away.
Balthazar uses his sword to stab one of the Kraken's tentacles to not fall. But Boris, who was covered in lightning, slashed Balthazar's arms making him fall to another tentacle.
There are only two known lightning abilities that come from scrolls, lightning bolt and lightning birds, there are no lightning abilities one can find in a purple scroll but only rarely in items found in dungeons.
But there is a lightning ability anyone can learn if their speed stat was high enough, and Boris intentionally trained his speed for this one ability. Boris and many other humans hate fishmen and mermaids due to personal reasons.
Boris jumped down as Balthazar was already done regenerating his hand.
"Huh, I remember the first time we fought seven years ago," Balthazar massaged his arm that regenerated as he talked, "I was the one who beat you easily yet here you are. You've come far."
"Why are you here? Is your brother here? The Warlord?" Boris asked, still cloaked in a lightning aura.
Boris wasn't worried about Balthazar but someone else.
"Maybe. But have you met the rest of my family?"
"What?"
"I don't think you have but first I'll introduce you to the newest member of the Abyss family, say hi to Bruce."
Just then another giant animal jumped out of the ocean, it was the size of the Kraken and another summon one can find in a purple, the Megalodon.
Boris, who saw it, was surprised to see another powerful summon jump out of nowhere. He could run away but the Megalodon would soon crash on the ship killing all his men.
Left with no choice, Boris jumped from the tentacle on top of the Megalodon's head and kicked it down back to the ocean. To many the Megalodon was a powerful summon that can tear down a ship with its giant mount, but to Boris it was just a giant shark, nothing special but even he cannot kill it in one hit.
Boris remained on the air flying. He is confident that two or more members of the Abyss family were here and each member possesses at least one or two purple abilities.
'Balthazar can slow time like me. Someone else must have used magical mist, and summoned the Megalodon and the Kraken, there has got to be two or three more of them hiding in the water.' Boris thought.
He could not afford to think as to why they were attacking them because right now it was important to survive.
It would be suicide to fight fishmen under the sea, even Boris knew if he fought Balthazar underwater he stood no chance of winning. It was common sense to never fight your enemy in their terms.
Balthazar quickly recovered his sword and fought Boris while on the air.
'I knew it, he is the only one with that ability!' Boris thought.
The reason none of the other family members appeared before Boris is simple, because of his ability to slow down time. It was an ability so powerful that nobody wanted to fight someone with that ability.
And the human race currently has the most people with that ability.
As the battle raged on on the ship Sky looked out of the door. He cannot hope to win the fight against a single fishmen, the majority of them have stats over 1,000.
Sky was confident in escaping alone but he could not leave his crew behind.
The ship they were on was not owned by them therefore he could not teleport to another ship he currently owned, as of now he owned only two ships: one was sitting in the backyard of his parents house, and the other was owned by this Caribbean crew he gave money to after they agreed to "join" his crew.
There was a third one he used to go to the place Madame told him, but he returned it to refund most of his money as he needed it to back Jericho's debt at the moment, and so he lost ownership of the ship according to the system.
"Sky? What do we do?" Jericho asked, scared.
Sky thought of everything but there was nothing he could do.
"Ancestor, you're missing someone." Jules reminded him of Jay. According to his weird command she had to call him ancestor when in public.
"I know!"
'Sloth.' Sky looked at one of the tentacles from the window.
{Kraken has been slowed down by 70%}
The tentacles were slowed down considerably but they were still on the verge of crushing the ship.
"Do you guys trust me?" Sky looked at them seriously as an idea surfaced on his head.
Jules shook her head while Jericho nodded.
"I am so sorry about this."
"What are you… no, nonononononono." Jericho and Jules both knew what he was going to do and they didn't like it.
"There is no other way.
Lowering Jules stats he punched their stomachs hard and reduced both their HP's nearly killing them.
Jericho threw up her spit and could not breathe at all. This was the first time Sky had ever hurt her and this badly, she felt as if she would have died if Sky hadn't held back his strength.
She knew what he was doing and she would have done the same to protect her friends, but that doesn't mean that the pain felt any better because of his reason.
"Card transformation technique."
He turned both of them into cards and stored them safely in his inventory. Jules was capable of fighting but with the sloth curse on her she would die fighting any fishmen on board.
Now he needs to do the same to Jay who was stuck in the bathroom.
Sky was about to head up the ship however the Kraken used its immense strength and it was sinking the ship. The Kraken wasn't aiming to destroy the ship but sink it while fully intact.
With one side of the ship tilting down everyone on board tripped and began falling to the ocean.
Every human on board noticed and the majority of them flew to avoid fighting the fishmen on the sea, but just as many fishmen knew how to fly and so the battle continued in the air.
But the ones who could not fly had no choice but to fight underwater, but they would soon die fighting the fishmen on their own terms. Humans are simply not made for fighting underwater.
The ones who were flying were also in trouble, it costs mana to fly and they were far away from land. It would be a matter of time before they, too, would sink to the ocean. If they had a higher mind stat they could fly forever without running out of mana but many do not have the luxury of using red scrolls every day.
Boris saw his ship was sinking. He tried to help his crew but Balthazar was not going to let him get away.
"Fucking hell!" Boris was angry but Balthazar was too strong.
Sky quickly teleported to the top of the ship while evading the ongoing battles before the ship fully sank, he wanted to get to Jay and turn him into a card quickly to escape with his crew instact.
'Sloth, sloth, sloth, sloth, sloth…'
Sky could not ignore the Caribbean me fighting the fishmen either so he slowed down all the fishmen he saw giving them a better fighting chance.
The fishmen who were slowed down were slowed down considerably and the Caribbean men found it easier to kill them.
{Assisted in killing a fishman}
{Assisted in killing a fishman}
{Assisted in killing a fishman}
{Assisted in killing a fishman}
{Level up}
{Level up}
{Level…}
Sky ignored the notifications. There was a large tentacle wrapped around the bathroom. Sky quickly teleported inside the bathroom and saw Jay in there.
"Jay!"
"Captain!" Jay had never been so glad to see the captain.
"Sorry about this."
"What?"
Sky hit Jay in the stomach lowering his HP to 5% Jay did not know what to think, he was happy to see his Captain and before he knew it he got a gut punch on the stomach, it was the worst pain he had ever felt in his life.
Sky turned him into a card and teleported outside of the ship and flew. Sky did not have a high mind stat either but with his system and the help of some items he is wearing he can fly without having to worry about mana.
He saw many Caribbean officers fighting in the sky. Sky used this chance to slow down every single fishmen he could see that was in the air.
On the corner of his eye he saw Boris and Balthazar fighting. Their clashes alone caused several powerful collisions that could be felt by everyone present.
Sky could not even slow down the fishman fighting Boris, they were too quick for him to see.
Nobody paid attention to Sky as not only were they fighting for their lives, he did not stand out in the heat of battle.
Sky would use this moment to flee somewhere safe but stopped. He could not leave Boris fighting that powerful fishman, and Sky knew he could not help him out with his current stats.
But that did not mean he didn't have a way to help.
"Ice trident. Super dash. Super strength. Mana grace. Absolute shot." Sky threw the ice trident relying on this ability of his while his stats rose temporarily..
The ice trident flew fast and it managed to hit the back of Balthazar shattering into several pieces, not hurting him in the slightest but managed to push him to lose his tempo.
Boris who saw this took his chance and pierced his sword right at Balthazar's stomach and electrocuted Balthazar.
Sky finally saw the two of them stand still for a second only.
'Sloth.'
{Target has been slowed down by 70%}
'Now we're even.' Sky did not want to leave Boris for two reasons: Boris did end up saving him and his crew even if it was for a reason, and second the sooner that powerful fishman died the better.
Sky left quickly before anyone noticed him. The battle was going to end with the fishmen as the victor's, but it soon turned into a victory for the humans.
Balthazar ignored the pain and grabbed Boris by the arms. For some reason he felt incredibly heavy and slow. Balthazar recognized this feeling but could not understand why he was affected, he was wearing an item that protected him from all curses.
Just then Megalodon jumped out of the water to swallow them both whole. Boris managed to fly away but the Megalodon swallowed Balthazar, rescuing him from death.
Boris quickly flew to his ship but it was too late, the Kraken pulled the entire ship to the bottom of the sea.
There were many bodies floating on the ocean, many of them were not intact and none of them were alive.
The remaining crew flew over to Boris' side.
Looking at his crew, there were only half of them remaining.
"We need to get out of here quickly. Those fishmen are waiting for us to run out of mana and eventually we'll fall to the ocean and we'll be at their mercy."
Boris wasn't worried about running out of mana, his mind stat was high enough, he was worried about his men running out of mana.
Everyone agreed and they flew away with him.
Sky was high above the clouds. He looked back and breathed a sigh of relief.
'That was way too close. And I do not have a map to navigate. Crap.'
{What do you mean you do not have a map? Have you forgotten you can use the map function?}
'What? You told me I can only use it while on the ship.'
{I do not believe I told you that. I said you cannot use any of the ship commands while you're not near a ship you own, but the map function is something you can use any time anywhere}
'Wait, what? And all this time I thought… map.'
Sky looked at the map and saw some inhabited islands. In a matter of hours he arrived at an island. It was easy to spot as it had various light sources and it stood out in the darkness.
Sky could rest easy now as he landed on the island. Nearly everyone on the island was already asleep.
Reaching into his inventory he took out his cards and summoned his crew.
Jericho, Jay, and Jules fell on the ground weak and in pain.
"Heal. Heal. Heal."
Everyone was back to full health but they were still lying on the sand.
"What the hell was that place?" Jericho asked.
"I felt like a prisoner trapped in my own body." Jay said.
"I did not want to go through that a third time again." Jules said weakly.
"I know, but I hope you all know I had no choice."
"We know." All three of them said in perfect unison, just because they understood doesn't make the experience any better.
Sky also lay down beside them on the sand.
"At least you made it out of there, Captain." Jay said.
"Yeah…" Jericho said.
"Ancestor…"
"Don't call me that unless the Caribbean finds you again and takes you."
"Got it, Master."
Jules didn't show it but she hoped Sky would survive. If he had died while they were still transformed as cards, would they remain as cards forever until someone finds them? Or would they be stuck in his inventory forever?
This question bothered her while stuck in limbo and she was afraid that she would be stuck in that place forever.
However this also meant she would not be able to see her brother anytime soon anymore which bothered her deeply.
"What now?" Jericho asked.
"We sleep. We'll figure out the rest tomorrow."
"Ay, Captain."
Far away nearly thirty Caribbean officers landed safely on an island. The island was inhabited by humans and it was rather small with a population of a few hundred.
Boris helped two of his officers who had run out of mana while flying. He placed them down softly on the ground. Looking back, most of his men were already dead tired. None were wounded anymore as he had healed most of them.
"Ben, do a headcount."
"On it." Ben said.
"Jerry and Kenny, go around the island and ask what our current position is, if someone can give you a map even better. Also if possible find a phone we can use to call HQ."
"On it!" Both men quickly ran to the island.
"Everyone! We can only assume the fishmen have followed us here to catch us off-guard. Set up defensive positions around the island, I know we're tired and we've lost half our crew members, but it's better than being dead."
Everyone immediately stood up to protect themselves from another ambush using the island as a defensive base.
Boris quickly scanned the ocean. He could not see or sense anything, then again he could not be sure as someone used magical mist and caught them off-guard.
Thinking of the crewmembers he lost filled him with dread. It wasn't strange to see people in this line of work die, but he was always close with his crew members and even remembers their names, faces, families, which was uncommon for a high-ranking officer like him.
Then he remembered something important, "Wait, where are those kids and that mermaid?" Boris turned to his crew members.
Everyone looked around and no one saw Sky or the rest.
"They weren't there with us when we flew."
"I saw one of the kid's during the battle. He flew away."
"He did? Shae, was there anyone else with him? Did you see anyone else?" Boris asked.
"No, Captain. He flew away by himself."
"He left his crew behind to die? I did not think of him as that sort of person but it's not like I don't understand..."
"Oh, I remember something!" Someone else spoke up, "When the rest of the fishmen boarded the ship one of them yelled out "get the mermaid" so… yeah."
"They already knew about the mermaid? So this was definitely a planned assault, it's no wonder we saw Balthazar and other members of the Abyss family. They knew about the mermaid." Boris said.
Nobody else besides Boris knew why the fishmen wanted Jules, they did not bother to ask questions because none of the low ranking officers, like them, have a right to know.
Boris wondered who could have possibly known about Jules? The only ones who would know are him, Xero, Sky and his crew, and Free'd, and none of them could have shared such valuable information to anyone else,
Then he had a theory in mind on how they could have known, but he found it hard to believe.
"We can only assume they got to the mermaid and we cannot go to the bottom of the ocean to get her back. Once we take a break and find out where we are we are going back to Paradise island."
"Yes, Captain!" Everyone said and continued standing in their defensive positions.
Meanwhile…
At the bottom of the ocean there was nothing but darkness.
But as one would go lower they would see a dim light illuminating a large part of the area. There was an underwater civilization located at the very bottom of the sea. There were buildings carved out of stone.
The entire civilization was covered in water. There were even fish swimming in groups around the people living there. The size of it could be compared to a large working city.
Despite the entire city being large there was almost no one to be seen. Many buildings had been destroyed by a battle that happened not too long ago.
In the center of the city there were no buildings but a large crater with rubble in the middle that someone had collected and placed there. Standing on top of the huge pile of rubble was a throne made of stone, and sitting on it was a fishmen holding onto a human skull.
The fishmen was tall and muscular with a serious look on his face, with white hair, had a buzz cut and wore no shirt unlike other fishmen.
He created a tiny whirlpool in his hands out of boredom and did nothing else. Sensing someone familiar approaching him he dispersed the whirlpool. He left the skull on his throne and approached the two individuals.
Two people appeared before him. Balthazar, and a female fishmen with long black hair that was taller than Balthazar but slim.
"Balthazor, did you find the mermaid?"
Balthazar chuckled as he spread his hands looking around him.
"Do you see a mermaid here? Because I sure don't."
He looked at Balthazar with a deadpan expression. He stood up from his throne and walked closer to him.
"What happened? The only threat there was Boris and that should've been easy for you to take care of."
"You need to update your information, Boris is stronger than we thought."
"So Boris beat you. Hm, kinda disappointed in you honestly."
Balthazar looked down.
"What of the mermaid?"
"There was no mermaid. We dragged the ship to the bottom of the sea, killed all the humans, but there was no girl there, only men. And there was no way she could have escaped."
He shrugged and turned to the behind Balthazar.
"Juvia, what the hell happened?"
"It's like what he said. There was no mermaid. But I did see a young man fly away, he did fit the description perfectly but we did not see his crew or the mermaid that was supposedly bound to him."
"Strange… our information should have been perfect." He looked confused for a bit thinking what could have gone wrong.
Then he realized something Juvia said.
"Wait, you let the kid go?" He looked at Juvia perplexed.
"He was flying and I already exhausted all my mana summoning Megalodon, the Kraken, and magical mist. Besides nobody else flew with him, he was all alone."
"Where did he go?"
"Hell if I know."
He groaned while pinching the top part of his nose.
"If only I didn't spend all my time killing the government, I would have gone myself and asked the rest of the family to help you guys."
"What are you gonna do now?"
"Talk to our spy and figure out what the hell happened to his information. In the meantime look for survivors or, you know, destroy some ships, clear some portals, do whatever you want until I need you two."
Both of them saw away as the man sat on the ground feeling tired.
At the moment the same skull that he placed on his throne appeared before him. The skull's empty eye sockets glowed a dim, red color.
He sensed the skull's presence and turned to face it.
"The time to pay your debt is almost here, Warlord!" The skull spoke in a loud whisper that echoed, sounding sinister.
The Warlord closed his eyes out of frustration not expecting this.
"I still have two months and the debt is almost paid. That is more than enough time"
"Two months for us is but a child's breath."
"Why are you here? You said you would be here to collect the debt, there is no way you're here to remind me of that."
"I am here to tell you something that may impact our deal: we have sensed someone from our side that made a connection with someone on your side."
"What?" The Warlord stood up shocked.
"Who?"
"We do not know but this person is powerful. I do not know the reason they bothered to contact someone here but they did. I fear that it may be one of my master's enemies that are plotting something to disrupt his business."
"So he's a threat? Who did they contact? A human? Mermaid? Another fishmen?"
"I do not know yet. Once I find out, I'll tell you. For now I am asking you if you find him, kill it, for a price of course."
The skull opened its mouth wider than possible and spat out ten purple scrolls that were floating on the water.
The Warlord quickly snatched the scrolls and began reading them to see what he got. To his surprise they were all scroll abilities that were extremely powerful and useful abilities.
"I'm paying you in advance, if you kill him there'll be more. I gotta go, my master is calling for me. But I will return with relevant information."
The light in the skull's eyes disappeared and it fell to the pile of rubble.
Picking up the scroll the Warlord placed it back on the throne.
"Who could it be? Who else could have made a deal with someone from the Land of the Gods?"
The Warlord decided that for the time being it was best to put the scrolls to good use. As for the one he needs to kill, he'll find him later.
He got one of the purple scrolls to rip it obtaining its power.
"Everyone! Get down here now! I have something for all of you!" He called for his family.
Meanwhile…
Sky woke up blinded by the sun hitting his face. He stood up feeling sore, he was covered in sand and several grains of it had slipped into his clothes and hair.
From the side there were two little kids, a girl and a boy, in their swimming attire looking at him curiously.
'Oh god, I really slept on the sand again? I haven't done that since I was a kid.'
There is no worse feeling than feeling sand everywhere.
Looking back his crewmates and Jules were not here.
'Those bastards, wait!'
Panicking, he checked his side and found the golden brick wrapped around several pieces of logs and a string that he carried underneath his shirt like a purse.
Sky was so glad he did not lose his golden brick, this is his greatest money maker. During the ambush he wasn't sure if he did have it on him as he could not place the golden brick inside his inventory or transform it into a card.
Sky turned to face the kids who were staring at him in awe.
"Did you see my friends?" Sky asked.
Both kids shook their heads slightly.
"Thanks anyways."
He quickly rented a room at an inn to shower and wash out his clothes of all the sand it carried. He would wash it with water and soap, then dry it with wind, and would warm it up with pyrokinesis.
Putting his clothes back on it felt good as new. He left the inn to find his crew.
Walking through the island was boring. It was one of the smaller islands he's been on and there wasn't much.
"System, there's something I want to be clear about, I know you said I could not use the system map unless I am near a ship I own, so how come I can use it yesterday?"
{I said you cannot access the ship controls unless you're near a ship you own. The map function is not a part of the ship's controls, you just assumed it was}
"So it was my fault."
"Sky!"
Sky heard a familiar voice calling out to him. He saw Jericho and Jules walking towards him.
"There you guys are. Where's Jay?"
"On the ship."
"The ship? We don't have one anymore."
"Not yet. Follow us." Jericho was happy to show Sky what they got and she led them to the ship on the other side of the island.
The ship Jericho wanted to show him was as good as the ship they used to have but smaller, it didn't even carry any cannons.
There was an old drunk man standing behind the wheel. Beside him was Jay talking to him.
They approached the ship and approached the old man.
"Oh, there's my Captain." Jay pointed at Sky.
"What's going on?" Sky asked.
"This old man is selling the ship and we want to buy it, but you carry all the money." Jericho said.
"How much?" Sky asked.
"Not that much, only 800,000 shells."
Sky took a better look at the ship. The ship in question was not worth that much, not even half of that.
"Isn't there something better?"
Sky did not mind the price as gathering money is easy, but he did mind the state of the ship he's buying.
"No, this is the best one we could find, and there's no shipyard here."
Letting out a sigh of defeat, Sky gave the man eight cards, each card had 100,000 shells each.
"Here."
The man looked at Sky, unable to believe someone actually bought his crappy ship.
{You now own a new ship {Small ship}}
{Shells: 12.9m}
Sky hadn't had the chance to sell the items he has earned which he estimates is worth over 50 million.
"Thanks."
Stunned, he didn't even bother counting the money and left the ship.
Sky boarded the ship and inspected it.
"There's no room for the crew, only a captain's quarters." Jay said.
"We'll look for a better ship fast. First we have to sell our stuff to the Merchant if we find him. I don't want to waste a blue scroll. Also we have to avoid the Caribbean for the time being, understood?"
Everyone nodded in agreement. They were not criminals but they had a slave on board that had important information everyone wants.
"Jericho, find us the nearest portal and hopefully we'll get lucky. I'll try looking for an island that might have a shipyard."
"Aye, Sky."
Sky placed the golden brick in the Captain's quarters and removed the several pieces of cloth. Even the room he was in was small and he felt cramped.
Meanwhile…
The old man who sold the ship to Sky walked back home carrying the cards in hand, he could see just how much each card had and he cannot believe it. The liquor bottle he was holding he had dropped it on the ground on the way.
He returned home to an old woman boiling some fish. The house they were in was not grand, it was a small, worn, old house that only fit one room for everything: kitchen, bed, living room, and the bathroom was located across the street from their house.
"Oh, you're here just in time. Food is almost done."
"Hun, remember that honeymoon trip I promised you but that we never took?"
"How can I forget? It was the day we got married, forty years ago." She smirked at the thought of their younger selves.
Back then they did not have money and still got married to each other. Years later their financial situation never got better but they always managed somehow.
"Do you want to go there now?"
"Hm?"