004. THE SEA WHIP

"Thanks to navigation from our Summoner's tracker friend here, we've traversed the Bone Road to the island of Jelka." Sturmhond announced as they gathered in the armory  in the bottom of the ship. Mischa furrowed her eyebrows when a member of the crew threw a coin pouch to Tolya who swiftly caught it. Clearly a bet was win on his part. "As for the Sea Whip, we have some storybook drawings, no telling what it really looks like.

"Rule of thumb for the unknown —" He pulled the long string of the curtain wall behind him and immediately the curtains drew back and revealed a wall stacked with weapons Mischa had never seen before. "— come prepared."

" Are all pirates this well-armed?" Mal questioned with an arched eyebrow.

Sturmhond huffed a breath of annoyance. "Privateer." He corrected, beginning to get tired of it.

Mal shrugged. "I don't know the difference."

"The difference is I have a license. And a healthy love for innovation." The captain leant against the table, giving Mischa a dazzling smirk. "Gadgets, marvels, things that go boom. Anything pique your interest?"

"Yeah." Mal stared at one particular.

"Well, take it, for our excursion." Sturmhond laughed when Mal took the harpoon looking weapon off the wall. "Fabulous choice. You have excellent taste in weaponry, Mal." Mischa's lips parted. Looks like the two were new buddies sense Sturmhond actually made an effort to remember his name. It made her think of their conversation a few minutes prior in his chambers. "The cable's fabrikator-made. Tensile strength of 80,000. Yield, 50."

"Impossible." The solider said.

Sturmhond smirked, "When people say impossible they usually mean improbable." Mischa actually liked that.

Mal chuckled. "Not me. It's incredible." He glanced up to share a smile with Alina.

"I designed it myself." Sturmhond informed, although this expression only showed pride not smug. "In fact, my inventions are all around you. You just have to know where to look." He patted Mal's shoulder.

Mischa aimlessly wandered closer to the weapons wall, eyes scanning over every piece as she realized most of these were Fabrikator-made. She spotted a dagger and went to pick it up but Sturmhond's words stopped her.

"Now, I've got something just for you. I've been waiting for someone to try these." Sturmhond approached her after grabbing something off the other side of the wall, a prideful look of his inventions on his face. He pulled out a long sword still in its case and something that looks like for your knuckles, she couldn't be sure. He showed her the sword first, glancing at the daggers strapped to her back. "This is a Samurai Sword I made but it's all Fabrikator Metal, you'll see it can slice through the air quicker and quieter. It's lightweight which means it's easier to move around and also adds to your speed."

She grabbed it from his grasp, unsheathing some of the sword from its case, able to see her reflection on the sword meaning it's never been used.

"Nice, eh?" Sturmhond inquired with a small smirk.

She met his gaze and nodded stiffly. "You made this?"

"Invented. All from up here." He knocked on his own head. He caught her eyes shifting to the other thing in his hand that she's never seen before. "This here is for you knuckles. It wraps around your hand and on your knuckles are little spikes sharp tipped just like any dagger or sword. It's good for when you're close up to someone, which you just quickly wrap on and then jab. They didn't even see it coming. Try it."

He eagerly watched as her eyebrows pinched together in concentration as she slid her fingers through the holes. She flexed her fingers to see the little spikes were indeed pointing out of her knuckles. When she clenched her fist fight it felt strong, like they wouldn't slip unlike the daggers she would normally hold, this felt more secure and effective when she was close up to someone.

Mischa wasn't even aware the corners of her lips quirked up into a lopsided smile.

"Figured you needed an upgrade." Sturmhond  gestured to the knives strapped to her legs and the long daggers on her back. Her cloak was gone so they were on full view. He then held a strap that held a long sword case in his hands as he nodded to her back. "This is for the sword on your back. It's easy to slip in and out. May I?"

Mischa pursed her lips for a long moment before nodding and sliding her dagger's back strap off her body and laid it on the table, turning around. She felt the Samurai Sword strap wrap around her and the light extra weight of the sword being sheathed. She turned back around once he was done and tightened the straps that wrapped above and her under her breasts. It was extremely comfortably, better the any of the other body holsters the Fabrikator's at the Little Palace made.

"How does it feel?" Sturmhond asked curiously.

Mischa nodded, moving her shoulders around. "Good. Actually, extremely good." She regretted her words immediately when his lips turned into a smug smile. She tucked the brass knuckles into one of her knives holsters wrapped around her thigh.

"Guess you won't be needing these any longer." Sturmhond picked up the dagger's with its holster that was previously on her back. Mischa's eyes cracked wider a fraction, putting s hand out to stop him.

"Wait." She paused as he turned back to her to look at her curiously but her eyes were stuck on the daggers in his grasp.

Those daggers were a gift from Aleksander on her sixteenth birthday. She's never parted with them before and not having them with her made her feel bare. But, they were given to her from someone she was trying to forget, trying to erase his name from connecting to hers, to start a new. It would be good to get rid of them, you know, get rid of her regretful past and those painful memories of being used.

Her arm went back to her side and her shoulder's dropped as she took a step back. "Nevermind."

Sturmhond gave her one last curious glance that only she seemed to make him look before handing the daggers to a person of his crew and muttering to throw them away.

Mischa turned around to see Alina already looking at her with raised eyebrows, her eyes asking what's wrong. Mischa's face softened at her friend, shaking her head, her own eyes replying she would tell her later and not to worry about her. Alina's eyes simply responded with, I always worry about you. Mischa quirked an eyebrow as she joined her side, It's suppose to be the other way around, Alina.

Both the girl's attention snapped over to Sturmhond who spoke loudly to his crew around him. "So, we'll go in quietly, on Miss Starkov's orders, to injure it for your death blow."

"I'm not killing it."

Everyone besides her two friends looked at Alina strangely. "You have to kill it, to claim its power. That's how amplifiers work."

"It wasn't with the Stag. I think I can do it without killing it."

Sturmhond chuckled. "As...As lovely as that sounds, I'm not sending my crew in to tame a mythical beast with nets and good intentions."

" This is the job you were hired for, privateer." Alina responded with a leader like tone in her voice before glancing at the crew around. "We capture it. Alive."

And as one of Sturmhond's crew came down to tell them they've reached the island, everyone in the armory moved to the deck to look at the island from the side of the boat.

"Well, that's not foreboding." Sturmhond commented at the large island with a strange storm cloud over just the island, the cackling off thunder in the background.

"Could be anywhere in there." Tolya added.

Oddly, Mal pointed at one specific cave entrance. "We enter through that one."

"You sure?"

"There's a frequency. I've heard it before." Mal supplied but only Alina and Mischa picked up on it. "It's in there."

"You heard him." Sturmhond slammed the side of his fist against the wood railing to gain his crews attention as he yelled, "We're going ashore!"

⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻

As they waded through the murky water in the cave with numerous shaped holes on the ceilings and walls, the water reached Mischa's knees and she didn't like that she couldn't see through the water. Her new sword gifted by Sturmhond was unsheathed and drawn at the ready.

Sturmhond lead the group with his own pistol out and a lantern in his other hand.

They all remained quiet but when a splashing sound was made, Sturmhond put his hand up to stop everyone from advancing. Guns clicked, ready to fire.

"That could be it."

"Grevyen, tell me. Anything in the water?"

Sturmhond's Tidemaker moved his hands in a sphere shape before placing on hand in the water and a ripple of waves formed from it. "There are holes in the cave floor. So be careful where you step. Otherwise no."

Mal's lips parted. "No, you can't tell, or no, there's nothing in there?"

Tolya responded instead. "Whichever makes you feel more comfortable."

"Comforts overrated." Tamar added after her twin.

As they took one step behind them, the loud sharp trilling sound echoed off the walls, then, gurgling as they looked all around them. Everyone had a weapon out and was on high alert for the Sea Whip.

And then, in a blink, something grabbed the crew member standing in the back of the group, behind Mal, Alina and Mischa and pulled him up in one of the holes in the ceiling to disappear. The man screamed as he was taken.

"Drop the nets! Aim to kill!" Sturmhond ordered.

"No! Don't!" Alina objected as Mischa pushed her behind her in a protective stance.

"I couldn't see it."

"It's toying with us." Sturmhond said, Pierrot pointing at every hole in the cave. "Conserve your ammo or we'll be dry by the time we need it."

Another man screamed as the last guy right behind Mischa was tugged under the water and dragged away like a tide taking him. Everyone aimed their weapons at the water beneath them and Mischa practically threw Alina into Mal's arms as she aimed the sharp point of her samurai sword at the water.

"It can camouflage." Mal stated lowly just as he saw it on the cave wall. The Se Whip hurled himself at Alina, but because the boy was next to her, he pushed her out of the way in time and the Sea Whip dived in the water in between the group to separate them.

Mischa, now at the end of the group as they huddle back together, pointed her sword in the other direction.

That was a mistake, though. Because, as the Ravkan girl glanced at her sword, in the reflected glass of her sword, she saw too blue beady eyes staring back at her from the top of a cave wall, barring its teeth and gaze solely on her and her only.

Behind her.

She barely had time to react and her solider instincts barely saved her. Just as she turned to raised her sword, The Sea Whip launched into a spring and jumped on her, harshly pushing her back into the cave wall as she used her sword to make distance between them.

The Sea Whip munched on her sword that kept it from latching his sharp teeth into her, the salty wet water sticking her hair and black clothes to her skin.

Another one of you.

Mischa faltered for a moment as she heard an unknown silky but menacing voice speak to her. Her eyes snapped fearfully to the Sea Whip trying to take a bite out of her, to see herself be reflected in its sea blue eyes.

You should all suffer.

"What?" Mischa shouted in a shrill voice as she pushed against its claws. It would take a fool not to notice how the Sea Whip faltered as well when she screeched at it, almost as if not expecting it.

You can understand me?

The Sea Whip paused its attempts to kill her but Mischa didn't stop her defense attacks as her eyes were filled with terror. And as she nodded her head lightly to answer the question she had no idea came from, the terror increased as she saw a different face reflect in the Sea Whips eyes.

A head of brown hair and piercing blue eyes of a boy the same age as she, with a golden crown on top of his head. The reflection of a prince staring at her.

The Sea Whip's eyes narrowed on her in curiosity and she felt like she was looking at a human like her.

How? No human has spoken a word to me since Moro —

The sentence could not be finished because a bright blue ball of light pierced the side of the Sea Ship's face and its mouth fell open, letting out a loud roar of pain as it fell into the water, dead. Mischa could no longer hear the voice, only the heavy breathing of the people around her.

Alina had killed the Sea Whip.

Mischa's mind felt fuzzy when Alina asked her if she was okay and the solider ignored her, instead trudging through the water to look at the head floating on the water's surface.

But, it was different now. As she looked into its eyes, the boy with the crown wasn't there, it was only the sight of black emptiness, a void.

Sturmhond approached her side, looking at her in confusion. As he placed a hand on her shoulder, she felt her feet sway and her body going with it, her eye lids felt heavy and everything was too much for her brain to process.

Mischa lifted her head up to look at Sturmhond, her eye's already half closed.

"Catch me."

Her unconscious body then fell into the water, making a loud splash sound as she fell next to the dead Sea Whip.