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Salt and Blood - Chapter 56
🕑 Added 2024-10-26 16:24:40 +0000 UTC<< Chapter 55 | Table of Contents | Chapter 57 >>
1.56 - Reel It In
Most pirates kill their first sea monster as part of the crew. It’s rare that a rookie has the skills, patience, or strength to bring one down by themselves. Those rare few who’ve brought down titans in their first voyage go on to do great things. I took a different route. I turned the first sea monster I met into a pet. Krakens are ever so cute.
-Excerpt from ‘Inkfist’s Bestiary’ by Liora Inkfist
At first the serpent seemed immune to her attempts, but the accumulated damage was wearing it thin. With a snap, its head jerked towards her and it slammed into the waves, sending a mountainous splash into the air and soaking the main deck of the ship.
She’d caught its attention. Now she had to win the war. Luckily, Rose had a decade of experience on her side and the collective knowledge of five generations of fisherfolk.
Admittedly, no one in her village had ever caught something of this magnitude, but she was sure that some of the lessons held transferable teachings. At least, she hoped so.
While she still had the advantage of surprise, Rose hurried to reel in the line and cage the serpent. In a straight up battle of strength the monstrous beast would’ve beaten her nine hundred and ninety-nine times out of a thousand, but its wounds were severe and it hadn’t expected another surprise strike from the plucky girl.
Years of experience fighting lesser fish had honed her skills and she managed to reel it a third of the way in before it finally fought back. Even as the rod bent to the limit under the pull of the beast Rose didn’t relent.
Her arms burnt as the final dregs of energy were squeezed from them. She needed a long sleep after this. Her eyes snapped open. Don’t think about sleep now, foolish girl.
There was no rest. Every minute shift in the serpent’s trajectory was mirrored. Fishing was far more than just hooking your prey and yanking it out; it required careful on-the-fly adjustments and management of your rod.
Reel in the line too fast and it would snap, too slow and the fish could escape your hook. The latter wasn’t such a problem here as the three-pronged, barbed hook had ample time to bury itself deep in the serpent’s gullet.
A delicate dance. To Rose, it seemed as if the monster was confused. One moment it tried to escape her clutches, retreating into the depths of the ocean, then the next it thrashed and raged at her with furious strikes like a serpentine war god.
The polarity of its actions worked in her favour. Every time it shifted directions she reeled in the line a little more. With every breath Rose felt a growing confidence as though the world itself was aligned with her rod.
Skill up!
Endurance 6 > 7
Not quite the skill she’d hoped to develop, but the burning of her arms lessened a little. Her struggles had borne fruit. The serpent was almost at the island.
However, now that she’d drawn it far enough away from the ship it was no longer distracted trying to lash out at Liberty. Rose was pleased that she’d saved their ship from its attention, but that meant it was wholly focused on her.
This was the final moment in a tense battle of attrition. Her steady efforts had worn it down and brought it to the brink of capture, but everything hinged on this last struggle.
Something flickered just below the surface of the water and a sudden jet blasted towards her. Thanks to Focus, she noticed it in time to dodge.
Shifting her weight onto her right foot, she leaned backwards forty-five degrees as a beam of water cleaved through the air above her. It etched a line into the stone, carving the hard rock like butter.
If that had hit her it would have torn through her flesh and bones with ease. Unfortunately her dodge had shifted the line and her arms jerked forwards as the serpent sought to break free from her clutches once and for all.
In a single moment she saw all of her hard work slipping away as the line strained and began to fray at the edges. Everything would be for naught if it escaped now.
Rose lost her footing as she was tugged forwards, stumbling without a way to regain her balance and fix the rod. The tempo of the dance had shifted, with the monster leading and her unable to gain a foothold.
In her moment of despair, a booming clap of thunder roared across the battlefield. She watched as one of the serpent’s eyes exploded in a gruesome shower of blood and jelly.
When all was lost, her crewmates had stepped in to save the day. It was a stark reminder that even though she was growing in strength day by day, she always had others to lean on when it mattered most.
Another flash of flames heralded the beginning of a furious volley of cannon fire. Felix was back to work and under his onslaught the serpent’s frantic escape was cut short.
Using the momentary breath, Rose was able to steady herself and plant her feet once more, quickly reeling in the line to not just regain the ground she’d lost, but draw her prey in further.
The line shook every now and then as the cannon fire continued. Under attack from two angles, the beast was unable to fight back.
Either it focused on dodging or parrying the cannons, thereby giving Rose freedom to keep reeling it in. Or it could focus on breaking free from the fish hook. Whenever it attempted that, Felix would target existing wounds, painting the ocean red with its blood.
A click snapped her attention to the rod. There was no more line to reel in. This was the moment she’d been waiting for.
Ensuring her feet were truly steady, Rose bent her back a little and gave the rod a mighty tug. Under ordinary circumstances she wouldn’t have been able to lift the colossal serpent from the waters, but as she pulled she felt a wave of energy settling over her arms.
This wasn’t arcane, it was something more. Perhaps her prayer to Sylack had truly worked? Divine ruminations could wait.
Whatever the invisible force was, the fact remained it was allowing her to drag the monster from the depths. There was some resistance, but the moment it started to come, everything happened in a blur.
Water exploded into the air as the scaly green body of the beast was ripped free of the sea and thrown high into the sky above, before plummeting to the island below. Rose started to laugh, a booming celebration of her victory.
Skill up!
Fishing 15 > 16
Fishing 16 > 17
Fishing 17 > 18
Fishing 18 > 19
Fishing 19 > 20
Fishing 20 > 21
Accompanying the grander splash of her success was a minor orchestra of whorls. Six levels in one fell swoop. Before today Rose didn’t realise it was possible to get two levels in a single instant.
You have earned a new title!
Quintessential Skill: Performing the rare feat of gaining five skill levels in a single breath is something not many can claim. This title reduces the effort of levelling your skills by a minor amount permanently. When equipped, gain a 5% chance to earn a second level whenever you increase one of your skills.
Now she was over a fifth of the way to mastering Fishing at the age of fifteen—a feat unheard of on Emerlan Isle. Even her father hadn’t mastered the skill, to her knowledge.
Alongside that she had an incredible title—one that provided a permanent boost to her skills even when it wasn’t equipped. If that wasn’t already enough, the effect while active was mind-bogglingly powerful.
Her victorious excitement was shattered by a looming shadow. The monster was falling towards her. In the next few seconds it would smash into the island, splattering her underneath its bulk.
I didn’t think this far ahead. Rose was faced with the consequences of her victory. At least if she perished here she could be satisfied with accomplishing her revenge.
The rest of the crew was safe and could continue to Zoria and Trent’s life-and-death struggle would not have been in vain. A faint metallic swish cut through the roaring splashes of the sea.
“Why are you standing there with that dumb look on your face, foolish girl,” chided a familiar voice, right in her ear.
She leapt out of her skin and whirled around to see a smug Nasar, hands behind his back and twinkling eyes locked on the falling serpent. With him here, perhaps she could escape.
Wait, who’s steering the ship? That wasn’t a concern to bother herself with right now. She turned back to the chef. “Let’s get out of here. I don’t want to get crushed by that snake,” she hurriedly exclaimed. They had just moments before it hit.
“Crushed? By those fillets of fish? Don’t be silly, Rose,” he chuckled, gesturing upwards.
Before her eyes, thin lines appeared along the body of the serpent. It collapsed into dozens of perfect hunks of flesh, severed with precise cuts.
Wet slapping sounds drowned out her shocked laugh as they fell to the island around her. Rose was forced to consider the slightly stuffy Nasar in a new light. Is he stronger than Trent? That can’t be possible.
“A fisher’s job is to catch dinner. It’s the responsibility of a chef to ensure it is prepared to perfection.”
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Comments
Ariana Q
Hmm, I'm not sure. I'll have a look through my draft but I don't think so? If so I will change it!
Zachary T Pruckowski
I can't remember precisely, but I'm pretty sure Rose had a skill go 2 > 4 a while back?
