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Salt and Blood - Chapter 99
🕑 Added 2024-12-13 13:44:57 +0000 UTC<< Chapter 98 | Table of Contents | Chapter 100 >>
2.05 - Culling a Commodore
Officers are replaceable. Kill one and two more rich brats appear to take their place. It’s hard-working grunts that are a treasure to any navy.
-Quoted from Vice-Admiral Mackerel of Derridas
Rose panicked, reminded of what it felt like to be starved of arcane energy. She hadn’t been this way since the beginning of her voyage. It had become so normal to her that she didn’t realise she’d come to depend on it.
But almost as soon as the arcane power fizzled out, something greater replaced it. The crunch in her core had been an expansion in size as the gift from Sylack struggled to fit inside her.
Once it had settled, it erupted outwards and she felt even more strength filling her bones. The ice was burnt away by the golden glow and the wound scarred in seconds.
However, the commodore was already taking aim once again. This time though, Rose wasn’t helplessly sailing through the air. She was close enough to strike back with real force.
Her right foot touched the tip of the mast for a brief second and she instantly kicked off from it, launching herself downwards. The crack of a pistol rang out but she was already long gone by the time the bullet reached her.
The commodore’s eyes widened in surprise as she tore through the air. Splinters exploded in all directions as she smashed into the deck and the back half of the broken ship groaned in protest, sinking a little further into the sea.
When she landed she equipped Sunsplitter, the crystal blades dazzling in the light of the sun, sending fractured beams of light sparkling across the deck. Rose raised her right cutlass and pointed it at Commodore Foulter.
“Every single one of you from Minenblum is the same,” she spat, glaring at him with unbridled fury. “Remorseless killers, parading around in a disguise of justice and heroics.”
She walked towards him as she spoke, the man seemingly too shocked by the turn of events to react. But a nearby officer wasn’t.
“You!” he suddenly exclaimed, pointing at her.
His next words were drowned out by the yelling of the man who rushed past his commanding officer and charged at her with cutlass drawn. He was fast, closing the gap in seconds.
His blade swished through the air as he cut towards her, years of experience wielding it showing in the finesse of the strike. She stepped backwards and raised her own blade to meet it, the clang of metal and crystal ringing out as they did.
Her arm trembled from the force of the blow but it held. The man seemed surprised that he hadn’t struck her down instantly, but he didn’t let it shake his confidence.
With a shove and a step he disengaged and immediately lunged forwards, attempting to disembowel Rose before she could react. She’d had enough of his antics.
Divine energy crackled in her core and sparked across Sunsplitter’s edge like a radiant beam of dawning sunlight. Rose twirled and her left cutlass sliced through the man’s blade like butter.
Skill up!
Blades 18 > 19
Divine Attunement 5 > 6
Her spin continued unbroken and her right blade slashed through his neck in a flash of golden light. A tiny spurt of blood erupted before the wound was instantly cauterised by the burning energy.
Skill up!
Dual Wielding 14 > 15
Rose ignored the splashes as her dance came to an end. The commodore’s face was contorted in confused rage as he glowered at her.
She raised a knee and then booted his subordinate’s corpse right past him. It smashed through the railings and splashed into the seas below, food for the fishes.
“How can you possibly wield such a level of divinity!?” he cried, staggering backwards. He raised a finger and pointed at her again. “You’re just a child!”
Rose cocked her head to one side as she stared at the stammering fool. This wasn’t what she’d expected when her uncle had warned her about the man leading the invasion.
This shivering idiot was the man who’d slaughtered her childhood friends? The smiling grannies who would chide them when their games grew too rowdy; the wrinkled but friendly fishermen who kept them fed; the people who had nothing to do with this stupid conflict!?
Her parents…
Rose felt an insurmountable fury bubbling up inside her. She’d wanted to control herself a little, even while delivering vengeance.
That didn’t seem likely anymore. She raised one of her blades above her head. It caught the sunlight, splitting the radiant glow into a thousand smaller beams that danced across the broken deck.
Skill up!
Light Attunement 8 > 9
A small moment of beauty in the midst of tragedy and death that sparked inspiration in Rose’s mind. The next moment she grasped a strand of divine energy from her core, willing it to shift and change just a little.
Skill up!
Divine Attunement 6 > 7
It offered no resistance to her commands. The only limit was her knowledge and skill, which admittedly was still quite low, but she was improving with each moment.
Sylack was not a god of light, but her twin cutlasses were perfectly crafted for the element. That, combined with her fledgling attunement, gave her a foundation for the strike she had in mind.
The divine power surged into her raised blade and made the crystal glow with power. A little too much power, she realised as a crack appeared near the handle.
She had grown attached to these blades, soulbound as they were, but she would happily sacrifice some of their integrity to claim vengeance for her fallen friends and family. A microscopic sun appeared on the tip of the blade, swelling size as she infused it with more power.
Skill up!
Divine Attunement 7 > 8
Light Attunement 9 > 11
You have earned a new trait!
Radiant: Having been steeped in the world’s light, you’ve come to understand its intricacies. Light attuned energy and treasures will respond better to your will and you are able to convert other energies to light with greater efficiency.
Unfortunately, Commodore Foulter and the other soldiers present had finally snapped out of their angry stupor. “Don’t let her finish charging that,” he ordered, yelling and pointing at her. “Look at her clothes, she’s clearly a pirate. No mercy!”
Along with his order he lifted his own blade and began to run towards her. He was exceptionally fast, covering plenty of ground with every step.
But she had an overwhelming amount of divine energy within her. Thanks to the effects of the new trait which were instantly noticeable Rose quickly grasped the most efficient flow of energy through the blade. Once she’d done that, it took no time at all to bring the ability to completion.
She saw the tip of Foulter’s blade just inches from her face, the man’s eyes burning with rage. On the deck of the flagship, a radiant ball of light shattered into a thousand beams.
Skill up!
Light Attunement 11 > 19
Her skill shot up in levels as the beams of light carved through man and ship alike. Hundreds died instantly and the other two ships suffered some damage.
Sails and wood caught fire and even the commodore was forced to halt his strike and guard his vitals. Blood dripped from his thigh and cheek where two of the beams had struck him, but the searing heat quickly sealed the cuts. One downside of using light as a weapon was that it didn’t cause much bleeding.
Rose felt her grasp on divine energy had improved a little, but her knowledge of light and how to wield it had advanced by leaps and bounds. In turn, that had let her understand Sunsplitter a little more.
For the first time since she’d obtained the blades she checked the level of resonance, realising it had increased by a huge amount from the 13% it had been. It was now at 58%, which flummoxed her a little.
Just how much more fighting and understanding was required for perfect resonance? Ultimately it wasn’t necessary to have a 100% connection with her blades in order to cut down her foes but she knew her strength would be much greater if she could manage such a feat.
That radiant sun was only the beginning. She heard the sound of breaking glass and sighed as a huge crack appeared on one half of Sunsplitter. The weapon was only level 51 and far from strong enough to handle the power she’d run through it.
Rose hoped it would last long enough for her to gut Commodore Foulter. He’d recovered, observing her warily in case she had another powerful ace hidden up her sleeve.
She didn’t. The rest of the battle would just be a good old-fashioned clash of blades. Though she did have the advantage of divine energy to empower her every strike, the gift from Sylack still far from exhausted despite the large quantity of energy she’d expended with her previous attack.
Rose took a step forwards, twirling her blades while staring down her foe—no, her prey. However, he refused to back down and returned her gaze with a defiant stare of his own.
Commodore Foulter stepped forward and the ocean began to rumble and the slowly sinking wreckage of the flagship trembled.
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