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Salt and Blood - Chapter 80
🕑 Added 2024-11-21 07:52:05 +0000 UTC<< Chapter 79 | Table of Contents | Chapter 81 >>
1.80 - Catastrophic Consequences
There is no sin greater than to turn your blade against a friend, or worse—your family. There is a special place in the abyss reserved for traitors and mutineers.
-Quoted from Prince Kaldex, deceased heir to Minenblum
It was only then Rose noticed how pale Nasar was. Far more than he’d been when the spear first pierced his gut.
She stared through the hole in his head at the man who’d fired the shot. He wasn’t even an officer… just a grunt. And yet he’d killed one of the most important men in her life.
Her gaze lingered on him for less than a second, before she rushed forward to catch Nasar as he fell. Somehow, with a hole in his brain, a spear in his gut, and missing his good arm, the man still hadn’t taken his last breath.
However, the blood gushing from his mouth and the way his eyes glazed over told her it wasn’t far off. She didn’t know what to do.
Field Medicine… was just a gimmick. And it was only level 1. She couldn’t just rip a strip of her shirt off and wrap it around his head, hoping that would fix the problem.
“You can’t die now, you bastard! I didn’t pay you back for that soup yet,” she cried, cradling him in her arms on the sinking deck.
A particularly large wave crashed against the wreckage of the ship and sent her tumbling, still holding onto the barely breathing chef.
His arm lifted a little.
“Nasar! You’re moving,” she sobbed, grabbing hold of his hand. “Can you hear me?”
He wheezed, then coughed, spraying her with blood. She winced but didn’t let go. Then, he pulled his hand away from hers.
A flash of silver heralded the appearance of his chef’s knife. He weakly fumbled about until he found her palm, pushing the handle of the knife into her hands. Then he tilted his arm until the storage bracelet fell off.
It slid along the deck until she fell over herself to catch it. “This… for me?”
Nasar’s head didn’t move—it couldn’t. He raised a single finger in acknowledgment. The already shallow movement of his chest was growing fainter by the second and she could barely hear his breaths, save for the bubbling blood.
Rose didn’t know what to do. There was nothing to say. She wasn’t sure he could hear her. So, she just sat there sobbing as he took his final breaths.
Just when she thought it was over, he suddenly gasped and reached out, clutching her wrist with an ice-cold grip. Then, before she could react he pulled her hand and stabbed the knife into his heart.
Skill up!
One Handed Weapons 5 > 9
Blades 16 > 18
You have earned a new title!
Traitor: Your villainy knows no bounds, stooping so low as to kill a member of your own crew. While equipped, sailors feel a sense of great dread towards you and will grow more irrational. Passively makes members of your crew feel a little uneasy in your presence.
Rose was stunned to the point that even her tears stopped flowing. She didn’t know how to react. All she wanted was to take the skill levels and tear them out of herself, but she knew that was impossible.
The title was like acid burning down her throat. She was no traitor, but the damned tide deemed her as such because Nasar…
She unleashed a bestial cry of anguish, so piercing that it cut through the metallic clang of battle and made every man and woman on the ocean pause. Only momentarily however.
A single scream was far from enough to halt the raging battle. Felix grit his teeth and fought with twice the fury, carving into the two sailors before him, despite his grievous wounds.
Rose was squeezing the handle of Nasar’s knife so hard that her knuckles bled, scarlet drops splashing against the splintered deck. But the tide wasn’t done with her yet.
You have slain [Nasar Iloesi]!
Accumulated merit:
7 Occupations Completed
26 Titles Acquired
2 Soulbound Items (1 Broken)
9★ Earned
Surging Core
Rose could only watch as the whorl went on, summarising Nasar’s life into a single box. An impressive box, but the disregard for his life stung.
Then, before she had a chance to even react, the whorl exploded into ethereal splashes and Nasar’s body shattered into a thousand droplets of… arcane energy. Each drop thrummed with power, more than she’d ever felt before.
Over half of them exploded outwards, returning to the ocean—their origin. That brought her a little comfort. Nasar would have wanted to stay at sea. He seemed more at peace when they’d set sail than he’d been the first time they met.
The remainder of the droplets had a different target. They began to blast one by one towards Rose, forming a surging stream of energy that pierced her chest like a spear of lightning.
She gasped as it entered her body, sending electric tingles down her arms and legs. Her scalped itched as the energy filled every inch of her.
Inside her core, she felt the source of her own arcane power whir to life, emptying every drop of her own energy. Then, like hungry piranhas hunting easy prey, the energy from Nasar roared and raced towards her empty core.
The instant the first droplet entered she doubled over in pain, clutching at her stomach. Her core wasn’t built to withstand this power. Compared to her own energy, every droplet that had forced its way in was a hundred times denser.
Rose’s core cracked. A single hair’s width running down the edge, but that single split was like the falling of the first domino. More cracks appeared, until her core was only held together by sheer force of will.
What happens if it breaks? Rose was worried, but not overly so. Surely the tide wouldn’t kill someone for defeating another.
Or perhaps this was her punishment for being… a Traitor. Even thinking it hurt, but she knew it was just a false title. Nasar had taken it upon himself to force her hand, yet the tide seemed indifferent.
A final crack shattered the surface of her core, running around its circumference. The last vestige of hope left her as it exploded, a pulse of energy like nothing she’d experienced tearing through her body.
Her organs were lacerated, her bones shattered, and her muscles torn asunder by the unrelenting power. Her mind barely clung to sanity, though Rose refused to let the comforting darkness claim her.
For a brief moment, it was as though her soul itself was laid bare and she gazed upon the complex tapestry. Instantly it vanished, torn away from view. That was not something she was qualified to see.
The endless well of energy that consumed her suddenly felt… warm. Thousands of tiny droplets raced towards the crippled muscles, weaving them anew.
They were reforged in the bath of arcane energy; denser and stronger than before. Her bones grew together, snapped arms and legs rejoining as a metallic sheen coated them.
Instinctively, Rose knew they would be ten times harder to break and even a little more flexible. Just over a third of the energy had been consumed, but the raging torrent was far from done.
Every laceration in her organs, every tiny wound she’d suffered in her lifetime, was repaired. Old cells died and were replaced by young ones, brimming with vitality and crackling with power.
A wave of searing cold washed away any lingering pain, the mental fog that had hung over her torn away like heavy curtains. Her mind was crystal clear and even as the remaining energy tore its way to her core, she only had eyes for one thing—a navy soldier sneaking up on Felix with cutlass drawn.
She stood, no trace of tiredness left. The sting of Nasar’s death was seared into her soul, never to be forgotten. Right now though, he would want her to focus on the living members of their crew.
They’d been about to help Felix right before that snivelling coward shot him, after all. Rose wanted nothing more than to kill the bastard where he stood, but saving her friend came first—hatred had not blinded her that much.
At that moment the last drops of energy reached her core once again, or the shattered remains of it at least. With nowhere to go, the energy started to gather, building her core anew.
Every droplet that reached her centre raced outwards and then hardened, forming a new shell. Larger and stronger than before, it didn’t take long to reform.
Once the process was complete, there was only a single drop of arcane power remaining. However, that one drop held more of the surging tide than her whole core had done before.
A staunch warrior of the sea had fallen that day, but in his place a new legend was born. Rose heard a splash, but swiped it away. The tide had done enough harm that day and she was loath to see more of its toxic gifts.
Her rebirth complete, her purpose clear, Rose turned her eyes to the ocean. She pulled on her new core and it answered, that droplet bursting and filling her circuits with raw power.
Gazing out upon her cruel, beautiful mistress, Rose spoke with measured grace. “Sylack, you’ve always shown me great care. I felt your touch as a child and now you’ve even offered me your power. I didn’t expect to need it so soon, but you promised me that if I ever needed help, the ocean would hear my call. I don’t ask for much, just the strength to slaughter those who stand against me and would dare to imprison me and mine. If my plea alone is not enough, then I offer you the souls of everyone here, save for three.”
Words hold great power, even when spoken without care. With the weight of her will behind them, Rose felt a divine tremor leave her, diving into the depths. She’d called on her patron and now she could only await his judgement.
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Comments
Ariana Q
Just saw this now! Thank you so much it was tough to write
Eric M
That was a very powerful chapter - well done!
David Zimmerle
Ah snap. The next chapter can’t come fast enough
