The crew muttered, but their attention was fixed on the chest. Calling over a wide-eyed Colette, Jace told her to divy up the gold between the crew. She nodded as she stared down at the treasure. “And make sure you take a double portion for yourself. If anyone objects, send them down to me. It won’t take long for us to go back to the island and clear up any confusion with the dragon turtle.”
“Aye, captain,” she grinned and then began to shout out names of crewmen to come forward and get their share.
“While they’re doing that, let’s go down to our quarters,” he told the girls.
Just as he was walking down the steps to go below deck, a black feathered bird landed on the railing. It looked at Jace and squawked. “Message delivered! Message delivered!”
Then the raven jumped into the sky and flew off. Jace looked to Diana and Mika and motioned them to follow him. Once they were all inside the captain’s quarters, he shut the door and turned to face them.
By his calculations, it was Sunday in the real world. Assuming it took the bird a day to fly to them, that means she might have logged on yesterday, Saturday. Did that mean she hadn’t logged in for a full week?
He was hurt that she had reacted the way she did. He was attracted to her and had thought they’d had some sort of relationship, but her anger and sudden disappearance had really thrown into question whether they had anything at all.
Part of him understood her reasoning for getting mad. She had thought he’d lied to her. But he would have thought she could at least have given him a chance to explain. He just didn’t know what to think of her now.
“Does that mean what I think it means?” Diana asked as Jace bolted the door. He didn’t really think any of the pirates would mess with them, but he wasn’t taking a chance. The crew had their gold now. If ever there was a time for a mutiny, it was now.
“That was the raven returning, right?” Mika asked excitedly.
Jace nodded. “Yes, that was the raven returning and that means the message was delivered to Charlena. At least, I assume it was. I don’t know if Damian has a way to intercept messages. Let’s hope not, though the only thing it would have told him is where we’re headed.”
“That’s a significant piece of information, wouldn’t you say?” Diana raised an eyebrow.
“Yes,” he agreed. “But I assume he’s going to find that out. He knows where we were, Lasthaven, and if he asked around, I’m sure he’ll find out the Sea Tyrant was headed to Nynymmost. And if not from Lasthaven, the servants will be back and he knows I’m a Baronet. If he questions them, they could tell him as well.”
“Wonderful,” Diana pouted. “So he’s going to be waiting for us at Nynmmost?”
“I was always assuming he’d figure it out,” Jace admitted. “But now, he may not know what ship we’re arriving on. And even if he did, I wasn’t planning to sail into the harbor with the rest of the ships. I plan to take a rowboat to shore a few miles from the city.”
“So, we’ll come by land instead of sea?” Diana asked.
Mika grinned. “He won’t expect that!”
“Maybe not,” Jace wasn’t convinced. He knew Damian was devious. Jace had listened to him relay his exploits in and out of the game. The older programmer was certainly more devious than Jace. He had to assume that anything he thought of, Damian would think of as well. And that gave him an idea.
He looked at the two ladies across from him. “Let me ask you two this: If you needed to sneak into a city and you knew someone was going to try and catch you, how would you avoid being caught?”
That seemed to catch them off guard for a moment and they both looked thoughtful. Mika was the first one to offer a suggestion. “Sneak in the sewers!”
“Possible, but let’s assume he has the thieves guild and assassin guild looking for us,” he replied.
Mika frowned and scratched her head.
“We can’t just disguise ourselves, right?” Diana asked. “The non-players will see through the disguises and the players will see our character names, right?”
“Sort of,” Jace replied. “NPCs who have never met you will only see your appearance, except I think assassins or anyone following a bounty on you. NPCs who have met you before, will recognize you, even when disguised. Once they’ve met you, their recognition is based off of that unique player identifier instead of just appearance. But you are right about players. When they examine us in their HUD, we’ll show up as ourselves.”
“Hmm,” Diana returned to looking thoughtful, tapping her finger against the side of her forehead.
The group thought about it through the night and into the next morning. When the sun would normally have broken over the eastern horizon, they still didn’t have a good solution for remaining anonymous in the city. But that wasn’t the worst of their problems.
The voyage had begun to get a little rough and Jace had been about to go check on what was happening on deck. Just as he unbarred the door, a sailor knocked. Opening the door, he saw the man swallow and start to stutter. “Uh, captain, Colette wants you up top. We got a storm coming.”
Jace and the girls went topside, only to be soaked the moment they stepped out as a huge wave washed over the deck. The sky was dark with clouds and off in the distance, Jace saw lightning strike.
The boat was dipping and rising as they hit the waves or the waves hit them and Jace was forced to grab onto the railing to keep from being tossed around. Luna, upon getting hit by the first wave, scrambled back down the stairs and didn’t return.
“Captain,” Colette yelled from the helm. “We can’t outrun the storm! I’m turning us into the waves!”
That seemed counterintuitive to Jace but since he didn’t know anything about seamanship, let alone surviving a storm at sea, he trusted the woman to make the right decision.
“Aye,” he called out. “Keep it turned into the waves!”
Jace wanted to go below deck, but he figured a captain’s place was on the deck during a storm. He told the girls to go below deck. Diana quickly retreated back down the stairs, but Mika refused to leave his side.
“I stay with you!” she yelled over the storm.
He flashed her a smile just before another wave washed over him, drenching him in cold sea water. He pointed to the wheel where Colette was struggling to keep the ship turned into the storm.
The two of them kept a firm grasp on the slick rail as they climbed the stairs. The rocking of the boat and the waves threatened to throw them around the ship, if not completely overboard. If they did go over, he knew they’d be lost. The ship would never find them in this storm.
At the top of the stairs, Jace took Mika’s hand and they staggered across the poop deck, towards the wheel.
“Go below!” yelled the first mate as she fought with the wheel.
“We're staying up here with you,” he told her.
The woman looked like she was about to argue but the wheel bucked in her hands and she was forced to wrestle it back into position. “Tie yourselves down!”
Nodding, Jace saw that there were several lines dangling loose from grates in the deck. He grabbed two of the ropes and he and Mika tied themselves off. Then the two of them held onto the rails for dear life while the ship was tossed by the storm.
Three hours later, they were being tossed about by the storm when suddenly the ship dropped unexpectedly, knocking Jace, Mika and Colette to their backs. Slamming against the deck, Jace hit his head hard enough to see stars briefly but, thankfully, not hard enough to do actual damage.
Jace blinked his eyes. Then he blinked them again. He thought he must have hit his head harder than he thought because he was staring up at a clear blue sky. He slowly climbed to his feet and looked around.
Behind them was a wall of clouds or mist or something. Jace could barely make out churning waters only a few dozen yards away. Mika got to her feet too and looked around in wonder.
“We are safe?” she asked, looking at Jace.
“We’re in
the eye,” growled the first mate, as she staggered to her feet. Then she raised her voice to a yell. “We’re in the eye! We’re in the eye! To the deck men! To the deck!”
Confused, Jace watched as sailors burst from below decks with weapons in hands while other sailors, who had tied themselves off to the masts and other parts of the ship began untying themselves.
He briefly wondered if they meant to perform a mutiny right here and now and dump their bodies overboard before sailing back into the storm. Then he saw the worried looks and the glances they were casting all about the ship. No, something else was going on.
He looked around the calm area they were in. It was a huge circular area devoid of any storm activity and it was huge. It had to be miles in diameter. And, he noticed, there was no wind at all. It was eerily quiet and still. Too quiet.
“Colette,” he called out to her. “What’s going on?”
“We’re in the eye!” she yelled, working on the knot that held her to the wheel. “They always attack in the eye!”
“Attack?” Jace repeated scanning the area. “Who’s going to attack?”
“Ninjen,” Colette replied, her face ashen.
“The ninjen?” Jace asked. He’d never heard of anything called the ninjen. He wasn’t even sure if it was a single creature or a race of creatures. He looked over and saw that Mika had gone pale.
“Do you know what ninjen are?” he asked her.
She nodded slowly. “In Japan, there are stories of the ninjen. They are white sea creatures shaped like a man. They come up and drown sailors and sink their ships. But… but they live in cold climates!”
“Close sister,” Colette said, finally pulling out her dagger and cutting the rope. “They’re white on the bottom, gray on the top. They’re sharks with arms and legs.”
Jace cast the first mate a dubious look. “Land sharks?”
“They don’t actually look like sharks,” the first mate rolled her eyes. “But they have two arms, two legs and bodies like men. Their head is roughly like a man’s, but with black eyes and a huge mouth, lined with rows of teeth - like a shark. They can also use weapons like tridents and...”
The first mate broke off as an odd sound filled the air. It almost sounded like something boiling. Jace walked over to the railing and looked over. The ocean immediately around the ship was swirling and bubbling, almost like it was boiling.
“The water’s boiling,” Jace commented.
“No,” Colette grimaced. “That’s what the ninjen do. They work themselves into a frenzy - right before they attack!”
Chapter 17
A few minutes later, Jace realized what was happening. The water wasn’t boiling, instead it was the movement of dozens of ninjen as they pushed the boat. At first, the boat only lurched slightly, but soon it was moving slowly towards the center of the peaceful part of the storm.
“Why are they…” Jace started to ask.
“Keeping us in the eye! So we can’t escape!” Colette growled. Belatedly, she added. “Captain!”
The first mate was barking orders to the crew. Several of them disappeared below deck and returned with crates of weapons and pieces of armor. With practiced familiarity, the crew armed themselves. Once they had weapons, shields and a few armor pieces, they formed into small groups and positioned themselves around the ship.
Looking around at the various groups, Jace scanned them with his HUD. Nearly all were level 20, with some being a level or two higher or lower. Most of them had the pirate class. Yet, scattered here and there were crew members with the pirate tough class. He guessed pirate class was similar to rogue and pirate tough class was the fighter equivalent.
He scanned the formations and found that each three man group had one pirate tough and two pirates. That was one tank and two damage dealers. It wasn’t a bad setup but Jace noticed they had no magical or healing support. In a prolonged fight, they wouldn’t last long.
“Can you target the pirates as friendlies?” Jace asked, turning to Hiromi and Mika.
Both girls looked at him blankly.
He sighed. “Try casting a healing spell, but don’t actually cast it, just see if you can target one of the pirates with it.”
They nodded their understanding and then turned their attention to the groups of pirates. In a few moments they looked back. “Yes.”
“Good.” He smiled. “I want you two to keep the pirates up with your healing.”
The two women looked confused. Mika looked between him and the pirates. “We will not be fighting as a group?”
He cast another glance down at the churning waters around the ship. They were almost to the center of the eye. “No, we need to keep the pirates up.”
The girls looked at each other and then back at Jace but he held up a hand and motioned them to the back of the ship, away from the pirates.
“What are you going to be doing?” Mika demanded. Jace guessed she already knew his answer.
“If these things are level 20 or lower, I can solo them.” He smiled. “If they’re 30 or higher, we probably don’t stand a chance anyway.”
“We should be fighting as a team!” Mika pressed. He could see that she was worried for him.
“True,” he agreed, but gestured towards the pirates and lowered his voice. “I agree with you but look around. We only have about 20 crew. I don’t know how many we can afford to lose before we can’t sail the ship. If we lose too many, we could end up stranded out here.”
The girls looked around at the small groups of pirates and then back to Jace. Mika seemed about to object but Diana put a hand on her shoulder.
“We can heal the pirates and keep an eye on Jace,” the older woman said. “Nothing says we can’t do both.”
Mika cocked her head and seemed to consider that before nodding. “Okay, we will do that. But if Jace needs healing, we heal him first.”
“No objections from me,” Diana replied and the two women gave Jace defiant looks, daring him to disagree.
He chuckled. “Alright! Alright! But focus on pirates unless I look like I’m in trouble. Remember, I still have some potions you got for me.”
Mika grinned. “See! I knew they would be helpful!”
“Very,” Jace replied.
Jace glanced over at Luna. She had gone to the edge of the railing and was looking down into the churning waters around the ship. She turned to look at Jace. “Fishes?!”
He considered her question. “Mean fishes! Big fishes!”
A predatory look came over her face but her voice was excited. “Big fishes?!”
“Very big,” he told her, ignoring the chuckles from the girls.
“I think Jace will have all the help he needs,” Diana said, laughing at the huge cat. “As long as Luna waits until the end of the fight to start eating them.”
“Big fishes!” Luna agreed. “Eat big fishes!”
The ship reached the center of the eye. He could see by the clouds far above, that they were still moving, but the ninjen were keeping them in the dead center. He wondered how many there had to be in the water to keep the boat centered within the storm’s eye.
“If we die,” he said. “We’ll meet back in Lasthaven. Don’t go into the city. There was a road to the south, just outside the graveyard. Go about a mile down it and wait.”
The girls nodded grimly. They already knew the stakes. They carried all their money on them, including the recently acquired gold from Bob’s hoard. If they all died, they’d lose it all.
“If one or two of us die,” he told them. “Don’t forget to give loot rights to your body to the survivor.”
“Morbid,” Diana said but the older woman nodded.
Jace didn’t hold out much hope that they would make it through this. There had to be at least a hundred of them down in the water if they were able to move a ship of this size. Looking around at the gathered pirates, he couldn’t imagine them being able to hold off against so many.
“Prepare to repel boarders!” Colette
yelled out as the churning slowed. “No mercy!”
“No mercy!” came the pirate’s answering cry.
The first mate pulled out her own saber and a buckler and joined one of the groups near the center deck.
“Let’s take our places,” Jace told them. “You two stay at the main mast where your healing can reach everyone, and Luna and I will guard you.”
Without another word, his group turned and hurried down the stairs and over to the main mast. There was an eerie, unnatural silence in the eye. It was a surreal contrast. Jace could see the raging storms all around them, but there was that strange quiet, and almost peace, that permeated the area around them. Only the sounds of the churning water and the creak of the ship broke that silence.
The silence lingered for a long moment. The calm before the proverbial storm. Then, without any warning, a dozen ninjen leaped out of the water and landed on the deck, tridents in hand. It was an impressive move and took the crew by surprise.
On the wall of his living room, with his retro items and old vidstream collection, Jace had a replica poster of an ancient vidstream called the Creature from the Dark Lagoon. It featured an green, aquatic humanoid who was able to come out of the water and attack people. He wondered if that creature had served as the inspiration for ninjen.
In shape, the things looked very much like that old vidstream character, but their mouths were much larger and filled with rows of sharp teeth. Not only that, but the creatures had lifeless eyes, all black, like a doll's eyes.
The ninjen were taller and more muscular than the humans who they now faced. Their skin was rough, like that of a shark and, like sharks, it was a darker gray color on their backs and their front were white. The creatures had humanoid looking hands but webbed and with only three fingers and a thumb.
In their webbed hands, each on of them held a long trident, which he guessed was the equivalent of the
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