The Beast of the Sea~Chapter 30

I waited for what seemed like an eternity as it felt like time was standing still. I was waiting for the moment were Blackbeard’s sword would go into my chest, just like it did with El. I had failed in my quest and my friends had been hurt as a result. I’m sure Joe could have used some kind of lightning bolt to strike Blackbeard down or El could have used the river behind me to wash him under the water forever. Angel might have been able to use the water as well or some kind of nymph magic. My friends had gotten me this far, but by myself I felt completely powerless. I wasn’t sure if it was me, the being inside of me, or maybe even Blackbeard’s influence, but I was mad, mostly at myself.

“Are you going to kill me or not?” I yelled at Blackbeard. I know it was a stupid thing to say, but at this point I kind of wanted to get it all over with. I looked right into his red eyes, but they seemed confused and unfocused. His sword hadn’t moved an inch from when he grabbed it and lifted it above his head to hit me. I watched as the hatred and anger in his eyes began to fade and they fogged over. He said something, but I still couldn’t hear anything. He must have hit me harder than I thought. “Is anybody in there?”

Blackbeard began to lower his sword until it dropped from his hand on the stone ground. Both of his hands extended out in front of him and he started swiftly moving toward me. I lifted my arms in front of me, thinking he wanted to kill me with his own two hands, but he walked right past me. I got to my feet and looked behind me to see Blackbeard swimming up river toward…the Sirens.

I could see the three Sirens singing on top of their small rock formation. All three of them seemed to watch Blackbeard desperately try and reach them as he pulled himself through the water with a smile on his face so large that you could clearly see all the teeth missing from his mouth. He eventually made it to the shore and pulled himself out of the water and shook himself off like a dog. Now that I couldn’t hear them, I saw the Sirens for what they really were, vulture like creatures with huge teeth. Their feathers were dark and messy, as if they never ran a comb through their feathers, or whatever a bird would use for personally grooming. Their eyes were almost completely black, making them seem even more scary as if their eyes were empty holes of nothingness. As they sang to Blackbeard, he watched them longingly as they circled around him. One of them was draped over his back with her arms around him and singing right into his ear. Blackbeard just had an amazed smile on his face as he watched the creatures circle around him.

All at once, the three turned on Blackbeard as their true nature came out and Blackbeard’s face dropped. It was like all at once he could see what they were and knew it was too late to do anything about it. The siren that was hanging on his back sunk her teeth right into his neck and Blackbeard screamed in pain. Another one sunk her long yellow teeth into one of his legs, bringing the large pirate to his knees. The last of the sirens was standing right in front of him as she smiled. Her smile got wider and wider the same way a snake could unhinge their jaw. Before long, her jaw was completely open as she looked down at Blackbeard’s head and completely encased it in her mouth. I had to look away before seeing anymore and started to walk down the beach. I took one last look and saw the three sirens drag Blackbeard’s body behind a rock formation and all three shot me a dirty look.

“El!” I reminded myself as I started to run down the beach line, grabbing Blackbeard’s sword before heading off. I saw that our ship had pulled up alongside the SS Orca and a small stream of water was rising on the deck with a faint blue glow. I climbed up on deck to see that Angel was working her nymph magic, trying desperately to heal El. As I got closer, I could see that the wound still wasn’t closing up and El was unconscious. Joe was just standing on deck, looking down as if in a state of shock. I walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “What’s going on?”

I waited for a response and I saw his lips moving, but I still couldn’t hear anything. He turned and looked at me, but his face went from concern to confusion. He reached up and I could feel something leave my ear as a flood of sound re-entered my world. I reached up and pulled a chunk of some kind of wet green plant from my other ear.

“Is this seaweed?” Joe asked as he looked at the green stuff in his hand. “No wonder you couldn’t hear me.” “Ya, I couldn’t hear anything just now,” I said and something clicked in my brain. When Blackbeard knocked me into that pond, seaweed must have gotten stuck in my ears. It was why I couldn’t hear the sirens earlier and Blackbeard could. “Guys, I’m losing her!” Angel called, obvious tears forming in her eyes. She was trying desperately, but I could still see blood trickle out of the spot where Blackbeard had stabbed her. “I can’t do this…”

“Ash, do you have anything that could help. There must be some nectar or ambrosia on board, something, anything!” Joe said, obviously upset. However, I knew we didn’t have any left with all the running around we had done.

“I can help,” came a voice from the water itself. The figure of a woman in a watery dress rose from the water. It was obviously the Water Elemental, but she looked so different now, as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Her eyes appeared to be kind and her features were much smoother now. The dress she had on seemed to be very delicate, like it could rip apart if anyone touched it the wrong way, even if I knew it wouldn’t. She looked much less violent now, as if she had gone from being a raging rapid into a timid stream and her appearance knocked me off balance. “That is, if you have my sphere.”

“Oh, you mean this?” I said as I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small glass sphere. I looked into it and saw something that resembled a whirlpool as it showed water swirling around. It really was very pretty to look at.

“Ash, how did you get that?!” Joe said in shocked amazement.

“Well Blackbeard was getting ready to kill me and had me in his grip. I started to grab at his arm and jacket and thankfully he didn’t notice I pulled it from his pocket,” I said with a smile. "My original idea was to lure him to his sword and steal the sphere when he wasn't paying attention, but that kind of fell apart."

“And Blackbeard?” Joe asked.

“He’s gone,” I replied and let it drop. Joe seemed to understand and let the conversation go, which was fine with me as I’d rather not talk about it. I then turned to the Water Elemental and held the sphere out in front of me. “What do I have to do?”

“My previous master has drained a lot of my power for his own selfish ends,” she said, obviously having bad memories as her form began to intensify, the water swirling around her in a whirlpool that quickly vanished as she calmed herself. “I will need you to feed me your power.”

“How exactly do I do that? It isn’t like I can just pull out a spoon and give you me power on a plate,” I answered, causing the Elemental to laugh.

“Nothing as strange as that. You have the sphere, just channel your power into it,” she said and I understood. I had seen Blackbeard channel his power into the sphere multiple times, but I hadn’t understood what he was doing at the time. The Water Elemental turned to Angel as well. “I will also need your help. I will channel my power into you young nymph, but it is up to you to continue the spell.”

“Fine with me, just help out!” Angel half yelled at the Elemental, which seemed to upset her somewhat, but she shrugged it off.

“Are you ready?” the Elemental said, looking at both of us.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I said as I walked up behind Angel. I held the water sphere in my hand and enveloped it in blue fire. I had to concentrate my power into the sphere, believing that I could help save El. The Water Elemental began to react to my abilities and the water around us seemed to go still. Then the Water Elemental began to glow a light blue, similar to the blue light emitted by Angel’s healing spell. The water all around us seemed to react to her and glow as well. She then seemed to turn into pure water and flew to Angel, spiraling around her and fueling the spell. The sudden jolt of power must have been a surprise for her as Angel almost lost her concentration as the spell seemed to fade for only a split second, but came back with full strength and then some. Meanwhile, it no longer seemed like I was feeding the Water Elemental power as it felt more like it was being pulled from me instead.

“So much power,” Angel called as she was forced to channel the power of all the waters of the world into her. I couldn’t even imagine the kind of strain she must be under right now. Her eyes were closed tight and I thought I saw her sweating, if a nymph could sweat that is. “I can’t do this!”

“Yes you can,” I said as I placed a hand on her shoulder. Once again my abilities seemed to react on their own as blue flames covered my hand and seemed to flow into Angel.

“You can do this Angel,” Joe said as he placed his own hand on my shoulder. The blue flames intensified and seemed to fuel Angel on. It appeared to relax her as her eyes opened with a look of determination in them.

“I can do this, I have to,” Angel said with confidence in her voice. The water seemed to spiral even faster as energy and power flowed into El, but I couldn’t see how much of an effect it was having. The light became way too intense and I had to look away. Angel began to grown as the power seemed to become too much for her once again and nothing I could do could help her now.

Just then the light faded and the Water Elemental seemed to fly out of the spiraling water and land back in the sea, obviously exhausted. I quickly looked back at Angel and she seemed to have passed out. El was also still motionless on the deck of her own ship. I then turned to the Water Elemental, who was reforming herself in the water, drawing on the power of the ocean.

“Why did you stop?” I told her, annoyed as it didn’t appear El was saved and Angel looked hurt.

“I had to stop or I would have killed the nymph, possibly the demigod as well,” she said, looking up at me with sorrowful eyes. Even if I was angry, I knew that it was a slim chance anyway and I wouldn’t be able to sacrifice one friend for another.

Just then I heard someone break into a fit of coughing and turned around. El had rolled over and started spitting small amounts of blood from her mouth. She then rubbed her mouth with her arm and raised herself into a sitting position.

“What happened?” she said, looking around at the strange scene before her. Joe ran up and gave her a big hug, causing her to playfully hit him a few time. “Easy, easy! I just came back from the dead here…or at least as close as you can get without dying.”

I on the other hand went up to Angel and lifted her head. She was still breathing thankfully and had a smile on her face, but she seemed to be asleep. I then remembered I still had the water sphere in my hand and turned to the Water Elemental, who had reformed herself.

“Thank you for your help,” I said to her, and she nodded back.

“It was the least I could do for freeing me from that retched pirate. Just watch over that sphere, keep it safe, and we’ll call it even,” She said before merging with the water below and disappearing. I pulled out my sword and held the sphere up to it. Both objects seemed to react to each other, glowing slightly brighter as the sphere merged into my blade, similar to how the Earth Elemental had his sphere merge with my sword when I met him. When it was done, I held my sword in my hand and it was like I could feel the power of the ocean backing me up.

“Good job,” Joe said as he gave me a pat on the back. El also seemed surprising energetic considering she had been mostly dead for the past hour, giving me a quick hug.

“Thanks,” I said, as I really couldn’t think of anything else to say to them that would express how much they had helped me. I looked at them and then turned my attention to my sword. It seemed to glow with a mix of blue and green light, but it was faint. I was so focused, I didn’t hear the sound of some kind of cannon and a mechanical claw grabbed my sword and pulled it from my hand.

“Thank you for holding on to those spheres for me, but I think I’ll be taking them now,” the Collector said as his ship began to rise up into the air and the cable with my sword at the end began to retract.