Chương 624: The Final Run to Sea

Luke and the group were coming down a rocky hillside. Waves crashed below, but this was the route. They could not cheat the course.

"I hear fighting ahead," Charlie said. He had managed to find her and the other group because he had left Charlie marked with [Predator's Mark]. As they rounded a bend in the ravine, they saw two people dueling with swords. A third stood nearby with a crossbow raised.

"He's got backup!" the crossbowman shouted, assuming they were with the other man. The moment he turned to aim at Luke, Anne and Charlie moved. The doll woman raised a barrier. The bolt struck it and exploded, but Luke came through unharmed. Charlie spun in and attacked the two swordsmen at once. Eleanor put an arrow through the crossbowman.

"We don't have time to loot!" Eleanor shouted to Evangeline.

"Damn it! I wanted to rob them!" Evangeline said, glancing back in genuine sorrow. There was a real chance the number of boats on the beach was limited. They rushed down the rocky slope, crossed a stretch of forest, and reached the shore. The boats that looked like little Viking longboats were still there. Other people were arriving too, emerging from different paths along the route. Then, in the distance, they saw it.

"A ship," Jack said. Luke zoomed in with the Eye of Sariel and saw Captain Thomas.

"The pirates got here first." The group ran for one of the boats.

"Should we take two?" Jack asked.

"One group, one boat," Luke said. They shoved the boat into the water and climbed in. Other groups were doing the same. For one brief moment, Luke wanted to throw a knife and destroy the other boats.

"Innocent people, Luke. They didn't attack us," Eleanor said.

"Okay..."

"What's the ship doing?" Jack asked. The ship, which had been facing the horizon, turned sideways toward them.

"Oh no," Luke said.

"Cannons." Then the ship opened fire. Anne raised a barrier. The boat beside them was hit. Its crew went into the water, one of them screaming after taking the blast. The boat sank, and the crew vanished in flashes of light.

"They were disqualified," Evangeline said. More cannon fire came toward them.

"Can I kill those ones?" Luke asked.

"Absolutely." He tossed the flag to the others.

"Use this." Then he jumped onto the shark. The ship was far out, in a safe position. Riding the shark, Luke weaved around the cannon fire and hurled knives at the ship, using [Telekinetic Impulse] to carry them farther. Eleanor fired arrows too. But there was a mage on the ship.

"This is how pirates do things, idiots!" the captain shouted, laughing with his crew. Then he turned the wheel, and the ship pushed forward again. Luke looked after it, then gave up the chase. The ship was faster than he was, even with the shark. When he returned to the boat, he helped by making the shark push them forward.

"That is a ridiculous advantage," Jack said.

"Pirate powers make them stronger at sea, especially with a ship."

"Cinderella has a shark, so at least we're in second place," Evangeline said. But Luke did not want second place. He needed first.

"There are still four islands left," Eleanor said.

"We can do this."

"If the next island has another flag, we're going after it," Luke said. He looked at the green flag. [Wind Pennant]: A green pennant enchanted with wind magic that creates a constant breeze around it. When raised on a boat or ship, it increases the vessel's sailing speed, propelling the vessel even in little to no wind. The shark would tire eventually, and after that they would have to row or hope the wind favored them. Not anymore.

"Next round," Luke said, "we go after the pirates."

Charlie and Anne were moving through the forest toward the flag on the second island. They were close now. Just the two of them. Luke and the others were taking the route to the beach, trying to reach the ship before the pirates did.

"Lulie, stay close to me," Charlie told the little bat. That was also one of the ways Charlie fed on beast blood without the others noticing. She had spent months with Anne. She was her best friend. Anne always wore her maid outfit. Charlie wished she had hers too, but it had been left behind in her wardrobe back in Camlann.

"What... are your parents... like?" Anne asked.

"My parents?"

"Yes..."

"I don't know..." Charlie said, thoughtful. She had no memories from before she met Luke. She did not care much about whatever life had existed before that. She had spent too long trapped inside a coffin. To her, life had been nothing but this, knocking her head against the lid every day and waiting for death.

"I'm... worried," Anne said.

"Worried?"

"My sister..." Anne loved Erza deeply. The two of them had a remarkably normal sisterly bond.

"She went after your brother. Weren't they supposed to be friends?"

"Julian... is... bad," Anne said. Charlie knew a little about Anne's family. She had two mothers, one human and one doll. In her family, the women were born as two separate beings, one human, the other a doll. Anne had been meant to mirror Erza, but their god, P, had given Anne the chance to grow as an independent self instead of remaining bound to Erza's system. For that to happen, her mother had needed to conceive a child with a man who had no system.

"Doll Mother... tried to love... Julian, but... she said... he was... broken," Anne said. They kept walking. Every now and then, a beast crossed their path, and they killed it without slowing down. Charlie lifted her head, scenting the air, then sharpened her hearing.

"There are people near the flag," she said. Charlie and Anne picked up speed. At the base of the hill, the two of them started climbing.

"It's close," Charlie whispered. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Then both of them let go and dropped back down.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" a man's voice said.

"Two women wandering around alone." Then he got a good look at Anne and froze.

"Holy shit, you're a fucking monster." Anne lifted her sword automatically, startled. Charlie surged forward and punched the man with [Flame Fist] active. [Ignite activated] He caught fire instantly. Charlie killed him.

"Come on, Anne. More of them are getting close. He alerted them," Charlie said. She grabbed Anne and activated [Fire Leap], using the burst to help them scale the slope. At the top were fish-like humanoid monsters wrapped in algae. Charlie and Anne attacked them together. Every punch Charlie landed set the creatures on fire. Anne jumped and seized the flag.

"Jump." Charlie ran, swept Anne into her arms, and jumped off the hill. They landed far down on the other side.

"Thank you... Charlie," Anne said. Then they started running again. Anne made a strange expression.

"It... hurts."

"Did you get hurt?" Charlie asked.

"If that bad man... had hit me... it would not have hurt. But... being called... a monster... hurts," Anne said. Charlie stopped running.

"You're not a monster, Anne." Anne looked at her.

"Am I... pretty... Charlie?"

"You're very pretty. You taught me how to be a maid."

"I wanted... to be cute... like you..."

"But you already are. You're really cute."

"You... are... a good friend." Then the two of them started running again. By the end of the day, they caught up with Luke and the others. Charlie was proud of her sense of smell. She could always track her husband. His scent was her favorite.

Days passed, and the deadline for the second Beacon was almost up. They were on the fourth island now. Luke and the group reached the beach, minus three of them: Eleanor, Layla, and Jack. Those three had gone after the fourth island's speed pennant.

"We got here first," Evangeline said as they ran. There were only ten boats and one ship, enough for eleven groups total. There were definitely more than eleven groups still in the race.

"That ship already belongs to someone, idiots," a voice called from aboard it. The ship pulled up anchor. The pirates.

"They got here first," Luke said. They sprinted for the boats before the other participants could reach them.

"The last island is really close," Charlie said, looking ahead.

"No more days at sea. Whoever reaches that island first wins." They started shoving one of the boats into the water. Then they saw it. A huge crowd of people, all of them desperate to get to the boats.

"They're here."

"Where's Eleanor?" Evangeline asked.

"There," Luke said. Someone was running with the pennant. And it was not one of them. It was one of Captain Thomas's pirates. Eleanor was right behind him, with Jack and Layla. She tried to shoot the pirate, but he jumped into the water and started swimming.

"Move, move!" Luke shouted to them. Eleanor climbed in with Layla and Jack.

"We lost the pennant," she said. They started rowing.

"Activating... barrier..." Anne said, raising her wand. Luke summoned his Spectral Beast to push the boat.

"What went wrong?" Luke asked.

"The pirate mooned me," Jack said.

"What?" Evangeline asked. Arrows started flying at them. The people left on the beach were trying to slow them down.

"He tricked us, Luke. The pirate copied our voices, and in the middle of the chaos with the lobsters, he stole the pennant and mooned us," Eleanor said.

"You mean literally?"

"Literally," Layla said.

"He yelled that this is how pirates do things, showed us his ass, and ran off laughing."

"So now they've got two pennants. And they're on a damn ship," Eleanor said.

"Let's kill the pirate," Charlie said.

"No. If we stop to kill him, the ship keeps sailing. We need to use this chance and beat them there. The fifth island ends the challenge," Luke said. The shark pulled the boat even faster.

"Don't think this is going to be easy!" pirate Thomas shouted from the ship. Then cannons appeared and started firing. Luke's boat shot forward, weaving around the blasts, but other boats got hit. The ship unfurled its sail, hoisted both pennants, and the wind favored it even more. It surged ahead into open water.

"We've got the advantage!" Jack said. The island was right there ahead of them. Whoever reached it first would win the Beacon. They started gaining distance.

"Sharks!" Layla shouted. A mass of fins cut through the water.

"No. Worse... Stalkers," Luke said. Then one of them latched onto the boat. The creature, half fish and half lizard, grinned with that same vicious smile and tried to tear into the hull. Evangeline stabbed it with her spear. More Stalkers came racing toward the boat.

"We can't stop to fight them. We'll lose the lead," Luke said, making the shark accelerate. The Stalkers kept coming. Some of them attacked the shark itself. Jack sat down and clutched the edge of the boat.

"Please don't let us sink. Please don't let us sink." More Stalkers came up from beneath the boat, grabbed on, and started pounding against it. Luke jumped onto the shark that was pushing the boat, then threw himself into the water. Below him, he saw dozens of Stalkers. The thread linking him to his beast yanked him forward, and underwater he carved through the Stalkers with his kukris, clearing them off the boat.

When he climbed back aboard, he saw the ship pulling ahead again, still keeping a safe distance between them.

"Goodbye, idiots!" one of the pirates shouted, mooning them again.

"We can't lose."

"The gear," Luke said.

"Take off the armor. Hurry. Strip off whatever you can."

"You came up with that right after seeing his ass, didn't you?" Artemis asked.

"No time." Luke kicked off the boots and stripped down his heavier gear. Charlie removed her heavy armor too, leaving only the simpler clothes underneath, and they started shoving everything into their pocket dimension. The shark kept pulling the boat. Its speed increased. The pennant helped the sail catch even more wind.

"We're even with them!" Eleanor shouted.

"Keep the damn Stalkers off us" Luke yelled. The ship had started getting attacked by Stalkers too, but their weight was not enough to slow it down. Luke's boat managed to keep pace with the ship until, suddenly, the cannons came into view.

"Oh no," Jack said. The shots thundered out. Anne raised a barrier together with Jack. The Stalkers reached the deck. Some of them started leaping up to tear through the sails.

"We're going to make it!" Evangeline shouted. The island was close. Luke and Eleanor started hurling knives and arrows toward the ship, but one of the pirates who had been watching them raised a staff and threw up a magical barrier. Luke aimed the bracer and fired a knife charged with [Shadow Mana Explosion]. The barrier did not break. But it cracked. He threw another, and it detonated. Another pirate stepped up beside the first and raised a second barrier.

"Magic... barrier..." Anne said.

"Magical... damage... is reduced." Other boats were trailing behind, but they were too far away to matter. The battle between the ship and Luke's boat raged on, with the Stalkers complicating everything, until they finally drew close to shore and hit the sand at the last possible second.

"We won!" Eleanor said. [Dungeon Challenge 3 "Island Run" was completed successfully] The pirate ship arrived only moments later.

"Damn it!" Captain Thomas shouted. But nothing happened. [Final Challenge activated]"Final challenge?" Jack said.

"So we didn't clear the Beacon?" [Only the two groups that reached the beach will take part in the Final Challenge] Everyone else had been disqualified. The pirates cheered and jumped onto the sand. Luke drew his daggers. Charlie pulled her sword. Eleanor raised her bow. Evangeline flipped her daggers into her hands. Anne lifted her treasured sword. Layla readied her bow, and Jack... Jack was late, but eventually managed to raise his wand.

"In that case," Luke said, "to win, all we have to do is eliminate the other group."

"Oops," Captain Thomas said, lifting a hand in surrender.

"You can do it, Captain. Fight them."

"Shut up, Jack!" Thomas snapped.

"Me?" Jack asked.

"But I'm not saying anything."

"Not you," Thomas said.

"My Jack." The pirate Jack.

"Another guy named Jack," Pirate Jack said.

"Small world. Your captain's called Jack too, right? Sparrow?"

"Jack Sparrow?" Eleanor asked, narrowing her eyes at Luke.

"I have a history... with these people," Luke said, raising his kukri again.

"You showed me your ass!" Layla shouted.

"Perverts."

"We're pirates," one of them said.

"It's not our fault you people have no sense of humor."

"Pirates or not, I'm clearing this Beacon," Luke said. Final Challenge: Escape to the Horizon Objective: Cross the island and reach the beach. Two ships are anchored there, but they are guarded by algae-cursed pirates and their drowned armies. The first group to reach the horizon aboard their ship wins the Beacon. Rules: - You may not sabotage the other group's ship while it is anchored on the beach. - The groups may not attack one another. Pirate Thomas grinned.

"So," he said, "shall we head for our ships?"