Chương 81: Weather Control

As if on cue, the sky darkened and clouds united under a single goal: to block the sun and any light that could shine down on the ships. The wind picked up, causing the waves to grow increasingly ferocious by the second as rain began to pour. Initially, this was light rain, but this eventually turned into a rain shower. And on the deck of the middle ship stood Cayman William Grace, who was nothing but a magnet for rage and fury.

All of the feelings of animosity and indignation that we had harboured, all of it, was being sucked out of our bodies and transferred into Cayman's. CB's taunting had brought his anger levels to an absolute high, and it was all going to explode in just a matter of seconds.

"You still don't get the memo, do you?" CB said, reducing the amount of hostility expressed in his elderly woman's voice.

"Do you even understand anything?" Instantly, Cayman's face contorted, but not due to anger. His face contorted in shock as if to signify that he didn't understand what CB was saying.

"You really don't understand, do you?" As the rain picked up, CB moved his arms in a fairly peculiar way. Soon, something manifested in the gap between his hands.

"Is he casting a spell or something?" Ben asked Theo, who had just turned to stare at CB's bizarre actions.

"I don't know," Theo replied simply.

"Just wait and see." Something pitch-black in colour began to form, something that was akin to a small cave entrance. This 'cave entrance' then kept augmenting itself until it was the size of a large bathroom mirror. It didn't stop there; after a few more seconds, its shape could be compared to a mirror as tall as a human. Theo, Ben, Maya and Daniel's brains weren't clicking at that point, but I understood what was going on immediately. I knew exactly what CB was conjuring up. He was making a gateway.

"Do you see now?" CB asked Cayman, his voice laced with triumph.

"I'm the one doing this. Because this is our planet." Does he know? Does that mean he knows what's going on? Does he understand Cayman's goal more than Cayman does? That could explain why Cayman was so livid.

"Haha. You know what's coming next, don't you," CB muttered as he let go of the gateway in his hands, letting it float on the deck of his ship. Cayman remained silent, channelling all of his energy into trying to suppress his growing anger.

"You're getting it." What CB did next was unthinkable. All of a sudden, without giving any warning, he forcefully pushed one of the people nearest to him on the deck into the gateway. Before the person could even scream, the gateway had already absorbed his body fully, and his feet were no longer planted on the deck. At first, I couldn't understand the motive for this absurd move, but soon, a gateway emerged in the middle of our deck all of a sudden, taking everyone by surprise.

It was just a floating black portal nonchalantly hovering above the deck, scanning our behaviour. And from that gateway, from that very gateway on our deck, a mana beast emerged. It wasn't just any mana beast; it was a skeleton pirate. A real-life, walking, breathing skeleton pirate from the vast population of the living dead. Maya let out a shrill scream, prompting Daniel to cover her mouth before Cayman could explode. Theo and Ben stood glued to the spot, stunned, astonished and speechless.

"No…" My words trailed off. I couldn't process this feeling in my brain. A gateway, one of those portals that had been present at the far end of every enemy ship we had been on so far, had just appeared on our ship, and a skeleton pirate had just appeared from this very gateway. What the hell did he put in those things to turn a living person into a walking skeleton? Maybe those people on the ship weren't members of The Leak.

Maybe they were just ordinary Hoppers who had been kidnapped by The Leak and forced to become skeleton pirates. Or maybe they were part of The Leak, but CB just chose to sacrifice them anyways on a whim. That would be despicable beyond belief. Cayman, who was the only person who hadn't faltered, rushed towards the skeleton pirate, and in just a second, the pirate was cleaved, sliced and pulverised, leaving only white powder on the floor.

He felt no remorse even after killing a person who had just been wrongfully turned into a pirate. Still, he let his anger show.

"You," Cayman said, his voice laced with thick venom.

"I knew you were up to no good. Why are you doing this? Why are you turning innocent people into mana beasts like these? Why are you making us kill innocent people?"

"Um. Correction. They are actually not innocent people. They are people who have betrayed The Leak or have run away from The Leak. They are worthless brats, filthy scum who don't know their place. And for this reason, you should also feel no remorse when killing them."

"You pesky fiend!"

"Maybe you should just cease all of your actions and go back to Planet Zero… wait. You don't have a home in Planet Zero because we took everything from you. Haha." CB casually put a finger on his chin. He stared at Cayman, whose rage couldn't even be described anymore. Night Hoppers had described Cayman's past vividly, from planting vivid images in my head of Cayman's parents being killed and kidnapped to vivid images of Cayman surviving on the streets, everything was there.

Therefore, I could share some of his hatred for The Leak.

"Why me?" Cayman boomed.

"Why me? Tell me. Why always me? Why not somebody else? Why are you guys specifically targeting me? What have I done wrong that would make you guys target me so vigorously?"

"Cayman, Cayman, Cayman. Do you still not understand? Having haters in this universe is normal. Everyone has haters. There will always be someone out there who hates what you do. No matter how many people like you, there will still be a small group of people who loathe you, who despise you, who detest all of your actions. That's natural."

"What are you trying to say then…"

"You have to face those haters and prove them wrong. Vindicate them. If you can't do that, you're nothing but a mere coward. Do you know what will entice you? There are people in the cabin of my ship waiting to be turned into skeleton pirates. Those are hostages. I know you want to save them all, so come at me all you want, coward."

"You!" Cayman had realised long ago that CB was casually playing the role of the 'hater'. He was about to lunge towards CB, but before he could get the chance to teleport to his ship, CB sent another person into the gateway. That unfortunate person, who had once been one of The Leak's traitors, was nothing more than a skeleton pirate when he emerged from the other side of the gateway.

His attention was forcefully diverted towards the skeleton that was hurtling towards Theo, Ben and Maya with a sword ready to cleave and eviscerate them, and he cut all the bones before any strikes could land on them. Slash! Slash! Slash! In one fluid movement, after the skeletons were mere snowflakes on the ground, Cayman slashed the gateway that had appeared on the deck, blinding us with a glimmering layer of lavish gold akin to the colour of Maya's crown. Slash!

The gateway, which couldn't withstand Cayman's forceful movement, instantly split into two and disappeared into thin air on the spot, leaving no trace of its existence behind.

"I should've done this after killing the first skeleton," I heard Cayman whisper in a voice tainted with self-reproach.

"Stupid bastard."

"Coward," CB mused, watching the entire scene unfold in front of him and curling his lips into a wide smile.

"He doesn't even know his own limits." CB was about to send another few people on the deck into the gateway, but before that could happen, something behind him caught his attention. Bang!

"Huh?" There, just a few inches away from where he was standing, a lightning bolt struck, followed by the deep, dissonant sound of thunder ringing from above. It was definitely lightning; it was a bolt made of pure white light that temporarily blinded CB, and it came from the sky. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. Bang!

"Argh!!!" There it was again. Another lightning strike, this time near the tip of the ship, struck, hitting a person squarely on the head. This person let out a deafening, spine-chilling scream before falling silent. Moments later, a loud thud could be heard from the same area where the lightning strike hit, indicating that this person had fallen limp and that the lightning strikes were potent and lethal. That was the moment when CB realised something. This was not a normal thunderstorm.

Just moments ago, the sky had been clear, lacking any clouds, and the sun, at its zenith, had been casting its radiant beams of light onto the ocean. Something was up.

"Is this a skill?" CB thought to himself. Back on our ship, we were sharing the same feelings of confusion. It wasn't just CB who was perplexed; his feelings had somehow made their way to us. Ben's jaw dropped. With this reckless gale picking up speed, the waves gradually got more vicious and ferocious, causing the three ships to begin drifting towards each other, all bobbing up and down in a frantic frenzy.

Ellie and Devon's ship was inching closer towards us, and soon, I could hear Devon's worrisome screams mingling with the screams of Cayman and CB.

"What the hell is this?" Devon shouted.

"What is going on?" Luckily, someone responded to Devon's outburst. However, it wasn't the person we were thinking of. We would never believe that this person would speak, nor would we ever believe that she would do such a thing.

"My skill." The person who had spoken was none other than Cayman's twin sister, Ellie Grace. Her wraith of a voice was somehow transported towards our ears, and we could hear those two words perfectly fine. That voice, which had been as quiet as an electric car on the road when I last heard it, was somehow audible despite there being a tumultuous thunderstorm and wild waves in the vicinity.

"So you can talk!" Ben shouted back.

"I knew it. Why not speak sooner then?"

"Shut up, Ben!" Theo yelled.

"Don't you know the precarious situation we've gotten ourselves into? Ellie speaking is the least of our worries!" Ellie, however, only gave Ben a sweet smile as she cast her hands in the air. I instantly knew what this was. It was a gift of a main skill, one of the best main skills to be given out in Night Hoppers. Weather Control. The skill that allows the user to control the weather.

What makes this skill useful is that the skill user possessing this skill can manipulate the weather not just on their home planet and not just on Planet Earth, but on any planet that they go to. Because of this, in one of those 'blink and you miss it' moments, one moment, it could be sunny and the next, there could be a raging storm right in front of you, ready to sweep you up like a large broom.

This was a skill that Ellie had honed to perfection over the years, a skill that Ellie had wielded so flawlessly in the past that some might believe her changes in weather were natural and not due to mana. But this time, the gradual change that Ellie usually brought with her was absent, and instead, the change in weather was as sudden as a jumpscare moment in a horror movie.

After all, the novel mentions that she can choose whether she wants to produce a gradual change in weather or a sudden change in weather, and the fact that she could make clouds appear from out of nowhere in a sky that previously didn't have them definitely fell into the latter category.

The novel also mentions that this skill is the most straightforward way for Ellie to convey her emotions as someone who doesn't speak; for example, if she is feeling sad, she could unleash a torrential downpour, and if she is angry, she might release thunder and lightning. Therefore, I could deduce that the tumultuous thunderstorm and the raging waves were a testament to her boiling, overflowing anger. Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Argh!!!!!!!!!!" Ellie continued to conjure up a show, unleashing lightning bolts recklessly on the deck. The people on the deck, who were traitors of The Leak, quivered, all sharing the same thoughts about not wanting to be the unlucky ones who got struck. Screams rang out from the far end of the boat as some of the traitors were struck and reduced to nothing but a layer of soot, giving them a charred, burnt look.

"You…" CB was at a loss for words. Did he not think Ellie was a variable that needed to be controlled, someone who should be pinned down and restrained?

"You!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Bang, bang, bang!!! At least five people had been struck by Ellie's lightning bolts, creating an unwanted pile of soot on the deck of CB's ship. However, Ellie didn't stop there; she soon shifted her focus and began aiming her lightning bolts at one person in particular. Soon, Cayman's brain clicked into action.

With the anger inside his brain being successfully suppressed, and with his whole body completely drenched by the torrential downpour, he began issuing orders like an agitated, frenzied general at war.

"We need to rescue the hostages! We need to get on that ship and get the hostages to safety! While Ellie is keeping that bastard at bay, we need to strike!" Bang, bang, bang!!! The clamour of thunder and the blinding white lightning strikes rained down on CB, but unfortunately for Ellie, he didn't get struck. There was something protecting CB from Ellie's lightning strikes, and it wasn't hard for me to deduce the cause. Human Shield. Daniel's main skill.

"Hm." CB pursed his lips and stared intently at Ellie at the far end of his vision. Unlike the other traitors on the deck, there was not a single drop of rain on his body; the rain was hitting something invisible surrounding him, allowing me to deduce the size of CB's human shield. If he had been completely drenched, his make-up would have completely washed off, revealing his overly wizened visage, reminiscent of that of his boss as mentioned in Night Hoppers. He could only smile as he leisurely opened his mouth.

"Very cunning indeed," he said in a languid voice.

"However, petty tricks like that don't work on me. Unlike the traitors on this ship, I stay loyal to The Leak, and I've built up my arsenal of skills. There must be something wrong with your brain if you think something like that is going to kill me." However, Ellie just stared indifferently at CB, unamused.

"Resistance is futile, Cayman and Ellie Grace. I appreciate your effort, but you'll all meet your doom today."

"Robert! Daniel! Help Ellie infiltrate the enemy ship. I want you two to defeat all the traitors. Don't worry about CB, since Ellie will keep him distracted. Once all the traitors are defeated, I'll go in and rescue the hostages. Understand?" Daniel and I nodded resolutely. Cayman's voice showed a tinge of reluctance, possibly because his initial plan was not to have us embroiled in this perilous fight, but unfortunately, there was no turning back now.

"Maya! Theo! Ben! Stay on this ship and guard it with all your life. Don't let anyone on this ship. Since those bastards are traitors of The Leak, feel free to kill them. Don't be reluctant. Kill as many as you want. The same goes for you, Robert and Daniel."

"Understood!" Ben and Maya bellowed in unison.

"Devon! Get on this ship right now! You're fighting with Robert and Daniel. Understood?" In the vicinity, I could see Devon giving Cayman a thumbs-up.

"There's no telling whether CB will set up another gateway on our ship, so be vigilant. There is no time for objections. Let's move!" Before I could activate my teleportation skill, I caught a glimpse of Devon hopping from one ship to the next in one of those rare 'blink and you miss it' moments. He was literally a blur as he teleported from the ship with our bags to the ship where we had just finished defeating the skeleton pirates. That was the sign for me to take action.

[Skill, 'Teleportation (advanced)', has been activated.] Whoosh! In an instant, I found myself on the enemy ship, in the thick of all the action. Seeing CB up close was something I wanted to erase from my mind; a tall, burly man with a muscular physique was wearing make-up and trying to be soft. In my eyes, he was nothing but a clown no matter how muscular his body was, someone who should be the ace at a circus performance and not someone who should be messing with affairs at The Leak.

He wasn't paying attention to me since his gaze was directed at Ellie two ships away. She was still casting lightning bolts on top of CB's head, and from my position on the ship, I could see a gap of a few centimetres between the lightning strikes and CB's head. Maybe the human shield wasn't truly invisible after all. Bang! Soon, after just a few seconds, Ellie had diverted her attention from the looming, ominous figure of CB and focused her lightning bolts on the traitors instead.

A lightning bolt hit a traitor at the far end of the boat, around five feet from where I was standing, and I could see clearly as the lightning bolt turned the person from a light-skinned, nonchalant guy to a completely black, burnt figure, akin to a colossal lump of charcoal. The person fell backwards, hitting the deck's railing before teetering off the deck and tumbling into the sea as a lifeless corpse. Jesus, I muttered to myself. That's the true power of Ellie's skill.

I don't want to be hit accidentally by one of those things. Clop, clop, clop! Footsteps filled the air. Some of the traitors charged towards Daniel, but with Daniel's human shield, any move that they tried was futile, regardless of whether they were punches or sword strikes. Bang! The sound of thunder made my entire body jolt, pushing my feet completely off the ground.

A lightning bolt hit the traitor that was closest to me, and my eyes were immediately drawn to the cruel consequences that this person had to face as a result. The lightning strike hit his head, and for a split second, I thought the person was actually on fire. However, because of the heavy rain, fire did not make its way onto this person, and instead, smoke billowed as the person's entire body turned black, as black as a gateway, and as the body went limp, it fell on the floor with a deafening thud. Bang! Bang!

Bang!

"Hey! You!" One of the traitors began screaming. This person rushed from the tip of the deck to where I was standing, and soon, we locked eyes.

"I see you there. What are you trying to do by infiltrating our ship?"

"Your ship?" I asked, sneering. There was no one around me, and my social awkwardness somehow didn't affect me when talking to this scum.

"Yeah, our ship."

"Do you really think this is your ship?" I snarled." Your ship? Have you seen what that clown over there is trying to do?" I pointed to CB in the distance, who was rooted to the spot inside his little human shield, watching as my friends hurriedly readied themselves for a fight.

"You're going to die," I continued, my voice tinged with a drop of venom.

"No matter what the outcome is, you are going to die."

"So what?" the traitor spat.

"So what if I die? At least I'll die a valiant death. I've served The Leak and I've betrayed them. What more can I get in life?"

"So you want to die, huh? I see how it is."

"Yes, I want to die." As soon as I received the traitor's confirmation, I reached into my inventory and pulled out a sword. The traitor, seeing what I was doing, did the same thing and pulled out his sword, which had a nasty, rusty blade that hadn't been cleaned in an eternity.

"Bring it on," the traitor said, curving his lips into a wide sneer, "if you dare."

"Happily." [Skill, 'Speed (advanced)', has been activated.] Whoosh! Slash! In just one fell swoop, in just one elegant move, as I darted from one place to another with my sword stuck out like I didn't know how to use it, my sword made contact with the traitor's neck, and because of my rapid movements, the traitor had no time to react, and his head was cleanly separated from his neck.

It was one of those occasional 'blink and you miss it' moments: if you blink, one moment, you'll see the person wallowing in his own pleasure, and the next, the person is a lifeless corpse strewn on the ground, missing a head and spilling crimson blood on the deck.

"It's a shame it had to end like this for you," I said, lacing my voice with conceit. Bang! More thunder and lightning struck the boat, eliciting screams from the traitors that were still alive. I knew instantly that this was going to be a long, brutal fight. It was because of Cayman that my friends and I had been entangled in this cumbersome battle.