They were experienced sailors who knew their way around the winds and directions. After this unclear turn of the ship some of them had the thought that something must be wrong.
Andrew, the boatswain of the Black Crown made the decision to turn the ship around without consulting the captain as he have the made such adjustments before. But the one thing he forget to consider was that this sudden change in the direction didn't came about by winds or carelessness of the crew but was a clear decision of the ship itself.
Under the boatswain's commands many skeletal figures grabbed on to the ropes with their bony hands while others loosen the tension of the ropes elsewhere. But nun of their actions bear any results as the ropes and hinges refused to move,
Alaric who stood atop the bow thought something was off, the ship acted on it's own. And that's something he should not take lightly.
Alaric came to a conclusion that this situation was sensitive and pose the threat of creating a crack between the Black Crown and it's inhabitants.
Alaric walked forward and while standing on to of a railing he loudly order all actions to be seized immediately. As all the crew members stopped what they were doing and lined up neatly, Andrew walked up to the captain and asked why they were going south-west? At the same time Demono also wanted to know more about what was going on, although he already came to some likely answer in his head.
"I don't know," said alaric with no emotional backdrop. "But I think Black Crown is choosing to go somewhere on it's own and that means we are going to. If we like it or not."
Alaric didn't know what to think of this, he was already lacking time and didn't had any moment to spare. In this critical moment he was trapped in a dilemma, Either he waited to figure out what exactly Black Crown was doing or try to make it change his way that might end up in a crisis even bigger than he was trying to avoid by rushing back home.
At this moment he can't afford to lose any power, even if he made his way back to the storm isles but lost the support of his ship it would mean nothing. He needs his ship amd he needs every member on it to be the king of four seas. If he wants to save his friends he must not do anything that make him lose his control over the situation.
Alaric choose to let the Black Crown go where it was going and decided to wait.
Two and a half hours later,
The bright afternoon had shifted from bright daylight to a more yellowish hue and the sun that was at the top have move to the west drawing in the sunset.
The situation on the ship that was still moving south-west was quite, Alaric sat on his chair as he looked out the window. The ship moved rapidly through the waters leaving waves behind as it moved forward.
Alaric thought to himself that the ship must have moved over hundred nautical miles at this speed ever since it had decided to go on it's own way.
He couldn't do anything about this situation even after being the captain of this ship. He had tried to touch the flesh on the sixth floor again in as a try to make a difference but nothing came out of it. He couldn't came to a conclusion at this point.
At at point Alaric felt as if he have remember something.
Yesterday, all those years ago he had felt something like this before. It was the instinctive sense of danger approaching from the an unseen and overlooked part of the seas, and that danger came from below the water.
From some distance away a shadow closed in, rapidly coming towards the black ship in its sights.
As this giant shadow came close the ship, the ship seems to sense its presence and try to turn it's front to face this approaching figure. But before it could to that the shadow close in too quickly and slammed head-first into the left side of the ship.
Everything on the ship jolted from their original positions. The experience members jumped up to their feets and made their way toward the railing to see what was going on for themselves while many more emerged from below the deck.
The person at the crows nest have failed to noticed this incoming threat in time and that have led the ship tacking a blow. Due to all that happened in last couple of days the people on the ship have forgotten that they were still at the mercy of the waves that surround them.
All that dares to venture into open seas are at the risk of meeting disasters at anypoint of their journey. And one of these disasters is came about by an attack from under the seas. Which is known as the worst kind of disaster one can met on sea.
At that point Alaric slammed open the door of his cabin and loudly ordered,
"Prepare to fight the sea monster!"
Kraken, A name that is known across the world, something parents use to scare their children with and sailors all over the world fear. Although Kraken name has been spread far and wide it is just a face of horrors that lay below the sea.
Kraken is not most dangerous or largest threat that lies below the sea, it's not even the most horrific. Among the chasms of seas one can never be certain what kind of monster they might encounter, thus they must be prepared to face anything.
This time the monster that crossed its path with Black Crown is that of an unknown nature. Alaric had years of experience trying to learn about these sea monsters but even he didn't knew what this creature was.
With Alaric's command the whole crew sprung into action, many people standing on the deck started to bring out harpoons kept of this specific situation while others loaded the cannons and prepared to blast that large thing out of the water.
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The actions of the crew were swift as if they had been trained for just a situation this situation.
The monster had moved away from the ship after the impact and it seems like it had turned around of round two. At this time Alaric pulled out his telescope and while looking toward the far distance he engraved his enemy's image into his mind.
The monster looked like a overgrown seal that is usually found in cold-icy places. It's color was whitish underneath it's belly and the upper part of it that came out of the water looked black. On its forehead was a hard shell that seems to be made for ramming into things. It had eight large fins, four on each side while a large tale fine behind. it's eyes were pitched black and lacked any pupil. It's overall appearance suggest that it is a type of creature that relies on it's bulking body and front shell to smash into its opponents.
This although is a great strategy for an ship sinking machine but at the same time it had its drawbacks which Alaric keenly noticed.
The monster is sturdy from the front but it's underbelly and back area is open to danger. And it being a bulky sea creature that charged straight at full speed like an torpedo make it really hard to maneuver around its body and quickly changed positions.
This is all that Alaric managed to deduced just by looking at it's appearance. This information was good but Alaric still have to figure out how can he himself into an advantage with all this data.
As Alaric thought to himself the shadow had already made it's way toward the ship and now was just couple hundred meters away. It was coming from the right side of the ship and the ship had aligned itself to meet this unwanted visitor.
With a signal all the connons who had the monster in their range rang out one after another. Countless black cannon balls flew into the sky rapidly making their way toward their mark. But before they could touch the water that monster had gone underwater and only a single cannonball hit it's head but due to it having a hard shell the cannonball did no damage.
After the voley it came back to the surface and kept it's pace toward the ship and full speed. When it was about to slam into the ship again two harpoons with ropes attached to their backs shock out from the deck. These came from the two harpoon guns specifically made to immobilize large creature. And currently two skeletal figures were arming these two weapons.
The two overly large harpoons with pointy heads flew toward the target. One got ricochet off and the other slightly pierced the monster skin but the monster managed to freed itself without much effort.
The cannons and harpoons both failed to stop this monster's advancement toward the ship and it looked like it will slam into the ship again at anypoint.
But at that time a greyish figure that was covered in fog flew down from the deck, in its hand was a harpoon that is suitable to be held by a human.
The greyish figure descended toward the water and then moved straight toward the rapidly approaching monster. Both side were coming towards each other at high speeds and in mear second they will make contact.
At the critical moment the greyish figure swiftly moved toward the left eye of the monster and before the enemy could react a harpoon was stabbed into its eye, blinding it from one eye.
Alaric had order this attack, he picked out the most adapt person for the job and gave him this task. Alaric had no hopes for this tactic to work but to his surprise, it worked.
But this was not the time to celebrate as the attack was still on it's way. The half blind monster didn't let its pain get into the way and with all its force slammed head first into the ship.
With a thud the whole ship jolted back and everyone on board had a hard time keeping their feet attached to the ground.
This was not good. If the ship got damaged to the point where it will need to be dock to repair there will be no hope to return as there is no safe place to dock this ship in the middle of nowhere. This is a dangerous situations, the ship had miraculously came back from certain fate of sinking underwater once but Alaric can't bet on that to happen once more. He had to deal with this problem before that monster can turn around and come for a another round of smashing his ship to pieces.
The monster had turned around and was approaching the ship again and under the guidance of Andrew the ship had turned around to met the monster with all it's side cannons facing forward. This is it, if not this then theri might not be another chance.
Alaric order all the adapt grayish crew members to pick up harpoons and follow their predecessor's lead.
The cannons got ready to unload their ball once again, the greyish creatrure that looked like they where wearing a hood to cover their heads line up in a neat order while all of them holding human size harpoons in their hands and the two skeleton who were handling the harpoons guns that were connected to ropes patiently waited for their target to inch closer.
The monster sped up as it get closer and closer while black blood seeping out of his left eye. The person who was responsible for this was eying the other eye which he had yet to blind.
With its approach the water around it formed wave after wave as it came in the range of cannons. Countless blasting sound came out of the ship and at the same time greyish creatures that lined up the sky fell down toward the the sea with a skydive. As they reached close to the surface of the sea they flew straight ahead facing toward their target. Once again the leading figure was eye to eye with the same monster he had faced just minutes ago. But this time he wasn't alone, he had his people behind him following his lead.
As they came closer the leading figure suddenly turned again, this time facing the other eye. But unexpectedly the monster turned toward the opposite side.
The leading figure had lost his chance to blind his opponent once and for all but he still held a harpoon in his hands. With quick reaction he plunged his harpoon into a fin of the monster. That seemed to caused some pain, and while he did his part the others following behind also did their. Some aimed of its fin like the first but two decided to aim for its eye and failed. Few went underwater and stab it's underbelly with their harpoons.
This seems to done the most damaged out of all other attacks.
The monster visibly slowed down. This was confirmation that the crew can still came out of this alive. With a new found confidence the two skeletons arming the two harpoon guns aimed at theri target but this time they avoided the thick front shell and set their sight on the tail fin at back. Even if one of them failed to land their mark the other had a decent chance to hit the target.
With focus both harpoons shot out from different side of the deck but one managed to hit the charging monster. With that the monster cried in pain and tried to free itself from the harpoon. But the harpoon could not be easily removed as it is made to latch on to things.
With the monster struggling in the waters the cannons had enough time to reload of a another wave of blasts.
With one command shots were heard once again. Countless cannonball bombarded onto the sea monster and cause some considerable damage. But non managed to pierce it's think upper skin, expect one. A cannon ball had landed onto the back side of the monster where it's tail was. But this ball had glued itself to the monsters skin in a abnormal way.
Alaric who was closely monitoring all the developments with his telescope caught on to this abnormal thing. Before he could come up with any reason at to why this happened what he was next scared him to his core.
The black metal ball dissolved into countless small bug-like things. These 'things' burrowed into the monster skin and crawled inside, sensing this the monster let out a terrifying cry for help.
But nobody there could save it from such fate even if they wanted to. Everyone on the ship silently looked to the wailing monster all in a sense of confusion and wariness. The Foggy creature above didn't dare to get too close to it and flew around.
After some time the terrifying cry subsided and the monster slowly sunk beneath the water, leaving a pool of think dark black blood behind.
Just like that, the monster was dead.
And what exactly killed is is a mystery.