Aaron stood next to the helm, watching the illusory Mr. Crab rotate it towards the glowing city of Sea Fallen.

  He had removed the disguise from the Ghostship, worried that the transformation into a fishing boat might also affect its speed, slowing them down.

  Well, the aura was still there even when it was disguised. Maybe it keeps all its usual properties, and the fishing boat form is just a visual trick…

  Brushing off the thought, Aaron turned his gaze to the teal waves crashing against the bow, noticing them growing larger and larger as the minutes passed.

  It seems a storm is approaching…

  In the distance, large bolts of lightning rippled across the sky, illuminating the darkness with violent blasts that clawed at the clouds.

  The storm surged towards the city of Sea Fallen, its white lightning slashed with crimson streaks, a sinister sight that Aaron recognized all too well.

  Isn’t that the same storm from the Sea of Chains? What’s it doing in the Sea of Dreams?

  As he furrowed his brow, a sudden flash of turquoise light burst from below his feet, snapping him out of his thoughts.

  “What the–”

  Runes erupted across the deck in flashing colors, and Aaron’s eyes instinctively followed their flare to the ship’s right flank.

  Dangerously close, a slimy-green monster surfaced from the waves, its rippling scales gleaming in the moonlight as it stared at the Ghostship.

  One by one, its grotesque heads rose from the depths, revealing three serpent-like maws that dripped a steaming black goo.

  “T-That’s what I was supposed to hunt? This isn’t a young sea terror at all!”

  Aaron’s mind was overwhelmed with fear as he recalled the mission that had described the hunt as a simple task, nothing like the nightmare rising from the sea.

  “This ain’t simple at all!”

  The large creature slithered above the waves towards the Ghostship, deciding to approach despite the ship’s imposing aura, seemingly deceived by its unthreatening appearance.

  To Aaron's right, Mr. Crab had vanished in a flash of turquoise light, leaving him to face the massive sea terror alone.

  Dammit, now’s not the time to panic… This ship was built to hunt sea terrors, so let's try some of those weapons Mr. Crab left for me.

  Sprinting down the short staircase to the lower deck, Aaron climbed behind the right cannon and aimed at the many-headed monster rushing toward the Ghostship.

  Good thing I loaded these in advance…

  Lighting the fuse with grim focus, he watched purple light gather along the barrel of the cannon before solidifying into a dense, glowing mass.

  Aaron covered his ears as the gunpowder ignited, launching a ghostly cannonball towards the terror.

  The cannon recoiled backward, slamming into Aaron and knocking him to the floor; however, the shot he had fired flew through the air and struck the monster with a fiery explosion.

  Without even checking the damage, he reached to his right and grabbed another cannonball, his breath ragged and fingers slipping.

  This one's strange… The color is different than usual.

  Pushing the thought aside, he readied the cannon again and, at last, turned to see what the first shot had done.

  “W-What…?”

  The cannon had struck its centermost head, completely blasting it apart; however, as Aaron stared at the aftermath, he witnessed something impossible.

  “I-It’s regrowing?”

  The middle head had been vaporized, yet from the ruined stump, two more heads sprouted, turning the creature into a true monstrosity.

  Aaron’s mind whirred with the sudden realization as a single word echoed through his thoughts, not from memory, but from the stories meant to keep children alive.

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  “A Hydra.”

  The supposedly weak sea terror was, in fact, a creature that roamed the Sea of Curses with a bare minimum of four points in magnitude.

  How the hell is this a rookie mission? Did they mix it up? This is something that should be handled by a small fleet of ships or perhaps even by one of Sir Lepaie’s trusted men…

  Aaron’s eyes locked onto the terror just ahead of him, realizing how unprepared he was for a threat of this caliber.

  Shaking his head, he quickly finished loading the strangely colored cannonball, then lit the fuse without hesitation.

  The cannon fired loudly, the recoil nearly knocking Aaron to his knees once more; however, this time he caught his balance and watched the glowing cannonball fly through the sky towards the hydra.

  The slimy monster craned one of its four heads towards the incoming projectile as if it sensed danger.

  Aiming directly at Aaron, the head launched a counterattack, opening its maw and sending large clumps of steaming goo towards the Ghostship.

  Focused on steering the ship away from the charging terror, Aaron hurried to the helm, unaware of the incoming attack.

  Turning the wheel hard to the left, he lifted his gaze to the volley of liquid raining down on the deck, some of it landing atop his skin.

  The acidic goo hissed and steamed as it ate away at his skin, sending searing pain throughout his body.

  Aaron collapsed in agony, realizing he’d been covered in the hydra’s deadly toxin that could paralyze and kill prey within thirty seconds.

  His vision blurred as blood pooled around him and the smell of burnt skin filled the air.

  Suddenly, the burning stopped, and Aaron watched in disbelief as his arms healed as if they had never been burned.

  What the…

  Aaron’s eyes widened in confusion before his mind was flooded with the memory of his conversation with the Old Man in the Abyss.

  “So this is what poison resistance can do, eh? This isn’t weak at all, Old Man.”

  Springing up, Aaron rushed from the helm back to the cannons, only to encounter a bizarre sight.

  The hydra had caught the oddly colored cannonball in its mouth; however, purple light was bursting from inside, slowly burning the creature's head.

  “A magic cannonball?” Aaron exclaimed, surprise flashing across his face.

  Grabbing another colorful cannonball from the pile to his right, he prepared another shot aimed at the hydra, hoping to trigger a chain reaction.

  The one he loaded into the metal tube was a forest-green stone that emitted a strange smell, repulsing Aaron deeply.

  “Fire in the hole!”

  As he yelled, the cannon roared, sending the projectile directly at the torso of the hydra, where it shattered immediately upon impact.

  Flames spewed from the orb, engulfing the body of the terror and boiling the surrounding water.

  The hydra howled in agony, accidentally crushing the other orb lodged in its jaw, finally releasing the magenta light that so desperately wished for freedom.

  “Nothing happened?”

  Aaron watched the scene, confused about what the purple ball did; however, the moment he uttered the words, a flash so bright that it turned the night into day exploded from inside the hydra.

  His gaze was locked on the hydra, not daring to look away until a small blue light materialized beside him.

  Mr. Crab jumped from the void onto Aaron’s head, covering his eyes from the flash, knocking him to the floor as a shockwave that shook the ocean itself burst from the creature.

  Aaron’s vision blurred as a wave of fatigue overwhelmed his body, with the last thing he saw before passing out being a dark blue shield wrapping around the Ghostship, protecting it from the magnificent light that overwhelmed the world around him.

  …

  “Aye, e've made it t' land, matey!”

  Adam spoke to Arianna, who merely rolled her eyes at his imitation of the pirates that the master employed.

  The two figures stepped off their raft onto the soft sand, looking up at the bright lights of Sea Fallen.

  Suddenly, they felt the overwhelming aura of death encompass the world, making them draw their weapons in fear.

  “W-What the hell was that!”

  Adam shouted nervously at Arianna, who was in the same amount of shock and fear as him.

  “I-I don’t know!”

  She looked around nervously, noticing the sky brighten dramatically as if the sun had risen.

  Adam held a blade that radiated bursts of flames while Arianna herself was holding a small flintlock that glowed with a crimson hue.

  She composed her thoughts and spoke carefully.

  “I-I’ve only felt that powerful of a presence once before, and if that ‘thing’ is in this city, then we have no hope of returning alive, much less completing our mission.”

  Adam looked at her, narrowing his eyes in thought.

  “Y-You don’t mean that an ape–”

  His voice was cut off by Arianna, who hushed him loudly.

  “You fool! If it truly is one of ‘them’ in this area, then ‘they’ will hear you.”

  Adam blinked before sighing and mumbling under his breath.

  “So this is what Master warned us to be wary of, eh? He wasn’t joking if it is truly what we suspect…”

  The silver-haired woman nodded carefully before holstering her weapon against her waist and speaking.

  “There is no use thinking about it since if it is truly one of ‘them’ then we have no hope. We must pray to the deities that it is not what I assume it to be, but we must be ready to die if it is.”

  Adam nodded at her glum remark before placing his blade in an illusory space in his arm.

  “Then we must continue to the mission with utmost caution.”

  Arianna nodded and began to walk carefully along the small stone path that led to the city of Sea Fallen.

  Under her breath, she mumbled out a prayer, watching the sky return to the dark cover of night.