Brentha splashed into the water below after he let go of her dress landing onto some of the debris of the ship. Hillanter stared Uff down to the center of his core, feeling his piercing glare. “Unfortunate for you.” He said.
“No, I can still do the ritual. I just need a drop of-” Uff began to speak but was blown out of the way by Hillanter flying past him and straight down the middle of the fortress.
Destroying countless buildings and the castle containing his office crumbled to the ground. All of the surrounding structures were all getting torn to pieces with all of the soldiers and slaves being turned into mush.
Gasping for air, Brentha finally resurfaced from the ocean onto a large piece of wood to keep her afloat. She saw the carnage going on, making her only worry about her friends even more than before.
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Zunci ran through the storage area, getting a huge stench of human flesh. Looking over she saw the smashed body of Fringerly and gagged before moving right along.
Hurrying over to the battlefield she spotted Shug hunched down with Huune overlooking the battlefield. Eyeing the destroyed ship with awe. She ran up right behind him and tapped him right on his shoulder.
He freaked out but calmed down when he saw her. “Zunci?” He looked relieved. “What happened to you, are you ok?”
“Yes I’m fine.” She quickly answered the question. “We need to get off this island now.”
“Why?”
“Brentha seemed to have completed the ritual. We need to get out of here before we get caught in the crossfire of it all.” She explained.
“Understood. But what are we going to-”
A huge wave cut right down the middle of the fortress sending stone and debris everywhere raining down like a thunderstorm on the battlefield. All of them ducked down behind their cover luckily only getting scarce pebbles bouncing off their backs.
“I guess it’s already started because what the fuck was that?” Zunci shouted as she asked.
“Was that Hillanter or whatever god is controlling him?” Shug followed up. “Where the hell are we going to hide from that?”
“The ocean!” She suggested.
“What? But we have no-”
“Get down!” Huune scooped them off the ground and dived into the water, splashing as another huge wave came towards their way just getting out in the knick of time.
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“We have to go now!” Jinlin commanded as he leveraged Yunga over his shoulder, supporting her so she could limp.
Shanta came running around the corner, frantically hopping to him. “Where do we go!?”
“Jump into the ocean and hope for the best!” He shouted back.
“There’s a huge fucking wall in the way.” Yunga pointed out as she grunted.
“Oh fuck wheres the quickest way-” He had a sudden realization. “Shanta conjure up a fireball and fucking destroy it.”
“I don’t think I’ll be able to make one big enough in time.” Responding as she used him as leverage.
He thought to himself, scrambling for solutions. Another huge wave came through, blowing them all down to the ground. It wasn’t close enough to damage but enough to stagger them.
Gathering up his ground he ran to Yunga again but realized that they were the next targets of destruction. With little time to act he desperately gazed at Shanta hoping that she could cast any spell that could make them survive.
Apparently she was already ahead of them, ignoring any injury and sprinting across to dive on top of them. Spawning an invisible bubble around them as a forcefield right as soon as Hillanter came flying in and wrecking everything in his unforsaken path.
The force impacted the bubble and it broke as soon as it did, following in his path of destruction getting flung high up into the sky over the wall dividing the ocean, plunging right into it.
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Hillanter zig zagged back and forth not acknowledging anything that might be wrecked in his path. A complete lack of empathy to any soldier or slave that was incinerated when he impacted with them.
All while he was doing his catastrophic rampage he left Uff completely untouched standing there watching his empire being torn down to the foundations. A sense of hopelessness wouldn’t be able to fully captivate the emotion that was felt at that exact moment.
Every building, every contraption, every structure, every person were ravaged by insane amounts of eradication. A countless amount of years of progress ruined in just a matter of minutes.
When there seemed to be nothing left to destroy he came flying towards Uff’s face, floating as he let him stare terrifyingly. Pupils dilated and eyelids squinting conveying a horrified expression.
“That felt amazing.” Hillanted started taunting. “To think that, all of this time just to destroy a tiny island I could keep going on until I destroy this body. But unfortunately unlike last time I don’t have enough to work with. Only enough for me to wipe out your empire.”
“You-What the fuck even are you!?” He eagerly asked through gritted teeth.
“A god. What else would I be? Maybe in your head I’m just the destroyer. Which wouldn’t be off from the truth I guess.”
“What god could-”
“Your questions bore me.” He came crashing down in front of him, the blast of it breaking Uff’s legs making his body collapse to the ground. Screaming out in pain as he jaunted up playfully. “To reconcile that I’ll just have my own fun.”
He grabbed his left arm and ripped it clean off, not even struggling a bit. Taking his foot and stomping on his ribs, shattering them and puncturing a lung as he did. Carefully taking his fingernail and plunging it directly into his eye.
Brentha saw all of the horrifying scene, the gruesome torture made her question if that was even necessary or justified. He committed many atrocities sure but to have his body mutilated slowly and painfully while blowing his vocal cords out from shrieking. It all made her rethink her hatred towards him.
Hillanter all throughout it had an inhuman smile on his face. A forced one that was unnatural eyes almost popping out of his skull relishing in the torment. He stepped back and admired his dirty work and surprisingly Uff was still alive.
He miraculously didn’t pass out from the excessive blood loss or straight up died. Hillanter bursted out into maniacal laughter. “Ho, impressive you’re still conscious mate. I almost want to end you but I’ll resist, it’s even better that you don’t. I’ll see you in the afterlife, if you get lucky enough to make it.” He spotted Brentha laying down on a piece of the destroyed ship. “Oh, I should at least give you a way out of here.”
Lifting his finger he took all of the pieces of the ship back together like he reversed time, but leaving Brentha in the water still. Giving a slight smile he looked down at Uff one last time.
As soon as he did Hillanter collapsed to the floor and everything else went dead silent. Uff couldn’t scream anymore, he bled out from his injuries.
All of the chaos came to a close. Everybody left on the island can basically be non-existent, with their bodies not even being left behind in the carnage. Brentha doggy paddled to the shore with exhaustion in her arms. Reaching land she ran right up to Hillanter.
“Are you ok!?” She started shaking him, a desperate attempt to wake him up. She quickly glanced over at the mutilated corpse of Uff but immediately turned away as she felt nauseous just staring at it.
His eyes slightly squinted open, flickering due to the direct ray of the sunlight. He accidentally hit Brentha directly in the face when he gained consciousness. Freaking out sitting straight up and frantically veering his head around.
“Where the hell am I!?” He shouted. “What the fuck happened!?”
Brentha popped right back up coddling her cheek. It was bright red from the swift slap. “You’re alive! Right? You’re not that god thing?”
“What the hell are you talking about? What’s happened.” He looked around at all of the carnage. Even peering in front of him at the mangled body. He had a foul look rolling around to get on his knees. “Where’s everyone? Did I cause this?”
“Calm down, we’ll explain everything.” She patted him on the back.
“Hey!” Shug was heard yelling far away. “You survived!” He was joyfully cheering. They came riding in on Huune’s back, causing Hillanter to scuttle backwards in fear.
“I’m so glad you made it.” Zunci said, hopping down. “I can’t believe it fucking worked. It seemed nearly impossible but. Woo! We did it!” She started shouting
“I’m sorry.’ Shug came running up and hugged Hillanter without a second thought. “I should’ve never given you that stone then we would’ve never been in this and-”
Hillanter cut him off by hugging him. “Don’t worry about it kid. I should’ve listened to everyone else. Only blame me, not you.”
“Hillanter!” Yunga screamed. “You’re alive!” She was limping and using both Shanta and Jinlin as support.
“I’ve never thought we would’ve made it.” Shanta commented.
“Are you hurt?” Jinlin questioned as they reached everybody else.
“Who are you?” Hillanted striked back with another question.
“Oh shit, forgot you don’t know me. Jinlin Lofter.” He nervously held out his hand.
They both shook hands awkwardly. He got up with everybody crowding around him. No words could form as he watched everybody smile and laugh. “Why did you-Do all of whatever you did for me? Why?”
“Because you’re a part of my crew.” Yunga quickly answered. “I ain’t gonna let you die. Of course not. “
“Crew? We only met each other like a few weeks ago.”
“Yeah. We already did so much together. Might as well make it permanent.”
“I don’t know what else to say. I can’t really.”
“You don’t need to. If anything, we should just explain everything.”
They all look around at the disastrous battlefield. The destruction encapsulating them juxtaposed the overall uplifting attitude. Wind breezed through giving the moment more impact. They all turned their eyes to the ship. Telepathically between them mourning the fallen soldiers that fought on their behalf.
“Let’s get some rest.” Yunga declared.
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Two Weeks Later
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“Can you walk on your own?” Jinlin guided Yunga across the room. She could do it but with small increments of limps to do so. Reaching across the bedroom she then had to sit down. “Well that’s better than yesterday.” He wrote in a little notebook. “Maybe soon you’ll finally be back to normal.”
“My legs still feel incredibly sore.” She said, “Back still kind of stings as well.”
“Well there’s no need to hurry up the healing process. We have plenty of time.” He closed the book and tucked it back into his pocket. “Do you want any water? Or food?”
‘Just another glass please.” She laid down on her back.
“As you wish.” He glided across the floor elegantly, opening the door and closing it neatly behind him.
Jaunting down the stairs catching Zunci running up as well. “Oh hey!” She waved at him. “How’s she doing?”
“Making great progress. I reckon this week she could walk normally again.” He answered.
“That’s very nice. Does she need anything from us?”
“I was just getting her a glass of water.”
“Oh well today’s your lucky day because I was already going to give her that.” She raised the glass to his face joyfully, smiling cheekily as she did.
“Wow, guess it is.” He responded with a slight chuckle.
She ran right by him, hearing the door open and then slam shut.
“Hey!” He shouted. “I told you about shutting the doors. Don’t slam them!”
“Sorry.” A faint muffled yell came back.
Rolling his eyes he continued down the stairs and veered off to his right. Entering the main living room witnessing an ongoing wrestling match between Shug and Hillanter, with Brentha watching and cheering along.
Hillanter had Shug pinned down to the ground with his leg raised high, making him difficult to nudge off. “That’s all you got, tough boy?”
“Not fair you’re fucking massive.” Shug grunted.
“Just don’t hurt him.” Brentha raised concern.
“Don’t worry. If I really wanted to hurt him I would’ve already broken his twig body in half.” He let go of him, letting his leg slam into the carpeted floor.
“You better not mess up any of my furniture.” Jinlin commented as he moved to the kitchen. Inside he spotted Shanta munching on some dry pieces of bread staring out the window. “Shanta?”
She jolted a little, letting the remaining pieces of bread slip out of her hand and onto the floor. “Sorry about that.” She kneeled down to scrape up the bits.
“It’s ok.” He said, helping her. “If you were really hungry I could’ve made you something.”
“It’s fine really.” She responded, taking the scrapes and dumping them into the trash can. “Don’t want you to waste any effort for some dumb snack.”
“You could’ve totally asked me, I would’ve gladly whipped you up with something that’ll leave you full for the whole day.”
“There’s no need for that but I appreciate it, I do.” She gave him a thumbs up playfully.
“It’s your loss.” He washed off his hands in the sink with her doing the same exact thing right after him. “Are your stitches holding up well?” He dried his hands with a light green small towel.
“Doing just fine. Weird feeling your skin getting constantly pulled all the time but I’ve gotten surprisingly used to it.” She followed up with also wiping her hands on the towel.
“I’m even more surprised that a quick wrap up was able to stop the bleeding in time but I guess it did.”
“I couldn’t be thankful enough for you. You saved Hillanter and our entire crew. What can we do to repay you?”
“Look around me.” He gestured with both of his arms to the surrounding area. “I already have way more than what you can give me, no offense, look my point is that I don’t need any repayment.”
“Are you sure?” She raised a brow.
“I guarantee you, I have everything I need right here in this house.” He pointed to the ground.
“I may not be able to use the truth spell on you but I can tell when you’re lying.”
“Are you trying to do some psychoanalyzing schtick again?”
“It’s not anything like that but I’m a good reader of people. You want to get out of here. I can see it on your face.”
“I-” He raised his finger and his mind fluttered through responses.
“I just knew it.” She smiled excitedly. “I knew it from the moment I ever started talking to you, you want more than this.”
He had no response other than lean on the kitchen table and let her ramble.
“You can join us, it's ok. Everyone is already open to it and we’re basically like a crew already. We need to just make it official.”
“I don’t know. You can pin point it down to a solution but I just can’t leave this place. Last time was just not for long but to abandon it all together is just something I can’t bring myself to do.”
“Why?” She placed a hand on his shoulder. “I just wanna know why? What happened?”
Jinlin sighed as he naturally slid her hand off of his shoulder. “I used to have a sister. She was ten when she was stricken with cancer. Tumor in her brain that was in too late of a stage to remove. I was about eight at the time when in winter, she was near her death expectancy and she asked me to show her the outside for one last time. My parents didn’t want her to leave the bed but I defied it and snuck her out. When we were in the snow she looked me straight in the eye as she gave one last smile, falling over from the extreme cold. My parents blamed me for her early death which made my old man bitter. He was aggressive to thugs down at the market and they followed him to our mansion and they burned it down. I was the only one that lived.”
Shanta listened to the whole story. “I’m so sorry.” She gave the basic endearment.
“I was left the fortune and I used it to rebuild it. When I fully did I never left it. I just couldn’t bring myself to leave it defenseless. I locked myself into my studies away from everybody. Ever since then I feel like I could do more.” He went over to look outside the window. “I guess this might be my opportunity to do so.”
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Zunci sighed as she handed Yunga the glass of water. “Why does he care about that so much?” She asked. “It’s like I’m going to break the door, especially with the lack of muscle I have.” Laughing as she delivered that line.
“He’s giving us a place to sleep. We can at least respect his rules.” Yunga took a sip of the water.
“I know that. I’m just curious, you know?” She nudged her playfully.
“Is everyone else recovering well?” She put down the glass on the nightstand that was right alongside her bed.
“You just saw them yesterday. They’re just the same, don't worry.”
“Yeah I know. But getting cooped up in this room for the past few weeks has just made me more anxious.”
“Well let me put your worries at ease. They’re all going to be okay.” She leaned in closer and gave her a few supportive pats on her back. “I even saw Shug and Hillanter getting along.”
“Really? Those two?” She looked confused but also happy at the same time.
“Surprised me too. But Hillanter grew a soft heart when he was sick apparently. Not that would be out of the ordinary. Especially with what he went through.”
“That actually makes me happy.” She smiled, reaching over and taking another sip from the glass.
“Same here. I would clank your glass if I had one of my own.” She nervously giggled.
Awkward silence filled the air between them just enjoying the moment. They made it through even with everything against them they did it. Not even two weeks could make you fully process that information. Yunga has been brewing in her thoughts nonstop while she is trapped in bed.
“Do you think…” She was still forming her question. “Do you think I’m fit to be a captain?”
“Huh?” Zunci was puzzled at first. “Of course you are. Have you been trapped in your mind again?”
“Yeah, unsurprisingly.”
“Well remember. Just don’t be absorbed into the negatives. You can always talk to me or anybody else we’re all here for you.”
“Are you being honest with me?”
“Yes. What else would I be?”
“I’m just making sure. I don’t want you to just shower me with praise or something, I want everyone to just give it to me straight.”
“Yunga. Is this about what the witch said?” She rested her hand on her shoulder.
“It’s not just her but, during the fight at the fortress. This guy just laid me down perfectly. Piper was getting a hang on it as well and I just silenced her. All of these horrible pieces of shit were just nailing me down, so I thought you guys would also view me that way and none of you were telling me to not hurt my fee-”
Zunci hugged her, making her stop her ramble. “Listen to me. Calm down and take a deep breath. I think I know what you’re talking about.” She let go of the hug, but still kept her hands on her shoulders and inched closer to her face. “It’s all about not being able to not keep up with people who are on par with you.”
“Y-yeah.” She struggled to hold back tears.
“I know, trust me I’m not going to lie to you about that. But that doesn’t affect my opinion about you being a wonderful captain. Power and strength isn’t the only factor that matters when it comes to the position. It’s about the bond that brings everyone together, the charisma that comes with it to rally everybody. That skill is the best thing about you. Whatever you say we’ll follow.”
There was a brief pause in the room as she processed everything she said. “Can you help me downstairs? I need to make an announcement.”
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“You seem to have gotten tougher.” Hillanter said. “Maybe after that whole mole thing you actually grew some muscle.” They were sitting down on the couch, Shug and Hillanter tired and sweaty from wrestling. Brentha got some cups of water for the both of them.
“Maybe.” Shug tried flexing his muscles, he was shirtless letting sweat drip down his back. There was a sort of bump that popped up when he flexed.
“See. You are getting muscles.” He proudly rubbed his hair.
“I don’t exercise, like strength training so I don’t know how.”
“You’ll just naturally gain them if you do natural physical activity. That must've been what happened.”
“I guess.” He chuckled.
“Well no matter what it was, I'm proud of you.” Brentha patted him on the back.
“Thanks, you two.” He followed up as he rested his arms on his knees. Staring at the ground taking a few brief sips of water. He looked up at Hillanter who seemed chipper, very unusual as to his condition earlier.
He just started being nice to me. He didn’t explain anything, in fact he really didn’t go into detail how it was like being stricken with the sickness. Why did he just specifically be more endearing to me?
“You checking me out or what?” Hillanter jokingly commented.
“Oh, uh sorry, just spaced out for a second.” He quickly darted his eyes away.
He only responded with a hardy smile as he continued to guzzle the remaining water left behind in the glass. “You know. I never thought myself to ever get along with the likes of you. Ok that sounds harsher than I meant for it to be but you know what I mean.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking about.” He finished his glass.
“That prison cell, it all feels like years since I was trapped in there. I was alone until you walked in and you remember what you said?”
He started to laugh. “Do they keep all of the freaks here?” He imitated his own voice in a higher pitch, mimicking his lip movements with his hand flapping along like a sock puppet.
“Exactly. Thought you were a total asshole.”
“I mean I was. I just wasn’t in the best mood.”
“Well, being imprisoned certain for death could do that for you.”
“Look at you two.” Brentha interjected. “Both of you act and sound like best friends.”
“I don’t know if I would put it like that.” Hillanter added on.
“Hey!” Shug felt offended.
“I’m just yanking your chain buddy.” He stretched on over to hit him in the shoulder. “Next we gotta teach you to have a sense of humor.”
Yunga and Zunci surprisingly bursted into the room. All of them were kind of startled, with Shug almost dropping his glass. Yunga had her weight supported on the shoulders of Zunci.
“What’re you doing here?” Brentha was the first one to question. “You should be resting in your bed.”
“Yeah but I gotta get out of that room somehow.” Yunga gave out a slight little chuckle.
Jinlin peeked his head out from the kitchen and practically jumped out from the door. “No!” He waved his finger and his demeanor changed like he was talking to a dog to train them. “You need to be back to bed, you need more rest, you're not ready to walk without proper support yet.”
“I’ll go back soon, I just need to say this.” She responded. Shanta came around the corner to join the rest of the crew. “Oh good, everyone’s here.”
She overlooked everybody, Jinlin scowled, but he let her get whatever was on her chest. “Whatever you need to say, just do it quickly.”
“Will do.” She playfully saluted him. “Right, I need to get my jumbled thoughts in order.” She took a quick second to think before shooting right back up with a sparking joyful expression. “Two weeks wow, they go by fast do they?” She opened up. “A full month ever since we were crammed into that prison. I’m like a broken record with how much I’m repeating it but it’s still insane. We’ve accomplished more than I think a whole lot of normal people.” She stopped herself and watched everybody captivated with what she’s saying.
Usually someone will prop up a question or a quip but this is the first time they're even listening. Don’t pause mid speech, you look like an idiot.
After that brief monologue she got back on her train of thought. “What I’m mainly trying to get at here is that I’m so proud to be your captain. I really am, couldn’t ask for an even better crew. Even with my traits that just bring me down I still am trying my best for all of you even if it doesn’t show. Not to make this all about me, I want to make a shoutout for everybody.”
She turned her head down to Zunci. “I want to thank Zunci for always being there whenever I needed advice and always being my backup buddy when I stumbled. You’re also one hell of a charmer.”
Zunci gave a cheeky little smile. “Jeez, you’re going to start drawing tears out of me.”
She then changed her attention to look at Shug. “Shug was always the bright spirit this crew needed. Even with the slip ups or not being able to keep up, you were always doing your best and striving in your own ways. And for helping me through a real low patch.”
“I-I don’t know how much thanks I could give you.” He nervously responded by impulsively scratching his scalp.
“You don’t need to.” She then darted her eyes at the big hulking figure right next to him, Hillanter. “Even when you weren’t fully with us, your presence brought us all together and your pure strength got us out of hard times. We probably wouldn’t be alive if you weren’t with us.”
“That still won’t repay what you guys sacrificed for me.” He followed up. “So many poor souls died for me it’s just really hard for me to put the feeling into words. Maybe just being here is repayment for you, but it still doesn’t sit right for me.”
“Whatever you can do will always be enough.”
“I guess. Maybe I can just use that as comfort for now.”
She smiled and then turned her entire body to face Shanta. “Our mage over here always comes up in the clutch being the backbone for every single one of our fights. That’s not even mentioning the overwhelming support even though you don’t fully express it.”
“You know it.” Was all she said.
“Short and sweet.” Yunga laughed. “And our sweet princess here.” Turning the body back the other way to face Brentha. “Your extremely sweet personality and our underdog. When nobody expects it you’re always there to impress. We’re glad to have you on the team.”
“Oh you’re making me blush.” She covered her face.
“Finally we have you.” She fully pointed at Jinlin. “The millionaire, who fittingly has a heart of gold.”
“Don’t need to talk me up.” He interrupted.
“The mastermind behind the plans and the person who had the knowledge to help us the most. We couldn’t be more thankful for you. Like we’ve said before. I’m going to be sad when we have to leave you behind.”
“You wouldn’t need to worry about that.”
Some of them gasped but looked over excitedly and eyed him when he finished uttering that.
“I thought about it long and hard and I was very stingy towards it. I realised I didn’t need to cooped up in this house when I could be out there changing and helping lives like you guys. So count me along for the ride.”
Everyone cheered and even clapped for him.
“We’re glad to have you.” Yunga said. “Which brings me to my next point. We’ve been operating under no name at all. Since we’ve now left our marks on the map. I think it’s time we changed that.”
“What would we even call ourselves?” Shug questioned.
“Ooo, do we get to brainstorm a ton of names together?” Zunci followed up.
“No, I think I have a name in mind.” She confidently stated.
“What’re you thinking?”
“A name that hasn’t been around for years. From here on out I’m confidently saying that-”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSmpBsLydux
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