Becoming the Dark Lord

Then it came. A loud sound, something like a roar, but not the kind you heard from a beast in the wild. It sounded like a whale’s cry twisted together with a guttural growl, something deep and wet and wrong.

Then came a tremendous crash. Everyone on Luke’s ship fell silent.

“K-kraken?” Jack said, rushing over.

“Stop the ship,” Luke said.

[Your title Myth Slayer has activated its skill!]

[A mythological creature is near you! Good luck with your hunt!]

“Stop the ship?”

“Yes.”

Anne obeyed at once, and the others moved with her, heading for the sail.

“Stop the ship? Are you all insane?” Jack asked.

The skill from Luke’s title was ringing in his mind like an alarm. He could feel the kraken nearby. The closer it was, the louder the warning became. And so the ship stopped in the middle of that flooded street. Around them, the sounds echoed through the maze, wood splintering somewhere in the distance. Their ship stayed completely silent. For several long minutes, all they did was listen.

“Trust me. It’s not coming our way, but it’s close,” Luke said.

Eventually, the sound stopped. It took a full hour before they let their guard down even a little. Then Luke, Charlie, and Evangeline climbed one of the buildings and looked out over the next flooded street.

“It’s destroyed,” Evangeline said.

The enemy ship they had fought earlier was there, floating in pieces. Marks from the corrosive cloud that had eaten through parts of it were still visible.

“That had to be the kraken,” Charlie said.

Lulie fluttered beside her, then landed on her head.

“How did you know the kraken had moved away?” Evangeline asked.

“Let’s just say I have a sensor that picked it up.”

At least that much was an advantage.

***

They ate on the deck. Everyone was sitting on the floor with an improvised dinner while Anne served them. The ship was still motionless. They were not risking movement again, not with cursed ships still somewhere nearby, ships that might draw the kraken back. They would wait for the right moment.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I prefer the Stalkers,” Jack said, breaking the silence.

“At least they’re not giant ship-destroying octopuses,” Evangeline said.

“Squid...” Eleanor corrected.

“Hm?” Evangeline looked at her.

“I think a kraken is a giant squid, not an octopus,” Eleanor said.

“And what’s the difference?” Evangeline asked.

“Assassins...” Anne said.

Everyone turned to stare at the doll maid.

“Assassins?” Layla asked.

“Octopuses are stealthy,” Anne said. “Squid are... ravenous hunters. They don’t do ambushes... they are the ambush.”

“Squid are faster,” Eleanor added. “They need to be faster than whatever they’re hunting. An octopus has eight tentacles. A squid has ten. And those extra two are much bigger and stronger. For grabbing, pinning, crushing.”

Everyone looked at her with mild surprise.

“I was good at biology in high school,” Eleanor said.

“That,” Anne said, “is the difference. Octopus is assassin... squid is hunter.”

***

A night had passed. It was the fourth day, and they were still in Area Two. The fact that they had to sail so slowly through those waters was delaying them badly, especially inside a labyrinth. Every sound in the water made them tense up even more, wary of the monster. They knew they were making progress because the scenery had changed. Now there were many great fallen buildings, toppled like dominos against one another. Sometimes chunks of them broke off and dropped into the water, making noise.

“Splitting up is still the better option, Charlie,” Luke said.

He was at the prow with her, keeping watch. He had already worked out a plan for dealing with the kraken.

“I use the Spectral Beast to lure it away. The ship keeps going. What do you think?”

“It’s still dangerous. It may be much faster than you are, Master Luke.”

“Then I use the Teleportation Pentagram. The key is just distracting it and drawing it away from the ship.”

Luke stretched. “If we don’t get anywhere in the next five hours, we activate the speed pennant and use that strategy.”

He rolled his neck, then turned back toward the water. “I’m starting to feel the limits of the human body. All these days without sleep are finally catching up with me.”

“You should sleep, Master Luke. You’re the only one who keeps taking shifts without resting. Even I sleep sometimes.”

“Maybe a little later. But I will. Even if I end up sleeping right here.”

“On the floor?”

“More practical than going into the cabin and putting distance between myself and all this. I need to stay alert to that sensor of mine. Maybe I sleep for a few minutes. Maybe half an hour.”

“Hm... you can rest your head in my lap,” she said, her face turning a little red.

“In your lap?”

“Yes. I wouldn’t mind.”

“I have a pillow in my storage item.”

“N-no. I-I-I want to be your pillow,” she said, then froze. “I m-mean, y-you can sleep in my lap. Um... I mean... w-whatever you want, Master Luke,” she finished, her voice going small and shy.

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Your pillow?

“Has Artemis been putting ideas in your head again?”

“No, Master Luke,” she said, touching her fingertips together.

“I’m the innocent one here, just so you know,” Artemis said.

“I... overheard some of your conversations with her,” Charlie admitted quietly.

“I figured,” he said, realizing it. “You told me once that you stopped using your super hearing to spy on me.”

“I-it was stronger than me, Master Luke. I worry about you.”

She covered her face with both hands, embarrassed.

“It’s alright, Charlie. I’m not going to judge you,” he said, patting her head.

“Can you... keep doing that?” she asked when he stopped.

“I can.”

“You get really weird when you’re being affectionate,” a voice said behind Luke.

“Hello, Layla. Didn’t know you were there,” Luke said.

“I’ve literally been standing right next to you two this whole time. I’m the one who brought up what we’d do if a giant Squidward suddenly showed up here to kill us,” she said.

“Squidward?” Charlie asked.

“Yes, from Sponge—” Layla stopped short as Luke jumped to the very tip of the prow.

“Area Three,” he said, pointing.

At the end of that route was an entrance almost identical to the one they had found between Area One and Area Two.

“Go tell the others. It’s too far for them to see, but I can already make it out,” he told Layla.

“Me tell them?”

“Yes, Layla.”

She walked off muttering something like, “You’re only saying that to get rid of me.”

Luke did not care. His eyes were locked on the objective now. The way ahead was littered with wrecked boats, creaking in the water like old doors.

“Yes, Lulie. Those sunken ships gave off a bad feeling,” Charlie said, talking to the little bat.

“Damn, that creak was loud,” Evangeline muttered.

They had regrouped and were watching the wrecked ships, stranded and shattered into pieces, alert for any sign of movement. Then Luke saw one sail shift on its own. Then another. They passed a few of the wrecks, and when Luke looked back, he saw several of them creaking, beginning to move.

“I think we’re about to have company,” Luke said.

One of the ships ahead started turning until it presented its full broadside to them.

“Hold on,” Luke said.

The cannonballs fired. Eleanor, up in the crow’s nest, started knocking them out of the air. Some of her arrows burst on impact, releasing small vortices of wind.

“Another one of those cursed ships. Wonderful,” Evangeline said.

Anne had already turned the helm, trying to guide their ship back into the corridors.

“We’ve got the advantage, right? We’re faster because of the pennant?” Jack asked.

The cannons kept firing. More ships began coming to life, opening fire as well.

“Take us to Area 3!” Luke shouted to Anne.

Three more ships were coming up behind them, trying to cut off their escape. Luke conjured several [Acid Blood Arrows] and started firing, aiming to let the acid cloud eat through their sails and wood.

“They’re not slowing down!” Jack shouted. Anne kept steering as hard as she could, trying to slip past them.

Luke threw a knife high into the air.

[Knife Storm activated]

[Shadow Mana Explosion activated]

The blade split apart overhead, and the instant the copies struck the ship, they exploded.

“Why?” Layla asked.

“We don’t have a choice,” Luke said. “Not unless we want our ship destroyed and the challenge lost.”

The enemy ships kept chasing them, cutting into side channels.

“There’s one ahead, blocking the end of the street!” Eleanor shouted. The ship had turned sideways across the passage, trying to trap them.

Luke gripped another knife. “If this doesn’t work, I...”

He never finished. In the next instant, the ship ahead was wrapped in enormous tentacles. At the last second, Anne spun the helm with all her strength and drove them into another street, narrower than the last. The sides of the ship scraped against the buildings.

“The kraken!” Jack shouted. “I saw it!”

“We all saw it!” Evangeline snapped back.

Luke looked behind them.

“It’s too close. My sensor is screaming.”

“What do you mean, too close?” Jack asked.

At that exact moment, enormous tentacles slammed onto the deck, and the ship lurched to a halt as if it had hit something massive.

“It stopped the ship!” Eleanor shouted.

Then one huge tentacle came crashing down where they stood. More followed, bursting over the ship from every direction. Luke took a hit and threw himself into the water. The instant he sank beneath the surface, he summoned his Spectral Beast.

Come after me, come...

Then he saw the kraken from below. And only then did Luke truly understand how dangerous the creature was. It was enormous.

Can the shark even kill something like that?

He threw one knife charged with [Burst Throw] and another with [Shadow Mana Explosion]. The kraken was caught off guard and released the ship. Luke had no choice but to go back.

“Speed pennant, now!”

The ship surged forward. Jack came over to heal him.

“I’m fine.”

Luke moved to the stern. “I caught it off guard. It let go of the ship from the shock,” he told Eleanor.

“Is it going to let us go?” Jack asked.

Then the water behind the ship began to darken with a shape moving beneath it, and a moment later something burst out and came straight for them. The kraken was chasing them.

The group was getting close to Area Three, but the moment they tried to make for it, the kraken surged forward and lunged for the ship. Anne spun the wheel. The kraken kept coming. Luke fired an [Acid Blood Arrow] into the part of the creature that had risen above the water.

They shot past a street where a cursed ship had been waiting for them, and cannonballs came blasting out. The roar thundered behind them. The kraken tore after them, smashing through everything in its path. The cursed ship was struck from below, and the creature’s tentacles wrapped around it and slammed it into a building.

Luke and Eleanor started firing at the surrounding structures, bringing blocks of stone down onto the beast. But not even ships seemed to pose any real threat to it.

“Take us into a narrow street,” Luke told Anne.

The creature’s tentacles latched onto the ship. They were dragging the kraken with them through those flooded streets.

“It’s going to break the ship!” Stephen shouted. “It’s trying to grab the mainmast!”

Luke and Eleanor kept attacking, Luke with his knives, Eleanor with her arrows. The ship tore free, and the kraken came after them again. Eleanor aimed upward and fired, blowing apart part of a building. Rubble crashed down onto the creature.

Luke threw a knife with [Burst Throw], striking another structure and bringing it down. The kraken kept coming, smashing through falling stone, and when Luke’s ship rounded the corner, it stopped and made one last grab, stretching a tentacle after them. Charlie punched the tentacle away. They escaped. The ship scraped between the walls of the buildings on either side.

“It worked,” Layla said, sweaty and relieved. “We’re pulling away.”

“Squids aren’t built for tight spaces the way octopuses are,” Luke said. “They’re made for open water.”

It had been a gamble. A dangerous one. A roar rang out, and the kraken sank beneath the surface and vanished.

“It’s going around. It’ll try to catch us somewhere else,” Jack said.

“That’s fine. We’ll reach Area Three before it can,” Luke replied.

The kraken really was moving away. Luke could feel its direction. It was trying to circle around the narrow streets. The ship kept going, farther and farther. Then, just as they were about to cross into the new area, a cursed ship spotted them and opened fire with its cannons. They veered away from it, and as they did, the kraken surfaced and attacked that other ship instead. It shattered the entire vessel and dragged pieces of it into the depths.

“Oh, shit,” Jack said.

“It’s faster than we are,” Luke said. “But we can still get an advantage if we move into the next area fast and stay in narrow streets. We’ve got a few minutes before it gets to us. I can feel where it is. It’s dragging that ship down right now. In tight spaces, we have the advantage.”

They neared the entrance. Behind them, the kraken screamed again. The moment they crossed into the new area, what they saw made all of them freeze.

“We’re screwed. This area is open sea,” Jack said, staring at the vast stormy expanse ahead.

And behind them, the monster was closing in.

Area 3: Storm of the Drowned

A stormy sea awaits ahead, its waters rough and its waves treacherous. You must escape this place by sailing toward the horizon and surviving its threats. These waters are home to the Drowned, who will try to board your ship and drag you down into the depths where their city once stood. Beware the sea, the storm, the Drowned, and the Kraken. If it decides you are its target, it will not stop hunting you.

Good luck.