Cursed Draw

“FEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDD!!!!”

-Ranek Pho’s final thought.

Chapter 28: The Corsair

Karieto

Captain Nestix Karieto let out a long sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. Once again he hadn’t given the order, and once again it hadn’t mattered. His crew had charged off and gotten most of themselves all but annihilated. He didn’t really care if they lived or died but after the fiasco that had been defeating the Deep Hunters League, he had been left with barely enough men and women to actually crew his ship.

Karieto was well below that threshold now, and it was more than a little frustrating that he was going to have to abandon his beloved ‘Slaughter Maiden’ in favor of a much smaller vessel. There really wasn’t much choice in the matter now though was there?

“I told you this would happen.” Came the grumbling declaration from behind him.

It was Vesti, his first mate and master of ranged combat. It was a role that had once meant Vesti directed the archery and siege weapons from The Slaughter Maiden’s deck. Now he mostly shepherded the few remaining sane members of the crew. People tended to assume Siendra was his first mate, but no she was just his enforcer.

“I am aware.” The captain replied flatly without turning.

The most frustrating part was technically the madness that infected the crew was his fault. Karieto’s understanding of the process taking place was admittedly only surface level but from what he had read by agreeing to serve him his crew had somehow opened themselves up to the Resonances of his Deck. That by itself was no issue, it was only after he had begun working towards evolving the Card that had won him his captainship that things had started to go wrong.

Evolving a normal Card could be challenging but it was always a relatively simple matter. Find Monsters of the same species and a similar temperament or preferred environment, kill them, add the power of their Resonances to the existing Card. Repeat the process a few times and there you had it, an evolved card.

Evolving a unique card was something far more convoluted. That was if you could trigger your unique Card to begin the process in the first place. Karieto still wasn’t entirely sure what he had done to start his own, though he had a few theories. All of that was if you even got your hands on a Unique Card in the first place, and it was still the easy portion.

“So.” Prompted the first mate. “What are we going to do? Skeleton crew the Maiden home and-”

The Captain cut him off. “We aren’t going home Ves. I want you to take the other archers and find something small enough on this stupid Island that we can still crew it. “

Karieto narrowed his eyes as his loose line of Manifested monsters slammed into the Trio of Trials users. At least he assumed that's what they were. Each of the three men was a little too fast, or a little too strong, or a little too projecting Waves of Pressure Resonance to not hold Decks. They hadn’t Manifested anything whilst killing their way through the crew, so he felt confident there weren’t any True Decks present.

Vesti went silent for a long moment and when he finally replied his voice was resigned.

“It was a good run Nest, we almost fed that thing for a hundred nights straight but it's over, The Greed Resonance was just too much” He finished helplessly.

Again Vesti was right. The overwhelming Greed Resonance that poured from his evolving Ranek Pho Card had essentially turned most of his crew into some combination of cannibals or paranoid psychotics. The only members who remained unaffected were Karieto himself, Vesti, and maybe five of the older crew.

Even Siendra’s Trials Deck hadn’t protected her mind from the effects of the Card. It just didn’t matter that much as she had been a bloodthirsty lunatic ever since reaching Rank nine and becoming a Demi-human. The only real difference was she rambled about the Card being a god now.

Did any of that really matter though? Of course not,there were places where he could hire a pirate for less per month than it cost for a loaf of bread. He just needed to keep the streak going.

“It isn’t over” He felt rather than saw the mate stiffen in surprise.

“After tonight we will have fed Ranek Pho to satiation, at night, in the water for seventy-eight nights. Seventy-eight!”

“I know but”

“I don’t care what you have to say Vesti, you have your orders, go execute them.”

Below his Abyss Prince Kraken card had been simultaneously impaled by the red-headed boy’s spear, and the Deep hunter's harpoon launcher. The Creature exploded into blue light which flowed back into his sword.

The Monsters were performing better than the crazed crew had but it still felt like nothing more than a short term delaying action. Naturally that would change as he drew stronger cards and recycled his weaker Creatures over and over again. In fact one might see his victory as simply a matter of time, he certainly did.

Once that victory came he would feed the townsfolk in the repurposed diving cages to Ranek Pho. Annoyingly those same townsfolk had started up screaming and hurling themselves against the bars again. From there he would take his remaining crew in a smaller vessel and continue his quest.

Karieto was too close to the hundred-night mark to stop now. Ranek didn’t actually care if it was fed people or some other sort of meat so long as between sun up and sun down the Card was able to eat its fill. It was just many times easier to capture people and put them in the water than to consistently hunt sea beasts every single day.

Still, he could probably manage one or two more nights off hunted food. As long as he found another settlement in that time that didn’t have any Decks to defend itself. It was certainly possible; The Silver Sea played home to many such Deckless towns and villages.

Another stream of blue light flew into his cutlass as his Rabid Mer was hooked by a chain and dragged into a stabbing spear.

“Captaaaaaiiiiiinnnnn” Came Siendra’s whining cry. “Can I go play yet?”

That drew a snort of amusement from Karieto. She was a good little guard dog…guard fish? In spite of being perhaps the least sane member of his crew surviving or otherwise, Siendra did what she was told to the point of obsessiveness. The fact that he had told her to stay near the galley would hold her faster than the cages held his unwilling sacrifices.

“Soon.” He cooed back down at her. Karieto had no doubt that once she joined the fray things would quickly and violently turn out in his favor. The problem was she would probably destroy most of the pier, very quickly. That was fine by itself but if the cages fell they would very quickly sink beyond the range of where he could Manifest. If that happened his seventy-seven-day streak would be broken and he would need to start the process again if he ever wanted to ‘cross the mountain.’

“Puh-leeaaasee” She begged.

“Just…just hold on.” He grunted and turned his attention back to the images of his Hand floating before him.

“Discerning Taste” He declared, activating the spell.

Karieto discarded his MuckDwell River Dragon. “Piece of crap” he muttered, wondering not for the first time why he had bothered putting the obviously bad-value dragon in his deck in the first place.

At least he could use it to fuel things like Discerning Taste. Greed Resonance cards were like that, many of them required a discard or some other sort of non-vial cost. Not Ranek Pho, of course, Karieto’s ultimate creature was both a powerhouse and a consistent source of fuel for some of the other Greed Cards in his Deck.

The first card he drew was another Glaive Fish Which Karieto almost Manifested immediately. It was a strong, free Card. That would however be a supremely rookie move to make. Getting excited and playing a Card before other Draws had Resolved, or playing Draw effects out of order had been the defeat of many a bad Player.

A slow smile crossed the captain's features. He would have absolutely hated himself had he played the Glaive Fish and needed to wait thirty agonizing seconds.

“Siendra,” He said with a quick look around to make sure Vesti and the other archers were clear.

“Uh-huh?” She asked enthusiastically.

“Go play”

She let out a little shriek of pleasure and activated every card in her hand one after the other.

“Feeding Frenzy, Wave Edge Blade, Flashing Scales, Taste For Blood!” Siendra screamed the last Card’s name and hurled herself forward sprinting down the wooden planks as the enhancements began to take effect.

He didn’t need to see it to know her eyes would have gone completely black due to the Feeding Frenzy Card, her large Dadao sword was glowing as Water Resonance visibly coalesced around the weapon’s blade. She all but vanished as the last two Cards activated. With both Flashing Scales and Taste For Blood activated even he wouldn’t be able to keep up with her speed. Of course, he was this fast all the time, not just for the short intervals allowed by Enhancement Cards.

Karieto let out a little amused snort as he watched his enforcer get to work. Still running she had spun a full rotation to unleash a slash of her blade without losing more than a half-step of momentum. The gathered Water Resonance fired in a visible line at the advancing trio, and it seemed to drag the ocean behind it as it flew. Rather than the slashing energy attack it appeared to be Wave Edge Blade forced the nearby water into a rising wave of tremendous force that used the Resonance slash as a guide.

Watching the planks of the pier get contemptuously ripped from their bearings by the surging water Karieto reminded himself that time was presently his enemy if he wanted to keep his streak going and actually reach the target of feeding Ranek Pho for one hundred unbroken nights.

“Ranek Pho, The Night Feeder,” He said Manifesting the Monster. It could of course swim through the air like any Manifested Creature, but the impossibly huge shark wanted to be in the water. So that is where Karieto sent it as Three of the vials stored along the blade of his cutlass emptied.