Clash II

Notifications flooded in, each take down was of a local human. Netting Travis lots of merit points, his already steady increase in rank was hastened due to the attacks coming in. Travis didn't even need to lift a finger. 

"I may have overestimated our opponents. Tell Vantak that we have gifts for him when he returns." Travis watched the chaos unfold as his merit points increased rapidly. 

The ocean is meant to be the home court of the pirates. Their leader gave them enhanced swim speed, enhanced lung capacity, more accurate shots with their cannons and guns. All this along with the benefit of getting a knack for swordsmanship. Beating their opponents through sheer numbers or by dragging them into the deep waters was common for them, but now that they could no longer do this they were nothing but prey for the inhabitants of the island.

They could handle regular undead, but the elites that were among the troops in the island were ones that they were no match for. Rains of arrows, large spell balls, a sniper, They even lost in the artillery department because they could no longer use the water as a deterrent. Skeleton Archers, Daban the Arcane mage and Walt the sniper kept the shores clean. Keeping any and all stragglers from pushing through the beach. 

And when their elites did land in the island, They were met with the elite blades of a powerful swordsman. It was either death by a thousand cuts or being swallowed whole by Ara herself. Mira and Gen acted as the supporting crew for both Ara and Nerbak. Though there were only Two silver-grades with them, the benefits that the statues gave them almost evened the playing field out. This along with the benefits of their Master's title, which boosts their proficiency at their craft along with their growth. 

"Mogbean, Do you have the shells?" Walt shot the head of another intruder, cracking his neck after doing so. 

"Hehehe! What do you take me for? OF COURSE I DO! Finished them just in time for ya!" The goblin pulled out a bag filled with them. 

"Good, with this I can sink those ships myself!" Walt smiled. With a single pull of a trigger he shot right through the side of a boat, tearing a hole through the side of it. "Perfect!"

"Hehehe! You're welcome, now it's time for me to help downstairs!" In a bag behind the goblin were explosives that he made out of whatever material he could find. There were also materials that he traded for in the trade chat, materials that others normally saw as useless. Mogbean would contribute greatly to the defense of the town, though this would come at the cost of a bit of structural damage.

At one of the larger boats, one that was currently headed for the shore. 

"Oi! Send out the hatchling! It might not be sea-based but it can cause chaos here!" The pirate captain, as a high ranker was also someone who hatched an egg. 

The hatchling that he spoke of was a Basic Silver-grade Dinosaur, a Triceratops. The monster itself had armor and hundreds of soldiers followed it as they crashed onto the shore. They might not have answers for the Sea serpent but they did have some tools to make their fight on the shores more manageable. 

But of course, not even the Triceratops was a match for Ara. The tides would never see a turn as both Vantak the necromancer and Hamak the warlock joined the battle. Vantak would outright make the air on top of the sea unbreathable, while also creating a sort of acid rain in the area. The green mist and the acid-like substance would further push the pirates to the shore. 

Hamak on the other hand sent out curses and all sorts of physical afflictions to their opposing foes. 

"HAHAH IT helps that they're human Vantak! These are much easier targets than the bastards we fight at the city!" Hamak was having the time of his life, unlike the city which had demons that were immune to some of his spells and priests that could cleanse his work the pirates had no such answers. 

It meant that he was free to use clouds of smoke to blind them, use spells that sucked out their souls. Taboo magic that only a demon worshipper like himself could use. 

"Don't destroy the corpses! I'll need them for experimentation later!" Vantak came in with reinforcements, boats made out of bones began to arrive. 

Sandwiched between the island's defenses and a battalion of skeletons and zombies, those with even a bit of common sense in them surrendered. Their surrender would fall on deaf ears, Travis didn't care for the white flag. 

"Only capture the leaders, feed the rest of them to Zekna or Ara." 

Vantak would lead the charge as the pirates dropped like flies. The corpses that were mostly intact were put back together with his magic, making their own numbers work against them. The boats that tried to flee would be the first targets for Zekna's scalding breath. There was no escape for any of them.

Their leaders were captured, putting up resistance would only force them to suffer even more. As per orders, only the leaders were spared, leaving everyone else as either food or new soldiers for Vantak. 

Rounding them up and cleaning up the beach would take a while. Four hours passed by and five prisoners were presented to Travis. The large man and the woman who spoke for him were among them, the other three appear to be elites in the army. They were all at least Basic Silver-grade in terms of combat rating. 

"Which one's the leader?" Travis asked a question to group of kneeling prisoners. Each of which were handcuffed with a skeleton behind them pointing a sword at their necks.

The prisoners all looked at the large one, pointing towards him with their taped up mouths. 

"I see, Ara. You can have your snack now!" Travis smiled.

In one gulp, Ara swallowed the man whole. "We're going to take this thing off of you and let you speak, the moment you scream or even try to disrespect me... Ara gets another snack. Am I clear?" 

Aggressive nods, they were in front of a leader that didn't spare a single one of their soldiers despite the white flags that they raised. They already knew that disrespecting him would lead to death. 

"We'll start with the lanky one on the right." Mira walked towards the prisoner, she then pulled the tape off of his mouth.

"Rank and combat rating, state them." Travis yawned out. 

"Top 12,995,321 and I'm currently in the Basic Silver-grade sir!" The lanky man was looking down on the ground, his voice was hoarse and he seemed exhausted but he did his best to speak and give out clear answers.

"What's your innate ability?"