Evolution: A Warlock’s Rise To Power

After conversing with Tyrannical Kyp, Lucan and his party waited. They waited, and then they waited some more.

Holdin the quarter master was pacing around the single lantern on this level.

"What is that racket coming form the below." He said after hearing a lot of shuffling and muffled sounds coming from the pirates sleeping quarters.

When Holdin was about to head down and check it out, Bubblegumfairy began to walk toward the mini-boss.

"Mr. Holdin." She said. "I feel awful, I think something is wrong. I feel really sick."

As she got closer to him and stepped into the light, Holdin was able to see that her skin was covered in boils. She reached out for him, but he quickly stepped back as she collapsed on the ground in front of him.

"Kirk, One-eye. Take him downstairs and wake the ship doctor." He said while pointing at Bubblegumfairy who was still disguised as a pirate. "We can't risk getting the entire crew sick."

Two of the pirates next to Holdin, picked her up by the shoulders and went down stairs and disappeared into the crew quarters.

"Tim, Stumpy, mop the floor, I don't want to catch anything." Said Holdin as he moved away from the area where she collapsed. He stepped towards the edge of his light and watched them work. Seeing how Holdin was the cleanest pirate they had encountered so far; Super was pretty sure that the guy would be a germaphobe. His guess was right. They had divided half of the names Elites from the mini-boss and gotten him to move closer to the darkened area. Now they only need to wait a little bit longer. Lucan wanted to try and wait another five minutes so that they would have the best chance of success.

***

Kirk and One-eye carried Bubblegumfairy through the crew quarters, but something felt off to them. It was quiet. Much quieter than it had been moments before when there were muffled noises coming from this floor. In fact, it was so quiet that they didn't even hear anyone snoring.

They poked their heads into a few rooms but didn't see anyone sleeping. They wanted to report to Holdin right away but they still didn't no what was happening. If they reported that they abandoned the task assigned to them and didn't even have anything substantial to report then they would be in a heap of trouble. The two pirates decided to keep heading towards the back of the ship and see what was going on.

When the approached the last room, which was the biggest and where most of the crew slept the could hear noises coming form the other side of the door.

Quickly wrenching it open, they saw a quadkong wreaking havoc while an armored man kept and pirates from running. While that was going a martial artist was wielding weapons made from ice and hacking into the players. All three players were taking a beating and not bothering to defend themselves but it made little difference since they had two healers that were in the far corner and were returning their lost health non-stop.

"Crap, the new prisoners broke out. Quick, help them while I go back to inform Holdin." One-eye said while dropping the sick pirate.

Kirk rushed into the room while One-eye turned to run back upstairs. Before he could take more than a step, a knife was plunged into his back. He turned around and with his good eye he saw that the sick pirate had disappeared while a beautiful women was behind him, flashing him a devious grin while stabbing a second blade into him.

"HEL-." One-eye was about to scream out when a thick furry hand close around his throat. Then he was jerked off his feet and thrown into the far room, slamming into two pirates and knocking them down in the process.

Tango had rushed out as soon as the door had been opened. Bubblegumfairy quickly followed the quadkong back into the room and shut the door behind her.

***

When Stumpy and Tim were almost done with their moping, Lucan decided to act.

Silent drew back her bow and manifested several shadow arrows beside her. Lucan entered stealth and began to quietly circle around the mini-boss.

Super merged with the shadows and took his position.

DarkX_XAssassin… Well, he was too good at being sneaky. Nobody on the team knew where he was, but the man signaled through the interface that he was in position and read to act.

The moment Silent released her arrow, Lucan appeared behind the boss. The pommel of his sowrd came crashing down on the back of the man's skull, stunning him. The moment after he was stunned, and arrow, accompanied by several shadow arrows pierced into his undefended chest, followed by a pair of crossbow bolts.

DarkX_XAssassin Leapt behind Tim and began to slash and cut with his knives.

Lucan didn't continue his attack while the boss was stunned. Instead, he turned and aimed his wand towards the stairs leading upwards. He quickly created five telekinetic walls, all stacked on top of each other. He kept forming them until his wand cracked and exploded from being overloaded with mana.

The two crossbow bolts that struck Holdin were each coated in a potent paralyzing poison. Instead of attacking the boss who couldn't fight back, the four turned their attention towards Tim and Stumpy. If they could get rid of the mini-bosses helpers it would be much easier to take him down. But they only had sixty seconds until the poison wore off.

Lucan focused on stumpy while he quickly tired to build up his corruption counter. Silent's arrows didn't stop and her butterflies came out to feast. In the tight quarters, the swarm with their illusion enhanced numbers blocked all sigh as they dove towards the two named guards.

Super and DarkX_XAssassin used their shadow magic abilities to throw magical damage at the two while Lucan used life drain against the two in conjecture with the purple beam that shot out of his left arm, it began to drain Stumpy's vitality.

Phantoms began to appear from the shadows, they stood back and unleashed a barge of shadow bolts.

Lucan had considered using the soul fire phantoms but there was no way to cancel the explosion that came at the end of the spell. It would do damage to the ship while also being loud and noisy, letting everyone know that there was a fight going on.

With the concentrated attack, the two named Elites were finished off before they could do much damage.

"Damn you all!" Holdin raged as the poison wore off.

He drew the two cutlasses at his side and growled. The soft growled knocked the players off their feet.= while the man who let out the noise seemed to grow a foot as his skin began to become covered with fur and a set of long fangs emerged from the mouth that now looked like a snout.

"Watch out for his strength, his is part beast." Said a voice coming up the stairs.

It was Tyrannical Kyp who was hiding in Tango's shadow.

The knight who was the tank for Super's party was the first to come up the stairs followed by Tango.

The knight raised his shield to block an attack from the cutlasses, but he was sent flying backwards. The quadkong stepped forward and caught the man's arms as the two beasts began their struggle.

The ranged fighters spread out and began to attack from a distance while Tango kept Holdin's attention. Milocara and Super both went forward and attacked when they could. They had to play it safe though, a single attack was enough to take away half of their health.

Luckily the cryomancer was agile and flexible, able to avoid the blades by the closest of margins while Super, who was one with the shadows was able to avoid most of the damage since it didn't come from a magical source.

With ten players focused fully on the mini-boss and a few pets that helped as well. Holdin, who no longer had any pirates to support him was cut down into pieces within a half of an hour. At the end he tried to escape but was rebuffed by the telekinetic walls. After he tried to flee once, Tango never let him out of his grasp again.