Evolution: A Warlock's Rise To Power

Chapter 272: Fleet Commander

Fleet commander Richard watched as the three ships in the distance tangled together.

"Damn it, what are those fools doing?" He asked himself.

The pirates had outnumbered their enemies two to one but somehow they let their foes close in and fight in a close range battle.

The commander shook his head helplessly.  He couldn't help those foolish captains at this distance.  Even though he was the fleet commander, each captain took charge of his own ship.  At most he could send them vague signals.  They were too far out of range for his cannons to be of any help.

"Pull out all the stops!" The captain barked.  He hopped that he wouldn't have lost too many pirates by the time they arrived.

As the crew rushed into action, the first mate came sprinting toward Richard.

"Commander, commander, this isn't good!" He said while panicking.

"What is wrong?" Richard asked.

"The storm, it is the storm." The first mate answered.

"Hmph, that is all?  I noted the storm when we first arrived.  It is nothing to concern yourself with.". Fleet commander Richard said, brushing off the first mate.

"No, but look." He replies while pointing.

Richard looked back over his shoulder and was stunned.  The storm was almost upon him.  It should have needed another hour or two before it could reach him.

The fleet commander looked closely at the storm.  It moved unnaturally.  It advanced at incredible speeds thought not possible and then would suddenly turn around and retreat.  That storm would sway a few miles to the left and then it would shift to the right.

"Commander, this shouldn't be possible right?" Asked the first mate.

Richard didn't answer.  He was born on the sea and he planned to die on the sea and in all his years of experience, he had never seen anything like this.  He was stumped.

"It couldn't be... No that is impossible." Mumble the fleet commander before shaking his head and throwing the idea away.

"What is it sir? Do you know what is going on?"

Another pirate shouted from the main deck.  "Commander, the storm is almost upon us, do you want us to continue with our full press towards the others?"

Fleet commander Richard taught about what to do.  He wanted to continue his current course but his guy told him that that would be a disaster.

"Commander! Commander!"

Richard realized that the first master had been calling him several times while he was lost in thought.

"Commander, what should we do?"

Richard made a decision.

"Pull up the sails, tie everything down and get all the men inside.  Empty the crow's nest too.  Not a soul can remain exposed."

The first mate was surprised.  Even in the fiercest of storms, the fleet commander had always kept people working but now it sounded like he was telling everyone to hide.

A slight trickle had already started to fall on the commander ship.  But other than the strange movement of the storm, the first mate didn't see anything scary about.  They had weather worse storms before, but he wasn't one to disobey orders.

*Boom*

In the distant fight between the two ships of pirates and their foe, the sound of a large explosion echoed across the water.

Pulling out a spyglass, Richard watched as one of his ship's rear mast fractured and then fell into the water.

He wanted to quickly help the other pirates finish off those scoundrels who had taken over one of his ship's, but if his gut was right, then things were about to get much worse for everyone.

Seeing that the deck and the nest had been cleared, fleet commander Richard retreated to his quarters.

The first mate had followed him into the large room, he wished to discuss their plan to deal with the stolen ship.  He waited for the commander to turn around, but Richard kept peering out small window.

The first mate waited, and waited, and then waited some more.  When he couldn't hold back any longer, he finally asked.

"Commander, what is going on?  It isn't like you to hide from a storm.  I took a good look as it approached and compared to what we have been through, the waves are neither too high, nor are the winds too strong.  It may move strangely, but isn't that good for us?"

Richard turned around and scowled towards the first mate.

"Shouldn't that mean it will pass us by quickly?". The first mate hesitantly asked.  He hadn't know what he said to draw such a menacing loom from the commander so he decided to procced with caution.

"You have been on the sea almost as long as I have.  How many years is it?" Richard asked.

"Almost 28 years." The first mate replied.  He didn't know why the commander had asked such a question but he didn't become first mate by chance.  When the leader asked a question, he responded without hesitation.  Then you know the stories, the stories of heavens wrath."

The first mate frowned.  "Unlucky men will look for anything to blame.  Heavens wrath sunk my ship.  Heavens wrath made us lose our course in a storm.  It is always old men whining about their losses to storms.  It isn't like it is actually real."

The fleet commander nodded.  "It is like you said, half the time when you pick people out of the water they will say that heavens wrath sank their ships but more often than not, the crashed into a shallow rocks or made an enemy the couldn't handle."

The first mate quickly nodded.  "Yes, yes, it is a common excuse.  Not different from blaming the gods when you stub your toe."

"That is what I have always believed." Said Richard.  "But seeing this storm made me recall something I once heard as a child."

The first mate looked towards the commander, waiting to hear about what happened.

"I was only eight year old at the time.  I was mopping the deck of a merchant ship when the spotter saw a man in the water floating on a plank if wood."

The first mate nodded for him to continue.

"The captain at the time decided to send a rowboat to pick up the man and see if he was still alive.  Half an hour later, the floater was laying on the main deck while the ship medic checked him out.  He was able to revive the man."

"When the man woke, the first thing he did was to beg the captain to change his current course.  The captain asked the man what had happened.  When the survivor answered 'the wrath of heaven' the sailors began to laugh and didn't even let him finish."

"They were the same as you and I." Richard said to the first mate before continuing his story.

"They survivor said they were struck down in a midnight raid.  A Strom came and destroyed a fleet of twenty ships while all their loot was taken away.  After the captain heard that, he changed his course at once.  The man kept insisting that they had been caught in heavens wrath and their was nothing they could do."

"The captain didn't believe it, he assumed pirates had taken the man's fleet down.  But the survivor only relaxed when the captain altered his course.  He couldn't care less about the reason the captain changed his mind.  Everyone thought the man was crazy but he didn't care.  The medic said he showed signs of drifting for three days.  Being sunk by pirates, drifting along for three day and finally being rescued.  Someone who wasn't a little crazy after that would seem out of place."

"Anyway, the medic had used a few rare tonics to save the floaters life.  Thus, he had to work off his debt on the ship and stayed with us for awhile.  He wasn't bad company.  To a small kid he was filled with grand and exaggerated tales that made the long shifts pads by quickly.  The man eventually stared acting normal again, even the medic said the trauma he experienced didn't cause any last harm.  But the medic didn't share a room like I did with him.  Every time a storm approached the man would stare out at it like I am doing now."

"I was a curious kid so I would always ask him what he was looking for.  The man didn't answer right away.  It was only after he released a sigh of relief that he turned to me and answered."

At this point large waves were rolling outside the ship as a heavy rain fell.  From time to time lightning would be thrown like javelins into the the sea while the sky screamed as thunder rolled.

"What did he tell you?" The first mate asked.

"He told me he was looking for a shadow.  A shadow that had been cast across his heart ever since that day."

"A shadow?" Asked the first mate.

"Yes, a shadow.  The survivor turned to me an with a few words told me what happened the night his shop went down."

"What happened?"

"A storm began to chase their boats.  No matter which way they turned it changed directions and followed after them.  It moved at incredible speeds and changed directions in ways a storm should not be able to.  But what he told me next surprised me the most."

"And?"

"He wasn't afraid of heavens wrath.  That storm was not what he truly feared.  He had just been caught in it by accident.  Heavens wrath had never target him.  It was going after something else.  Something that moved through the water and ruled the sea like a king.  It had called the heavens and claimed the seas as its own.  And it was the heavens that sent it's wrath to deal with the accursed creature.  I watched as the man started to shiver and shake as he thought about that creature."

"Yes, and did he tell you what it was."

Richard nodded.  "I thought it was an interesting story, but I never actually beloved the man."

The first mate stood next to the window and looked into the ocean with the commander.  The both appeared to be search for a shadow.

*Boom* *Boom*

Two loud explosion echoed from the location of the pirate fight.  After they rang out, the storm changed direction and headed towards the other ships.  As it left, both the commander and first mate noticed a change in the water.  They had been looking for something the size of a ship, but it never acured to them that the shadow may be ten times that size.

After they both saw the starting shadow beneath the storm they turned to look towards each other.

"Commander... What did that man see?  What angered the heavens so much that a storm of  lightning chases it night and day?"

The commander sighed and then looked toward where the storm was heading.

"A kraken."