Chapter 272 272 A Sea Dragon
The low growl like muttering was inaudible to the spectators but Blackbeard's heart was already set. This was not an impulsive decision at all but an unwavering determination because there was no way he could let go of such a hatred. Zach had not only destroyed his crew; he had also destroyed Blackbeard's reign and his prestige in the neighboring seas. The symbol of his power, his ship was already a pile of ashes under the sea and couldn't be recovered.
There was no coming back from this. As such Blackbeard pulled out his dagger from his waist and cut open the palm on his right hand.
Red blood smeared the insides of his palm as he closed it into a firm looking fist. Bloody tears escaped the bottom of his fist in the ruby drops but there were no signs of pain on his haggard looking face.
Blackbeard began to recite some kind of weird incantation that none of those present would have ever heard before in their lives. It seemed to be some kind of dark magic since it required blood as the medium. Otherwise, Blackbeard wasn't insane enough to cut his palm in remembrance of his vow alone.
Zach knew that Blackbeard was thinking of pulling off some kind of stunt but he didn't try to stop him considering the overall strength of he had on urgent disposal. Any of the girls could easily take Blackbeard on. Therefore, he kept his eyes on Blackbeard, calmly wondering if Blackbeard still had any cards to play.
"Don't be too happy with your victory. I will make you regret your actions soon enough. Even demons aren't as ruthless as you were today." sneered Blackbeard darkly as soon as he was finished with the incantation.
"I don't think there will ever come a time when I would regret my actions against a bunch of greedy rats like you and your people. No matter how many of you die, it doesn't matter to me at all because those willing to kill should be prepared to die themselves in the pursuit to do so." remarked Zach in mysterious manner. He was only copying some kind of life philosophy he had heard in his previous life.
While the two were throwing remarks around, the blood beneath Blackbeard's feet began to flow towards the sea sneakily. It didn't follow the laws of physics at all. It was creeping towards the sea like a snake instead of flowing normally, although no one in Zach's group seemed to have noticed it.
The moment this blood snake connected with the sea; a brilliant crimson light akin to a bloody aurora lit up the blood track on the ground like a fissure about to erupt from the ground. The bloody light was incomparably sinister as if some malevolent spirit was about to be summoned from the realm of the dead.
It wasn't just the ground that was smeared red. Even the ocean began to glimmer with a reddish light as the water began to swirl gently at first before becoming an unstoppable whirlpool a distance away from the shore.
The seawater began to rise slowly. A massive bulge was evident on the swirling surface of the water. It was as if the sea was about to throw up a massive entity on to the land.
Zach was shocked that the pirate captain had been holding back so much strength. Still, he didn't feel that the situation was completely out of his grasp yet.
The bulge on the sea burst apart with a splash and the sea parted into two. A colossal sized eel like being came out of the sea as its gigantic body displaced the seawater in all directions. The giant wave caused by its appearance threatened to engulf the island whole but the raging wave seemingly fell down before it could crash on the shore. It was as if the seawater was unwilling to part with the creature and wanted to return to its embrace.
All the spectators of this scene grew shocked at the sight of the creature. All of them had only heard stories about the creature but none of them had ever encountered one in reality. It was to the extent that some of them even wondered if it was an illusion meant to confuse their senses.
The gigantic sea blue creature that was glowing with an iridescent red hue all over its body was none other than a sea dragon; the creature out of myths and legends.
Zach knew that this was a world of magic and could not be judged based on his standard of normal. But this was way beyond what he considered to be normal even by the standard of this new world.
Magic being a norm and lack of technology was something he could understand but the existence of dragons wasn't exactly easy to digest even for him who had experienced two different worlds.
The sea dragon didn't move around and focused its eyes on Blackbeard whose palm was glowing with the same blood red hue as the sea dragon.
The bloody crimson light was the link between the sea dragon and Blackbeard which had been used to summon the gigantic creature instantly to a location that was so far away from the deep ocean.
The sea dragon gave Blackbeard a stunned look. Despite being a non-human creature, the dragon's expressions were extremely refined as if it could communicate just with its body language.
Its current expression indicated that it was puzzled as to why it had been drawn here to the edge of the ocean and it appeared to be asking Blackbeard for an explanation regarding the same.
Blackbeard could communicate with the sea dragon subtly but he didn't show any signs of it. He secretly sent the dragon a sound transmission through the water element in the air and told him about the events that took place on the island in a hurry.
The dragon comprehended his words for a bit before asking, "Why have you summoned me then?"
"Isn't it obvious? I need your help to escape this place. These people won't let me leave like this. Please use your strength to open a passage for me to the sea. And I want you to kill a person before that. That is an absolute must before we leave." Blackbeard explained his reason for summoning the sea dragon so abruptly but there was an element of urgency to his tone that the dragon caught on to.
"It isn't easy for me to help you. You know that I need to conserve my energy for a long time in order to advance my strength. By helping you I would be harming myself. So, I will need a lot of offerings after helping you out today. I will only help you if you agree to provide me with resources to make up the difference of the energy that I will lose and then some more."
The sea dragon was probably just as greedy as the pirate it was acquainted with. Therefore, even in such a dire situation it was only thinking of getting more benefits instead of helping him out.
Knowing the twisted intentions of the dragon, Blackbeard almost wanted to vomit blood at the hoax excuse it had come up with to gain benefits from him. But beggars couldn't be choosers. It was up to the dragon as to what price he wanted to set for Blackbeard's life.
Though Blackbeard's heart bled at the mere thought of the price he had to pay for his life, there was no other option available to him. It was either this or death at the hands of the dark mage who was the new target of all his accumulated hatred.
"Fine I can promise you that but only after we successfully escape this place first."
Blackbeard made the promise reluctantly but he had no intention to renege on the debt. The sea dragon could be especially relentless when it came to recovering the debts it was owed. If not for the dragon's inability to venture on land, it would never have struck a deal with a human like Blackbeard who could bring it items that were unavailable in the deep ocean.
The dragon nodded its head in contentment. It was satisfied after receiving a promise from Blackbeard and knew that the latter would come through no matter what.