Headed by a Snake

Becky turned to her peers, sticking the base of her trident in the sand and placing her opposite webbed fist on her waist.

"(See? I told you studying under the Priestess was super useful!)" She gurgled gleefully, "(I just got a battlefield promotion!)"

"(Leader Becky,)" Another sahuagin clicked in worry, "(Anaru was defeated in an instant. Maybe we should... leave?)"

"Speak... in COMMON!" Becky bared her teeth in what was probably a smile.

"I dare-sssay that these two gentlemen are beyondd our meanss to engaage," The male sahuagin crossed his arms. "Perhapssss we should take our chancess apologizing... to the Black Crowsss... rather than take a rissky confrontationn?"

"That's a pretty smart idea," Krysaos agreed, hoping the lot were as stupid as they looked. "Y'know, live to fight another sun."

"WRONG!" Becky declared, papping the base of her trident once more against the sand.

Thankfully, it didn't make the same boom sound like when that Anaru guy did it.

"Wrong?" Krysaos grimaced.

"...Wrong?" The male sahuagin tilted his head.

"Your accent is BAD! SO VERY BAD!" Becky scolded.

"...It bringsss me... great diss-honor..." The guy looked away in shame.

Becky crossed her arms in thought... but not two seconds later, her entire fish-eyed face brightened all at once,"(We can pray to the Sea God for help. The Sea God hates Krysaos!")

She wrung her webbed hands as she turned back to Krysaos, "(Um. No disrespect intended, Captain Krysaos.)"

Krysaos revealed his open palms, "No off--"

"SEA GOD'S TROUSERS!!!!! WHYYYYYY?!?" Anaru screamed in pain.

It sounded like Tycon had chosen to break the arm, after all.

Tight.

Krysaos smiled politely, "No offense taken, Miss."

He was honestly still a little upset about his crew's mutiny, the sea god stealing his ship, and the lot of them leaving him for dead.

...It's not like he could change the fact, though.

"It is what it is," He sighed.

Tycon shot a glare at him.

...It was probably something he said incorrectly, but Krysaos didn't care about it too much.

Becky waddled over to the sealine, some thirty feet away... and she raised her hands high above her head, "(O' Sea God! Hear this one's prayers! Help us recover the Chosen One!!)"

"(Ask him to save Anaru, too,)" One of her companions shouted towards her-- probably trying to be helpful.

"(And please, o' Sea God, save the previous leader!)" Becky added, "(--who is dumb. Because he is STUPID! I, Becky, am a lot better than he is!)"

"Should we be worried about that?" Tycon asked.

He was still seated upon Anaru, who seemed to have finally accepted his fate.

"Nah, don't worry about it," Krysaos waved. "That shitty sea god doesn't listen to just anyone..."

He frowned as he gestured at the sahuagin leader, "Uh... that guy dead?"

"Unconscious, either from pain or asphyxiation from the smoke," Tycon responded. "If he were deceased, I'd expect him to transform back into his natural state."

Before Krysaos went on about how weak that Anaru guy was... he realized that everything had gone quiet. All the bushes and vegetation... had become eerily silent. The gulls had gone away, too.

The sea rats never go away.

Tycon's eyes had drifted upward and past him.

...Krysaos did absolutely not want to turn around.

His voice cracked with fear as he spoke in a hushed tone... "There's something big and scary yer lookin' at, huh?"

"I would say so," Tycon nodded gravely.

"...Becky's ritual worked, didn't it?"

"That seems to be the case, Brother-Captain."

Krysaos took a deep breath... then spun around immediately.

Forming just off the coast was a... twenty-- no, fifty... maybe a five-hundred-foot wave! Becky was dancing around like an idiot, pumping her trident up and down over her head.

"Shall we start running?" Tycon suggested.

"N-nah," Krysaos coughed. "I... I got this. I've gotten back some of my mana, since lunch... so I... so I can..."

"A delay will cause us undue harm, Captain," Tycon narrowed his eyes.

"Don't rush me!" Krysaos snapped back, "I just... I... AH! I got it!! ⌈Water SPHERE!!!⌋"

Channeling his Skill, he directed the mana in the air to form a big watery bubble that encased him and Tycon both.

"Ahaha!! I'm a GENIUS!!" He laughed.

"And this does... what, exactly?" Tycon crossed his arms.

"It'll protect you and me from the big crashing wave. And we can breathe underwater with this spell, too," Krysaos boasted. "It's super useful. Trust me."

"...then you must also realize that Mister Lone is not protected by this same spell."

Krysaos' eyes widened, "Oh sh--"

...

The slow march back towards the camp was uncomfortably silent.

...It wasn't the silence that bothered Tycondrius as much as the moping from the obviously depressed Sea Captain Krysaos.

The two of them had been washed a bothersome distance away... near twenty minutes of travel time, by Tycon's estimate.

Upon reaching the location and searching for half-a-bell, Lone's corpse was nowhere to be found.

"It seems the sahuagin have taken Mister Lone... and the swords," Tycon remarked... the first words spoken since the event.

"Ya don't say," Krysaos muttered...

"Krysaos..." Tycon frowned, "speak your mind, if you would. Matters of the sea are your expertise, are they not?"

The gentleman was staring off into the distance, towards the sun setting over the watery horizon.

​ Tycon stood by him... "Captain."

"Eh..." Krysaos rubbed the back of his head, "Don't call me that... I... I ain't a Captain, Tycon."

...Tycon took great care not to laugh. Krysaos admitting to his earlier lies wouldn't help the situation.

He gestured calmly towards him, "How do you mean?"

"I ain't a Cap'n without a ship..." Krysaos shook his head as he plopped down on the sands... "And my crew? I'm now missing literally half of 'em."

"I think it safe to assume Mister Lone is dead," Tycon offered.

New crewmembers didn't seem so difficult to find. Lone would be a pain to replace. The Swords of the Forgotten King would need to be recovered. An Iron-Rank Ranger's corpse, not so much.

Krysaos placed his palms on his face as he groaned towards the sky... "Nah, man... I... I really f*cked it up. I gotta say... life's been shite. Sea god hates me. Don't have a ship. My best friend's quest is royally f*cked in the arse."

Tycon assumed that 'best friend' was him. It was a pleasant title that warmed his heart.

"Yet... we live," He shrugged.