I wake up in the dead of night by the sound of lightning strikes. I am greeted with the surface of a wood table. I raise my head up, finding myself in an unrecognisable but familiar room. There were many bounty boards along with an extra table just across the one I slept on.
Silverhold, one of the four strongholds in the bronze sea. We have been fending off against incoming hordes of atlanteans ever since Commodore Kai left to Whitesummit. Things were pretty smooth for a couple of months. Some of the other admirals here went nuts and took the last available boats by themselves. This leaves me, Orion Patch, the last admiral and a handful of marines to defend this stronghold.
I got up from the chair I was sleeping on and stretched my back. My hand subconsciously grabs the halberd leaning on the side of the table. A light catches my eye in the corner of the room.
A huge atlantean with a crocodile’s head and a giant starfish on his pauldrons is sleeping there. At first I thought was sceptical, how did an atlantean manage to even sneak in here without alerting the marines outside this room. Then my barnacle filled brain decides to remind me who this atlantean was.
Where do I even start…
This atlantean arrived here four months back. We tried to scare it off using loud explosions, and it didn’t work. Then it starts speaking fluent english, which surprised everyone. It says his name is Hugo Silverthorne and he wanted to help us out. We agreed. I’m glad we didn’t have to fight against him because as soon as he shook my hand, a battalion of atlanteans rose from the docks on his command. He controls this fleet by forcefully shoving a piece of his starfish into their stomachs, if they still have one.
I open the door and peek my head out in the hallway. It is filled with mattresses with sleeping marines. No one would have expected the marine barracks to be destroyed by a tsunami. I should probably sleep a bit more… I thought as I close the do-
“…Why can’t I close this door?”
The foot of an atlantean stops me from closing the door shut. I increased my strength on the door handle, but it didn’t budge. I try to kick it away, only for another atlantean to slip past me and enter the room.
Hugo…?
He had woken up from his slumber. Saliva drooling out his jaws, his eyes staring into the nothingness of the void, his pet starfish glowing dimmer. The atlantean that slipped past me stopped right as it was in melee range of the crocodile. He grabs the atlantean with his giant claws, raising it up into the air. His jaws open wide, ready to chomp down on the atlantean.
BOOM
The sound of our stash of gunpowder exploding echoes through Silverhold. The sound prompted Hugo to drop the atlantean he was holding onto. I kick the door open, tripping the atlantean that was blocking it.
“IS EVERYONE ALRIGHT?” I shouted.
“Madam, an atlantean setted off the explosion.”
I turned my head to Hugo, who seemed completely spaced out at the moment.
“WHAT DID YOU DO AUSSIE?”
“His… coming…” He mumbled.
He stomped through the chairs and tables as he walked towards me. I slowly backed out of the room, trying to avoid being crushed by this crocodile. He breaks the door along with the door frame. My men and I draw our weapons.
“Oson Putch…”
“I won’t until you tell me what’s going on, Hugo Silverthorne.”
I pointed my halberd directly at his snout as I stared directly into the beast’s eyes. My other hand has already been placed on the handle of my sword. The atlanteans in the hallway marched to somewhere else. There was only silence.
“ANSWER ME.” I poke his snout.
“Puernt…” Hugo responds, turning his head to the direction of where the atlanteans he commanded went.
Without hesitation, he grabs my halberd like a toothpick and moves both it and me aside. He walks in the path towards the harbour. I and my men silently follow him as more atlanteans run past us and towards the harbour.
—
We reach where Caitlyn used to always handle visitors. Hugo stands in the middle of the room, his claws imbued with light magic. My men scatter around the room while I stood beside Hugo.
“An atlantean?” I asked him.
“Wuorsck.”
“Worse? What do you mean worse?”
The door is blown open as an atlantean heads straight for Hugo. He easily skewers it with his claws, throwing it aside. The corpse that he skewered was crackling with what appears to be red electricity. I turn my head to the door, expecting the so-called flower atlantean to reveal itself.
“Where is it?”
Hugo’s is looking directly up.
I turn my head up. The entire ceiling was a glimmer of green. A flower of flesh replaced the head of this atlantean, with an emerald eye in the middle of it. Its chest is completely visible, only the ribcage and spine being present. Its arms and legs were made out of emeralds.
What in the war seas…
It drops onto the ground as a crystal geode. It reforms itself, growing back its arms and legs in mere seconds. It was also way bigger than I thought, perhaps even taller than Hugo. It makes a deep laugh that sends shivers down my spine.
One of the marines stationed at the door attacks the flower atlantean from behind. Another emerald arm sprouts from its body, grabbing the marine and crushing his spine. He lays on the ground, paralyzed while the flower atlantean steps on its trophy.
“DWAYNE-” I drag my halberd on the ground as I charge towards the monstrosity.
I slash at the legs of the flower. My halberd slices through its left leg but gets stuck on the right leg. It shrieks in enjoyment, tilting its head to have a better look at me. I try to rip my weapon out of its leg, but crystals have already glued it shut. The crystal eye opens widely, revealing a jagged mouth that drooled blood.
“CuvAW!"
I cover my eyes as a blinding light emerges from the rubble.
I reopened them, Hugo is wrestling against the flower atlantean. Both their hands were grabbing onto each other, a competition to see who pushes who first. While Hugo clearly has an advantage in terms of body weight, the flower atlantean doesn’t seem to be sweating at all. Its arms and legs start to expand in size, tripling the size it was just moments ago.
“Hugo-"
The flower atlantean starts to overpower Hugo. It starts pushing him one step at a time. Even with both legs and tail dug into the ground, the flower atlantean was still pushing him at a normal pace.
Once Hugo was pushed to the wall, the flower atlantean picked him up like a barrel and slammed his body into the wall multiple times. Some of my men fire their flintlocks and muskets, but the bullets only miss or dent on its bones.
CRRKK-
The wall breaks after the flower atlantean slams Hugo into the wall a bunch of times. The room behind it collapses, trapping him in the rubble. The flower atlantean turns around, its neck limping on its shoulder as the eye salivated blood. It grabs the halberd I struck it with, using its arms to feel around the shape of it. Once it was done, it threw it into the rubble.
bzzzzz
An exact copy of the halberd was made out of crimson lightning. I signal the marines that snuck up behind the atlantean while it was busy showing off to attack.
The atlantean’s eye smiled.
The arm that was holding the crimson halberd spun 360 degrees. It sent the three of my men flying into walls. Once we thought it was distracted, all the other marines launched an assault. It simply slammed the halberd onto the ground, creating a giant magic circle beneath its feet. I shouted for them to dodge, but it was too late.
Crimson thunder struck where it stood. Only it stood, the others were lying on the ground, charred.
“CHARLES? EDISON?” I shouted their names, there was no response. The only response I had gotten was the roar of the flower atlantean. The fury inside of me took over. I charge at the atlantean with my sword drawn.
I wanted to take revenge for them, I want to show their choice of staying behind to defend silverhold wasn’t in vain…
CLINK
My sword was sandwiched between both of its arms. It pulls me in, grabbing me with its enlarged crystal hand. I stab the crystal arm, hoping it would release me from its grasp. It was unaffected, its crystal eye opening wide revealing a mouth with jagged teeth. It breathes out the stench of blood at my face as it starts to laugh.
Hugo points his massive claw at the flower atlantean. It kept on laughing, using his other finger to tap my forehead. I stop it from tapping my head-
SCRT-
It scratched my head, causing blood to flow down my already bandaged eye. It leans backwards, elongating the arm it grabbed me with.
ZWOOP-
It threw me towards Hugo. He tries to catch me, but fails. I inevitably crash into multiple walls and end up in the courtyard. The strength in my body starts to leave me.
“No… I can’t… black out ye-”
I wake up in the middle of the battlefield. My head is spinning, my vision is blurry, my legs can barely stand up. I rub my eyes, trying to get a look on the situation at hand.
“Hu-Hugo?”
He was standing right beside me. The two atlanteans stared at each other, their hands up to their waist. It was like two gunslingers in the wild west… waiting for whoever pulls the trigger.
BAM
Hugo slams his left claw onto the ground. He opens his jaws and roars at the flower atlantean. A sphere of light begins to form in his mouth.
The flower atlantean in the meantime, was just standing there.
Please… just please kill this thing
The light sphere fires at the flower atlantean.
Scenario 1: Suffering
WHAT?!
The light sphere was deflected away by a bolt of thunder. Hugo collapses on the ground, exhausted. The flower atlantean laughs, a magic circle appears under the crocodile.
An emerald spike skewers Hugo’s head. I watch as my only hope of surviving slowly tenderize by even more crystal spikes. I turn back to the flower atlantean-
It was right in front of me.
“NO.”
“NO PLEASE-”
“PLEASE-”
“PLEA-”
Scenario 2: Grief
“Ha… HAHA YOU DID IT HUGO!” I cough out blood while celebrating.
“Ha… Hugo?”
He stood there, looking at the completely obliterated corpse of the atlantean he had slain. Its eyes were soulless, and that starfish on his shoulder pad was gone.
My smile returned back to fear. I try to crawl away as fast as I could-
CRK
I screamed as I franticly looked back. My legs were crushed under the weight of the atlantean. It opens its jaws, preparing another light blast.
“HUGO-”
“HUGO PLEASE-”
“SNAP OUT OF IT-”
“HUGO PLEA-”
Scenario 3: Shitpost
Eh?
A loaf of garlic bread is thrown out of a tree and onto the field. Both atlanteans pause and looked at the tree. The culprit falls out of the tree and onto my back.
“OW-OW-OW-”
“SORRYY…”
A girl dressed in purple quickly got off from my back. She rummaged through her pocket and grabbed a tiny triangle shaped stone and looked at the two atlanteans.
“Looks like someone’s dying today!”
Hugo charges his light blast at the girl while the flower atlantean creates an emerald trident and prepares to throw it at her.
“HEY-HEY-HEY WAIT-”
Funny collab oooo
@Mr_Mxyzptlk @Mirage
