The final day of the voyage began with enormous tension in the air. Benham had essentially told everyone that they needed to be prepared to fight the Crown Jewel directly if they wanted any hope of capturing them, meaning that they'd have to even consider taking some of the crew hostage or boarding the ship itself. Benham assured them that they had the upper hand, since they wouldn't know they were coming, but Ren couldn't shake the thought that Benham was leaving out something important in order to achieve his own goals. It's far too convenient for us to just happen to spot them out here, right? Ren thought. Maybe they know we're coming… The thought of being ambushed scared Ren, but not as much as the thought that Benham was willing to risk the safety of the crew to maintain an informational advantage over him.
Ren proceeded to the upper deck, along with his teammates, and stood by the entrance, as Benham had instructed. Benham had assigned potential battle positions to most of the guild, leaving some to guard the lower decks, some to standby on the upper deck, and Team shadows and one other team to keep a watch on the entrances between decks. There were also a few on the upper deck who would double as boarders if the situation arose, but Benham claimed that this was exclusively meant as a last resort in the case that they couldn't sink the Crown Jewel. Again, this was an odd setup if they truly intended to play offensively, so Ren thought that Benham was hiding something. I suppose, if Benham's willingness hide important information to us gets exposed, that'll just increase the True Phantom Thieves' support when we triumph over these pirates. Ren didn't fancy himself an opportunist, however, so he perished the thought.
Sitting down by the entrance with his team, he sighed. "This is going to be messy, isn't it?"
"That kind of pessimism isn't like you, Ren," Morgana observed.
"Sorry, it's just that this whole thing has been getting to me a little bit. Benham's putting a lot of pressure on us all here."
"All he wants us to do is watch the doors, right?" Anya asked.
"For one, we're fighting off pirates here. We're more than just lookouts. More importantly, there's Benham's own… expectations." Ren knew that this was a crowded area, so saying any more would be suicide. Most likely, the reason we were placed here in particular is to prevent us from abandoning the Guild to help the pirates on the off chance that we're affiliated, or even interested in being affiliated. "In any case, this is probably one of the riskier jobs. We have to be on our guard."
"Shouldn't your team be below deck, in that case?" Ren looked behind him to see a Clefable, a Meganium, and a Skarmory approaching him. Team Dreamchasers, the other team assigned to guard the entrances between decks. Alex Skarmory was the one speaking. "I think that, with our skillsets, we are much better suited to be in the more crowded areas. Your team is more frail, but fast, and better suited to the tight spaces below deck. Wouldn't you agree?"
"It's the other way around," Ren contended. "Agile fighters like us are needed above deck. Plus, with your healing skills, you can help the infirmary down there."
"I have a hard time believing that," Joey Meganium argued. "We're better able to support everyone from up here. I think your inexperience is blinding you, greenhorn."
"We've already had this discussion," Ren pointed out. "We're staying up here, and that's final."
"You're just looking to get a better view," Alex accused. "You just hate the idea of being stuck below deck, kiddo."
"Come on, now, Alex," Mikey Clefable dissuaded. "They're dead set on being up here, let them do it."
"Gah…"
Ren looked around, and saw that the ship was nearby an island with a lot of rocks nearby. The fog permeating the area made it hard to make out any details, but it was huge, with a small tropical forest on it. Still, it was probably too small to sustain very many people, even if it had anything edible on it. "I wonder what's on there…"
"You'd better not screw this up, then. If the lower decks get breached, it's your fault." Alex seemed bitter himself. The both of them then noticed Benham walking by. "Hey! Guildmaster!"
Ren knew exactly where he was about to go with this.
"Yes, I'm here, what is it now?" Benham seemed a little nervous.
"Who guards which entrance?"
"Team Dreamchasers should guard the upper entrance, Team Shadows the lower one."
"Ha! Get below deck, kiddo!"
Ren was a little agitated at this result, but he wasn't exactly in a position to fight it very much at all. He wasn't anyone important, for now. "Come on, team. We'll do our best."
Aboard the Crown Jewel, Mocker was getting excited. His scouts had reported that they finally spotted the Ogra, near a rocky island in the foggy isles, which was extremely close by, and was pretty much perfect for them. The Crown Jewel itself was a lighter shade of grey that was perfect for hiding in fog due to it's steel plating, and the location met pretty much all of the conditions he desired to execute his plan. It would be minutes before the ship would come into view, and from there, they could begin their attack straight away. They'd be spotted well after the Ogra spotted them, so they could get very close. It was shaping up to be an extremely successful attack, perhaps the best victory they'd ever get. This is gonna be great, I can fuckin' tell! Hoo boy…
"Cap'n!" Current came knocking at the door. "We're almost there!"
"Excellent news, ya scallywag! How close are we?"
"Come look, Cap'n!" Current led Mocker out of his quarters, onto the main deck, and handed him a little telescope. When he peered through, he could see it. The faint outline of a Walrein, way off in the distance. There it was, it all of it's self-important glory. They were so close, they could probably begin attacking at any time. Nearby was one of the rockiest islands in the whole of the foggy isles, which contained a pair of scallywags that had previously wimped out on what being a pirate actually meant. Their little reunion would be a little overshadowed by the overwhelming number of people invading their little island, which would probably spell doom for them, too. At least, it would probably be a massive inconvenience to them. I wonder how those two will fuckin' manage. It'll be a treat to see the bastards panic when a huge-ass crew gets dumped on them.
"So, Cap'n? Do we head out now?"
"Not yet. We'll wait until they're in a good position, and then attack."
"Aren't we doing to lose the advantage of surprise, then?"
"Nah, we'll just hide in the fuckin' fog. So long as we're far away enough, we can just keep hidin'."
"I wanna get the bastards now, Cap'n!"
"If we attack like madmen, we'll get fuckin' torn up. We're outnumbered, we need to pick our spots. We have the speed and the knowledge of the area to do that, so we'll take full fuckin' advantage of it. Got it?"
"Yeah, yeah, Cap'n… It's just that I'm so fuckin' pumped to put the bastards in their place! I wanna get at 'em!"
"I wanna do that too, but being a fuckin' idiot will get the whole lot of us captured."
"Ain't that the plan?"
"The fuckin' plan is for only me to get captured, maybe! What would the fuckin' point of getting all of us captured, matey?"
"Oh, yeah, right…" Current looked sheepish about even suggesting it. "We'll wait on your call." With that, he headed out to do a little more scouting. The Captain was still very excited regardless.
Captain Aldo was, rather nervously, sitting at the helm of the ship helping his Helmsman navigate through what appeared to be some rather rocky waters. Visibility was terrible due to the fog, and the last thing they needed was to get shipwrecked now of all times. They'd run into the Crown Jewel any hour now, so they needed to be on their toes. Now was not the time to take things lightly. He squinted into the fog, trying his best to see the rocks.
"Turn to port a bit, maybe twenty degrees."
His Helmsman, Jacob Aipom, followed his captain's instructions and turned to port. The ship changed course, avoiding a rock nearby. The ship continued on unscathed. Once we get out of this rocky area, we're golden… He was starting to regret making the decision to go near the rocky, foggy waters, which he'd done to save himself a little bit of time. It could take an entire day to sail past this massive chain of islands, which was time they likely didn't have. Cutting through was a necessary evil to avoid running out of time, or at least, that was the logic behind it. Whether or not it would pan out well for them remained to be seen. The captain returned to giving directional orders. About 4 minutes passed.
"Starboard thirty… no, thirty-one."
Once again, the massive ship avoided a rock it was headed towards, barely managing to get out of the way. That was a little too close… It was a blessing in disguise that the winds weren't very strong that day. It made navigating the waters much easier than it otherwise would be. We'll have to go though this for a little while more, until we pass this island. Speaking of, the island itself was huge, boasting what seemed to be a miniature mountain, and a dense forest. It wouldn't be odd if a bloke or two was living there, all by their lonesome… Now was hardly the time to think about that, however. The captain squinted into the fog once more, prepared to give a new directional order. What he saw instead, however was cause for deep concern. Just barely visible in the fog, was what seemed to be the Crown Jewel, moving out from behind the island, and turning directly towards them. Immediately, he called to his lookouts.
"Lookouts!"
They immediately called back. "It's the Jewel!"
The captain, now knowing that that was indeed the Crown Jewel, snapped into focus. They had likely spotted the Ogra minutes beforehand. "Battle positions! Everyone!"
Having already heard the lookout, almost everyone aboard scurried into place, prepared to strike. The Crown Jewel was still a minute or two away, and Aldo himself needed to figure out how he was going to direct the ship through the rocks and fight at the same time. He needed to minimize the risk of a collision now, lest it happen, sinking their ship. He called out to the lookouts again.
"Half sail!" The Crown Jewel is much lighter than the Ogra, meaning it's probably impossible to outrun them. Speed isn't going to help us. On the flipside, that means that ramming us isn't going to be very effective for them. For that reason, it's probably best to reduce our speed and focus on not hitting a rock than try to speed through these rocky waters. It'll make steering much easier.
Without any delay, the sails went down to half, reducing the speed of the ship significantly. Aldo realized that they had to also needed to keep avoiding the rocks. "Port twenty!" The ship narrowly swung by, missing another rock. It would probably be a minute or two before they fully slowed down, and by then the Crown Jewel would catch up to them. Making these turns would speed up the process of slowing down quite a lot. As soon as they were safely around the rock, Aldo reversed the order, swinging the ship back onto it's original path. "Starboard twenty!" The move killed the speed of the ship by a substantial margin, slowing them down a lot. By now, the Crown Jewel was clearly visible, and charging them at a bit of an angle. The cannons would be rather useless, so instead, Aldo scanned the surroundings for further rocks. Luckily, there weren't any others nearby other than the once they just passed, so Aldo decided to turn the ship one more time. "Port ten!"
As the ship turned, it became nearly perpendicular to the Crown Jewel. Hopefully, this would reduce the damage from a direct impact, which the Ogra could probably take a few of before the ship started to sustain serious damage. The Crown Jewel was much closer than before, until, finally… collision.
Benham watched as the smaller ship rammed right up against the Ogra on the starboard side, rocking the entire boat. The force of the impact was certainly impressive, yet not quite enough to do much damage. Benham ran right over to where the Crown Jewel made impact, and saw Captain Mocker staring right back at him.
"You don't know how to stay in the past, do you?" Benham was surprised to see mocker standing so close to where they made impact.
"You don't know how to be put in your place, Landlubber!"
Captain mocker rose his arm, and several of his men rushed to climb aboard the Ogra, fully intending to board it themselves. The Guild members stationed on that side of the boat immediately tried firing back, and managed to throw a few into the water, but Mocker had seemingly planned for this. Immediately, the Fraxure by his side opened it's mouth, firing a nasty Dragon pulse that knocked several Guild members overboard, taking them out of the fight. The pirates managed to get aboard. Immediately, the rest of the guild members on the top deck fought to push them back. They seemingly succeeded, as the pirates retreated. Benham watched as the Crown Jewel turned away a little, then rammed the Ogra again. They're trying to tear open a hole! Their ship can withstand such impacts better, due to that steel plating, but our wooden ship will likely break more easily! This is bad…
The process from earlier repeated, with a few more members of the Guild being thrown overboard, and unfortunately, very few of them seemed to be able to swim. One had already died in the second impact, which Benham couldn't allow more of. Immediately, he called on team Deep, who had been chosen to be above deck for this very reason. They consisted of a Marshtomp and a Frogadier, and immediately dove overboard to grab as many guild member as the could and get them to safety. It wouldn't be long until the Crown Jewel prepared to ram them again, so as soon as they started to back away again, Benham called out to Aldo.
"Captain!"
"Way ahead of you!" Aldo yelled back. "Hard to port!"
The Ogra began to turn away in kind, prepared to get out of the way of a third impact. It would ultimately prove to be futile, however, as their speed was far to low to get out of the way in time. Benham looked back at the Crown Jewel, and saw Mocker himself preparing an icicle crash, this time hoping to rip the ship open for real. Benham could only watch as the Crown Jewel slammed right into the Ogra, and a loud crash was heard. They broke us open! Are we being Boarded? Benham immediately ran to the lower decks, but it was there that he saw something bizarre. Captain Mocker, alongside a Floatzel who Benham assumed to be affiliated with the Phantom Thieves, was now aboard the Ogra and had his hands up in surrender, and was laughing like he'd won. The Crown Jewel was turning away one final time, and this time, it didn't look to be preparing to ram them again. Benham looked to who Mocker was staring at. It was Ren. Team shadows were the only other people in the room Mocker had broken into. Could that just be a coincidence? Maybe…
Immediately, Captain Aldo Ran to take a look at the damage that had been done. Unfortunately, it was rather substantial. The impact had torn open a hole that extended low enough that just a little bit of water was being taken in from it, which meant that the ship had, at most, ten or so minutes before it went down. The Crown jewel was still turning away, and looked to be retreating from the battle. Dammit! This was their plan all along! I need to save the ship somehow! He immediately called out to one of the free lookouts. "Tell the carpenters to get working on this right away!"
The lookout immediately ran below deck, to inform the carpenters who hopefully didn't exactly need to be informed what the situation was. The only way this ship isn't going down is if we steer it to shore. We gotta get to that island, or we're dead to rights. Aldo turned back to Jacob, and gave him a single instruction. "Hard to Starboard. Our new destination is that island there, or we all drown." He then called out again. "Full sail! And be prepared to abandon ship! I want everyone above deck!"
The ship immediately began to turn towards its new destination, the massive island they'd spotted earlier. There wasn't any time, so it was a necessity to move as quickly as they possibly could. Dodging rocks as the ship began to list at full speed, however… that would be tough. Aldo squinted harder than he had ever done in his life before, straining to see every last rock before they even hit it. He spotted one.
"Port 17!"
The ship swung around the rock, and now needed to swing back before they got to far off course.
"Starboard 17!"
As the ship turned, the listing began. It was only very slight, but Aldo could tell. He saw another rock further ahead, and decided that they needed to do something about it. He gave his order very early.
"Starboard 5!"
The ship turned very early , clearly missing the rock. The captain gave his next order.
"Port 10!"
The ship angled to get back on course, lurching to the port side in the process.
"Midship!"
At this point, the island was coming into much clearer view. Just ahead of them was a little crevice in a cliffside that the ship could reasonably fit into, so long as it didn't list too heavily. The cliff just happened to be lower than the upper deck. If they could just fit into there, they could get everyone onto the island safely, hopefully averting the crisis temporarily. Just a few more rocks to dodge.
"Starboard 5!"
Another rock dodged, but the ship's listing worsened.
"Port 10!"
The listing was once again alleviated slightly. Aldo allowed this motion to carry them past the next rock before turning again. As they moved past the final rock, they were oh so painfully close to their destination. They just had to maneuver into place.
"Starboard 20!"
The listing worsened yet again as they came closer and closer to the crevice. They just needed to be angled just a little bit better than they were now.
"Port 30!"
This just managed to align themselves properly with the crevice, and then they were home free. All that there was left to do was to hit the rocks.
"Brace for impact!"
The ship rammed into the rocks at full speed, probably destroying the hull in the process. That didn't matter for now. They'd succeeded in making landfall, however damaging it was to the integrity of the ship itself. All that there was left to do was to get everyone off the ship.
"Abandon ship!"
Everyone started jumping onto the nearby cliff, while Aldo did his due diligence as the captain and waited for everyone else to get off. "Was there anyone below deck when we crashed just now?"
"No, sir! The lower decks were successfully evacuated!"
"Good to hear! Everyone off!"
As he watched everyone get off, however, he noticed a rather unusual crew member. Perhaps the correct term would be 'stowaway'. Tied up in a massive amount of rope, along with a Floatzel, was none other than Mocker himself!
"Bastard! What are you doing here?"
"What are ye fuckin' talkin' about? I surrendered."
Benham addressed the captain. "We have him captured. We'll deal with him on shore."
What the hell is this maniac planning? Aldo couldn't even begin to comprehend what he was seeing.
Minutes earlier, after the Ogra was rammed for the first time, Ren was nervously waiting below deck with Morgana and Anya, hoping that nobody made it past the teams above. Ren felt a little trapped in his current situation, but there wasn't much he could do at the moment. The whole ordeal had pretty much forced him into a position where he wasn't very useful. That's by Benham's design, of course.
Another ram into the side of the ship. This one felt a ton weaker than the previous impact, meaning that they were getting weaker. Probably because the other ship didn't get to build up nearly as much speed. Regardless, Ren was still trapped by the situation. Moving anywhere else would draw a ton of attention, so they just had to sit tight. They wouldn't sit tight for very much longer, however. A powerful Icicle Crash slammed right though the wall in the lower decks, and sent Team Shadows reeling on impact. When the smoke cleared, Ren saw a Beartic who Ren could only assume to be the enemy leader, alongside a Floatzel and a Fraxure, now on board the Ogra. Still dazed from the impact, he struggled to rise to his feet.
"Oy, what the fuck have we got here, ey?" The Beartic started.
"Looks like we're near the crew quarters or somethin'," The Fraxure responded. "Fuckin' burst right in."
"Cap'n, looks like we've got a little bit of company. Already half dead by the looks of it."
"Where, ya bastard?" The captain asked, looking around the room, and eventually made eye contact with Ren. Suddenly, his expression changed. The smile on his face broke out into laughter. "Current, you mind getting' captured with me?"
"Uh, why?"
"I think we have our impostor." The Beartic gestured to Ren.
"That doesn't answer my-"
"Just fuckin' do it matey, okay?"
"Alright, Cap'n."
"Sailhead, you get back on the Jewel and retreat with everyone else. Until I get back, you're the captain. Got it?"
"You're generous today."
"I'm in a good mood. Now hurry up and be captain before we actually lose some men." He turned back to Ren, and raised his hands in surrender. The Floatzel did the same. "Hello, impostor. My name is Mocker. And I'm going to teach you a fuckin' lesson about using my fuckin' name, whether you like it or not."
Ren's brain was running at a million miles an hour. How on earth did he pick me out? It should be impossible to do that? Is he some kind of genius? Did he just get lucky? By the time Benham made it down there, mocker had resigned to laughing ominously and the Jewel was retreating away.
"…What's going on here?" Benham asked.
"I-I don't know… he just broke through the wall and just… laughed at me?"
The captain interjected. "It's called a surrender, arsehole. Sorry you're a fuckin' dumbarse."
Benham immediately unleased a thunder wave, paralyzing Mocker and his accomplice. "Get me some rope, Ren. Now."
Ren did what he was asked without thinking. He couldn't even begin to process what he was looking at, so his mind thought it better to just do something, anything. I guess this makes it easier to steal his heart, but still. This is gonna draw a lot of suspicion onto me! I've gotta be careful, or one wrong move and Benham will be super suspicious of me…