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Sorry if this chapter is kind of short, but it does have a better battle.


Pirate's curse Chapter 6: Tan-line Island part 2 Lost catacombs

Shantae was sitting down, watching as the miners on tan-line Island work. They were nearly done with removing all of the ruins, which was taking little time now that they had a golden pickaxe from the palace.

She didn't understand it but then again her world was full of surprises. Once they were done removing the ruins the view was amazing but she didn't have time to enjoy the view seeing as several monsters were now roaming their direction, scaring off the miners.

She summoned her keyblade and made short work of them as she then rushed to the den of evil that was rather far away. As she ran to the den of evil she ran into three more cacklebats, and two of them were further corrupted.

They bore the strange heart emblem and were surrounded by more of the large bandits and small bandits. It was difficult to get to the den of evil, the amount of monsters were increasing drastically, scorpion women, Archers, flying octopi-like beasts and cacti-like mosnters.

Not to mention those strange emblem bearing creatures, the crosses over the heart emblems, maybe they were called heartless. That made sense to Shantae, even if she didn't know if that is what they were truly called.

Once she made it through to the den of evil she dropped down into it, finding it just like the surface, over run by monsters. This den had little to no puzzles and little to no need for Shantae to use her keyblade, but she did find something interesting.

It was Risky's Scimitar, a blade that didn't really help Shantae out much seeing as she had a blade of her own, but it was fun to dual wield now that she had a keyblade and a regular blade.

Once she made it to the end of the den of evil she saw who else but Squid baron standing in the middle of the room, which was very slowly filling with sand due to the sheer size of the room.

"Squid Baron, You're here?" Shantae asked in confusion.

"You better believe I am!" He shouted with a smile and determined face.

"Why? What about the vacation?" Shantae asked.

"I'M HANGING IT UP!" The giant squid yelled, having enough of the vacation he wanted but never truly got. "Goodbye dreams, see you never!"

"But you can't just give up on your dreams!" The former half-genie yelled. "What about the frolicking beach bunnies?" she asked.

"Old sailors and unbuttoned third buttons... I thought all of that meant something to you!"

"...Answer me this. How much map have you traveled?" Squid baron asked, with a sigh.

"What do you mean?" Shantae asked in reply.

"How full are your pockets? About half, right? Halfway full?" Squid baron asked before sighing once more. "Filler boss. It's my destiny, I see that now and I won't try to escape it."

"You're scaring me." Shantae said as she backed up a bit.

"You and me both. BUT I WON'T HIDE FROM FATE! I'M GOING TO BE THE BEST FILLER BOSS OF ALL TIME!" He declared with a determination unmatched by many. "OLD HAT! RECYCLED MOVES! ALL OF IT!"

"BRING IT ON SISTER! LET'S BOOGIE DOWN!" he exclaimed as he began bouncing to an unheard beat, ready to battle. He began bouncing around the room, trying to crush Shantae under him as she had to dodge and weave.

He sent shockwaves around the room with every bounce, Shantae having to jump over them in order to not get pushed back down. She landed her own hits against him but something was wrong, there were moving shadows all over the room.

One of them landed on Squid baron and his eyes went a brighter golden yellow than usual as he began morphing into an even larger squid, his tentacles launched at her, forcing her to have to block and fight them back as she watched the heartless emblem form on his forehead.

His teeth grew sharp as his skin changed to be a deep blackish purple and his spots were inverted to be red. His attacks grew stronger and he seemed much more savage than usual, like he was corrupted by dark magic like those Cacklebats.

But it was different, he was possessed by one of those heartless which was still attached to his back. It was larger than the usual shadow imps, it had light blue veins that could be seen on it's head, chest and antennae.

More shadows filled the room, changing into large bandits, small bandits, and several pot spiders, they attacked Shantae as the possessed Squid baron did.

She felt like she was in trouble when she suddenly felt a surge of energy as a light came from behind her, it was two blades of light, blocking an attack from one of the heartless and it was mimicking how she was blocking the heartless before her.

She began attacking the heartless in front of her, noticing that the other two blades mimicked her attacks. It took a a while but she managed to defeat the heartless aside from the one possessing Squid Baron.

She looked a bit roughed up, scratches and bruises from barely managing to dodge attacks, luckily she had potions that healed her. She spent a good half an hour, dodging attacks and returning some with squid baron before realizing that the heartless on his back is what she needed to attack, which wasn't easy.

She had to endure several attacks before the heartless finally went down and Squid baron was free from it's control. He was dazed but he cursed under his breath as he slowly got his bearings and he turned back to normal.

"What was that?" He asked, rubbing his head. "It feels like I was hijacked."

"You kind of were." Shantae said as she helped him up and he looked around at the damage he caused to the room in his possessed state.

"That felt so unsettling, whatever it was. Like my entire body was on autopilot but I wasn't the one pushing it that way. It felt dark." He sighed as he rested.

"You know, it would've felt amazing to battle you normally, even so, you did win and I gotta hand it to ya, it was awesome." Squid baron said with a weak smile.

"I gotta recover from that possession, take this, one of those tinker whatsits dropped it." He added, handing Shantae a map before pushing her to leave the catacombs so she could continue on her journey.

"Heartless are damned crazy nowadays." He cursed under his breath as he watched Shantae leave, begrudgingly.

"I'm back." Shantae said once she made it to the ship, looking like she was more messed up than usual from a battle.

"If you're through wasting time, maybe we can finally get back to work." Risky said before sighing. "What happened?" She asked.

"Squid baron, he ended up being the one I had to fight in the den of evil, but something's strange. He got possessed by a weird creature, it was dark, but not like dark magic, just dark, empty, heartless." She answered. "This isn't the first time I've fought the strange creatures. They have a dark heart emblem with a red thorned "x" through it."

"I don't know about many creatures made of dark magic, or darkness for that matter other than the cacklebats. But maybe you're uncle knows something." Risky sighed as she helped Shantae onto the ship and patched her up.

"We need to quicken our pace, so we are stopping by the mainland to stock up, and you have to talk to your uncle. About his knowledge. That zombie girl left a fossil she found for you to bring to your uncle anyways." Risky said before she started heading back to the main land, leaving Shantae to start training again.


Chapter end.

Short chapter, I know, but things are getting much more interesting. Also, I have a job that I am starting soon so uploads may become a little slow due to me focusing on work, but I'll do my best to keep up with this fanfic.