Chapter 11: Attack of the Siren!

A captivating voice haunts these reefs, singing an ancient song in a long forgotten tongue. The gentle splash of waves upon the shore and side of the ship is the beat while the winds whispering through the spires and across the creaking of the ship sing counterpoint to the barely heard aria. Words you couldn't quite hear- so you listened harder to make them out- calming, soothing, captivating words. Until suddenly there is only the voice and a sense of absolute serenity as the world falls away.

Upon the nearby shore two men straightened as they realized what they were hearing; one aged and wary of strange sounds upon the wind, the other used to hearing the lies hidden behind sweet words. Quickly shaking off the effects,they reach for their weapons as they turn towards the sea and song, eyes trying to spot the singer. Upon the fishing boat, two men and a woman, young and easily captivated by the dreams whispered upon the wind, stood in relaxed poses- enchanted and unaware of the danger they were in. All that mattered was the aria. It was the song of the sea, the same sound that sang to the bones of a sailor, that which lures good upstanding men to turn pirate and leave behind wife and kids. When men in the bars claim that the sea calls to them, it calls to them in this voice… a siren's voice.

The lean man with slanted dull grey eyes standing on the shore fires his pistol at the ship, aiming right next to his allies in a desperate bid to wake them, warn them of the shadow that he could barely see approaching at great speed from the west. The taller broader dark man next to him was racing towards the boat, staff out as he yelled for his companions to wake, to fight.

POV Jasmine

A sudden bang interrupts the most beautiful song I've ever heard, waking me from a dream of the sea- of lying below the waves and watching the gentle play of light upon the water.

"You fools! Don't listen! Fight it!" A deep voice bellows from nearby and the dream fades though the voice still remains trying to lull me back into the peaceful trance.

Wake up? Listen… Dream... song…. .siren…. SIREN! The claim that voice had upon me shatters as I shake my head and begin to hum to try and keep that insidious soothing voice from overwhelming me again; to cover the sound of her voice with my own. Siren! How could we have been so stupid to not pay attention to the sounds! I looked over to try and see where Mihawk and Shanks were standing, to try and warn them that the siren was … here.

It was too late; there was no chance to wake them! My eyes widen in horror as a siren leapt from over the side of the ship directly at me. All I could see in that instant was a long lean scaled figure gleaming pale green in the light with long waves of dark wet hair streaming out from her face. A pretty human face edged in scales with the most vivid vicious pale eyes I'd ever seen above a too large mouth filled with far too many long sharp fangs.

In desperation I did the only thing I could do with the little time I had: a wordless note as full of my spirit as I could spend in a single second rang out as I swung my bo staff around and braced for her attack. I could only hope it broke her hold over the boys like Phil's voice had woken me as the siren's long too thin arms reached forward, long spiny clawed nails biting into my staff as her teeth snapped at my neck barely missing.

Her weight and momentum was too great and we tumbled across the deck and over the edge into the waters. I heard someone scream my name as I twisted about, straining my muscles to force the siren to take the brunt of the force when we hit the water. I managed to take a deep breath just before the waves hit, the salt water stinging my eyes and dulling the sounds from above.

Her voice became so much stronger under the waves, a compelling tone that demanded I surrender. I once more started humming to dull the effects of her voice and spun more spirit into it. It wasn't a song of inspiration as I could not actually vocalize words but it was enough to keep me from giving in to her voice. Around us bullets slid through the water trailing bubbles. Two managed to hit her lashing tail and her singing stopped as she hissed in anger and small wisps of dark almost black blood began to leak from the wounds. A snarl twisted the pretty face of a mermaid edged in scales into the feral beast she truly was; pure white orbs with a single long slit pupil seemed to almost glow in hunger and greed.

Her body was mostly tail, at least two thirds of it serpentine coils edged in tattered frills. Said coils whipped around and tried to bind my movements; I barely managed to shove my staff forward into where a human's stomach would be and heard the angry hissing stutter and halt with a grunt. Faster than I could move she lunged forward, her sharp needle like fangs sinking into my shoulder as her tail slithered about me in a bid to crush me to death. I thrust my knees upwards, bare feet trying to find purchase on the scaled coils so I could push her away as I held my staff parallel to my body to keep her from completely binding me and crushing my bones. Even with my considerable strength I could barely hold her at bay, the trembling in my limbs showing the strain of holding her off. My left elbow was lodged against her neck to keep her bite from shredding the thick muscle at the base of my neck. The water around me began to darken as I bled before she released my shoulder and leered at me, teeth stained with my blood. I could see the light above me dim as we sank deeper into the ocean; above us I could see the three silhouettes of my companions swimming towards us.

"Foolish tasty human. You cannot win. You cannot hope to survive!" Her speaking voice was guttural and filled with a deep hunger- it was also surprisingly easy to hear her.

I scowled at her as I used the space given to thrust my legs out a bit more, giving me space to jam an elbow into her throat. I was beginning to feel the burn in my lungs; the humming had lessened the amount of oxygen I had available. Her shrill screamed of rage was like a blade through my head- too high, too loud. I saw my health bar actually decrease; it was physically damaging me! I struggled to maintain some space to maneuver as she began tightening her constricting tail about me once more, I could see my bo staff bending at the ends despite the hard wood and steel reinforcement as my legs were forced to curl up under the strain once more. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw one of the figures nearby flinch and stop before trying to attack with a blade only to miss as the water slowed his strike.

The siren's head darted down again, teeth flashing in the darkening ocean waters and I barely had time to shift so she missed my throat. Instead she bit down upon my right shoulder again, her teeth scraping against bone this time. As I struggled even harder, trying to break her tail's grip around me, I noticed one thing; gills. Gills on her neck. Fish didn't like oxygen right? If they could breathe underwater they had to breathe like fish; if they breathed on the surface they breathed like us. So… if I forced air into the fish part would it hurt her? Matching thought to action I twisted forward and blew the last of my breath into the gills upon her neck in a sick parody of a kiss.

The siren spasmed and let go as her scream echoed out again and I sank further into the waters before struggling to swim away and up. Air—I needed air! I desperately swam up –how far had she dragged me? The figure with a staff- Phil- reached out to grasp my arm and began to swim towards the surface while the other two figures followed, keeping themselves between us and the screaming siren.

As we neared the surface, I felt something grasp my ankle. Without looking I slammed my staff downwards, getting a lucky solid hit on her face. The crunch as her nose broke vibrated through the staff and made me want to smile- but I had no time to capitalize on her flinching, I needed air. So I used her face as a stepping stone and propelled myself further upwards; I was so close! So close to the surface and air! A throbbing pain was spreading from my lungs and head; the lack of air was damaging both the stamina and health bars. Phil gave me a push upwards before twisting to swim downwards where Shanks and Mihawk were attempting to attack the siren. I broke the surface and gasped, taking in lungful's of air and sliding my goggles over my eyes so I could actually see under the water without the salt stinging my eyes. Boulra tried to pull me out but I shook my head.

"No time. I can fight still." I tossed him my dagger knowing he only had his guns and dove back down. My neck and shoulder were throbbing but my affinity for the water was keeping the wounds from bleeding too much. Looking downwards, my friends were falling back - or up towards me as it were- as they tried to fight, working as a team to keep her from wrapping around any one of them. While they could hurt the siren and had done some damage; neither of the boy's swords were moving at the speeds needed to truly harm her. Phil's staff was pretty much the same- the ocean draining most of the force from his blows. She was bleeding more now but more angered than truly hurting. I could see blood floating out from all three of my companions from where she'd gotten in a claw or tail swipe.

The instant she saw me swimming back down I saw her eyes gleam and focus upon my bleeding neck; did she have the sense of a shark? She slapped Phill away with her long winding tail and slithered too fast past Mihawk and Shanks, though I saw both use the chance carve deep gouges in her. I met her charge head on, my own speed in the water making her snarl as my staff moved unhampered through the water towards her face. She twirled and avoided it, her torso overshooting me as her tail slapped down at my face, the spines scraping across my cheek. Perfect! I grabbed ahold of her tail and pulled, making her snarl indignantly as her momentum was halted. She twisted around to try and grapple me, but I was prepared this time and my bo staff was braced lengthwise along her body and my boot met her face with a crunch. Phil swam behind her and wrapped a beefy arm about her neck as I swam away from him, stretching her out for only an instant, muscles already straining as she thrashed and almost escaped. We could only hold her for an instant but an instant was all we needed. Shanks and Mihawk saw a chance and put everything into two strikes, bisecting the siren and causing Phil and I to tumble apart as she separated and silence descended underneath the waves. I found myself holding the tail of a siren as the waters darkened as her blood spread in a hazy dark red mist.

Siren Defeated!

+50 exp, exp decreased due to party

Siren Song Unlocked, you may select it as a skill when you level up.

Unknown Status Effect Applied

I swam upwards, carrying the body with me so we could at least take a picture of it. Boulra glared at me when I surfaced.

"A knife… you want me to dive into the water with only a knife to fight a Siren?" He grabbed me and hauled me up by my unharmed arm. His worried eyes took in the bite marks on my right shoulder and the bruises along my arms and back that were just now darkening from being gripped by her coils. My dark skin didn't show bruises easily but she'd done her best to squeeze me to death and it showed; both in the bruises and the health bar that was at about 60% despite the few hits I'd taken.

"Well- I figured if you were going to join in you'd need a blade?" I gave him a weak grin as I stretched, feeling the rather brief but painful fight now that the adrenaline was wearing off. He grumbled but leaned over to help the others up over the boats edge.

"Sirens are real!" Was the first thing Shanks said as he surfaced. "If that legend is real how many other legends are?" He seemed excited despite the experience.

"Well legends have to come from somewhere." I said as I tried to move my arm. "Anyone have something to clean wounds out with? Or bandages?" I should have worn a shirt… I could have used it as a bandage then! I could use the arm but it looked like I would be using my other arm for most things for a bit.

"That looks like a really bad hickey." Shanks laughed at me as I glared at him. "Gotta work on dodging."

Mihawk glared at him for me; "You are in no position to laugh. You were the last to wake up."

Boulra rolled his eyes. "You three were the only ones to fall for it. Phil and I didn't. Siren's sing- you'd think you'd pay attention to odd sounds you hear on the wind… And I dunno: not listen."

"Thanks for the gun shot and shout by the way… that's what woke me up." I tilted my head to give Phil a better look at the two bite wounds so he could try cleaning it out. He apparently had packed a shirt just in case it rained so he was using that to wrap it after he washed it out with some water.

"Glad to be of use." Phil smiled.

"I heard a bell." Shanks said with a shrug. "That startled me out of it."

"Same." Mihawk said as he eyed me. "I would almost think you had used the meito blade Boulra mentioned but you bare no blade…"

"Ah, I'm a singer and I figured a loud sound woke me up so I would do the same to you… could only really get a single loud note out since she was launching herself from the water right then." I looked over and saw Boulra looking at the Siren and taking pictures. She really was beautiful in a feral sort of way. Almost mermaid like, except with the tail of a sea serpent and longer thinner limbs. Her upper scales were pale green with it darkening to a dull grey green along the tail. Two lines of large bright turquoise spots lined her sides on either side of the frill sprouting from her spine. The frills were dark green edged in black and tattered from fights. She was completely scaled except for her face; the better to look human?The ears were small fins instead of human ears. Her jaw was like a snakes: when closed it was perfectly human, except she could open it large enough to swallow a good sized fish whole. Her mouth had the long thin needle like fangs at the front, but there were several rows of smaller jagged fangs behind them. Boulra was testing her teeth and nails on some wood and they cut as well as any blade.

"Well, now we know that sirens are real, and that songs that echo through the ocean are dangerous." I said wryly. "I think I might, with practice;"-and leveling up- "be able to sing like that one day. I've got a goal at last!" I grinned. When I looked up from my examination of the siren to see their incredulous expressions. "What?"

"You want... to sing like that?" The hawk eyed man sounded incredulous and I chuckled at his disbelief.

"You have a goal yes? To be the greatest. How do you know you are the greatest?"

"Because no one can beat you." Shanks responded for him.

"Well for a musician it's different. To be the best is hard as each instrument is different, each has its own voice and strengths. But a voice like a siren? A voice that is so hauntingly beautiful you have to listen to it? I want that… I want to be able to sing in such a way that my voice echoes through the waves." The siren's voice was the centuries old smooth exotic wine to my cask of last year's sake. The difference was immense! They seemed to understand or at least dropped the subject.

"I wonder where her nest is. I bet all the treasure from these ships are there… also the bodies of all the sailors from that earlier ship." I mused out loud. In fact my loot senses were pinging softly, forward and to the left a bit- I would have expected them to be coming from below us but it wasn't. Odd.

"She came from that direction." Boulra's hand pointed in the direction the gentle tugs were coming from. Bingo! "Least that's where I saw her approach from."

"Then that's where we'll check first." I murmured as we returned to the longboat.

After everyone had their wounds tended to-the siren had gotten a few good hits on Shanks and Mihawk that had not quite broken bones and Phil had a nasty gash on his back from the spiked end of the frill on the tail- we headed off, keeping an eye out for anything that could be a nest or other dangers. The sound of treasure may not have been downwards but as a siren the entrance was sure to be beneath the waves. Boulra, as the unwounded one, would go diving periodically as we (or the boys did at least) rowed towards a spire. This time he surfaced with a wide grin.

"Found it! Or at least one den if she had multiple. Big hole at the bottom of the spire leading downwards. Plenty of bones and shed scales so it's someplace she often visited! Its rather dark in there so I'll be using my camera's flash to light it up for us." Phil tied the longboat to the spire and joined us all in the water this time, each of us taking a sack down with us just in case we found a lot of treasure. The sounds told me there was something worthwhile here! Strains of soft ringing mixed with so many different deep gravely hums that I could barely hear the metallic clangs with that odd twisted shrill to them. There was a whisper I'd never heard before till today as well, something I could barely make out but it was there... almost as insidious and soft as the siren's voice had been.

As we approached, the flare of the camera's light illuminated a creepy sight: a dark maw opening at the base of the upside down tree, it's long gone wooden shape replaced with barnacles and calcite making it look as if it was made of bones. Completing the picture were quite a few bones scattered near the entrance half buried under the pale sand. Of course, Boulra took a picture with all of us around it. After surfacing to take a deep breath of air in preparation, we swam into the gaping entry way. The tunnel curved and snaked downwards beneath the sand, held up by bones and broken spars of wood to keep it from collapsing. Eventually the sandy walls turned to stone ones: the same stone as the ruins we'd wandered through earlier. The rest of the town or city now lay beneath the waves. We were swimming fast now, shoving off the walls for that extra bit of speed, trying to find how deep it went before we would be forced to return to the surface for air. We were now in some buildings hallway and I could see broken windows showing a glimpse of a drowned city before we were diving down through a broken doorway then swimming upwards and up and... up...

Eventually, right before Boulra was going to turn back the hallway opened up into a large domed room filled with air. We all swam in place, breathing in the strangely fresh air as we looked around. The room was huge: in fact it looked like the same type of room where we'd found earlier with the hidden room just far bigger. This building too was on it's side and I could see cracks above us letting in filtered light. The many pillars supporting the tall vaulted ceiling were now parallel with the ground and covered in growths of coral and barnacles. There was, to the far right, what had once been a balcony and from there I could hear the vast majority of the treasure. But what truly drew my eyes and ears was a dark shape laying down upon the 'floor' of the half drowned room. I dove down to investigate it, the deep thrumming whispering of unheard words drawing me closer. I was feeling slightly wary; was it something like a siren? But no... it was a huge dark black stone twice as tall as I was covered in carvings. My hands brushed off the bones that lay a top it and scraped away some algae to reveal more of these carvings. Words, so many carved words in a long lost languages...

'The end is nigh so we carve our lives, our knowledge, our history, within this room in hopes that someday someone shall find it. So that the traitors do not destroy all that we are, all that we once were. '

+50 exp for Discovering Ruins of the Lost Empire

+50 exp for discovering a Poneglyph.

I read until I was forced to return for air before immediately diving back down. I had to know who were these people? Who were these traitors? Who- what- why... so many questions! No wonder so many of us turn to archeology; the lure of lost knowledge and finding something no one had before were heady!

Apparently this had once been a city of merchants who dwelled upon the peaks of the tallest mountain chain. They dealt mostly in the trade of metals mined from said mountains. A history of who ruled, names, dates, events they thought important were all carved upon it. Upon the floor-now a wall- were carved pictures of islands and a star map imprinted over them each with a name. Each led to one of the major trading ports. While modern maps probably had different shapes for these islands and the names were most definitely different... those stars would still lead me to them! They shone the same as they had so long ago: I could find them. When I surfaced again I saw Boulra looking at me from a where he was perched upon a sideways column.

"Found something interesting?" He asked quizzically as I spied his camera.

"History for the most part... Mind if I take some pictures?"

"Hmm? Why don't I just follow you and you show me what to capture." He grinned as he slid into the water. Apparently he wasn't willing to hand over his expensive toy! I shrugged and swam down, pointing at each side of the large stone bloc than at each of the surviving maps carved into the 'wall.' he paused when he saw the block but took the pictures without complaint... I could only see a brief glance of something pass across his face before it was gone. Once that was all done I finally joined everyone else at the sideways balcony. While no dragon horde, the piles of gems and coins were impressive! Apparently one of the ships passing nearby that she'd claimed had been filled with metal ingots. I could spot quite a few gold and tarnished silver as well as rusted iron. Mihawk and Shanks were both cooing (cooing! Boulra promptly took a picture. Good man.) over a blade. From it the twisted shrill metallic sound emanated: it must have been a meito of some sort. It was a rather nasty looking blade if you asked me: slightly rusted from the humidity but the steel looked to be in good condition with a sharp jagged edge meant for ripping rather than slicing with the curved blade sliding into a bone handle with no hilt. It looked to be a twisted cross between a tanto and cutlass to be honest.

"Is there a reason you're cooing over a blade?" I asked curiously as I tightened one of my makeshift bandages that had loosened and exchanging a grin with Boulra.

"It's Shukketsu, one of the wazamono's!" Shank's gushed as he reverently held it. "There's only 80 in the world and wow... to think it's been rusting here in this ruin!" Shukketsu- bleeding death... The name fit the look of it: tear the wounds wide open so it can't heal or be bound easily and you'd bleed out fast. What a nasty blade! I shook my head and looked around to see if I could spot Phil since he wasn't over here withe the treasure.

"Is there any reason Phil's climbing the walls?" I asked curiously when I finally spotted him. I watched him somehow find purchase on damp stone walls and clamber up the curving wall in a gravity defying show of athletics.

"He wanted to find where the sun was coming from... see if it would be easier taking the treasure out a different way since we almost ran out of air on the way here." Boulra answered from where he was lounging by a pile of gems, separating them into piles.

"Makes sense." I nodded as I looked over the loot. It would take two trips since we only had a single large bag each and there was an impressive amount of metal ingots. Looking around I couldn't find where the siren would have slept... and there was more humming from below. I slid back into the water to investigate the underside of the balcony and the rest of the room now that I was no longer distracted by the poneglyph.

In a water filled room under where the boys were counting gold was a nasty nest of death filled with scales and treasure. Bones piled up into a circular nest with several artistic pieces embedded throughout in addition to quite a few shed scales; I picked up some of the largest since I wanted a trophy and wasn't willing to skin a person no matter how monstrous they might be. A tarnished bronze dragon statue the size of my arm had place of pride on the wall where the siren had gouged out a shelf of sorts. Interesting coral formations, some with rudimentary carvings, that glowed softly in the darkness lay next to it. The natural coral was beautiful: shades of pale pink, blood red, and sunset orange elegantly twisted about almost like miniature bonsai trees. A few had pale purple or yellow markings upon them. The carved ones were horrifying: the same beauty but with screaming faces scratched out like the coral was in agony. What I had thought to be a skull turned out to be a large pale gleaming stone carved into a skull... pretty and terrible all at once. But the real prize was a beautiful set of arm guards: the material wasn't metallic but it was in perfect condition despite the water. Dark green with golden inlay along the edges carved into a serpentine shape they were elegant looking. But were they of any use? I placed them in my bag and swam back upwards in time to see Phil swimming back to us. I handed the bag over to Boulra to finish dividing up the treasure (since he apparently knew how to appraise things) and waved at Phil.

"I found where she slept and some interesting art pieces. What'd you find?" I asked as I gave Phil a hand out of the water.

"Where we are! This is actually one of those islet's we saw but didn't approach. The building has been completely covered in dirt I guess which is why we didn't realize it was a building. When I looked out one of the cracks I could spot the Lady Lark actually. It has a good view of the surrounding areas... and the Siren left plenty of marks on the walls to show she climbed it to get a good view. One of us can swim back to the long boat and the rest of us can climb out and wait for them up here if you wanted to make less trips." He responded as he cast an eye over the treasure.

"I'm a fast swimmer so I can go." I offered only to be shot down.

"No; you'd have to row the boat over here and you need to try to take it easy on those shoulder muscles." Phil glared at me like the over-protective granny he was. The water had been helping me heal! Honestly! Water affinity was such a nice thing but it wasn't like I could tell them that could I?

"I'll go." Mihawk offered. "I have better eyesight in the darkness and this should provide enough light." Mihawk held up one of the screaming coral bonsai pieces that emitted a gentle glow. Boulra and Shanks looked at each other and shrugged; neither minded not going.

"Right. You set off and we'll start hauling loot upwards!" Phil said in a cheerful voice. "Good thing it's over water so if you fall it shouldn't hurt too much!" I looked up at the walls, slick with moisture, then back down the piles of heavy gold, silver, and iron ingots... this was going to take a while...

AN: And there you go folks! I haven't written the next chapter so the wait will be a bit. Hopefully less than a month but we shall see. No character sheet today but next chapter it'll be uploaded. She didn't get enough to level up.

Also anyone have any ideas for feats? I have a list but I feel like it is lacking.