POTC: Cortez's Uncharted Islands Chapter 12: The Power Of The Golden Sword, a pirates of the caribbean fanfic

Chapter 12

Unbeknownst to the Pearl crew, McGivens' ship had arrived just a short distance away from where Captain Jack Sparrow's vessel currently floated. McGivens knew at once that they were here to retrieve The Golden Sword, the very same artifact that McGivens himself needed if he wished to obtain command of Cortez's fleet of Spanish Armada ships. With haste, McGivens had rounded up a small contingent of men to accompany him to shore, where they would find a way to steal The Golden Sword from Sparrow and his crew and soon they were sitting inside a longboat of their own, gradually rowing into the cave of Isla de Muerta.

Prepared for the worse, McGivens and his men had armed themselves with the necessary weapons, should a fight break out between them and Sparrow's crew. McGivens now sat inside his longboat, clutching the top of a loaded rifle in his rough hands, a determined expression plastered across his face as he stared ahead at the cave's ominous opening.

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The zombies continued to slowly approach Jack and the others, their nightmarish faces contorted in oddly blank and impassive expressions, the job they were about to carry out seemingly routine to them. Everyone who had accompanied Jack into the cave gathered around the pirate captain, silently drawing their swords in the same instant. The Golden Sword was still lying in Jack's hands, but upon seeing the Spanish conquistador zombies emerge from their hiding places, he tightened his old on the hilt.

Will, his very own sword stretched out in a duel pose in front of him, turned his head to speak to Jack. "What's the plan?"

This time, it was Jack's turn to look at the person beside him. "Why would you assume that I would conveniently have a plan with which to handle all of this?" He gestured wildly at the still-approaching wraiths.

"Well," Will retorted petulantly, "you were the one who led us into all this, so naturally I came to the conclusion that you would have a plan in mind that we could use to escape should a situation such as this arise!"

Jack momentarily mulled over Will's words. "Good point," he said, snapping his fingers and giving Will a roguish grin.

"Well?!" Will demanded in frustration. "Do you have a plan or don't you?"

Jack quickly eyed the zombies who were still making their way toward the pirates. "What say we make this one up as we go along, eh?"

"I'm all for that!" declared Elizabeth before leaping down to join the zombies and begin the duel. Moments later, her compatriots followed her lead.

Jack had stuffed The Golden Sword into his belt before leaping down to level ground and as he jumped, he unsheathed his usual dueling blade, bringing it up in a battle stance the instant his feet touched on solid earth again. The zombie standing before Jack stared at him blankly, a long and curved sword clutched in his discolored and decayed right hand. With a noise that could easily be compared to an old wooden floorboard creaking under a great deal of stress, the zombie lunged forward wordlessly and clanged his sword against Jack's.

Jack was immediately forced into action, as he parried the zombie's first sword lunge just in the nick of time while swinging it to meet the wraith's next blow within seconds. Jack stepped forward with each new lunge he delivered and in turn the zombie matched every step, the two opponents now engaged in the usual dance that accompanied a sword duel. Suddenly, Jack forced his blade downward and in the course of a millisecond, used his sword to flip the zombie's sword into the air and out of the demon's hand. Not hesitating for a moment, Jack swung his blade down upon the zombie's right arm; an action that caused the limb to become detached from the body and fall to the ground as if it were an everyday event. Jack allowed himself the briefest moment to stare down at the bloodless severed limb in disgust before promptly landing a swift punch to the center of the zombie's blank and disfigured face, which made it limply roll off of the shoulders.

"Ew!" declared Jack with just a hint of disgust in his voice.

Will was coming along rather nicely as he was dueling two zombies at once. Soreness was gradually beginning to make its presence known in Will's right arm, and when he noticed this, Will threw his blade into the air and caught it flawlessly in his left with one quick movement. After that, Will acted instantly and plunged his sword deep into the zombie's chest, but that accomplished nothing, Will soon realized. Thinking fast, Will placed his right boot under the spot on the wraith's chest where his sword was currently lodged and yanked on it firmly; it came out easily. As Will maneuvered his blade in various angles above his head, continuing his exhausting duel with the hellish minion of the cave, he began to consider alternatives. Coming to one at last, Will forced his undead opponent's blade away from his face and swung his own down in an arc that chopped the zombie's legs off just under the knees. The zombie immediately fell heavily to the cave floor and for a moment, Will thought that he had emerged victorious. However, that feeling evaporated when Will saw something gruesome and shocking at the same time occur: the flailing stumps that were the zombie's severed legs soon had what looked to Will like replacement lower legs growing graphically from the ends of them until the zombie's legs had been fully restored. Will looked away in disgust, and noticed that the same exact thing was happening to a zombie that Jack had just sliced up.

The zombie that Jack had robbed of its limbs had regrown its severed arm, complete with another sword clutched in its scabbed and decayed hand. It also cricked the neck of its new head and groaned in a frightening manner.

Jack sighed. "Bugger!"

Meanwhile, Elizabeth and Bootstrap were fighting side-by-side, dueling a group of four Spanish conquistador zombies at once. Elizabeth shoved the latest swipe directed at her away while spinning on the spot and elbowing the nearest zombie in the face before plunging her blade into the exact spot where the zombie's heart should have been. Next, Elizabeth battled another, rather ugly zombie relentlessly. For a while, Elizabeth seemed to have the upper hand in the duel, but soon her blade was knocked away, leaving her defenseless. Elizabeth then heard another clang, and she turned to see Bootstrap have his own blade knocked out of his grasp by an even uglier zombie. For the slightest moment, Elizabeth and Bootstrap caught each other's eyes, and they silently made a quick decision with just that look.

Moving as quick as a flash, Elizabeth and Bootstrap dived under the legs of their zombie opponents, going for their fallen swords. Each of the pirates wrapped their fingers around the slightly warm metal hilts of the weapons, but instantly realized that they had the other's sword. Leaping to their feet, Elizabeth and Bootstrap tossed the swords into the air and they both caught the blades that came toward them while the weapons were still flying through the air. The moment that was completed, Elizabeth and Bootstrap plunged their blades into the zombies yet again, but this did nothing to deter the wraiths. They simply stepped out of the blades and continued to fight. Elizabeth ducked when her nightmarish opponent sent his sword swinging at Elizabeth's head and when she came up, Elizabeth's elbow collided hard with the zombie's back, sending the demon flopping to the floor. In the same instant, Elizabeth kicked the zombie's sword out of his hand so that the weapon flew up into the air, where she caught it by the hilt. Next, Elizabeth spun around on her heels for the second time, bringing down the two swords in her hand so that they met two incoming blades from two more zombies. Elizabeth used her arms to punch both wraiths in the face and leap forward from between them. But she noticed that the zombies were attempting to attack her from behind, so Elizabeth flipped the blades in midair so that the tips were now pointing behind her, and she thrust them backward and upward; the zombies went down like sacks of potatoes. Still determined, Elizabeth continued to duel.

Currently, Jack was battling more zombies and slicing off any part of them he could, but still, the body parts grew back into place the instant they were detached from their source. Whenever Jack would take off an arm, it would reappear only seconds later in the original's place. After the latest attempt, Jack gave a frustrated sigh.

"Can't you just stay dead, you ugly, petulant little creep?"

Jack lunged forward in what he knew was a futile attempt to defeat the undead wraith, and as a result had his sword knocked from his grasp. The weapon went flying to the right, clanging down above the cave floor and audible over the roar of the raging battle surrounding them. Jack smirked sheepishly at the zombie.

"Don't suppose there's any way I can offer my sincere apologies for the 'petulant little creep' comment, is there?"

The zombie said nothing, mainly because he could not form two cohesive words, and he dived toward Jack with his sword directed at the pirate captain's heart, however Jack moved just in time and jumped toward his fallen weapon. Jack was able to avoid the clutches of the zombies around him, but one of their feet kicked Jack's sword away at the last instant, the blade slipping just out of his reach yet again. Grunting in frustration, Jack was forced to roll out of the way of more incoming feet as they all attempted to smash in his face. Just then, Jack's fingers brushed up against something that was stuffed into his belt: The Golden Sword. While dodging another foot, Jack rolled and leapt to his feet and withdrew The Golden Sword from his belt in the same motion.

The moment The Golden Sword made contact with the first zombie's blade, there was an enormous explosion of golden sparks. As Jack and the first zombie continued the duel, Jack noticed the considerable amount of force that was incorporated into each blow when the swords clanged against each other; it was if the sword itself contained more power than any normal sword. After a series of impressive maneuvers, Jack shoved his opponent's blade away and was able to plunge his blade into the zombie's chest, and this time, it seemed to have an effect on the wraith. As Jack pulled the sword sharply out of the zombie's chest, the demon dropped to the cave floor in a lifeless heap. Jack raised the blade of The Golden Sword to eye level and noticed, amazingly, a line of blood that soon vanished as if it had been absorbed into the golden blade itself.

Jack did not have much time to comprehend this rather amazing feat however, because two more zombies immediately attacked, and Jack had to bring The Golden Sword up to block the pair of incoming blades. Next, Jack battled, clanging The Golden Sword against both blades at the same time, alternating between the two metal weapons in the course of mere seconds. Suddenly, with one great swing that sent the zombies' swords flying, Jack brought The Golden Sword up slightly and swung it in an arc straight in front of him; the result was the blade ripping through the chests of both zombies. Seconds later, the two now lifeless wraiths began to shiver continuously until their decayed bodies literally melted, their remains slopping onto the cave floor. Jack then glanced over at where the body of the first fallen zombie lay, and sure enough saw a small pool of the greenish liquid that the other two demons had burst into.

The sound of frustrated grunting soon reached Jack's ears, and he turned to see Will furiously battling another Spanish conquistador zombie, evidently losing progressively. Jack momentarily looked down at The Golden Sword hanging limply in his hands and he came to a conclusion inside his head.

"Oi! William!" Jack called out. "Heads up!"

Quickly, Jack tossed the sword in the air, where Will caught it with his free hand. Knowing what had to be done instantly, Will parried one last blow from his zombie opponent and plunged The Golden Sword into their chest swiftly. Again, this particular zombie's body melted the moment the shining blade made contact with the palish skin. Shortly thereafter, The Golden Sword was hanging suspended in the air, the hilt of said sword still clutched in Will's hand. Will turned his head toward where Elizabeth and Bootstrap were currently busy dueling their own nightmarish opponent and called out Elizabeth's name.

"Elizabeth!"

Without another word, Will tossed Elizabeth The Golden Sword; she caught it and forcefully stabbed both of the zombies facing her simultaneously, the blade going through both of them at the same time and they melted into oblivion. Another shout soon punctuated the air.

"Sword!"

Elizabeth recognized the voice and threw The Golden Sword in Bootstrap's direction; he caught it firmly. He roughly sliced of the heads of three more wraiths in one swift movement; both them and the headless bodies melted away instantly.

"Sword!" cried another voice.

In turn, Bootstrap tossed The Golden Sword to Gibbs, who was battling the last remaining wraiths. Once the Sword was in his hands, Gibbs hacked off every arm (all of them melting before they hit the ground) and finally finished them off by stabbing each in succession. Now, every zombie had been killed by The Golden Sword. Everyone who had been involved in the short battle now had their hands on their knees, their swords sheathed and taking great gulps of air.

"Why is that it's always us who experience all these supernatural occurrences?" asked Jack rhetorically. "You know, it's all starting to get redundant!"

Unnoticed by everybody else, McGivens and his men had been able to sneak inside the main portion of the cave, and they had been observing the battle in amusement. McGivens knew that The Golden Sword, which had been replaced in Jack Sparrow's grasp, was what he had to obtain and he had to acquire it quickly. He looked at his men, giving them a curt nod.

Wordlessly, all of them raced out into the open, weapons raised and loaded.

Jack, Will, Elizabeth, Bootstrap and Gibbs all looked up sharply as McGivens and his men stormed the cave in a drove. No one dared reach for their own weapons, for fear of being riddled with bullets the second they did.

McGivens stepped up toward Jack, a smug and satisfied smirk playing across his lips.

"Captain Jack Sparrow...we meet again."

"Small world, in't it?' said Jack dryly.

"I don't wish to waste any valuable time, so I'll cut to the chase, shall I? Hand over The Golden Sword or all of you die."

The sound of hammers being pulled back filled the confines of the cave, the echoes reverberating ominously around everyone. Jack looked down at The Golden Sword resting in his hands, truly contemplating his options. He then glanced up at his friends, all of whom were giving Jack expressions that clearly told him what to do.

Almost cautiously, Jack held out The Golden Sword to McGivens, and the mercenary took it satisfactorily.