Chapter 7: The Eye Pyramid
We took a short break for snacks and water, and Dustin and I held hands for a bit, away from the others. We then made our way over to the Pyramid of the Eye, a taller and more elegant pyramid than the Hand Pyramid we had just visited. I used the large eye key and opened the heavy door, which required Hawkules' help to open.
We entered the dark corridor, which also had various hieroglyphs lining the walls. The walls and the floor were lined with gold, almost like El Dorado. We reached a circular chamber, with a large Eye of Horus on the floor in the center. The room had some mummified kroks roaming around, which attacked us. After defeating them, we continued walking. Unlike the previous pyramid, this one didn't seem to have any branching paths to take.
After walking for a while, we reached the central chamber. The ceiling was very high in this room, in fact it was so high it was invisible from the floor. A staircase led up into the darkness.
"Hello, young pirate," an Armada witchdoctor said. "Surrender now and I take you to Bishop in chains for meddling in his plans."
"Not today, bucko," I charged the clockwork with my blades. I was poisoned at one point in the battle, but I got a nice heal from Bonnie Anne before I had the strength to use assasin's strike on the Armada witchdoctor. Dustin finished off the last clockwork with a Mojo Reaver spell.
"You may have beaten me, pirate, but you will be unable to stop Bishop."
"Uh huh," I nodded sarcastically. "Now how the heck did you mechanical idiots get in here without the key?!"
"We drilled a hole under the sand," the Armada troop indicated a large hole in the floor.
"It looks like the stairs have broken in a few spots," Gracie Conrad said. "We can't use them to get up."
"How will we get up there?" Bonnie Anne asked.
"There's an elevator!" Gracie Conrad jogged to a metal elevator mechanism in the far corner, which was placed by the Armada. "We can use this to go up to the top room, which is about 400 feet up."
The rest of us breathed a sigh of relief that we didn't have to climb 400 feet of stairs. My companions and I got onto the platform and Gracie pushed the lever to go up. It took a while to reach the top, but we made it and followed another corridor to the tomb of King Ramises, the pharaoh two thousand years ago in the Ancient Kingdom of Krokotopia.
"Oh dear," Bishop said, noticing us enter. He had the golden eye in his hand. "It's time to make my exit. Ramises, do your thing. Goodbye, pirates."
Bishop fled with his witchdoctor minions out a back door to a balcony. "You disturb my tomb," the ancient krok pharaoh charged at me with his sword. Suddenly, the other sarcophaguses in the room opened, and a half dozen mummified reptiles were attacking us.
"Go for the king captain my captain. Defeat him an' de rest of dem turn tail," Old Scratch advised. All my companions targeted the pharaoh. It took a while, but he was eventually defeated. He put up quite a fight, slashing me with his scimitar a few times. All the other mummies turned to dust upon the pharaoh's defeat.
"Ughnnn," the king groaned. "What happened?"
"You were risen from the afterlife by an evil Clockwork Mage named Bishop," I said. "He ordered you to defeat us, but we defeated you."
"So, it was this Bishop fiend who disturbed my tomb, not you? I will help you take vengeance on that bird beaked fool before I return to my eternal slumber," Ramises nodded.
"Thanks, man," I said. "We can still catch him if we hurry!"
We went outside to the balcony at the top of the pyramid about 10 feet below its pointed tip. An armada airship was docked to the balcony. It looked like any other armada ship but instead of sails, the masts had large propellers keeping it airborne. Bishop was walking up the ramp. "Stop right there!" I shouted.
"Oh dear," Bishop gasped. "You escaped my trap."
"This pirate here showed me the error of my ways. Bishop, you will pay for defiling my tomb," Ramises said.
"I have direct orders from Kane to bring him the Eye and the Hand," Bishop said. "And now, you've brought the hand to me and cornered yourself in the process. Checkmate."
"Wait, Kane wants to use them?" Catbeard asked. "This could be a good thing, Captain."
"No, you insubordinate," Bishop scoffed. "Kane wants Gazpaccio's pieces to destroy them! They are the main threat to his dominance."
"Enough yammering!" Ratbeard shouted. "Yer going down again, bird beak!"
We had a battle on the pyramid balcony under the full moon. My crew teamed up with the pharaoh and his mummy minions to defeat Bishop's armada troops. I danced with my blades, elegantly slashing though the numerous clockworks. Bonnie Anne sniped at a few clockworks while I stabbed Bishop a few times. "You are NOT a better witchdoctor than me!" Dustin whacked Bishop with his staff, as he could not use magical attacks against him without triggering a Witch Hunter power. Bishop put up one hell of a fight though. He was stronger than my previous encounter with him in Beachhead. His summoned devices would upgrade over time into high damage turrets. His leech power now healed him more than before, and he had a larger number of troops protecting him, including Dragoons, Armada Witchdoctors, Battle Angels, Marines, and Snipers. Bishop eventually surrendered when Gracie Conrad smashed her wrench into him, and dropped the eye, which I picked up.
"You may have defeated me again, pirates, but know this, El Dorado, and the Grand Design, are ours!" Bishop fled to his airship, which retracted its ramp, and flew away.
"Damnit, bird beak got away!" Dustin grimaced.
"Yeah, but we have both the Hand and the Eye now!" I cheered, pumping my fist in the air. "Great teamwork, Dusty," I brushed the bangs out of his face before kissing him under the moonlight.
"Ahem," Bonnie Anne cleared her throat. I blushed.
"Great teamwork from you all, too," I smiled.
"Yar har har! The capn's got a new date!" Ratbeard chuckled.
Sarah Steele teasingly hit him. "At least he doesn't have that crush on me anymore."
"It's so romantic!" Catbeard swooned.
"We should head back to Skull Island, double quick!" Bonnie Anne said.
The sun was rising by the time we returned to Ziga Outpost. We were going to rest a bit before sailing back to Skull Island. Without the threat of the Armada, Dustin and I were able to hang out more and explore our relationship, finding some time late one night to get more intimate, and that's all I can say about that.
A few days of travel passed before we returned to Gazpaccio's new workshop with the Hand and Eye recovered. "Ah, you are back! And you have the Hand and Eye! Excellente!"
"We had an encounter with Bishop at the pyramid! The Armada's getting bolder," I explained with worry on my face.
"Yes, that is worrisome, but we should be safe here for now, child. I will need more parts in the future, and I will let you know when I need more. Until then, Arrivederci."
Author's Note: Well, that's the end of Book 16. I hope you all enjoyed. Book 17 I hope to be able to post later this year. As always, comments are welcome. Have a great day!