7 Chapter 7

The air smelled fresh as the ocean breeze blew past me. Glancing down the beach I could see a large pirate ship a few hundred feet off shore that waved the skull and crossbones upon it's flag. Along the shore were a few human men who appeared to belong to the ship due to their obvious pirate garb. They were digging in the sand for something...buried treasure perhaps?

One of the men pointed at us and began to gesture wildly.

Infinitebloom was caught up in looking at the details of her new class, so I interrupted her. "Hey, bloom! We have company. Pirates at six o clock. "

Bloom turns around as the Pirates throw down their shovels, replacing them with daggers and cutlasses. They moved towards us with obvious hostility.

The elements of fire , air, earth and water seem to surround bloom in a beautiful visual manner as she cast her buff spells on me. Suddenly I felt faster, stronger, full of energy as the spells took effect.

Using observe I pull up the information on the Pirates.

{Level 5 Pirate Lackey} 400 Hit points -Skills-(Backstab)

According to the Moon goddess my spells had changed due to ingesting the ancient dragon stone.

I was anxious to see how different they really were.

I pulled upon the nature energy within me, focusing on both forming the spell and envisioning where I wanted it go. The spell system in this game was really quite amazing, but also scary. If the game is so thoroughly able to read my mind that it can access this information to cast spells, then what can it not access?

Green energy shot from my hand into the sand below the Pirates. Dark green vines dripping with poison erupted from beneath them. Within a moment the Pirates were completely immobilized. Small damage numbers appeared above them indicating the new poison damage of the spell.

A ball of fire flew over my head hitting one of the pirates ,reducing its health by 10%. A brownish energy sphere flew from her left hand ,dispersing into the sand between us and the pirates.

"That's quicksand. " Bloomed whispered to me.

I smiled at her, nodding in acknowledgement of her plan.

Gathering Nature energy once again I cast my now Improved Nature bolt at the already wounded pirate. The green ball of energy flew from my hand into the shoulder of the Lackey, dealing instant damage followed by boiling green poison bubbling from the wound. My teammates fire set the vines ablaze which allowed the pirates to break free but also set them on fire. This fire also burned the poison creating a poison cloud that sent new damage numbers into the air above their heads.

In but a few moments we had reduced the health of all the pirates by 50%.

Bloom seemed to have no regard for her mana pool with the flurry of fire attacks she flung at the enemy. Moments later I heard the system notification...

You have slain Pirate Lackey! +100 XP

The other two pirates rushed forward as they broke free from the vines, only to sink waist deep in the quicksand bloom had brilliantly placed.

"You guys better keep moving..." I taunted the pirates as I prepared another nature bolt.

The smarter of the two yelled at his buddy, " Don't move! Trying to fight it only makes you sink faster!"

I aimed my spell at the smart guy while he was distracted. The green blast hit him in his unprotected face, causing the pirate to writhe in pain as poison bubbled on his face. The other pirate began to freak out causing him to rapidly sink until only his head was above the sand. Bloom sent a few more fire blasts into the wounded pirate finishing him off.

+100 XP

"Let me finish this one. " I said to Bloom as I shifted to my new draconic snake form. My arms and legs instantly disappear as my body elongates. There is a momentary sensation of floating before the muscular form of the snake lowered my vision to the ground. This form now had serrated spines that lined the body, making it ideal for moving across a shifting surface like quicksand.

Bloom called out, "Wait, you'll sink.." but her words stopped short when she saw me easily glide across the sand.

With a quick snap of my powerful jaws I ended the last pirate, causing his body to dematerialize within my mouth which was a strange sensation.

+100 XP

Upon the surface of the sand a few items appear, the "drops" from the pirate. Bringing these items back in this form would be tough, but I quickly realized I could store them in my inventory by simply touching them with my body.

As I returned to my human form next to bloom we saw that a small boat was headed our direction from the pirate ship. I looked at bloom and said, " Do you think the same trick will work twice? "