Chapter 81: Goldbeard the Pirate (1/2)
Shopping for princesses was morally right!
It was true that Vainqueur hadn’t eaten a minion in a long while… and that he had come to realize that they had feelings beyond serving dragons… but catching princesses was a dragon’s duty! He also ate manlings on occasion, just not his minions!
He wasn’t a cattletarian!
“... Grandrake, you said?” Jajambe the shark asked Manling Victor, the two having been glued together for the entire voyage out of the triangle. The weresharks in the waters below had guided the ship through reefs and currents, under the light of the midday sun.
“You’ve heard of him?” Friend Victor answered, completely unaware of Vainqueur’s existential crisis.
“The lost hoard of Grandrake is a famous legend in the Dagger Coast. It draws adventurers and treasure hunters every now and then. Not that they have any chance of finding it.”
The mention of a hoard drew Vainqueur out of his existential depression. “It is true that Grandrake is a bit...” The wyrm struggled to find a word which wouldn’t demean the inventor of princess hunting. “Senile.”
“Dragons can become senile with age?” Manling Victor asked, obviously horrified that his own beloved master might forget him.
“Not age,” Vainqueur protested. As if the noble dragon race wasted away with age, instead of growing ever more powerful! “A curse from a princess’s magician lover. As if a princess did not want to be shown off as a priceless trophy!”
“Yes, indeed, how strange,” Victor said with sarcasm, obviously horrified.
“Grandrake suffered one of the greatest ignominy’s known to dragonkind,” Vainqueur said. “He forgot the location of his first hoard… including his favorite princess! She must have grown into a queen by now!”
“Why did you say nobody could find it?” Manling Victor asked Jajambe.
“Because I know where it is,” the wereshark replied. “And unless they are a dragon and can fly, they aren’t going to claim it anytime soon.”
A flying lair for the hoard? Why hadn’t Vainqueur thought of that?! “Minion, we shall make a stop to that place on our way to El Dorado and recover the lost hoard.”
“To return it to its previous owner?”
“Of course not. An abandoned hoard is free for all dragons to claim for themselves.”
“And there might be a weapon we can use against Wotan there,” Manling Victor said, ever dutiful.
You have left the [Devil’s Triangle]. Field effect negated.
“Finally!” Vainqueur’s Vizier crossed his arms and meditated. The dragon assumed that he contacted Murmurin through his [Scarlet Study] perk.
The dragon left his servant to his duty, watching the sea until they finally reached a large, tropical island. The locals had built an immense port, the biggest Vainqueur had ever seen, on its shores. Hundreds, maybe more ships similar to the Piggybank II had dropped their anchors there, while a group of them formed a defensive perimeter around the bay.
Even from a distance, Vainqueur could smell wonderful scents coming from this place: spices, meat, elves, and most importantly, gold aplenty!
“Here is Port Damné,” Jajambe the shark said. “The most rotten place on Outremonde. You can’t trade there if you’ve half a soul.”
Vainqueur quickly realized why the locals had fallen so low as to corrupt the institution of minionship. The surplus of gold had corrupted them, and without a dragon to provide a tribute to, they had let their wealth go to their heads.
So Vainqueur would relieve them of it.
“Well, as expected, unrest followed after we lost contact, but Jules ‘handled’ it,” Manling Victor said, after emerging from his trance. “Our army has grown by one hundred sentient zombies, fifty-five ghosts, and one penanggalan.”
“Penawhat?”
“Your Majesty doesn’t want to know.”
“Then, Manling Victor, you shall announce my presence to these sea peasants of Port Damné, and order them to submit to my imperial authority. Tell them that I bring dragon civilization as the ‘Minion Liberator,’ which is non-negotiable.”
“You should use a pirate nickname to inspire fear,” Jajambe suggested. “These mammals only respect strength and beards.”
“That is ridiculous,” Vainqueur replied. “Superior beings have scales, not hair.”
“Thank you for the kind comment, Your Majesty,” Manling Victor replied with sarcasm, tired from the journey.
“He’s not wrong,” Jajambe shrugged as if it was ever in question.
The dragon thought about a fitting title and eventually settled on one. “Then announce me henceforth as Vainqueur Goldbeard, Emperor of the Pirate Sea.”
“As Your Majesty wishes. [Widen Voice].” Manling Victor finished to cast a spell, his words now resonating across the sea.
“People of Port Damné! I am Victor Dalton, Grand Vizier of the V&V Empire, Ishfania, and the Albain Mountains! His Majesty, the great dragon Vainqueur Goldbeard Knightsbane, Emperor of the Pirate Sea and Minion Liberator, has come to conquer your city and free all the slaves!”
“Tell them to give me all their gold too,” Vainqueur said. “For the baby coins’ safety.”
“The Empire will also take a one-time tribute of gold in exchange for bringing you dragon civilization! Think of the baby coins! The baby coins!”
“I shall give them a few hours to submit,” the dragon decided, feeling merciful.
“I think we won’t have to wait that long… and they don’t seem to want dragon civilization.”
Manling Victor pointed a finger at the defensive perimeter of ships, all of them moving towards the Piggybank II. Vainqueur heard the sound of firearms in the distance and then watched black spheres landing in the water near their own ship.
Cannonballs. How quaint.
“Then I shall give these pirates a taste of my power,” Vainqueur declared, deciding to start with his weakest ability. “[Geomancy]!”
Geomancy activated! Field Type: Ocean.
Effect: [Tsunami]!
…
“Minion, what is a Tsunami?”
His Vizier didn’t have the time to answer, as his Perk activated first.
Under the strain of Vainqueur’s magic, the sea suddenly rose right below the ships which would do him harm. An immense wall of water sent five of them flying straight to the skies, then advanced towards the rest while getting higher and higher. Vainqueur’s attack crushed everything in its path, rising as high as forty feet.
“Ohoh, brutal!” Jajambe the shark relished at the sight of the devastation. “Father Dagon’s wrath is upon us!”