Page 74 of Scourge of the Shores
The Sea Dragon
The water erupted in front of Robert, splitting open like the mouth of the abyss. The sea dragon rose from the depths, a behemoth of dark scales glistening like wet stone in the sunlight, each one as large as a shield. The iron chains still wound around its neck, but the palm trees were gone, replaced by the ruins of broken harpoons and deep scars from past battles.
Cain’s roar split the heavens—so deep it rattled Robert’s chest and shook the bones of every man aboard. Then, the beast turned. Its massive head tilted toward Danna’s ship. His golden eyes locked onto her, gleaming with otherworldly fury.
A chill ran down Robert’s spine at the thought of witnessing Cain kill the woman he loved.
"Fire!" Robert’s command cut through the air.
Storm Rider’s port cannons clamored to life, their thunder drowning out the dragon’s roar.
The cannonballs struck, hammering into Cain’s hide. Deep, smoking craters erupted in his thick scales, but still, the beast did not fall.
Cain swiveled his head as if the cannonballs were but a mere discomfort. Steam hissed from his nostrils, threatening to scald the sea. Three dark holes lined one eye. It remained motionless while the other still gleamed, sharp and alive. Cain’s blinded eye glistened with memory of the woman who had dared mark him.
Robert’s gut twisted. That meant Cain would attack the last thing he had seen: Danna.
“Swing guns!” Robert yelled. “Aim for the head!”
Cain’s tail lashed, sending Danna’s ship reeling—her crew clung to the rigging as it spiraled out of attack range and cracked the mast. But Cain’s wrath didn’t end there. His massive tail struck another islander’s ship, snapping its hull like kindling. Men screamed as they were thrown into the churning black waves.
Robert’s swing guns blasted in rapid succession, knocking one of the spikes from Cain’s mane loose; it fell onto Storm Rider’s main deck with a thick thunk.
His fleet’s cannon fire left an acrid stench in the open air. Lucas’s ship fired starboard guns in Danna’s absence. The islanders fired everything.
But then, Cain leapt.
A monstrous shadow rose high above the fleets before crashing down onto Damien’s flagship. Robert’s stomach sank. The wooden decks shattered with a deafening crack, the vessel splitting in two beneath Cain’s weight. All hands, a whole ship—gone in an instant.
The slam deluged Robert’s decks. He held onto the helm to keep from washing overboard. Storm Rider refused to sink. It rocked back in violence, slinging Robert with the deluge.
“Curse that sea demon,” he muttered, grabbing the wheel against Storm Rider’s violent rock.
Cain surged again, cutting through the waves like a blade. Robert barely had time to react. The beast slammed into another of Damien’s fleet, snapping its masts, sending men and debris scattering. Two ships. Gone. Just like that.
Robert’s mind raced for answers. Cannon fire appeared to do nothing fatal to the beast, but Danna had managed to blind it. Danna had managed to capture its head in chains. Harpoons penetrated its scales.
The sea went still.
The cannon smoke hung thick in the air, but the ships had nothing to fire at. Cain was gone. Beneath them, the water lay unbroken.
Robert gritted his teeth, scanning the abyss. “Curse these dark waters,” he mumbled.
Where was the devil?
Then—
A ripple. A single, perfect circle that raced outward, swallowing the debris in its growing wake. The ocean trembled as the ripple fattened.
Cain burst through the black.
The sea dragon’s maw gaped open, revealing the jagged destruction of his fangs. A blast of boiling water erupted from his throat, sweeping across the deck of one of Rosa’s fleet. Agonized screams filled the air as men were swept overboard, their flesh seared raw from the blast. The sea churned beneath them, black and hungry, as Cain dived again into the deep.
Then Cain rose—higher than before, higher than any beast had a right to. His full length stretched to the sky, his body gleaming with the wreckage of harpoons still embedded in his hide. He lingered with his golden eyes aglow like twin torches from Tophet, letting the fleets behold him in full.
His long shadow inundated the ships. It was not just a display of dominance; it was a message.
He wanted them to fear him. There would be no surrender; no quarter would be granted to any ship there. Robert glanced at Danna’s ship sailing back into action at full speed. He wished her ship to leave. If there were any survivors, he wanted it to be her.
