Pirate Captain Rend (Rare Human) Lv. 23
Health: 3,000
Skills: Vicious Slash - Pirate Captain Rend raises his saber high and slashes his main target for a large amount of damage.
Iron Pistol - Pirate Captain Rend will occasionally grab one of his Iron Pistols to shoot a random enemy, dealing damage and stunning the enemy for 0.5 seconds.
Wasting little time for their team to ready themselves, the pirate captain charged at Sol while wielding his vicious-looking saber high. Sol braced himself as he noticed the Pirate Captain gain a name as well as extra stats. Just a few moments before Rend reached Sol, a soothing light covered Sol in a shimmering sphere of light showed up just before Rend slashed.
Despite the increased damage that Rend acquired, Sol's Aegis of Protection was able to help absorb a decent chunk of the damage as well as begin healing him up which released some of the pressure on the already taxed Minerva. Of course, while the Aegis helped, the slash took a bit over half of his health bar away and knocked him back a bit which Sol had to quickly adjust so he wouldn't fall off the ship or be in danger of a follow-up attack.
While Rend's two abilities were hard to deal with as Rend would chunk Sol heavily even when blocked and had to be constantly above 70% health or risk dying to a Vicious Slash. The Iron Pistol ability on the other hand was very sly and would have little chance for the other members to react quickly enough to dodge. While the damage wasn't too bad, it would disrupt their casted abilities and could spell death if the shot hit Minerva while she was trying her best to keep the party alive.
While Rend was indeed much more trouble to deal with than the four pirates from before, kiting one strong boss was much easier than four pirates so the group began to get into a rhythm of doing as much damage as possible. Luna and Diana kept vigilant for any pistol shots while Minerva stood behind Sol to allow her to heal without having to worry about a pistol shot disrupting her healing.
Shortly into the fight, Luna managed to proc her pendant ability, lowering Rend's physical attack by 5% which helped make the fight just a bit easier. Diana was able to keep her thorns debuff stacked with the help from her Triple Shot, and while Minerva didn't make a whole lot of use from her Breath of Rejuvenation, it was able to keep everyone fairly well topped off if Rend got a pistol shot off on multiple people.
Unfortunately, at around 80% health, Rend roared and backhanded Sol away from him which thankfully didn't do too much damage but did stun him for 2 seconds. Unhindered by the tank, Rend charged towards Diana. With Sol still stunned and Rend having so much speed, it was only a matter of moments before Rend was able to kill Diana with a Vicious Slash.
Sol was able to get up and regain aggro on Rend, but without Diana, their group's damage went down significantly. The only slight benefit being that the damage that Minerva had to heal went down.
After another grueling couple of minutes of fighting, Rend was lowered to roughly 50% health when he again threw off Sol and charged towards Luna. Thankfully Luna was prepared and managed to dodge Rend's charge and live long enough for Sol to regain aggro on the Pirate Captain.
Just as Rend hit 20% health, Melantha was able to revive Brocca. With Seabreeze's tank back in action, Melantha chanted a powerful water spell that was able to resurrect Diana as well as heal the party back to full health and mana. Cheering in happiness as he had almost forgotten that Seabreeze was also here, Sol teamed up with Brocca to tank the Pirate Captain and even chip in their own damage as well.
Roaring in frustration just as his health was about to empty out, Pirate Captain rend threw away his saber and picked up both his Iron Pistols. Shooting a flurry of shots at both their team as well as the Seabreeze crew, Pirate Captain Rend lept into the sea and swam over to his own boat. With most of the pirates dead and Rend almost dead, the pirates left the scene as fast as they could.
Too exhausted to even think about chasing the fleeing pirate ship, everyone collapsed onto the ship floor panting heavily.
Despite the fight not being as difficult as their experience against the Corruption Wraith, there were many more pirates who were much more crafty in their movements and attacks. Along with the support of the Seabreeze crew, the actual fight wasn't too difficult but rather it was a very long fight in an environment they weren't yet used to.
Left on the ship were a few pistol holes and slashes as well as Rend's discarded saber.
Pirate Captain Rend's Bloody Warsaber (Rare 2-Handed Saber) - Lv. 20
Special Effect: Vicious Slash - Slash at your current target, critical hits apply a bleed effect.
Unfortunately, none of them could really benefit from using a 2-handed weapon since Sol would need a shield if he wanted to be more of a tank. Saving the weapon anyway, the group decided they could either save for a situation where Sol could be more of a damage threat and not need him to be the tank or sell it.
After picking up the saber, everyone pitched in to repair the ship which surprisingly didn't take very long. To repair ships, all one had to do was channel some of their mana into the ship's core and it would slowly patch up the holes and slashes which seemed super convenient for both the sisters and Sol.
Melantha grumbled. "Stupid pirates, too annoying for their own good. Thankfully you were there to help fend them off. Thank you An'Elari." Bowing to us, Melantha and the rest of the Seabreeze crew went back to sailing us towards the secret island.
On the way there, we faced off against a few groups of Skaldyr and a smaller set of pirates that thankfully just escaped as they saw the strength of our crew.
Suddenly, both Bell and Jess called out in sync. "We're here."
As soon as they said that, the island came into view and to everyone's surprise, the island was shrouded in a thick fog that covered a fairly large area. The size of the fog was enormous, which most likely meant that the island itself was fairly large as well.
Much to everyone's surprise, the pirate ship we had encountered before which had run away showed up again and looked to be sailing directly into the fog in a very distinct way.
~You have discovered the secret island Seabreeze has been looking for and are surprised to find out that pirates are occupying the island follow the pirates and figure out what they are doing and what exactly the mysterious island has to offer!~
Everyone silently looked at one another and nodded as Melantha directed the ship to follow behind the pirate ship as close as possible without being detected. Thankfully the pirate ship seemed to be focused heavily on their route and Melantha was able to keep them barely in sight despite the thick fog surrounding them.
It was hard to keep track of the time that had passed with everyone keeping as silent as possible and there were a couple of times where we had lost sight of the pirate ship during a turn or two. But thankfully they eventually emerged from the shield of fog and saw the pirate ship head towards a beach that had 2 other ships were located at a makeshift dock.
Knowing that they would be spotted quickly as they were out in the open and the two ships at the dock were focused in their direction, Melantha sped up and rammed the small pirate ship in front of them as the twins and Brocca made quick work of the pirate crew. With a fight on the horizon, Sol, Luna, Diana, and Minerva got ready to fight.
The pirates on the beach had a very short time to react to the sudden appearance of a rogue ship attacking their base. With the beach fairly close to the place they exited the fog, Luna and Diana were able to shoot down 5 pirates before they were able to land.
Of course, the pirates were no slouches and quickly gathered their arms and faced their attackers. At least 10 pirates and a pirate lieutenant surrounded them. Another pirate captain left the largest pirate ship and was actually Pirate Captain Rend that they had faced before.
Pirate (Common Human) Lv. 20
Health: 1,500
Pirate Lieutenant (Rare Human) Lv. 20
Health: 2,000
Special Ability: Threatening Presence - Any Pirates within 5 yards buffed with increased attack.
Pirate Captain Rend (Rare Human) Lv. 23
Health 1,000/3,000 (Wounded)
Special Ability: Iron Pistol
"Sol! You need to get that other pirate captain away from the rest or we won't survive long. In the meantime, Brocca can you keep Rend occupied while the rest of us take down the other pirates?"
Grunting in response, Brocca charged past the pirates in the front and tackled the wounded pirate captain. Despite his low health, Rend fought fiercely but was unable to help any of his subordinates with the hulking water elf in his face.
After Brocca and Sol secured their targets away from the group of pirates, Bell cast a spell on the sand that the pirates were on top of and the sand began to congeal together. Slowed heavily by the hardening sand, Jess buffed both Luna and Diana with a gust of wind which increased their movement and attack speed.
With all their buffs, Luna and Diana focused on a single pirate at a time and used Aquis' freezing spell if any of them got too close. Melantha and Minerva initially had trouble keeping Brocca alive with a couple of the pirates trying to save Rend, but with the effective work from the archers, they quickly were able to stabilize his health and even begin to contribute some damage as the pirates died.
Rend got increasingly frustrated by his useless pirate subordinates and just before the last 2 fell, he grabbed a handful of sand and threw it at Brocca's face. In the split moment that Brocca lost vision of Rend, the wounded pirate captain fled deeper into the island and left the pirate lieutenant and the rest of the crew to their deaths.
Killing the last 2 pirates, the pirate lieutenant cursed at Rend and surrendered to the Seabreeze and An'Elari that surrounded him.
Taking away the pirate lieutenant's weapons and binding his arms and legs so he couldn't escape, the group questioned him. "Speak! What is this island? Why are you pirates here?"
Fearing for his life, the pirate captain answered quickly. "I don't know! I don't know! Our bleedin' Captain Rend 'ere found the place. We only recently managed to find a path into the island and set up the dock I swear! Captain Rend forbid us to explore the island and even cut a poor ol' Georges head off for tryin' to sneak off."
Melantha got real close to the pirate captain and grabbed a chunk of his hair. "Come on now, you're the second in command." Sweeping her hand across the other pirate bodies. "You sure you don't want to end up like your crewmates here? He must've told you something more, or at least you should've seen for yourself if he stationed you here."
Gritting his teeth and spitting towards the direction Rend had fled, the pirate captain swore. "Fine! I'll tell you all I know if yall swear to let me live and give me a boat to leave."
Thinking quietly and talking a bit with Luna, they ended up agreeing since most of the pirates were taken care of anyway and he wouldn't be a threat even if he left.
"Speak quickly or we might change our mind."