Molting the Mortal Coil - Chapter 865: Black Fish

Chapter 865: Black Fish

Upon hearing Sage’s sudden offer, the leader of the Orcas was speechless. After a long pause the one that had been reprimanding the ‘scrap catcher’ not to question the captain was the one that spoke up, “You dare to speak to the Captain like that! C’mon boys, let’s rip him apart!”

Since the most loyal and reasonable of the Orcas had dared to speak up in such a way, it was only a given that all the rest of the Killer Whales were already rippling with power and starting to rush towards Sage. The Captain was still at this point, letting the others do as they wished. There was a glimmer of curiosity in those dark eyes, but it was not enough for it to act.

Sage was ready to release an army to subdue the group of Killer Whales, but he saw something unusual in his Foresight and held back. A moment later, just as these big black fish were about to slam into him there was a loud call. The song of another cetacean echoed through the water around him and Sage could finally get confirmation of what he’d caught a glimpse of earlier. A new group of huge bodies appeared, though they were considerably smaller than the Orcas. Even so, the whale pirates stopped on their advance and most of them turned outwards to face the new arrivals that pressed towards them as a single large group.

“What are you busy bodies doing here? This is none of your business.”

The Orca that appeared to be second in command had spoken up again, while the scarred Captain maintained his gaze upon Sage. Across from the Killer Whales these new arrivals, also whales, had formed up and looked prepared to attack. Their bodies were only about a third of the size of the Orcas, but on each of their noses was a long sword-like blade. Their bodies carried a silvery sheen that matched with that of the swords on the faces.

One of these new arrivals near the center of the formation was slightly larger and it spoke up first, “The Whale Sword Sect will never back down from your despicable Killers Crew.”

The Killer Whales growled at the sword nosed Narwhals, refusing to back down. The numbers of either side were similar, but the Killer Whales were spread out and distracted by surrounding Sage. Facing off against them, the Narwhals were tightly packed into a very well organized formation. Even Sage could tell that if they were to face off, the Killer Whales would be at a steep disadvantage. The two groups seemed ready to cross swords, but the Orca Captain suddenly released a few loud click noises. The Killer Whales immediately pulled backwards, abandoning their encirclement of Sage and forming up into a large mass of their own. With this change the two sides were not equally spaced from Sage, putting him in the center of this future battlefield.

The Captain of the Killer Whales was not agitated like those on his side. Instead he gazed calmly at the leader of the ‘Whale Sword Sect’ and spoke quite calmly, “We’ve already eaten our fill, this little snake is poisonous anyway.”

Just like that, the situation was completely defused. The Captain swam away and the crew of Killer Whales followed after him. They swam off leisurely, seeming completely confident that the Narwhal’s would not attack them from behind. All the while, the Narwhals maintained their formation and only when the Orcas had traveled a thousand yards away and left the Spiritual Sense range of most of the Narwhals did they finally let down their guard. They slowly approached Sage and used the large swords on their noses to give a bow.

“Greetings, Human. The Whale Sword Sect is the enemy of evil-doers and those cretins from the Killer Crew are a menace in these waters. Are you alright? You should come with us or else as soon as you’re alone those villains will try to take advantage of you again.”

Sage was unsure of what was going on, but it took only a few moments for them to explain further. It turned out that they were not taking him away, merely escorting him to a different settlement. With that clarification, Sage followed along without conflict. From the time with them he realized these Whale Sword Sect members were quite uptight. They had strict rules of conduct and more than one of them made sure to always remind the others before they started to do or say anything they shouldn’t. While it certainly wasn’t something Sage aspired to, it was nice to know there were such do-gooders around. Of course, that doesn’t mean there’s any evidence proving they aren’t just being brainwashed and their Sect Leader is actually a villain.

During the voyage, Sage was tempted to grab hold of one of the whales as the idea of being pulled along by one in the water was something he still remembered from his time as a child back on Earth. It was similar to the dream of flying that seemed to be common to all people. Rather than offend these new acquaintances, Sage kept his hands to himself and just made a note to try and get some whales onto the Inner World in the future. He’d been starting to make an attempt with the Orcas earlier, but he was interrupted. With the Purple Mist Sect he was confident of grabbing at least four or five of them before the rest escaped. He chose to err on the side of caution and keep his capabilities hidden, especially when he was told of this new location he was being taken to.

The whales were quite impressed by the speed of his swimming and they were happy to not have to slow down in order for him to keep up. After a couple hours of swimming they let out joyful songs, bringing his attention to the front where a massive chunk of ice was floating near the surface of the water. Sage had already been at the edge of the fast ice when he’d first run into the seals so they’d been swimming beneath variously sized pieces of drift ice ever since. The fast ice wasn’t named because of its speed, but because it was ‘fastened’ to solid land. Sage hadn’t seen where the land was, but that’s what he was told while in Gelid Blue. Drift ice refers to free floating pieces of ice, even if they were large flat sheets similar to dry land. The amount of drift ice had just drastically reduced and now there was a single gigantic iceberg in front of him. Their group slowly circled around it and it looked vaguely whale shaped, though he wasn’t sure if it was naturally like that or they’d just made it that way on purpose.

Moving closer, they circled around towards what would be the whale’s mouth and there was a single large tunnel that led towards the center of the huge object. They swam into the tunnel and ran into something that looked like a Sperm Whale with stone-like barnacles covering its entire body, and a team of dolphins with rainbow striped backs. The Whale Sword Sect sang a sort of song to them he hadn’t heard before. Sage was immediately intrigued by this song as he felt something unusual about it. The huge sperm whale released a few notes that sounded upbeat and the Whale Sword Sect members took him past it, swimming down the tunnel and up towards a bright light source.

They suddenly broke the surface of the water and Sage felt like he’d entered another world.