Chapter 428. Feather of Dreamwalker
The third challenge had finally arrived. This time, because Kael Driftsbane and his crew had lost the previous round, the right to choose the next challenge fell into their hands. The losing side of a duel or contest earned the privilege of determining the next trial.
A battered pirate ship, its dark wood creaking with every heave of the waves, drifted slowly toward the arranged meeting point. Its tattered black sails flapped like shredded wings, while its Jolly Roger—a screaming skull with red-painted tears—loomed high above, casting an eerie presence over the dark sea.
Kael Driftsbane stood at the bow, his eyes locked on the ship waiting in the distance. Beside him, Talindra, Kanth— still looking pale, weak and shaken from his previous encounter Angel Of Death— and several of their crew members watched silently. Their ship came to a halt a safe distance from Veins Peak Island, where another vessel waited for them.
Even though it was evening with still sunlight on the surface, the waiting ship was cloaked in unnatural shadows, almost like the dark sea itself had decided to protect it. It was the Shadow Pearl, the ship that was talk of the town in the Veins Peak.
Phantom Blackwood and his crew stood upon the deck, their Phantom Masks hiding their faces and Expressions, but their presence unmistakably radiating confidence and readiness.
"Then let’s begin this challenge, shall we?" Phantom Blackwood said, his deep voice carrying across the waves with a weight that made some of Kael’s crew stiffen.
A few minutes later, a small boat bobbed gently in the waters between the two larger ships. On that boat, Phantom Blackwood and Kael Driftsbane faced each other, neither showing a hint of weakness or fear. Their respective crews kept careful watch from their own ships, weapons at the ready, tension thick in the salty air. They also made sure no one gets near their Ships respectively.
"Kael Driftsbane," Phantom Blackwood began calmly, "I’m just a new pirate— five, maybe ten years on these seas. We even changed our name to the Blackwood Pirates. Tell me, why are you so determined to challenge us?"
Kael smirked, though his eyes held a cold sharpness. "Nothing personal, Blackwood. At first, my only task was to drag you into the light, make you reveal yourselves."
"So someone sent you after us, using you as bait?" Phantom Blackwood asked, his mind recalling a certain girl.
Perhaps she underestimated how quickly he’d grow in strength after killing her brother, back when he was just a low level immortal Practitioner when he killed her brother. That’s why she just sent a clone at Grandmaster Level to take care of him.