Legends of Runeterra

"Oh, things are not looking good..." As she spoke, Ya Lai limped towards her, driven mad by the death of the twins.

"You killed them!" he shouted.

Sarah shot him once in the knee. "These are for the captains you killed tonight."

Yalai screamed and rolled on the deck, sobbing and waving his machete at her desperately.

Sarah easily knocked the machete away and then pressed the muzzle of a gun to his chin.

"Any last words?" she asked. "This is truly your funeral."

The deck shifted again, and a dead silence enveloped the ship.

Even the injured seemed to feel the weight of the strange dark shape closing in on them, and a deep rumbling sound rose from beneath the water.

Sarah felt the wood of the ship tremble with fear.

"What's going on?" she demanded, pressing the muzzle of the gun against Yalai's throat harder. "What else do you have planned?"

"I didn't do this," Yalai cried. Though his pain was evident, he laughed with the despair and madness of a dying man. "My debt to the sea must be repaid. I'll pay it back with you..."

In the very heart of the ship, Sarah felt a sense of déjà vu.

Nine years ago, in the waters north of Bilgewater, another arc of sail would bring her into the harbor. They had just claimed a bounty issued by the Dragon Gate and were returning when they discovered a smuggler's narrow-gauge galleon in the bay of Ironwater City. It was fleeing the Serpent Isles, loaded with treasure looted from a Baru temple.

She still remembered the mournful roar of the serpent's horn that echoed across the sea. Her crew had watched a kraken rise from the sea, lashing the galleon to splinters and dragging all the crew to their death.

The shift caused by the Kraken passing directly beneath their ship felt just like it did now.

She ran broadside and searched the water through the mist.

The waters around Yue'e Reef churn, and darkness still holds the secrets of the seabed. No one knows how deep the water is around the reef, but all the ships that have sunk nearby have disappeared completely, with no wreckage ever washed ashore.

What on earth is…?

Then she saw it.

Two hundred yards away, a motionless figure, a giant, was rising from the seabed.

His massive helmet broke through the water, his eyes, like the glow of orange-red fire, concealing a blazing cauldron. The water around him seethed, evaporating into a frenzy of foam. A dark, sinister aura swirled around him, causing his outline to appear and disappear, leaving a trail of liquid like an oily film in his wake.

Its massive body was encased in rusted iron plate armor, entwined with chains remnants of countless sunken ships. On its shoulders lay a massive anchor, its hook a sharp blade. Through it flowed pure black water, clung to rotting seaweed, and exuded the darkest, most mysterious aura of the abyss.

Sarah's mind couldn't process what she was seeing.

impossible.

It was a creature out of dark legend, a horrible tale told by broke drunks in the harborside taverns to buy a drink. She knew its name, and even laughed at it, calling it nonsense.

But here it is, rising from the seabed with resounding steps.

The drowned stevedore has come to collect his maritime debt.

His name alone is a curse.

"Nautilus..."

The sea surface exploded as Nautilus hurled his anchor at the Moon Serpent.

The tide, stagnant and decaying for too long in the lightless depths, washed over the entire sailboat, and the massive anchor struck the deck. The sharp edge of the anchor pierced the wood, and the incredible weight pulled the hull to port.

Sarah fell to the swaying deck, shoving her pistols into their shoulder holsters. She felt the entire ship sink. Crew members screamed as they slid down the deck or were thrown through the air into the sea. The massive anchor had torn a large hole in the ship's side, and the ship swung violently back to horizontal. Sarah looked up at the roar. The mainmast was snapping, the silver sails trembling, and the midmast and mizzenmast snapped like twigs, scattering across the deck, crushing a dozen men.

She struggled to her feet, and could hear the keel of the sailboat groaning as it bent, bearing a load beyond its design limit. The repeatedly repaired wood broke one after another, and black water gushed out from the cracks in the deck.

Sarah turned to face Yalai, who was holding tightly to the bronze cannon that should have been his coffin.

"This is your fault!" she cried, as Nautilus' shadow rose from the water again.

The carved wood railings of the ship were smashed to pieces, and a huge hand, clearly unhuman, grabbed the foredeck. Another hand followed, holding a long iron chain coated with a black, greasy substance.

"He's not real!" Yalai shouted, completely losing his mind over Nautilus's presence. "It's all stories!"

"I think he's real!" Sarah's cry mingled with the cacophony of splintering wood, ripping sails, and wailing in terror. The heat of fire washed over her as Nautilus, his massive form scrambling up the side of the ship, gazed at her with hellish eyes.

She felt a deadly heat spreading across her body, and the touch of his gaze made her feel violated and ravaged. It was as if this giant of the deep sea could see through her soul.

His immense weight caused the boat to heel again, the deck tilting. Sarah scrambled to grab the ropes of the block and tackle. The muzzle of the cannon slid sideways, the pulley hook and knot barely holding the cannon's weight. The wooden wedges holding the gun carriage in place cracked ominously.

Ya Lai crawled towards Sarah holding the cannon.

"I won't go alone!" he cried. "The sea wants me to go down, so you go down with me!"

The man was mad, like one of the lame sailors babbling in the alleys of Bilgewater, his mind ruined by the cheapest liquor. His imitation snakecaller robes had sagged, revealing a leather cord hanging from his neck, from which dangled the captain's sigil, a silver and brass image of three entwined sea serpents.

Sarah, dangling on the rope, tried to kick him off, but the madman's strength was not to be underestimated. Instead, he freed one hand and grabbed Sarah's neck. His cracked nails scratched her neck, drawing blood. She struggled to find a foothold, but the sailboat gradually capsized, the port side completely submerged in the water.

Above them, Nautilus heaved the anchor again and hacked at the ship like a log.