The Lost Phantom

[Captain Sharktooth]

I get back, and see 2 more chapters, yay. Good job David Fireskull.

[SEAKING23]

Oh i just wanted to point out a mistake. i have a really good long term memory and i remember that you said Fireskull is a nick name you got when you drank a potion that set your hair on fire. How did your grand father get that nick name to??

Anyways, great as usual. Keep writing!!

[Tiberius Fireskull]

Yeah, I know. I plan to go and change that to actually make my last name Fireskull. Just too confusing otherwise.

[The Stealthy Pirate]

Thats good one mate!

[Davy_Mcwrecker]

SEAKING, maybe everyone in Davy's family drank that potion:P

[Tiberius Fireskull]

Here's my next chapter. I know you'll have questions at the end, but don't ask them. They'll be answered in the next coming chapters.

Chapter 14: Tomb of the Captain

After everyone was awake, a quick, cold breakfast was eaten before the team got moving again. Smelly lead the way, bounding ahead of his human companions, and then waiting for them as they caught up. The Sorcerors walked at a quick pace, Davy setting the pace. He hadn’t told anyone about El Patron last night. There hadn’t been time, and telling them and answering all questions at the end would just waste vital time. He would tell them later.

They were progressively heading deeper into the mines. Not just farther in, but literally, deeper into the earth. There was no sound other than the sound of their footsteps, and the occasional drip of water. After lots of winding tunnels, the group came to a tunnel that didn’t turn, but went directly downhill.

“How deep are we going?” Meg asked with astonishment.

“Deep alright,” Dan said, nodding. “By now, we are probably below sea level.”

“Are you telling us the town is above us?” Sharktooth asked nervously. “And there are millions of tons of rock above us, crushing down on us as we speak?”

“Yes,” Dan said plainly.

“Ow!” Zolina cried out. “A rock just hit me in the shoulder! Those millions of tons of rocks may not be too stable…”

Before Davy could comment, his eyes widened with fear. The whispers were back. There were ghosts, and quite nearby. The others heard it too, and everyone drew their weapons. The whispering was no longer a whispering, but rather a chatter, with an occasional cackle thrown in. The sound of swords unsheathing was heard.

The Sorcerors instinctively condensed their group into a little circle, each member with their sword drawn outward.

“Where are those fiends?” Davy snarled.

“Err…” Zolina said, pointing her free hand. “I think that’s what dropped that rock on my shoulder…”

Everyone followed her finger, upward at an angle to a sizable rocky ledge several meters above them. Standing on the ledge, swords drawn, was the crowd of ghosts that had attacked them earlier, and they had friends. There were at least eight more ghosts with them. The Sorcerors backed away from the ledge in fear as the ghosts leaped down and landed on the same level as the Sorcerors. They hissed and taunted the group as they advanced, thirsty for blood of the living.

“What now, Davy?” Dog asked nervously.

Davy felt himself bump into the side of the tunnel behind him. They were trapped against a wall. His sword felt heavy in his hand as he realized that he would not win this battle. But then, from beside him, he heard Sam yell out a battle cry, and he turned to see Sam charging at the crowd of ghosts. That was it. The rest of the Sorcerors charged, crying out with their swords ready. Even Pirate Guy, weak as he was, made an effort to give the ghosts a few good cuts.

Davy followed his instincts as he always did; slashing, stabbing, swashbuckling, and rolling. As he expected though, none of the ghosts went down. In fact, he thought that they seemed stronger.

It’s because they’re near El Patron, he thought to himself. He dodged the blow of a ghost and cleaved its head. The ghost crumpled to the floor, but got right back up. He smashed a ghost across the face with the flat of his blade, sending it flying to the side. That was followed by doing a low spinning kick and tripping another ghost. Davy stabbed the blade into the heart of the fallen ghost, and it screamed in agony. It got back up. He lit his sword ablaze with a green fire and gave a few good slashes to the ghosts, but they acted like the were being pricked by a little needle.

More ghosts closed in from around them, and before long, they were being assaulted by something around forty ghosts. The battle was being lost. The Sorcerors were being pressed in the center of a large crowd of ghosts, and they were closing in fast.

“Well,” Kate muttered. “It was nice knowing all of you. A good ten years its been serving under the Shadow King.”

“Its not over yet,” Davy said. “I’ve got one last straw to pull… or rather, chain to pull.”

With a loud bellow, Davy plunged his sword into the stone floor beneath them. The ghosts stopped advancing and looked at him in confusion. Suddenly, there was a massive rumbling from the floor beneath them. Massive chains sprung up from beneath ever ghost, trapping them in their tight grip. The ghosts squirmed and cried out in frustration, but it was too late. The chains had already wrapped completely around the ghosts, imprisoning them in an iron cocoon. The chains dragged the ghosts down, into the earth. Soon they were gone.

Davy gave a small smile. “Grave Shackles. That’ll take care of ‘em for a while… but they’ll be back.”

“Why didn’t you do this before?” Billy demanded. He was answered right away by Davy falling over unconscious.

~~~~~~~~~~

Davy awoke with a sore head, and a horribly empty stomach. Someone was shaking him. His vision was blurry, but it cleared up after a few seconds, revealing Billy in above him, shaking him.

“Davy, you awake brother?” he asked gently.

“Ahh,” Davy grunted, rubbing his head. “That’s why I never use Grave Shackles. Too much energy required. I’m lucky I didn’t die. What happened?”

“After you blacked out, Billy slung you over his shoulder and carried you,” Meg explained. “You’ve been out for two or so hours. We walked all the way here. We woke you up, because we thought that you should be awake for this.”

Davy groaned and sat up. They were all sitting near the base of a staircase that ascended upward. It wasn’t too long of a staircase. The stairs were cleanly cut into the stone. On the walls were carvings of battle scenes, with Spanish Conquistadors slaughtering the Aztec and Inca civilizations, as well as conquering Caribbean lands. Davy slowly stood.

“We’ve arrived at the tomb I see,” Davy said with astonishment.

“Just up the stairs,” Dan said, nodding. “Take it slow. You’re still weak.”

The group ascended the stairs. It was, as Davy had noticed, a short flight of stairs. In about a minute or so, they had reached the top, and stood at the entrance of El Patron’s tomb.

It was a massive, circular room, the walls lined with carvings similar in subject to the ones on the walls of the staircase. The ceiling was a large, stone dome, bare of any decoration. Lining the sides of the tomb were torches, long burnt out. Countless stone sarcophagi lined the sides of the tomb: the crew of El Patron. A bare path lead through the dead crew and to the front of the tomb, where a larger sarcophagus lay, made of black granite, and embedded with precious gems.

“There he is,” Davy said. He slowly made his way over to the embellished sarcophagus of El Patron. It was mounted on some sort of a stand, so that it was almost completely upright. The front was carved to look like a person, arms crossed with a large sword in one hand, and a pistol in the other. The eyes of the carving were blood-red rubies, their gaze boring in to Davy.

Davy was weak, but he had just enough energy to ignite his sword on fire once again. He held the flaming blade before him, pointing towards the sarcophagus of El Patron.

“This ends now,” Davy said. “He should still be weak enough to die from a sword stab.”

He plunged the sword into the sarcophagus, and twisted. The stone around his blazing sword bubbled and melted. Davy yanked the sword out of the sarcophagus and sheathed it.

“Is that it?” Dog asked. “No big explosion, or scream of a dying ghost?”

“Something isn’t right…” Kate said.

They were interrupted by the growling of Smelly. Confused, the group looked around them to see what he was growling at. Then they heard the laughing. Davy’s eyes widened. It was El Patron.

“SHOW YOURSELF!” Davy boomed.

Very well then, David Fireskull, the voice of El Patron said. The group turned to the entrance of the tomb, and standing there was a lone ghost. He was glowing white, completely different from any other ghost that Davy had seen. He was wearing a metal conquistador helmet, and a full suit of conquistador armor. At his side he had a broadsword strapped, as well as a musket on his back. It was hard to make out his features, as the body itself was a black color, too dark to see any specific colors of clothing or small details, other than those red eyes, glowing with evil.

There is a little detail that you have overlooked.

Davy now realized what that detail was. After El Patron was sealed in this mine, nobody ever was able to kill him and imprison his soul!

[Tiberius Fireskull]

Err, did anyone read that chapter? I usually get comments haha.

Anyway, I'll hopefully be able to write and post the chapter tomorrow or Sunday. I've been quite busy lately. Sorry about that. I have whats going to happen all in my head, so its just a matter of getting it down on paper (or a word document I suppose...).

[Captain Sharktooth]

0_o I never knew this chapter came out. I'll edit this and put in meh comment.

EDIT: Awesome as usual! Can't wait for next chapter... could this be the epic battle?!?!

[Tiberius Fireskull]

I've been working on this for the last hour or so.

Chapter 15: The Burning Tomb

El Patron laughed menacingly, glaring at each mortal in the cave with the glowing red orbs in his head. Davy couldn’t make out the details of his face, but he felt that his mind was creating the face for him. A cruel face, with several scars from his battles and a glint in his eyes that said he would kill someone innocent without caring.

“Yes Fireskull,” the ghost captain sneered. “I was never killed. I died in this tomb, yes. But my soul was free to roam around this cave. Free to bide my time, grow power, and plan my escape. After over a hundred years, I have finally gotten strong enough to escape this prison.”

“Why have us come here?” Billy asked. Then more angrily he said, “And why bring me back?!”

“You were the bait,” El Patron said. “Without you, your brother would have had no motivation to come here. Joanna would have told you of me, but she wouldn’t have been able to tell you that there was something on this island waiting for you, and you would have forgotten about it.”

“But why do you want us here?” Guy asked. “We just are going to cause damage, correct? Aren’t we making it hard for you?”

The ghost laughed. “It’s not you that I want,” he explained. “It’s them.”

El Patron pointed at Davy and Billy. “Tiberius Fireskull imprisoned me in this Hell. They are the last known Fireskull’s on this earth. As revenge for imprisoning me, I will destroy Tiberius’s family line, and the Fireskull’s shall be forgotten.”

“Wait a minute,” Billy said, stepping forward. “If it really was you who raised me from the dead, then you have my memories!”

“Ah yes, your memories,” El Patron said. “I suppose you can have a few moments of them before my crew and I destroy you all.”

He stepped forward quickly, and before Billy could react, he put his ghostly finger directly between Billy’s eyes. Smelly growled loudly and tried to pounce on El Patron, but Dog held him back. An a bright light emanated from El Patron’s finger, and Billy’s eyes rolled back into his head. He suddenly let out a cry of pain, and he was sent flying backward. He slammed onto the floor and rolled for several meters before coming to a stop.

“Billy!” Zolina screamed, running towards the crumpled figure.

El Patron did nothing but watch as the Sorcerors huddled around their fallen friend.

“Billy, speak to me!” Davy urged.

Billy laid still for a few moments, but soon let out a groan. “I… I remember.” He sat up slowly, shaking his head to clear the stars in his vision. “The Shadow King, the battle with The Harkaway. It’s all coming back!”

“Unfortunately, you won’t have time to cherish it,” El Patron said, drawing his sword. It was a strange looking blade; thick and rusted, probably a broadsword. Even though it was rusted and looked delicate, Davy was more than sure that it was one of his deadly cursed blades. Davy looked around him to see that the other sarcophagi were shaking, and slowly the forms of El Patron’s ghostly crew emerged, all drawing their weapons. They made their way behind El Patron, awaiting his orders. The Sorcerors drew their swords, preparing for the worst. Davy turned around to check the area they had come from, but more ghosts were creeping up from there, blocking their exit.

“Well Davy Fireskull, are you ready to die?” El Patron taunted.

Davy thought about his response. “I am always ready for death, which is the very reason it will never come to me.”

Davy charged at El Patron, his crew following behind him. Davy raised his sword and brought it down on El Patron, cutting him across the chest. Davy slashed through his armor, stabbing into the ghostly form. Davy ended with a slash to his face, sending him stumbling backward. He had done all that and the ghost had shown no resistance. Davy breathed heavily, smiling. That was until he saw El Patron get back up, without a scratch on him.

El Patron laughed again, before charging at Davy with his cursed broadsword. He raised it above him and brought it down on Davy, who barely had time to block it with his sword. Then the unthinkable happened. The two swords clashed, and Davy’s cutlass shattered.

Impossible! Davy screamed in his head. I hexed it so it couldn’t break!

Before Davy could continue to wonder how El Patron was strong enough to shatter his sword, he was forced to duck and jump to the side as El Patron swung his blade at him. He drew his long dagger, hoping that it would suffice. He jumped back, away from El Patron, slashing at a few ghosts that got near him. As he expected, they fell back for a few moments but kept coming at him.

Davy heard a scream from another part of the tomb. He gave a quick glance to see Pirate Guy fall, and have his fallen body be swarmed by ghosts.

“NO!!!” Sharktooth screamed. He charged at the place where his brother had fallen. Davy couldn’t see anything else, because El Patron was on him again, swinging his sword and slicing off Davy’s small ponytail.

“You put up a good fight,” the captain said, forcing Davy against a sarcophagus. “But there is no escape.”

Davy looked around. It looked like all the ghosts in the mine had congregated to this one room. There were too many to defeat. They had to try to escape. Davy had to create a diversion of some sort, but he couldn’t do it with El Patron right on him. He stepped back a little bit, and felt his lower back touch the sarcophagus. He also felt his foot step on something. He quickly glanced down to see a broken fragment of his sword.

“Enough of this waiting! Your time comes now!” El Patron bellowed, raising his sword. Davy immediately ducked down, grabbing the broken steel. He could feel the sharp edges cutting his fingers, and warm blood trickled down his hand. Right before El Patron could bring down his blade, Davy gave out a loud battle cry, and plunged the blade deep into El Patron’s head.

El Patron dropped his blade and stumbled back with his hands on his face, screaming in agony. Even though he couldn’t be killed, a broken sword in the face must still hurt. While he was distracted, Davy bellowed out to his friends.

Davy turned to his friends. He could see that they were on the brink of death. There was too much going on to see the individual wounds, but they had all been beaten up. He didn’t have much time. He summoned a massive column of fire from the center of the room, which was about a meter and a half wide, and stretched from the ground to the stalactites far above. It was so bright that the ghosts covered their eyes and shrieked in pain. Some even fled the area, running through walls or into the exit.

“GET OUT OF HERE!” Davy yelled through the chaos. “I CAN’T HOLD IT FOR MUCH LONGER!”

The Shadow Sorcerors ran to the exit, but Billy stayed behind. “DAVY! I CAN’T LEAVE YOU!”

“GO!!! I’LL FIND MY WAY OUT!” Davy screamed. By now the cave was shaking, and massive rocks were falling from the roof of the tomb. Smelly barked at Billy, urging him to follow. Billy reluctantly followed the others as they ran out of the collapsing tomb.

“No!” El Patron said with frustration. He picked up his sword and advanced toward Davy, who was losing strength. With one last heave of effort, Davy willed the column of fire to explode, sending blasts of heat everywhere. Davy felt a large, sharp object fly into his leg and other small objects hitting his body. His leg exploded in pain, but he didn’t pay much attention to it due to everything going on around him. El Patron flew back and slammed against his own sarcophagus, blowing it to pieces. He staggered upward. El Patron flew back and slammed against his own sarcophagus, blowing it to pieces.

“I suppose you’ll be sparing me the duty of killing you,” El Patron said as massive stalactites and rocks fell around him. “And if you survive, you shall be sealed in this mine forever!”

El Patron walked through a wall behind him and disappeared and the ceiling itself began to fall. The column of flame that Davy had summoned had exploded, and anything in the tomb that could burn was burning. Davy had burn marks on him, and his clothes were singed. He was extremely weak. The exit that his friends had taken was blocked by massive rocks. Davy was trapped.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of crumbling from behind him. He slowly turned around to see that the wall had fallen, revealing another tunnel. Without a second thought, Davy stumbled towards it as a stalactite slammed down on the spot where he was before. The tomb was crumbling and soon there would be nothing left of it. Davy was able to limp inside the tomb, right as a boulder fell behind him, sealing the tunnel and leaving Davy alone in complete darkness.


------------------------------------------------

There you are mates. I'd appreciate feedback. You know how I love to hear from my readers.

[Mr. Skiperdoo]

Nice chapter as always Davy.

Keep it up!

[SEAKING23]

Love it!

[The Stealthy Pirate]

Aye pretty good mate!

[Captain Sharktooth]

Wow that was awesome! I can't wait for the next chapter.

[Robert Ironcastle]

I've read the whole story from about twelve o'clock today(yes,i read fast)and one word describes it .
EPIC

[Tiberius Fireskull]

Before you read this, I made a little edit to the fourth to last paragraph of my last chapter to include a little detail. After you read that, go ahead and read this next one. I hope you enjoy it. Its an interesting one.

Chapter 16: Darker than Black

Pitch blackness was not enough to describe the darkness around him. It was so dark, that it seemed that Davy could not even see the blackness. The tunnel he had escaped into from El Patron’s crumbling tomb was different than any other. It didn’t feel like a mining tunnel like the mine that he and his crew had come through. This one was more seemed more roughly dug out, as if it were not part of the actual mine. Davy couldn’t examine the area around him, but he was able to get a feel for his surroundings by feeling the ground and walls around him. It didn’t give him much, but he was able to deduce those descriptions

After getting sealed into this tunnel, Davy’s legs gave out from underneath him, sending him falling to the floor. He crawled until he felt a wall, and sat upright, his back against one of these walls. He was breathing heavily and his clothes were drenched in sweat and blood. He noticed that the object that had embedded itself in his leg was a piece of metal, likely a sword fragment. He had countless other cuts and scratches from objects that had hit him during the battle, and most of the scabs that he had gained from previous fights had opened back up from heat and strain during the battle.

The pain was beginning to hit him now. He gritted his teeth, trying not to cry out in agony from his wounds, afraid that he would wake some sleeping beast in these dark tunnels. His leg throbbed with massive waves of pain from the shrapnel that had embedded itself there. His whole body stung from burns and cuts. He could do nothing but force himself to bear with it. Davy sat in that one spot for what felt like hours, bearing with this pain until he finally fell asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~

Davy was unsure how long he had slept, but he woke up feeling somewhat re-energized. He still felt weak, but he had the energy to weakly get up, leaning against the wall for support. He groaned with pain as his leg screamed in agony. Davy weakly felt around his left thigh for the piece of metal. Once his fingers brushed against it, he gently grabbed hold of it so in a way so that he wouldn’t get cut too badly for what he was going to do next. He took a deep breath and bit his lip, and then pulled. He screamed in agony as the metal cut through his muscle and tissue, no longer caring if he was heard. He could feel blood pouring from the wound, dribbling down his leg. Davy let go and breathed heavily, grunting from the injury.

Deciding to end his suffering, he grabbed the metal, and yanked it out the rest of the way. He let out a pained howl as the horrible burning spread through his body. He shut his eyes tightly and bit his lip until it bled, fighting the agony. After a few minutes, the agony dimmed down to a painful throb, and Davy commenced to bandage himself. He tore off a portion of his damaged shirt and tenderly wrapped it around the wound. Once he was done, he tightened it, tensing up from the pain.

Davy sat back down, taking deep breaths. He wasn’t one that was normally scared, but he was now. He was alone in complete darkness, where some unknown assailant could sneak up on him. He was injured and could barely walk, let alone fight. Not to mention that he was without his sword. All that he had left was his dagger, but that wouldn’t be much help should he run into a crowd of ghosts.

After resting once again for a few minutes, he struggled to his feet once again. Davy looked around him instinctively, but saw nothing. No light came from anywhere in the tunnel. He sighed and started limping forward.

If this tunnel doesn’t take me somewhere… Davy thought to himself. Well, best not go there.

For a while, the tunnel just continued straight ahead without any changes. As he walked, Davy felt the walls of the tunnel and was able to verify that it was a roughly excavated passage, without any wooden supports like there were in the mine. There was absolutely nothing but stone in this space. No burnt out torches, no sarcophagi, not even any skeletons as far as he could tell.

Slowly, the path started to slope upwards and Davy had to slow his pace due to his injury. He carefully made his way up the tunnel, but quickly tripped and fell to the ground. He cursed and thought for a moment about how to go uphill with his bad leg. He had no walking stick, or anything to put his weight on for that matter.

Davy realized he had to just continue stumbling along, and that was what he did. He weakly got up and kept at his path, falling over every once in a while. He kept at his painful pace for a good half hour before he heard movement. It wasn’t hard to hear in the silence of the passage, so Davy picked it up almost immediately. He looked around him, but he couldn’t see anything.

I suppose that’s also something that aids me, Davy thought to himself. If it’s some sort of assailant, they shouldn’t be able to notice me.

Davy stopped moving, not making a sound. He held his breath, and carefully looked down. He noticed the brown stone beneath him, with several small pebbles scattered around it.

Wait a moment, Davy thought frantically. Then he felt the dust trickle down from above him. Davy gulped, and slowly looked up to see the source of light. Ghosts had found him. Glowing with their dim orange light, it was just enough light for Davy to be able to see just a bit of his surroundings. He hadn’t noticed the change in lighting because it had been so gradual. The ghosts, who had been clinging to the stalactites above, dropped down around Davy. They cackled and slowly drew their wicked blades, surrounding Davy.

Terrified, Davy drew his dagger. He knew that this was going to be the end. Darkness wasn’t a problem now; the ghosts produced plenty of light. But he was beyond weak, was surrounded by a good six or so ghosts, with only a dagger for a weapon. The odds were not on his side at all, so Davy did the obvious move.

“Bring on ye dogs!” he bellowed fiercely, swinging his dagger. The first ghost threw a knife at him, but Davy ducked and it flew right above his head. Another ghost with a sword charged him. Even with his bad leg, Davy was able to block his first sword strike and sidestep the next one. He cried out in pain as his leg burned with agony. Davy delivered a gouge with his dagger straight to the ghost’s collar. The ghost shrieked in pain, but returned the gouge with a slash that missed Davy’s face by a hair.

Davy knew that the ghosts were toying with him. He was able to dodge their blows simply by shifting a little bit. He couldn’t help but feel humiliated that he would die this way, being amusement for the dead. Finally the ghosts, as if from some external order, became much more hostile and their attacks were actually ones that could kill. Davy couldn’t dodge these as easily. Finally, one of the ghosts cleaved down at him. Davy had no choice but to leap to the side to avoid it. Unfortunately, it was his left side he had to jump to, and upon landing, he was forced to put all of his weight onto his injured leg.

Davy screamed as his leg exploded in agony. He fell to his knees, and out of the corner of his eye he saw a ghost smash the flat of their blade against his head. He crumpled weakly to the floor, dazed with a trickle of blood oozing from the new cut on his head. Davy weakly reached for his dagger, which had fallen in front of him, but a ghost snatched it away before he could reach it. Trying to blink away the stars in his eyes, Davy attempted to get to his knees, but a ghost gave him a powerful kick in the ribs and he fell back down, groaning from the pain. The ghost gave one more kick before stepping back. Half conscious, Davy waited for the end, but instead of a sword going through his back, he heard swords sheathing.

What are they waiting for? Davy thought to himself. Then he felt icy cold hands wrap around him, and soon he was hoisted onto the back of one of the ghosts. Even though when he was this close to the ghosts, their glow was actually quite bright, it provided no heat. If anything, it froze the air around them, chilling Davy and making him feel weaker than before.

Davy tried to stay conscious, but he was too beaten up to keep focus. He could feel that they were heading uphill, along the path that Davy had been traveling to start with, but nothing more. Struggling was futile in his state, so he could do nothing but listen to the sound of his captors’ footsteps until he drifted off into an exhaustion-induced sleep.

-------------------------------------

Trapped in a dark tunnel, being dragged along by ghosts... what is going to happen next? Stay tuned, and please give comments!