Don Rafael primarily relied on his Agility, while Osmond relied on his Strength and Physique, meaning that being blinded was not as handicapping to him as it was to the Pirate Lord.
Still, Don Rafael had distinctly superior attributes, and was far more skilled. Despite his current severe disadvantages, he parried all of Osmond's blows with finesse, and even managed to land a strike himself.
But as his sword scraped against Osmond's shoulder, a sword appeared over Osmond's other shoulder. This was Eden.
Don Rafael only had the briefest time to react, but his physical attributes were far superior to Eden, even with the Mists of the Underworld, allowing him to move in time, and the sword hit the armor plate on his shoulder.
Now aware that Eden had joined in, Don Rafael took a step to the side, performing a wide sweep with his sword, forcing Eden to dodge.
Don Rafael was relentless though, and the screams of pain coming from his granddaughter filled his body with adrenaline as he ignored his old age, moving with an unparalleled swiftness and strength as he made three quick attacks.
He made a first overhead strike at Eden, which Osmond blocked, but his sword shattered on impact.
The second was a rotating strike, which landed on Osmond's protected midsection. The sword practically ignored the Uncommon armor, digging halfway through his guts.
Then, with Osmond taken care of, Don Rafael took a powerful step forward, bringing his sword up in a strike to the sky.
Despite seeing it coming, Eden could not dodge in time as the sword cleaved into his torso, cutting him from him to shoulder.
The cut was deep, but were it not for his Talent allowing him to move with the perfect timing, that would have split him in half.
As for Don Rafael, while he remained uninjured, it looked like that strike had taken a lot from him as he was heaving, his form sagging. That did not stop him from attacking again, this time slamming his foot into Eden's midsection, sending him flying.
Crashing into a wall, Eden let out a grunt of pain as the air was forcefully expelled from his lungs, and black spots appeared in his peripheral vision.
Eden anchored himself to consciousness, and noticed Don Rafael had not followed up with another attack to finish him off, but had instead rushed to his granddaughter.
Seeing this, despite the immense pain he was in, Eden let out a victorious grin as he chuckled breathlessly. Ah, love.
He activated Evil Possession.
Don Rafael, who had reached Esmeralda, patted her, and realized she was bound by ropes. He placed a hand on her face, soothing with a whisper as he moved his blade to cut off her constraints, "It's alright, cielo mio. I'm-"
The Pirate Lord was cut off mid-sentence however as he suddenly felt a shortness of breath, followed by a heart-wrenching pain in his chest.
Don Rafael lowered his hand to his chest, confused, and felt the metallic touch of a blade. A blade that pierced through his heart, and was held by Esmeralda.
The next moment, a black, irregular decahedron slammed into the side of his head with a solid thump.
Despite not being able to see what was happening, Esmeralda had felt the blade drive itself into her grandfather's chest, and heard his body fall to the ground.
She screamed in agony, but even that was silenced by Eden.
"I cast Evil Possession."
Then, Eden approached the downed Don Rafael, who was somehow still alive. The left side of his face was disfigured so bad Eden could see it despite the darkness, and he could imagine how his veins were now pulsating with necrotic energy. The ambient necrotic energy left from his earlier use of the Skull only made that worse.
"I cast Evil Possession."
"I cast Demon Claw."
The familiar charcoal black claw appeared out of thin air, and tore Don Rafael's throat open.
[Would you like to change your Evil Servant from 'Osmond' to 'Rafael de Sevilla'?]
[You have enslaved the soul of 'Rafael de Sevilla'.]
Osmond, whose guts were spilling out, stopped trying to pick himself up, slumping to the ground as Don Rafael sat up, the side of his face and his throat roughly mending with the help of the necrotic energy.
Don Rafael was a fearsome opponent, and he had outmatched Eden even more than Guardian had back then. But where Eden had been surprised by Guardian and had no time to prepare for the fight, Eden had laid out a careful trap for Don Rafael.
Eden never intended to defeat Don Rafael in open combat because he knew he had no chance of winning. Even if he had given Osmond his hammer back, the undead Player would have only managed to draw out the fight at best, which would have worked against Eden in this case.
So, Eden instead opted to lose so badly that Don Rafael would drop his guard, and get attacked when and where he expected it the least.
Evil Possession was only a First Circle spell, but with half a dozen Evil Spirits, some of which were quite strong, controlling the dagger, added with the surprise attack, there was nothing Don Rafael could do.
His biggest downfall, in the end, was his lack of knowledge. In the world of Pirates of the Caribbean, magic was an esoteric art very few people knew about. Hence, Don Rafael had no idea of what Eden was capable of.
Had Eden given Osmond his hammer, the fight would have been drawn out, and Don Rafael would have understood that Eden was a powerful threat that needed to be put down as fast as possible. But since he had so easily dispatched both Eden and his undead servant, he had let his guard down, and paid the price for it.
Rolling his still movable shoulder, Eden was about to take out his Minor Health Potions, before he stopped himself, and took the Lesser Health Potion instead. He was down to a mere 11 HP, and as he drunk the potion, his HP instantly returned to full, that is 100.
More importantly, however, the wound on his chest closed up, and even started scarifying, his shoulder, which had been shot, recovered, the right side of his face filled up, and his left stump regenerated a little. The pain in his bones also soothed, and eventually disappeared.
Eden had not recovered his right eye and left arm, but they had started healing. As expected, the higher ranked health potion not only recovered more HP, but it also had a better effect on recovering from injuries.
Had he drunk four Minor Health Potions, while Eden would have recovered his HP all the same, his injuries would have barely improved.
Rolling both shoulders, Eden felt better now as he looked at Rafael, who had picked up his sword, and his status.
[Rafael de Sevilla]
[Title: Don, Pirate Lord of the Caribbean]
[Perks: Tier I, Finesse I]
[HP: 220/220]
[MP: 120/120]
[Strength: 24 (28)]
[Agility: 26 (33)]
[Physique: 21 (23)]
[Intelligence: 12]
[Wisdom: 10]
[Skills: Beautiful Death (3rd Rank)]
[Resistances: Necrotic I]
[Weaknesses: Radiant I]
As expected, Rafael did not disappoint. Even with the reduction of his stats following his revival, Eden held no doubt it would take a matter of seconds for him to kill Eden.
Curiously, Rafael had unlocked his magical attributes, but he did not have any spells to use them with. Just like Osmond, he had a skill, which could be differentiated from spells as the latter were split in Ranks, while the former was in Circles.
[Beautiful Death (3rd Rank): Perform three strikes in quick succession. The first deals 90% damage, the second deals 110% damage, and the third 125% damage.]
Skills worked very differently from spells in the sense that they did not require any mana to be used, relying purely on the power of the body. That did not mean they could be spammed infinitely, however, as they still took from a resources, though an invisible one: stamina.
Rafael had looked exhausted after performing Beautiful Death, for example. The calculation also seemed different, as where spells dealt fixed damage, skills dealt percentage based damage instead.
Reading the description of the skill, Eden felt thankful he had dodged at the last moment, and only allowed the blade to slash through his flesh. Had he not, he indeed would have been severed in half.
Rafael also had interesting equipment, which pushed his attributes even further. His armor and boots were both Uncommon, and gave him +1 to his three physical stats. Even better, though, were the two Rare rank pieces of equipment he had: a pair of bracers, and his sword.
[Bracers of Speed]
[Rank: Rare]
[Defence: 60]
[Agility: +2]
[Strength: +1]
[Physique: +1]
[Flash: Increase movement speed by 30% for two seconds. Cost: 100 MP.]
The Bracers of Speed were fine, although they were a little disappointing for a Rare piece of equipment, having a single spell attached to it, and low level one at that.
[Rosa Estrellada]
[Rank: Rare]
[Attack: +85]
[Agility: +4]
[Strength: +2]
[Gracia de la Estrella: Endowed with the power of the stars, any attack dealt with this blade is 20% faster.]
[Ira de la Rosa: Shred with the thorns of a rose, any attack dealt with this blade will result in extensive bleeding.]
The sword, on the other hand, was far more interesting. Its attack nearly reached that of Guardian's Hellsteel Greatsword, but it was a one-handed longsword geared toward speed, giving it a far better DPS.
It was also reminiscent of Jason's Machete, with its ability to inflict bleed with its attacks.
Despite what had happened with Guardian the first time he died, Eden decided to let Rafael keep all of his equipment. The bracers were not so hard to let go off since he could not even put them on, missing an arm, but even the sword, which would suit him well, would be better used in Rafael's hands.
Although Eden ran the risk of losing the sword by leaving it with Rafael, he had reached a stage where Rafael was his only viable protection. He had managed to kill Rafael, the oldest Pirate Lord alive at the time, with the help of a trap.
Were any of the other Pirate Lords to attack him, Rafael would be his only way to resist.
Of course, that was only in the worst case scenario.
"Give me your Piece of Eight."
The nine Pieces of Eight were the tokens of the Pirate Lords, and only through the possession of one could a pirate become a Pirate Lord. They were mandatory in the ritual of freeing the Goddess Calypso.
Rafael coldly approached Esmeralda, and reached into her breast pocket, taking out a small coin, which he handed over to Eden.
[Side Mission (Become a Pirate Lord) Completed!]
[Mission Content: Become one of the nine Pirate Lords.]
[Bonus Objective 1: Become the Pirate Lord of the Caribbean without the help of the Rogue Pirates.]
[Main Reward: Temporary Title 'Pirate Lord of the Caribbean'.]
[Bonus Reward 1: +3 to all attributes.]
The notification took Eden by surprise as he felt his body surge with power. That was an unexpected gain.
There was also his new Title, Eden did not know there existed temporary ones. Curious, he analyzed the piece of eight, along with his new title.
[Siamese Coin]
[Rank: Unique]
[Effect: Grants its owner the title of 'Pirate Lord of the Caribbean'. Only works within the world of Pirates of the Caribbean.]
Eden now understood why his Pirate Lord title was temporary, and figured it made sense.
This was a title that only existed inside this world, as NPCs from a world like Naruto, for example, would not have any impression of what a Pirate Lord was.
[Pirate Lord of the Caribbean: +200% reputation gain with all pirates, gain command over pirates based in the Caribbean.]
As often, the System's description did not reveal everything. The Siamese Coin, as a Piece of Eight, was a critical component to the ritual to free the goddess Calypso.
It was the same with his Title, as Eden was sure that it would give him a certain amount of reputation among pirates already, just like Monster Hunter gave him an identity respected by important characters.
This represented a massive milestone for Eden's main mission. His mission's objective was to make a reputation for himself, and having become a Pirate Lord, the second highest position possible for a pirate, ought to earn him impressive rewards.
The only position above his was that of the Pirate King, which required all Pirate Lords to be present to vote for them, which was impossible in this mission since some were on the other side of the world.
Moreover, Eden was not just any Pirate Lord, but the Pirate Lord of the Caribbean, which was the position Jack Sparrow would one day inherit.
Not only that, as all reputation gains would be tripled from now on, which would lead to even better rewards.
Closing every status window, Eden ordered Rafael to protect him as he used the Skull to recover his MP, putting the Siamese Coin safely in his Inventory.
Coincidentally, the Mists of the Underworld ran out at about the same time Eden finished recovering his MP.