Marvel's Princess - Chapter 53
“You want me to find your body?” Bella wildly guessed, analyzing the plethora of movies and TV shows she had watched.
Carina Barbossa was taken aback, not quite understanding her train of thought.
“Of course not. I don’t care about my bones. It’s like this: I once tried to use a secret spell derived from Poseidon’s trident to revive my father, but Calypso interfered with the ritual, and we never reunited. That’s my biggest regret.”
Worried that Bella might continue with wild speculations, Carina Barbossa explained, “My spell wasn’t a complete failure. My longing crossed time and space, landing in your era, or perhaps due to your last séance, that part of my longing remained in your time. If you see a woman who looks like me, please help her reunite with her father.”
Bella was confused: “Wait, that doesn’t make sense. My last séance was three months ago; are you telling me to look for a three-month-old baby?”
Carina Barbossa struggled to explain: “Time isn’t what you think—it isn’t linear, it’s more like a network. I can’t explain it fully, but the girl should be around your age, or maybe a few years older, definitely not a baby.”
Bella dissected the information revealed in this conversation, sensing it involved the secrets of time, though Carina Barbossa seemed reluctant to elaborate.
“Um, how do I find this woman?”
“Do you think many pirates would use such advanced magic?” Hector Barbossa suddenly interjected, his eyes wide as he stared at Bella.
Without a name or location, how was she supposed to find her? Was it all left to chance?
Of course, it wasn’t just left to chance. Carina Barbossa was prepared, handing Bella a compass.
“This is a replica of Jack Sparrow’s compass. You don’t need to know who he is; he’s a rather annoying fellow with nothing to do with our current situation. Once you return to the real world, the compass will guide you to the girl. Calypso has noticed her, and please make sure to help her; she and her father are in great danger.”
Bella was hesitant, having just dealt with the Grim Reaper and now being asked to challenge a sea god. She was reluctant.
Hector Barbossa flashed an exaggerated smile: “If you agree to save that father and daughter, I will teach you my special skills!”
What are your special skills? Did old Barbossa have any? Bella eyed him skeptically, feeling he might be bluffing.
Seeing her skepticism, he changed his approach: “Do you think Calypso will leave you alone? She might not have cared before, but now? You’ve interacted with Elizabeth Swann. Do you still think you can avoid this fight?
We are not servants or slaves of the sea goddess! The land has borders, but the sea does not! Children of the sea are free!”
Is the spirit of American freedom passed down from you? Quite a long history! Old Barbossa’s mix of threats and incentives couldn’t fully convince Bella.
It was ultimately Carina Barbossa who decided for her.
“Calypso is very weak now. The seas today are unlike in her era; she can’t even enter this world, nor can she awaken her consciousness. This task won’t be difficult for you.”
“Alright, give me the compass. I’ll take a look.”
Bella looked at the compass in her hand, waking from the Spirit Sea.
The lid bore a symbol of the sun, and upon opening it, the golden needle on the dial began spinning wildly.
She placed the compass on the table, where the spinning needle immediately stopped. When she picked it up again, it started spinning once more.
“Quite magical!” she exclaimed.
The supernatural powers from Pirates of the Caribbean were not weak at all. Several pirate lords could seal a sea goddess, deal with immortality and eternal youth, and have mysterious items like voodoo zombies, Blackbeard’s sword, and Jack Sparrow’s compass. Yet, these powers were known only to pirate lords and remained hidden from others.
Bella didn’t understand the workings of the compass or how Carina Barbossa had replicated it. For now, it had only one function: to find the woman who held most of her lingering thoughts.
When the compass needle finally stopped swinging, Bella looked in the direction it pointed—due east!
Setting the compass aside, she glanced around and picked up a baseball bat from her bookshelf.
This séance was probably her last, and the Barbossas assigned a task and offered a reward.
Bella positioned her left foot forward, right foot back, arms raised with the baseball bat, thrusting, shifting, lunging!
This knowledge was imprinted in her mind through psychic energy.
, deeply impressed and quickly mastered. She tried to make her body remember these movements as instinct.
No doubt, she was tricked by the cunning Barbossas; what they referred to as special skills was simply fencing, a technique used by pirates!
How good was old Barbossa with a sword? It depends on who you compare him to.
Compared to Jack Sparrow or Will Turner, he certainly fell short.
Jack Sparrow was like Uncle Liu in Chinese opera, constantly beaten up from north to south and east to west. He would have perished long ago if he didn’t have good martial skills. Will Turner, besides his blacksmithing, was notable only for his swordsmanship. But as a pirate lord of the Caribbean, even Barbossa’s modest skills far exceeded those of an ordinary pirate, making him more than capable against the average person.
Bella worked hard to integrate this knowledge. By sunset, her swordsmanship had reached the level of a gifted fencer after about five years of hard training.
In this era, fencing remained a performance art, but it was a martial art that could be taken to the battlefield. Practicing it helps them maintain a graceful figure, aids digestion, and wins her a top spot in a university fencing club.
The swordsmanship taught by old Barbossa was useful but not that practical!
Carina Barbossa was far more generous than her father. Combining Bella’s abilities with the knowledge from Poseidon’s trident, she developed a new psychic spell for her.
Including a mental shield, invisibility, and charm, this new spell was Bella’s fourth and the only one designed for attack.
Ice Beam!
Theoretically, this spell could simulate the energetic behavior of ice, fire, lightning, and sound waves and then project these energies in a beam to inflict long-range damage on enemies.
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