The two of them, now accompanied by the Tax Collector, returned to the cavern where Sid had left a bed, but Sid was not around.

"He must still be collecting Spider Fangs," Meg said.

That was when a swarm of spiders began scuttling out of the darkness.

"Eeek!" William screamed.

The spiders were thankfully smaller than the Black Recluses, but numerous. He swung at them with his Cutlass, but was shocked to find that none took damage.

He spun around right as another spider, encased in brown, scaly armour, leapt out of the darkness.

"Boo!" Sid's voice shouted from the spider's head.

"Aaagh!"

The figure chuckled, and lifted up his spider mask, revealing a head of green hair. "Sorry, I couldn't resist after – OW!"

The Tax Collector had slapped Sid on the back with his cane. "Bad spider! Shoo! Go back to whatever hole you crawled out from!"

"Hey, wait, Theodore. He's a friend," William said.

"Yeah, this is just like a costume- OOF!" Another cane swipe in the stomach.

"You don't go around wearing silly costumes when we have business to conduct!"

William groaned. He could tolerate most of the citizens that had arrived so far, but Theodore was just a little bit irritating. He'd spent the whole trip back talking about the real estate market.

"Well, at least it looks like you got what you needed," Meg muttered.

"More than I bargained!" Sid grinned. "Once I crafted the Spider Staff, they could chew a Black Recluse to pieces in seconds! Made getting enough Spider Fangs for the armour a piece of cake! Also, this!" He held out a brown staff with a pair of spider's fangs on the end of them and a larger spider than his summons appeared in front of him.

"The Queen Spider Staff! It basically lets me summon this as a sentry to stand guard over a place. She spits out eggs that hatch into baby spiders that eat –"

"Disgusting," Meg interrupted, sticking her tongue out. "Just disgusting."

"Disgusting? This is the best thing ever! All the bad guys out there will be too scared to touch us!"

She just groaned. "Whatever. As long as it can get rid of the pirates, I don't care how it does it."

Sid scoffed. "Fine." He called the rest of his spider summons back to him and they lined up in single file behind him. "How about you folks? What did you find?"

Meg and William updated Sid on Meg's Rod of Discord and Magic Dagger, and also William held out his Frozen Key to show Sid.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I got a key like that too earlier," Sid said. "Before the pirates invaded. A Crimson Key. Also said it was 'cursed by a powerful Jungle creature.'"

On looking at the red and black item as Sid held it, a memory surfaced inside of William. "There was a chest like that in the Dungeon. Red and black, looking Crimson-themed. I wonder if it unlocks that?"

"That's what I think too," Sid said. "Except I guess it doesn't work now because of whatever this powerful Jungle creature is."

William had no clue what sort of creature this could be, but that was a mystery for another day.

***

The mood in the Forest Village was grim. Jeff the Guide, Hayley the Zoologist, Tony the Arms Dealer, Nissa the Dryad, Durim the Demolitionist, Zop'a the Witch Doctor, Merlyn the Wizard, and the rest of the citizens were all bound and held in the storage building. The pirates did not do what pirates normally did, which was to pillage the chests and bury it to turn it into buried treasure. They did not do that in this world.

A Pirate Captain stood over the citizens, watching over them alongside a large number of Pirate Corsairs and Deadeyes. If anyone so much as blinked, they'd get a bullet through their skull or a sword through their throat.

They would have stood like that forever, had a mauve-cloaked man with grey hair and a top hat not entered the room through the open doors.

The Captain turned to face him. "State your business."

"You punks forgot to pay your taxes on your swords and blunderbusses."

The Captain cocked his head. "Say what?"

"I've got the forms right here. All your weapons have been requisitioned unless you pay up." Theodore held out a scroll and dropped it so it fully unfurled, the page reaching the floor and rolling out all the way to the Pirate Captain's feet.

The Captain raised his gun. "We don't answer to boo-rock-crazy."

"That's bureaucracy, dimwit."

Meg materialised right next to him, Rod of Discord in her hand.

"If you don't want to talk to him, talk to me."

She began hurling Magic Dagger after Magic Dagger into the Captain's face. While he had too much life to instantly die like in real life, it had the intended effect – the rest of the Pirates in the room rushed forward, but they found themselves tripped up when a Queen Spider appeared in front of them and began covering them in venomous spider eggs.

A hole appeared in the floor next to the citizens, and smaller spiders began streaming out of it to attack. Another hole appeared on the other side, and William poked his face out.

"Quickly, in here," he called softly.

Hayley the Zoologist was the first to jump in, followed by Emily the Nurse and Jeff the Guide. A few of the citizens decided to help fight off the pirates, Durim blasting them apart with grenades while Zop'a shot them with poisonous darts.

Meg teleported to the side to dodge the spray of bullets from the Pirate Captain's gun. She was so glad to have found the Rod of Discord. The Mythril Armour she'd made for herself and the Titanium Armour for William would help protect them better, but that didn't stand up against the raw power of better damaging weapons.

She saw William jump out. His new Titanium Armour had a special ability that caused magic floating shuriken-like blades made from titanium to be constantly rotating around his waist. He charged into the fray of Pirates, the blades shredding them to pieces in seconds. The Pirate Captain saw him and fired a cannonball at him, but he sandstorm-jumped over it and swung a shot from his Beam Shot at the Captain. Meg brought more Magic Daggers into the Pirate Captain, and between all the damage sources he too was quickly defeated. Like the previous one another ghostly Pirate's Curse appeared, but that was easily dispatched as well.

"How did that go?" Sid asked as his spidery form popped up from below.

"Better than expected," William said. "But we've still got the Flying Dutchman to deal with."

The three of them charged outside. The Flying Dutchman was still hovering overhead, like an alien spaceship in some movie from Meg's vague recollection of the real world. It must've spotted them as cannonballs began firing out from both sides, but the three of them jumped upwards to avoid the explosions.

Sid's spiders could not reach the Flying Dutchman and even Meg's Magic Daggers fell short of the ship. But William's new Flying Knife had a seemingly unlimited range. He threw it upwards, and began making motions with his hands to control it, raking it back and forth along the cannons on starboard and port, dealing massive damage. If the Flying Dutchman was a living creature it would have screamed. William flew over the wall and out of the village, and the Dutchman had no choice but to pursue him, in order to destroy the one with the knife that was slowly chipping away at its cannons. Before too long the airborne galleon had disappeared from Meg's sight.

***

William ran as fast as his Frostspark Boots would let him.

Cannonball after cannonball exploded on the grass and against trees behind him. His Flying Knife continued to slice across the cannons on each side of the ship, dealing constant damage, but it wasn't going down fast enough.

He glanced forward just in time to see he was almost about to run into a giant Living Tree. Made from solid wood and leaf blocks, it towered at least four times taller than the trees that surrounded it, being a landmark of the forest.

He leapt upwards, his boots propelling him skyward, and slung out his grappling hook at one of the tree's branches to pull himself up. The Flying Dutchman did what he expected and began to ascend in order to pursue him.

He threw out his hook at a higher branch, finding himself next to an ugly wooden box with the letter S carved out in the front. A personal shelter that Sid had built at some point.

He ignored it as he continued to climb up the tree with his grappling hook, soon reaching the big plume of leaves at the very top of the tree. He cast a glance down, and realised something he had not been expecting.

The Flying Dutchman had gotten stuck between the branches. Its bow was caught between two branches and its stern had somehow lodged itself against Sid's shelter.

Built for sea and air, but clearly not for trees, William thought to himself. His Flying Knife returned to his hand, and he threw it down, not intending to move until it had finished the job.

***

There were still many pirates left in the village. The citizens were running onto the streets, going toe-to-toe with the buccaneers. Meg threw Magic Dagger after Magic Dagger into the good eye of an eye-patched pirate before he died. Then she turned to Sid.

"Can you keep them occupied for a sec? I've got to speak to the Wizard."

His spider mask nodded. She ran to Merlyn and brought up his shop interface.

"I need a Spell Tome to go, wise Merlyn," she said.

"Thank you, Emily! The future I saw for you where you will buy a lot of items from me seems to be coming true, don't you think?"

Meg just smiled and ran for one of the houses that contained a bookcase. There, she crafted the Spell Tome together with the Crystal Shards and Souls of Light they'd gathered from the Underground Hallow to make a Crystal Storm. This had been a weapon she'd learnt about from the Guide before the Pirates had invaded, but hadn't had the crafting materials to make it until now.

She dashed outside right into the path of a horde of Pirate Corsairs, but that just led to them dashing into the path of the crystal shards that Meg unleashed. They were quickly eviscerated.

Before too long there was just a small group of pirates left, led by one Pirate Captain. Sid's spiders swarmed over the Deadeyes and Crossbowers from behind, while Meg's Crystal Storm dealt with the others, leaving just the Pirate Captain.

He glanced between the two of them with his gun in his hands, appearing to decide which was the greater threat. But instead, he dropped his gun, got down on his knees, and put his hands together. "Me surrender!"

Meg raised an eyebrow. "You surrender?"

"Aye. The invasion be all of tha' other captains' ideas, eh? Me wanted no part of it, but they made me do it." He threw off his gold-lined gloves and stomped on them. "Arr, see? I be no longer affiliated wit' them!"

It was then that Meg noticed his label no longer read 'Pirate Captain' or with 6000 health. It now read 'Red Beard: 250/250'. Had he become a citizen as well?

"What's going on here?" Meg heard Star the Party Girl's voice behind her. She glanced back to see the other citizens behind her.

"This captain has surrendered," she said.

"I wish to join ye cosy collection o' villages," Red Beard went on. "The open sea's me true home, but if I be landlocked for awhile... well," he looked directly at Meg, "I need me shelter, matey."

"I don't trust him," Tony said. "His people just took all of us hostage and tried to blow us up." A lot of the other citizens shouted their agreement.

"I have to agree," Sid said. "This seems a bit suspicious to me."

"What are we going to do with him?" Meg asked.

Sid pointed his Spider Staff forward.

"Ayy, no! Not the spiders!" Red Beard cried, putting a hand to his beard and getting up on one tippy-toed leg.

"No, don't kill him," Meg held up her hands. "Let's just put him in... I don't know, let's build a prison or something."

"Aye, that I can live with," the Pirate said, solemnly taking off his hat.