Advent of Eternity - Chapter 28 (Patreon)

Knell shook his head and approached the railing of the ship, peering over the edge to look back at Blackfoot Bay. One ship had broken away from the docks and was heading in their direction. Its black flags bulged in the wind, and a faint blue glimmer hung at their bow. The skull and crossbones upon their flag bore a shark-toothed grin.

“You’re level twelve,” Knell said, waving Stix over. “Where does your tribe level?”

“Dungeons usually,” Stix replied. “We have a few weak ones that we keep fed with animals to teach our younger students. Once we hit level ten, we’re allowed to do the stronger dungeons in the area. It didn’t do me much good because I barely get any experience from killing monsters. I get around one for every fifty that other people get. Unless I can absorb Yin magic from specific monsters, magic items, or the moon, I basically move at a snail’s pace.”

“We’ll have to do something about that, then. I don’t need useless members on my crew,” Knell said. He nodded out at the ship. “Now get ready to fight. They’re gaining on us.”

“I’m not sure we win that,” Cyll called down to him. “They’ve got four cannons and we have two. It also looks like they’ve got some Path user manipulating the water to speed them up.”

“All the more reason to be ready,” Knell said idly. “They won’t use the cannons. They want the ship back. Let them board, we’ll kill them once we’re in range. If we show any signs of being competent, they might sink us before we get a chance to fight back.”

“You want to let them get on board?” Stix asked in disbelief.

“That would be what I said, yes. Unless you have a better plan?”

“Couldn’t we maneuver around them and sink them with our cannons anyway?”

“With a Path user? Even if we managed to hit them, we’d be certain to take damage,” Knell said. “Do you see anyone around who can repair holes in our hull?”

“No,” Stix admitted.

“Then we cannot let them damage the hull. They won’t destroy the ship if they can avoid it, so we take advantage of that and kill them when they get close. That’s our only chance of making it out of here with an intact ship.”

“Whiskey with me,” Stix said, drawing her blades. “How do we get them aboard without raising suspicion, though?”

“By doing nothing,” Knell replied. “Cyll, keep the ship moving but let them slowly catch up to us. We need to make sure they have no doubts about catching up to us.”

Cyll nodded and jogged over to tilt the sails against the wind. The pirate ship on their heels quickly started to gain upon them.

“Now hide,” Knell said, pulling open the trapdoor leading below decks. “When they board, kill everyone and immediately get us moving again. We don’t have time for mercy.”

He ducked into the captain’s quarters and Stix slipped below deck. The Path user was going to make things difficult, so he would have to improvise.

It didn’t take long for their pursuers to pull up alongside them. As Knell had predicted, the other ship’s cannons did not fire. They threw grappling hooks overboard, pulling the two ships closer to each other, and a dozen pirates hopped onto the ship.

They parted as a man wearing a bright red tricorn hopped aboard, his sword drawn and flickering with blue magic. He pointed it at Cyll, a wide grin on his mustached face. “Bold of you, stealing a ship right from Blackfoot Bay’s docks.”

“You left it undefended. It’s not my fault,” Cyll replied.

“I look forward to watching you say that while the Captains in the bay flay you from head to toe,” the man chuckled. “Get this ship turned around. If the idiot at the helm fights, kill him. It’ll be a mercy.”

The pirates fanned out. Knell, watching through a crack in the window, nearly missed it as Stix made her move. She shot from below the deck, cloaked in faint shadows that made it hard to pinpoint exactly where she stood, and sent a dagger flying at the closest pirate.

It caught him in in the throat. Before he could react, Stix had drove her other weapon through his chest and ripped the first one free.

Cyll leapt over the railing and crashed down on another pirate’s shoulders with a gleeful laugh. The man fell to the ground and one of his crew swung a scimitar at Cyll. Cyll raised his hand, catching the blade in a spray of blood and ripping it free from its owner’s grip. He flipped it around and executed him.

A blue snake shot from the captain’s sword, yanking Cyll’s legs together and twisting up his body. Cyll snarled, struggling as hard as he could, but the magic refused to give in. Stix dispatched another pirate and turned to help Cyll, but the same spell entangled her as well and she collapsed back into a pool of a man’s blood.

Cyll growled as his wounds pulled shut and the captain stopped, nudging him with his foot. “Curious. You and the assassin will pay for the lives of my crew. I’ll make sure to tell the Captains to take their time with you.”

“Like they’d listen to advice from pond scum,” Cyll spat up at him, still fighting to break free of his bonds.

The captain’s lips pulled back in a snarl and he spat onto the bloodied deck. “Get these fools onto the other ship.”

He turned. Knell stepped out from his spot in the cabin at the same time, using the brief instant of surprise to draw the blade of his staff. His eyes lit a brilliant yellow. A pirate called out a warning and the captain spun to face Knell just as a sliver of green magic hit him.