“It’s like being hunted by a very polite predator,” Aethe said. “One that wants to make sure we’re well-rested before they pounce.”

They drifted along, feeling the calm soaking into them. Marco had the new route from Elisa but stayed on his current course. At some point, the ship behind them had tried something new. It was useless, and it was probably out of sheer boredom on the crew’s part, but they had decided to disappear.

Aethe stood near the rail, eyes fixed on the horizon behind them. “Still nothing. But I feel it. Like pressure.”

“How far would they have to be for us to not see the sail?” he asked.

“A few miles,” Elisa said. “Or just clever. Could be hugging the curve. Could be low profile. Could be using an illusion.”

“Ah,” Marco said, sipping again at his continually refilled cup of tea. “None of which we know how to do.”

“It doesn’t mean that they’re dangerous,” Elisa said.

“No, but the kind of people who can do things you can’t are generally more dangerous than the other way around. This plan had better work or they’ll rip us apart.”

They floated forward, slow and steady. The wind was better. They weren’t sure of exact locations, but Elisa swore they were within striking distance of the dead sea now.

They weren’t safe. But they weren’t dead. That counted for something.

When they slipped into the range of the dead waters, it wasn’t hard to know. The sails went slack as the air suddenly stilled. It had been easy to forget how terrible it felt to sail on water bereft of everything. He didn’t feel free here. He felt trapped.

“Steady on. They’ll be catching up fast now,” Marco said.

The ship behind them still had the benefit of wind, and suddenly seemed as if it was shooting forward on wings. It went from invisible to a shimmering, newly materialized reality in seconds, then was so close they could see knots in the other ship’s hull boards within minutes. Once it hit the dead zone, it slowed down significantly, but the crew of the other ship had planned well. The oars were out and rowing well before the wind gave up on them.

“They’re gaining,” Aethe warned.

“I know. I’m letting them.” Marco let his magic refill as the zombified captain’s ghost propulsion took over, pushing the boat faster than his boost skill had ever moved it in these waters. The boost laid in reserve, ready whenever he needed it. “We’re going to get hurt in a second here. Badly. We might sink.”

“That sounds not-great, Marco. This was your plan?” Riv had already found what cover he could behind the mast. “The whole time?”

“Just trust me,” Marco said.

“We can’t hurt that ship very easily, Marco. Not with this cannon,” Aethe said. “We’ll be better served if I shoot arrows.”

“We don’t have to hurt the ship.” Marco set his legs on the deck, squatted, and spun the wheel for all it was worth. The ship bladefished through the water, cutting a tight U-turn that brought them into cannon range almost immediately. “Hurt the oars. Aethe, you shoot arrows to suppress their cannons as much as you can. Elisa, you’re on the cannon. Just shoot it to distract them, better if you hit something important. And Riv, you’re on oar destroying duty. Get your club ready.”

The other ship had four cannons. Being over twice as large as The Foolish Endeavor meant having plenty of hard points to mount weapons to, but they had bet them all on one side of the ship. Marco figured it was probably a limitation of the craft, something the system enforced to compensate for some other strength. It fired all four of them now, sending death streaking towards Marco.

Two of the cannonballs slammed into the hull and one hit the deck. Marco let go of the wheel as the fourth sailed over the ship to fall harmlessly into the water, and felt the pep immediately go out of the ship as he gave up control. He leapt up and grabbed the wheel again immediately, feeling the hits the ship had taken in a personal way.

“Don’t let it stop you. We’re going in close. Wait for it, and make it count,” Marco yelled.

Aethe began showering the deck of the enemy ship in arrows. None of them seemed to hit their targets, but at least two of the opponent’s cannons went temporarily unmanned as their assigned crew were forced to defend themselves rather than reload and fire again. Elisa let loose with the cannon, actually hitting the captain of the opponent ship in the arm and sending him pinwheeling away to the ground, conscious and recovering but obviously hurt.

The ships came together with less than two feet of distance between them, and The Foolish Endeavor made the first hit on the oars. Its Bladefish powers cut through two of the oars outright. Riv was just behind, taking a huge step and dragging his heavy club through another several before the crew managed to pull them up out of his reach.

“Yes! We can get the rest on the next pass!” Marco yelled, raising his hand in triumph. “Keep under cover… Elisa?!”

This tale has been pilfered from NovelBin. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

That last question was yanked out of him, a purely instinctive reaction to his friend of a decade rushing toward the back of the ship, a flaming hand holding their small keg of gunpowder, chucking it hard at the few remaining oars on that side of the ship a half second before it finally exploded. It would have probably killed her if she timed it wrong, but it took out the last parts of half the enemy ship’s ability to propel itself.

“Change of plans! Do damage! Riv, play defense if you can!” Marco cranked the wheel around in another tight spin, finally letting loose with his own boost power and letting the ship slice head-on towards the middle enemy craft. He was aiming at the exact spot that had taken the brunt of Elisa’s explosion.

He blessed Aethe as she somehow got the cannon reloaded for another shot that splinted into the same damaged section a third of the way towards the front of the ship from the aft edge. Riv pulled Elisa back to safety, and hugged the mast as the prow of The Foolish Endeavor finally found its target.

What happened next went beyond anything Marco could have expected. The other captain was presumably with the government, and captaincy jobs were not something they handed out easily. The craft was beautiful, far beyond his own craft in quality, size, and materials used. There was no sense in which he should have been the equal of the thing he was about to bash into, no way his ship should have survived it.

The Foolish Endeavor

didn’t care. The crab armor and Bladefish sharpness, combined with the momentum from his propulsion skills, sheared off the back third of the enemy ship like it wasn’t even there.

Marco held on to the wheel, letting his ship continue past the shattered enemy craft and getting as much distance as he could. By the time he cranked the ship around again, they were safely out of weapons range and staring at a large, imposing, man standing near the wheel clutching his arm and yelling.

“We surrender!” he screamed. “We request assistance under the law of the sea.”

“You attacked us! It doesn’t apply!” Marco yelled back. “Why should we?”

The captain looked back to his own people. Every man and woman somehow got the message he was trying to send and began tossing their weapons to the deck.

“Please?” he asked. “Just please.”

“We’ll tow you,” Marco said. “Stop tossing your weapons. You are going to need them where we are taking you.”

—

“It took less than a day to crack the entrance. I was the nearest explorer-captain, and I had it open faster than you’d think. It’s a perk of the class,” the enemy captain explained.

“But why even chase us? There’s treasure in here. Opportunity,” Marco said.

“Not like the government is offering. Kid, you have no idea.” The captain of the other ship was watching his men lash his ship to the zombified captain’s ship, now devoid of any enemies but still giving off an aura of rotting danger. “You still have that countdown?”

Marco did.

“I do.”

“Then don’t waste time getting distance from the more civilized places. Every ship is going to be looking for you. Now, you don’t look much like they are saying you should, so that will give you some time. But they’ll figure it out soon enough. You need to get away from the places the navy sails, or you’ll get crushed,” the captain said.

“But why? What did I even do?” Marco said. “I’m not kidding. It’s just a class.”

“There are classes, then there are classes. Then there are classes like yours.” The man shrugged his shoulders helplessly. “You spared my people. I’d tell you more if I could. It’s just that… listen. I had an uncle. Worked in a division that examined problematic skills. Have you heard of those?”

Marco shook his head. He guessed Elisa knew, but the enemy captain had refused to speak directly to anyone but Marco. He was taking that at face value for now. There wasn’t time to waste fighting it.

“It’s skills that are considered bad in the way your class is. There were some he could tell me about. Things like Livestock Culler. It was a skill that got more powerful when you killed livestock, but the skill didn’t care whose cow got the axe. Those kinds of skills he’d tell me stories about, just for fun. There were some, though, he wouldn’t. He’d mention them on accident, then never let me talk about them again. All he’d say is they were written in a book somewhere, and they were there for a reason. That they should stay there.”

“Mine’s like that?” Marco asked.

“Like that, or something else as bad as that.” The captain’s boat lurched as the last bit of slack was taken out of the ropes lashing it to the dead ship. “Looks like I’m secure. I have to look after my people, now, until they come looking for us.”

“Will they?” Marco asked.

“Sure. And you.” The captain waved his hand, lazily. “Get going now. You’ll need some distance if you are going to survive this. There are more of us here. I wouldn’t rob you of that.”

Marco nodded, and let his ghost-captain powers kick in to drag his ship away from the others.

“Are you sure we should leave them like that?” Elisa asked, frowning at the marooned sailors. “Just alone in the middle of this kind of place?”

“They’ll be fine. I took a look in that hold. It’s all biscuit and water. The captain didn’t look worried either.” Riv came from below decks, holding a piece of fish. “That’s not the important question, anyway. Marco, are you sure we should be moving? The system was pretty clear that it was dangerous to do so.”

“Probably not.” Marco kept the ship moving as fast as he could. “It’s going to be dangerous. But it’s less dangerous than popping out in the middle of a navy. We really do need every mile we can get. Does anyone have any ideas on direction?”

“That way,” Aethe said, pointing. “As far as you can get.”

“Any particular reason?”

“It’s elf territory. I don’t really want to go back there. But for you… it’s as safe a place as you can get. The closer you get to our lands, the less comfortable your people will be sending large forces after you.”

“Doesn’t seem failsafe,” Elisa said. “Elves won’t like us there, either.”

“Fair,” Marco said. “But we have to take the chances we get.”