The time remaining in the day was large, but the things to do were more. After Shammus’s confession, the party’s talking had ceased. Shammus had opened the prison, to find Eurylochus half dead.

  That was the name the party knew him as at least, but Shammus had the first round of questioning, “Lisnu, what…” The legendary swordsman was quiet, snapping his finger a few times trying to find the right words. “What happened to you?” That phrase worked for now.

  Lisnu looked up at Shammus shocked, “General, I think that’s the first time you’ve ever used my name.”

  His eyes were wide with shock, his hair a brilliant silver color that shone in the sun. Lisnu’s face lacked any of the scars they used to have. Lisnu’s hair used to be a fine light blue, similar to the sky.

  “There’s a first for everything.” Shammus shrugs off Lisnu’s shock. “Now speak.”

  “We saw… him.” Lisnu’s stress on the word made the legendary swordsman think for a minute, even while Lisnu continued speaking, “All of us did. We’ll be going after you in this tower as you climb.”

  “Who’s hi-” Bariton attempts to speak up, but Shammus silences him quickly with a motion of a finger over his mouth. Lisnu continues on despite the interruption, “he gave us unimaginable power. Our levels shot up greatly, we’re all over Level 1200 despite being bottle necked around 500 for centuries, millenia even.”

  The legendary swordsman looks into Lisnu’s eyes. The fear as they shook was enough to know he was telling the truth, when suddenly, Shammus muttered something inaudible to the rest of his new party to Lisnu.

  Lisnu’s eyes widened as the wind grew stronger, and a nod from him as a little system window appeared in front of him, and Lisnu’s eyes went blank. He collapsed, foaming at the mouth.

  Bariton and Judine both jumped back as Lisnu died. Shammus, Pallad, and Clara looked at the scene, but only Shammus and Clara looked on with curiosity. Shammus’s was built with hatred at the base, and Clara was just because she had been the healer.

  At least, that was Shammus’s guess. He didn’t know the group too well.

  “We should get moving,” The legendary swordsman stands up after leaning to ensure his old friend was truly dead, muttering to the corpse. “I will avenge you my friend, even if I have to kill the foolish god that sent you here to die.”

  He could’ve sworn he heard a thank you as he walked onwards. The hatred burns bright in his heart, and it only fuels his courage. Bariton simply walks alongside him, his hands behind his back, looking back at Linsu with his eyebrows raised in worry.

  Pallad walks in the back of the group, with Clara and Judine in the center. Clara was muttering something to Judine who scoffed in turn. Pallad let out a laugh having overheard the two’s conversation.

  Bariton simply hums a light tune. They eventually find themselves at a port town. No truly large barges, but there were ships sitting in a beautiful wine-dark sea. The deep color reflected perfectly in Bariton’s eyes.

  Bariton turns towards the party.

  “Alright men, shall we go on the seven seas again?”

  The parties' agreement on this confused Shammus, “Wait, again?”

  “Don’t you remember floor seven?” Pallad asked, with a light chuckle.

  “Yes, I swam.”

  “I’m sorry, did you just say you swam?” Judine practically dropped the book she was reading as they walked.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Yes. I did.”

  “How’d you get through the storm?”

  “I swam quicker.”

  The silence was deafening. But Bariton had wandered off while the rest of the party was arguing, until suddenly really loudly his voice was rolling over the houses and the shops, resulting in a few swears from some people in response.

  “Captain Bariton, calling out to his crew!”

  The party had all let out a collective sigh before heading to the largest barge.

  ******

  Shammus hadn’t been on a ship this large before, let alone with only four others. Pallad was in charge of the sails, and ensuring they stayed in way of the wind. Judine was busy charting out the plot with a map-

  “Wait, where did you get the map from?”

  “Came with the boat.”

  The answer came quickly from Bariton, who was busy fishing off the side of it. The confidence in the way it was said almost made Shammus not even question it. But then logic had hit him like a log trap.

  “What?”

  “It came with the boat, just accept the answer and move on.”

  This time, Clara’s just… utter acceptance left Shammus more confused than ever. Her voice sounded tired, like Bariton pulls this kind of nonsense and trickery all the time. And Shammus just looks at the bard, still fishing.

  Another ship’s horn blared, filling the air with tension.

  “Ye be fools to sail on me seas!” The ragged voice came from the other boat. The tide’s pushing and pulling of the water made it hard to stand stable on a ship, let alone a barge the size of either of these two. “Who be the sea dogs in me land of blue?”

  The person speaking had a large thick beard, and seemed to even be missing a leg with the wooden stump there in it’s stead. His voice was as rough as the very sea that man seemed to sail upon on the day by day.

  “Well, we’re simply just people on our merry way!” Bariton said, putting down his fishing rod for just a moment to respond. His eyes flashed a brilliant blue as the system usually did to signify the analyze ability.

  “Alright men! These sea dogs think they can trick us!” Another person steps up besides the original. “It seems they want war as well! Let’s go fer a fight!”

  A cascade, an avalanche of people from that ship jumped onto the heroes. They all instinctively reacted, with Shammus slashing a few clean in two. The others reacted similarly, Bariton spearing a few back onto the side of the opposing ship.

  Pallad’s reaction was more with rage. He let go of the many ropes and pulleys and slammed one of the sailors into others, dropping them into the crushing tides below. Since neither ship had been anchored, they moved at a steady 30 knots, or fast enough to make falling into the sea fatal.

  Clara’s quick thinking prevented the slashes at the three in the front from being anything more than mere papercuts, and Judine’s quick movement in singling out the leaders of the pirates were making them too slow to make the jump proper.

  The ship was losing control, but it seemed the captain and their two right hand men had some form of teleportation with how they got there with a small amount of warping of light surrounding the third.

  Pallad was swarmed quickly, but they lessened the other crews' numbers as the two ships split apart. Shammus quickly used his connection to the void to tear open another group of sailors, and dive into the void himself.

  Bariton saw this, and shot an arrow clean into the sky. Judine continued playing support, buffing Pallad and casting group debuffs across the sailors. One of which was even a potent poison that the three musketeers had to dash across towards Judine to avoid it.

  The battle was over before it had even started between Judine and the poor captain, who suddenly had a sword through his throat as Shammus rematerialized from the void. He grinned lightly as Bariton launched a common spear through the teleporting one’s head.

  The final one was hit off board with another sailor, and the battle was over almost as fast as it had occurred. The group let out a collective sigh as they notice they now had truly no clue where they were.

  The ship was moving throughout the battle, and while the ship hadn’t been damaged, it had been going wherever the tides sent them. And the map did not mention the big whirlpool somewhere close-ish.

  And it pulled the massive barge in. Shammus attempted to grab onto Bariton while Pallad shielded Clara and Judine. Then darkness. The abyss beneath the very ocean consumed the ship, and they were left there.

  Waiting.