Silas Drake lunged like a nightmare wearing armor, the heavy plate moving with unnatural speed, sabre drawn high. Kade twisted back a half-step, boots scraping over the cracked flagstones as the blade screamed past her midsection. It wasn’t the cut that nearly got her, it was the reach. The bastard had cavalry range, and a spine built for war.
Lawson didn’t hesitate.
He threw himself between them, pike pole already lowered like a lance. The tip caught Silas square in the chest with a crack of impact that should’ve staggered any sane opponent.
Silas didn’t flinch.
The Bone Marshal’s free hand snapped forward, knuckles connecting with Lawson’s face in a brutal hammer strike that collapsed the younger officer's nose in an explosion of blood and cartilage. He dropped to a knee, choking, and Silas followed through with a brutal kick to the side of the knee. The joint gave with a crunch that echoed across the stones.
Lawson hit the ground hard, barely raising his weapon in time to catch the follow-up slash. Steel clashed with a report like cannon fire. The pike pole shattered, splinters flying, shaft folding under the weight of a strike meant to carve through plate.
As Silas raised his blade for the killing blow, Kade surged in low, catching the saber with a sharp upward deflection that knocked the angle off just enough to spare Lawson’s throat. Steel screamed against steel. She pivoted off the recoil, close enough now to see the runes pulsing along the Bone Marshal’s weapon like veins lit with old fire. Her follow-up strike came fast, a snap-cut toward the joint of his shoulder. It hit solid, but the armor didn’t give.
She adjusted positioning and let the flow dictate the next strike. Her blade flashed in three quick cuts, low feint, actual cut, high block. Silas parried with terrifying speed, the runes on his sabre pulsing each time steel met steel. This wasn’t just a high-level boss. This was a commander returned from death with his skill intact.
A pulse burst from the ritual crystal behind him.
Fog rippled, and the temperature dropped. Across Kade’s vision, a new Simulation message surged into view, stark against the haze.
[Terror Aura] The presence of a high-tier undead entity radiates an oppressive emotional field. All nearby sentient creatures must make a moral resistance check. Failure may result in overwhelming dread, hesitation, or involuntary retreat. This effect is not mental domination, but an amplification of natural fear responses. Prolonged exposure will continue to erode morale.
The temperature dropped further. A weight settled on her chest, not physical, but real. Pressure behind the eyes. Doubt forming teeth. She watched it ripple across the field.
One of Briggs’ marines broke formation. Another stumbled back a half-step, hand shaking where it gripped the haft of a crossbow.
"Hold the goddamn line!" Kade called as she drove Tempest’s Edge into a tight guard position, triggering Officer’s Command.
Almost instantly, discipline returned. The Marine who had flinched straightened. Another exhaled hard through gritted teeth and raised her weapon again. The formation held, ragged but reformed.
Behind the line, Mireya’s orb pulsed with intensity. She stood unnervingly still, her gaze locked on Silas and the ritual spire with a fascination that bordered on reverence.
"Beautiful," she said. "Or terrifying. They were right…"
Lawson, still on the ground, managed a wet laugh that ended in a grimace. "Who’s ‘they’?"
Mireya didn’t look away. "Ebonwake analysts," she said. "But this is... beyond their projections."
Kade didn’t have time to address all the red flags Mireya's statement had raised. She sidestepped a swing from Silas that sheared through the stone where she’d just been standing.
On the other side of the makeshift arena, Kade caught one of the Grave Sentinels locked blades with Briggs’ squad out of the corner of her eye. The undead knight swung wide, its zweih?nder catching a young female Marine in the side.
Rice. Private Rice.
Her forearm flew off to the side, severed at the elbow, trailing blood and steam in the cold air.
She didn’t scream. Just staggered back in shock, face pale, clutching the bloody stump.
Briggs didn’t miss the opening. He surged low, planting a boot into the creature’s knee before driving his axe into the Sentinel’s hip. Bone cracked. The undead reeled. Briggs turned the second strike into a downward chop, burying the blade into the Sentinel’s skull. It dropped, armor clattering across broken stone.
Stone was already moving. Her hand flared gold as she reached the wounded Marine, light carving across the air like a lance. The bleeding stopped instantly, skin stitching over open muscle in jerky frames, like the Simulation was editing the injury in real time.
The Marine pushed off the ground a second later. One arm gone. Still fighting. Kade knew the Marine wasn't combat effective, but this was a situation where you were fighting or already dead. The Marine picked up a fallen sword with her off-hand, grip shaky but ready.
Kade's attention snapped back to her own battle as she ducked another swing, then went on the offensive. Her cutlass kissed the edge of Silas’ cloak, slicing through the rotten fabric, then skipped off the ancient armor beneath. He turned with the motion, catching her blade with his own and driving her back three paces. The weight behind the strikes was inhuman.
"Lawson," Kade snapped, still holding the parry. "Are you breathing?"
"I’ll live," came the reply, voice strained. "My nose is broken, and my leg shattered. I'm not rejoining the fight."
"Catch this," Kade said as she drew her pistol and tossed it back to Lawson.
She pivoted again, side-stepped a lunge, and scored a shallow line across Silas’ breastplate. Silas's response was to deliver a backhand blow that sent her flying. Kade gritted her teeth and reengaged.
Another pulse from the crystal sent another terror aura warning across her vision.
This wasn’t a war. It was an execution waiting to happen unless they turned it into something else.
"Briggs!" she called across the field. "Collapse left on my mark. We need that big bastard exposed."
"Understood!" came the shout. "Just say the word."
Kade’s cutlass caught the next strike flat. Her boots scraped backward. The Bone Marshal advanced.
Kade gave ground another half-step, caught Silas’ next swing on the flat, and shifted her cutlass just enough to slide the blade free without losing the guard. "Briggs, collapse. Lawson’s squad with you. Tighten the ring. We cut the distance, we cut the targets."
The order traveled fast. Both squads began shifting, dragging the defensive arc inward. It was an ugly movement in the middle of a fight, but every Marine here knew the value of putting more steel into fewer gaps.
The crystal pulsed yet again, causing the fog to ripple for a third time. Another Simulation warning flared in Kade's vision.
Kade’s teeth clenched. "Hold fast, Marines!" she snapped as she triggered Officer’s Command once more. The air seemed to vibrate with the force of it, the Simulation pushing her voice into every corner of the perimeter.
The forward ranks steadied. A few Marines who had flagged from exhaustion, squared their shoulders again and pressed forward into the fight. The line reformed more dangerous and confident.
Elara, standing in the open pocket of the formation, raised her hands and sent three bolts of fire hissing into the fog. One struck a Gravebound Sentinel full in the helm, flame clinging to the blackened plate. The next two slammed into its chest in rapid succession. The undead knight faltered, flailing under the heat, then dropped as the armor cracked and the fire reached bone.
Stone broke left, her mace still in hand, and extended her free palm toward Silas. A burst of gold tore across the space and smashed into his chestplate. The Bone Marshal reeled a step, cloak snapping around him in the shockwave. It wasn’t much, but it was the first time he’d given any ground.
The tide started to turn.
Every skeleton that fell freed another blade or crossbow to hammer into the next. The Marines’ movements quickened, cutting through the thinning skeleton ranks with brutal efficiency. Clusters of bone and rusted armor collapsed into the fog, their places left empty as no new summons rose from the soil.
Lawson’s squad, fighting shoulder to shoulder with Briggs’ Marines now that the lines had collapsed inward, carved down the last of a half-dozen standard skeletons that had been harrying the flank. Briggs’ axe took the head from one, a Marine’s cutlass split another from collar to hip, and a crossbow bolt from the rear rank punched through a third’s skull before it could close.
For the first time since the fight began, the killing ground around them was open.
The only undead still standing were the remaining Grave Sentinels and Silas himself, and even the Sentinels were locked in losing duels against concentrated fire. The outer ring of threats was gone, leaving the Bone Marshal exposed at the center of a tightening noose.
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A new message slid across Kade’s vision, colder than the fog.
Quest Update! Destroy the event crystal within the next five minutes to prevent the resurrection of all slain event enemies.
Her gaze snapped to the crystal. "Somebody destroy the damn thing!"
"I’ll do it," Mireya called from the center. She extended her hand, the orb pulsing with deep crimson light as she began to cast.
The glow built, then sputtered against the surface of the crystal. Her jaw tightened. "It’s resisting."
From the ground, Lawson’s voice cut through the noise, sharp and flat. "You’re stalling."
Kade knew what he was thinking. Hell, she was thinking it too. Mireya would want to see what happened when the timer hit zero.
"Guess it’s your turn to save the day. Make it count, Lawson." Kade said.
Lawson steadied the pistol in his grip and opened fire. Five rounds. Five sharp cracks punched through the noise of battle. Each shot slammed into the crystal, spiderwebbing the surface with fractures that bled green light.
The fifth round hit home
The crystal split. It went in an instant, shattering in a burst of light and shards that cut through the air like glass in a storm. The wave of necrotic energy that followed hit hard enough to stagger everyone on the field.
Silas roared, a sound that wasn’t human, and dropped to one knee, his blade biting into the stone for support.
Quest Update! Mark Lawson has destroyed the event crystal. To successfully complete the event, clear the remaining enemies.
Kade didn't let herself get distracted, her eyes never leaving Silas. Against the Tide surged to life as she triggered her ability, and a ripple of force carried through the Simulation to every Marine and ally in the fight. Steel and crossbow fire quickened around her, strikes landing harder, sharper. The air itself seemed to tighten with purpose. They already had the advantage, but Kade wanted to use every trick at her disposal to end this fight quickly now that the end was in sight.
Silas came at her again, sabre flashing in the fog. She met him strike for strike, each parry rattling up her arms. Neither fought clean. She raked his gauntlet with her blade’s edge on one bind, forcing him to angle off. He slammed his shoulder into hers a moment later, using the weight of his armor to drive her a step back.
The next beat came fast. He dipped his head and then drove it forward. The steel ridge of his visor cracked against her temple. White burst behind her eyes, the world narrowing to blurred shapes and ringing in her ears.
She couldn't see it, but the sabre was already coming for her neck.
A hand caught her harness and yanked. Stone pulled her clear, the blade sweeping past where Kade's head had been a second before.
Kade shook the haze away, caught Silas’ next slash on the inside line, and turned it into a bind. She twisted, letting his momentum carry his weapon wide, then snapped her hilt guard into the joint of his neck plating. The impact rang off bone, and for the first time, he stepped back.
A distracting roar split the line to her right. One of the Grave Sentinels had forced its way through the Marines. Its zweih?nder came down toward Mireya.
Elara moved before anyone else could. The blade tore through her side as she intercepted the swing, the impact nearly folded her in half. Blood sprayed across the stone. She braced herself against the pain, fire gathering in her good hand. Her last bolt left the palm in a streak of orange and slammed into the Sentinel’s helm. The thing dropped, skull caving inward under the heat, before her knees gave way.
"Elara!" Stone’s voice cut through the chaos.
Mireya’s posture broke. The cool detachment she’d worn since the fight began vanished under a snarl. Her orb flared bright and then dark, six black bolts erupting outward in every direction. Wherever they struck, bone and armor simply disintegrated into drifting ash. Two sentinels and a dozen lesser skeletons vanished in the space of a breath.
Kade didn’t have time to think about what had just slipped through Mireya’s mask. Silas pressed in again, their blades sparking in the fog. She slipped past one thrust, drove a cut low, then rode his parry into a top line. He over committed, sabre sweeping wide, the heavy plate dragging at his recovery.
She triggered the Boots of the Gale Rider. Wind tore at her coat as speed flooded her limbs. In the same motion she closed the brief gap between, driving Tempest’s Edge up and through the bone and steel of his skull. The runes along her blade flared white as the edge punched through.
Silas stumbled back against the shattered crystal, sabre clattering to the ground, gauntlets pawing at the blade buried in his head. Green fire bled from his eye sockets, guttering like a dying forge.
When he spoke, the voice was a low rasp under the weight of the armor. "This field… this war… is nothing. You are nothing… compared to what comes… the black sails already cut the horizon."
The light in his helm went out. His body slid sideways, collapsing against the crystal’s base before turning to dust that scattered across the flagstones.
"Sergeant," Kade called, "clear my battle space."
Briggs’ shout carried over the ring of steel. "You heard her! Push them back! Finish all of them!"
The Marines moved like a hammer, cutting down the last of the stragglers before they could regroup. One by one, the remaining skeletons fell, until there was nothing left moving in the fog but her own people.
Chorus of the Buried
Quest Completion! Congratulations, you have successfully completed the event zone (or at least your cat did) and driven back the undead menace.
Rewards: Experience Points, 200 Gold, Officer's Field Satchel. The cemetery grounds will be a temporary safe zone for the next twelve hours.
Time remaining 11:59:36
Where the crystal had stood, two treasure chests now rested in the settling dust. The surrounding glow was faint but steady, promising rewards Kade wasn’t ready to think about yet.
The fog was quieter now, just the ragged breaths and muted voices of the living cutting through it. The dead stayed down.
Kade moved through the churned mud and scattered bone, checking her people one by one. Stone knelt beside Lawson, both hands glowing faintly as she worked on the mess of his leg and the swelling around his nose. The blood had already dried in streaks down his cheek, but his jaw was set in that stubborn way that told her he’d be back on his feet before he should be.
Briggs stood nearby, pulling a black body bag from his pack. The heavy zipper rasped open, and for a moment the sound carried more finality than the battle itself. Elara lay still where she had fallen, her hand curled into a loose fist.
Mireya’s voice was tight when she spoke. "I’ll take her back to the Conclave. She deserves better than to be left here."
Kade gave a brief nod, saying nothing. The Marines had started policing the field, kicking scattered weapons into piles, dragging what was left of the Sentinels into a heap. There were cuts and bruises on everyone, a few bleeding wounds that would need more than a field dressing, but Stone was rationing her mana until the worst was stable.
Near Silas’s remains, Mireya crouched low. Her fingers closed on something half-buried in the dust where his chest plate had been. She straightened, turning a palm to show the dark, faceted stone resting there. It caught no light, seemed to swallow it instead.
Kade frowned. "Is that thing safe?"
"Maybe," Mireya said flatly. "Depends on what it was meant to do…"
Kade opened her mouth to ask a follow-up question, but Mireya was already walking away. Kade was unsure if it was just Elara's death or something else, but it was clear that Mireya was done talking for the moment.
Lawson tracked her with narrowed eyes. Kade saw it and filed the look away for later. Her chief concern was that there was too much ground to cover tonight to reach any of the faction bases, and too many ways to bleed in the dark.
"We’re staying here until morning," Kade called. "Form perimeter teams. Nobody sleeps off post."
A few mutters passed between Marines, but no one argued. The cemetery counted as a temporary safe zone, at least according to the quest notification. Whether that actually meant they were safe from a midnight monster wave, none of them could say. Still, the wrought-iron fence and the cleared lines of fire beat sleeping in the ruins.
Briggs had already moved to the two chests that sat where the crystal had shattered. He cracked them open one after another, pulling out gear and passing it to a nearby Marine who’d appeared with a manifest sheet in hand. There was a decent haul, but nothing Kade wanted.
Silas’ sabre came up last, its runes still faintly glowing. Outstanding balance with a sharp edge, and more than a suitable replacement for Lawson’s destroyed pike pole. She gestured toward it, smiling. "You ought to take that and get yourself a backup. I might not lend you my pistol next time. Nice shooting, by the way."
She took her revolver back from him, reloading it from the loops on her belt. The cylinder clicked shut, a solid and comforting sound, before turning her attention to her quest reward.
Officer's Field Satchel
Quality: Epic
Enchantments: Spatial Storage
Description: A weathered leather satchel reinforced with brass fittings, its strap stitched in a pattern that seems to shift when caught in the corner of the eye. The broad flap is stamped with a faint compass rose that glows briefly whenever an item is stored or retrieved. Beneath it lie two small front pouches, each anchored to its own dimensional pocket, with a larger main compartment at the rear opening into a far greater space than its size suggests. Originally issued to commissioned officers of the Eastern March Fleet, these satchels were designed to keep critical orders, maps, and field supplies secure and instantly accessible in all conditions.
Spatial Storage: Stores non-living items that can fit through the compartment’s opening. The internal space exceeds external dimensions. The main compartment holds up to 2 cubic meters; each front pouch holds up to 0.5 cubic meters.
Kade ran a hand over the worn leather, feeling the faint shift in the stitching under her fingers. The main flap lifted easily, revealing the two front pouches and the larger compartment behind them. She dropped a spare field notebook from her pack inside and watched it vanish into the pocket space, the leather collapsing flat as if it were empty.
She reached in, half expecting to fish around for it, and found the notebook waiting right where her hand went. No digging, no shifting gear to get at what she wanted.
Now that’s a game changer, she thought. No more wrestling a pack off her shoulders in the middle of a patrol, no more losing precious seconds digging for the right kit. Everything right where she needed it, when she needed it. For an officer who spent half her time hauling gear through mud, rain, and God-knew-what else, it was worth its weight in gold. She wondered if the satchel was fully weatherproof, or what might happen if she had it on when she used her Seafarer’s Ring to walk underwater. That could wait for testing.
+2 Leadership | True command is forged when every advantage belongs to the enemy.
+1 Light Armor | You move as the armor allows, fast, quiet, and alive.
+3 Sword Combat | Victory favors the blade that makes fewer mistakes.
+3 Dirty Fighting | A fair fight is just poor planning.
+9 Pistol Combat | Congratulations, the Simulation has finally caught up with what you already knew.
The large gain in pistol skill was both surprising and not at the same time. As a career naval officer, Kade had spent years around firearms of all types. She was surprised that the Simulation listed her skill as pistol combat. This suggested that pistols and rifles were handled separately.
Level up! Congratulations, you are now level nine. Go forth and defend the realms, mighty hunter. You receive one (1) stat point for Intelligence and may allocate one (1) additional stat point as desired.
Thinking it over, Kade dropped her free stat point into Strength. Constitution and Dexterity both had their merits, but right now she wanted a little more bite behind every swing.
Name: Sarah Kade
Class: Corsair
Level: 9
Health: 340/340
Mana: 220/220
Stats
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 7
Intelligence: 11
Constitution: 7
Charisma: 8 (9)
Abilities
Against the Tide
Blade Whirl
Command Presence
Deck Fighter
Riposte of the Kraken
Stormwall Stance
Skills
Amphibious Combat: 1
Amphibious Movement: 1
Dirty Fighting: 14
Grenadier: 2
Leadership: 19 (24)
Light Armor: 7
Ocean Craft: 10
Ocean Navigation: 8
Pistol Combat: 9
Sailing: 8
Stealth: 1
Sword Combat: 18
Tactical Negotiation: 2
Satisfied with her gains, Kade closed out the interface and let her gaze drift to where Mireya stood alone at the edge of the fog. The researcher was calm again, orb floating lazily at her shoulder as if nothing had happened. No one else seemed to notice the flash of rage Kade had seen when Elara fell, or how easily Mireya had burned half the field to ash.
Just a kooky academic cataloging her monsters and Simulation mechanics? Or something far colder, far more dangerous?
The world event was far from over, and every answer they’d gained had left behind heavier questions than any pack she’d ever carried.
if you're itching to know what happens next, we’re currently 10 chapters ahead on Patreon. That’s five weeks’ worth of Tides of Ruin already up. The Surviving the Simulation series is made possible entirely by reader support. So thank you, sincerely, to everyone who’s helped keep this story alive and moving forward.
