Captain Lyndsay stood on the shore as he watched the weird boat go deeper into the ocean. He didn't know what had just happened in those last few minutes of their chase.

  "Captain," one of his knights said, "Wh-what was that? Were those some new guns or muskets?"

  "I don't know..." he said as he looked at his hands. He saw the tiny cracks all over his arms. He couldn't believe that a musket of any kind would be able to leave that much damage on his Tier 6 Armour skill. Discarding those thoughts, he disabled his skill, and watched as his golden armour disappeared into the air. He turned to his Knight and asked, "How are the ones who got injured?"

  "Anton is tending to them. He said that they would have died if they hadn't received timely healings. And I don't doubt that."

  "Tell him to get them as well as he can and be ready to move." Part of him felt bad about how things turned out. He didn't have them activate their defensive skills as they chased the target so as to not be slowed down and give away their locations.

  "Understood," The Knight saluted with his fist on his chest before turning around and returning to the others.

  Captain Lyndsay looked at his feet, noticing a few scattered flattened pieces of metal. They looked nothing like the round bullets muskets or flintlocks used. None of those had as fast a shooting speed as whatever those people used. Captain Lyndsay was sure that if he wasn't there and held their attention, making them focus their fire on him, none of his companions would have survived. Their boat was also an anomaly, it moved so fast without any sails or anyone rowing it.

  "Captain, we are ready."

  "Good, return to Windy village." They had to report what they had just found.

  He had already sent someone with the news about what they had found from the rescued passengers, but he had to make sure that the information about their weapons would be known, and fast.

  Captain Lyndsay would have never expected that trying to catch a pair of runners would lead to this.

  ***

  "So what you are saying is that a group of pirates, possibly the ones we were after, raided one of our ships and took its passengers hostage, just to get rescued by a huge weird ship?" Admiral Kain said as he looked out at the raging storm.

  "That's what we have been told," the glasses-wearing crewman said, standing straight. He felt that ever since his admiral had them turn around to the waters of the Empire, he had been in a weird state. As if something was always on his mind.

  "How big was the ship they described?" Admiral Kain asked after a short while of silence.

  "They said it was covered by fog so they didn't see it clearly. They were also kept in one part of the ship, but even just that part had enough rooms to accommodate all of them. They also said that they were dropped by a boat that had no sail nor oars but moved faster than some boats that had those."

  "You're dismissed," Admiral Kain said to the crewman. Returning the guy's salute and watching him leave, he activated his skill, Fleet Commander, an essential skill for anyone who wanted to rise in the navy.

  At his level, the skill had an astonishing long range and allowed him to contact any person under his command as long as they were in his fleet. What was even better, it let him choose 4 people and gave them the ability to initiate the connection on their side as long as they were still within range.

  Admiral Kain activated his skill and willed it to link him to the person he wanted to talk to. Soon, he felt a link being established, signalling a successful connection.

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  Admiral. A light voice came from the other side.

  "Quinn," Kain replied, "I have a mission for you, I need you to take the four ships under you and head to the area around Dannyport. Be careful for you might be met with resistance. We don't know much about the target, except, as you know, that they might be the new holder of the Title. Keep your comms open and manned, be ready for more updates."

  Affirmative, The person on the other side, Vice Admiral Quinn, answered before adding, What would be the course of action in the case of contact?

  Admiral Kain didn't answer straight away this time, he remained silent for a bit before finally speaking,

  "If the other side isn't hostile, try for peaceful communication, try to get as much information from them and aim to get them to dock. Of course, you must report back immediately once you lay eyes on them, and stall as much as possible so backup can have time to reach you."

  Understood.

  "You will be sent all the information we have on the target, be prepared for everything, and good luck."

  After cutting the connection, Admiral Kain released a light breath. He felt that he should be the one going after this new threat. But he had his duty to protect the capital and the Crown, he had to make sure those places were safe before doing anything else.

  ***

  Richard could feel his heart beating so fast that it was about to leave his chest. The coming meeting was one he wasn't looking forward to at all. After separating from that weird ship or whatever the fuck it was, he found himself with no cargo to present and the date of the meeting ahead of him.

  Knowing that running would only lead to a worse ending, he could only hope that his handler would be understanding and not throw him to the sharks. Those were his only thoughts as he made his way to the meeting location with a heavy heart.

  At that moment, he was the only one on deck, all his crewmen were away from sight, and he couldn't blame them; if he could, he would have joined them. He kept on pacing atop his deck, doing his best to keep the last of his cool now that the meeting was close. Just as he was about to take another sip from his bottle, he suddenly felt the weather turn colder, and he found himself shivering involuntarily. It was a kind of cold that hit him right to the soul, one that you would only need to feel once and you would never forget again.

  Richard followed his instincts and looked to the side, and for the 2nd time in just as many days, Richard found his ship right next to something much bigger than it. He gulped his spit and forced himself to walk to the bone-pale ship that docked next to them. Once he reached the rotting wood, it cracked for him like the maw of a Behemoth opening to swallow him whole.

  Forcing himself to jump to the other side, he found himself face to face with the source of his fear.

  "I don't suppose you just happened to forget to gather the cargo on the deck of your ship, right?" a ghostly pale man with a heavy stench of rot around him said. His voice whispery and airy, as if the air was being moved by his speaking alone, his lungs not pulling any of it for breathing.

  Even though it was only that man facing him, Richard felt as if there were eyes looking at him from all around, his skin breaking out in goosebumps. Richard's eyes fell on the cane the man always had with him. Its blood red colour was vivid even in the full darkness of the ship.

  "W-we had a mishap," Richard forced himself to say. He then went and explained what had happened.

  After finishing his words, Richard stood in silence, awaiting a reaction from the man in front of him. No such thing happened though, the man just stood there as if frozen. Worse even, the sense of eyes watching him only grew, as if in that deep darkness, whatever was eyeing him was getting closer. Just as Richard's heart was about to explode, the man turned around and left.

  Tap! Tap! Tap!

  The sound of his cane hitting the deck echoed behind him. The only sound in the whole ship.

  "You can leave," His voice finally reached Richard. Almost making the man shout and jump as he felt it sound from right next to his ear. "You brought back valuable information this time. Make sure that such a... mishap doesn't happen again, there won't be a second time."

  "O-of course, thank you, thank you." Richard couldn't believe that he survived as he turned around and jumped back into his ship.

  Once he was on deck, he turned around just to find nothing there, just open waters. With nothing to make him hold himself back anymore, Richard's knees gave up on him as he fell onto the deck.

  "You fucker!" He couldn't help but curse himself under his breath, his fist hitting the deck repeatedly. Just what part of him thought it would be alright to make a deal with one of the most frightening men in the ocean, the infamous Ghost Pirate, Red.