Grim should have known that his luck wouldn't just magically turn for the better, instead, it just kept on getting worse and worse. In the end, they found themselves stuck in a situation that no one could ever save them from.

  "How are the Swarmers?" he asked his first mate, dreading what the answer would be.

  "They aren't coming after us anymore," his first mate answered, his face as pale as could be. Grim was sure that his face wasn't much better. "But they are still circling us, we have no hope of survival."

  Grim still couldn't believe that they were being hunted by Swarmers. Few things were constants in the world, and one of them was the fact that Swarmers couldn't be tamed, and yet, there they were being circled by a swarm of the angry demons as if well-trained hounds.

  Of course, that was all without mentioning the huge mess of fog closing the distance between them slowly. He was almost sure that it was a ship using some kind of cloaking or camouflage skill.

  Grim knew that they were done for, they were as fucked as could be. Even without mentioning that fog-covered ship that was moving so fast that it was mind-boggling, just those Swarmers were enough to send them on a one-way trip to the bottom of the ocean.

  Grim would be lying to say that he wasn't feeling some regret at what led to the situation they found themselves in, it was all on him. When they made it to the island and he noticed the shore with obvious signs of fighting and some weird people walking around as if patrolling it, he guessed what must have happened. He knew that he had two options ahead of him, either retreat silently, or at least try and have a go at the island to see if he and his group could reclaim it.

  The obvious and rational choice was the first, but that was without thinking about the Archduke's reaction and how the open ocean was full of the Imperial Navy. Grim was sure that they could survive on the route they had been going through because he had been taking it for ages, but its main problem was that it was quite prone to Navy patrols. Also, there was the fact that they couldn't remain in the open ocean for long periods of time, that would raise the chances of meeting something that they couldn't survive.

  His first mate didn't notice any nearby ships and they weren't able to see them either -the mass of fog had been too far away, and at that distance, it looked normal- so he went with the second option, they were going to see if they could reclaim the island.

  Who would have known that they didn't even align themselves right when his first mate noticed the Swarmers coming at them. Grim couldn't believe it at first, there were no known Swarmers territories around those parts.

  Just the possibility of them being Swarmers for real was too dangerous to risk, so he discarded the attack on the island and had them move as fast as they could, while also having his first mate make sure if they were really Swarmers. He hoped for a good answer, but what he got was even worse. Yes, they were Swarmers, and they even had someone chasing them at an unbelievable speed.

  They tried to run after that, but it was futile, both the Swarmers and the mass of fog were moving faster than them and would catch up to them soon. Grim could only have his ship start slowing and hope that the other side wouldn't have their Swarmers go after them. Deepdarks were too rare to be just destroyed like that, he doubted anyone would destroy such a ship when they had the chance to take it for themselves.

  He also held a bit of hope that they could maybe turn things around if the other party tried to take their ship, it was low, but he was willing to take that chance if he ever got it.

  As expected, after they started slowing down and came to a stop, the other side held back their Swarmers, instead, they started circling them. He was sitting on the bridge waiting for the other side to initiate contact, and as expected, he soon heard a voice coming from the mass of fog.

  "You're the Deepdark used by the noble running this operation, right?" The voice had a commanding quality to it, many people Grim dealt with had a quality like that, as if they expected all their questions to be answered without any trouble or delays.

  "Yes," Grim said to his bosun, who then went on and relayed the answer using his skill.

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  "Why did you return here earlier than your usual time by around 2 weeks?" the voice asked without a pause.

  "The Navy is very active around these parts," Grim answered honestly, "We had to return or we would have been caught."

  At the same time, he had a guess about why the Navy was that active around those parts; it most likely had to do with the weird fog-enshrouded ship in front of them and its escort of wrath demons.

  "What noble were you working for?" the voice asked again, in the same uncaring tone.

  Grim could feel his crewmen looking at him. That was a fact only he knew, even on the island, the only other person who knew the answer was Captain Morcar. He knew that it was something his crew had been wondering about for ages, not that he would have ever told them, or they ever asked him directly about it, that would have only brought them more trouble and danger.

  "It's Archduke Stephen," Grim answered after thinking for a while.

  He decided to be truthful, hoping that it would make the other party think twice before hurting him and his crew. The old Archduke was quite resourceful, and Grim hoped that his name would be of use.

  Grim could see his crewmen looking at him in shock, but he didn't care, he just reminded his bosun to relay the message to the other party. He also hoped to glean something from how the other party would react to that name.

  "How did he acquire the Deepdark?" There wasn't even a pause before the next question was asked, making Grim a bit disappointed that he couldn't glean anything from it, as if the name didn't even register with the other person.

  He was a bit happy about the question about the Deepdark though, it meant that the other party were interested in the ship, and they most likely wouldn't just destroy it.

  "It was hard even for someone as strong as him." He made sure to stress that part. "It took him a fortune and many favours to manage to put his hands on it. It's probably going to take him two years to get another one if he loses this."

  He was overselling it, but it wasn't that far from the truth, it would most likely take him close to a year to find a replacement, and he would have to pay double what he had paid for the one they had, as he would need to get it from another noble.

  Grim waited for a reply from the other side, but nothing, the line went silent as if the other party was debating what to do next, the wait was making him quite stressed.

  "The Swarmers are coming!" his first mate suddenly shouted from next to him, making Grim's heart turn cold.

  "Start moving, put all the buffs we can get," he shouted hurriedly, "We need to get out of here right now!"

  At the same time, he looked back and saw something that made him lose even more hope, the mass of fog that had been behind them was coming at them, fast.

  Their position wasn't good for them to shoot their cannons, and their ship wasn't strong enough to survive something like the Swarmers, it was a stealth ship, even their crew was built based on that fact, they were hard to detect and fast to retreat, but when both those were dealt with, they were left with no hope of survival.

  "TURN US AROUND! PREPARE FOR FAST MANOEUVRE!" he shouted when he realised that they weren't going to survive that confrontation.

  Fast manoeuvre was a skill that made it easier for ships to turn and manoeuvre on the water. After knowing that they weren't going to make it, he was going to make sure that the other party would suffer due to their choice too. He would ram his ship at them.

  Grim could feel his crew's eyes on him, as if they couldn't understand what he wanted to do, but he wasn't going to explain himself. He just turned and glared at them, making them understand their current reality. The ship made an almost impossible narrow turn to backtrack and start going straight at the other ship.

  Grim ignored all the shouting and cursing from his crew, all the crying and horror from the Swarmers biting through the ship bit by bit, he only had one thing on his mind, the approaching mass of fog. His frantic heartbeats ran even faster once he noticed that the other ship wasn't trying to change its course.

  Ignoring his bosun using his skill to shout curses at the other party, he only focused on this final mission of his. As the two ships closed on each other Grim could feel a crazy smile surface on his face, he could almost see the moment the two ships collided.

  That moment never came though, as soon as they made it within 60 meters or so from the other party, they hit what seemed like an invisible wall. As he flew through the air, the last thing that went through Grim's mind was pure confusion.