Diving into the salty water, I ensured I did not open my eyes and swam through the water, rushing to my destination. The Lich was waiting for my arrival near the ship. This was going to be the harder of the two targets. The ship was larger and had more goods on it. This ship even had guards keeping watch. What we needed to do was take the ship with as little noise as possible. The Lich would need time to turn the dead into minions to transform.
My body moved through the water with my flexibility, and one would question if I was even human as I moved in a way that Olympians would kill to achieve. The issue was that I had no idea how far I went, so I drove myself and broke out of the water, opening my eyes. In the quick glimpse, I surveyed as much as I could and dove back into the water, adjusting my body to reach the destination as fast as possible before the mana movement was detected on the Necromancer's new ship.
It took only seven minutes to reach my destination, and I cursed myself for my lack of speed despite the fact that even other B rankers would probably have an issue doing the same in water. As I slowed, I pulled my head out of the water, and The Lich was in place with their body lying face down on one of the cutter landing sites. This was the closest to the target ship, and I looked at the looming large galley not far away.
"Stage one completed," I announced as I cut the last little bit of distance. The Lich looked at me and nodded. I could see their blue skin under the cloak this time as I looked down at them.
"Good," The Lich said before jumping in with a frown. The Lich then started toward the ship. There was no need to say more. I would have said something if it needed to be said, but instead, I followed silently, with nothing but the waves and rushing water in our ears as we swam as fast as we could. I could tell that this lich hated being in the water, as they were moving as fast as their undead bodies could move.
It took almost ten minutes for us to reach the far side of the larger galley, and once more, I kicked my feet harder to bring myself out of the water. At the perfect time, bending my body unnaturally, the leather whip lashed out and grabbed a railing. A light snapped, and I tugged it and grinned as it held. This was the most dangerous part, so I grabbed my whip and started to climb up the ship. The Lich grabbed on, too, and I had to use my energy to enforce the whip and ensure it stayed latched to the ship.
We moved as quickly as we could while dripping with seawater. I quickly brought myself to the edge and then blanked as I looked at a bad situation. Five people were on the deck with the two guards at the gangplank. The only positive was that they were not paying that much attention. The guards were leaning against the railing and talking mildly with each other.
I turned around, twisting my body, and the Lich was visible. I could not tell their gender, though, but they were mildly attractive. "We have seven on the deck," I said just enough for her to hear, and the Lich nodded. The five are to the right; the guards are not looking in our direction. We have ten to twenty seconds to kill them all if we don't want to be spotted."
The Lich pointed to the right and then at themselves, and I nodded. We both moved our hands up the whip, and I grabbed the railing, with the Lich grabbing the railing a moment later to my right.
I swung up to my left with the lich doing the same to the right, and we came up with me, grabbing my bladed whip and letting it open up. I could feel the Lich conjuring something just to my left, but I had to trust that they were not going to fuck us over as we took the boat, and I poured my energy into my bladed whip as I looked at the two guards as they heard our feet land on the deck.
The surprise in their eyes was complete, and I smirked as my whip lashed out perfectly and in an arch that would barely miss the mast of the ship. I watched and heard a grunt coming from me and a wheeze as the tip of the whip hit the unarmored guard through the neck before it continued to move with the enhancement of my energy and grabbed the neck of the other as I had moved closer. I pulled, decapitating the second as I turned and began to move toward the five just in time to see what the Lich wrought, and I swore to myself never to get hit by one of their spells.
The people were not dead, but they were getting there quickly, as their chests were deteriorating visibly. I could see the rib cage, and on others, their throats were gone. The green mana was dissipating as I heard their final wheezes and gasps. It seems that the Lich can cast several at the same time. Then again, I had seen something like that in the Empire, although their style was too straightforward, in my opinion.
It's a good thing that the surprise was complete.
Pointing at the captain's cabin, the Lich nodded, and we moved together as the people on the deck struggled to breathe breaths their bodies could no longer take. We reached the door. I heard a death gurgle, and one of them died. I nodded at the Lich, and the Lich opened the door. I brought my whip back in to use it as a sword as I entered, but the captain was sleeping alone, much to my surprise.
I grinned and approached the captain, taking out Sophia's knife. He never stood a chance as I slit his throat and left him dying in his blood. We were ready to head to the lower decks about thirty seconds later. The Lich pulled up the latch, and the ladder came into our vision.
I could hear snores and talking and bitching down in the lower decks. I pointed to the right and the Lich nodded. We both moved slowly this time. Surprise was our biggest ally in this movement, and when it came to closer-quarters combat, we were both in a weaker situation than normal. I was a mid-range fighter, and the Lich was a long-distance fighter, and they pulled out a knife like me. We both moved into separate cabins just down the ladder. I moved into my room, and I came eye to eye with a guy who was groggily getting out of bed. His surprise was complete, and my knife flew from my hand as I needed to kill him as fast as possible and a moment later, the knife cut into his eye.
He dropped like a bag of potatoes, and one of the men in the cabin chuckled. "Derrek, fell off the bed?" he asked, making another chuckle as I closed the distance. The first guy was peeking over to see his fallen comrade to be met with my closed-bladed whip perfectly cutting off his throat.
"The fuck?" I heard the other guy say as the gurgle of his dying comrade sounded in the room. I turned, and my hand whipped out and smashed into the temple with my claws out, cutting half his face off. "A-" The man loudly got the single syllable as he tried to scream before my hand came down on his mouth, muffling the rest. His hands grabbed my wrist, trying to free himself.
A moment later, he was a gurgling mess with no throat and dying in his bed. Blood was seeping into the beds and I walked out of the cabin with my fur stained in blood. The Lich looked me up and down but the Lich seemed to have gotten through their cabin without the noise. We moved forward and peaked into the rooms before moving in.
There was so much more crew for this Galley, but I killed them all this time without problem. The Lich didn't as I heard a scream. "THE FUCK!" The sudden alarm of the rest in the lower decks sounded, and I heard at least five exclamations and moved. Every part of my body leaped forward and out the door, and I felt mana in some of the sailors. I grinned as the first that I saw was a C ranker. The mana movements were bad, and the blast of water that I dodged under before I cut out their knees, turned my body and ducked as a blast of ice from a different wizard came from down the hall.
Two Wizards?!
What was happening on this fucking ship?
I moved, not thinking about it, as I quickly cut the distance and entered the rowing stations where three more were waiting. I could see a lantern with scrolls open, but a club and a sword coming at me as I came out into the open stopped my perception of it. "YOU BITCH!" One of them screamed, and my body was already moving on its own based on instinct as one went low and the other went high. My body was flipping, though, with my stomach being the center, and both weapons glazed me without hitting me, and I grinned.
"Outmatched," I noted, and the fear on all five faces was complete. My sword was in one hand and my dagger in the other. My knife went to the left and killed one, while the whip shot forward and killed the wizard. "No B rankers," I said loudly.
"Confirmed!" The Lich called out, and I could feel the mana start to move to begin to raise the dead as I cut the next person's throat and cut through them in a way that would not ruin the corpse.
"I will search the ship for any survivors," I announced, looking at the five dead bodies around me. I looked at the scrolls and realized it was a potion list with gold in a pile for their departing date. These men were getting ready to go out for alchemy potions and were arguing over what to get.
I grabbed the gold and silver coins bag before moving down and finding the latch leading to the cargo area. I did a quick search and found no one so I opened up a couple of boxes and recognized some of it. It was all over the place. I found a box full of weapons and armor and there was a box of spices that was of some worth, but I closed the lids and felt the Lich starting something new. They must have raised their first new lacky. I could hear a second pair of feet above me, and I decided it was time to continue what I needed to do. I headed up out of the cargo area. The Lich was now in the room, pouring mana into the body and chanting a little.
I walked past, climbed the ladder, and got out onto the deck.
The hard part was over. Now, we needed to hope that no one felt the disturbing presence of the Undead on these ships before we were ready to move. I pulled the bodies off the deck and put them in the Captain's quarters. Then I walked up to the Gangplank and acted like the guard, with a cloak over my head, looking out like I was on watch.
I could only wait for this part of the operation, so I settled into being a much more vigilant guard than the last set of guards.
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