"Blrgh!" The drunk asleep pirate gurgled as Oberyn pulled his spear out of his throat but that was the last sound the pirate was able to make as he left this world with his eyes wide open in confusion and anger.
Oberyn looked up to find that almost all the rest were also done with their targets, in fact, half of their group were just standing idly by as this camp they had attacked only had forty-something members in it, not nearly enough for everyone to get a shot.
They had been deposited on the shores by ships led by Merchant Sam about an hour ago and this was the third group on their list of targets, and so far every single kill had gone smoothly, so smoothly in fact, that it didn't even feel like they were killing humans and not just crushing some ants.
"Does any of you need a break?" Oberyn asked in a low voice, just for the sake of it and just like he expected all of them shook their head.
He was quite sure that the slow measured walk up to this camp had burned more of their calories than this short culling had and besides they were all experienced sellswords and not amateurs who would begin breathing heavily at the sight of blood, "Let us move on then."
Oberyn led his team of warriors through a slim well-trodden path laid between thin cover of tall tropical trees. He had a small piece of paper in his hands that he was frequently checking under the light of the torch that a young sellsword was carrying and was using it to navigate their path.
'A left from here and then we come up to a clearing,' he mumbled to himself before putting the paper back in his vest and then gesturing to the men behind him to get ready while raising his own spear.
They then slowly moved towards the aforementioned clearing where they were supposed to find their next target, a medium settlement of about 60 pirates, but when they came out they found that all of them were already dead, with their killers standing over their bodies looking at Oberyn's group with wide smiles.
"Haha! You finally came, Viper. I was getting worried for a while there," Gared guffawed in a low voice, but even that was too loud for the stealth operation in Oberyn's opinion but since all the nearby pirates were already dead, it didn't matter too much.
"I thought we were the ones who were supposed to take care of this camp," Oberyn asked with a raised eyebrow as he came to stand in front of the Rose commander.
"Ah! Well, you were just taking too damn long and since we were done with our part, I thought... why not give you a helping hand," he said with a very smug grin on his face as if bragging that he had gotten more kills than Oberyn making the Dornishman roll his eyes at the childishness.
The reason the sellsword commander was faster than him was quite easy for Oberyn to guess.
He just knew for sure that unlike him, Gared must have rushed from one camp to the next completely trusting in the instructions on the map with no hesitation or precautions, which the Dornishman just couldn't do no matter how much he had begun to believe in Jon's abilities and his claim of this information being ironclad. This meant that Oberyn had taken the cautious approach causing him to be a bit slower as he believed in his experience that there was no information in this world that was 100 per cent accurate(and just because he was wrong this time doesn't mean anything,).
"Fine. Thank you for your help, then," Oberyn replied with a wry smile on his face before shaking his head, "Then shall we move on to the next part or do you need to rest..." Since they had already taken care of all the seven campsites on this part of the island, they would now have to move through the trees to the opposite shore for the next portion of the mission.
"Of course not, as I said I was just waiting for you so we are ready." Gared nodded and then immediately began leading the way out of the clearing with the men following after him without hesitation, "Let us hurry a bit from now on. After all, we don't want to be late for when the real party starts do we?" he asked the viper with a smirk who also nodded back with a hint of excitement in his eyes.
Normally, one would assume that walking through a forest on a pirate-infested island in the middle of the ocean would be a very stressful affair but somehow it just wasn't...
The night had a very peaceful feel to it, the moon was shining brightly in the sky, the trees around here were sparse enough that it wasn't so dark, and since there were no dense shrubs they didn't have to struggle too much to walk, so, all in all, if you discount all the dead bodies they were leaving in their wake, this could almost be considered as taking serene night stroll.
They reached their destination, marked crudely on the map, about half an hour later, and at that point, they split up once again to continue on to their respective target camps.
On Oberyn's side, everything initially had gone as smoothly as before, he and his team carefully sneaked up on their first camp on this side and after assigning every sleeping pirate to a warrior, they had all struck at the same time... easily sending the drunk asleep pirates to their death.
The second pirate camp had also gone the same way but when they were about to attack the third camp... an accident occurred.
Maybe, it occurred because they were unlucky, or maybe they had just been incredibly lucky so far and now their luck ran through... but for whatever reason, on the third campsite, a pirate just coincidently happened to get the urge to pee at that exact moment and happened to catch sight of them sneaking up on the camp, and after a brief moment of shock, the now completely awake pirate began screaming his lungs out, "ATTACK!!! We're being attacked!! Wake up, You FUCKERS!!!"
"Ah! Shit!" Oberyn cursed, having grown a bit complacent after the continuously successful ambushes, he hadn't thought to scout ahead before getting close so now they were completely caught off guard but the milk was already spilt and there was nothing Oberyn could do except yell, "Kill Them!!" he then immediately sprung on the disoriented pirates who were just coming around with the full force of his team.
The fight wasn't much harder than the others so far had been and was still a massacre with no casualties on their sides.
The main reason for that being that the pirates were still very much outnumbered and they also weren't given any time to come to their senses or even pick up their weapons.
But sadly it would probably be their last easy fight because even though they were so quick about it, one of the pirates had managed to get away and was now hollering at the top of his lungs about invaders attacking, while running towards the middle of the island where the castle was located.
"Should we chase him?" one of the older sellswords asked Oberyn while looking at the place where the runaway had disappeared with an unsure look on his face as the screaming voice went away with time.
"No, let him go." Oberyn shook his head as it was already too late for it to be of any use even if they captured him, as the commotion he had created by now must have already alerted quite a few pirates on the island.
Thankfully it wasn't a completely lost situation as, if nothing had gone wrong with the other group then, by now there must be only one more settlement left in this area that had living pirates, so it didn't matter too much even if they managed to get away as Jon had prepared measures for a situation just like this.
"Men! We need to move to the next gathering point immediately. Let's go!" he ordered in a firm voice and immediately dashed into the trees with his team not far behind him. They had completely forsaken any idea of stealth by now and were moving through as fast as they could while ignoring everything else.
And so not even five minutes later, they entered the small clearing, that was their next meeting point, to find the others gathered there as expected.
"A man got away from us," Oberyn grimly said the moment he caught sight of Gared.
"I know, I heard him well enough," The sellsword commander replied with an unconcerned shrug, "It was only a matter of time before someone caught up but it doesn't matter too much... we were almost done with here anyway. And besides this just means that the next part will be a bit more interesting. Don't you think?"
"Hmm, perhaps you're right about that. I was indeed getting a bit bored with all this sneaking around." Oberyn replied with a quick smile on his face.
Knowing Jon, they must have been done with their side of the things too, which meant that at this moment almost all the small groups of pirates (that is about half of them) on the edges were dealt with, leaving only the two settlements in the middle as well as the pirates in the castle.
"You lose any of your men?"
"Of course not, what do you take me for? Ten-year-old initiates could have done this job let alone me and my men." Gared replied with a proud smile.
"Perfect, then I think we should get a move on." Oberyn said and after one final check to make sure everyone was ready, they began to move, "It's time for phase 2."
///