Chapter 38: Island of the Undead

Right before their wreckage fully went down under, the undead managed to reach us despite the helmsman's best efforts to steer the Abyss away and maintain a good distance. Well, I guess the undead ship was powered by unholy energies or something, otherwise it made no sense how they could catch us. It also helped that we couldn't venture too far off course because we were heading for Ixia.

The undead rappelled up the hull of the Abyss, climbing onto the deck where the vampires were waiting for them. Blood-red mana suffused the vampires, augmenting their physical strength, and they set about to pulverizing the skeletons that tried to climb over the railings. For now, we held the advantage, but the sheer numbers of the undead were beginning to give them the edge.

For a crew of twenty to completely stop about a hundred or so skeletons from climbing aboard our ship was a tall order.

A ghoul leaped from the wreckage and landed on the deck. Unlike its skeletal brethren, this one still had plenty of flesh and eyeballs rolled about in its lidless sockets. It groaned and staggered toward me. Stella stepped forward to cut it down, but I held her back with my left hand while pointing at it with my other hand.

An azure blast of energy arced from my finger and slammed against the chest of the ghoul, freezing it solidly completely. The frozen figure of the undead was sent careening from the impact and it toppled over the railing to splash into the water below.

Then Stella whirled around and swung her sword, bisecting a second ghoul that had gotten behind us. Crimson mana shrouded her and she kicked the ghoul's upper half with such force it flew over the railing and into the sea. The bottom half of the ghoul continued to walk about aimlessly, but Stella kicked it between the legs and tossed it over along with the other half of its body.

Meanwhile, the vampire sailors continued to smash skulls and limbs with their hammers and cudgels, causing a rain of bony fragments to scatter across the deck. Drawing Blood Angel, I decapitated a skeleton that was climbing aboard, and then kicked it off the railing. Following my example, Stella severed a skeleton's hands at the wrist and watched as it crashed back into the sea below.

The furious melee took about an hour, swamped as we were by a relentless wave of skeletons. But they were no match for the hardened vampire crew and my ice magic. Before we knew it, there was nothing left of the enemy but broken shards of bone.

"Clean them up," Cooke instructed. Several of the exhausted crew complied, bringing brooms and sweeping the bone fragments away. The captain then turned to me, impressed. "Not bad."

"They were just lesser undead," I replied as I sheathed Blood Angel and wrapped it in the shawl. "Nothing to brag about."

"Be that as it may, the fact remains that you fought alongside us. Honestly, I've seen dandies lose their nerve and panic, or run away somewhere, screaming. Even though they are supposedly vampire nobles."

He then rubbed his beard.

"But you…you seemed very used to fighting. Your movements and skills…they are topnotch. You and your lady knight over there. No disrespect to woman, but I didn't think she could fight like that. They speak of plenty of experience. Not to mention that crazy ice spell you used back there. Were you perhaps a mage before you were turned?"

"Yeah." I saw no reason to hide it so I nodded. Cooke grinned and clapped a hand on my shoulder.

"I've revised my opinion of you, kid. You're not bad at all. Your lady too, she's pretty amazing." He paused. "Honestly, you don't strike me as a noble. Your lady, she has some proper upbringing and behaves like a legitimate knight, but you on the other hand…"

"I'm not a noble."

"Oh?" Cooke raised an eyebrow. "Huh, but for some reason that bloke Raucon was so respectful to you. Said you were a relative of Count Claude Lyon."

"Ah, we are not blood relatives."

"I see." Cooke seemed to realize there was more to it and that it was pointless to ask, so he nodded and left it at that. "Anyway, you should get some rest. That was quite a lot of excitement for the day. Hopefully it won't be as hectic tomorrow."

"Yeah." I glanced over at the sea and took note of the darkening sky. How long more did we have to sail until we got to Ixia?

As it turned out, another two days.

Fortunately, we didn't run into other patrol boats during this time. At least not until the island came into view. Then the fleet of the dead came.

"This is going to be difficult," Cooke muttered. Standing in the bridge, he peered at the magically conjured visual screens that came from the navigational control.

"Six frigate-sized ships, one cruiser-class," Nate informed his captain, his tone as calm as ever. Very few things fazed vampires. They didn't care if they were outnumbered. Each vampire was easily the equivalent of fifty undead. Even so, there was undeniable tension in his voice. "They are closing in."

"Not for long," I told them before striding to the deck. Gathering mana into my hands, I froze the sea around us, causing the ships to crash into icebergs. They wouldn't sink, not against icebergs of this size. However, the floes I had created were big enough to impede their movement.

"Hah!" Cooke chuckled when he caught onto my intentions. "Full speed ahead! Once we dock, their lich masters will have no choice but to show themselves!"

This close to the island, even the lich and necromancers would have no choice but to sit up and take note when a group of vampires set foot on their land. As such, while the ships floundered, the skeletons and zombies stumbling about in confusion, the Abyss surged forward and went straight for the harbor.

I immediately jumped from the deck and landed on the pier, followed by Stella. Both of us drew our swords, massive amounts of mana swirling around our blades. I drew both Blood Angel and Nocturne. With a sword in each hand, I cut through the hordes of zombies and skeletons that awaited us in the harbor, slicing through flesh and severing bone alike. Ice entombed my victims, spreading rapidly from their wounds. Ducking under a strike from a skeleton, I stabbed its sternum with Nocturne, obliterating its torso. Then I swung Blood Angel with my other hand, decapitating a zombie and causing it to topple over into the sea. Spinning about, I cut down three zombies and pulverized two skeletons by swinging both of my swords simultaneously, then reversed the trajectories of my attack and lashed out in opposite directions. A skull flew off when Blood Angel bit through the unprotected throat of a skeleton while Nocturne bisected a zombie and caused it to flop downward. I finished the flailing corpse off by stomping on its head before I brought up Nocturne to parry a crude dagger from a skeleton. I then countered with Blood Angel, slicing it from shoulder to hip and then kicking its head and part of its upper torso away.

Close behind, Stella watched my back and wielded her sword with ease. Red mana suffused her blade and she efficiently hacked apart any skeletons that came near us. Her sword flashed, eviscerating a zombie before she kicked it into the water, and then she smashed the skull with the hilt of her sword. Whirling around, her crimson blade turning into a bloody blur, she dissected two zombies with precise movements before blowing a trio of skeletons back with the flat of her bade, reducing their skulls to fragments ad dropping them.

Between the two of us, we cut down at least fifty zombies and skeletons in under three minutes.

Then Cooke's crew joined us, their hammers roaring as they smashed bone and bludgeoned heads. The narrow pier nullified most of the numerical advantage that the undead possessed and they were forced to come at us in small waves at a time.

Thanks to that, we smashed them aside pretty easily.

"Enough!"

At that word, the zombies and skeletons retreated. At the end of the pier, a hooded lich appeared to hover, his skeletal features blazing with unholy fury. Eerie green lights burned in his otherwise empty sockets as he glared at us. I met his gaze evenly and continued to hold up both of my swords to demonstrate my intention. As long as he continued attacking us, I would continue to annihilate his pitiful forces.

"Who are you?" the lich demanded. "And why have you vampires invaded our sacred island?"

At his question, I sheathed both of my swords and yanked off my glove to show him the magic crest glowing fiercely on the back of my right hand. The lich gasped and staggered, as if he had suffered a physical blow.

"You…you…"

"I have come to request an audience of your lich lord, Lindley," I declared coldly. "I'm sure the divine general wouldn't mind listening to what I have to say. Otherwise I would have no choice but to resort to more extreme measures to capture his attention."

"There is no need for that." The lich righted himself and turned away. "I'll inform him right away."

"Aw…" Cooke complained behind me and Stella, dusting the blood and rotting flesh off his cutlass. "And here I was expecting one hell of a fight…"

"That crest," Nate muttered, his eyes wide, but his captain cuffed him at the side of his head.

"Who cares? We get paid to shut up and do our job. So we shut up and do our job. If the cash is there, we don't care."

I couldn't help but smile at that.

The lich backed off and allowed my group to step into the shore. The skeletons and zombies formed up in some sort of rickety parade formation, shambling about in what was supposed to be orderly ranks. Unfortunately, since by their very nature they were perpetually on the verge of falling apart, they didn't exactly succeed in making an impressive display. On the other hand, they were the ultimate pawns because they were incapable of any free or independent thought, loyally and single-mindedly following the orders of their summoner until total oblivion. Of course, this could also be a weakness, considering that they lacked tactical flexibility and initiative.

I guessed it all depended on what you wanted, really.

The lich held a skeletal hand up to gesture for us to wait. The vampire mercenaries were unruly and boisterous, impatiently whining, but I pacified them by motioning toward them. Remembering their captain's words, they shut up and did their job.

Needless to say, Stella was the perfect exemplar of a knight, staying by my side with her hands on her sword and staying silent and vigilant throughout the entire time. I could trust my back to her.

The lich appeared to be waiting for something, and eventually a skeletal bird dropped out of the sky and landed on his arm. A bony creature, it was once an imposing carrion bird. Probably a vulture or buzzard of some sort before its feathers and skin fell off. Its bones were clearly hollow, but I had no idea how it was still capable of flight when it had lost its muscles, feathers and organs.

Magic, that must be how.

The lich turned toward us, the eerie green lights in his sockets blazing a lot less furiously. There was respect now, and he bowed his cowl-covered head.

"Lord Lindley agrees. He will be meeting you in his palace. This way, please."

He led us to a carriage, which was being pulled by mammoth creatures of bone. Their skin completely gone, it was hard to tell what they once were, but the tusks and size told me they were probably mastodons. They were tethered to a luxurious-looking carriage that was made almost entirely out of ivory. Unlike the shambling hordes of rotting zombies and rags-wearing skeletons, the carriage gleamed brightly with polish.

This was designed specifically to receive guests of honor from beyond the island. The cushioned seats – since the undead didn't need such comforts – were evidence of that.

"The journey will take a while, so please make yourselves comfortable," the lich said before gesturing for us to board the carriage.

Exchanging a glance with the rest, I was the first to embark the carriage. The moment the entire group was onboard, the lich nodded toward the skeletal horseman manning the bony mastodons. With a silent nod, the horseman then pulled the reins and steered the carriage toward the inner portion of the island.

Most likely the palace, where Lindley the lich lord awaited us.