Chapter 670: Repel Boarders!

"Should we investigate, Sir?" Timothy Balfour, who was serving as a Captain in the Raging River Legion’s Second Regiment, asked his superior.

In response, Regiment Commander Marcus Jennings, who was aboard the lead vessel of the 5-ship convoy, studied the scene before him for a moment before nodding, "We should."

Receiving the order, Timothy began shouting, "One-quarter sail! Break out the oars! Bring us up alongside her!"

After being delayed due to an unexpected snowstorm, the Second Regiment had set off from Misty City towards Amherst as part of a military exchange between the Raging River and Piercing Sword Legions.

Thankfully, the journey itself had been relatively uneventful.

That said, traveling against the current with slightly unfavourable winds had made the trip a bit longer than anticipated, so despite it now being early on New Years Eve, the convoy was still about a day away from their destination.

It was unfortunate that they would have to celebrate New Years aboard their ships, but such was the life of a soldier.

As for what was happening right now, about half-an-hour ago, Timothy, who was on lookout duty, spotted a merchant ship that appeared to be listing.

The ship itself appeared to be from the Zilon Kingdom. This Small-Sized nation had good relations with the Rockwell Kingdom, but it was still a foreign country, so unless they put out an explicit call for help, Timothy figured it wasn’t the Second Regiments business to interfere.

However, as the convoy got closer, he was able to spot a distress flag flying atop the merchant vessel’s tallest mast.

One of the few agreements between all 5 of the nations in the South-Central Region was to render aid to anyone who put up such a flag.

There were a multitude of reasons for this agreement, but all of them basically stemmed from the fact that river trade was essential to the kingdoms. Without being able to safely traverse the various waters connecting it, the economy of the South-Central Region would quickly collapse, so a standard distress flag had been created and was supposed to be respected by all sailors.

Understanding this, Timothy immediately informed his superior.

To no one’s surprise, Commander Marcus Jennings, who was famously known to be a by-the-books soldier, decided to follow proper procedure and offer assistance.

And so, half-an-hour after first spotting the merchant craft, the Raging River Legion warship approached close enough that a Squad of soldiers could swing over on ropes to investigate.

What the Squad found, however, was deeply disturbing.

There were no people aboard this merchant ship.

None whatsoever.

There was, however, a distinct smell of iron in the air and numerous dark patches of red all across the deck and down into the hold.

Clearly, a slaughter had taken place aboard this ship, after which the victims had been ’cleaned away’.

When Commander Jennings heard his soldiers’ preliminary report, he quickly issued orders to perform an exhaustive search of the derelict ship, sending over another 5 Squads to join the investigation.

Marcus also put the ships in his convoy on high alert and ordered his Regiment to prepare for battle.

2 tense hours passed before the 6 Squads from the First and Second Battalions of the Raging River Legions Second Regiment finished their search, the results of which were quite disappointing.

According to the ship’s manifest, which was found in the captain’s quarters, none of the cargo seemed to have been removed. There were also very few signs of struggle, despite all the blood.

This could only mean one thing, the crew of this merchant ship was swiftly eliminated without even being able to resist.

There were, however many questions.

Why this ship?

Why slaughter the entire crew then remove all the bodies?

Why not take any of the cargo?

What was this all about?

Frustratingly few answers were available, but Marcus knew they wouldn’t be getting any more out here in the middle of the Lorren, so he ordered the convoy to set sail again.

Fortunately, the merchant ship was relatively undamaged, so it didn’t need to be towed and could instead be sailed by a small crew.

"Should we head to the nearest port, Sir?" Timothy asked as the convoy got underway again.

Seemingly taking a moment to contemplate the idea, Marcus ultimately shook his head, "The nearest port big enough for us to dock at is in the wrong direction, and it’ll take us nearly as long to reach it as it will for us to arrive at Amherst. Continuing on is the better option."

"Besides," Marcus brow furrowed slightly, "This ship came drifting down the Lorren towards us, which means the attack happened up ahead. It’s a long-shot, but we might be able to learn something if we keep sailing upriver."

"Understood," Timothy nodded, not seeing any reason to object to his superior’s plan.

.....

4 hours later, another merchant ship, this one hailing from the Darr Kingdom, was spotted by the convoy.

This ship was also drifting randomly and was flying a distress flag.

Spotting a single ghost ship may have been a coincidence, but twice in one day?

Something else was going on here, something deeply nefarious and quite possibly dangerous.

Not taking any chances, Marcus Jennings ordered his fleet into a full combat posture as they approached this second derelict vessel.

Again, the teams sent to investigate found copious amounts of blood, but no bodies living or otherwise aboard the ship.

Not bothering with a thorough search this time, Marcus had another skeleton crew assembled and transferred to the ship, having it join the slowly growing convoy.

.....

From first light that day until midnight rolled around, the Raging River Legion’s Second Regiment encountered a total of 7 such vessels.

Given the condition of each ship, and the ’freshness’ of the blood that had been spilt, it was clear that all of them had been attacked within the last day.

Assuming each of these ships had an average crew of 100, that meant at least 700 lives had been extinguished on this small part of the Lorren in the last 24 hours.

Despite it being New Years day now, no one under Marcus Jennings’ command was in a celebratory mood; rather, everyone was feeling tense, and more than a little anxious.

Whoever these unseen attackers were, they were obviously bloodthirsty and ruthless, the worst kind of enemy to encounter in the middle of nowhere with no way to call for help.

Now, the Second Regiment, with 3 Spirit Initiate Commanders and over 50 Captains in the Sea Establishment and Core Formation Realm, was by no means weak; however, there was no way to tell what kind of strength the enemy had, so feeling a bit of fear was only natural, especially when dealing with the unknown.

Even Marcus was feeling concerned as he stood in full battle-armour on the deck of his ship, thinking to himself, This is turning out much different than I expected.

He too was lost, having no idea what was going on as nothing seemed to be going according to plan.

Still, with no other choice, he continued leading his troops forward, hoping to reach safe harbour soon and then hopefully get some answers.

That, however, was not meant to be.

An hour after midnight, one of the merchant ships which had recently been added to the fleet suddenly went dark and began dropping behind the rest of the fleet.

Then another...

Then another...

It wasn’t until the fourth ship fell out of formation that someone aboard the Raging River Legion warships noticed and began ringing the alarm.

This wasn’t because the soldiers hadn’t been paining attention, as every lookout had been on high alert the entire time. This was simply the result of all 4 merchant vessels mysteriously going silent in rapid succession.

Now that the Second Regiment was aware something was wrong, though, the Spirit Initiates all released their Soul Senses to investigate, but to their shock, when they scanned the now derelict ships, they didn’t sense any Life Auras at all.

Marcus had transferred 30 soldiers and sailors to each of these ships in order to get them moving again, but now, they had all disappeared and were most likely dead.

Shifting his focus to the nearest merchant ship that was ’supposedly’ still crewed, Marcus was stunned to discover that it too was now devoid of Life Auras.

Marcus was certain they were under some kind of coordinated attack, an ambush in the middle of the river, but no matter what method he tried to use, he couldn’t detect any enemies.

Damn it, this can’t be a coincidence, Marcus concluded, We must have been the target from the start! The enemy probably sent those ships down-river knowing we would try to recover them, forcing us to split up our forces and make us more vulnerable!

Understanding what kind of danger they were in, Marcus infused his Internal Qi into his voice and shouted, "Defensive positions! Close ranks! Fire all signal flares and light all lamps! Light up the sky!"

His hope was that by having his soldiers stand shoulder to shoulder, back and back, with bright illumination surrounding them, the invisible enemy wouldn’t be able to take them by surprise again.

It was a good plan, a sound plan, but unfortunately, he enacted it too late.

By the time the soldiers aboard the Raging River Legion warships got into position and lit up their lamps and torches, the enemy had stopped bothering trying to be stealthy.

Seeing a literal flood of black-cloaked figures leap over the gunwale and onto the deck of all of his ships, matching black daggers in their hands, Marcus Jennings’ expression turned as dark as the night sky.

Drawing his sword and gripping it tightly, all the Regiment Commander could do now was roar, "Soldiers of the Second Regiment! Repel boarders!"