Lord of Rot

The skull-and-bones flag, resembling a shark’s fin beneath the waves, snapped in the sea breeze. In the silence of the night, the ship had already drawn near Pigtail Bay without a sound.

SPLASH! Waves crashed against the reefs, sending spray flying.

At Pigtail Bay, the evening’s low tide only served to expose more of the steep reefs hidden beneath the water’s surface.

On the ship, some twenty-odd figures gathered, able to make each other out in the moonlight.

”Praise the Sea God! We finally shook that damn fleet!”

Big Beard, a man with a woolly, curly beard, grinned. ”We spent so long out at sea with those guys, there’s no food left on the ship.”

The crew’s eyes burned as they stared at him. No unrest broke out; they just waited for Big Beard to continue. He was their miracle-working Captain, and he would bring them another miracle this time, too.

”Heh heh, but our luck’s in. This place is called Pigtail Bay! It’s a Baron’s fiefdom.”

The crew’s breathing grew ragged.

A Baron. What did that mean? Wealth? Fully armed Soldiers? Invincible Knights on warhorses? No—it meant death!

They were sharks of the sea, capable of harassing any fleet. They could even lunge at one of Leopold’s merchant ships, take a huge bite, and then make a clean getaway. But that was in the water. If a shark were thrown onto the shore to fight a lion... heh, the outcome was self-evident.

Big Beard continued, ”This Baron has a few dozen Soldiers under his command. Don’t be so bold as to think you can provoke a Baron on land and escape unscathed. We were supposed to keep heading south and find a small island to rest on, but!”

He raised his voice—no, he was roaring. ”But! That guy is dead, and his Soldiers aren’t here! Remember that noble kid we have locked up on the ship? Thanks to him, I know about this place. We can rest our legs, restock on food, and then set sail again!”

”To shore! We plunder!”

”Plunder!”

”Plunder!”

”Plunder!”

They raised their axes and scimitars, roaring.

There was no need to worry about the sound carrying to shore. The waves would swallow it, turning it into another secret of the sea. The Sea God had always watched over them. Always.

But not a single one of them noticed a raven landing on the ship, tilting its head as it watched them.

The ship could get no closer. To avoid running aground on the reefs, they could only lower the small boats. After leaving two men to guard the ship, the rest split into two boats and began paddling toward the beach.

The first boat to depart carried twelve men, its absolute limit. But they weren’t far from the coast.

”I’ve never been to a castle before,” said a bald man with his beard woven into a thick braid. He’d sacrificed the hair on his head for the hair on his chin.

The next to speak was a young lad in a leather cap. ”I hear there are beautiful noble ladies inside!”

A skinny man with large, yellow teeth chimed in lecherously, ”It’s the noble wives that are the real prize. We could leave one of ’em with our seed, and our son could become a nobleman, heh heh...”

The Captain added, ”I heard nobles are fond of goats. If you want to screw a nobleman’s wife, you’ll probably have to try the sheep pen, ha ha ha!”

”HA HA HA HA!” Raucous laughter erupted from the small boat.

A lord with no Soldiers? It was a complete joke.

The boat drew closer and closer.

”Someone’s there!”

Suddenly, a sharp-eyed man noticed a dark figure standing on the reefs, watching them in silence.

”Damn it, did that brat dare to lie to me?” The Captain drew the axe from his belt, already plotting which body parts he would remove from the boy when he got back.

They should have turned back right then and there, returned to their ship, and continued on their way.

Pigtail Bay had no dock, no fleet. As long as they hadn’t landed, they could still turn back at any moment.

”Looks like it’s just one person!”

”Ha ha, just one guy! Let’s rush him and kill him!”

No one else appeared. If the lord truly had more Soldiers, they should have been lined up on the shore, firing volleys of arrows at them. While that wouldn’t kill all of them, it would certainly claim quite a few lives. But they didn’t. This proved there really were no Soldiers.

The information was correct!

There was no need to run.

SPLASH!

”AHH!”

With a bloodcurdling scream, two men disappeared from the boat.

The Captain, who had been about to charge ashore and wreak havoc, froze. ”What was that?!”

The seawater rocked the boat. The remaining men huddled together, staring in terror at the star-dusted surface of the sea. If two of their crewmates hadn’t just died, they might have found the scene of paddling through a river of stars quite beautiful.

After a moment, two bodies floated to the surface.

Their throats had been torn open with massive gashes, and ghastly, bleeding holes were punched through their chests.

”Damn it!”

”There’s something in the water! Be careful!”

Whatever was lurking in the water, they were closest to the shore now. If they turned back toward the ship, it would only give the thing a chance to kill a few more of them.

They held their weapons ready, staring at the water’s surface, caught in a stalemate.

The thing in the water probably realized it could no longer launch a successful sneak attack and didn’t dare to try again.

Just as the Captain and his men were about to breathe a sigh of relief,

a commotion broke out from the boat behind them. Damn it! The thing—or things—had given up on them and attacked the other boat. The second boat’s reaction was much the same as theirs. After losing two men, they too were on high alert, preventing any further sneak attacks.

”Could it be a siren?” the man with the large yellow teeth asked, shrinking his neck. Their comrades’ bodies bobbed in the waves, yet they still hadn’t seen anything break the surface.

It definitely wasn’t human. A person needed to breathe; they couldn’t stay hidden in the sea forever.

The freezing water would exhaust a person.

The others had clearly thought of the legends of sirens as well.

The Captain snorted. ”Siren my ass!”

They weren’t paddling, but the waves were pushing the small boat toward the shore.

Closer and closer, ever closer to the shore. No matter what was hidden beneath the waves, they had to get to land!

WHOOSH!

The Captain flinched as a javelin whizzed past his line of sight, burying itself in the eye socket of the bald, bearded man. The impact slammed the man’s head back against the person behind him. The other man cried out, trying to hold him up, but he was already dead.

”Damn it!” He looked toward the figure on the reefs. ”He was waiting for us to get closer!”

The reason the figure hadn’t moved was because they hadn’t been in range.

The damned accuracy of the throw made the Captain curse.

”Paddle!” he roared. ”Get to shore if you don’t want to die! Faster!”

No matter how accurate the javelin-thrower was, he couldn’t keep attacking forever. Meanwhile, they were getting closer and closer to the shore.

WHOOSH!

Another javelin. The Captain instinctively ducked. Luckily, it wasn’t aimed at him, but a scream came from behind. Another man had been hit!

What a tricky, bizarre place.

There was no turning back now. The second boat was too far behind to hear his orders or see his hand signals. That delay would be enough time for many more of them to die!

Besides, the shore was right in front of them.

Didn’t this monotonous counterattack just prove that there wasn’t much of a fighting force on the shore?

WHOOSH!

WHOOSH!

WHOOSH!

More than half the men in the first boat were dead. The Captain couldn’t figure out how the person on the shore never missed, but they had finally made it to land!

He spat on the ground. ”You’re dead meat!”

The few remaining men hauled the small boat onto the beach to keep it from being swept away by the waves.

The Captain charged toward the reefs, expecting the figure to panic and try to jab at him with a javelin. But he was certain he would be the first to strike, cleaving the man’s head from his shoulders with his axe.

But to his surprise, the figure calmly drew another javelin, didn’t even look at him, and instead stared out at the second boat still on the water, hurling the weapon once more.