Glade dashed through the open grassland toward the bay, using the cover of night to hide his approach. A steady southeasterly wind blew in sporadic cloud cover, hiding the moons from site a few seconds at a time. In those moments of darkness is when he moved, using skills that had become second nature to him through years of hands-on training and dozens of firsthand experiences.
Taking cover behind some brush, Glade kept his breathing under control and focused on his surroundings. Two of the three moons were just coming out from behind the clouds, illuminating the bay a few yards away. The ship’s outline was stark against the moonlit night, its rise and fall making the few lanterns onboard bob with a gentle grace.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill Concealment! A much sought after skill of thieves, assassins, and husbands the world over. +2% to overall effectiveness when applying basic concealment principles, +2% chance in identifying suitable terrain in which to hide.
You have gained levels 1 and 2 in the skill Concealment! +4% to concealment; +4% chance in identifying suitable terrain in which to hide.
Glade dismissed the notification with barely a glance. Hours of their group silently watching the ship had revealed three Gnolls, not the two they had originally expected, along with 14 total sailors on board. They had learned some other salient information, but what stood out the most was the absolute complacency the Gnoll’s, and thus the sailors, showed in their daily routine. It would make infiltration far easier.
The real challenge revealed itself when he and the others rejoined their larger party at the entrance to the catacombs. Everyone seemed to have an opinion how best to handle the Gnolls. Ideas ranged from burning the ship down to constructing a series of rafts to storm the sides of the ship like pirates.
Some of the more sensible suggestions came from Kedryn and Gent, who pushed the merits of attacking the vessel from afar with crossbows and magic. The problem with their plan was it required pinpoint accuracy at a distance of over 500 feet. That didn’t even account for ship’s constant bobbing up and down, movement that would ruin any sniper’s day.
The unfortunate truth was that no one within their group had the skill or power to pull off a ranged attack from that distance.
When the discussion had progressed into the second hour and had started down the road of constructing catapults, Glade had finally had enough. He stood, drawing all eyes toward himself, and calmly explained that he would handle the situation.
Naturally, the entire group balked. Whether from being left out of killing the last of the Gnoll slavers or not being allowed to take part in the assault, he didn’t know. Krazzik was especially loud in his objections.
After giving the group what he thought was enough time to vent their concerns, Glade simply said, “Where I come from, monsters fear me.”
Then he pulled Bragden away from the group for some minor preparations and left.
Glade smiled at the memory as he stripped down to his shorts. He had to admit, the entire affair had been a bit dramatic, but it had shut everyone up. Besides, this was the best course of action that minimized casualties and increased their chances for success.
When he was ready, Glade watched the sky carefully. When a particularly large cloud covered both moons, he made his move.
With grace born from hundreds of hours of practice, Glade slipped into the water and began the long swim to the ship. The water was neither bracing nor warm, an effect from one of Bragden’s temporary enchantments. The dwarf had called it cold resistance, which Glade thought an apt name as the bay was likely cold enough to cause him serious hypothermia if he didn’t have the protection. That particular enchantment had been emplaced on Glade’s steel dagger and had another two hours left before it ran out of power.
When asked why the dwarf hadn’t used such an incredible enchantment when they were caught out in the cold of the mountains, the dwarf simply snorted.
“With what? There were only a couple o’ items that could have held the enchantment for longer than an hour, neither o’ which would have helped all that much. All it would have done is torn me clan apart. Nothing be scarier than desperate people who see others with something they think they need to survive. Nope, I would not have done that for all the gold in the Crag. Instead, we all suffered a bit o’ frost bite and came out stronger for it.”
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
Of all the things he had learned from Bragden, that had likely been one of the wisest.
The other enchantment Glade requested from surly dwarf was that incredible bubble of silence, which had been attached to the star silver dagger. No matter how much noise he made, it wouldn’t carry across the waters to alert the ship. That particular enchantment had another 45 minutes or so of power remaining, which was more than enough time for him to make it to the ship undetected.
From experience, Glade knew that stealth was far more important than speed. Especially for this kind of situation. Most sentries would be alerted by noise, quick movements, odd reflections, or anything that appeared out of the ordinary. The bubble of silence took care of the noise, but he needed to move forward with care to minimize the last three potential exposures.
For this reason, Glade swam using the underwater breaststroke, only breaking the surface to breathe every few strokes or when a cloud created a shadow. Fortunately for him, the moons reflection off the water’s surface created several shadowy recesses where he could come up for air, so long as he was quick and patient.
Another positive was the moonlight did give him some minor visibility, so long as the moons were shining. When they were covered, the waters were nothing more than a dark abyss.
Knowing anything could be hiding in the depths, Glade activated his telepathy and stretched his mind to the very edges of what he could handle. Hundreds, if not thousands, of life forms lit up all around him.
As he continued his methodical swim toward the ship, Glade marveled at the immensity of marine life surrounding him. Normally, this amount of feedback would be a challenge for him. In this respect, the dark waters helped, allowing him to focus on the living realm his mindscape presented.
The further from shore he swam, the more sea creatures he sensed, darting in and out of his awareness. After a time, a particularly large mental signature flashed into existence, swimming in a few lazy circles below him. As it did, Glade felt around the periphery of its thoughts before it disappeared from his mental site.
Slowing his swim, Glade briefly came up to breathe, and then resubmerged, kicking out under the waves. There was more than one predator in the waters tonight.
As Glade progressed steadily toward the ship, more of the larger mental signatures came and went. Some were placid, enjoying the relatively calm waters, while most were lying in wait for an opportune meal.
Not once did Glade pause as he slowly pulled himself through the water, one stroke at a time.
Surface, breathe, submerge, pull. Again, and again, and again.
As Glade drew within 50 feet of the ship, an intense mental signature rocketed into his sphere of awareness, moving at a speed that defied description. Every mind around the carnivorous creature scattered as the beast flew through the water toward him like an inversed falcon diving for its prey.
The moons illuminated the surrounding darkness as Glade calmly turned his gaze toward the pending attack, triggering his time dilation skill and connecting his mind to that of the unknown sea creature. The moment the connection was established, Glade triggered his psychic attack.
You have attacked a Lesser Pliosaur with a weak psychic attack and inflicted 19 points of metaphysical damage. The Pliosaur is stunned for the next 190 seconds (10 seconds for every point of metaphysical damage).
Long moments passed before a 15-foot-long sea monster straight out of Jurassic World slowly emerged from the darkness. Even in his time dilated state of mind, Glade watched with detached awe as the creature’s movements were severely arrested as it succumbed to his mental assault.
Cutting off his skill, Glade reached out with one hand, guiding the now senseless creature away and to the side. With the other, he pulled his star silver dagger from the sheath on his leg and rammed both his hand and the blade into the creature’s gills as it passed.
For the next several seconds, Glade wreaked havoc on the creature’s respiratory organs, condemning it to death and showing that he, not the creature, was the monster to be feared in the dark.
After several seconds of sawing his blade through the soft internal tissue, Glade freed both his hand and dagger before swimming for the ship, the water behind him nothing more than a cloud of inky darkness.
Reengaging his telepathy skill, Glade felt the tentative approach of other predators as he finally reached one of the ship’s anchor lines. By the time he had put his blade away and was slowly climbing the thick line, the Pliosaur was the center of a feeding frenzy.
Knowing this next step was the most dangerous part of his plan, Glade quickly climbed the line, marveling at how his increased strength, endurance, and dexterity made the task far easier than it should have been.
In seconds, Glade pulled himself over the ship’s railing and crouched in the shadows. His bubble of silence didn’t let him hear anything happening on the ship, but he could sense those on watch paying more attention to the feeding frenzy below than their immediate surroundings.
Silent as the shadows, Glade took advantage of the distracted sailors and made his way toward the quarters section of the ship. From his mental scans there were only three crewmen on watch. The Gnolls were sound asleep in their bunks with the remaining sailors fast asleep below deck.
Seeing that the alarm hadn’t been raised, Glade decided to eliminate what he considered the most dangerous threats first before moving on to subduing the crew.
Disappearing into what he assumed were the guest quarters, Glade carefully removed his combat knife and moved through the confined area like a reaper made real.
Thirty minutes later, Glade moved past the bound and gagged sailors and waived a lantern back and forth, signaling to the others on shore that the deed was done.
“Now for the hard part,” he sighed, eyeing one of the row boats tied to the deck. “How in the hell am I supposed to get you down?”