Sorting through the pockets, Abe found pouches of ducats, a few vials of various liquids he couldn’t identify, and a small gemstone that shone either red or gold, depending on how he looked at it.

Pocketing his loot, Abe rose. He paused a moment to eye the large hammers. Their ends were solid metal; overall, they looked relatively well crafted, but where would he put them?

Sighing, he turned away from the weapons. It wasn’t a huge deal, but he wanted power, and even though wealth hadn’t played much of a role in his thoughts, he realized that it would likely help him reach his goals.

Turning to the partially open door the skeletons had passed through, Abe took a moment to listen. A battle was being fought beyond the door. He got glimpses of the action in his mind’s eye, but the other fights being fought throughout the ship were too distracting to get a clear idea.

A booming gunshot sounded, and one of his brows perked; that’s new.

Passing into the next corridor, Abe spotted the invaders. Armored bones were already scattered at their feet where skeletons had fallen.

He counted five attackers, one of whom brought a rifle to their eye and fired the large weapon, catching one of the skeletons on its flank and bursting its bones apart.

A woman at their rear waved her hands through the air, leaving a trail of fluffy green light behind. A second later, similar clouds of green puffed up around the warriors fighting at the front of the melee, and their tired expressions faded, and shallow wounds closed up.

“They’ve got a fucking healer?” Abe mouthed in disbelief.

It looked like the two skeletons he fought with had joined the melee beside several others, and now six skeletons exchanged in a back-and-forth with three melee combatants. But unlike the hammer-wielding men of the previous room, this group was in no hurry to take chances.

The healer could heal while the rifleman picked his shots and dwindled the skeletons down, leaving the melee combatants to maintain the frontline.

“Incoming!” Shouted a man armed with a sword and shield, batting away a skeleton and turning his round shield in Abe’s direction.

“We’ve got the line,” a gruff, bearded man shouted back, blocking a scimitar with his shield and countering with his axe—which was in turn blocked by the skeleton’s shield.

“Alright, I’ll take the fleshy one,” the man replied, narrowing his gaze on Abe and beginning a measured march forward with his shield held high.

Abe considered using his pistol, but the shield covered the entirety of the man’s upper body, and he blocked Abe’s line of sight from the party. The shield was metal and looked pretty thick. Perhaps his high-powered pistol would cut through it, but ammunition was limited, and he liked his chances against the man.

He decided to return it to the holster for now and took his sword with two hands as the man approached.

The man tapped the flat of his sword against the edge of his shield as he closed in, and his posture tightened and profile lowered.

Abe took a step back as he studied the man’s movements. He figured it was better to be careful.

“Let's see what you got, deader,” the man sneered as he continued forward.

The cramped space of the ship corridor quickly shortened, and Abe found himself cornered faster than he could have predicted. There were still avenues for escape, but he remembered the slayer captain.

I guess I am learning something; he narrowed his brow, studying the increasingly small battlefield.

The sword was pointed forward as the man stepped into range, and when he came stabbing forward, Abe smacked it away with his own blade. It worked, but the man continued forward.

Shit.

The shield was closing in on him, and he couldn’t see any openings in its wielder. His eyes focused on the glimmering sharp edge of the blade moving closer.

Not good. Really fucking bad.

The sword shot forward again, and he knocked it away again, but now the shield was pressing against Abe, pushing him up against the wall.

He tried to strike around the shield, but the man lowered himself, and Abe’s arm wasn’t able to reach around the steel edge.

His pupils dilated as the sword stabbed forward again, but there was nowhere to go.

It was quick, stabbing into Abe’s side in a flash, but the man’s eyes widened a second later as he was unable to pull it free. Abe knew why; the worms had entangled it.

He wrapped his arm around the man’s sword arm and dug his claws into it, drawing blood.

The man grunted the pain away and pulled at the sword.

“No fucking way,” Abe growled as he dug his claws deeper into the man’s flesh. “I’ve got you now.”

Bucking forward, the man slammed his shield into Abe, but it was little more than an annoyance.

He had been ignoring the voices within, but Abe's brow rose as the worms grew louder. They were asking for permission.

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Of course, do whatever the fuck you can.

The worms traveled down his veins. He could feel them wiggling free from his nails and into the wound.

“What are you doing to me, monster?”

The man’s eyes widened, and his body began to tremble. Abe could feel the worms spreading their infection through the man.

“What? It can’t be, you’re no necro-” his lips shook, saliva dripping freely from his mouth. Next, his eyes reddened—first lined by veins and then completely blood red.

The man jerked back with all his strength as his body went into convulsions, and blood began to run freely from his mouth.

“You little fucking things are mean,” Abe muttered as he watched the man’s life drained from his body.

As the man’s body fell to the ground, still shaking, Abe turned his gaze up to the remaining attackers.

Another skeleton had been taken out while he dealt with their companion, and now the remaining melee combatants held the remaining skeletons while the rifleman’s barrel pointed at his head.

Instinctively, Abe rolled forward, managing to move just as the bang sounded. He could feel the splinters flying through the air as it destroyed a wall section behind him.

The gun was big and bulky, bolt-fed with a wooden body around its steel barrel. But its wielder worked it like an old lover, flicking the bolt up and across in seconds, loading a new round, and steadying his aim.

The melee took place down the central corridor of the room. The participants moved a couple of meters back and forth as they exchanged blows but remained mostly in place.

Before another bullet could be sent Abe’s way, he rolled to his left, effectively taking cover behind the fray of combat.

He watched for a second as the rifleman raised the barrel, not wanting to blow a head off one of his comrades accidentally.

With the balance shifted in the melee, it seemed likely the skeletons could hold off a while. giving Abe time to focus on the two supports.

His eyes drifted from the rifleman to the woman as her hands lit up with fluffy green light again.

She was basically unarmored, mostly dressed in cloth save for leather over her shoulders and a strap across her chest—Abe did not expect leather to provide much protection against bullets.

He took hold of the magnum, unclicking the holster with his thumb and whipping it out to aim. She was unaware, focused on her healing, but the rifleman saw. He turned and shouted.

The man’s voice didn’t carry, drowned out by the deafening bang of Abe’s revolver. His eyes widened as the powerful blast slammed into the healer’s chest, just below her shoulder, and dropped her to the floor.

He could see the man cursing as he inched toward the healer’s stilled body, rifle aimed in Abe’s general direction.

Taking out the rifleman had to be done before engaging in the melee. Even if he didn’t get shot whilst fighting them, killing them would remove his cover.

Stepping back behind the jostling battle, Abe eyed the man as he lowered beside the healer, extending a hand to check her.

Now!

Abe rushed out, commanding the worms to infuse him with as much energy as possible. The rifleman raised his barrel, but Abe’s speed was incredible, and the corridor was too small.

He reached the man in a second, knocking the barrel out of the way as it was fired and stabbing him through the stomach.

The man dropped to his knees as the sword was pulled free alongside a torrent of blood. With a quick whip of his wrist, the man’s head was sent flying—its pupils still animated, darting around the room as it rolled into a corner.

Abe looked down at the woman by his feet. She was still breathing, albeit painfully.

“This is mercy,” he mouthed as he pressed his blade down and into her heart. Her energy flickered out a moment later, and he turned his attention to the remaining attackers.

“Ye bastard!” the man with the shield and sword screamed as he swung wildly, forcing the defensively-minded skeletons back. “I’ll cut ye from ear to ear,” he turned and left his companion to hold the skeletons as he charged Abe.

I don’t need you for this, Abe grunted, holstering the magnum, and turned to the charging man with his sword held high.

Abe’s eyes widened as the man seemed to flicker into a mirrored image of himself and cover the several meters between them in a flash, his sword already in motion as he appeared in front of Abe.

His sword was out of position, and there was no time to block with it. Out of desperation, he raised an arm strengthened by the worms. The blade cut but barely managed to bury itself an inch before Abe’s hide, hardened by the worms, slowed it to a stop.

Countering, he clumsily struck back, his sword harmlessly reverberating off the man’s shield. But it created relief, allowing Abe to step back and create a little distance to work with.

The swordsman wasn’t concerned, and his moves came fluidly like a well-practiced dance. At first, his thrusts came from out of range, aiming high and then lower as he stepped forward.

“A little outnumber,” shouted the other man as he fell back in defense from a seemingly endless string of attacks from the outnumbering skeletons.

The distraction lasted a fraction of a second, but it was enough for Abe to close the distance between them.

He was still an amateur with his sword; after all, he had no formal training. And the attacker’s shields had opened his eyes to this.

Discarding his sword, Abe leaped into the man’s guard. He caught the shield on his chest but was able to reach around and grab the man’s arm.

There was no delay this time. The moment his claws cut through flesh, the worms wiggled free, infecting the man. Paralyzing convulsions took him a second later, and he fell to Abe’s knees.

Retrieving his sword, Abe turned to the final attacker, but he was entirely overwhelmed by the skeletons.

Casually, he walked over to the man as he backstepped down the corridor, fending off attacks. Reaching his flank, he took the man’s shoulder and drove his sword up and under his ribs and through his chest. It was quick.

The skeletons surveyed the room and croaked, “Protect the guild assets.”

The man was still dying as they turned for the next corridor and ran off toward the cacophony of battle.

Abe thought back to the auction house and how Miss Nia had mentioned the guards being strengthed, making them stronger than their rank suggested. He wondered if something similar had been done to these skeletons.

He sniffed, confirming none of the dead possessed any power of use to him. Still, he was confident that they would have cut through the blackcloak army with ease.

If he were going to become some captain and control some of Miss Nia’s unawoken ghouls, perhaps he could harness the secret employed by these skeletons.

Turning back to the bodies, Abe’s brow perked. He hadn’t seen someone using abilities like that healer before and was excited to see what she carried.

Searching through her pockets, he found a bag of scrolls, reagents, and a silver necklace with some goddess at its heart.

He found more ducats and mysterious vials on the remaining bodies. But again, he didn’t have a practical means of looting weapons. However, he did eye the shields for a moment. He probably would have taken one if he had been planning on relying solely on his sword. But between the worms and the magnum, a shield seemed impractical. Why bother trying to best these trained swordsmen at what they do best when he could infect them with the worms or blow their heads off?

He turned to the door the skeletons had passed through, engaging his energy vision. Beyond, a staircase led up to the deck, where a large battle was taking place.

He counted the energy sources. The attackers, whom he believed to be wielding dreamer energy, lit up with an orangish-yellow, easily contrasting against the purple of deathly energy.

The attackers outnumbered them, but the strongest energy signals came from the dead fighting from the deck's middle.

I should be getting paid for this; what bullshit, Abe grunted as he made his way for the deck.