The port side town of Rhanoa was bustling with activity. Merchant stores and little cart shops were set up all along the main road. Unlike the title it was given, Rhanoa was pretty much more or less a city than a town. With the numerous amount of people walking about, I instinctively tugged a bit on my hood. "Even with the hood on, I still can't feel at ease. I dimmed my eyes as much as possible so I might be able to pass for a mask. Wait a minute, A MASK! That's what I need, I need to find mask shop so I can... I don't know how money works in this world... By all that is great, DAMN IT!"  Caught up in my own dilemma, I failed to notice that Bowjack had left me behind.

     I began to quickly track him down. Running around the town had caught the looks of some people, but not minding them I continued my search. "Damn that Bowjack, he better have a damn good excuse for leaving me behind or by the gods of this world I'll cut him apart." The frantic search unfortunately didn't produce any results. Fury and rage began to rise, with the thought of Bowjack lying to me, I realized I must have been tricked. I needed to cool down and think, "Calm down Argus, you might not have a brain but you can still think." I calmed my nerves and started to think about where he could have gone and what I could use to find him. "Wait a minute, Bowjack said something about being able to sail a ship. He must be at the docks trying to smuggle the kids out!" I boosted my legs and shot myself towards the docks, with the sun sinking into the night, less people were out walking around. I still noticed peoples shocked faces as I passed by them, but I didn't have the luxury to walk.

     Making my way towards the docks, I actually noticed that a few people were stalking around. I tailed the group that seemed to be moving stealthily towards a giant ship that stood out from the rest. With the dock being cluttered with boxes and crates for shipping, moving around with out being spotted was quite easy. Now that I was closer to the giant ship, I spotted the wagon that Bowjack had used. Finally finding the wagon I knew that the children were on board and ready to be shipped of to god knows where. "With my help he got the kids this far, but with my wrath I'll end him here." Anger started boiling inside me again but I quickly calmed down, "Getting mad isn't going to solve anything, I need to pin point the areas the children could have been taken to." As I was concocting my rescue mission, from the corner of my eye, I saw the mysterious group stealthily board on the ship.

     Quickly and quietly following after them, I made my way onto the ship. Luckily there had also been some cargo on the ship which helped my hide myself from the guards. Peeking up from behind the cargo boxes, One of the stalkers had had thrown a dagger at the guard standing right of the entrance. With the dagger sinking into the guards neck, the guard on the left was ambushed by another stalker. Dropping from above the guard, the stalker have stabbed his knife into the back of the neck. Within seconds the group of stalkers had silently taken out the entrance guards and proceeded to stealthily move on.

     Watching the group of silent assassins move through the door, I waited a while before making advancing. Making sure that there wasn't anyone hanging back, I entered the door way and walked down the stairs. Scanning the room for the children what I saw instead were a bunch of dead bodies. All the bodies had the same knife wound around their necks, I was amazed at the how well this group had handled their deadly art. Walking through the room that was now littered with corpses I heard a loud sharp sound. Knowing what that sound was, I abandoned my stealth and rushed ahead. 

     I made my way to the last room of the ship and before I could step into it, I heard Bowjack's voice. "Well well, If it ain't the Bastion of Rhanoa. Surprised I knew ya was coming? It don't take a fool to know that you try to set slaves free before they can be shipped off. Well, to bad laddies, I made a little arrangement before getting here ya see. Those slaves be already heading across the sea. The reason I'm still here is to get rid of ya rats that keep popping up. So lets get ready and have some-" Before he could finish his words the rage had burst, I flew towards Bowjack with my sword drawn ready to cut him down.

     Defending against my attack, Me and Bowjack were locked in combat. The rest of the people stood there completely still, not processing what happened. "Well, if it ain't the hero himself. Why try and kill the one you saved lad?"

     "Sorry Bowjack, I'm really not in the mood for a joke," I raised my head and looked him straight in the eyes, his faced slowly changed from a grin to a confused and shock frown. Revealing to him my flesh-less obsidian skull, the dimmed blue glow had now turned back into bright flames that they were.

     The group called Bastion of Rhanoa were the first to regain their composer. They quickly started attacking the rest of Bowjack's crew mates. With a fight going on in the middle of the ship, Me and Bowjack both pushed forwards and set each other a few steps back. Bowjack raised his arm and aimed his self named pistol at me. Enhancing and infusing my body with mana, I continued my assault. With the pull of the trigger, a round metal pellet shot from the barrel of the pistol ripping through my clothes, the pellet had struck shoulder. Small cracks had formed from the impact but not enough to hinder my onslaught.

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     Being a skeleton week to blunt attacks, I prioritized of disarming Bowjack from his pistol. Now within melee range, I swung my sword in a downward arc trying to cleave Bowjack from his shoulder down. Pulling up his own sword our steel blades clashed but to Bowjack's surprise, with my arms now infused with mana, the crushing blow was much strong then my preemptive strike. Not having the strength to complete block my attack, the side of my blade had found its way into Bowjack's shoulder. "ARHG! Ya damned freak I'll cut ya fucking head off!" 

     "Not with that arm you aren't."

     "GRR! Why do ya want to save those filthy rats anyways, your a damned undead!"

     "I may be undead, but that doesn't mean I don't have morals, I simply want to save them because I want to. But me staying here trying to kill you isn't because of children, it's simply cause you pissed me off." With Bowjack crouched on the ground trying to stop my blade from entering even further into is shoulder, I took and quick glance around the room. "It seems your little group has now been dispatched of Bowjack, I probably should also finish my fight with you."

     "HAH! If ya want to save those kids your going to have to get the information from me, now that ya killed my crew mates there ain't no one else who knows where they are." With sweat dripping down his head he looked at me with a smug grin.

     "Normally that would be the case, but when has normal ever associated itself with a obsidian skeleton that saves the living? What I'm basically trying to say is, I don't need you tell me what you know. I'll get the answers I want from your soul Bowjack." The look on his turn from a grin, to a grim frightened look and before he could say anything I cut him off "May lightning bare its fangs and sunder my foes." The magical lightning quickly began to kill Bowjack, and after only a few seconds, Bowjack laid on the floor burnt to a crisp. 

    Without pulling out the Lantern of Harvest, I secretly took the souls of Bowjack and his crew. Turning around after killing Bowjack I saw a figure approach me with weapons drawn. Pointing the slim blade at me, the assassin began to speak. "Who are you? And what are your connections with the Laughing Skulls?" Judging from the voice, the one standing in front of me was woman. Only being able to see her eyes and judging be voice alone, she was probably a young adult woman. With a tug of my hood, I answered her.

     "I am Argus Fellford, a traveler. As for your second question, I happened to make the mistake of helping out this man. Founding out that I was lied to, I tried to come save the children that he had with him, that's about the only connection I have with this group called the Laughing Skulls."

     "Tell me why I should believe you? How do I know if you're telling the truth? For all I know, you could be apart of the Laughing Skulls themselves."

     "And why would I kill Bowjack if I was apart of his group?"

     "Well for one, we needed him alive. He was the only one that knew where the slaves were headed. And two, you didn't want Bowjack captured for interrogation, and so you killed him in order not to let him speak."

     "I see, you bring up some good points, but there wasn't a need to keep Bowjack alive, I already know where the children are headed. So you don't need to worry about that."

     "What! How do you know were the slaves were taken? Unless you do work for the Laughing Skulls!" Looking at the woman, I started getting annoyed.

     "Yes, you're right, I do work for the Laughing Skulls, but I also work for someone else. You see I'm an infiltrator. I work for the enemy in order to learn about them and their movements."

     "Again, how am I suppose to believe that?" Tired of dealing with this woman I let out a sigh.

     "Okay, then how about if I tell you were the slaves were taken? Will that stop you from hounding me with these questions?"

     "No that won't stop me from 'hounding you with these questions,' but you will tell me where the slaves were taken if you don't want a sword through your neck." With that phase said, the other members behind her had readied their weapons as well.

     "It seems like your paranoia is quite strong, you can threaten me all you want but its not going to give you any answers I don't know. The things I do know about this incident I will tell you, So how about you all sheath your weapons and talk like adults?"

     "... Fine but you're not getting off that fast, we're gonna take you in so you can't go running on us. After you tell us what we want to know we'll let you off." The members of the Bastion of Rhanoa started escorting me for interrogation. during out walk towards were ever they were located, I stealthily consumed Bowjack's soul. In a fraction of a second, all this knowledge and some of his memories had flowed into my brain. With the most recent memories and events now in my own mind, I got the location of the children. The place that the children were sent to was the human kingdom of Nossrax.