Chapter 97 - Evil Men

  Carver slipped from shadow to shadow, silently moving through the darkened city streets. His scouts had investigated the situation at the waterfront extensively over the past few days, but as diligent as they’d been, they had their limits. The so-called pirates infesting the waterfront might dress in an outlandish style, and the entire premise of their group struck him as ludicrous. But they were still dangerous and guarded their Domain jealously.

  Gideon's people had done their best. But the forces guarding the pirate stronghold were simply too strong. His scouts could observe troop movements, boats coming and going, and report on similar major happenings. No matter what they tried, they couldn't get past the perimeter, to see what was happening deep inside the pirate camp.

  That was information Carver very much wanted. Were these people threats? Potential allies? From what he'd read in his scouts' reports, Carver thought the former was more likely than the latter. But with their base so close to his, he desperately needed better intelligence.

  So he'd done the only thing that made sense. He'd gone in himself.

  This wasn't an expedition taken without forethought, though. Quite the contrary. Gideon spent extensive amounts of time preparing himself before setting out on the operation. He had even gone so far as to remove some of his lower tier crystals, replacing them with specialty spells that were far better suited to the circumstances.

  Now he could create darkness. He could teleport from one pool of shadow to another. And he could move through shadows without being seen. Altogether, it was a skill set any cat burglar or spy would have loved back in the old world. In this new world, it might just be enough to see him through the night in one piece.

  Moving through the city was far simpler at night than during the day, especially with his new powers. Being able to jump from a hiding place within one pool of shadow to another sped his progress up enormously. That was doubly true when he could simply create a region of darkness using magic and then use it either as a hiding place or a Phantom Step target. Gideon snapped a teleport spell, Phantom Stepping to a rooftop. From there he spied another shadow on the roof of a neighboring building. Another quick burst of mana and he jumped across the gap between the two buildings instantly, appearing on the other roof.

  "I could get used to this," Carver murmured softly to himself. Sometimes, the fun of casting magical spells was almost enough to allow him to forget everything he’d lost due to the Event. It didn’t happen often, but he enjoyed it when it did.

  Of course, that was always followed by the crushing memory of those losses. The brief joys never lasted. How could they, with the center of his universe dead?

  He pressed on, continuing his jumps from rooftop to rooftop, each Phantom Step carrying him that much closer to his destination. It was easy enough to see where he was going. The entire waterfront was lit up almost as much as it had been before the Event. How they done it, he didn’t know. The light wasn’t coming from candles or lanterns, so he didn't know quite what to make of it. More information would be good, because having magical lights would certainly make life easier for the humans living in his fortress. If he could even find out what the spell was, and what creatures might drop it, that would be valuable information.

  Finally, his short teleports brought him near enough that he could see into the heart of the pirate base.

  The streets nearest to the waterfront were awash with glowing globes of magical light. Guards were scattered here and there, each of them walking what looked like well-established paths. Well, even if there was a pattern to the guard movements, there were enough of them that approaching further would be difficult indeed. Instead of delving deeper, Gideon increased the shadows around himself, making it that much more difficult for a lucky guard to spot him. From that perch, he maintained his vigil, continuing to observe and looking for any additional information about the nature of these pirates.

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  The stories had been bad. Refugees fleeing east told stories of slavery, murder, and every other vice humanity had managed to invent. The horrors people talked about were almost too extreme to believe, but it was quite possible those rumors were true.

  If that was the case, Gideon wanted nothing to do with these people. But he felt sure some people were telling scary tales of the evil necromancer and his fortress, so he was hesitant to believe such stories without more evidence. He decided the best way forward was to see the truth himself, rather than relying on secondhand reports.

  He held his position for over an hour before he saw clues about the information he was looking for.

  A large sailboat slipped toward the docks, coming east from the wider lake beyond. It was the first truly interesting thing he had seen since arriving. Gideon waited while the crew began to unload cargo. At first, they were hauling ashore typical scavenged goods. They had boxes of food, clothes, assorted camping gear, and other survival supplies. There was nothing wrong with any of that. Everyone was making their way in the world as best they could, Gideon included. He'd had his people and his undead alike out scavenging for similar supplies. People relied on such things, and for the time being they were available in abundance from abandoned stores and homes.

  But after the supplies were unloaded, the pirates went back into their ship and hauled ashore their other ‘cargo.’ This time, it was humans. It was obvious from even a casual glance the level of cruelty and evil that was at play here. The ship had ten prisoners aboard, all adults or teens. There was no gray hair among them; Gideon guessed any older people unlucky enough to be caught were simply slain. Seven of them were women. He grimaced at that number, not liking what it implied at all.

  Each of the prisoners was mostly naked and chained, bound both hand and foot. The pirates shoved them roughly across the docks toward the shore.

  One man struggled to protect a younger woman from the pirates’ brutal hands, but these pieces of human trash were having none of it. The man struggled to shield her one too many times, and earned a knife in the back for his efforts. The ship’s crew tossed him, still struggling, over the edge of the dock to splash into the water below. The man didn’t surface again.

  Gideon gnashed his teeth together, wanting nothing so much as to jump down there and free those prisoners. Killing an enemy was something he could understand. Slavery and other cruelty like this? That wasn't something he could tolerate.

  The only reason he held his position was because in his heart, he knew an assault would be futile at this point. He was one man. With his magic, he was very strong. Even at this distance, Gideon sensed that most of those pirates were tier two or three. Gideon was tier eight. He was stronger than any of the pirates he'd seen so far. Stronger than any half dozen of them, probably.

  But jumping down there to attack this enemy now would likely result in his death, and almost certainly not result in any of the prisoners being freed.

  Even if he managed to defeat the pirates in immediate view, they would certainly sound the alarm. There were just too many of them. He might escape, if he was lucky. But there was no way he could bring the prisoners to freedom with him.

  That hurt more than he wanted to admit. Even after all this time, he was still helpless to defend those in need from brutality, and that was a painful realization. He’d worked tirelessly to expand his strength, plowing through hundreds of monsters to improve his skills and those of his growing population. Even after all of that, though, he wasn’t strong enough to stand against all of these evil men. Not alone, anyway, and he hadn’t brought his undead with him.

  No, it was better to bide his time, to wait a little longer and see where the pirates were storing their prisoners. He might not be able to rescue them today, but he would learn more about their operations. He needed as much intelligence as he could gather, and Gideon was perfectly willing to sit there all night to acquire it, if necessary.

  He settled in to wait, watching as they hauled their prisoners into what appeared to be their main base. It had been a museum once—the Echo Center, a massive stone structure, which was probably what made it a good choice. Once the pirates brought their prisoners inside, he lost track of their movements, but still he stayed, continuing to watch the site for any other clues or intel.

  He’d stay as long as he could, a cold vigil for those who right now he felt sure were suffering new tortures under the hands of these monsters. Gideon would leave only just before dawn scattered the shadows he relied on to hide himself. But he would absolutely be back, in force.

  While he didn’t have enough information about the pirates yet to launch a full-scale attack, there was one thing he was certain of. Although there was no way he could bring them down tonight by himself, these evil people would fall, and by his hand. Not this night; not now. But soon.