Chapter 62: The Eleventh Floor[5]

Everyone looked in silence at the ships which shimmered in and out of their sight.

The air grew so cold that it sent shivers across Alice’s body as her small fluffy tail perked up. Meeka’s face was drained of color, she crossed herself and murmured a prayer.

“The Ghost Fleet, I thought it was only a legend.”

“Well it looks like it isn’t one anymore.” Becca said, trying to keep her calm.

The ships closed in and surrounded them in a loose circle. No creak of wood came and no crashing sound of waves. There was only darkness and the silence it brought as the ghost fleet flickered in and out of their sight.

The ever imposing silence was broken by the faint scraping of a bone against the deck. With it came whispers which slithered into their minds, cold, intimate and unwelcoming.

Becca staggered as a vision flashed before her eyes, she saw blood covering her hands as she pressed a gaping hole in Xior’s chest.

His black eyes were now empty of even light and surrounding his body were the bodies of Meeka, Alice and Beatrice, their chests carved into by something.

Alice gasped and clutched her head, she heard her sister’s cries. The desperate and accusing cries from the past she had buried resurfaced her trauma.

Xior who stood straight and endured the onslaught also staggered, his body stiffened in response as his gauntlet trembled.

The whispers called him names he had never spoken aloud, and visions of a distant gruesome past flashed before his eyes.

Beatrice whimpered as she saw Xior slaughter her sibling and the visions of how her mother had died. Her tentacles covered her whole body and formed a cocoon from inside which she wailed loudly.

Hands which were pale and were dripping with seawater clawed over the ship’s side. The skeletal fingers scraped against the wood, pulling themselves up inch by inch.

The lanterns on the ship extinguished completely and darkness swallowed them whole. Only the red moon remained which made the encircling fleet look more terrifying than ever.

They were trapped, from each side the skeleton sailors slowly approached them, their bones grinding against each other as they walked.

*****

With their rusted blades the skeleton sailors swung towards the group. Xior blocked the blade with his gauntlet and a ringing sound was produced. The force rattled his arm, though the blade itself seemed unreal.

He struck back with his fist and smashed through the ribcage that splintered like brittle wood but the pieces reformed and the sailor rose again.

“They don’t die!” he growled as he punched through a dozen of them.

Becca swung her sword and an arc of ice jumped from it and froze the approaching skeleton sailors. She lowered her body and raised one of her legs and kicked the frozen sailors.

Their bodies shattered into pieces but despite that the little pieces joined back as their bodies reconstructed.

“Keep cutting everyone.” Becca shouted, “How long could this regeneration last?” Were their blades faster or the regeneration of the skeleton faster.

Alice darted forward and swung her spear horizontally, the tip smashed the heads of a few sailors as they dropped into the sea which was now black as if black ichor had been mixed in the sea.

Beside her Beatrice pushed back the skeletal sailors with her tentacles, Becca, Xior and Beatrice had fire runes and abilities but due to the ship being made up of wood they couldn’t risk razing it to the ground.

The sailors cut the tentacles of Beatrice as she kept on pushing them back, on the tenth floor the tiger warriors were easy to deal with for her but these undead sailors were stronger than them.

She hissed in pain and staggered back. “Beatrice!” Alice cried and lunged towards her, she buried the knife in the skull of the sailor who had grabbed Beatrice’s tentacle.

Xior and Becca were busy clearing the sailors on one end while Beatrice and Alice fought on the other side.

A dozen sailors jumped onto the deck and ran towards Beatrice and Alice, the latter swung her spear to scatter their bones and get to Beatrice but before she could do it, Beatrice’s tentacles were pulled by them.

She pulled back but the hands grabbing and pulling her tentacles increased, she was dragged across the deck and then toppled over the side and fell into the sea below.

“BEATRICE!” Alice cried out as she trashed the sailors more furiously.

Xior moved and jumped down into the sea behind Beatrice, as his body submerged into the water he felt a heavy pressure press onto his body.

Beatrice’s tentacles wrapped around her neck as if she was going to twist it, Xior propelled himself forward with the wind runes and took hold of her drowning body.

He untangled the tentacles when multiple blades pierced his back, his blood mixed with the water and made it dark red.

Xior backhanded the sailors which clung to their blades in the water, their bones shattered on impact.

The blades popped out of his body and his wounds closed instantly. He used his feet to swim towards the surface of the water.

He threw Beatrice onto the deck, she had fallen unconscious. Alice rushed to her as Becca was pushed back.

In the middle of it all stood Meeka, Becca backed near her while Beatrice and Alice were on her other side still near her.

Becca kept swinging her sword at the sailors and they kept returning to attack her. The ship bobbed as a wave crashed on its side.

Xior was taken by the wave but he managed to cling onto the side of the ship. The deck was now full of skeleton sailors, they moved slowly towards the small circle.

Meeka was in the center of the chaos, frozen as her white robe clung to her in the damp air, her eyes wide as the dead sailors pressed closer.

Fear made her body tremble, Becca kept swinging her sword while Alice kept pushing them away with her spear. Xior climbed the side of the ship with multiple blades stabbed in his back as the sailors hung on to them.

Despair settled in each and everyone of them, Xior had to get back on the deck and help the others but the weight of the sailors hanging from blades inside his back was too much.

When more grabbed onto each other the blades sliced through his back, his hand slipped and he fell back into the sea with a loud splash.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep