The Blunt Reaper

Crews shouted warnings as boats collided in their attempts to escape the spreading blood. Abilities flashed across the current, filling the fog with fire, frost, and bursts of white light. Every attack killed something, and every death released more blood into the water.

Another tall serpentine Abomination coiled around the mast of a merchant vessel. Its body was thin enough for Mara to see the dark shapes moving beneath its skin, yet long enough to wrap around the mast three times. People struck it with axes while the creature lowered a head composed of several fused faces.

One of those faces opened its mouth, and the mast bent.

Wood cracked and collapsed across the deck, taking the Abomination with it. The falling rigging caught two sailors and swept them into the water.

One resurfaced beside the ship and reached for a hanging rope, but three shapes converged beneath him. His hand vanished first. The rest of him followed so quickly that the rope continued swaying above empty water. Nothing returned to the surface except widening rings and several pale creatures fighting over what remained.

Mara turned toward the ferryman. "Shouldn’t we help them?"

"Help which ones?"

She looked across the current. People were falling from several vessels, and one boat had already overturned, leaving its passengers clinging to the exposed hull while pale fins circled them. A Reaper stood upon the bottom of the vessel and swung a burning chain at anything that approached. Each impact sent steam rolling across the water, hiding even more creatures beneath it.

"Anyone," Mara said.

"Then choose quickly. The rest will die while we turn," the ferryman replied.

Rook stepped between Mara and the side of the boat. "We join that fight, we become part of it."

"They’re being eaten."

"So will we."

Another impact struck the armored vessel, this time from below with enough force to lift part of the hull from the water. Metal plates tore loose and spun through the air. One cut through a nearby serpentine creature, severing its neck before crashing into a smaller boat.

Something larger rose beneath the ship, though Mara never saw its full body.

A broad, ridged back broke the surface, covered in mouths that opened and closed independently. Two enormous limbs wrapped around the armored hull. They resembled the forelegs of some deep-sea animal, except each divided into several smaller arms ending in hooked bone.

The crew upon the upper deck attacked it immediately. A wave of frost spread across one limb, while another Reaper placed both hands against the railing. Every exposed metal plate upon the hull tore free, and the armor folded into a cluster of blades before driving into the creature.

The Abomination tightened its grip, causing the entire vessel to groan beneath the pressure.

"Fourth Rank," Rook said.

Mara looked at him. "How can you tell?"

"Everything smaller is staying away from its food."

He was right. The worm-sharks, mermaids, and serpentine creatures crowded around the outer decks, but none approached the enormous limbs holding the vessel. Even in the middle of the frenzy, they left a wide circle around the Fourth Rank.

The ferryman guided their boat toward the edge of the current. "Let it have the large meal."

Their vessel slid away from the others. The third current weakened near its boundary, causing their speed to drop as the purple water beyond drew uncomfortably close. Fortunately, the number of creatures beneath them lessened as the feeding frenzy shifted toward the armored ship.

Several other ferrymen attempted the same escape. One succeeded, but another crossed the current too sharply and was seized by the surrounding Red Tide. His vessel turned sideways, drifted from the route, and vanished into the fog with everyone aboard.

The ferryman corrected their course with several quick movements of his pole. "Stay in the boat. Keep your hands away from the water, and if anything climbs aboard, kill it quietly."

Rook drew his one-handed scythe while Mara retrieved her dagger, although the weapon felt useless after everything she had seen tearing through the fleet.

A woman surfaced beside their boat, her turquoise eyes opening beneath the water.

Mara recognized her immediately. The creature looked almost human from the shoulders upward, with wet golden hair clinging to a beautiful face. The mermaid remained alongside the vessel, her human eyes moving from the ferryman to Rook before settling upon Mara.

Recognition entered them.

The expression was not human enough to become anger, but something changed within the many shapes moving beneath her skin. Her mouth opened, revealing a second set of jaws folded behind the first.

Rook moved before she did.

The mermaid launched herself from the water, and her body unfolded in the air. Her tail split along its length, opening into several long limbs covered in transparent fins and hooked claws. What had appeared to be a woman stretched into something taller and thinner, its human torso suspended at the center of a pale serpentine frame.

It came directly for Mara, but Rook intercepted it.

He caught the creature around the throat with one arm, allowing its momentum to carry both of them across the boat. The mermaid’s claws struck his coffin and scraped across the wood while her inner jaws snapped beside his face.

Rook drove the one-handed scythe through her forehead. The curved blade entered above one turquoise eye and emerged from the side of her skull. The mermaid convulsed, her fins striking the boards hard enough to shake the vessel, but she did not die.

One clawed limb swept toward Rook’s neck. He ducked beneath it, planted his boot against the creature’s chest, and kicked her over the side.

The mermaid fell backwards into the water after rook pulled away his weapon.

Rook looked at his empty hand. "Annoying."

Dark blood covered the boards where the creature had landed. It flowed between the planks and spilled over the side before anyone could stop it.

The ferryman stared at the stain. "Clean that."

Rook drew his falchion and looked toward the place where the mermaid had disappeared. "Busy."

"Then become less busy. It bled on my boat."

Mara looked over the side and saw shapes already turning beneath them. "They can smell it?"

"Everything can smell it."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!