"Captain." One of Richard's crewmen said, "it's moving, should we follow?"

  "I can see that Bill, shut the fuck up." Richard didn't know what to do. They were just on their way from the Western Continent with a new shipment when they came across the weird mass of fog ahead of them. Localized instances of fog like these in the ocean weren't that unusual, if a bit rare. But the one ahead of them was anything but normal.

  When they saw it from afar it seemed nothing out of the ordinary, just a normal ocean fog. But then, the more they looked the more they noticed how unnatural it seemed. The fog was fixed. It was malleable, moving with the wind as it blew, but it didn't leave the area it occupied, as if it was locked there by something.

  It took more than luck to survive the open ocean. Richard survived many downright horrifying encounters during his voyages, and he came to learn that there were a lot of things that should be left on their own. And Richard knew that some forces were at play here. If they weren't far from her usual known routes, and the fact they weren't already dead, he would have thought that this was for sure the Blue Avenger, the infamous ghost ship hunting for pirates in the waters of the Western Continent.

  It might have been a Behemoth too, but he doubted that, those rarely appeared in the surrounding waters. Not to mention that because of their ship, they were almost unnoticed by the ocean rulers and normal ocean monsters alike.

  The fog also gave him the feel of a camouflage-type skill. Those were rare, but not unheard of. He didn't put much consideration on that because people rarely took those, as they weren't that practical. Still, he kept the thought that it might be a ship in mind.

  Richard also knew that danger could mean opportunity, too. How many times did he lead his crew and venture into an unknown island or through an unexplored ocean route just to come out richer than ever? Heck, taking risks is what made him who he was, bringing slaves from the Western Continent wasn't something anyone could do, but when that frightening man came to him offering him a Deepdark and a crew for his services, how could he say no?

  "Follow behind, be slow," He decided. They would keep their distance and see where this would take them. Possibly nowhere, but he felt that this could be something, even if he didn't get anything from this, he was sure that his employer would be interested in any and all new information about the happenings in the Empire's waters.

  "Captain! Nothing happened even after following it for this long, shouldn't we try to get a closer look?" Bill sounded again after they had tailed the fog for a while.

  Richard gritted his teeth, Bill was a good mate, dependable in fights and quick to follow orders, he was just a bit of an idiot and a bit rash. Those two qualities weren't really welcomed for a pirate sailing the Imperial Ocean, but Richard had been able to keep him at bay and alive so far. His impatient crewman's comment did bring something worth discussing, even though it wasn't as long as he made it to be, they had been tailing their target for 10 minutes at least, and it didn't react to them at all. That gave him a bit of cautious confidence.

  "Let's try gaining on it," he shouted at his crew.

  "Aye Captain!" Bill, as expected, was the first to reply, as he started shouting orders around.

  There was a mix of excitement, worry and apprehension as they started their chase. They took a lot of risks on their trips, but that was to be expected, they were pirates after all. Something like this though, usually meant danger, which also meant the possibility of losing some comrades. With danger also came rewards too, so it was balanced.

  That all changed to shock though, as they watched the mass of fog slow down, before coming to a stop, churning as if a beast inside it was awakening. Richard's heart skipped a beat at the sudden development, the fog's movement felt as if whatever it was hiding was turning towards them.

  Another thing that you needed to survive in the ocean was the ability to know when to book it. Retreating was never something to be ashamed of in those treacherous waters, and Richard was fast in calling for a retreat when the situation called for it.

  "Prepare to turn!" shouted Richard, moving in to help with the sails as his crew did their best to start turning back. A couple of minutes later, his blood ran cold as he turned around and saw that the mass of fog had already started moving again, towards them.

  "It can't be a ship..." He murmured to himself as his breaths quickened. He wasn't as scared of the fog as he should have been because the thought of it being a ship under camouflage was still in his mind, but seeing how fast that thing turned towards them, he discarded that idea, and with it his sense of ease. They could be against anything now.

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  BWAAAAA

  Just as Richard was about to shout to his crew to get ready for a possible battle, a sound he never heard before in his life came from the fog. It sounded unlike anything he had ever heard. Not even the roars of the Behemoths he sometimes heard in the Western waters were similar to it.

  "Is- is it a Behemoth?" Richard could hear Bill ask from next to him, but he had no time for his crewman, his mind was busy with how to survive this encounter.

  Deepdarks weren't made for head-on fights with Behemoths, nothing was after all. They were made to not be noticed by them, to silently slip away from them. Being under the gaze of one was not something any ship would want.

  "I advise you not to make any sudden movements," A voice that was loud enough to be uncomfortable, even though the speaker didn't seem to be shouting, was suddenly heard, making Richard and his crew freeze in their places.

  "You know, when we decided to let you be and leave, I thought you would take our generosity for what it was and just go on your merry way. But you weren't as smart as we thought, it seems." The voice continued, authoritative and commanding, the voice of someone who was used to having their orders followed. Even though the voice was loud and drowned out all other sounds around, the speaker was still speaking in what seemed to be a leisurely tone. Richard knew of some skills that made your voice strong, but even for those you needed to shout, nothing like what they were seeing.

  At that moment, the mass of fog was less than 50 meters away from them. Looking at the swirling fog that covered their line of sight, Richard calmed his heart down and faced the overbearing mass as he shouted back:

  "Who are you?" That was the first thing that came to his mind. He was relieved to know that it wasn't a Behemoth they were facing, but the fog-engulfed ship was weird and gave him an alarming sense of discomfort, he didn't want to risk it.

  "None of your business," the voice sounded back, the same unfeeling tone to it, "what you should be answering is why you were following us?"

  "We were just going our way," Richard said, he was starting to get annoyed at the voice. If not for the weirdness of their encounter holding him back, he wouldn't even be talking like this, "it just happened that our route took us the same way as you."

  While speaking, he stealthily signed to his crewmen to be alert and prepare for the worst. A fight didn't seem to be that far off.

  "I don't like people taking me for an idiot," The voice said after a short while of silence.

  Richard was just about to question him about what he meant when he suddenly found himself almost on the ground, a ringing sound surrounding him and making even standing hard. He felt as if his insides were dancing, his whole body vibrating and his head spinning. His ears hurt and he found it hard to keep his focus, a part of him just wanted to turn around and run away, away from the sound that was ravaging him.

  Before he could even understand what had happened, the horrible sensation was gone and he found himself one of the only few still standing on his ship, the others were all on the deck trying their hardest to get up. Some had their hand on their swords or flintlocks as if they were facing a deadly threat, and who knows, they might have been.

  "As I said," The voice continued in its even, emotionless tone, "We already gave you the chance to retreat, you didn't take it, so do us both a favour and just accept the situation you're in."

  "What do you want?" Richard forced himself to shout back, his ears still ringing and his footing unstable.

  "What are slavers doing attacking ships on the waters of the Empire?" The voice sounded again.

  Richard's heart skipped a beat, the ship knew who they were, he never expected that and it made things more complicated.

  "We- we were short in our quota," He answered through gritted teeth. Things were turning bad real fast and he had no way to fix them, other than a full-on confrontation.

  "Is that so," The voice seemed to ponder, his next words making Richard's heartbeats go over the roof, "Unfortunately for you, we have quite a good relationship with the Empire, and we can't just ignore this. It would have been possible to do so if we hadn't made contact with you at all, but you had to go and mess that up didn't you?"

  "What do you want?" he shouted as he clutched his flintlock and prepared his skills, "You don't think we are going down without a fight do you?"

  "Don't get fired up," the voice replied, totally uninterested in his reaction, as if watching a child's tantrum, "I don't care enough for the Empire to clean their waters, but leaving you as is won't work either."

  "So what do you propose?" Richard asked, keeping his eyes on his people, they were getting better the more the conversation went on, and he needed them in their best shape in case things turned south. He was hoping the earlier attack was a one-time skill, or one that had a long cooldown.

  "As I said, I need something to face the Empire with, so I have to take the slaves you have with you." The voice said as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

  "Motherfu-" Richard cursed under his breath. He almost shot his flintlock then and there but was able to calm himself down. He took deep breaths while he considered things more deeply. As his thoughts moved, he realized that agreeing to this wasn't as bad of an idea as it seemed to be at first glance. At that moment, they were in a bad position mostly because of their, well, positioning. None of their cannons or weapons were facing the unknown ship nor were they close enough to board it to take control of it.

  Handing the slaves over meant that the other party would get close to them and link with their ship, leaving them in a vulnerable position, it would be their best chance to attack. Of course, it would also give them the ability to consider the circumstances and decide if it was worth it to resist, as laying their eyes on this mysterious ship would remove some of the fear that came from the unknown. Knowing what they were facing would make it easier to make their decision.

  "Okay, we agree," he finally answered after considering things for a while.

  "But Captain-" Bill shouted, just for Richard to cut him off.

  "We will hand you the slaves.”