The Messenger of Death

The moon was still high up in the sky by the time Xander and the rest of the escapees arrived at the benchmark placed on the sea to indicate that they had reached the no-fly zone. Before their ships entered the zone, Kymani spoke up and told the other ships to drop their anchors.

"Why are we stopping?" Xander asked calmly.

"The sea monsters don't make it past the benchmark. If we enter the no-fly zone by this time of the night, it will be quite easy for the monsters to attack us using the darkness, and even if we can use our consciousness to sense them before they can come close, it will still be better to enter when the sun comes up." Kymani answered.

['Oh, she's sensible. There might be monsters that can use the darkness as a cover and approach us without anyone being able to sense it, you can never tell with the organisms on this side of the universe.'] Al commented.

['I think it's a wise thing to do too. Haven't you guys noticed that our luck is worst at night? We encountered those ridiculous berserkers in the Agelong forest in the night, we encountered that hocus pocus god Ogun in the night, and just a few nights ago we were being hunted by several Sky realms cultivators.'] Al chipped.

['Paranoia on a superstitious level.'] Al muttered.

['Hey I heard that!']

['Of course you did, rabbit, we share a single brain!']

['I thought you agreed with me in the past that we were unlucky?'] Alex questioned.

['I still do, I believe that this universe is trying to put us out of business as arrogantly as it can. Just having 3 different bloodlines that stem from Dragons makes us an exaggeration on this Lower plain realm, and the cherry on top of the cake – the Class-0 Mythical bloodline that we possess innately, we are some kind of cheat in this universe and it doesn't want us is in its system… however, I'm not superstitious enough to believe that universe is somehow, a lot pettier during the night time. That's just ludicrous Alex.'] Al explained.

"Do you mind at all?" Kymani asked. She knew that Xander was in a rush to get to the island. And if he insisted, they will have to cross the benchmark tonight.

'I wonder if the no-fly zone can also affect the ability to fly of a cultivator that has already made it to the Spirit Awakening realm. If it doesn't, then that expert protecting this kid can continue to hide in the darkness, but if it does, he or she would have to come out and join us. Either way, with that person present, it would be easier for us to sail peacefully.' Kymani reasoned.

"Do what you want then," Xander replied and walked over to the edge of the deck. He stood there for a while, recalling how he felt earlier when he unsheathed his sword and beheaded the Sky realm cultivator that was under Jarja.

Xander closed his eyes and tried to recall the feeling, however, he couldn't. Subconsciously he removed the sword with the white hilt from its sheathe slowly, hoping that the same sensation he felt previously would hit at some point. Yet again, nothing happened. Xander decided to continue this action for as long as he could.

Just until he could feel a fraction of what he felt then. After completely removing the sword, he sheathed it back and began removing it slowly once again. This continued for a while.

"Is this kid a weapon Dao cultivator too?" Scar thought out loud.

"I will be more surprised if he wasn't," Kymani whispered. "His aura keeps on getting sharper every time he unsheathes his sword. If not for my cultivation realm, I wouldn't even be able to notice these minute changes to his aura."

The resonating sound of a sword being unsheathed echoed.

Kymani started to get bored of watching Xander and then an idea hit her. "I was recently able to get a lot of wine. Come and join me, everybody." Kymani Announced and brought out 7 barrels of wine, all of which she got from Xander.

She gave each ship a barrel and kept two on her ship, mainly because she was a huge drinker and could hold her liquor. "Although we have no meat, we have fishes in the sea. What's a night on the sea without wine and something nice to chump on?!" Kymani laughed happily.

Her words incited excitement in the hearts of the escaping prisoners. Some of them dived into the sea and started throwing fish onto the deck of the ships. Those that could control fire used their ability to prepare these fishes. A joyous and celebrative vibe filled every ship as laughter, wine and fish spilled out the mouths of the prisoners.

They spent the rest of the night celebrating…

By the time the morning came, with the rise of the sun they raised their anchors and sailed past the benchmark. The celebrative ambiance was replaced with anxiousness for what was to come when they sailed past the benchmark.

The ships moved quickly and closely to each other, everyone was on the lookout for any sea monster that was going to approach them.

This tension lasted for over an hour without them getting attacked by any monster, and just when some of them started to drop their guards down, a sea-horse the size of an elephant shot out of the water and into the air, crossing over the 6 ships. The sea horse was red as if it had baptized its skin in blood, with black and yellow eyes that it could move independently.

"Shit!" Some people cursed out.

Kymani too stayed alert, she chose not to kill this sea horse because she could see its trajectory and could tell that it wasn't going to harm any of the ships. She also wanted to avoid spilling blood, because the scent of blood will attract other monsters and give away their position.

Xander, who had stopped training with his sword the moment they started sailing again, watched as the sea horse dived over their heads with curiosity. He was wondering if the sea horse was a monster with intelligence.

['That's one hell of a big sea horse.'] Al commented.

['Fun fact, sea horses – the fun-sized ones at least, were given the title 'assassins of the sea' back on Earth.'] Alex mentioned.

['Fun for you, unnerving to me… Nobody was able to tell that the monster was close until it shot out of the sea.'] Al replied.

['Oh, that's because of the unique shape of its head. It helps them move through water undetected. It was quite fascinating when I read about it. And those curvy tails of theirs, they can use to wrap whatever they want. Sea horses don't have teeth and stomachs too, they use their tube-like mouth to suck in whatever they want to eat directly send it to their digestive system, hence they have to eat constantly… if one of us gets sucked into its mouth, it might take a minute for the person to turn to nutrients for the monster. And looking at the size of the one that just crossed over us, it should be able to wrap one of our ships easily.'] Alex said.

['Oh, I forgot that you had a nerd phase. I remember classifying it as puberty and lack of substantial intimacy with the opposite sex. Oh Alex, tell us more.'] Al mumbled sarcastically, sounding as if he was annoyed.

['Blah blah… I do remember that they move in herds sometimes…'] Alex pointed out.

['What, why didn't you say that since?!'] Al shouted.

In response to what Alex said, Xander quickly went to the edge of the ship and looked at the surface of the sea, trying to pry into it and see if there were more sea horses around them. He looked for a while, but he couldn't see anything. He even tried to use his consciousness to pry into the sea, but weirdly, it was as if there was a veil on top of the sea that he couldn't penetrate through.

"Kymani, be on guard. Sea horses move in herds sometimes." Xander announced, making everyone stand on guard.

Half an hour had gone by and nothing happened. They didn't see another sea horse, or any other monster, which was strange.

Such things only occurred when there's a strong monster or predator around, one that has claimed its territory. Other monsters will not carelessly step into the territory of a top predator. But it can also mean that the monsters that used to roam this part of the sea are dead.

Either way, the sea was too calm and that's what made it unnerving to them.

['Ah, I just recalled something else fascinating about sea horses.'] Alex started.

['No one wants to know about your fascination for this weird sea animal-'] Al began when Alex interrupted him.

['The reason why they are called the assassins of the sea isn't only because they can move stealthily in the water, it's also they are natural when it comes to camouflaging.'] Alex revealed…

['How so?'] Al asked curiously.

['I thought you weren't interested?']

['Shut the hell up and-'] Al started and was interrupted by Alex for the second time.

['They can hide in plain sight. Well, it might not apply to the sea horses on this universe. We all know that this is a different universe.']

['That's the fucking problem! It's a different universe, you dumbass!! Why didn't you say anything about this ability of theirs to camouflage!? In this world, their abilities might have evolved and turned into something scarier!'] Al pointed out.

"System, activate thermo vision," Xander said.

*Ping!

*Activating thermo goggles. Thermo goggles activated.

Immediately Xander's vision changed, he saw the heat signatures of many sea horses in front of them. His heart almost skipped a beat when he saw this.

"Kymani, they are in front of us… hundreds of them, attack with all you've got." Xander revealed with his eyes wide open. There was even a tinge of nervousness in his voice.

'Hundreds of them? There's nothing in front of us?' Kymani thought.

"Attack right now!!" Xander increased his voice, the urgency could be heard in his tone.

"Okay," Kymani replied and then pitched a terrifying blow at the space in front of her.

-Boom!!