30 kilometres away, a Necromancer, Ildrid commanded 13,000 skeletons which he raced along the shore. He wore a permanently tattered cloak, and smelled of bones and death, the bone general marched his skeletons up the shore, attempting to find the scent of the man he was supposed to track. A communication crystal lit up in his hand; a white see-through crystal that could communicate using magic; and a voice spoke to him, dark and without humanity.

  “Find the Warlock, Ildrid, kill him no matter what it takes.”

  “He’s on the Continent of Sand,” Ildrid said into the crystal.

  “I will send reinforcements, do not fret,” the voice on the other end laughed darkly.

  Ildrid’s bones clattered every time they moved, teeth chattered when they made sound, mechanically making the movements despite dark magic doing the actual talking. While marching along, he was assaulted by an ant army, the ants disturbed by the clattering of bones. Dina; the realm of the Undead and its minions created enmity wherever it went.

  “Damn these pesky…” he shouted, “kill them all!”

  The clattering of swords were heard, as the skeletons cut through the exoskeletons of the bugs that faced them. Skeletons were nonetheless being attacked, with more skeletons being raised from the energy of the dead, the ants would let up, retreating as Ildrid advanced forwards, intent on killing the Warlock who had eluded them. 10 Scorpion-Men shamans blasted sand in their faces, taking down many a skeleton as the skeletons rushed to fight the more organised Scorpion-Men.

  “This is a waste of time,” Ildrid muttered angrily, “but there’s no way I can leave these to harass us.”

  The battle was intense, the Scorpion-Men not too intent to be too entangled with the skeletons, after a while they chose to retreat. They scuttled out of the way, fleeing into the dense sand, burrowing in the mostly inhospitable wastes that was the ‘Continent of Sand’, ‘the abandoned continent’, ‘the shadow continent;’ it went by many names, depending on the historiography.

  “Continue the march!” Ildrid demanded.

  His words were not heard necessarily, but his will was felt throughout his minions, who immediately wheeled about stopping their chase and continued down the coastline. The choppy waters splashed on the shore, masking the sound of rustling sand. The perpetual grins of the skeletons skulls hid the soulless nature of Ildrid’s army that now marched toward Madakos.

  “Third royal fleet captain Roderic speaking, how can I help?” A deep voice said, attempting to mask the fact that he just arose from his slumber.

  “Admiral Roderic, the Kingdom of Lin is complaining about a fugitive, a possible dark sorcerer-”

  “Dark sorcerer?” Roderic repeated, interrupting the messenger on the other end.

  “Let me finish Roderic.”

  “Sorry,” he said simply.

  “The Dark Sorcerer is on the continent of Shadows. You are to locate and then destroy him if possible.”

  “Right?” Roderic said.

  “That is all.”

  “That is all?” Roderic repeated, confused.

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  “Is there are an echo on the line commander? Don’t make me repeat myself,” the messenger said, scolding him, “you have your orders. Carry them out.”

  Roderic was a stocky short man, with dark hair and dark eyes, who had risen up from the ranks, commander of the third fleet, a fleet with 10 ships, a few marines, some summoners, and some regular troops. He had thick legs and thick arms and a muscly body, he himself could summon water elementals which helped fight against any roguish pirate, and any Mermen or Naga who didn’t like where he floated his ships; and also aided his speed and directional ability of his ships. Roderic was vigilant with his flotilla, looking around for troublemakers, but despite his stern reputation he was nonetheless popular.

  “We are catching a ‘dark sorcerer,’ apparently,” Roderic repeated in a doubtful voice.

  “What does that mean sir?” Talida asked.

  “Fuck knows, high command wishes for us to find it though, for some reason,” Roderic explained, the tone woefully unsure of why.

  Nina a short woman, with short blonde hair, and angry eyes, who summoned gryphons was joined by Talida who summoned air elementals, a vital role for navigation of the ships. Talida was wiry looking, a thin woman with muscles that seemed to focus on speed rather than strength; just like the things she summoned, she was quick and agile, and adept at air magic herself. The other summoners were on guard, the non magic users sharpened their spears and swords. Battle was to commence soon. They didn’t really know why, but their fleet sailed toward the sand continent.

  “Isn’t the sand continent a dangerous place?” A sailor asked captain Roderic, “why are we going there?”

  Roderic stared at the man, mainly to collect his thoughts, to think of an answer, he looked at the sailor, the sailor of course looked back, surprised at the lack of forthcoming words. The sailor had brown empty eyes, perhaps he was tired, finally voice came from the back of Roderic’s throat.

  “It is, I mean it is dangerous. Inhabited by those Elves forsaken by the land itself. One wonders why they bothered staying, but I suppose they’d have to deal with the politics of the continent, which is hardly safe,” Roderic looked down this time, he didn’t know how to answer the second question, he exhaled a little, “I have been given a directive by high command to go there. Why? I know as much as you unfortunately. The man on the communication crystal didn’t want to tell me anything,” he said, “fucking prick,” Roderic whispered at the tail end of his explanation, eliciting a few murmurs of laughter.

  Roderic was not a simpleton despite having been a simple sailor only a few years before. His natural talent in water elemental summoning had warded off pirates and had awarded him captaincy of a small ship, which soon became more than one ship, which eventually led to him being an admiral in charge of a fleet of 10.

  “Surely the second fleet could deal with this?” One sailor grumbled.

  “Maybe they are,” Roderic assured his sailor, “but this is as much a scouting mission as it is an elimination mission. The Second fleet is 50 ships, they don’t wish to risk that many ships on an uncertain future.”

  Many people’s eyebrows looked sideways, many others simply rowed or tightened ropes on the galleys; Roderic had given his opinion and tried to settle down the crew at the same time. The heaving of oars and the groaning of some were heard, salt water rolling on their foreheads, some using shoulders to wipe out the sweat from their eyes, others merely letting the drops settle in their eyes, and roll between the nose and the cheeks to be an irritant. People flicked their heads, and others merely gritted their faces, they knew it was pointless to resist for more would fall and drop down. The galleys had sails, wind and water pulling them along at a terrific speed, the rowers heaved as they watched as water and wind pulled them along.

  “They can rest right admiral?”

  Roderic looked wistfully into the distance, the natural winds blew away, but Talida’s air elementals pushed them along with far more impetus.

  “Yeah,” he said, with a pleasant smile.

  The crew all huffed, they smiled at him. It was Sumar official regulation to always have rowers, but Roderic cared more about getting the job done. The sailors all looked at their captain with a smile for not torturing them with unnecessary work.

  I wonder, who is this dark sorcerer? What is this dark sorcerer? Who knows maybe I shouldn’t make assumptions, Sumar might already know, but why won’t they tell me? All rather mysterious.

  Wooden floorboards creaked, as sailors scrambled around, many merely looked, but there were more scouts than usual, peering in many different directions, all looking for the dark sorcerer, all searching. Roderic crumpled his lips, for perhaps what he was being told wasn’t true to begin with, then he smiled.

  “Who knows what we’ll find out there,” he whispered mainly to himself.