By the time they made it up to the deck, the ship's alarm bell was already ringing, and three low, dark hulled vessels had emerged out of the black water on all sides, moving far too smoothly and far too quietly for ordinary ships, their sails a deep rust red color that looked almost black in the moonlight. Figures leapt from the decks of those ships onto the Tide Dragon in twos and threes, dressed in tattered dark robes, and the moment they landed the air around them thickened with something sour and wrong, the unmistakable stench of old blood and worse things left to fester.
"Blood Shadow Sect," Captain Han spat, already moving to engage the nearest attacker with a short blade of his own. "Should have known they would try something out here, where nobody official comes looking for months at a time."
