Set upon the edge of the open seas in the middle of the night, a transport ship carrying large goods and a prisoner will soon make land to the city that will take them till morning to get there, almost one hundred men station upon this ship, the ocean was so quiet and no clouds can be seen as the large moon shines down upon the ocean, peace and quiet for the men to have a normal sleep while the prisoner that is an exiled knight stays locked up at the bottom of the ship with the rest of the junk they have found along their travels and once they make it to port they will sell him and all the rest of the stuff. Gold, women, a new start will all come to these men but that will soon change as they were not alone in the sea.
Another ship with the pirate flag upon the top of the ship slowly moves to intercept that transport ship, readying the guns to open fire when they get close, hooks ready to jump aboard, swords and guns ready to use to slaughter the crew and the captain stands at the ready also as SHE steers the ship quietly until they are next to one another.
The male warrior chained up against the wall thinks about trying to escape but all he needs is something in the crates that can give him a shot of escaping. Suddenly cannon fire was heard from outside, a cannon ball blasted nearby where he was going through the ship until it reaches back outside, soon three more cannon fires goes off waking up the crew and getting to battle stations but they were too late to stop her and her assault on the ship.
Greetings, rascals. Plundering with splendor and refinement is my aesthetics!" The captain said as she ordered her crew to aboard the ship.
The ship was boarded by the pirates of the dead, all bones and ripped clothes and a bit of blunted weapons but they were strong to defeat the crew so quickly. He could hear the fighting so he tries to act quickly by kicking open a crate seeing a few weapons, he would move his feet together to grab a dagger and move it close to his mouth, once he bites the handle of the dagger he tries to spit it out to make it fly to his hands, he grabs the dagger but it cutted him but he doesn't have time for that he tries to get out by trying to remove the bracers attached with the chains against the wall, he does cut himself more but he keeps going until he is free.
The crew was soon dead and so does the captain of the ship, they didn't stand a chance and they failed to get what they wanted. "This ship belongs to the great Captain Liliana, take all the loot and destroy the evidence we have been here." She would turn back to return to her ship as the dead swarm all over this ship.
The dead moves into below deck and noticing the crates full of weapons and valuables, they would take it all but then one of them got hit behind by a mace by the prisoner, the two pirates looks back but they too got beheaded by his sword. They fall to the ground and he ditches the mace and gets back what he lost, his two swords and his pendant with a curved shape moon on it.
He slowly moves up top of the ship, wrapping some silk over his bloodied hands, still holding his sword he tries to sneak aboard on the other ship, moving inside while most of the dead were below deck, he moves to below deck but then two more dead pirates moved up and caused him to move in the captains quarters, slowly closing the door a bit and watches the dead move back on the transport ship.
He was about to go but then he turns back seeing the captain placing her hands on the table, the view he was he could be able to see the back of her pink underwear, he blushed a bit and slowly turns away getting out of the captains quarters and moving below deck. Once he got out of the room he turns back seeing a dead pirate in front of him, causing him to kick the pirate to the ground and make a run for it below, stepping on the skeletons head causing a loud break causing everyone including the captain to turn to face him. He would have no choice but to draw his sword and takes a few steps back as the dead surround him, almost twenty of them stands ready to fight him but then the captain would let some move aside so she can walk forward, placing her hand on her hips examining the man.
(No point explaining what he looks like the man on the cover matches his description.)
"A man who was soon to try to stowaway on my ship... a cute fellow, shame i have to kill you." She draws her Rapier sword.
"If i can defeat her, i can escape." He thinks to himself then he charges towards her swinging his sword against her, he would draw his second sword to cut her but instead she backs off but he did manage to cut a bit of her shirt.
She looks down then back up to the man then charges again, clashing against his sword a few times, she was quick and kept on swinging until she saw an opening, she ducks down and swings a stab to his gut but he quickly swings to hit her sword but he sustain a wound on the side of his gut, he backs off and holding it for the moment then aims both swords to her. She charges again and he swings a stab in front of her but then she strikes his hand causing the blade to fall into the water, he got his guard down as he looks at his blade falling, causing her to kick him against the side of the ship causing his wound to bleed out and with that Liliana wrapped this up by standing in front of him and kneeing his chest and pushing him to the ground for her to grab his sword and sit on top of him aiming both swords to his neck like scissors.
"Damn it..." he said to himself then looks up at her "Finish it then... im a dead man when we make it to the shore."
Liliana looked curious at the man as he said that, she would move the swords away and grabbed his hand removing the silk to see he was chained up, she knows this as she had the same fate long ago. "You're a prisoner?"
He would nod then she gets up off of him and place her sword away and gives back his sword "No one has ever manage to cut me but you..." she moves her shirt forward to see the cut close "You have done it. So you will not die by my hands, you are spared." She looks at the dead pirates "What are you all looking at get back to work!"
They would all go back to what they were doing before; he gets back up and looks at Liliana "Why are you keeping me alive?" he said as he place his sword away
"You are an outsider to the people on land... if you stick with me then i am sure you will prove useful to me in the future."
He looks to the side looking at the undead "I will not turn you into one of them, don't want to ruin a cute face like yours." She walks past him walking into her quarters but she turns back "What is your name prisoner?"
"Tristan... my name is Tristan."
"Well Tristan you can sleep with the others below deck... also... if you try to spy on me during my bath time... i will kill you." She starts walking to the quarters.
"Bath times?" he said to himself then thinks about it, imaging her naked in a bath tub, he would stop and coughs a bit and walking down below deck and waiting for them to set sail.
During the night before the sun would rise up Tristan would head back on the top deck, stretching his arms as he looks out and walks to the side of the ship looking out seeing the transport ship lying in flames before it sinks. He looks down at his wound as it stopped a while ago then walks to the front looking out at the view, leaning against the side seeing the view of the city in the far distance all lighted up at night.
He would think back of how it started, two years ago on the land when he was leading an expedition into the elven lands, moving further within and slaying creatures but then he was ordered to accompany the general while his squad remains where they are, once they push forward they would hear the crying of the men behind them under attack, the general wanted them as bait so it can draw out the true beast. Tristan didn't want this but he killed the beast on his own while many of the men was wounded in the fight, he ended up killing the general for betraying his own men and caused the men to retreat and report this to their superiors causing the army to pursue him until he is dead. His luck ran out when he was on an island and was found by the crew on that ship, chaining him up and leaving him with the rest of the junk below deck.
He slowly looks down at his pendant as this was the only thing he had of his sister before she was murdered by the army, causing him to leave the city and try to forget about that day. He turns back and notices the captain standing there; she walks over and stands next to him looking out at the view. "Quiet view isn't it?"
"Yeah." He turns back looking out at the view of the ocean and the city
"You are a soldier of the army, what a lieutenant?" she looks at him then looks at the pendant "A silver pendant..."
"Don't take it..." he holds the pendant tight "This belongs to my sister and i will fight to the death for it to remain with me."
"You are an outcast... what did you do disobey a little order from someo-"
"I killed a general for killing my men." He interrupted her. She raise an eyebrow looking at him as he has that serious look as he looks out "I vowed in the army to protect my men in my squad... i broke that... it caused me to go exile and the death of my sister." He looks at her "I don't want to lose anyone i care about, now i will vow to protect anyone with my life, since you spared me you are one of the people i will protect."
She slightly laughs and turns back leaning back "A man protects little old me... how cute." She started to return back to her room
"Captain." He turns back towards her, she looks back "I have given you my word, i will protect you whether you like it or not." He stares at her with that serious look once again, what he said was all true. She would just turn back and push her hat forward to cover her eyes as she walks off into her room.
She closes the door and looks back leaning against it and lets a deep sigh as she started to blush, taking off her hat "Why did i had to spare his life... damn it." She walks to her bed to try to sleep.
During the morning the captain was ready to sail out to the land, preparing to attack a small nearby village and take all they have if they surrender. Tristan stands by her side on the steering of the ship standing ready to do this, once they got into position they open fire, firing three shots at random areas, one hitting the well, another one to a nearby house that had no one inside and another one on the crops causing the people to scatter as three guards were station there draw their swords to prepare themselves for battle.
Tristan got off the ship and charges towards them, Liliana and the others would watch to see how he goes, he moves to the side to strike the one guard in front of him then uses his second sword to cut the other one then does a three-sixty to avoid the man's swing then strikes him at the back of the back, killing all three of them. Liliana ordered the pirates to round them up while some search all the houses to find anything valuable.
It all went well and soon they set sail out of there with a handful of gold and a few rare valuables, some of the rare valuables are sent to Liliana's quarters while the rest stay below, Tristan stands behind her as she has appointed him a position on keeping an eye on her sometimes when they do the siege on their enemies.
"Another perfect pillage don't you all agree?" he said to her while she looks at the small ruby she stole.
"It was too easy... i think if i had enough undead power i could be able to sack a city full of gold." She doesn't turn her head to him, keeps looking at the ruby to see if it was real or not but then it was a fake, she would shatter it on the table "Fake..."
"What's next?"
She turns to him "We go and get the-" suddenly a dead pirate interrupt the two "What do you want?"
"We have a problem, the military fleet is here."
Both of them looks at each other then moves outside to see what they are dealing with. They notice three ships with the red sails and the flag of the military symbol who serves the queen. One of the ships would open fire but misses, it was a signal shot to Liliana.
"Oh damn it there back and they brought help..." she looks at the undead "Ready the guns and bring up the anchor."
Another cannon fire went off and targeted Liliana, Tristan saw this and quickly tackles Liliana to the ground to avoid the shot, it blasted through and hitting a pirate. She looks up with her eyes wide looking at Tristan, she looks away and pushes him off of her, sitting up and looking over to the captain of the ship who is looking over to them on the telescope.
"Hand us Tristan!" he yelled out to Liliana "I will spare you and your ship if you hand the exiled knight over to us... do it now or we will open fire!"
"Were out gunned..." one of the pirates said to her "Should just give them what they want and escape."
Tristan looks at them and then to Liliana "They want me not you... i am more worth to them alive..."
"Not going to happen... i am not going to let them take you... prepare to fire." She said to the pirates as they move to position.
The ship fires towards them, damaging the closest ship an causing the captain to back off "All guns open fire!" all the ships would fire once they got in position, they bombarded the whole front and side of the ship damaging it hard and causing the ship to take in water. Liliana and Tristan falls back as the blast pushed them to the ground, more of their gunfire goes off hitting the sides and one of the ships moves to the side firing at the back side of the ship, with more water coming it this ship will soon sink to the bottom of the ocean with all the loot they have.
Liliana stands up yelling out "Keep firing... don't stop..." she gets hit in the back by the top of the broken ship's mast knocking her out on the ground and some blood started to go down her face.
Tristan slowly walks over to her before the ship would go down, noticing the three ships holding and moving all in a line ready to send one final attack. Tristan picks her up and drags her off the ship by picking her up off the ground and then jumping off before they would open fire to blast the whole side of the ship to cause it to tip to the side and sink. The ship was no more and because of Tristan he couldn't protect Liliana from the attack, because of this only those two survived as he tries to swim to the shores with her, dragging her out of the water and trying to wake her up by doing CPR. He looks down at her with her shirt and skirt ripped open, he would try to ignore that and starts placing his hands together to push her chest to try to wake her up then does mouth to mouth a few times but he couldn't wake her up.
"Liliana come on... don't die on me... I'm sorry." He keeps going a few times but she didn't wake up. He shakes his head and kisses her mouth while she lies there dead "I am sorry Liliana..." he gets up and looks around then he prepares to move out into the forest to evade his enemies, leaving Liliana there as there was nothing he can do but it wasn't the end for her as she was already an undead woman, here to serve the one who raised her from the dead.
She slowly opens her eyes hearing what he said and felt that kiss but she couldn't wake up due to the damage she took. "Tristan..." she said to herself then closes her eyes again to sleep.
The enemy ships sails through the wreckage looking at the ocean seeing the debris and the bones of the skeletons but no sign of Tristan or Liliana, knowing that they are still alive somewhere so they prepare to move to the shores to hunt him down wherever he goes, thanks to Liliana he is now stuck on the main lands and is now perfect way to trap him and end him.