The ferry began its journey. A trumping whistle ran over all sounds.
"Deaf or deaf, Bulwark?" He called out to the headless corpse under the tarp.
Another jerk rocked the ride.
"You are right as your head, Bulwark!" He cried over the long whistle of the ferry.
And thus, came in the slow movement sensation in Naph's body. He could feel that the world was moving albeit a little faster than usual.
The crewmates nearby, who were here to keep a lookout at the vehicles and wagons, listened in well. Several who questioned the authenticity among themselves were silent as the whistle of the ferry died.
A salty air rolled over them and Naph. He looked at them. They looked at him.
And he smiled.
They smiled back a moment later.
'Maybe Bulwark will also like to smile', he glanced at the backseat of the mechanical ride of his.
A whispering quarrel began among the crewmates.
"Should someone?"
"Obviously not!"
"But what if he does call out more?"
"Then we just ask nicer ones to take care."
Naph wanted to know who these 'nicer ones' were. They sounded extremely nicer than his current company.
'Are they peers? Or community?' Wondering to himself. He purposefully removed the white tarp from the backseat.
"How's the air Bulwark? Salty? Or sweet as summer?" He didn't look back but he let the crewmates have a good look.
Their eyes flicking to him and Bulwark. "Should I start one in Monite territories too?"
A silence followed those words.
The drama has been prepped as per Naph's skills. All that awaits is the ingredients to arrive.
The crewmates of the ferry slowly drifted away one at a time. Someone saying out loud, "oh, I remembered I need to check on the captain's log for this section."
Another gave a reason of having to confront some piping situation to clean and water off the moisture that will condense on the wagons.
Some just said they are going up for an earlier break.
All crewmates left. Now it was just the fresh corpse of Bulwark and its curator Anaphol in the section that connects to the gangplank 10.
"Salty wind is either smooth or rough. You can tell that too right Bulwark?" Naph liked his silence as much as he liked his first vicious trait.
And both tingled him the appropriate amount for a normal person at the moment.
He began checking on his other six duffle bags he had hidden inside the tarp. Opening one, he took out a wrapped lunch in newspaper wrappings.
It was a niche snack of Rentilaco, available either through the road vendors or cook it yourself. Wrapped inside the newspapers, a newly started trending printing initiative, were four rolled-in flour tortillas filled with spiced potatoes and roasted vegetables.
Not too hard to make. And spicy and flavored about the right amount.
He wolfed down one, while taking another out. Looking at Bulwark, he showed it to her, as he chewed on the previous one he ate.
She stayed as still as she preferred.
Naph accepted her silence as his answer to the mockery he began. A step echoed on the metallic stairs.
He was thrilled, for the new catering service may have just arrived.
Naph's wishes were coming. Another step echoed. 'Ooh, a theatrical one.'
He took his time eating the tortillas one bite at a time as the step came at the same cadence.
Thud. Crunch.
Thud. Crunch.
"Maybe add in a few lyrics too!" He quipped to the step.
It didn't come the next time. Naph waited, he wanted to take the next bite but the step's echo didn't come.
"Aww, you broke the rhythm!" Naph took his bite. And he felt it.
A shadow above him, growing.
He didn't had to look, he felt a sensation very subtle as if it would slip away.
The sensation grew in him as he attempted to unravel it, but he knew more to relate to the world.
Naph needed new experience and he needed it fast.
And so he locked on that subtle sensation eating through his tortilla snack. Before the shadow could descend, the tortilla was over and Naph said, "Ca".
Within his mind ended it with 'ta'.
The shadow, above him, Bulwark and his ride as he saw on the surface, began warping.
Naph felt it within his space's presence.
"AAH!" A voice hurt slipped down the stairs.
'So is that my range?' He concurred.
The shadow entered the kaleidoscopic maddening space that had bounded to Naph. It was warped between reality and that. The one behind the shadow too maybe was.
The shadow controller groaned profusely. Cursing out mid breaths. The controller scuffled in carried by two people on their shoulders.
Another hidden in the third hallway stepped out.
A few more followed the example. It is easy if the predators surround the prey before they know who is trailing them.
"Boy, that was—" The guy held up by two, coughed out and a blood spurt came with it.
The guy wasn't old, he was barely close to twice Naph's age according to the looks, except he had to be helped.
"Too bad, I don't have enough for all of you." Naph ate his last bite.
He chose not to count. He just wanted volunteers while he put together a plan he could use. The volunteers for his experimentation were here.
The metallic crunch under each one of his new volunteers told him how well fitted they were to take down a boy.
A man in his thirties heralded the crowd, "come on, just handover the body. We know you have collected the bounty. Even we can't get that. But the body?"
The man smiled. He felt he will be understood by the teenager as misunderstood as he could be. He wanted the boy to react, attack even.
Naph said, "and then what? I'll end up in your range and you'll get to cash in the bounty on me?"
The man clicked his tongue. He thought the boy would like to defend the girl's corpse.
"Oh, you may have misunderstood. No, you still won't get the corpse if I walked away." Naph was clear. He didn't cater to the underbelly but Extea told him well that the underbelly will do what they imply as well as do what they don't imply.
And Naph chose the path he wanted. His hands still on his ride and leaned on it.
The few gathered closer taking steps towards Naph. None were shaken. Only the shadow controller and his two helpers stayed in the middle.
He was still their best bet at taking Naph.
"Anaphol, boy. Running is all you have done since entering Rentilaco." A blonde in the group began. The one on his right hit him.
"Pipe down idiot. We still on the ferry." He was reminded by a woman.
Naph nodded in sentiment to the lady's words. "Right so how about we begin some experimentation."
A curved line of a smile drew across Naph's face and the shadow controller realized.
He blurted out through blood, "Get—"
'Ca', Naph thought. "ta", he said.
The colors all across Naph spinned and he ran forward drawing a knife out.
The one in the forward direction was the first to get hit. His breath was taken out of him.
While Naph had grabbed onto his ride for the moment, left it the second later.
The knife he had taken from a runner who jumped him, the same one was in his right hand. He drew a single slash across the neck of the guy in the front.
Rather than bleeding out a little. His head vanished from the slash up—in a flash, instant.
Vaporized.
All happened in but a moment after Naph whispered 'ta'.
"Next," Naph locked on.
Two dead. Both missing their heads.
Naph casually walked back to his ride, leaning onto it. From the midst of his shaken adversaries.
"How about it?" He tilted his head ever so slightly.
The guys looked at each other and then at the shadow controller. He was coughing again, "I—I didn't know. You could do that."
He looked at Naph as if a beast in a human skin was standing in front of him. "How? How did you learn of cata?"
Naph let his shoulders bounce in response. "Tell me who sent you to that particular slope of the Sevenren's plateau?" He had a hunch it was the same one.
"I—I,.. Uh, this is too difficult. I was told to attack anything that had four wheels and trace the rider where ever they end up." The shadow controller responded.
"That doesn't answer the who, that's for what were your instructions." Naph corrected the man.
Another just butted in, "whatever, let's shoot him down." The man took out a double barrel flintlock.
"Ca", Naph said. 'ta', Naph completed in thought. As he ran towards the guy.
A few were in the path but all had their air taken out, while Naph held his. The man with the flintlock loaded pointed it at Naph and still lost consciousness as Naph approached faster than his usual speed.
None had taken one single notice that the ride he leaned on had skidded a bit. A boom hidden under the churning noise of the ferry.
Naph was upon the man with the flintlock. He was a couple steps away from the shadow controller guy. And Naph stabbed him into the chest with the same knife.
"Gun in a knife duel?" Naph quoted.
The man's chest warped inwards as his shoulders and hips joined while his chest went missing permanently.
Wisps of red revolved around the man and Naph. Both looked at the shadow controller.
Naph didn't approach him without thinking aloud, 'cata', with forced intent.
The shadow controller and his two supports were rattled thoroughly. Their breaths taken partially away, eyes popping, and sweat drops streaked across their skin.
The sweat drops streaks were not normal.
Forced and slashed the skin.
Shadow controller held his consciousness while the support guys dropped under his weight. Naph ended them all, one simple strike through each one's neck.
Controller one was attempting to claw his eyes out, as if he had seen…corruption that ate your soul.
Naph wanted to understand that but he didn't have time. His volunteers needed to be catered with precision, and only half was dead.