Chapter Nineteen—Predator in the Dark

Debaku pushed his ore deep into the water, slowing the boat to a near stop as it dragged toward the bank of the river.

The reeds here were high. Once he was within their embrace, he began to grasp them, pulling his skiff deeper into the small forest of grass. As they thickened, it became harder for him to push the boat through, but eventually they thinned as the tributary began—the very same tributary canal that was used by the gardeners of the royal palace.

Once he was within the canal proper, using his ore became easy once again, though he did not know if that would remain so. He paddled up the canal for a time until the high wall came into view. Atop it, there were lit towers and the silhouettes of guards walking the parapets in the moonlight.

This did not surprise the top-tier adventurer.

If he was going to get the sack of weapons to the others, he would not be able to kill any of the guards, lest they sound the alarm and announce an intruder in the palace gardens.

Everything would be over then.

They will not even see me cross the wall.

Nearing still, he was just out of easy view of the sentries. He would not be able to paddle the boat further up the canal. His silhouette would be visible within the glimmer of the pale moonlight reflecting off the surface of the water.

Stopping his little skiff, he picked up the net-wrapped package of weapons and lowered it into the water, then he got off the skiff and sunk down to his neck in the cool river water. The canal was at least five paces wide with tall reeds lining the banks.

The bottom of the canal must have been smooth, as the package slid across the bottom quite easily. Debaku decided that he wouldn’t be surprised if he found that the canal was actually manmade with cobbled stones underneath the water and on the sides of the bank.

Moving slowly and staying close to the reeds, he pulled the package of swords along. The only reason he didn’t have them strapped to his back, was because of the weight.

Oh, the top-tier adventurer could easily swim with the weight of their swords, but not slowly. Silently. He would have to kick his feet and swim with vigor, something that made more noise than in the manner he was now traversing the canal. Not only that, the quick movements of his swimming could potentially attract the eye of the sentries.

It was best to move along slowly and steadily until he—

Something in the reeds growled, a low, rumbling sound. It moved, rushing at Debaku. A green beast, maws wide came in to make the kill at a speed so quick, a normal man would have been snapped in two, but Debaku, with his speed, he reached under the bottom of the crocodile’s jaw and used his forearm to shunt the beast over as he simultaneously let go of the top and unsheathed his dagger, slamming the blade into the river lizard’s belly.

It squirmed and thrashed, splashing water about, until finally it stopped moving completely, save for a mild twitching of nerves. Debaku then pushed himself up close against the reeds, his heart beating just a little faster than it had before, both due to the sudden excitement of the situation, but also due to the possibility of his sudden alerting of the guards.

Staying still in the reeds, he didn’t move for some time. In fact, the moon traveled a hands width across the sky before he ventured far enough from the reeds to spot the sentries patrolling among the parapets.

No alarms had been sounded.

In fact, had one of the sentries heard the splashing, he would probably believe that the crocodile had eaten one of the long legged water rodents they typically enjoyed feasting upon.

Glancing about, he found the floating toggle and took the rope in his hands and continued his swim.

Moving slowly, the Mar’a Thulian managed to get under the wall where the canal met the bricks in an arched opening with metal bars.

As a top-tier adventurer with strength far surpassing that of a normal man, he grasped the metal bars and thrust, using all of his muscles and gritting his teeth.

The metal blocking his path parted enough to let him through, but Debaku doubled his efforts, spreading the bars far enough to allow the package of swords to be passed through.

Once the bars had been spread far enough, he let go, gasping for breath as he recovered from his exertions. Then he pulled on the rope as he kicked his feet to stay afloat and passed the waterlogged bundle through the opening. There was just enough space to get it through.

Debaku continued dragging the package along the canal, unseen by the guards above, who had no reason to glance down into the canal on the inner side of the wall.