Clues

"Look what I found." Dark Ranger Calila sneered, her boots crunching loudly over the soft sand. "A corpse."

Marla and Cleya came over to inspect Calila's discovery. Swarms of flies had gathered over the corpse. Maggots crawled through its torn flesh. It was a Naga soldier. Even the three Dark Rangers, neither truly alive nor dead, felt sickened by the sight. Calila showed the insects no mercy. They were packed together so densely that they hindered her examination, so she swatted them away.

"Looks like it's been dead for a long time," she continued, sounding irritated.

Marla circled the corpse and shared what she found. "There are no jagged bite wounds, so it probably didn't encounter a shark. The places covered in maggots were cut by a sharp weapon."

"Looks like pirates. The wounds are a mess."

Calila had never possessed much patience back in Maraudon, and after several days of investigation, she had even less. This corpse was a strange and painful reminder that she had become a complete Undead, making her all the more irritable.

"We've been searching for days and found nothing."

"Be patient, sister. Our work is vital." Cleya had long prepared herself to soothe Calila. Looking back, Veronalara's decision to place her in this group of three had been the right one.

"We'll be roasted alive until we're nothing but skin and bones," Calila snapped, turning away before she had even finished speaking.

"Strange. Why would there be pirates in Kalimdor?" Marla used her shortsword to pry open one of the Naga soldier's wounds. "This fellow only has three wounds, and the depth of the cuts is identical in every one."

"So what?"

"It means he faced a single enemy. But pirates never operate alone. There's only one explanation: a small-scale conflict broke out among