65. Pirates (2)
65. Pirates (2)
The sailing ship of Viscount Amon, on which Yuma's party was traveling, was also equipped with a mana engine device.
Chwaaaa—
The mana engine device added force to the power of the unfurled sails.
The direction was clear. The Dusk pirate crew and the troubled merchant ship of the Resen Kingdom. The ship was charging ferociously toward that merchant ship.
A sailor stared at Yuma with a slightly bewildered face.
It was true that the pirates' atrocities were serious. But usually, when there were three medium-sized ships like that, avoiding them was the best course of action.
Because a pirate group of the Dusk's scale would surely have prepared armaments for plunder.
"...Your Grace the Grand Duke, are you truly all right with this? Though the ship has protective magic tool devices installed, three or four direct hits will destroy it."
"Relax."
After answering simply, Yuma looked at Bel.
"I'm going to bring our ship right up against the Resen Kingdom's ship. At that moment, suppress the pirates who have encroached on the Resen Kingdom's ship."
Bel tilted her head.
"Not kill them?"
"If there's a commander and a leadership group, I'll kill all of them. The rest, do as you see fit."
Yuma didn't want to force murder upon Bel.
However, as Yuma had just declared, the pirate commander and his leadership had to be killed.
Bel slowly nodded.
"Okay. If I'm going to suppress them anyway, I'll have to make sure they can't function as people."
Bel's eyes glimmered coldly.
Yuma descended into the cabin and approached Cloné.
"The God of War has appeared! The God of War has appeared!"
Deliberately ignoring Hestia's voice, he continued speaking to Cloné. After listening to Yuma, Cloné opened her eyes wide and nodded vigorously.
"I understand, Yuma-nim."
"Good."
* * *
"Those bastards... are they planning to ram the Resen Kingdom ship as they are—is that what I'm seeing?"
Hectos, the commander of the Dusk pirate crew, ground his teeth at the muttering of the vice-captain beside him.
"Of all people, it had to be the Astes Empire bastards."
The reason for plundering the Resen Kingdom's ships was simple.
Because they were easy prey.
The vast sea.
And the Resen Kingdom lacked the capacity to catch them, as they hid and lived on the islands of that sea.
And the decisive factor was that they had figured out the merchant ship was being operated by a baron of commoner origin.
The difference between someone from a fundamentally aristocratic family and a commoner granted a title was stark.
House.
It meant there was no backer who would attempt vengeance if they were killed. That fact played the biggest role in making the Dusk move without restraint.
But the Astes Empire was a different story.
Their military power was on a completely different level from the Resen Kingdom.
They were entities who could eradicate the pirates if they set their minds to it.
So as much as possible, the pirates avoided provoking them.
"But since they declared first that they'll kill everyone, there's no way to avoid battle."
Hectos nodded at the vice-captain's words.
"Right. There's only one method."
A grim light glazed over the sword Hectos held.
It was a vivid golden Aura blade.
"If we annihilate every last one of them and erase every trace of it, it won't matter whether it's the Astes Empire or whatever."
They would sweep away those imperial soldiers approaching as if they'd lost all fear, and erase all evidence.
Hectos organized his thoughts.
"First, feed them a shot from the magic cannon before they latch onto the Resen Kingdom ship."
"Yes! Understood!"
The sailors answered Commander Hectos's order in loud voices.
A moment later.
Something shot out from the left side of Viscount Amon's sailing ship.
It was a massive grappling hook.
Cheolkeodeong—!
The terrifyingly extended grappling hook latched onto the deck railing of the Resen Kingdom ship.
Kkwaaaaaang!!!
At that instant, the dark-colored magic cannon of the Dusk pirate ship at roughly 800 meters spewed a blue flame.
This time it was not shot toward the sea.
It was a bombardment aimed precisely at the left side of Viscount Amon's sailing ship.
Jjeooooooong—!!
The mass of magical energy studded with purple light was crushed, radiating waves of all colors.
But the sailing ship suffered zero damage.
Over the broadly deployed protective barrier wall of the installed artifact,
a single spell had been overlaid.
A transparent dome-shaped shield.
"Well done."
Beside Yuma as he spoke stood a golden-eyed mage with long black hair fluttering in the wind, Cloné.
Not fully trusting the built-in protective artifact, Yuma had relayed to Cloné the firing direction of the magic cannon, which Balmung had informed him of, and she blocked it directly.
Cloné smiled softly.
"You told me the direction. I had to block it."
Right after the magic cannon spewed fire,
she had cast her spell aligned with the direction he had given her at that moment.
[Lv.53] Cloné
A 5th-circle mage.
Even if her level numerically looked low, a skilled 5th-circle mage could single-handedly bring down an intermediate sword expert.
For Cloné, who possessed the innate trait of magic genius, she could easily surpass the limits of her level and produce variables beyond it.
The 5th circle was also the terminus for mages of comparatively lesser talent.
However, there was no way Cloné's growth would stop.
'She'll break into the 6th circle, the magic interval, easily.'
If the level standards Yuma saw were identical to <Loof Blood> as they had been so far, unlike the previous level calculation standards, the 6th circle would range from level 60 all the way to level 99.
The gap between the 5th and 6th circles was that immense.
And the gap between the 6th and 7th circles was immense as well.
The fired grappling hook completely closed the distance to the Resen Kingdom ship.
Tu———ung
Someone leaped out from the deck's edge as if taking flight.
It was Bel.
Seureureung!
The gazes of the 32 pirates occupying the Resen ship all shot upward simultaneously.
Toward the blue-haired swordswoman who had soared into the air, drawing her sword.
Seuseuseuseu!!
Blue protective energy armor blazed up over Bel's entire body in mid-air.
"What are you doing, you fucks! Shoot!"
Kkigigigigigik!
One pirate shot an arrow swiftly.
Kaang!
Bel deflected the single arrow with a swing of her sword, then tumbled her body and infiltrated the Resen Kingdom merchant ship.
'He told me to handle it myself.'
Bel recalled Yuma's words.
Standard.
Bel decided to set aside the question of whether to suppress or kill.
She would not hold back.
She took that as her standard.
If the most certain sword path showed itself to her eyes, she would execute that sword path.
And Bel, moving with that as her standard,
was a natural disaster from the pirates' perspective.
Sseogeong!
The blue-haired swordswoman who approached like a ghost sliced off both arms of the pirate who had just released his bowstring and passed by.
"Kuaaaaak!"
Blood and screams stained the deck.
If an arrow reached her body, she deflected it with her sword.
Kwadeudeuk!
Even if it struck her body, it bounced off the blue protective energy armor.
Kaang!
This time, after parrying a sword strike, Bel unleashed the White Night's primary horizontal slash technique, the North Wind.
The upper bodies of two pirates were swept away by a violent gale, falling along diagonal lines.
"That wench...! Her Aura level is master-class!!"
"Fuck, it's a sword master!"
Fear.
A sword master was always known as the ruler of the battlefield. And that was the same on the sea.
"Die, you fuuuck!"
A surging spear.
Bel, seeing the spear's trajectory, twisted her body lightly.
To others, it looked like a hair's breadth away.
But for Bel, it was simply choosing the most efficient movement.
Sseogeogeok!
The pirate's head rolled across the floor.
This time, pirates wielding spears and swords rushed at her in succession.
She hooked her left shoulder and ducked to evade a spear. Then she focused her battle aura into her left shoulder for a split second.
Kwajijik!
She shattered the spear shaft with her shoulder while raising her crouched upper body.
Bel lifted her right foot and stomped down from above onto the knee of the sword-wielding pirate.
"Kuaaaaak!"
The pirate's body, his bones crushed, began to tip forward.
At that moment, a single streak of blue sword-light gleamed.
The heads of the pirates who had been wielding spear and sword rolled across the floor.
A monster.
Bel rampaged freely, leaving the pirates no choice but to feel that way.
Another surging spear. Bel dodged by spinning her body to the right. She grabbed the spear shaft, then yanked it forward.
"Kuaaaak!"
And a comrade's sword was skewered into the body of the pirate holding that spear.
The sword that had thrust down to strike Bel's heart had stabbed a comrade instead.
A single streak of sword-light slashed through the upper bodies of the pirate who had been stabbed by a comrade's blade, and the pirate who had dealt that blade.
Sseugeogeogeok!
Two more bodies toppled.
Two rushing at once, three rushing at once—all fell.
Bel instinctively read every movement line of her enemies. She moved like an animal.
"Stop! You bitch! Right here, there's a baron of your allied nation!"
A desperate-sounding shout rang across the deck.
A pirate was pressing a sword tightly against Baron Hans's throat.
Bel's left hand moved quickly. Toward the knife holder strapped to her waist.
Saak—
What her left hand grasped was a throwing dagger she had taken from the imperial palace.
Her left arm moved like a flash of lightning.
—Puuk!!
The pirate, with a dagger skewered dead center in his forehead, tipped backward.
All 32 were either incapacitated or dead.
The enemy's main force was not the pirates who had infiltrated the Resen Kingdom ship.
Three ships.
Enemies still remained.
"Kill them all!!"
"Fire!"
Tududududududududu——!!
Yuma faced the rain of arrows pouring down like a heavy downpour.
Each and every one was a magic arrow with Aura imbued in the arrowhead.
A rain of arrows that looked to be a good forty shots or more.
Looking at that overwhelming spectacle embroidering the sky, he adjusted his grip on Balmung.
<Bullet Time>
Time began to flow slowly.
Limited to the skill's caster, Yuma.
A common man.
He was nothing but a common man, yet his stats, raised solely through accumulating achievements and completing achievement milestones, had reached a level where he could stand shoulder to shoulder with those who had just entered the master class.
Strength, agility.
Those were enough.
-Ahhh, to taste this art with my body once again. Pleasure wells up within me.
Because Yuma, from the very beginning, was an existence who, in parrying alone, had far surpassed the category of common men.
'When this battle ends, I'll have to stuff you into the subspace pouch for a while.'
Thinking that, Yuma swung Balmung.
Kaang! Kang! Kang!
Twisting his body, he deflected the arrowheads—the parry points of the arrows.
Jjeooong! Jjeojeong!
Due to the magical energy contained in the arrows, a shockwave like a sonic boom erupted each time he performed a parry.
The 30 seconds of Bullet Time ended.
<Absolute Counter>
The reversal began.
Shwaaaaaaak———!!!
Kwagwagwagwagwagwa——!!
The arrows, reversed right back at the pirates who had shot them.
No, spiral spears of battle aura disguised as arrows struck the pirates' bodies directly.
Jjeooooook!
Peooooong—!
Not even corpses remained.
Kwaaaaang!
Thick sounds of pulverized flesh, blood, and chunks of meat soaked the deck.
"Keuugh... kuaaaaaak!"
One pirate collapsed and screamed.
They'd picked the wrong fight.
That single thought filled the pirates' heads.
And in the eyes of Baron Hans and the remaining twenty-odd members of the merchant ship, Bel and Yuma appeared as Gods of War worthy of worship.
"Thank you. Thank you."
So they conveyed that gratitude first to Bel, who stood before their eyes.
The Dusk pirate crew, numbering 141 total across all three ships.
Currently, only 57 members were in a state to move properly.
Even when all the pirates had fallen into despair, Hectos, the captain of the Dusk, had not yet despaired.
That was the driving force that had forged the current Hectos.
[Lv.135]
Sword Master Hectos.
"Tch."
Hectos brushed the chunks of his subordinate's flesh, killed as collateral by the spiral spears of battle aura, off his clothes.
"I will handle that wench."
Hectos said, standing atop the deck railing.
"The rest of you, quickly re-prepare the magic cannons, then fire a salvo at that Astes Empire ship. Aim for the ship! The ship! Sinking it is the only way to survive! Aim for that bastard over there too if you can."
There wasn't a pirate who didn't understand who that bastard Hectos was referring to.
It was Yuma.
Due to the unidentified attack just moments before, the mana engine device inside the ship had been disabled. Only 5 of the 8 magic cannons could be operated normally now.
Hectos kicked off the railing, leaped up, and boarded the Resen Kingdom merchant ship.
And he let golden Sword Aura flow into his blade.
"Let's have a go at it, wench!"
Bel adjusted her grip on her sword with an expressionless face.
A sense of battle hung over the bodies of the pirates on the three ships clutching the magic cannon mounts.
Their captain was right.
Those bastards didn't seem to have the slightest intention of letting them live, so to survive now, they had no choice but to sink that Astes ship.
The five pirates in charge of the magic cannons on each pirate ship gripped their sweaty hands.
"Salvo fire!"
The pirates manning the cannons simultaneously yanked the iron firing mechanisms attached to the ends of the mounts.
Kkwaaaaaaaang!!
And toward the Astes sailing ship, five magic cannons fired in a simultaneous volley.