Chapter 172: The Tin Knight and the Short but Distant Voyage (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 172: The Tin Knight and the Short but Distant Voyage (4)
To fall into the sea is to experience a torrent of sensations.
The skin trembles from the biting cold, water obstructs the nose and mouth, making breathing impossible, and the intense saltiness makes it difficult to even open one's eyes.
But none of this was of any concern to you.
For you knew no cold, you did not breathe, and it was not with eyes that you saw the world.
Of course, it wasn't without its drawbacks.
After all, this heavy mass of a body was sinking rapidly downward, even now.
Unable to rise with simple swimming motions, you had to use the mana within your body as a propellant to push toward the surface.
It was the moment you had just broken the surface.
CRUUUNCH!
With a tremendous impact, your body, having just greeted the sun, was slammed back into the depths.
Peering out from under your half-dented helm, you realized what had just happened.
Cap'n Bill's pirate ship had drawn near and rammed you with its hull.
You tried to pull yourself out of the water once more, but again, the pirate ship closed in and rammed you. Once again, you were knocked beneath the surface.
Puzzled, you decided against another immediate escape attempt. Instead, you stared intently up toward the surface.
On the edge of the ship's deck, a crewman with a head full of eels where his hair should have been was staring right at you with a single, cross-shaped pupil.
The sea. Even amidst the violent currents churned by the ship, his gaze never wavered from you.
You changed tactics and moved toward the ship's hull.
Part of the reason was to evade your observer's gaze, but you also figured it would be more stable to simply stab your sword into the hull and climb it like a mountain.
But your blade met only formless water, not the ship's hull.
The vessel had dodged just before your sword could connect.
Upward.
You felt a moment of bewilderment.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ protests, demanding to know what kind of ship in this world can maneuver vertically!]
This was a situation impossible for any ordinary ship, but you had no time to ponder the mechanics.
After all, if it could go up, it could just as easily do the opposite.
And your ominous premonition proved true.
WHAM!
The massive ship plunged downward, crushing you with its immense hull.
Even for you, withstanding such mass with nothing but a discharge of mana and no foothold was impossible.
You were driven deeper than ever before.
The misfortunes didn't end there.
Splash! Splash!
Splashes erupted around the pirate ship as crewmen with inhuman forms dove into the sea.
The torsos and legs you were sure you had severed were, at some point, already reconnected.
“────!”
A pirate who looked as if an octopus had been placed atop a human head aimed his weapon at you and issued a silent command.
In response, the other pirates—their bodies also partially transformed into sea creatures—surged toward you with a speed and freedom of movement impossible for any normal human.
Blades flew at you from every direction—front, back, left, right, above, and below.
That every blade was imbued with mana spoke to their caliber as elite warriors.
There's a saying that even a dog at a village school can recite poetry after three years. It seemed these pirates had plied their trade for so long they'd reached a new level of mastery.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Your sword clashed against the pirates' blades.
You were victorious, but you could feel little joy.
Not only did you have to meet their sword energy with your own—not just a simple blade—but you also saw the bodies of the foes you had dismembered begin to reassemble like building blocks.
If you truly wished it, you could have ground them to pulp as if they were in a meat grinder, but you lacked the mana to do so.
In your current state, you had to constantly expend mana just to keep from sinking into the depths.
As if they knew this, the enemies clung to you, preventing your escape to the surface.
The pirates were weaker than you, but they were skilled enough to scar your metal body. More importantly, no matter how many times you cut them down, they revived as if it were nothing.
You felt the need to force an escape, even if it meant overextending yourself.
Whirrrrrr.
The sword energy coalescing on your blade began to spin at high speed, like the blades of a propeller.
The pirates tried desperately to stop you, but any who stood in your way were simply turned to mincemeat and scattered into the sea.
Just as you were about to tear a large hole in the ship's hull, something glowing with golden light intercepted you.
《Where are you off to in such a hurry, friend!》
Cap'n Bill, his body a skeleton of gold, shockingly brought your charge to a dead halt.
The residual sword energy you couldn't fully neutralize sprayed backward, shredding his body, but a grin formed on the golden skull's jaw, as if such damage were a trivial matter.
《The sea is cold and rough. And above all, it is greedy. Even I, a pirate of some renown, cannot fathom the depths of its great belly. How about it? Care to find out for yourself?》
You were clearly underwater, yet you could understand Cap'n Bill's words perfectly.
It felt less like the sword energy or physical enhancement unique to knights and more like some kind of magic.
Instead of giving a reply he wouldn't hear anyway, you moved your sword in a flurry of attacks.
No foothold, the resistance of the water impeding your every move—despite every obstacle, the skills of the ‘Tin Knight’ did not fade.
Cap'n Bill endured three of your strikes, but in the end, he had to surrender the right arm that held his sword.
《Oh, you're strong. Truly strong! In all my cursed life, I can count on one hand the number of foes as mighty as you.》
But, he added.
《In the sea, however, it seems we have the advantage.》
Swoosh.
Sensing a presence lunging at your back, you swiftly swung your sword.
Your attack sliced a burly giant in a Viking hat in two, but even with only his torso left, the giant wrapped his arms around you, restraining you.
Several other pirates latched onto you as well, pinning you in place.
Cap'n Bill roared.
《My lovely lady! Show our fury to this cur who dares interfere with the end of this wretched curse!》
The next moment, the pirate ship with golden sails answered its captain's call.
Lifting its bow high like a rearing horse, the ship slammed its hull downward with all its might.
KRA-KOOOOM!
Evasion was impossible.
With an impact that instantly turned the giant holding you to mincemeat, your vision spun.
You somehow regained your bearings, only to realize you faced a grave problem.
Your body, sunk deeper than ever before.
And your mana, all but depleted.
Almost reflexively, you unleashed your remaining mana and pushed for the surface, but you already knew the outcome.
No matter how you managed what little you had left, it wouldn't be enough to reach the air.
Your vision faded, then turned to black.
Just as the Tin Knight and you—the one beyond the screen—were about to be separated,
A hand touched you.
Like oil cleansing a rusted doll, a distant, mystical mana filled your body.
The will-o'-the-wisp glow in your eyes, which had been on the verge of extinguishing, flared back to life, burning brightly once more.
You saw.
Blue eyes. Black hair. Pale skin.
Your contractor. Your master. Your witch.
Dorothea was there.
You started to ask why she was here, but the words died in your throat.
Something red was clouding the water around her.
It was blood, flowing from wounds all over her body—wounds that looked deep even at a glance.
The cloak she always wore and the staff she always carried were gone.
It made sense. Diving this deep into a chaotic sea, with a naval battle raging just above, while burdened by such cumbersome things would have been nearly impossible.
But at the same time, it meant she had come without any means of protecting herself.
Grab.
As you remained frozen, unable to move, Dorothea grabbed your head firmly and brought her face close to yours.
Despite her wounds and the blood she was losing, her gaze was as resolute as ever.
You couldn't make out her words, as she was chewing on some kind of leaf, but her fearsome glare told you everything you needed to know.
You could guess what she was thinking.
‘—Are you just going to let them beat you? Snap out of it! Is our contract a joke to you?’
The witch provides you with the mana to move freely. You protect the witch's safety.
Her sullen glare seemed to say: You're her guardian, so act like it and do your damn job.
You felt a surge of amusement.
This audacious witch never failed to entertain you.
You pulled the witch into your arms.
And thrust your sword forward.
You could see the pirates closing in, but it was too late.
The spinning vortex of sword energy you had displayed before manifested once more.
The difference was its scale.
Where the previous vortex had been barely wider than your torso, this one was dozens of times larger.
This was your full power—the Tin Knight's full power—unleashed without a thought for mana consumption or efficiency.
The rotation, which at first seemed almost leisurely, transformed into a massive tempest in the blink of an eye.
A maelstrom of sword energy, grinding everything on its periphery to dust while its eye remained perfectly calm.
The shouts of Cap'n Bill, his crew, the beautiful and wondrous golden pirate ship...
Before this waterspout, they were nothing but dust.
FWOOSH!
With the largest plume of spray yet, you and Dorothea shot out from the surface.
You deftly maneuvered in the air to land on the deck of Adel and Sophia's ship.
You minimized the impact, of course, to prevent Dorothea's wounds from worsening.
The pirates who had formed a temporary alliance with your party stared at you, their jaws hanging open.
Sophia smiled as she summoned her holy power.
Adelaide let out a sigh of relief, her grip on her sword slackening.
You didn't bother looking back toward where Cap'n Bill and his crew had been.
The sea was calm.
As if nothing had happened at all.