The four ships closed in, their hollers and the hoots blaring, and hooked the ladders to four sides of the Stormfalcon by the time Gustin showered them with another rain of earth bolts. Ewan shuttled around and cast to fend off the attack, and the Warship remained intact apart from the scratches, while his Astylinds and his two men chose their ladders.

“You already have your Rigen. Why don’t you fly away?” Gustin asked, slamming the tail of his staff in the air, and with a strained gesture, ripped up a spiked boulder from the ground below. The onlookers scuttled away, screaming.

“Because you are not a threat to us,” Ewan said, pulling back and biting more coins. His Anima in all four runes recovered to some extent; they were enough for him to participate in the battle with elemental spells now.

“You seem like you’re already out of breath though,” Gustin said and launched the gigantic boulder towards Ewan as it cracked the air behind.

“Touché,” Ewan said, and focused his Ryvia on the incoming boulder, latching onto it when it came in his range, sweat drenching his forehead and hair. “I might lose against you in Anima accumulation.”

He hunkered down, bolted himself in his position with a strand of his Ryvia, and yanked the spiked boulder with a growl. “But my Ryvia is stronger than yours!”

His tug strengthened the giant projectile’s momentum, but with him as the focal point, the boulder curved towards one of the four ships. Barely a few screams echoed before it crushed the protective shield and pulverized the ship, and the ocean waves exploded.

“Boss! That was mine!” Kidd yelled, springing back from the cracking ladder as the shattered ship sunk with the mangled corpses. Lance laughed and slashed his scythe rather clumsily, yet chopped a few heads off, managing a ship on his own. The cloaks from the became their enemies’ pain, it leveled the playing fields and kept all the attacks away as they rampaged.

“Shut up! Choose another!” Ewan shouted, panting as his throat burned.

Kidd grumbled and mumbled some complaints and switched to the crowd on another ship that Frost kept at bay, much to the little imp’s annoyance. The ever-so sensible Frost backed off to the support position though, in view of the current situation, but not before baring his fangs.

“I’ll treat you to shaved ice, the red sweet one,” Kidd laughed and said, dashing down the ladder with a burst of icicles from Frost that cleared his way. He followed the spell and hurled his ghostly dagger, skewering an enemy’s forehead, and jumped behind the enemy lines. He dodged, he dove, he somersaulted around, and his nimble dagger sliced the throats with each cut, shanked their exposed guts, and stabbed their hearts. Walyn emerged from time to time with a spectral yet tangible set of daggers and defended his back, finishing some enemies that survived Kidd.

When they mowed through the batch of Kyrons, the Paladins and the Step-0 Starons took the stage, and finally, Kidd’s momentum came to a screeching halt. Lance, on the other ship, also faced the same issue, and the onslaught of the enemies’ attacks forced him back to the ladder even with the elemental defense.

The difference in the evolutionary level propelled Orange, however, and he smashed whoever stood in his way into a fleshy mess, a river of blood drenching his path.

Stigma: Negative!

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Blood Stasis!

Ewan fed his staff some blood element Novas coins and aimed it towards the ships, casting the Step-0 version of the spells while dodging the earth ropes trying to entangle him.

Blood-red threads swam around on the decks, and the wood adopted a crimson tint. The unmarked in the area declined, became muddled, and only watched as the attacks took their lives. Kidd and Lance pushed back again and dropped their weakened enemies with each slash.

The Stormfalcon pulled away from Vestal as the battle regained a new heat, leaving a trail of corpses and wreckage, and the island shrank behind. The three ships kept up with the Warship, the blood-dripping ladders remained. Yet Gustin stayed behind, still hovering above the town but breathing fire. The stretching distance dimmed his spells before they reached Ewan, and soon, the gap overwhelmed his range. And the attacks halted.

When Gustin couldn’t touch the Warship, the three ships also blared the sirens of retreat. The men came together to push Kidd and Lance back, and regardless of how the two slayed them, the wall of meat shoved them off board. The two plunged into the water, leaving behind a lingering scream for Ewan. The third ship, though, didn’t have the leeway anymore, for Orange sat on a hill of the dead. His massacre left not a single enemy on the ship to retreat.

“This seems too weak of a response,” Ewan murmured as he pulled the gasping Lance and Kidd out of the rough ocean and plopped them onto the top deck. The two ships left them and turned back to Vestal while the last one drifted away from the Stormfalcon when Orange came back, without a life to steer its direction.

“Are we done, Boss?” Kidd asked, heaving for air, and drenched in diluted but dried blood. Some were his, while the rest belonged to his kill.

“Probably not,” Ewan said, looking around. Dense mist kissed the ocean water and smothered the visibility. His Ryvia could see more than his eyes in this situation, and it limited his response. If only the Ryvia module of the Warship was intact…

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Status: Healthy

Step-1 Severynth [Spirit-Nebula: Zeroth Surge]

Subtype: Step-0 Elementalist

Name: Ewan Ayres

Species: Human

Vitality: 7.0

Spirit: 25.3

Anima: [Fire – 8.3 | Ice – 10.1 | Blood – 7.6 | Mystic: 10.4]

Astylinds: 4 [Potential: 1]

Rolling Cat [Toast]: Step-1 Severynth [Spirit-Nebula: Zeroth Surge]

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Fire Monkey [Orange]: Step-1 [Level-10] [Grade-B]

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Imp [Frost]: Step-1 [Level-10] [Grade-B]

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Bloodthorn-Lotus [Iris]: Step-1 [Level-10] [Grade-D]

Equipment: Common Clothes; Yurn [Neck Gaiter]; Moonkeeper [Crystal-Ball]; Rainwarden [Staff]; Blackfeather [Overcoat].

Storage: Journal; Elementalist—The Path of Anima [Subtype-Book]; Spellbook; Bloodlust [Spell]; Transmute [Spell]; Unknown Book [Radon’s Legacy]; Anima-Crystals [Novas Coins]; Hub-Connector; Ingredients.

Novas: 25,145

Crelith: 1,014