Chapter 198.

PART 1.

“As I told you,” Corvus is saying to Dhiraj, “We are going to experience another attack.”

“Yes?” asked Dhiraj, opening the door of his lab, not liking where this was going.

“Apparently, some nomad warlord has decided it would be a great idea to attack this fine institute of learning.” Said Corvus, taking an empty seat. “Unlike our previous invader, this one is better prepared.”

“I’ll inform the students.” Said Dhiraj. “Make them drill the safety routines.”

“Good choice.” Said Corvus. “I’ll raise the wartime wards.”

The wartime wards are exactly what they sound like. These are lethal wards raised in the Academy during times of conflict to resist attacks from outside. given the coming invader, they need these wards, because Corvus does not want to take a chance, and hope this attacker is just as stupid as the last one. thinking like that always ends up disastrously in the world they live in.

PART 2.

The country has descended into chaos. The king has disappeared, and the law and order are not stable. Therefore, it is not a surprise that incidents like this one are taking place.

These are nameless children, who just witnessed their place of residence being destroyed by the invaders. And now, they are forcefully taken to the noble who has just captured this city. Naturally, whatever plans this noble may have for them are not good for their health.

“Halt!” demands a tall man, blocking the path of the soldiers who are taking these children. “Release those children, or die.”

“Who do you think you are?” asked the leader, before he got a closer look at the man. “No way, you are dead!”

“Not yet.” Then the attack began. Though the mysterious man regrets showing the children such violence, using high-level fire magic in front of them, and burning these soldiers alive, he feels he has no other choice but to do this to save their lives.

“Come, I have a safer place for you,” he said to them.

Terrified, these children followed him, and after he left them to another home for nameless children, he disappeared.

Porus is still not willing to come out to the public. However, he also recognizes that the longer he waits, the longer he has to witness such atrocities.

PART 3.

“Emperor,” said the man, entering the throne room.

“Ah, Feng Lei. Come. Come.” Welcomed Zuo Chi. “What news do you bring?”

“I hear that the Subcontinent is still in the throws of their civil war, and so far, this war is not showing any signs of stopping.” Said Feng Lei.

“Hmm. so that is why Porus is off the radar.” Hummed Zuo Chi. “Tell me, is the unrest near the mountainous region related to this?”

“Partly, but we are unable to confirm this.” Said Feng Lei. “Though your suspicion would be correct that these two events are linked.”

“I suspect some third party.” Said Zuo Chi. “But the problem is, who could it be? I already made sure that the Succubi cannot enter my lands. But it does not mean that they can’t send their proxies to do their dirty work.”

“I will start evaluating all the foreigners and foreign-returning citizens.” Said Feng Lei, noting this task in his notebook.

“Do that. also, keep an eye on the events, things can spiral out of control before we even realize it,” said Zuo Chi.

Feng nods at his orders and then leaves. Though he has taken all the measures he can, Zuo Chi is still not feeling secure. All his instincts are screaming at him that his measures are not good enough. But why they are not good enough, he does not know.

PART 4.

Raven returns from another scouting run and reports to General Sundar. “Any change in the blockade?” asked Sundar, since this is the most important question for him.

“Sadly, no.” Said Raven. “I did hear about the invasion of the Academy.”

“Figures. I suppose it failed?” asked Sundar.

“Yeah. but the news arrived here quite late. Some details are very unclear still.” Said Raven.

“That happens in the times such as these.” Said Sundar. “Any news about Porus?”

“Have to disappoint you there too. Not a mention of him anywhere.” Said Raven.

The general sighed. “Very well. dismissed.”

Looks like the general will not get to leave his current position any time soon. At least the young boys are performing well, despite their inexperience. Also, the attempts of entry have been paused as the wards have stopped anyone from entering, wounding anyone who tried to do so fatally.

PART 5.

The team mourns their lost ship, watching as the wreckage floats away.

After they got away from the first pirate group, they had an easier time for a while. until this other ship appeared and rammed into their own ship. After that, they got swarmed, and in no time, got captured. This group of pirates is more competent than the last one, and the captain destroys their ship before they leave.

“Now, I never thought I would find the Subcontinent team out on the ocean, floating alone.” said the captain. “By the way, I am quite a fan of you boy, tossing a girl like that, only a real villain can do that.”

Hatori does not feel any joy from this compliment. “But even though I like you, it is not going to be enough to save you. the Albion or Subcontinent will give a nice ransom for you. put them in the holding cell, and we sail to Albion.” Ordered the captain.

Once they are tossed in the cell, they huddle together. “What do we do now?” asked Josh. “Even if we somehow survive this, we don’t have a ship of our own.”

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“We will have to take over this one.” decides Hatori.

“Agreed.” Said Avinash. “But how do we do that?”

“First, we need to knock out or disorient the crew. Then…” said Hatori, explaining the plan.

When someone comes to check up on them, they assault this guy, and Shin escapes. After amplifying his voice, he started to sing, and the crew of the ship got drunk as if they had been consuming tons of alcohol. The captain remains unaffected, however, so he runs down to the cell himself, as he is unable to snap the crew out of their funk.

“Stop it, stop it I say!” he launches a spell at Shin, but Hatori and Dimitri appear and shield him from the spell.

“Step number 2.” Said Hatori, and Avinash joined them, while others left to kill the weakened crew.

“You won’t succeed, you hear me?” said the captain, building up his magic for a destructive attack.

“No. you won’t get away with this.” Said Dimitri.

The captain brings a giant parrot, made of water. in response, Avinash and Hatori bring out their tiger and eagle respectively. The wood starts to burn wherever the tiger steps and the eagle leaves scorch marks wherever it collides with the interior of the ship. This starts an elemental brawl, where the captain is fighting against Hatori and Avinash, while Dimitri waits to get his chance.

“You idiots. Such high-level spells will overwhelm this ship, it will break apart and take us all under the sea!” warned the captain.

“We’ll take that chance.” Said Hatori and Avinash together, and the eagle and the tiger overwhelmed the water parrot.

It explodes and floods the entire area where they were fighting, putting out the fire, but nearly drowning them. Dimitri took his shot and killed the captain, and the wards on the ship unravel after his death.

Dismissing their elemental spells, Hatori and Avinash, together with Dimitri run to the deck, where they warn their teammates about the impending destruction of the ship. “Hurry up, we can’t stay on this ship!” hollered Hatori and Avinash.

“What?” asked the others.

“Don’t ask, just join me already!” said Hatori, bringing out Dimitri’s boat from the runic array in his wrist. They all jumped into this boat, and the ship broke into the pieces behind them.

They have the same bad luck with the ship as the author has with houses. The boat is carrying far beyond its capacity, so it starts to sink. Luckily for them, they are not far from an island. They beach the boat on this island, nearly flooding the beach with the water they brought in with them, and then get off of this boat in a hurry. Looks like once more, they are trapped in the middle of the sea, with no apparent way back to their home.

After getting over their shock of such an abrupt crash, Dimitri recovers from this shock first and rouses others as well. “We need to make a camp, we can’t stay here out in the open like this.”

Thus, they made a camp, lit some fire, and Avinash and Tom brought some fish from the sea. The island is big enough to have some resources for surviving here, but they know that they will not be surviving there for too long.

The next day, Avinash proposes a way to get out of this island. “We need to make a raft.” He said to them. “We can use the boat as its base, use the wood available here to expand it, and enchant it to carry our weight and take us to some better place than this.”

“Fine. But that would require extensive woodworking.” Said Shin. “Who here has that kind of talent?”

“I do.” Said Praduman. “I am not an expert, but I can follow instructions.”

“That is something.” Said Hatori. “Leave the work of enchanting and protection to me, Josh, and Ravina.”

“Then we will gather food and water,” said Dimitri. “We will need both of those things to survive in the sea.”

“True.” Nodded Avinash. “I’ll keep an eye on the sea, maybe some ship might come this way?”

“You are not serious about that, are you?” asked Hatori, as everyone starts to leave to work on their task.

“No. but we do need hope if we ever wish to get back home,” said Avinash.

“You do have the map, right?” asked Hatori.

“Yeah,” said Avinash. “It is in the storage runes you gave me.”

“Good. keep it there. it is the only thing that can get us there safely.” Said Hatori, leaving himself to enchant the raft.

Praduman and Daphne are already taking the boat apart, while Tom and Shin are working on expanding the room on the boat. Once they are done with it, Hatori, Josh, and Ravina will work on enchanting it with runes to make sure it won’t drown them in the middle of nowhere. If that happened, Hatori plans to live as a vengeful soul, for he died before he lived his life to its fullest.

Two days later, their project is done. Hatori enchanted it for maximum safety with his runes, while Ravina went over his runes, and Josh checked the math. Now they venture out of this island with tons of coconut water with them to find someplace close to civilization where they can get another ship. Though the map is only useful enough to show them where they are now, it is still the only way for them to find the Subcontinent. So, Avinash holds on to it, occasionally bringing it out to check their position.

Though they tried their best, their raft still did not survive the harsh sea. The constant tossing around with the waves overwhelmed the enchantments, and once more, the team plus coach were screaming at the top of their lungs, holding on to their wrecked raft for their dear lives. The waves give them a final toss, and they find themselves on a rocky beach, and sound of suddenly halted conversations lets them know that they are in the company of the people.

Josh opens his mouth, but Hatori covers it. “Don’t even say it.”

The last time Josh opened his mouth, they got in trouble. But this time, Hatori plans not to go through that kind of experience. Though deep within his heart, he is hoping for some friendliness from these people as well.