“Fuck!”

I cursed seeing the spell and wanted to jump out of the ship, but staying would be even more dangerous.

Above the ship, in the sky, is a giant spindle pillar made of water crystal. It is not the ice, but the water crystal. The shade and structure of water crystal are distinct from the ice, even if both looked similar at first glance.

It had materialized a moment ago when the mist dispersed.

It is coming down like a missile, with gravity increasing its momentum every second. If that wasn’t enough, the water crystals were heavier than the ice.

This is a torpedo spell; I don’t know the exact name, but it will explode, without a doubt.

I wanted to jump out of the ship. As many are doing, both our men and the enemies, but unlike them, I am the target. The moment I jumped into the sea; I would be in his domain and killing me would be a piece of cake.

Still, if I felt like, the pillar would strike the ship, I would jump.

I am already in position and could make a jump at any moment. There is certain death if it hits the ship.

Everybody had stopped fighting, including Jon and Captain Azalea, but not Stone. He is still fighting against the enemy leader. Stopping him from coming at me, which he is trying constantly.

Even now, I could see him trying to come at me.

A second passed, and it got even closer, becoming even bigger; that I wanted to jump into the sea and nearly did.

“{Rotating Cannons} {One Target} {Reinforced Ship}”

I was struggling to hold myself on the ship when I heard Captain Perry scream the skills.

Immediately, I felt the faint change in the ship; at the same, I saw the cannons moving up toward the huge spindle pillar at the ship.

Hun!

If that wasn’t enough; I saw another danger materializing.

‘The bastard wouldn’t let us defend his attack easily,’ I thought, seeing the lances. There are hundreds of them, more than he had ever launched, and if they hit the ship, they will skewer it along with everyone else on it.

A moment later, I felt relieved when I saw the shield appearing in front of them, but that relief was also short-lived.

The number of shields there wouldn’t be enough to stop all the lances. Fourth of them will be able to come to the ship. Which are over fifty lances. They are more than enough to finish the job.

This two-pronged attack was too powerful, and my mind was telling me to jump out of the ship. The ones who had not jumped had already jumped out of the ship, including Jon and Captain Azalea, both of them walking on the sea.

One doesn’t need ocean walking skills to do that; one just needs to be fast enough. A speed skill is more than enough for it.

Both of them are fast enough with their speed skills to break the surface tension and create a depression in the water, which will allow them to stay on the water comfortably.

It is a simple physics.

Soon, the spindle pillar had reached close enough that I could see clearly how massive the spell was.

BANNG!

I was watching when a loud, unified sound rang out from all the cannons on the ship, as they fired. All the cannonballs shot together and went toward the spindle pillar.

As they did; I couldn’t help but notice that the cannon balls weren’t the usual grey. They are green and seeing that, my eyes couldn’t help but light up.

The man had kept the best stuff for the last.

Hun!

My mood was good, but once again, the enemy spoiled it.

I saw the shields popping up in front of them. There is no way, the enemy mage, would let anything come in the way of his most powerful attack.

Bang Bang Bang

The cannons crashed against the shields and exploded with such power, that they sent powerful shockwaves.

I nearly stumbled, but I kept looking up, where half of the cannonballs, moved toward the spindle pillar. The shields were not able to stop all the cannonballs, while some didn’t form completely.

Thanks to Zela.

The cannonballs reached the spindle pillar, while at the same time, the water lances reached the shields in front of the ship.

BANNNG!

The cannon balls hit the spindle pillar, creating a massive explosion. So powerful it was dust went in all directions and covered the large area.

The powerful shockwave from it hit the ship and swayed it to one side; I feared, it might upend into the seal.

I don’t know whether it would trip or not, but it presented the opportunity for me, and I fell to the ground and lay flat.

The water lances crashed against shields, but not all of them. Fourth of them came at the ship, which had swayed it to one side.

Bang Bang Bang Bang

The water lances crashed into the swayed starboard to masts, tearing them apart, and sending the splintered wood everywhere. Some hit me hard, pierced my body, and broke my bones, but I didn’t care about any of that.

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All I cared about were the water lances, which had hit the starboard. A few flew directly over me, before crashing into the sea.

Some of them went to Stone and the enemy leader, both separated and dealt with lances, before fighting again.

Even under such an attack; the enemy leader is still trying to kill me.

In seconds, it was all over. I couldn’t believe I had survived. I truly hadn’t thought I would survive.

I craned my neck and looked at the damage the spell had caused, and it made me shudder. There are tens of holes in the ship, with masks broken and sails torn.

If the ship hadn’t swayed by the shockwave; it might have not survived. I might have not survived. In this sense, it was the attack of the enemy mage that had saved us from his other attack.

Hun!

I heaved a big sigh of relief and was about to get up when I saw an enemy leader above me.

I saw his amber eyes, filled with the desire to kill, with his cutlass pointed toward my chest.

“Die!” he said simply, and brought down his cutlass in swift motion, without wasting any time.

I wanted to move my sword to defense, but I knew it could never reach the cutlass. Still, I didn’t close my eyes and looked at the eyes of the bandit leader, who would reap my life in a moment.

The cutlass moved swiftly till there was an inch between it and my chest when suddenly, everything turned black in front of me.

A moment later, it cleared, and a smile appeared on my face.

I am on the ship but in a different place. A place where Stone had been a moment ago and now, he is in the place, where I had been.

I turned toward him and saw him fighting against the enemy leader.

I hope the leader couldn’t use skill twice or I would really be dead. As far as I know, Stone couldn’t use the skill twice in one day.

I looked at them for a second before getting up and expecting another barrage of spells coming at the ship, but there were none. The enemy mage is standing, and, for the first time; he doesn’t seem to be casting any spell.

He is looking at Zela, who is staring back at him.

As if sensing me looking at him, he looked at me.

Fearing he might attack me, I prepared to defend, but he didn’t. Instead, he looked he looked at away at the person behind him, before staring into the distance.

I didn’t know what he was looking at, but I quickly took out the healing potion bottle and drank it, before starting to apply it on the wounds.

There are a lot of injuries on my body. I needed to heal them quickly, to deal with anything that came at me.

“Retreat!”

He said, shocking me and everyone else. It is a word, I was hoping to hear, but didn’t expect he would say it.

His staff shone a second later, with water coming above from the ocean, forming a bridge.

“You are lucky!” said the enemy leader and hopped on the bridge, while I watched blankly.

He reached his ship, and the other four people also appeared on it a second later, while the rest got pulled out of the ocean by the mage. Soon, everybody is back on the ship, but their numbers are less than they had when they first attacked.

People died, our as well as theirs.

The ship began to move, getting further and further till it became a dot in the distance.

“What happened?” I asked finally. “The rescue,” answered Captain Perry from behind.

I didn’t see the rescue ships, but I accepted the answer and sat down.

Zela appeared on the ship several seconds later and sat down, before closing her eyes. She seemed to have fallen asleep, which is not surprising, seeing how she was able to hold herself against a High Mage.

Without her, all of us would have died.

I looked at her for a moment before turning to Stone. Who seemed to have fallen unconscious, but the faint bronze light was still coming off his body.

The power of the elder race comes with the price. The sooner he finishes awakening, the safer he will be, but that process isn’t easy, more than half die.

Captain Perry, on the other hand, is directing everyone who is in a good state. Taking stock of injuries and collecting the dead bodies.

Everyone is silent. Even I didn’t speak much, other than asking a mage to send a few messages. I informed the Count of the condition and his reply was, a little strange, but I am too tired to think about it.

I am feeling very sleepy, but I am waiting for the rescue ships; that finally came into view.

There are three ships; all of them are warships.

It is no wonder the enemies retreated.