Chapter 50 - A Sunny Day

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I heard something falling on the hard wooden floor next to me, immediately followed by Holiés’ voice. “I fucking hate this shit.”

I lifted the white hat with a large brim from my face and turned to look at him. “You should have said something before I accepted the quest.”

“How the fuck I was supposed to know I was going to get seasick?! I’ve never been on a ship!”

“Look at the bright side, we should get back to Dulsalies by tomorrow morning.”

“Yeii.” He threw a weak punch up in the air. “Only one more day of puking everything I eat.”

“At least someone seems to be enjoying this,” I said looking at Akiko.

She was sitting on the taffrail of the ship, dangling her bare legs out. She was wearing a simple white cotton dress held by two thin white straps on her shoulders. The wind was making her long hair fly disorderly towards the back of the ship. She was smiling while looking at the large net that the fishermen were bringing on board and that was full of fish and crustaceans of any kind.

“Well, it’s easy to enjoy the sea when your stomach isn’t trying to crawl out of your mouth.”

“Yep, it is,” I said, pulling my hat back over my face and resuming my sunbathing session.

“Shouldn’t you be working instead of just lazing around?”

“Nah, Akiko is more than enough to do the job.”

“What about the guarding duty?”

“Ready to deploy at any moment,” I said, tapping the halberd on the ground next to me.

“Sure… Anyway, I feel like another one is incoming.”

“You know you don’t have to tell me every single time, right?”

I heard him stir around a bit before jumping up and rushing away.

He returned a couple of minutes later and let himself fall to the ground next to me once more.

“It would be probably be much better if you laid face down and with your feet flat against a wall,” I said, peeking at him from under my hat.

He was lying on his back, his face sweaty and his breath rugged. His eyes, which now seemed like they would fit on a panda from the black circles around the, were staring at me.

“And you’re saying this now?!”

“People usually find out pretty soon on their own.”

“I haven’t slept in three days!” he shouted.

“Oh my, did someone from the crew strike your fancy?”

He just sighed and closed his eyes.

“How boring,” I said, before using holy magic to relieve his symptoms a bit.

“Thanks,” he said, still keeping his eyes closed.

“Sure, sure, you’re welcome.”

At that moment I heard someone approaching from the other side, soon followed by captain’s voice. “Hero Fortuna, I am sorry to interrupt your break, but I think your slave is not enough for the last catch.”

I lifted my hat and looked at the burly man in his fifties who was looking down to me. “Oh please, we are here to work after all.”

I jumped on my feet and picked up the halberd that was laying on the ground. I then looked around to see where Akiko was. I soon found her over one of the large hatches in the middle of the ship.

Six fishermen were busy preparing the fish caught in the net and dumping it inside the hole, while Akiko froze it as it fell. It was obvious, seeing the net that was about a dozen meters long and packet with fish that it was going to take way too much at that pace.

With a spring in my step, and the halberd over my shoulder, I skipped towards them.

When I finally was at Akiko’s side she stopped for a second and, bowing to me, she said, “mistress, I am sorry. It is just too much for me.”

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“Don’t worry,” I glanced at the now sleeping Holiés, “I was starting to get bored anyway.”

Even with the two of us working in tandem, it took over an hour to finish freezing and storing away all the fish that was inside the net.

I was about to go back at my sunbathing spot when I saw a bass that was on the deck flop. I walked up to it and lifted it by its tail.

“Hey, is it ok if I take this?” I shouted towards the fishermen who were preparing the net to cast it out again.

“Sure thing, milady.” The oldest said, barely glancing at the fish in my hand.

I took a small knife and stabbed the fish behind its eyes, killing it in one swift move. I then proceeded to cut the gills and remove the blood, letting it fall were the remainers of the fish processing of before were. While I was at it, I used water magic to clean the deck of all the blood and fish parts still laying around.

With my fish clean, I went back to my sunbathing spot. Holiés was still sleeping and I didn’t bother waking him up for the fishy aperitif.

I sat down on the deck and, using ice magic, conjured a slab of ice. I put the fish over the ice and, using the same knife I had used to kill it, I cut off its tail, then proceeded to cut from head to tail entering from its back, leaving me with two fillets ready to be eaten in only a few swift motions. I threw the head, bone, and entrails that were left off the ship, then I cut the fillets in small, thin slices.

As I took a pink citrus fruit that tasted of sweet lime from my storage, I shouted, “Akiko, come here for a second.”

“Yes, mistress!” came Akiko’s response, accompanied by Holiés’ groaning behind me, as my shouting had probably woken him up.

“What do you need?” she asked when she was in front of me.

“Oh, I just wanted to ask if you wanted to snack a bit with me,” I said, as I covered the raw slices of bass with the juice of the citrus and took a small pouch containing a mix of salt and spices from my storage.

She stared at the sliced fish for a few long seconds, before nodding and sitting on the other side of the ice slab from me.

“What are you two doing?” came the tired voice of Holiés behind me.

I turned around and saw that he had set up in the meantime. “Eating. Want some?”

“What are you even…” He saw me put a slice of fish in my mouth. “Is that thing raw?!”

I just nodded as I kept chewing the firm and tasty fish.

“I think I’ll go puke again.”

I waved at him as he got up and walked towards the taffrail, then went back to my freshly sliced bass.

When I turned back towards it, I saw Akiko with her eyes closed, looking as if she was about to cry.

“You don’t have to force yourself if you don’t like it,” I said.

She shook her head violently, before smiling at me and saying, “no, it is just perfect.”

We kept eating in silence for a while. Akiko would close her eyes every now and then, looking as if she was in deep thought, only to resume eating immediately afterwards.

I didn’t manage to finish my treat, though, as the ship suddenly rocked as I was nearing the end of the fillet, throwing the fish that was resting on the slippery ice on the dirty deck.

I heard the captain shout, “It’s a pausiodan! Everyone in battle positions!” as I grieved over my lost snack.

I immediately shot up, halberd in hand, only to see a giant narwhal-like creature swimming next to the ship, on the opposite side from where I was. The thing was half submersed, but from the part that was visible, it looked to be about forty meters long.

I dashed towards the leviathan, evading the fishermen who were hurrying to the ballistae of the ship, jumped off the deck, and, kicking off the taffrail, onto the beast.

The landing wasn’t of the most graceful. As soon as my bare foot touched the skin of the beast, it slipped off like a bar of soap on a wet floor. Instead of falling off, though, I managed to use the momentum I still had to plant the blade of the halberd inside the monster, finding myself to hit it face-first, but being still anchored to it.

I pulled myself up using the halberd, then, using air magic to give me a further push, I kicked the beast and vaulted to reach its head.

This time I was prepared, and I landed with a slide, which was soon stopped by using the halberd again as an anchor.

Finally on top of his head, I took my rapier from the storage and planted it firmly in the beast’s skull. I then took my mace and brought myself on my feet, still holding to the halberd.

At that moment the beast suddenly moved to the side, away from the ship, and shook its head. It was almost enough to throw me off again, but it only served to make the cut from the halberd even more severe, or, at least, as severe as a cut that is as long as an halberd head can be on a creature that is as big as a ship.

I peeked over its head towards the ship and soon found out the reason for the sudden movement. Three of the two meters long poles that the ballistae on the ship used were firmly planted in the beast’s side.

Before risking the same thing to happen again and finding myself actually having to swim back, I hit the hilt of the rapier with the mace as hard as I could, driving it further inside the pausodian’s head. I then hit it again, and again, until I felt the rapier push through the monster’s skull.

The over one meter long blade was almost completely buried inside the beast when I was finally confident that it had reached the brain.

I put my mace away and, still holding the halberd for safety, I bent down and put a hand around the few centimeters of the mithril blade that were still visible.

I sighed. “Well, here it goes.”

With a shiver I sent lightning magic through the highly conductive metal directly inside the monster’s brain.

The leviathan started convulsing violently, shaking me around. Still, I held myself at the two weapons embedded in it with all my strength and kept the magical onslaught going.

It took a few minutes of violent shaking before the beast finally stopped moved completely, dead.

I rose back to my feet and heard the captain calling for me. “Hero Fortuna! If we manage to bring that thing back to port, I’m going to raise your pay by fifteen golds.”

(Holy shit!)

“Twenty!” I shouted back, to see if I could profit even more from it.

“Eighteen!”

“Deal!”

I looked at the giant beast that was now floating lifeless beneath my feet.

(How the fuck am I supposed to do it tho?)