Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! Let the power of drunk Yuu compel you!
ANYWAY, some naval battle today, hope it is for you guys liking, as it’s not exactly my forte, you know? That, and I hope that the captain’s oddity seems Insania enough for you guys. A bit short of the usual 4k words, but almost there. It IS an action scene, after all. (not that it matters) next chapter should be more brawl like than usual, so I hope I can keep up a good quality.
ALSO, I hope I managed to make drunk Yuu a force to be recognized and feared. A cold and calculating petting machine. As in, she is the one being petted, mind you. And yes, that was a (death) flag that Gon made at the end.
Also(2), While learning Kanji on the net, I ended up fiding that Yuu is the reading for both the kanji of evening and friend, thought it would be interesting to comment…
Have a good read!
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It took me more than a couple of seconds to recover from the shock, and in fact, it was only the obnoxiously cheerful laugh of Skarr that woke me up from my shock. Giving a quick look to my sides, I noticed how both Aura and Crys also seemed locked in a stupor, so I cleared my throat which led them to blink surprised.
“Err… Should we get going?” I asked.
The duo nodded before raising themselves. I quickly jumped out from the bed while opening up the menu and changing from my casual gear to my combat gear. Letting the long sword on my back, I also equipped the bow on the secondary slot as a precaution. After a quick check, it seemed that everything was fine, so I led on.
Aura already had her armor set to enhance her magic, and seeing that a bit more of a rear support wasn’t a bad thing, I decided that there wasn’t need for her to change.
The moment we stepped out from the room, my eyes fell upon a person who was staring at the stairway in shock while standing right in front of me, his… her… Ashley’s back leaning against the wall as the elemental looked flabbergasted.
“Hey, Rival, what happened?” I asked him.
“WHO THE HELL IS YOUR RIVAL?” He shouted back to me.
“Oh, so you recovered. Good.” I said mischievously while seeing him stare cold daggers at me. “So, what the hell happened? You looked a bit surprised…” He made a slightly bothered face at my words.
“A bit is an understatement, master.” Crys added discretely. “He was thoroughly shocked.”
“Hey, I was trying to make him… Her… Him look less pathetic, you know?” I said while putting up a fake shocked tone.
“Oi…” Ashley said with a popping fire vein on the forehead.
“Anyway, how should I actually refer to the third gender? Him or her?” I asked while making a pretty confused face.
“STOP WITH THAT THIRD GENDER!”
“Maybe with ‘it’, master? ‘It’ does not indicate gender.” Crys added in a pensive tone.
“I’M NOT EVEN A PERSON ANYMORE?” Ashley said angrily. “AND REFER TO ME AS ‘HIM’, FOR CYGNASSAKE!” She said while puffing angrily.
While Crys and me looked at her with wide smiles, she became extremely annoyed, but also calmed down for a moment before turning and making his way towards the stairway. The girls and I followed him closely
“Anyway, for a moment I thought that the devil herself passed besides me.” He said with a slight shiver.
“Oh, that was Yuu.” I said briefly, and the salamander stopped for a moment, turning to me in shock.
“That girl? The kitsune?” He asked and I nodded. “…You are kidding me, right?”
“She was drunk… And became a little angry after a few things happened…” I said while scratching my cheek. Luckily, it seemed that the shock eliminated any remains of the alcohol from my mind.
“A little angry?” Ashley asked. “A LITTLE ANGRY? SHE WAS FREEZING THE GROUND WHERE SHE WALKED FOR CYGNAS’SAKE!” He said while pointing towards the ice footprints on the wooden floor.
“Yeah, that might have been an understatement…” I said with a wry smile.
After climbing up the stairs, we quickly made a sharp turn and followed the trail of ice towards the upper deck. As we made our way, I thought something that had been bugging me for some time.
“For someone who wants to be guy, isn’t Ashley a girly name?” He literally slipped when I said my words, falling face first into the ground.
“Please… Don’t even start…” He said in a pleading tone. Seems like I stepped on a landmine with that last question. Quickly helping her up I decided to shelve the matter for later.
Of course, this also meant that the talk ended just as abruptly as it started, but it left an awkward silence hanging between us. Feeling uncomfortable, I decided to try something else.
“So… Why exactly are you in a rush to help?”
“If this blimp falls, I die. Simple as that.” He replied coldly.
Fair enough.
…
By the time we reached the upper deck, most of the passengers had already gone down to their bedrooms, so the only one besides the crew here were my group minus Lily and Argento, my rival, who looked annoyed at me for some reason, and Lucas’ group.
Of course the captain was also here, and he had a cheerful face that felt oddly out of place in his feral look. For some reason he had a long rifle in one hand and a mug of ale on the other and kept singing cheerfully. If he put on an eye-patch, he would be indifferent from any other pirate out there. The crewmembers were visibly more tense, but they all had an excited look in their eyes, and didn’t seem worried at all.
Maybe they actually have experience with this kind of thing.
Strangely enough, I couldn’t see any enemy pirate on the deck, so for a moment I wondered what had happened, but then I saw it.
A large ball of fire hit the lateral of the ship, only to be blocked by a thin cyan layer that popped up right at the last moment. A couple of the crew-members that were focusing winced, but soon enough their faces went back to normal.
Looking from the direction that the fireball came, I could see a couple of blimps flying in parallel with our own blimp. Although I said that, I could still barely reach it with an arrow from this distance, but could give no guarantee about the precision.
“~~Raise de boat, turn the helm to board,
Mages of fire, blast em all ashore!
On the count to three and let the fire go
Watch the fireworks and say YO HO!~~”
The captain sang cheerfully, and it took me a couple of seconds to understand that these were orders, and just like that, the ship rose a few meters in the air while turning slightly to the side just as another large fireball passed close by. The sudden movement made me and Ash almost lose our balances, but we quickly held onto the railing before falling.
Some of the mages immediately cast a magic in perfect synchro, creating a massive fireball that flew in an arc before hitting one of the enemy’s vessels. Sadly, it seemed that the attack was stopped by a barrier similar to the ones we used.
“ “ “ YO HO! ” ” ” The men sang together on the rythim of the captain.
Seeing that ridiculous scene, me and Ash looked at the others in search of an explanation, but they all simply shrugged.
After a brief search, I quickly found the person who had stormed out of my room furiously a few minutes ago. Yuu was standing on the very edge of the ship while all her support was the robe that locked the blimp to the ship.
“…llpaytheywillpaytheywillpaytheywillpaytheywillpay…” She kept muttering.
Okay, she’s out of it. Let’s leave the ominous kitsune with the darker than black aura floating behind her and try to gather information from someone else.
“Gon! What the hell happened with Yuu-chan? She’s scary!” Hanbei said while approaching me, and I could only smile awkwardly.
“Long story.” I said briefly. “So, what exactly is happening here?” I asked confused as the captain sang another order suddenly, making the ship swerve erratically.
“Three pirate blimps appeared a few minutes ago and started to bombard us from afar.” Hanbei said. “Normal magic either doesn’t reach them or is stopped by the barrier spell, so we are in an exchange of bombardment magic right now.”
“So… There’s nothing for us to do?” I asked confused while I looked at Lucas party, seeing the demon cast another huge fireball all by herself.
“No, the captain said that they should send a boarding party soon…”
“~~Fire is coming, escape is nigh
All barriers sent up, brace for impact
Fight fire with ice, lets stop them solid
Fox lass right there, giving a help is welcome!
On count to seven, fire it upwards
Let if fall on them and show who we are, lads!~~”
Just as the man sang, it didn’t take long for the fireball to hit the upper part of the blimp. For a moment I paled in worry as there was the chance of it igniting the gas inside the blimp, but even though the blimp shook, it seemed that the barrier stopped it just fine.
Just as he said, Yuu quickly changed her focus from wanting to slaughter then one by one to instant mass murder and helped the mages in their casting while using the gauntlets she earned back at Eldor.
After reaching a count of seven, the magicians launched the huge ice spikes in an upward angle. For a moment I thought it was going to miss, but the ice made an arc after a gust of wind hit it, swerving it to the side and landing on the ship spot on. Although some of the ice broke in contact with the barrier, enough still passed that it damaged the crewmen.
Still, from what I could see, there were only two blimps nearby, yet Han-chan mentioned three of them. While I looked around in confusion, I received my answer as another silly song.
“~~Here they come, it’s time for the brawl
Take your weapons, your magic and balls
From board and starboard they soon shall fall
So listen to the captains orders! KILL THEM ALL!~~”
In a furious tone, the captain ended the last phrase while taking his rifle and aiming at what seemed nowhere. However, the moment he pulled the trigger, huge smoke screen came out from the barrel, and a rain of bullets hit on a random pirate that was just landing on the deck after jumping from something above us.
The non-magician crewmember all raised their voices in a battle cry as they all ran towards the pirates that landed on the ship non-stop like a falling rain.
Noticing that we kind of lost our chance to get into battle, the four of us (aura included) stood in the corner waiting for the next wave. Changing to my bow, I quickly started to scan the battlefield looking for places where the battle wasn’t going in our favor.
It was a bit of a bizarre scene. Even when the pirates or the crewmembers took attacks that clearly should have killed them, like an attack to the head or the heart, they still kept fighting on like almost nothing happened. It was only at times like these that it really felt that this was a game.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Still, this doesn’t mean that the battles weren’t violent.
The ones that happened to fall near Yuu didn’t really have much chance.
And I mean fall, not land, because the moment that she could reach them, she would simply sweep them overboard, this way she wouldn’t need to drag the fight too long. Efficient to a scary degree, as I could constantly hear the poor soul’s cries as they fell to their deaths.
For a moment, I felt as a cold feeling passed through my body. What we are doing right now, isn’t it killing?
As that thought passed on me, I couldn’t help but feel a slight sense of incongruence within me. But I quickly dismissed it when I saw a pirate aiming for the captain’s back. Pulling my bow, I used a quick-shot to stagger the guy, giving the gargoyle enough time to notice what was happening.
-21 -21 -21 -21
-84 (632/1300)
However, before he could even point his rifle towards the guy, a gun-shot echoed. But instead of simply taking the damage of a bullet, Yami appeared behind the guy while wielding a rifle with one hand and a kunai in the other.
She immediately stabbed the kunai in the guy’s neck where a burst of shadows exploded from the knive’s tip. Following that attack, she also managed to land a couple more slices with the small knife before shooting the guy in the back with her musket.
-131 -8 -8 -35
COMBO! (x1.2)
-218 (414/1300)
As the pirate recovered from the impact, he turned to her and raised his sword in a ferocious looking attack. However, before the attack could land on Yami, she pointed the rifle towards me.
And Shot.
I didn’t even have time to react to the bullet, but even after getting hit, I didn’t feel anything at all, and when I looked back at the scene, Yami had already disappeared from the guy’s proximity.
“Looking for something?” I heard she ask from behind me, making me jump startled. “Shadow shot. Allows the user to teleport to behind the target of the bullet, and won’t incur cooldown unless used twice.”
“And the dagger?” I asked curious while watching the pirate look around in confusion.
“Marked for Death. Massive bonus damage to the auxiliary weapon if used from behind the target. Increases damage taken by ten percent for one minute.” She said with a proud tone.
It took me a moment to understand what she meant by auxiliary weapon. But after some time I remembered that players could equip a small weapon besides their main one for emergency cases, even though it didn’t deal significant damage.
I couldn’t do that because I would lose the benefit of cycle weapons though…
As I ignored that though, Ashley overheard our conversation and nodded briefly before darting ahead. If Yami used daggers as assassination weapons, hot-head used them as fighting weapons, because he didn’t even try to hide the fact that he was attacking.
The bandit tried to raise his weapons to block the incoming dagger, but a kick to the guts stopped him as the dagger came from above, piercing the back of his head. While he removed the daggers, he also landed her knee on the guy’s face, making a crunching sound. As the bandit’s head lifted, Ashley finalized with some strange skill that made her daggers shine a dark light.
-12 -37 -41 -20 -150 -150
-410 (4/1300)
HO. LEE. SHI. TE.
What the hell was that damage? As I watched the scene in shock, I saw as Ashley clicked his tongue in annoyance, but before he could finish the pirate, Captain shot him in the head, killing the pirate.
I felt an uncomfortable feeling deep in my chest, but I held it in.
“Not bad, lads.” The captain said with an raised eyebrow before looking at me, then he suddenly gave me a pitying gaze.
“I KNOW MY DAMAGE WASN’T MUCH, OKAY?” I said in sullen tone before pouting childishly. “My bow isn’t as good as my sword when it comes to raw damage…”
“I said nothing…” The gargoyle said while laughing.
“But it was written all over your face, you know?” I said with a sigh.
As we exchanged that little talk, the sound of battles slowly started to die down, and the captain briefly made a surprised face as he turned to his back, before smiling fiercely.
“GET READY MEN! THE SECOND WAVE IS COMING SOON! DAHAHAHAHA!” He said with a wide smile.
I blinked surprised and nodded to myself while removing some arrows from my inventory. Since my damage wasn’t all that good, might as well try to do some support. This would be easier than getting the jumbo sword to swing around in the fairly small deck. Climbing on the table that was still nailed down in the middle of the deck, I stabbed some varied arrows in it so that I could have some easy access to them.
Yami seemed to have the same idea as mine, because she also climbed on it where she could have some better vision for her shots.
“SHIIIIISHOU!” Yuu suddenly shouted while leaping upon the table and hugging me. Blinking surprised, I turned to her and looked at the kitsune in confusion. “They were too weak! I couldn’t even get my revenge!” She said in a pouting tone that left me worried.
“Well, you don’t really need to get revenge, do yo…”
“I DO!” She said angrily before dropping her tone to a spine chilling one. “They took away my time with Shishou. That’s unforgiveable.”
I saw as everyone on the deck felt a shiver going down on their spines as she muttered those words, me included. Gulping down in worry, I gently patted her head for a moment, and this seemed to calm her for a few seconds.
But after some time she perked up and looked at me straight in the eyes at an slightly worrying distance, or lack of.
“When we finish here, we can go back to where we stopped, right?” She said in the sweetest of the voices that made me blush slightly. Without even waiting for my reply she gave a quick nod before walking away to the place where she had been before. Seeing that, the others eyed me suspiciously, but I simply cleared my throat and said.
“We did nothing.”
I’m almost sure they didn’t believe me.
Sighing in defeat, I turned towards the blimps and saw as they bombarded us once again.
“~~Men of the air, my voice you heed
The upper fool our hunger shall feed
The moment they descend, we do the deed
Stones the size to shame siege
Shall pierce from beneath, towards their bridge!~~”
As he sang that silly song, the magicians once again became ready while casting their spell. A huge earthen spear appeared on the side of the ship, and just as the spear fired upwards, the first pirates of the next wave started to fall.
There was the sound of wood breaking apart as the spear pierced through the ship, and I could only wonder in shock how the hell it happened, as everything else seemed to simply bounce off the barrier.
Still, I didn’t bother too much with it and simply watched as the men kept on falling on the deck. However, before even the third one could fall, the captain once again sang. Immediately after, the ship followed his commands by swerving downwards and to the side, just as the massive ship fell besides us.
“Seriously, how the hell do you do that?” I asked in shock as the few pirates either fell from the dislodged ship or were kicked out from ours due to sheer number.
“Experience, cousin.” He said in a cheerful mood.
“And do you need to sing?” I asked curious and he laughed.
“That is my skill, cousin!” He said while chugging down a large mug of wine. “Pirate’s song! The drunker and the merrier, the better it gets!” He said while doing a spin.
“Okay…” I said warily before looking at Yuu, who had once again gone back to the side of the ship and kept staring at the far away ships. “So… What’s next?”
“They should send their men through mounts, I guess?” He said with a shrug before pointing towards the farthest ship. “See the larger one? Looks like it has a pen for beasts. I could guess it’s their boarding party or something… Maybe aerial troops for all I know.” He said with a laugh before turning towards the men and singing once again.
For a moment, a strange tense atmosphere fell between our ship and the adversary, and nothing happened as they decided on what they were going to do. They did lose one of their ship in a single strike just now, so they were probably deciding on what to do.
Likewise, Skarr, despite his warmongering personality, didn’t go buy a fight with them. After around three minutes, there was some movement, as the two ships started to approach us from afar. One of the coming up while the other lowered itself. Skarr made a light frown when he saw both ships casting the siege fireballs.
I Seeing that I might have a chance, I quickly took one of the arrows I had stuck on the table and put it on my bow. The captain raised an eyebrow at it, but I ignored him and took aim at the lowest fireball.
“Confirm this for me, but they can’t cast the fireball if the shield is still up, right?” I asked doubtful. The large Gargoile widened his eyes for a moment before nodding.
“Think you can do it?” He asked me. “That’s a pretty difficult shot you are trying right there.”
“Nope.” I replied with a wide smile. “Probably going to miss, but it’s worth a shot, I guess?” I said while shrugging.
Skarr laughed loudly while nodding before turning to look at the ship, watching as they charged up the fireball.
After a moment he started singing up some orders like always, I paid enough attention to his words and tried to guess when exactly they were going to take a shot. Just when I saw a tiny bit of movement on the ball’s trajectory, I tensed up my body, took aim…
Then Yuu jumped.
The scene was so ridiculous and unexpected, that we all simply stared in shock for a good five seconds. It was only when Yuu grabbed hold of a rope of the enemy ship and swung inside it that it finally dawned on us what happened.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me…” I said in sheer shock.
“WHAT A LASS! I WOULDN’T HAVE THE COURAGE TO DO THAT! DAHAHAHAHAHA!” Skarr laughed his ass off. I simply grimaced while looking around for a moment.
“Bah, Screw it. LIEUTENANT, YOU AND RIO WITH ME! AURA, SUPPORT FROM ABOVE, CRYS, KEEP A LOOKOUT FOR NASTY SURPRISES.” I shouted quickly, all the animals that were scattered around the ship blinked surprised before nodding.
Lieutenant quickly understood my intention and found a piece of rope lying around. Since I’m not exactly good with knots, I had Aura simply freeze the rope on the railing before grabbing Lieutenant and jumping over. Rio quickly followed us while flying.
While cursing under my breath, I swore to the gods that I would NEVER, EVER, let Yuu drink again.