While everyone was cheering because of the victory, Lorian was disgruntled. 

 - They were just small fries.

He mumbled discontentedly.

Aaron was also frowning.

''It was too easy a win, well, at least their numbers were reduced by 30 or so, better than nothing.''

After having a refreshing bath, the majority slept, while a few stayed up.

Lorian put the blanket on Elaine, who was snuggled in small bed, then sat down cross-legged. Withdrawing a silver card, he appraised it

Sentiment ghost king, Hosar (Elite) Card

Description: The monster card can be summoned for 1 hour a day. The card disappears if the monster dies. The host can also morph into the card monster for 5 minutes and can have access to said monster's skills. Host's power level remains unchanged in the morphed state.

Details: As a non-dimensional being, the ghost king has 80-95% physical and 50% magical immunity. The defense is negative in a single digit. Agility is boosted by 300%, dexterity by 150%, strength decreased by 90%.

Monster realm: Mortal (7500/10000)

Stats: 

✠ 175

⚔ 1-75

Skills:

Consume (Passively feeds on negative emotions and gets stronger)

Invade (Penetrates foe's mind and soul, filling it with negative emotions. The skill effectiveness depends on foe's mental fortitude)

Shriek (AOE debuff skill. Demoralizes foes and has a small chance to cause fear, stun, and a hallucination. 5% chance to reduce foes' stats by 5% for 5 seconds)

Ravaging claws (Uses clawing attacks at high frequency on a single target. A chance to inflict random debuff and poison the enemy)

Sap (Passively consumes foe's mental energy and stamina)

This ghost wasn't so deadly, but its mental attacks would be excellent for the current situation.

''If I were to constantly wear them down, they won't be in a top condition in our last battle. Hehehe, Tonight is going to be entertaining.''

Dozens of people died today, so the resentment and negative emotions would be plenty to strengthen the ghost's mental attacks.

The Harpies were bound to have sleepless nights.

''I wonder if they are afraid of ghosts, though? Hmm, let's see their reactions. Hmm, a brief entrance should be enough for today. I'll also morph into it, making the ghost king much stronger. Though I'll be risking my life this way, it's not a problem. The ghost can pass through things and has tripled agility, so I'll be fine.''

Lorian grinned as the silver card in his hand flashed with light.

*  *  * 

Engel was dozing off, inspecting her beautiful feathers when she felt chill from somewhere and instantly got battle-ready, alerted.

''Huh? There's nothing?''

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Her guards also seemed uncomfortable, looking around in alert.

Suddenly, a ghostly shriek echoed in the dead of the night.

Engel felt chills as fear sprouted in her heart.

 - W, wh, what was this?!

...

The guards stared into the distance solemnly. One to the right finally spoke up.

 - I think this place is haunted, my lady.

 - H..haunted? Nooo~ What to do? I...I don't want to see a ghost.

Engel fretted.

 - There's no need to fear, my lady. We will handle the ghost. We won't let a single feather be harmed on our future queen and hope.

The guard said determinedly.

 - No, no, no...let's just finish them off, I don't want to stay here a second longer.

Engel spoke meekly, her voice sounding as weak as a buzz of a mosquito.

The guard shook his head and said.

 - Sorry, my lady, we were instructed to oversee your battle ability and battle intellect. The challenges we have to face back home will not be such walk in a park, but truly life-threatening. The future majesty needs to hone both her abilities, intellect, and mentality.

Engel hesitated a bit but still wasn't convinced by the persuasion.

 - We can find another ship. Please, I don't want to stay here anymore.

The guards hesitated. They didn't want to offend the future queen, but couldn't oppose the Harpy queen's orders either. They were stuck between a rock and a hard place.

 - My lady, how about...let's flee the second things seem even a bit awry. I'll make sure my lady gets away safely. I'll put my life on the line for this cause. Please trust this servant of yours.

The guard bowed his head in submission. He was surprisingly clever for being a bird. With this sentence, he offended neither the queen nor the future one. Instead, he might have won the admiration of the latter. 

Engel hesitated as she was moved this time.

Pouting, she said.

 - Fine. But the moment something is off, I'll escape at top speed. You need to shield me from lady mother's wrath later if that happens.

The guard smiled wryly but still made a vow.

After this, Engel's mood seemed to improve, which quickly soured as she felt another chilling shriek, then it quieted down.

The scouts returned empty-handed, claiming there was nothing there. 

Engel couldn't sleep at all. Though she could last without sleep for a couple of days, she would be fatigued the following day. 

Harpies weren't the only ones having a sleepless night. Even the sailors and the travelers were afraid, but Lorian decided against explaining things. He didn't want to reveal his trump cards.

Another few skirmishes happened the following day. This time, they managed to kill 26 Harpies, but 2 of the travelers died while 3 were injured. Their morale wasn't that good, but the situation was contained by the captain. 

At night, the ghost shrieks once again disturbed everyone's sleep, but the Harpy scouts couldn't find anything this time either. 

The following day the casualties on their side dramatically increased. The Harpies were no longer holding back, appearing impatient. 

It was no longer that easy to contain the situation, but it once again stabilized simply because everyone didn't have another option. Their morale was low. They lacked sleep. The violent inner skirmishes also increased. 

Feeling the impatience of the Harpies, Lorian was long since convinced of the scare the ghost was giving them. He could see every third of them had a lasting negative effect because of it, but he decided to push it no longer. He wouldn't send out the ghost that night. Being on edge, most probably they wouldn't sleep well either way, but they wouldn't make any dramatical decisions.

That night, only a small group of them went out to fight: Lorian, captain, Brendan, Elaine, and Aaron. 

They were the strongest of the bunch so they brought a lot of destruction on the Harpies' side. They killed a whole 58 of them, but as a result, some of them were injured too. Brendan was especially, heavily injured. He would most probably be unable to continue fighting.

The situation was turning tense every passing second. The Harpies were no longer holding back that much. That night, Lorian harrassed the Harpies with the ghost king's shouts for a whole hour, while controlling the ghost king to hide from the Harpies' detection.

The last fight was bound to happen tomorrow, so he had to reduce their fighting capability as much as possible. Appraising the Harpies, Lorian was satisfied to see almost every Harpy had at least 1 debuff. Some of them even had 2 and more. They wouldn't wear off that soon.

The Harpies wouldn't go for an all-out war at night, so they were safe for now.

The crew and the travelers gathered and discussed tomorrow's fight. The situation wasn't great for them, but nobody was willing to go down without a fight. They swore to bring down the cruel birdmen to their graves.

Lorian shared the page of the book of sages to Elaine, successfully increasing her vision attribute, which included an increase in perception, which was crucial for assassins. Lorian also grew quite friendly with Aaron, but he was hesitant to share that page with him. He didn't know him well enough to trust him with his secrets.

The morning rays of the sun broke out the darkness of the night.

The atmosphere was tense as everyone was preparing for the last battle, where both sides would fight to the death.

The Harpies numbered almost 500, while only 50 were battle capable on their side. There were also 150 or so civilians incapable of the fight. They were being outnumbered 10:1

Finally, the crew and the travelers unitedly came out of the cabins, facing the Harpies, who were blotting out the sky with their numbers.

 - Kill everyone. Destroy the ship.

Engel gave the command and the flock of birdmen descended from the skies with terrifying momentum.