Leon and Alix, mounted upon Anzu, pursued Jormun as quickly as they could without abandoning all caution. The ships Sigebert had sent into the narrows had been heavily damaged and disabled by the pirate, though Jormun had lost all the ships he’d deployed. From what Alix told Leon, the caves she’d collapsed had also contained a few ships apiece, leading Leon to believe that Jormun had intended to lead the Legion ships into these narrows where he’d be able to spring ambushes and wreak havoc upon them with his short-range Flame Lances.

However, it seemed a bit too easy to Leon, making him think that maybe they’d managed to move quickly enough that this was an ad-hoc plan thrown together by Jormun when he realized he was being followed.

‘This should be it…’ Leon thought to himself. Jormun likely hadn’t the time to make any more contingencies, but Leon wasn’t going to bet on that, not after everything that had happened during the Legion’s mission here in the Serpentine Isles.

Jormun, however, wasn’t even close to being done. It seemed he was throwing caution to the wind and abandoning any plans he still had, as Leon could see him on the deck of his ship, using his water magic to help his ship practically fly through this web of fjords and straits. The narrows as a whole weren’t that extensive, so it was only a matter of a few minutes before Jormun burst out and engaged the nearest group of Legion ships, which were still locking down the main entrances and exits of the straits.

Leon frowned when he realized precisely where Jormun was going: he was making for the weakest of the Legion battlegroups locking the entrances down, one that was far enough away from Sigebert’s dreadnoughts that at his speed, he’d probably be able to blaze right through without having to worry about Legion Flame Lances.

‘To the hells with that,’ Leon thought as he fished a few more flare spells out of his soul realm. He fired them off, then updated Maia on Jormun’s position. In the distance, he could hear the horns of Sigebert’s flagship sounding off as the message was relayed from Maia to Gaius and then to Sigebert. He could see the dreadnoughts start to move just as clearly as he could see Jormun quickly glare over his shoulder at him.

Leon relished that look, and he sent Jormun the smuggest, most shit-eating grin he could muster. Jormun seemed to darkly chuckle, then turned his attention back to his ship. The waves that were carrying the ship onward at great speed seemed to grow even more intense, and the pirate ship rocketed through the channels.

This increased speed came at the cost of taking a bit of damage as the ship scraped against various rocks that were in the waterways, but Jormun didn’t seem to care, and Leon guessed any damage was probably going to be minimal anyway. With a water mage like Jormun onboard, that ship was going to have to take extreme damage before it would sink.

Leon, Alix, and Anzu pursued Jormun from far above, with Leon firing off a few flares as they went so that the Legion always knew where Jormun was. Leon could see a few ships breaking off from the other battlegroups to reinforce this location, including both dreadnoughts, but if this was going to turn into a race, then Jormun would win. Leon could only do everything possible to prevent Jormun from just breaking through the Legion blockage and making a run for it. He needed the pirate to be caught and then destroyed by the Legion’s superior firepower.

Leon realized with some amount of exhilaration and anxiety that he was probably going to have board Jormun’s ship if he wanted to be of any help in that endeavor. With three seventh-tier mages on that ship, it would be terribly dangerous, but the alternative was allowing Jormun to have his way with the fleets and probably escape.

This was a one-time thing. Leon knew that Jormun had probably just been having fun with the Legion this entire time—not just during this battle, but during their entire time in the Serpentine Isles. Now that he knew the Legion was on his ass, Leon didn’t think that he was going to take any more chances. He’d finish his work in releasing this Serpent or whatever it was without any more delays.

They had to stop him here, or else they wouldn’t be able to stop him in time to stop his plans.

Jormun turned the final corner and made visual contact with the first few Legion war galleys that were blocking his path. There was a wide semi-circle of a couple dozen war galleys blocking the exit, along with several dozen additional small ships filling in the gaps. Leon had little hope for the small ships with their measly crews of ten or twenty, but the war galleys had their artillery, and thank to Leon’s warnings, these weapons were ready.

Jormun’s ship came blazing down this last strait, and as soon as it came into range, a barrage of explosive spheres and stones were released by the war galleys.

Much like the previous attempts, however, these weapons failed to penetrate the golden barrier that was thrown up around Jormun’s ship by his seventh-tier light mage. The barrier was cracked in a few places for just a couple seconds before the light mage allowed it to dissipate, but the ship hadn’t even slowed down.

Leon urged Anzu on, now, and after firing off a few final flares to let everyone know that Jormun had made contact with the Legion, he brought the griffin into a quick dive.

“Start shooting!” Leon ordered Alix, and she immediately complied. Shooting arrows from the back of a flying griffin while sharing her space with him wasn’t easy, but she sure made it seem like it was as she fired off arrow after arrow at Jormun’s ship. Leon noted that she was mixing in regular arrows with the explosive arrows he’d given her, forcing the fire mage, who’d turned her attention to them as Anzu began to dive, to waste her magic burning each and every arrow before they fell upon the ship.

Leon, meanwhile, got a grip on Anzu’s saddle with one hand to keep himself steady, and in the other he conjured a lightning bolt. He hurled it and was unsurprised when the golden barrier slammed into place just in time to block the bolt. But he conjured another and hurled it, hoping that every scrap of power that the light mage was using on blocking him couldn’t then be used to defend the ship from the Legion artillery, and vice versa.

In response, the female fire mage screamed in frustration so loudly that Leon could hear her as if it were she riding Anzu with him and not Alix, and she began to throw fireballs as swiftly as she was able. Most of those fireballs were thrown in Leon’s direction, for the pirate ship was still fairly distant from the Legion war galleys, though growing closer every second.

They were far enough away, however, that Anzu merely had to flap his wings, and a burst of his wind magic pushed them out of the way, letting the fire bite nothing but air before it fizzled out a few hundred feet behind them.

Leon, keeping in mind his earlier mistake with his flight suit, kept Anzu at a relative distance from Jormun’s ship, for the time being. Risking himself and his flight suit was one thing—and it was a risk that hadn’t paid off—but he wasn’t going to risk either Alix or his griffin being shot out of the sky.

Jormun shouted something that was lost in the din of more exploding stones and other artillery strikes from the war galleys, but his meaning became clear as dozens more pirates came rushing out onto the deck, armed with bows, javelins, or their own magic. Jormun’s ship was rapidly closing on the Legion war galleys, so he clearly needed his people ready for more personal battle.

In a matter of about thirty seconds, his ship came tearing out of the mouth of the channel and right into the kill box of the war galleys. Artillery was fired from every ship that had such weapons in range. Jormun responded with great tidal waves that blocked some of these shots, while the rest were blocked by his light mage or one of the wind mages on the deck of his ship.

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These waves Jormun conjured went on ahead of his ship, hitting the Legion ships like a tsunami. The war galleys were largely fine, but many of the smaller ships were immediately submerged, and did not come back to the surface. Leon was a little disturbed to notice that very few of the Legion sailors crewing those ships managed to surface, as well.

Jormun kept on going, his ship riding a huge wave as it careened for the center of the Legion line. Leon felt the power of the pirate’s Flame Lances preparing to open up, and he realized that it was now or never if he was going to make another risky play—if he didn’t, he felt like it was quite likely that Jormun was going to be able to escape.

Leon encouraged Anzu to fly higher and advance. He needed to be over and a little bit ahead of Jormun’s ship for his plan. Alix paused as she fired her arrows, but a reassuring smile from Leon had her back to picking her targets and shooting, even though those arrows had yet make it past the slowly-cracking light shield.

Below, the war galleys didn’t just sit and watch Jormun’s ship advance upon them; their magic engines roared and the water behind them churned with the power of the ships’ enchantments as they quickly pivoted to face their pirate foe and prepared themselves to try and ram his ship as it made to pass.

Jormun didn’t slow down. He let loose with another tremendous wave of water to try and clear the way for him to break through the Legion lines, but the war galleys were too massive for such a wide-ranging attack to work, even for a mage such as him.

Leon pulled Anzu out of his climb above and ahead of Jormun’s ship—for as fast as Jormun’s ship was, Anzu in the air was still quite a bit faster—and took one last moment to ask himself if he was sure he wanted to do this. It was at least six or seven hundred feet straight down to the deck of Jormun’s ship, and even with his power, Leon wasn’t sure if that was a fall he could take without injury. Breaking a leg, or even just a toe could mean death with three other seventh-tier mages on that ship.

However, Leon could still feel the Flame Lances on the pirate’s ship humming with power…

Leon ordered Alix to keep up the pressure, and then he jumped off Anzu’s back. He heard the surprised shrieks of his former squire and his young griffin, and then the wind in his ears blocked out just about everything else.

He fell fast, but with his lightning magic surging through his veins, the five or six seconds it took for him to fall seemed almost an eternity. He could see the looks of surprise and alarm in the faces of Jormun and the other two seventh-tier mages, he could see the looks of momentary terror in the eyes of the other pirates on the deck as he fell like upon them like a bolt from a furious sky god.

Up to this point, the light barrier erected by the light mage hadn’t completely encircled the ship. He’d mostly confined it to the areas that actually needed defending—in front of the ship to block Legion artillery, behind to block Leon and Alix’s ranged strikes—but now, Leon saw him roar in exertion as he caused the shield to grow and cover the ship completely, forming a perfect half-sphere that protected the ship. The Legion continued to hit it with artillery, while Alix and Anzu were already retreating a ways, meaning that the light mage now had to defend from ahead, behind, and above.

He was being spread thin, and as Leon contorted in the air, he planned to exploit the hells out of that. Leon wound himself up in the air, drawing his sword arm back and preparing for what could quite possibly the last strike he ever made in his life, so he called upon as much power as he could to give that strike its proper weight.

Leon hit the shield like a falling star. Just before he made contact, he stabbed forward with his blade, trusting in his Adamant weapon to cut right through. It positively glowed with silver-blue lightning, and when it hit the shield, Leon momentarily blinded even himself with how much lightning erupted from him. He became like a second sun for a few seconds, but more importantly, under the pressure of the artillery and his prodigious strike, the barrier of light collapsed like a cheap shack in a hurricane.

Leon barely even felt the impact, traveling through the barrier so quickly that he didn’t even slow down, and when he crashed onto the deck of Jormun’s ship, all the built-up power that hadn’t been expended on the barrier detonated. The wood beneath Leon’s feet fractured and burned, while more than a dozen nearby pirates were ripped to shreds by arcs of lightning emanating from his body.

Of course, Jormun’s ship was designed for the treacherous waves of the Endless Ocean, and so Leon wasn’t surprised when his attack did little more than burn and break the deck. Instead, he focused completely on the light mage, who’d screamed in pain and exhaustion as his barrier finally collapsed, then himself collapsing a moment later.

There were half a dozen pirates and about forty feet between Leon and the light mage, but with his power peaking, Leon cut through the pirates like they weren’t even there. Blood was spilled, and Leon’s lightning filled the air with its unmistakable scent, and he reached the collapsed light mage with little trouble. Leon loomed over him like a war god over a conquered enemy, lightning dancing across his body in such quantities that he’d practically vanished within its light.

Leon raised his blade, and without a single moment of hesitation, brought it crashing down…

… only for it to be deflected almost at the last moment by the female fire mage’s blade, once more covered in golden fire.

The female fire mage didn’t take a single second to gloat, she just pressed Leon with her blazing blade.

Leon gave ground; he knew from their last bout that she probably had him beat in terms of raw power—especially so now that he didn’t have his armor to compensate for that power difference—so he’d have to get a little more crafty if he didn’t want her to stop him here and now. However, while he let her take up the lion’s share of his attention, his true goal was to knock the light mage out of the fight in the next minute or two, before Jormun’s ship came into contact with the Legion war galleys.

Feinting back, Leon baited the fire mage away from her comrade. Her expression was wrathful and her killing intent towered, matching his in breadth and intensity; she followed his lead without too much trouble.

She slashed; he dodged. She stabbed; he deflected. She advanced; he pulled back. Every ounce of his skill in battle was tested, and then some, but Leon drew her further and further away from the light mage, who was slowly struggling back to his feet, exhaustion clear on his face. A moment later, an explosion rocked Jormun’s ship as a Legion explosive boulder burst along its flank.

Leon couldn’t see how much damage the ship took, but he took full advantage of the situation.

As the ship shook, the fire mage’s balance shifted ever so slightly. She was strong and experienced, so this was normally nothing more than a small annoyance, but it was all Leon needed.

Suddenly, he completely switched tactics; he ducked under a wave of fire that she’d launched from her blade, then blasted with a significant portion of the lightning he’d been building up in his sword the entire fight. She was taken off-guard, especially with the rocking of the ship, and Leon sprang forward.

She still had the poise to bring her blade up to defend herself and to angle her body to maximize the effect of her armor, but she wasn’t Leon’s target; he blasted right past her, much to her surprise, and appeared before the light mage once more.

The light mage’s eyes widened in shock and terror, but he couldn’t do anything with all of his power already committed to the light barrier that he was trying to rebuild.

Leon made it quick. His blade slipped past the light mage’s arm, striking into a gap in his armor at the arm pit, slipped between his ribs, and skewered his heart, killing him instantly.

What little of the light barrier that he’d managed to create in these past few seconds instantly collapsed just as another salvo of Legion artillery came raining down upon the ship. Leon heard Jormun roar as he conjured a huge wave to shield his ship, but he was only partially successful. Huge boulders exploded in the air, showering the deck with shrapnel, while fiery explosions covered large sections of the ship, killing Jormun’s crew in droves.

Behind him, cutting through all of the cries of pain and the dying, Leon heard the fire mage roar in rage and loss. She launched herself at him with so much fiery force that she bent and cracked the deck where she’d stood.

But while fire mages were known for explosive speed, they were still not in the same league as lightning mages at the peaks of their power; Leon leaped right over her, avoiding the massive conflagration she brought with her. A few of her fellow pirates weren’t quite so lucky, but she didn’t seem to care, even as her fires roasted them alive.

She turned and swung her blade at him, and her sword spewed golden fire. Leon already had some experience with the terrifying power of this fire, and so he fell back once more, escaping only by the skin of his teeth and by a few quick swipes of his blade to cut through some of the fire with blasts of lightning.

Then, Leon charged at her. The light mage was dead, and the Legion could deal with this ship, now. There was no more reason to play around with positioning. Besides, he was unarmored, and she wasn’t; all it would take would be one mistake, and he’d be brought to a violent end.

He lunged forward, his blade crackling and sparkling with silver-blue light as he aimed to finish this fight as quickly as possible, as she brought her blade back up to defend herself.

However, before Leon could even make contact with her, a great wall of water sprouted between them, pushing them away from each other.

“Leon fucking Raime…” Jormun spat as he slowly walked over, his demeanor eerily calm amongst the explosions and the screaming and the death. “I have to say… You’ve really caught me flat-footed here, haven’t you?”