The sound of cannon fire, battle cries, clashing blades, and bodies hitting water — the deck had fallen into chaos.
Through the hole blasted open by the cannonade, Lin Jun could observe the scene outside.
Sailors and guards fought with everything they had, cutting down the water ghosts clambering onto the deck one by one.
These monsters weren't particularly powerful, but they came in an endless stream. The moment anyone let their guard down, they'd be dragged overboard.
The sailors and guards reacted with utter authenticity — every one of them fighting for their lives as if they were truly alive. The fat merchant was the same.
Feeling the blade against his throat, the fat merchant trembled and kept talking.
He spoke so fast that even Sephiria's translation was struggling to keep up — but in the end it was all just begging and negotiating. He wanted the Puchi to let him go first so they could fight the water ghosts together.
Perfectly reasonable. If this weren't inside the mist.
Schk.
The merchant dropped to his knees, clutching his throat in disbelief, blood welling steadily between his fingers.
His other hand was still groping toward his waist, where he kept a life-saving potion.
But Lin Jun didn't hesitate. He struck again and finished the merchant off for good.
The fighting on deck continued. The ghost ship's cannon fire didn't stop.
So the merchant wasn't the core of this mist after all.
Two guards roared and charged at the Puchi that had killed their employer — only to be knocked down by two water serpents bursting from the tank behind them. Before they could rise, the Puchi's tentacles pierced through their hearts.
No status panels. No souls. From Lin Jun's perspective, these men were no different from the water ghosts outside.
Speaking of water ghosts — the deck had changed again.
The guards and sailors lost ground at last against the seemingly inexhaustible water ghosts. The survivors abandoned the deck and retreated below to keep fighting.
Some of the monsters had finally noticed the mermaids.
Four water ghosts squeezed in through the breach. Lin Jun was about to deal with them when a solid cannonball came thundering straight in.
The Puchi's tentacle blade flashed cold in midair and split the cannonball clean in two. The two halves slammed into the timber behind him, sending splinters flying everywhere. But in that gap, the water ghosts lunged at the tank.
The two young mermaids opened their mouths. [Voice of Charm] rang out — to no effect. The water ghosts didn't even slow down. Grey-white claws were already hooking over the rim of the tank.
Sephiria reached past the two girls, her palms surging with frost. In an instant, all four water ghosts were frozen solid — and even the Puchi Fish some distance away caught the edge of it, one tail fin iced over.
"Sorry!" Sephiria exclaimed. "I didn't expect the power to be this—"
Lin Jun understood perfectly. The magical energy concentration inside the mist was nearly off the charts. Casting here boosted effects by at least a full tier. The Puchi Fish severed the frozen section, mycelium writhing, and recovered in no time.
The high magical density was also accelerating Puchi self-healing.
"What do we do now?" Sephiria asked.
Another cannonball smashed in. Fortunately, no one was hit.
"Into the water!"
The sea had water ghosts, but at least no cannon fire — and all three mermaids and the Puchi were right at home underwater. Far better than staying on this ship, which was certain to sink.
The water in the tank surged and swept the three mermaids out through the riddled hull. The Puchi Fish hooked along with multiple tentacles.
The ship was already listing and sinking. The sounds of fighting below deck had grown much fainter.
Just before they cleared the ship, a portrait with an ornate frame — half-soaked in blood — caught Lin Jun's attention.
He was about to hook it toward himself when a cannonball blast sent it tumbling down through a gap in the deck below. The Puchi could only turn and follow the mermaids.
Underwater, countless pale eyes drifted in and out of the darkness — more than he'd expected.
---
"Freeze the area around us!" Lin Jun ordered.
"But once the ice breaks, there'll be nowhere to run!"
"Follow my command." A note of displeasure crept into Lin Jun's voice.
The mermaids were new to the group. Any of the Fortress's core members would have obeyed immediately.
Sephiria bit her lip, pulled the two young mermaids close against her sides, and poured magic recklessly into both palms.
Frost surged from her hands and spread rapidly through the seawater, forcing a mountain of an ice wall into existence beside the sinking wreck.
Large numbers of water ghosts were frozen within it, locked mid-lunge.
But far more remained unfrozen.
The rest finished off the last survivors on the ship and swarmed toward them. Claws hooked onto the ice surface. Nails scraped down the wall, producing a sharp, grating sound.
Worse still, the ghost ship began slowly swinging its guns around. The gun ports along the hull flipped open one by one.
Cannon fire slammed into the ice wall, shards exploding outward, the entire formation shuddering. Sephiria held on through gritted teeth, channeling the surrounding magical energy to patch the cracks being blasted open.
The ice was still being stripped away layer by layer, growing thinner and thinner.
As time passed, they could make out the pale faces of the water ghosts dimly through the translucent wall.
The two young mermaids huddled together, tears mixing with seawater, sobbing apologies to Sephiria over and over.
Sephiria's face had gone white. The marks of magical erosion from overuse spread across her skin.
She glanced down at the young mermaids pressed close against her, then back up at the ice wall about to be broken through. The light in her eyes dimmed slowly as death drew near. She let out a helpless sigh. "Boss, please don't forget to deliver those words for me..."
"Why don't you tell him yourself?"
"But I'm about to—"
Before Sephiria could finish, what remained of the ice formation suddenly lurched.
Not because someone had struck it. The sea itself had risen.
Waterspouts erupted all around them, surging skyward. Water ghosts shrieked as they were swept up, flung straight into the sky. Even the unstoppable ghost ship was battered apart by the rolling waves — and though it rapidly and stubbornly reassembled itself, the next second brought another wave crashing down.
Amid the pounding swells, it could no longer attack Sephiria or the others.
Through the great waves, a figure swam toward Sephiria, wielding the [Ocean Scepter]. The despair in the mermaid empress's eyes transformed into starlight. "El—"
"Ahem, ahem. Boss, I've finally made it." Gulgulu swam up close, one hand gripping the divine artifact, the other pressed against his lower back. Sephiria swallowed the rest of her words and looked away.
A pity she hadn't brought a recording crystal.
"Gulgulu, break open this mist!"
"Got it!"
The sea heaved and crashed outward in all directions. Sailors' corpses, water ghosts, ship wreckage — everything was obliterated.
As the [Ocean Scepter] pushed outward, the scene around them began to blur.
Before it faded back to pure mist, Lin Jun found the portrait he'd glimpsed earlier, down in the sea.
After all that chaos, only half of it remained — but the seawater had washed away the blood, and the face of the figure on it was now clearly visible. A handsome blond young man wearing a jeweled crown, gazing straight ahead, his expression full of confidence and warmth.
But what truly caught Lin Jun's attention was that face.
With a few differences here and there — it looked an awful lot like Vera.
Boom.
The portrait, along with everything around it, dissolved into mist and faded swiftly away.
---
Before long, the group found themselves back in their original stretch of sea. In the distance, the mist's edge had retreated to the far end of their field of vision — but hadn't disappeared. It still churned, waiting.
(End of Chapter)
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