Tales of the Endless Empire

Chapter 436: Warning: Aquatic Predators Incoming

“Now!” Rid shouted and jumped overboard.The moment he was underwater, his form sped up, moving through the sea at a speed roughly double that of the ships. Thalion quickly followed, jumping after him, turning into the Tidecaller Serpent and taking off at full speed. The moment he switched forms, he noticed how much better he lay in the water and how much faster he was now after digesting most of the crystal. He would have liked to look at himself for a moment to see how his scales had changed and whether there was a visible difference, but he didn’t have time for that right now.

Below him was endless blue, filled with swarms of fish, but there was no time to admire the beauty of the ocean. With quick swipes of his tail, he sped up, and to his surprise he was able to catch up to Rid. Above them, the thunder of cannons echoed as both ships fired. By then, they were already about to dive under the ship.

From the enemy ship, multiple fighters were also jumping into the water, but Rid simply ignored them by diving a bit deeper. With ships moving this fast, there was no time to wait. Having a little duel under the waves simply wasn’t an option. Thalion didn’t think much about it and just followed Rid, who clearly knew exactly what he was doing.

They came out on the other side and jumped out of the water, clinging to the side of the ship. Thalion shifted mid-flight into the Crippled Eclipsari, since his human form with the curse and fire affinity wasn’t the right one for this fight. The defenders were already waiting for them, and Thalion locked eyes with a big bald man holding an axe.

“Huh, you weaklings will never—eh, gods, you are an ugly thing,” the sailor exclaimed as his gaze shifted from Rid to Thalion.

Rid didn’t hesitate. All of a sudden, from seawater, a saber formed in his hand—not something like Thalion’s mana blade, but a real weapon forged from steel. Ornaments decorated the handle, and a single emerald was set into it. The man with the axe swung downward despite still being over three meters above Rid and nearly ten above Thalion. From the axe, a blue arc emerged, similar to Thalion’s mana slash but carrying the full power of an E grade.

The attack was aimed at Rid, who swung his weapon in response. A bright green arc burst forth, shattering the incoming attack and cleaving through the sailor’s head before he could react. Runes around Rid’s feet lit up, and he shot up the side of the ship. Thalion followed, claws scraping against the enchanted wood as he surged upward after him.

Thalion had to force his way up, which was fairly easy in the form of the Crippled Eclipsari. Still, it didn’t compare to how Rid moved—fluid, elegant, almost effortless. The wind tugged at them, and Thalion nearly lost his grip for a second as the ship began to steer to the right. From the deck below, he heard the pained screams of the injured from the first round of cannon fire.

Rid ignored most of the slashing fighters on deck and shot straight up the rigging toward the sailors infusing the runes on the sails.

“I’ll take those on top of the sail. You go further to the crow’s nest and eliminate the fighters there,” Rid shouted over his shoulder before speeding up once more.

The sailors on this ship weren’t stupid. Multiple fighters were positioned atop the sails to ensure no one interfered with the runes. Thalion had no desire to duel another sailor on the yard at least thirty meters above the deck while the ship was crashing through the waves at this speed. Up here, everything swayed and shifted constantly, and standing upright alone was a display of skill.

Rid had no problem with it, but his opponents were also adapted to this kind of combat. Still, Rid clearly held the upper hand. Thalion didn’t waste any time and continued up the rigging toward the crow’s nest. Multiple fighters were positioned above and were already trying to launch attacks at Rid.

That wasn’t going to happen.

Thalion launched multiple spikes at the fighters. Atop the narrow beams near the crow’s nest, dodging was difficult, and defending against Thalion’s spikes wasn’t easy even for an E grade—especially without proper footing. Still, the fighters up here weren’t pushovers, and many managed to dodge or block without falling to the deck below.

With the strong winds, using Umbral Miasma would be useless. Instead, Thalion summoned Shadow Claw and shot forward. The first sailor wielded the typical saber many were using in this stage. Thalion knew he had no chance to outmaneuver the sailor in this environment, so he didn’t even try. Those sabers wouldn’t deal damage he couldn’t heal.

He swung wildly at the sailor, holding nothing back, fueling every strike with everything he had.

The sailor dodged twice and managed to land deep cuts on Thalion’s chest and right leg until Thalion hit him straight in the chest. The blow ripped a hole through the man, pieces of flesh flying through the air as bones broke under the force of his claw. After defeating his second enemy, Thalion felt a lot more confident and pressed the others even harder.

This was much easier than in the previous stage, where he had really struggled against his enemies. Maybe it also had something to do with the matchup and the fact that he had been forced to fight multiple E grades at once. Either way, this was going far better than he had anticipated.

Then the next sound of fire arrived.

With a boom, everyone on the ship fired, and Thalion was so shocked that it earned him another deep cut. One second it felt like his eardrums had shattered, and in the next, the cannonballs from their ship arrived. From Thalion’s position, it looked a bit like both ships were firing shotguns at each other.

Many cannonballs missed and dropped into the ocean before the ships, releasing towering fountains of water into the air. Others missed completely or flew over the ship, but every single hit ripped the wood apart. If someone was too close to an impact zone, it was almost certain death. Even the extremely sturdy splintering wood was dangerous and could kill if you were unlucky.

Another shift in direction nearly threw Thalion off the crossbar and earned him yet another deep cut. Feeling the metal saber slide across his ribs infuriated the elemental greatly, and he launched a counteroffensive by letting dark tendrils creep out from the shadows, trying to grab the sailor.

The man was too fast, however, performing a backflip and easily avoiding the attack. The moment he landed with a victorious grin, a saber pierced straight out of his chest. With a lazy swipe, his upper body was cleaved in two, revealing Rid standing behind him.

Unlawfully taken from NovelFire, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Not bad. Not bad at all. The runes are already weakening, and I damaged them too, which will take time to recover. We go up to the crow’s nest and wait for the next round of fire. That’s when the ships are closest to each other and we can swim back. They already noticed what happened here, and reinforcements will arrive at any moment,” Rid yelled over the wind and the screams from below.

Together, they worked their way upward, killing everyone who stood in their path. Many of the fighters simply abandoned their posts after seeing their comrades fall.

“So we’re just here for the overview and to defend until we can swim back?” Thalion asked, wanting to be sure of the next move. It didn’t feel like enough damage had been done.

“Yes. When the ships are firing at each other at this speed, you need perfect timing or you won’t be able to swim back for now. Doing more damage isn’t worth the risk, and this fight is far from over,” Rid shouted back, dodging an arrow fired in their direction.

“There are the archers. I wondered where they had been this whole time. Looks like we were lucky they got hit by one of the cannons,” Rid shouted after dodging a second arrow. It didn’t seem like he either wanted to—or could—reach the archers below.

Thalion didn’t want to be turned into a pincushion and began forming spikes around him, but Rid intervened immediately.

“Wait. We don’t want that much attention. There’s always a lot of chaos, and information travels relatively slowly. It’s better to dodge the arrows from those three archers than to have half the ship come after us.”

Thalion immediately stopped infusing the spikes, which dissipated within seconds. For the next thirty seconds, Rid and Thalion spun around the top of the mainmast and the crow’s nest, dodging arrows or, in rare cases, deflecting them.

“Okay, it’s about time. We jump in three… two… one. Go!” Rid shouted over the wind and leapt from the top of the mainmast.

Thalion wanted to gain a bit more distance and used his tendrils to fling himself much farther, entering the ocean only a second before another round of fire erupted above his head.

Thalion thought after his near-death experience.

He fluidly shifted back into the Tidecaller Serpent and fully accelerated toward their ship. It seemed this was the moment when most fighters were switching ships, and the water was crowded. Thalion did the same thing Rid had done earlier and dove a few meters deeper. With his speed, he could afford the extra distance.

This time, Thalion spotted shark-like fish moving rapidly deep below them, following both ships. He didn’t sense any aura, but they might have been late E grades. Using identify halfway back to the ship didn’t sound like a good idea.

Thanks to his earlier fling, Thalion reached the ship before Rid and slowed slightly to let him catch up. He didn’t know how many people recognized him and wanted to make sure he wouldn’t be attacked the moment he returned. Rid didn’t bother with positioning and simply shot straight out of the water at the first opportunity.

Thalion followed, but this time shifted into Eagly, elegantly flying onto the deck with added speed before shifting back into his human form and landing cleanly on both feet.

“Ha, good show-off. Maybe I need to change my class at some point. You make the shapeshifter class look hella cool. Most I’ve seen only had a bunch of different races of marine life, and most weren’t even good in the first place,” Rid acknowledged with a wide smile and a short laugh.

Here, the deck looked a lot better, and it seemed like far fewer cannonballs had landed. The attackers had also been driven back much more effectively. Thalion quickly scanned the few remaining attackers still fighting the defenders, just in case there was another trial taker among them. That one sneaky kill at the start of the battle had already given him almost as many points as the fruit of the golden lotus.

“Haha, ready the next round! They’re slowing down—the next broadside is gonna be bad!” the captain yelled with an incredibly loud voice that wasn’t infused with mana. The man simply had the lungs to scream this loudly, with everyone hearing him, and Thalion guessed the captain enjoyed shouting like this.

“Come, follow me. Let’s check in with the boss and see what needs to be done next,” Rid shouted, motioning for Thalion to follow.

They quickly made their way up to the captain, who was definitely the most protected person on the ship right now, with fighters stationed everywhere. Walking up and seeing all the sailors, Thalion decided that wearing the suit probably wasn’t the best fit, but he liked how smooth the material felt on his skin, so he kept it on. So far, he had only worn a suit twice in his life, but he could get used to it.

“Rid, my man. Good that you’re back. They’re already slowing down from the less-infused runes. Despite that, I’m better than the other captain, and now we have the upper hand. We give them eight more rounds before it’s time to take over. You know I hate destroying good materials and supplies by accident,” he said before continuing to give commands to his crew.

Rid just nodded and motioned for Thalion to follow him again.

“We don’t need to engage in the few battles left, but if you want, you’re free to go. It’ll take a bit of time now until we board the other ship again. Normally it isn’t this smooth.”

“Nah, unless another trial taker shows up, I’m gonna stay low,” Thalion said with a light smile. It would be amazing if there was a second trial taker with over two million credits on board.

“Oh, I think I spotted one on the other ship. He didn’t look like he had anything to do with water affinity, which is why he stayed back defending the cannons,” Rid said after a moment.

The fighting had already subsided, and now healers and alchemists were running across the deck, handing out healing potions or healing the injured directly if the damage was too great. Their ship now managed to stay outside the enemy’s cannon range while firing one salvo after another. After the fifth salvo, the main mast was destroyed. The whole thing nearly ripped the ship in half as it fell to the side.

“Oh, that’s not good. Now they can’t use it anymore. Repairing damage like that would take too long,” Rid murmured.

After the next round, fires broke out all over the enemy ship, and many burning figures jumped into the ocean. Their ship had slowed down so much that they could easily catch up—though it wouldn’t be much safer there. Then Thalion saw one of the sailors get swallowed by a massive fish diving past. It took less than a second, and Thalion was on the brink of not trusting his eyes.

“Cheez, they’re already here. Now we can’t enter the water anymore,” Rid complained.

Rid likely wasn’t the only one who noticed, as the loud voice of the captain hammered across the deck.

“The Skarn are already here, which means the seawomen won’t be far off. That means we leave the other ship to its fate and get the hell out of here. Besides a few losses in ammunition and personnel, hasn’t this been a fun endeavor, ha?”

Thalion got the impression that the captain was a bit mad, but as long as he brought him to the grand treasure before the others, it was all good. What Thalion was more curious about were those Skarn—and what exactly seawomen were.

“Seawomen are a bit like us, only they have fish-like scales and can breathe underwater. They’re also the reason we need to go this fast with the ship; otherwise, they might attack us. There are all kinds of legends about them and their power. Something about the stronger ones being able to take down an entire ship on their own. There are also the more romantic stories that say they sometimes pick handsome sailors as husbands by dragging them into the ocean depths. That last part is definitely a lie. No matter how they reproduce, the only thing they want from us is to kill us,” Rid explained, having noticed Thalion’s confusion.

This was, of course, very unfortunate, since Thalion really wanted those leaderboard points from the other guy. Still, there was nothing he could do. The ship was already repairing itself through its runes while the captain shouted at the wind mages about going even faster to avoid encountering any seawomen or Skarn.

Rid soon went below deck to check on his girlfriend, while Thalion casually sat on the railing, enjoying the salty ocean breeze and watching the waters around them. That was when he noticed several large shadows moving through the deep water, heading in the same direction as the ship.