For the people waiting aboard Commander Drake's ship, they were, for the lack of better words, making a scene.
"*BURP*, "I did not, huh, expect a ship to, huh, rock side to side so muu~~" Vanessa put both of her hands over her mouth, before making her way towards the side of the ship where she hurled the contents of her stomach. She was not the only one however to suffer, as Sol was also suffering from a similar ailment.
"Yeah, not nee-san. A ship rocks sides to side too much. Why can't it be like the earth? Strong and stable? This is my first trip on a real ship and I hate it already." Sol said, her normally tan skin gaining a few shades of green with every passing second. Unlike Vanessa, she was doing whatever she could to not roll over and release ALL of her lunch.
The other knights aboard the ship, on the other hand, were doing much better by comparison. That is, if you exclude the fact that Illya was glaring at Mimosa due to the difference in body development they have had in the last year, while Mimosa was eyeing Illya and feeling jealous of how thin and slender she was even though she eats mostly sweets, something that Mimosa did not dare do for fear of getting fat (not that she would, but it useless to try and tell her that).
One was developing bountifully, while the other was blessed with a different type of beauty. Even so, both were not happy with it even though they were both first class beauties. Woman are hard to understand after all.
On another part of the ship, the other member of the Blue Rose's, Puli Angel, was talking with Luck.
"Hey, hey, is there a reason why you're fat? Like being able to absorb more impact during fights?" Luck asked, oblivious to how his 'innocent' question resulted in Puli falling to the ground with tears on her face.
"I-I am not fat! I am just full of womanly charm! Why can't anyone see this?" She said, mostly to herself, but that did not stop Luck from answering.
"Uhmm, maybe because there is too much fat above these 'charms'?"
And with that Puli started crying in the floor even harder, before standing up and attempted to fly straight at Luck, only for him to evade her clumsy strike and start fighting the crying woman with a smile on his face.
Well, the smile lasted until she got sick of crying and decided to do something more constructive with her time. In this case, that something involved her trying to bash Luck's face in. Of course, this was what Luck actually wanted so he had no complaints there.
Meanwhile, Drake, who was in the helm of the boat, took their antics in stride and laughed, while her crew shook their heads at their captain's actions.
Drake was someone who enjoyed living her life to the fullest. Every time she took action, she did everything in her power to ensure that she put all of her heart and soul into seeing it through. To her, this randomly assorted crew of misfits and weirdos that was making more trouble than it was worth, was more than entertaining enough for her.
However, her attitude did a complete one eighty, as she took note that they were approaching the area where Blackbeard was supposedly hiding in.
"Allright! Listen up everyone! Front and center!" Drake yelled out, her normally carefree tone replaced with a voice filled with a sense of authority that demanded respect, prompting everyone to drop what they were doing and gather around Drake. "Okay, you pipsqueaks, calm the fuck down and listen. Onee-san has something to tell you all." As they would soon be engaging the enemy, Drake took it upon herself to explain to everyone everything she knew about their foe.
While Drake was speaking, Luck, Illya, Puli, and Mimosa moved towards her. None of them were looking each other in the eye as they were all in disagreement, while Luck was thinking on how to create more chaos.
Seeing them approaching like that Drake chuckled to herself, much like how someone laughs at their younger sibling when they are being mischievous.
But that stopped when she saw that neither Sol nor Vanessa even tried to stand up. Getting a tick mark on her head Drake turned to one of her sailors.
"Go and bring them here, I don't have all day."
"Yes, mam!" He said hastily before moving to Vanessa and Sol. He tried to make them stand up, but when he tried to touch Sol, the girl quickly turned around and gave him a roundhouse kick to the head.
"No one touches me unless I want them to understa- *BURGH*" And just like that Sol was on the lateral of the ship again, liberating whatever was left of her stomach.
The sailor then tried to move to Vanessa. While he was able to help her to stand up, she then proceeded to threw up on him as he tried taking her to Drake. Of course she washed out the taste of bile in her mouth with more alcohol, which only made her even more drunk, making her even more nauseous than before.
Drake her head out of exasperation at the sight. These two were about the worse choice for this type of warfare, totally useless. It was best to put them in one of the cabins when the fighting started rather than let them stay here. After all there, was a real risk of her sailors tripping in vomit during the fight. While as funny as that may sound, it was definitely something that she would rather not happen.
After that, Drake did not bother herself with the two anymore and instead focused on the four magic knights in front of her.
"As I was saying, I wanted to explain to you all a little more about the bastard we are about to face. His name is Edward Teach, but his 'nom de guerre' is Blackbeard. He is the true definition of a pirate. He enjoys nothing more than stealing, pillaging, raping, and killing and does any and all forms of evil acts, which are as normal as breathing to him. I met him once before, but he managed to escape, but I saw what was left of the ship he had attacked".
Drake's eyes narrowed with rage, "There was not a single spot on that ship that wasn't covered in blood. He and his crew violated and killed the women he captured, and threw the men he captured overboard to serve as food for his beast that he keeps as a pet, and its not just some random sea serpent either.
Somehow, that crazy bastard managed to take control of a rare and powerful a sea monster known as a Bewilderbeast. It is sometimes referred to by sailors as the "King of Sea Beasts". It has two main abilities. The first is that, as its title suggests, allows it to control lower sea creatures like sharks and piranhas. It's other and most terrifying ability is that its capable of releasing a devastating blast of ice that freezes and destroys anything its path. A troublesome enemy indeed, but nothing that my Golden Hind can't handle. The only problem is that if I focus on dealing with that monster you all must focus on taking down Blackbeard and his ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge.
Blackbeard himself is not to be trifled with. He is highly proficient in water creation magic. If I were to rank in terms of power, he would be the equivalent of a third or second highest ranked magic knight. However, we will be fighting him in his territory. Fighting out on the open sea gives him a considerable advantage to the point where could hold his own against a magic knight captain or vice-captain."
"The majority of his underlings also specialize in water magic and they won't hesitate to attack anyone or use civilians as human shields. Thus, your first objective should be to send someone inside of their base and protect the civilians." Drake said as she finished explaining. By that point, the mood in the cabin changed. After listening to Drake, every single one of them came to realize exactly how dangerous this mission was.
A giant monster, a person that was strong with territorial advantage, and a high risk environment for civilians. All of that meant that this mission would be much more difficult than they initially believed.
Suddenly, one of the sailors that was keeping an eye out for Blackbeard saw something fast approaching the ship in the distance.
"Captain, I think we might have some problems. Something huge is coming our way at top speed, and it doesn't look friendly."
Drake was about to answer, when out of nowhere a rain started falling onto her ship. It started lightly at first, before turning into a torrential downpour. Drake rushed to the side and pulled out a spyglass to identify what was approaching. Once she saw what was coming, her eyes widened in realization and she could not help but curse under her breath. She had once seen the creature that could cause rain with just its presence and she did not want anything to do with it.
She knew that many of the inhabitants living in the underwater magic zone of the Seabed Temple considered this creature as a form of divine beast. More specifically, the mount of the Sea God. While she did not believe any of this nonsense, she did indeed believe that this was not an easy enemy to face at all. It was strong enough to the point that she would have to take it seriously if she wanted to kill it.
But as she started preparing the cannons and took out her grimoire she saw that there was actually someone riding the beast. He had red and silver hair, golden eyes, and, in her opinion a muscular physique that looked quite hot all wet.
By his side was an older, silver haired older with glasses and a considerably muscular body that was quite uncommon amongst the magic knights. He was by the side of the red-silver haired prince as if he was his bodyguard, which wasn't that far from the truth either.
Not knowing what to do Drake simply watched Shirou with an astonished look on her face. Within a matter of minutes they finally reached them. When it was close enough Kyogre jumped out of the water with Shirou on his back and heading towards Drake's ship, causing several people to panic. However, just as it looked like it would cruch them, Kyogre's body started to shrinking down in size until it was just 40 centimeters in length.
Honestly, to Drake and several other female members of the crew, he looked a lot cuter like this compared to its giant form.
"Hey, sorry for running of on my own before." Shirou said sheepishly. He knew what he did was reckless, but facing Kyogre out in the open sea, was still a much better option than dealing with everything else that he was dealing with before.
Maybe he could talk to his father about this. Dealing with women might be his one and only redeemable trait.
What he did not expect, however, was that instead of bothering themselves with him, Mimosa and Illya ran straight to the tiny Kyogre and started treating it just like a plushy toy while Sol only looked at him for a second before re-starting to threw up and feel like she was in hell all over again.
'Master, save me! These two wrenches are making me feel way too uncomfortable!' Kyogre yelled at Shirou in his mind, they had already become partners, or to be more precise master and familiar, and now the two could communicate mentally. Hearing Kyogre's pleas Shirou could only apologize in his mind and pretend nothing was happening behind him. It was a sacrifice that had to be made.
Seeing this Drake released a loud booming laugh as she found the entire situation hilarious, but it quickly stopped as she decided to explain to Shirou the situation at hand.
After describing to him the type of person that Blackbeard was Shirou's blood ran cold. His eyes sharpened as he looked straight at Drake.
"I will leave defeating the monster to Kyogre and your crew. You should go together with the others to face off against Blackbeard and his crew. I will be responsible for safe guarding the civilians. I give you my word that as long as I am there, no one will be getting hurt." Shirou said, his eyes releasing a strong and cold glint like steel and exerting a type of pressure that commanded obedience through authority and respect.
Shirou rarely ever showed any kind of anger or other emotional responses to situations like this, but when it involved ensuring the safety of innocent people, he would not hesitate to take action. If others would not help, he would do it by himself if needed. That's just the sort of man he is.
Drake felt a great pressure coming from Shirou. It almost felt like Shirou was the embodiment of the will of hundreds of kings and leaders, and she could not deny his decision even if she wanted to.
Was this still the same man she heard many nobles refer to as the 'commoner prince'? Bunch of fucking idiots, that is what those who said that were for fucking sure!
But she could only smirk as she thought a bit more. A leader like this was one that would get things done, and if he wanted to protect the civilians it would be all the better as she could feel how the entire continent was moving towards war in the near future due to Diamond Kingdom's recent actions. The old emperor is getting weaker by the day, and there are even rumors that he has become nothing more than a figure head. A puppet being controlled by someone else from the shadows, while the older generation of generals and captains of all nations were being replaced by much more capable and hot-blooded ones.
In Drake's opinion a war between kingdom's was all but inevitable. Yet, Shirou just might be what Clover needs to get through it.
Shirou POV
That went much better than I expected. I honestly did not expect for things to go as smoothly as they did. I actually though that something was going to happen like Klaus trying to stop me or maybe the others trying to go together with me.
Right now, I was making my way towards the location of Blackbeard's base. I was currently travelling underwater at speeds beyond the capability of normal humans thanks to a new weapon of mine. Shortly after my battle with Kyogre, I somehow added a new weapon to my growing arsenal. It, or rather they, were called Godly War Fans Kyogre. It consisted of two war fans connected by a chain made out of water. The fans themselves were designed in a way similar to that of Kyogre's fins, complete with even his symbol. The feeling was similar to Noelle's weapon, the only difference was that while Noelle's contained a sense of enormous power buried within the fans did nothing to hide theirs. Holding them felt like I was holding a living storm in my hands. In my right hand, I could feel the power of crashing waves and in the one n my left reminded me of a violent typhoon.
It took me a while to get the hand f them, but I was a quick study. I soon realized that they had uses beyond combat as well. When using them underwater, I learned that i could use them to propel myself underwater with the speed of a torpedo, with the silence of a stealth craft. Another bonus to this item were the red lines that traveled from the fans in a series of patterns across my entire body, allowing me to survive underwater.
When I talked to Kyogre before I left, he said that he knew the beast under Blackbeard's control. Kyogre described it as a vile beast that enjoyed feeding on smaller creatures, although it was also apparently pretty lazy most of the time to do anything except sleep. It was much more likely that it would be sleeping than actually caring about anything, unless there was food or a fight for it to have.
We decided that the best course of action would be to launch a preemptive attack as soon as I infiltrated the ship and moved toward the room where the prisoners were being kept. Before the fighting began, it was vital that I secure the hostages before the action starts. No way was I going to leave civilians unprotected in the midst of a major firefight.
In the end, everyone agreed with my decision. Using my Mightiest Pen Rill I camouflaged the ship to allow Drake to get as close to Blackbeard's ship as possible. Kyogre was waiting a bit farther away since there is always a chance the Bewilderbeast could actually detect him and start attacking or alarm the ships.
I push any concerns about the plan to the back of my mind. Instead I chose to focus on the most important objective for the moment, making sure that every innocent civilian is found safe and sound, and keep it that way.
I then noticed the form of Black Beard's ship a few leagues in the distance. However, I also saw something else. As I approached the ship I could see the creature sleeping beneath it. It was massive to the point where it just might rival Kyogre in terms of size, but slightly longer in legnth due to its tail. It looked quite menacing with its black scales and large tusks. Although, between it and Kyogre, it seemed to be missing something a way, it was almost like the Bewilderbeast was lacking a sense of greatness to it that Kyogre possessed.
In the end, I managed to sneak past the Bewilderbeast without arousing it from its slumber. Arriving on the underside of the ship I quietly and carefully placed myself directly under the ship. I extended my senses to detect ki and magic to see if anything was up there. When I was sure the coast was clear, summoned a nameless sword and used it to open a hole for me to enter the ship.
After getting inside I used the one fan to force back out the water that rushed in, and then waved them both together to encase the hole in ice. I needed to move quickly. The longer I stay here, the more likely that someone will stumble upon the hole and notice that something is wrong. I was not too keen on letting them know that I was here. At least not until I am sure that the hostages are safe. Thus, I quickly summoned Evil Poison Cape Gordon to sneak around the ship undetected.
Entering was easy enough. However, while I was making my way through the ship, a terrible scent assaulted my nose. It was a pungent and terrible odor that I recognize all too well due to some of the missions I worked back in my previous world.
The sound of crying and grunts of pain was enough to make me mad... no, not mad... I was down right furious.
I need to cut down whoever is doing what I know is happening. I know it is not something I would normally do. I do everything in my power to save others, even if it is a criminal. However, even I had my limits about what I was willing to tolerate. Once someone crosses a line like this, then they are no longer people. In my eyes, they are become nothing more than beasts.
And I can and will kill such beasts.
Without making so much as a sound, I approached the stairs. The area I am currently in is likely to be the ship's storage area as there are plenty of food stock and water barrels here. unfortunately, I noticed that the money and gold is not here so it is likely hidden somewhere else.
I make my way up the stairs, I noticed an open space and some cells on the upper floor. The sounds of the cries were becoming louder the closer I got and I had to use 120% of my willpower to not run in and end whatever is happening. For this sort of operation I must be careful in how I act.
Moving with my Gordon, I went deeper into the floor, quietly eliminating any pirate that was alone in the corridor of this marine fortress (seriously, even by ship standards this place was huge). I made sure to not let them notice me tuntil it was too late. I then moved the bodies out of sight and then cauterized the wounds shut to ensure that the blood did not coat the decks of the ship. A rookie mistake that some would have much more problem than I to deal with.
While using my Prideful Lion Spear Fuegoleon was a bit much, it would allow me to cauterize wounds instantly, as well as the fact that summoning it is relatively easy on my power reserves. Since my battle with Kyogre, I had managed to recover a sufficient amount of my energy back. I currently have the Prideful Lion Spear Fuegoleon in my right hand, the shield of Achilles Akhilleus Kosmos strapped in my left one which also had about 20 miniaturized Black Keys prepared just in case, but with my hand free in case I need it. I also had my Evil Poison Cape Gordon around my neck, Godly War Fan Kyogre was sheathed within my jacket as an extra precaution, Kanshou and Bakuya were kept close around my waist in holsters I had created, along with a bunch of my Throwing Daggers Finral hidden in key spots all over my person in the event I got into a sticky situation. I even had Time Emperor Deciding Gun Julius hidden in the back of my belt as a final trump card.
Some might say that holding so many powerful and deadly weapons may be a little overkill. However, one thing I have always disliked about my magic in my previous world was how the weapons degraded too quickly and I could never really prepare much beforehand as a result. However, in this world, the limits on my mana no longer existed. The fact that the weapons from my Weapons Creation Magic did not degrade at all with time certainly helped a great deal in making preparations beforehand.
Armed to the teeth, I finally reached the stairs to the floor above. As I got closer I could make out the sounds of a party going on. Most likely the pirates were celebrating their successful raid on Raque. Seeing that this was my chance, I quietly used a little trick I learned while training with Julius. I created a Bounded Field in a manner similar to the one used by Kiritsugu but instead of only serving to warn me of people entering the perimeter of the field, it also connected to a few Black Keys I put in several places for maximum coverage.
If anyone goes to this level, the alarm will sound for only me and the Black Keys will ensure that any who crosses it, receives a very unpleasant surprise, courtesy of the Black keys tips.
A cruel defensive line, but with my time limited, I had to do whatever it takes to secure the rooms on this floor as soon as possible. The longer I take the more likely things will spiral out of control.
With my traps set, I moved to the innermost room. It was the one closest to the stairs and it was one of the five where atrocities were taking place.
Getting in front of it, I did not wait to launch a bounded field that isolates sound in a specific area (another trick I learned from studying Kiritsugu's handiwork and from some tips of Julius to improve on it). Feeling my restraint slip away, I kicked down the door and upon entering the room I could only see red.
Dozens of woman and children in chains. A few were being abused just as I entered and the dead eyes of some of them looking at everything cut in my soul more than I would ever like to admit.
Not giving time for any of the scum to react I waved my hand, sending several Black Keys flying straight at their heads and bodies, piercing eight of them. Four of them managed to survive because they managed to raise magic enhanced shields in time. One of them even tried to use one of the prisoners as shield, a child that was crying for his mother. Of course, I anticipated this and quickly undid the weapon before it could hit the kid.
I needed to move fast before they decided to take more people hostage.
Reinforcing my body I moved in, dispelling Fuegoleon and drawing out Kyogre. While I am not that good with other weapons that are not swords, my reality marble is, ultimately, a depository for the history of hundreds of thousands of weapons, including the knowledge of how they were wielded. While I don't come anywhere close in terms of skill to the original owners, I am still capable of drawing draw upon their experience to know how to fight using them. This included information on how to use weapons like war fans.
Moving in with both fans open I moved to the one closest to me, which also happened to be the one who was holding the kid. He created a wave of water in front of himself but that was not a problem as I waved my left fan sending a burst of wind with just enough force to propel my body upward while spinning. Hitting the ceiling, I used it as a springboard to attack him from above, my leg striking with so much speed that the force behind it broke the pirates neck, allowing the kid to run away from the pirates.
The moment I landed, I dashed to another pirate who tried to attack me with blasts of magic, but I used my left fan to create a wall of wind, cancelling out the blasts with equal force. Getting in his guard, I channeled magic into my right fan, a sphere of water formed in the center, but as I waved, the sphere grew thin and coated the sharp edges of the fan. I swung up and a blade of water flew out of my fan.
With an audible thud, the man's head hit the ground.
Turning to the next, I close one fan and threw it towards the other pirate, He managed to jump to the side and avoided it as wrapped around a pillar, but when he turned to me he already saw Kanshou and Byakuya flying his way.
He hastily created a magic shield made of iron, Byakuya was barely stopped (I didn't put that much strength in it for fear of it piercing the ceiling and alerting the people from on the floor above us), while Kanshou flew past him. Just as he was about to attack his chest was pierced by Kanshou had flown across the room before changing direction and headed straight for the pirates exposed back in order to return to to Byakuya.
The last one had learned from the first person and tried to grab another hostage, this time it was a young woman. However, I noticed his intentions, and pulled on the chain connected to the other fan which was still wrapped around the pillar. The chains pqahsed out of the pillar and I pulled with all my might sending the command to the chains to retract.
As the chains neared the man who ran into their path without realizing it, I whipped the chain as it was passing by. THe force behind it snapped his leg causing him to trip.
The man cried out in pain, giving me the opportunity to dash forward, and before he realized it I was already behind him and had my hands around his head and neck. With an audible snap, I broke his neck and he fell to the ground dead.
As impossible as it may sound, this all took place within the time span of 5.
Sighing in relief, I turned to the people imprisoned in the room, who were all looking at me with mixed expressions, of awe, fear, and even hope.
"Please, don't worry people of Raque! My name is Shirou Kira Clover I. I swear that on my title as the royal prince and a magic knight of the Black Bulls squad I shall protect you all! Please, to those who can still move, carry those who cannot. If you head towards the stairs around the corner, it will lead you all to the basement. There you will all find food and water!" THe moment I finished speaking everyone started showing signs of life again. The more injured ones were all carried to the basement by the women and older children who still had the strength to do so. After a while the room was completely empty of people.
However, there was still something in the room that caught my eye.
As strange as it may sound, what caught my attention... was a fox.
It was lying in the back of the room covered with wounds. It honestly looked one step away from dying as I could barely sense any ki from it. It had some magic seals normally used on criminals and was immobilized by chains around its neck leg and a muzzle around its jaw. After looking more carefully I recognized an important detail that explained its current state.
It had a total of nine tails. An oddity that probably counted it as a magic beast. It is likely that the pirates captured it somewhere and intended to sell it later, but with the state it is in now I don't know if it will live even two hours from now.
I know I shouldn't use it here, but somehow my instincts were telling me to save this animal. Creating a copy of Kanshou, I used it to cut the chains to free the poor thing, while removing its muzzle. The sudden movement and lack of restraints woke the fox whose eyes shone with intelligence. It's gaze landed on me, and for a moment I saw the look of fear in its eyes. It tried to move, but every move it made caused it to flinch and cry out in pain. Eventually, it stopped moving and resigned itself to its fate. Looking into the eyes of this creature, I could not help but notice how they looked so sad and empty, as though it didn't have a reason to live anymore.
I hate those kinds of eyes. It reminds me of how I used to be.
I decided then and there, that there was not way that I was going to let this poor animal die. Putting my hand on my grimoire, I summoned Avalon.
"What is it that you need, master? If it is romantic advice I would recommend running while you still can." Avalon said as soon as she showed up. This spirit has gained more of a personality after traveling with me and Julius. Unfortunately, her personality is not exactly what you would call nice.
She often enjoys teasing me every chance she gets. It was almost like having another Rin by my side, only she was saltier and smaller.
"No, I need your help healing this poor thing." I said.
Avalon looked at the fox for a while before saying.
"Hoho, to think that would find something like this. I can't tell if your luck is excellent or trash, master. Oh well, at least I can get some giggles out of you anyway." before I could question Avalon, she disappeared in streams of light. The streams of light surrounded the fox, encasing it in its warm glow. The eyes of the fox opened up again, only this time, there was a new light in its eyes as looked up at me.
"Don't worry, I won't let you die here. Now rest, okay?" I said as gently as I could while petting its head. The sound of my voice, along with the soothing of my petting seemed to have a positive effect on the fox as its body quickly relaxed and it eventually fell asleep. As it drifted off I could not help but feel as though it was smiling.
After making sure that the fox was safe, I moved on to the next rooms. The others had much less people and some were empty. In the end, I was able to secure the rest of the hostages. I even asked some of the captives some questions to be sure there were not any stragglers. They informed me that in addition to hose on the current floor, they believed that there may be some captives located one or two in the floors above us.
After giving them the all clear to go ahead, I summoned Avalon back to me. Upon her return she assured me that the fox was sleeping soundly so I should not worry about it. Even so, I still went back to the room to see if it was okay. When I returned, I could see that its fur had gained a healthier and more beautiful sheen and its breathing had improved causing me to sigh in relief. I carefully moved it to the basement and gave it to some of the captives, requesting that they look after and avoid disturbing it. I then asked Avalon to heal everyone, while I prepared myself. As soon as I give the signal there will be pirates going down those stairs and it was my job to stop them all.
BBBOOOOOOMMMM
"ALL HANDS ON DECK! THERE ARE ENEMIES ATTACKING!"
A shout came from the upper floors, and that was my cue that something had gone terribly, terribly wrong.
Located high above the ship, a certain four leaf clover user was attacking the ship. While Yuno failed to find Shirou, he still managed to find the pirates. Without wasting any time, Yuno did not hesitate in the slightest in engaging the enemy combatants.
The first thing he did was summon a blade of wind to cut the sails, ensuring that it would not attempt to escape. He then proceeded to unleash a wave of miniature tornadoes unto his enemies.
Although, he entered the battle without a plan, Yuno's intelligence in combat could not be denied. Even though he was fighting against 20 pirates, he maintained an air of confidence and easily matched up against his opponents and did not even look tired as he dispatched them.
The words that Shirou had said to him before, greatly impacted him. Since they last spoke, Yuno underwent training to improve his control over his magic. As a result, both his control and power were now many times greater than ever before. In the past, he could only a control a tornado of about ten meters, but now he could unleash five smaller cyclones with the same level of power. He now was using the wind to redirect his opponents attacks. Several of them missed, but others he managed to redirect back to their casters. He reached a very high level in techniques in a manner of just a few weeks, even though he had not even been a magic knight for more than two months.
Suffice to say, the rate at which Yuno had grown was simply astonishing.
However, even though he had the upper hand, more and more pirates started showing up. Yuno soon pushed from the offensive to defend himself and dodge the overwhelming number of attacks that threatened to overwhelm him.
"Get them, BERSERKER!" A blur rushed by him followed by a violent gust of wind that sent him flying back. Yuno turned around and identified the blur as a muscled giant with dark-colored skin. The strange man roared and then went on a violent rampage, breaking everything in his path with a weapon that honestly looked like a slab of rock, and that tore through the ranks who could do nothing in the face of such overwhelming might.
Yuno was shocked as he saw Illya, Mimosa, Klaus, Puli, and Luck all board the ship. Although he would never admit this, he was glad that they arrived when they did. Their arrival helped to turn the tide of the battle to make it a more even fight... Well even may not be the right word, considering that Illya summoned two more berserkers (one being a black knight-like being with the ferocity of a beast but that killed any foe that got to close and the other being a 2 meters tall giant with innumerable scars, more muscles than should be biologically possible and leather straps tightly coiling his body and face) and they were basically defeating everyone without Illya, who stood back while in adopting a triumphant pose.
It was no wonder that so many people already considered her to be the future magic knight captain for the Blue Rose. The only problem she had with her magic was that the creatures she created would not listen to her commands and she was still vulnerable to attacks as she was lacking when it camr to physical strength. She was more of a 'I will destroy you first, and everything else for that matter' kind of girl.
Of course this means that Puli did not hesitate to catch the younger girl and pull her up away from the battle, before launching a barrage of feathers towards the enemy, with satisfying results.
While Yuno took this time to catch his breath, things immediately started to escalate. Without warning a giant shadow burst out from the sea. It was a gigantic dragon-like beast with dangerous eyes and a literally chilling presence, looking at it was enough to make the others fear it.
However that fear did not last for long.
As soon as it appeared a beam of ice struck its side with enough force to knock it to its side. In that moment, the previously calm ocean sky turned into a terrifying tempest that threatened to swallow everything in sight. The beast roared in rage as it got back to its fee, the water below it freezing in response to its growing rage turned to look and saw Kyogre looking at it. The latter's eyes and presence being strong enough to make even the Bewilderbeast seem insignificant, even though it was slightly bigger than Kyogre.
Feeling this provocation the Bewilderbeast roared in defiance calling forth an army to fight on its behalf. Unfortunately, the sea creatures it tried to summon fled in the opposite direction as Kyogre unleashed a thunderous bellow of its own, causing the other creatures to flee. Feeling infuriated the Bewilderbeast threw itself at Kyogre, while Kyogre waved its arms sending it flying out of the water and bashed its head into the Bewilderbeast's.
The force of their clash created a devastating shock wave that amplified the force of the already dangerous winds of the tempest brought about by Kyogre's presence. Then a ship equally just as large as Blackbeard's appeared from out of nowhere and the two ships started entered into naval combat while the magic knights cleaned the deck of all the pirates they could find.
Drake was commanding her ship to bombard Blackbeard's. As long as she could cause enough damage, that old scumbag would surely come out to face her. Besides, she was aiming more towards the upper levels as she knew that there was very little chance of there being hostages there. She only hoped everything was okay with the prince otherwise she might need to make a quick escape to some other country if things went south. Maybe she could try and sell her services in the Land of the Rising Sun. She had heard there were some problems happening there so it would not such a bad idea to try her luck there.
Honestly, things are not going well. Since the battle started, the pirates stopped their celebration and some decided to move down to where the hostages were hiding to try and use them against the magic knights. Luckily, te enemies that I fought with had been all grunts and were easily disposed of. However, I was aware of some of the limitations as a result of my current situation. At the moment, Avalon was busy healing some of the more seriously injured civilians, so I don't have access to her right now. Furthermore, while most of the pirates are weak there were still so many of them and I can't use most of my weapons for fear of breaking the ship.
I can only use anti-personal weaponry, which means I am abusing a whole lot of Kyogre as it is very fitting for this battle. Kyogre's range easily allowed me to attack multiple opponents, and not to mention that a majority of the pirates were users of water magic, wich put them at an even bigger disadvantage against me and Kyogre.
I am also using the shield of Achilles to help with defense. While I avoided using the shields powerful abilities, which would be overkill against my current opponents, I was still able to use it just like a regular shield. Even while not activated, the shield was still indestructible and could not be damaged by the lacks of the enemies before him.
"Gehehe, I guess we had a rat down here. How fun!" A voice came from above the stairs while I was holding back seven pirates
I was surprised to see all of my opponents go stiff as they heard the voice coming from upstairs. I did not hesitate to take advantage of this opening and so I cut them all down before they could properly react. Before I had a chance to identify the new enemy, I instinctively jumped back as holes appeared right where my head was instants ago.
"Phew, and here I was hoping you would go down like that." The male said as he came down the stairs.
He was wearing a captain-like coat styled in black and red, and a metallic claw attached around his middle finger of his right hand. He also had messy black hair, a sloven look like he has just woken up, and finally a a horrendously grizzly black beard. Judging by his appearance, I assumed that he must be the captain of this ship, Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard.
Unlike his subordinates, I could tell that this guy was going to be a problem. His ki is crazy strong and his magic energy doesn't lose out to any noble back in the capital. Even so, I had to defeat him. If he is here, then it means that there will be less burden on the others from carrying out their part of the mission and defeat the pirates with the least amount of injuries.
Steeling myself I entered a stance with both Fuegoleon and Leopold, although I modified Leopold and decreased its normal length. One long spear, one short spear in hand, I started emulating the fighting style of Diarmuid Ua Dubaine, the first warrior of the knights of Fianna. He was someone capable of matching Saber blow for blow in terms of technique, so I felt his style of combat would be ideal for my current situation.
Now that Blackbeard knows that I am here, I might as go all out.
With a smirk on my face reminiscent of Diarmiud himself, I jumped at Blakcbeard. A quick jab to the front was easily blocked by him as he created a small but sturdy shield of water. I used my other spear's ability to release a highly concentrated jet of flames at him.
The fire pierced right through his chest, but instead of pain he gave me a cocky smirk, before he burst into a mass of dark, murky water.
SHIT!
Turning back I darted towards the others. If he used this as a distraction he might have some way to enter from somewhere else!
Reaching them I saw that everyone was fine, I could not help but sigh in relief seeing that he was not here yet.
This at least leaves me with time to prepa-
BANG
"Ghaah." I cried out in pain as a hole appeared in the side of my stomach.
I heard the people behind me gasp in shock and fear, while I heard someone walking towards us. While holding my hand over the wound I saw Blackbeard slowly approaching with a swirling mass of dark water hovering over his palm. His smile spoke of the cruel intentions he had towards me and the people I was protecting.
"Gehehehe, to think that such a simple trick was enough to get you. How stupid can a normie be?! I just created a water clone to be destroyed and you thought I went pass you to reach them, leaving your back wide open! Really, normies are absolute idiots!"
I did not bother to answer him, I growled as I dispelled my spears and forced myself to stand. I dispelled my spears and summoned Kyogre. I waved my left fan to summon a wall of ice to protect the people behind me.
It was the only way to ensure that they would not be caught in the crossfire. However, doing this came at a cost.
BANG BANG
Two more holes appeared in my body. One in my stomach and one in my left shoulder.
Turning to my enemy, I stood tall even as blood started gushing out of my wounds. I fought through the pain and maintained my focus towards defeating the vile pirate before me.
Although my left arm is not working well, I was still able to use it to some degree. I once more summoned Fuegoleon and began rotating it continuously in front of me to block off a barrage of water bullet. I managed to defend myself by measuring his ki and using the experience of Diarmuid to block off the attacks until I saw an opening. Blackbeard, for just a second halting the flow of his attack, giving me the opportunity to use my left hand to grab one of my strongest weapons.
Blackbeard hesitated for a second out of shock as he saw me pull out my Julius and point it towards myself.
"Second Bullet: Time Accel!"
Combined with my reinforcement I became a blur and approached Blackbeard before he could react and with my spear aimed straight to pierce his heart.
CLANG
However, something stopped me. This time it was the strange object on his hand. It moved before I noticed it and defended him by blocking my strike.
Not willing to let things end like this I tried to move, but my body was already getting cold from losing so much blood.
Using Gordon, I opened up my cape and launched a wave of poison projectiles at him with one side while the other went to attack directly. He quickly created a wall of condensed water but it was useless.
In terms of penetrating power, the poison projectiles were quite weak. However, their true strength was their ability to leave behind a mist that permeate the air. In this case, upon coming in contact with water, they mixed together, creating an even stronger poison. As expected, Blackbeard's face started getting pale not long after. By the time he realized what I did, it was far too late as his body was being invaded by my poison. Even if he were to try and run away, he was well aware that I had plenty of opportunities to kill him when he turned his back to me. He stared at me with pure hate at me as he started coughing up blood.
To be honest, my own face should be much the same, but the high collar of my cape wrapped itself around my face, acting like a mask, preventing me from feeling the effects of my own poison.
"Heeh, interesting trick, brat. Now let's see if you can handle this! Water Creation Magic: Fury of the Caribbean Sea!" I tensed as I felt a large amount of mana being exerted from Blackbeard as a number of cannons made out of water appeared behind him, they covered the entire space behind him, each one charging mana aimed straight towards me.
"NOW DIE YOU BRAT!" Blackbeard yelled with sadistic glee as his cannons fired large blasts of mana at me.
However, I was not the least bit concerned wit this type of attack.
Putting my left hand with Akhilleus Kosmos in front of me, I activated it. Each of the blasts of water that could pierce through a navy vessel stopped in their tracks, but alarm bells rang in my head as I saw Blackbeard smirk with glee.
Using my ki I felt something amiss, and turning to look I saw one of the cannons by my ice wall, aiming right at my left side. Reacting quickly I took out Julius and shot my Time Stop Bullet, which unfortunately took away some of my focus in activating Akhilleus Kosmos, and as a result a part of its protection faltered causing one of the water bullets to break through. While the bullet only lightly grazed me, the force and pressure behind it still shredded away at certain parts of my body. Doing a quick Structural Grasp, I noticed that I had severe lacerations, two broken ribs, damage to my liver, as well as some damage to my intestines.
All in all, it could be worse.
However, it was still some serious damage, not just to me but to the ice wall behind me. If something like that happens again the civilians will get caught in the crossfire and that is something I was not about to let happen!
It looks like I have no choice, but to use that after all. I did not want to, but if I don't use it, I might take more damage and endanger the civilians. Worst-case scenario, the ship will sink, but with Drake's ship right by our side and with the help of the others and Kyogre it is likely that it won't be a problem.
My resolve set, I tapped into my remaining mana to pull out my secret weapon. I could only smile a bit as I recalled some fun memories about this particular weapon. It is the weapon that was used to create the Azetoth Sword that Rin carried and as such can be considered somewhat close to her. It also carried within it several mysteries behind the art of magecraft in its history, making it a true marvel.
As I am now, while I won't be able to draw out its full potential. but it should still be enough to have the desired effect.
Aiming it at Blackbeard I saw his face change as he felt the energy in the sword being aimed at him.
"Shi-"
"Let me show you my might." As I said that, all the magic energy in the vicinity was drawn towards and began to circulate around the sword. "True ether guides me... My obsessions, the form of my thoughts-" With every word I chanted, all the magic energy from my other weapons, the water magic of Blackbeard, my energy, and even the mana in the ambient became indistinct as if returning to the origin and transforming into its purest and primordial form.
"SWORD OF PARACELSUS!" And with that, the energy being drawn in and condensed was released in a massive explosion of light.
It is terrifying, truly a weapon worthy of being A+ Rank. Excluding Kiritsugu's gun, this Noble Phantasm was the epitome of a magus killer.
The Sword of Paracelsus is a sword that not only helps in all manners of magecraft, it also has a function where upon being fully activated, takes away all the magic energy around it including the one from the enemy's defenses and unleashes it in a massive blast of energy. It is a cheat-like blade that outright negates all forms of defensive magic and used the accumulated energy against the enemy.
The result of the blast was a bit less than what I expected. There were no traces of Blackbeard and while the the ship was not fully destroyed, the attack still passed right through the ship destroying the bow and everything else that was in its path. As the blast was aimed upward, the ship will not sink for a while.
Turning to the civilians behind me I saw that they were all safe, and even as I was losing strength due to blood loss I could only smile knowing they were fine. I ordered Avalon to come to my side and help heal my injuries. The last thing I remember was the concerned expressions of the captives before everything faded to black
Meanwhile, on the deck of Blackbeard's ship, the group of magic knights could only gap as they saw the destruction caused by Shirou's attack. Even when compared to the power of any of the knight captains, the energy used in that blast would at the very east be equal to or slightly stronger by comparison.
They all stood shocked for a second before they all came to the same realization.
For Shirou to use this type of attack, meant that he had to have been in danger!
Not long after that, everyone of started to move. Some went to find and protect Shirou, some went to ensure the safety of the civilians, while others like Luck and Yuno went to take care of the remaining pirates and secure any stragglers.
Writer's Note:
Thanks for reading, any suggestions are appreciated and I guess everyone already guessed who this hurt fox is ;)
Also, do check out my newest story in my page. It is a Code Geass cross-over with many other animes and I hope you all will apreciate it, I even have a pool going for it and I would like your opinions and reviews for it as well.
Anyway, thanks for reading and have a good day.