Chapter 96: The Princess and the Pirates

Everyone was alerted. They quickly went to both sides of the boat to inspect their surroundings while the twins rushed to the interior to search for damages.

It seemed like only Shina was close to panicking. The whole crew was calmly observing as if this had happened to them countless of times already.

“What was that?” Jessika muttered.

For the second time, the ship had been shaken violently by something terrifyingly powerful. They almost fell out of balance.

Finch jokingly said:

“That’s a sign that we’re close to Sekhtar.”

Shina was desperately looking at their faces, looking for affirmation that they knew what to do in this situation.

With no particular expression on her face, Nozomi drew out her sword.

“It’s not a giant creature,” she said.

The captain nodded.

“As expected, it must be…”

Finch wasn’t able to finish his sentence when something just jumped out of the water. They watched as this strange, humanoid figure spun in the air before landing onto the deck of their ship.

Merely seconds later, more of them followed into the ship.

They were slim and hunchback. Their skins were rough, dark and covered in planktons and barnacles. They had long, boney limbs that ended in blade-like fins.

Their hairless heads were distorted into a grotesque shape. They had bloodred orbs for eyes and a mouth with a crude line of sharp fangs.

“Sirens.”

The sea monsters let out a terrible screech.

Nozomi wasted no time. It was as though her blade traced an invisible thread, a predetermined path that unfailingly found the vital points of her targets.

The first line of monsters fell by her blade.

More sirens were climbing onto the ship. Finch, Remi and Jessika worked together to keep them at bay while Nozomi and Shina fought the ones that jumped on.

The protruding twin daggers slashed through the shelly surface of the siren’s skins. She and the hirazan swordsman blended their fighting styles seamlessly and annihilated any monster that dared to get aboard the ship.

Her swordsmanship rivalled that of Nozomi’s. It made Shina wonder what kind of training she had gone through to match the level that the imperial sword style gave her.

Shina dodged a sharp fin aimed at her neck before countering with her own attack. She stabbed the siren in the throat before retracting her blade into her suit.

Nozomi performed a barrage of slashes in front of her, delivering fourty strikes in six seconds. After doing that technique, pieces of shredded flesh plopped onto the wooden floor of the deck.

The two found themselves surrounded and had no choice but to fight back to back.

Nozomi’s fast and precise strikes slayed the advancing monsters on one side while Shina’s powerful and quantitative slashes cleared the other.

Before they knew it, the dead bodies were piling up on the ship.

“They keep coming!” Jessika yelled while throwing fireballs into the monsters that were trying to swim towards the ship.

“What the fuck? It’s like their whole bloodline is raring to board with us!” Finch remarked.

And they were right, too. The oceans almost turned dark with all the sirens approaching the boat.

Remi was already flying and forcefully removing the sirens that were trying to climb up. He knew that breathing fire would damage the boat, so he used his claws and jaws instead.

“Should I just burn them all?” Jessika asked.

Finch answered immediately.

“No, you idiot! You’d burn us plus the ship!”

Shina looked around and realized that at this rate, their ship would be crawling with sirens in no time. They couldn’t just keep fighting them forever. Eventually, they would tire out and lose to the unrelenting pressure that the monsters delivered.

“What the hell’s with this attack?!” the captain complained.

“Normally, there’s a few of them tryna eat us. Now it’s as if we’re the most famous food in their menu!”

Shina contemplated for a moment. She really didn’t want to use this as a last resort, but seeing as they were about to die, she had no choice.

After clearing the last wave of monsters on the deck, Shina yelled and got their attention.

“Everyone! Go inside the cabin!”

They looked at her, confused.

“What?! Why?” Finch asked.

Shina drew a deep breath and then answered.

“I have a plan. Make sure you close the door and stay away from it.”

They stared at her, hesitating.

“Do it now, we’re running out of time!” she exclaimed.

Though they were reluctant, they chose to trust Shadowblade. Finch, Jessica and Nozomi ran inside the cabin and shut the door. Remi landed beside Shina, looking up at her.

She looked at the dragon and asked:

“Are you tired? Can you still lift me up?”

The dragon tilted his head, his tongue sticking out.

“I’m sorry, but you’re gonna have to.”

Shina raised her forearm into the air, prompting Remi to do that one trick she had taught him.

The dragon began to flap his wings. As he gained altitude, Remi grabbed Shina by the forearm and flew her up in the air.

Just in time, almost all of the sirens got into the deck.

Shina pulled out a glass vial, opened it and drank the arcanium, giving her temporary abilities to use magic.

She used a water magic spell, summoning an artificial rain that poured on a small area containing the monsters.

Then, after she was sure they were all fully wet, she used thunder magic, casting lightning strikes upon her targets. Chained lightning bolts zapped through the sirens, burning their flesh and skin without damaging the ship. Even the ones that were still swimming towards the ship got electrocuted by the intense lightning and died.

Remi slowly descended back into the deck and put Shina down.

“Good job, Remi!” Shina exclaimed, stroking the dragon’s head.

As she stood amidst the corpses of her enemies, the door of the cabin opened, revealing the shocked faces of the crew.

“Did you just… drink arcanium to use magic?” Finch uttered.

Shina turned to them. Of course, they knew that only a Venilon had the ability to use magic via arcanium ingestion.

There was no hiding it now.

Shadowblade removed her dark mask, revealing the beautiful face of the revered Princess Shina Venilon..

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