223 A Storm Part 2 (1/2)

With a loud bang, Daniel released a bone puppet. It leapt into the air before landing onto the deck on all six limbs, puncturing holes in the floor with its sharp claws. There was chaos all around. The storm had come so suddenly that even the disguised battleship had no chance to pull out of it. If Saleen and the gang had been on a sailboat, they would not even have had a chance to lower their sails. The sheer force of wind would have overturned the boat, taking them along with it.

The current situation was not too promising either. Ominous dark clouds peppered the humid sky as the howling sound of wind could be heard throughout the distance. The unexpected torrential winds had caused the magical lights on the ship to swing to and fro violently, causing flashes of light to appear every now and then. By now, the waves had reached ten meters in height as the ship attempted to forge on through the water. Dark, foaming waves began to rise up ominously against the front of the battleship. They loomed higher and higher until one eventually crashed right over the side of the huge ship.

Instantly, Saleen was tossed around and rolled under the waves like a rag doll. As he fell heavily onto the floor of the deck, he saw a sailor, who had been trying to close off the pathway leading to the lower deck, being lifted up by the waves and thrown overboard. Saleen gulped. That sailor had been a skilled swordsman, yet he could not do anything against the storm.

With a sickening crack, the naval ram, which had been disguised as the ship’s mast, snapped under the force of the strong winds. The rain exhibited no signs of stopping. If anything, it continued cascading in diagonal sheets in its full glory. The raindrops that hit Saleen’s shield bounced instantly right off.

Saleen remained unusually calm and composed. He stood firmly on the floor of the deck as he turned around and said, ”Lex, we can’t save the ship! We need to strike now!”

Before he could do anything else, the sounds of the ship’s keel collapsing filled the air. The rock turtle had been lifted by the huge waves, causing the chains that tied it to the ship to be pulled along harshly. This tug alone nearly tore the entire ship apart.

Lex was stunned for a moment before she realized that Fellett was indeed an unreliable person. The ship was sinking and he was nowhere to be seen.

A ray of magic light shone in the distance before it vanished as quickly as it had come. Saleen’s heart fluttered with excitement. He knew that all elements behaved abnormally in the face of the storm, but what truly surprised him was the fact that the light had something to do with fire elements. What excited him though was that the water elements in the area had strengthened a great deal during this storm. Deciding to test his Water Magic, he waved his hands. Instantly, hundreds of icicles appeared in the air out of nowhere.

Although it looked impressive, Saleen had merely cast a level-2 spell. In the past, Saleen had been able to conjure up thousands of icicles, but they had used up half of his magic chords and he had needed to repeat the spell many times in order to get them to reach that number. Now, he had improved so much that just one wave of his hands was enough to make more than three hundred icicles appear in the air, ready to strike their targets.

At that moment, he felt as if the power of heaven and earth had been concentrated into the spell. ”Sika, seize the rock turtle! Now!” Saleen bellowed. Daniel instantly summoned the remaining seven bone puppets to assist him. During battles like this, it was people who depended on brute strength that would be able to weather through both the storm and the fight. Those that relied more on combat techniques would have lost the battle before it even started.

The eight bone puppets instantly surrounded the entire deck, preventing any sailors from gaining access to it. Nailisi lifted her leg and kicked the sailor that had escorted them upstairs overboard. The remaining sailors had gathered behind them by then. All of them only had a single goal in mind, which was to prevent the rock turtle from ending up in Saleen’s hands.

The rock turtle was over twenty meters long. Within the course of two days, the sailors had hollowed out all of its flesh. The only thing left was its shell, which had been sealed shut and left at the back of the ship. The empty shell was heavy, but buoyant. It had been hollowed out, after all. The wooden battleship might have been destroyed by the storm, but the turtle’s shell remained intact.

Boom!

With a swing of his hand, Saleen threw the icicles in the direction of the deck’s floor. A great explosion pulsed through the battleship as the icicles smashed right through the floor of the deck, leaving a gaping hole at least five meters in diameter.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

As the storm raged on, Saleen continued unleashing icicle after icicle, smashing hole after hole through the cabins located on the second floor. He was not going to fight Fellett when he had his crew on board. It would only be a fair fight if it was one on one, and for that to happen, everyone else had to take a swim.

Saleen would only rest easy once all of the sailors and slaves onboard had been tossed into the sea either by the force of the waves or his Icicle spells. He could not think of anyone else aside from Nailisi who would be able to hold their own against these dangerously choppy waves.

The howling winds and the roar of the waves pierced his eardrums. Saleen had never experienced the wrath of such waves in his life. Yet, he was not filled with the slightest bit of terror. All he did was levitate as he cast a mutated Windspeed spell, which expanded to form an air bubble that wrapped around his body. The air bubble was opaque, so nobody could see what he was doing inside the air bubble.

Saleen’s magic exemplified the powers of a true grand mage. He was able to manipulate his surroundings to his advantage, and in the process, unleash the greatest power possible from the elements. Saleen had allowed the winds to carry him upwards as the water droplets that clung onto his skin, fabric, hair, and other parts of the body flew outwards towards the back of the ship, leaving him dry.

Only grade-6 mages were able to execute this spell perfectly. However, as a grade-4 mage, Saleen was already able to replicate it. He had seen this spell done by Lex at least a hundred times. Although Lex had not cast the spell specifically so that he could learn it, he had committed the workings of the spell to memory anyway. Now, under these special circumstances as he felt the waves move past him, he felt like he was flying.

To him, the storm was an enabler, not an obstacle. His powers would only strengthen as the storm raged on. As he felt a huge wave speed past him, Saleen retrieved the bronze magic book from the Ring of Gifts.

Using whatever he had in him, Saleen unleashed all the magic inside the magic spellbook. A mist-like fog started seeping out of the book, burning wildly in the air before taking on the form of fireballs. They burned brilliantly in the air as they hurtled towards the ship’s stern. The sailors did not even have time to react before they were struck by the fireballs and tossed into the ocean, where they were then swept away by the waves. All of them had fastened themselves to each other using a rope secured tightly around their waists, probably to anchor themselves to the ship in case one of them fell overboard. Unfortunately for the sailors that were not struck by Saleen’s magic, this proved to be their downfall as they were dragged overboard by those that had fallen into the sea.