Chapter 256 – The Nuclear Option

Chapter 256 – The Nuclear Option

 

Kai downed two vials to boost his mental and physical attributes, soon imitated by Flynn. They were weaker versions than those Dora had once gifted him, carrying a smaller backlash.

Shrouded in mist, the cloaked figurehead of the ebony ship aimed straight at them, gliding over the waves like Charon’s ferry. His hand tightened against the Tidal Wand; he would have preferred the hilt of his sword.

“Cursed Gods! What kind of pirate ship carries artillery spells in these seas?” A sailor tended to the burned leg of an unconscious woman. The sentiment was shared by many, spreading a plague of fear among the defenders.

“Get a hold of yourselves!” Nathumeli yelled in a last-ditch effort to organize the resistance. “Their ship must have exhausted their mana reserve as well. We’ll send those filthy pirates to the bottom of the sea!” Despite his authoritative and confident tone, Kai could see frightened ripples in his aura.

The sea serpent blade waited in his ring. If the pirates overwhelmed their defenses, it was better to risk compromising his identity than losing his life.

“Shields up and brace!”

The dark vessel rammed into the hull of the Intrepid, throwing dozens of passengers off their feet in a groan of wood. The pirates didn’t fling themselves on lines to board them. Over a hundred marauders in black clothing and veiled faces stood in rows on the enemy vessel, silent like wraiths.

They sure got the sinister appearance down.

Strangled sobs emerged around him. Kai was hardly an expert in buccaneers, but the group who raided Sylspring had looked far more ragtag. Mana Observer failed to cross onto their ship and peruse its enchantments, blocked by impenetrable wards. Even Hallowed Intuition remained strangely muted.

That’s not goo—

When the whispers spiked, Kai threw himself behind a mast, dragging Flynn with him. Barbed harpoons linked to heavy chains pierced the starboard of the Intrepid in a rain of splintered wood and chipped paint. Three missed and bore into the ranks of the defenders, crunching through bones and flesh of several unlucky souls.

“Are you okay?” Kai crouched behind the cover.

Flynn coughed and looked up with a blank gaze. “Yeah, I—”

Screams of pain and fury interrupted him. Volleys of arrows were exchanged freely between the two ships, breaching the fragile formation.

“Fire at will!” Nathumeli stood on the quarterdeck beside the old Wind blower. Malia summoned a gale to deflect the incoming projectiles, dueling against an enemy Air mage.

At the sound of a low drum, the pirates charged over the bridge of chains with spears and sabers, piercing the line of shields broken by the bombardment. Murmurs of danger rose like mourning laments. Whatever was interfering with Hallowed Intuition was likely linked to the ebony ship.

“Stay close.”

Flynn mutely nodded, eyes darting around the scene of chaos. His hands tightened around a pair of enchanted daggers till his knuckles whitened.

That’s as good as it gets.

A pirate thought himself cool enough to leap over the defenders. Kai cast an ice shard and caught him in the gut. The man fell without sound, finished by a spear through his chest.

When Kai pierced the runes woven into the clothes of the assailants, he had to admit the overconfidence wasn’t entirely undeserved. Every single one of them was at least at the peak of Orange with a yellow profession, and every third person was fully into that grade or higher.

This doesn’t look good.

The Intrepid had more than three hundred people on its side, but only a fraction of the sailors were specialized fighters. The situation was even worse among the volunteers, some frozen with fear or scrambling to retreat.

He exhaled a breath. I’ve survived worse odds.

Potions flowed into his blood, enhancing his reflexes and speed. Kai delved into the rhythm of battle, mind split between the whispers, spellcasting and the surrounding fighting. He sidestepped a black fletched arrow and retaliated with another ice dart.

The cloaked archer on the railing of the Intrepid just managed to parry with his bow. Taken aback by the strength behind the blow, he flailed his arms not to fall into the sea and left himself exposed to a second spell.

Amateurs.

Body Augmentation strengthened his legs to take cover behind a crate. Where Empower had been a raging river, its evolution had scalpel precision, directed exactly where he needed with no waste.

He could barely keep up with the pirates’ movements using Split Mind. Three more darts found purchase in a leg and shoulder, the last missed. Once they gained a foothold on the Intrepid, the pack of marauders reined in the wild charge for a more cautious advance.

A sharp gust of wind threw off the aim of his projectile. Malia floated a span off the ship, robes fluttering around her, wrapped in a battle against the unseen Air mage.

Focus on what you can do.

There was no honor in battle, just survival. Hallowed Intuition allowed him to dance behind the frontline, retreating whenever someone beyond his reach noticed him. Kai thrived on the distraction of the melee, taking any opportunity to sling in a shot.

There was no need for a sword or flashy magic. A sliver of ice set at the right angle was more than enough to pierce a squishy human. No one would realize the speed or sharpness of his projectiles in the midst of battle and any proof would melt in the blood of the attackers.

A whisper rose from the clamor. His muscles strained to invert his momentum as a blade whistled an inch from his nose. A pair of amethyst eyes stared at him beneath the black cloth concealing his attacker—a woman judging by her height and figure.

Shit! Mid-yellow.

The pirate’s surprise at his dodge didn’t stop her from dashing towards him with another slash, her dark saber little more than a blur.

There wasn’t time to take out his sword. All his boosts couldn’t hope to match her Strength, and engaging in close combat was a death sentence. Kai abandoned precision for power to cast a hail of ice.

Bending at an impossible angle below the projectiles, the woman pushed against the deck to fling herself at him. Her blade whizzed toward his head at twice the speed.

Fuck.

While the whispers told him how to dodge, his body was a sitting duck, too slow to move and react. Kai gathered his mana to cast every speck of magic, praying it would be enough. His cover identity didn’t matter if he died.

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Something whistled beside his ear. Hidden in a wisp of Shadow, a throwing dagger flew past the guard of the pirate. Her gaze widened in surprise, and she twisted to the side with superhuman speed, but she was too committed to the slash to dodge entirely.

The knife pierced deep into her arm, forcing her to fall back. Her icy eyes glared behind him. She pulled out the dagger without a noise, ready for a second round when a spear-wielding sailor tried to skewer her.

A hand dragged him behind a mast.

“Are you hurt?” Flynn checked him with worried eyes. “We agreed to stay in the backline.”

“I— I’m fine. Thank you for the help.” Kai patted himself down. There was a cut on his shirt, but no wound. He crouched against the towering mast to survey the battlefield. “They need my help. It’s not going well.”

The deck was soaked with the metallic smell of blood from almost a hundred bodies. There was barely a frontline left. For each foe he had cut down, the pirates felled several more on his side. They would have already been decimated if Malia didn’t hold the advantage in the air.

Flynn leaned over him, growing pale at the sight. “We… we still have numbers on our side.”

Kai shook his head. “Just barely.” Their count was much closer than when the fight began. At this pace, there wouldn’t be anyone to celebrate, even if they won. “And I think that woman was holding back. She could have beheaded me on the first strike if she used the speed she showed at the end.”

“Are you sure? Why would a pirate hold back?”

“What’s on the mind of a murderous psycho?” Looking at the battle, the strongest raiders advanced with methodical, almost bored movements through the slaughter.

Is it some kind of sick ritual to let the weaker members ahead? Who are they?

Kai forced himself to ignore the empty eyes of sailors and passengers, staring vacantly at the sky. He was used to watching beasts die, not people. How could anyone slaughter other human beings like this?

Focus on what you can do.

Each second mattered, there wasn’t time to curse the skies. He was about to jump back into the fray when a thundering voice silenced the conflict. “Get off my ship!” Captain Nathumeli roared red with rage. He held old Malia in his arms, an arrow poking from her chest.

Shi—

Ship and captain glowed with incandescent mana. Every splinter of wood blown by the harpoons and the boards of the deck exploded at once, shredding skin and flesh.

Kai summoned a water shield to protect them. While the attack was aimed at the pirates, the line between the two forces was too jagged for a clean strike.

The wooden shards caught some of the defenders, though the result clearly favored them. Dozens of black-clothed pirates lay in pools of blood, moaning and crying in pain—the first sound they emitted since the fight started.

It was grim to feel relieved at such a massacre, but Kai finally held some hope they’d make it through the day. Such large losses would put a dent in the raiders’ morale, they might even make them retreat.

We just need to regroup—

“Who knew the old dog hid such a trick.” A tall man scoffed, standing nonchalantly in the middle of the battlefield. Despite donning the same anonymous black as the other raiders, his contempt at both sides of the bloodied deck couldn’t be more blatant.