Chapter 638: The Monster’s Horizon |
The ship shot into the street, dragged forward by the super-current. This one was narrower, and the enemy ship came with them, wedged in close.
“Damn it, we were never supposed to come in here!” one of the pirates on the other ship shouted.
Luke thought fast.
A full-power Shadow Mana Explosion is out. My ship would take the hit too, and even fire is risky.
“Kill the bastards, just don’t wreck too much of their ship!” a voice roared from the other vessel.
Luke’s group was lower on the deck, while Eleanor held the upper position. Pirates started leaping onto their ship.
One of them drew a pistol and aimed at Luke. “Adios, muchacho.”
The instant he fired, Luke had already moved.
“What?”
[You have slain a Human…] *26,886,974 EP earned*
[+1 Soul Fragment]
“Adios,” Luke said.
The pirates crashed into the rest of his group. Jack stood in the middle of it all, firing spells through his wand. His father raised a hand, and the ring on his finger flashed.
A wand ring.
Stone surged up from the deck below and assembled itself into rough, blocky shapes, three squat stone creatures. Stephen touched the golems, and with his transmutation powers reshaped their hands. Each one ended up with a stone blade on one arm and a spiked stone ball on the other. The golems positioned themselves around him and Jack and went after the pirates.
So that’s how a transmuter alchemist fights.
Another pirate jumped aboard. This one wore a proper pirate coat. He glanced at Charlie and Evangeline.
“Looks like you’ve got some troublesome ones.”
Luke threw a knife into his back. The pirate spun, pistol already firing.
“Can’t catch me off guard. I’m skittish as an oyster,” he said.
He fired again, then charged Luke with a scimitar in his other hand. The moment Luke started to launch a [Shadow Ball], the pirate raised the pistol and fired a jet of sand that formed a round shield. The Shadow Ball hit and exploded against it, and the pirate came in with the scimitar.
Luke dodged.
He pressed in with the kukri while the man blocked with the sand shield around the pistol and countered with the sword. Another pirate tried to hit Luke from behind, and Luke spun, taking his head clean off.
“You’re a dangerous little shark,” the pirate said to him.
Then he pointed the pistol upward and fired. A wave of sand formed above them and came pouring down across the entire ship. Luke dashed clear, sprinted, and jumped for a rope.
“Captain, we’ve got a problem!” someone shouted from the other ship.
Then Luke saw it. One of the crossing paths ahead had a huge wooden bridge cutting across the street.
Our mast.
It was going to be smashed.
“Anne,” he called.
“Already... saw it,” she said, wrenching the ship toward another street.
But that street was packed with smaller rope bridges. The mast slammed through them, knocking bridge after bridge loose. Luke’s ship and the enemy vessel tore through the narrow passage, destroying everything in their way. He went after the pirate captain, who had retreated back to his own ship. Luke landed on the pirate vessel, dodged the gunfire, and went straight at them with the kukri.
“It takes guts to come onto my ship,” the captain said, leveling his pistol at him.
“No. It takes guts for you to come onto mine.”
Luke drove a knife into their mast and ran. The blade exploded. He charged the captain, who fired bursts of sand from the pistol. Luke twisted aside, jumped into the air, kicked off a crate, landed, and surged forward as he released the Spectral Beast.
The shark erupted onto the deck, tearing into the pirates. Luke hurled a knife at the captain. The knife exploded. The sand shield broke apart, and Luke leaped in with his kukri.
[Crimson Fang activated]
The captain took the hit and went flying, rolling across the deck. Pirates rushed in. A healing dome flared up where the captain had fallen. The shark was chewing through one pirate when gunfire started hammering into it. Luke pulled it back into his soul.
“He’s alone!” one of the pirates shouted, aiming his weapon at Luke. The others followed suit.
“And when has that ever been a disadvantage for me?” Luke said.
Several black knives began floating around him. With a burst of speed, he lunged at the pirates, slipping past the bullets. He summoned the shark again, and it dropped into their midst like a torpedo. By the time the beast vanished, Luke was already there, dancing through them with his kukris.
Then he looked at the captain, one hand clamped over his wound. Luke threw a kukri into the captain’s leg. Then he snatched one of the floating knives and hurled it.
[Telekinetic Impulse activated]
The knife struck the pirate captain in the face.
[Shadow Mana Explosion activated]
It detonated.
“Son of a—” Another pirate was hit by the returning kukri, yanked back by magnetism.
“You shouldn’t have set a trap for me.”
He threw three knives.
[Knife Storm activated]
The pirates were shredded by the barrage. Then, just as he moved to kill another one, something hit the deck. Then something else. A skeleton.
What?
More skeletons started dropping. Luke looked up and saw the bridge-like skyscrapers above them, swarming with skeletons throwing themselves down onto the ships like rain. The skeletons rose the moment they landed.
Luke gripped a knife, flooded it with mana, slammed it into the pirate ship’s deck, and jumped back to his own ship. The blade exploded, blasting a hole through the pirates’ vessel.
Luke’s ship was filling with skeletons falling from the sky. Charlie was punching them away, sending them flying. Some pirates were still aboard too, but now they were fighting the skeletons. The other ship started coming apart under the damage, breaking into pieces. Some of the surviving pirates tried to jump onto Luke’s ship, but they were too late. The ones who lived long enough fell into the water and were dragged away. Minutes later, the super-current died down, and the ship resumed a calmer glide.
Charlie’s notification was still there.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Charlotte Vespertilio’s Class [Blood Death Knight] reached Level 89! (+18 STR, +10 INT, +8 END, +8 VIT, +4 AGI, +2 PER, +10 Free Points.)
“We surrender!” the remaining pirates shouted, surrounded by Luke’s group.
“Oh, now you surrender?” Evangeline asked.
Only five pirates were left alive on their ship. The group interrogated them.
“Waiting near a Beacon is profitable. Nothing personal,” one of them tried to say.
The group of pirates kidnapped people and even seized ships.
“What do we do with them?” Layla asked.
Luke looked at the others. At the same moment, they moved. Luke killed one. Eleanor killed another. Evangeline took one. Anne took one. Charlie killed the last. The five pirates dropped dead.
“After what they did, there was no way we could just keep them as prisoners,” Eleanor said.
“We’re far from the others,” Charlie said.
They had gotten separated from Triss’s ship and Marten’s.
“I hope they’re okay. They seemed nice,” Layla said.
“They will be,” Eleanor replied.
“The pirates said this is skeleton territory. We keep sailing until we find a Beacon,” Luke said.
The bodies were thrown into the water with the others. The ship kept moving. No one left the deck.
“Interesting skill, Dad,” Jack said.
“Thanks, son. They’re support golems,” Stephen replied.
The water was calm. After half an hour, the sense of immediate danger began to ease. The streets were not as narrow here.
“They dirtied... the deck...” Anne muttered.
“There’s sand in everything I touch,” Charlie said.
“Tell me about it. My hair is full of sand,” Eleanor said.
There was not much they could do. They needed to wait until nightfall to know whether there was a Beacon in the right area, but even so, they kept sailing through the flooded streets looking for one. Eventually, they found a street blocked by a wooden gate.
Luke jumped into the water and stayed atop the shark as it swam him closer. The gate had little holes in it, enough to see through. He peered through one and saw a much more open part of the city beyond. No skyscrapers. No tight corridors. Focusing the long-range power of his eye, he saw it. A Beacon.
“Finally.”
When he returned to the ship, he explained what he had seen.
“There’s only one thing to do. Blow it up,” Charlie said, raising her fist.
She wanted to test her power. Luke brought her close to the gate. Charlie raised her fist and started gathering power into it. Then she jumped and drove the punch into the wooden gate. A tremendous boom rang out. The impact blasted the gate apart.
“Yeah, I would not want to be you on a day she wakes up in a bad mood,” Artemis said in his mind.
They returned to the ship.
“Let me heal that,” Jack said when he noticed Charlie staring at her slightly injured fist.
The moment he tried to heal her, Charlie flinched in pain.
“That’s strange. My healing hurt you,” Jack said.
Charlie did not get time to answer.
“Undead,” Luke said. “Healing magic is one of their weaknesses.” He kept his tone casual.
“Sorry, Charlie. I forget sometimes that you’re a kind of zombie,” Jack said.
Luke and Charlie managed to play it off. They sailed deeper into the district, but the Beacon was not easy to reach. Skeletons were stationed in stone towers, and some were manning siege weapons that looked like ballistas.
“We’re going to lose our ship,” Eleanor said.
“There’s nothing we can do about that,” Luke replied.
“Shame... nice... ship,” Anne said.
They started attacking the skeletons at range. Eleanor handled most of it. Whenever one of the siege weapons turned toward them, Luke had already thrown a knife that exploded and knocked it into the water. Then, from the top of one tower, a skeleton leaped straight onto the ship. It was a huge jump, impossibly fast, some kind of skill.
[Bone Colossus - Lvl 99]
The creature was massive, its bones thick and broad. It had to stand close to ten feet tall. It swung a fist at the ship. Luke intercepted it with his kukri. A few seconds later, the thing collapsed into pieces.
[You have slain a Bone Colossus - Lvl 99] *1,317,340 EP earned*
Your class [Demonic Predator] has reached Level 91! (+10 Lethality, +7 Perception, +6 Agility, +6 Vitality, +6 Intelligence, +5 Endurance, +8 Free Points)
[You have reached Level 90! Half-Demon (Rank E)] (+2 bonus points to all attributes, +5 free points)
“It looks like the skeletons are done for now,” Eleanor said. “But once we abandon the ship, they’ll probably swarm it.”
[Charlotte Vespertilio has reached Level 83! Vampire (Rank E)] (+2 to all stats, +7 free points.)
Charlie had gotten stronger too. Luke dove into the water. Swimming down with the shark, he searched for Stalkers. They loved waiting until people got close to Beacons before striking.
“No Stalkers,” he said when he came back up.
The group started leaving the ship.
“Looks like I’m coming after all,” Stephen said.
“Didn’t you say you were going to win the event to impress Triss?” Luke asked.
“And you think I actually could?” Stephen said. “Here’s a tip. Women value the guy who tries and fails more than the one who wins too easily. They can deny it all they want, but it’s the truth.”
Then he climbed down from the ship.
They value the guy who tries and fails?
Luke filed that away.
“No wonder they all fell for a guy who failed to confess his feelings,” Artemis said.
Luke handed the artifacts to Layla.
“You’re up.”
Since she was the leader who had initiated the Beacon, there was a chance the system would choose her at the end of the dungeon to receive the locator reward.
“Goodbye... ship...” Anne said.
“With luck, it’ll still be here when we get back,” Charlie said.
“I hope so...” the doll woman replied.
Each of them touched the Beacon.
[Teleporting to Beacon Dimension...]
[Ship detected nearby...]
[Teleporting ship...]
The notification flashed by fast, and then came the light. Luke appeared underwater. He swam upward.
Am I alone?
Then he saw Charlie, Layla, and the others, all surfacing around him. The sky above was stormy. They were at sea, inside a storm.
“Did you all see the notification?” Eleanor shouted over the wind.
“I did, the ship—” Jack started, but stopped when the ship appeared above them.
They all dove. The ship had been teleported too. They climbed aboard. At least we’re all together. They stood at the prow, scanning every direction.
Dungeon Challenge 1: Reach the Island
The notification appeared.
“Island?” Jack asked.
Charlie was hanging from a rope, looking into the distance. She saw something, and so did Luke, when lightning flashed overhead and outlined a shape ahead of them. They adjusted the speed pennant. The sea was far too violent.
“I assume reaching the island means something like, ‘Oh, and good luck surviving whatever insanity shows up there,’” Evangeline said.
But as they got closer, they began seeing torchlight.
“A ship?” Eleanor asked.
“Not one. A lot,” Luke said. “Better not get too close right away.”
There were many ships anchored near the island.
“There are people drinking on one of them,” Stephen pointed out.
“Are you serious? That’s the first thing you noticed?” Evangeline asked.
Other participants?
The number of anchored ships easily passed fifty.
“Do you think other teams entered the same Beacon we did?” Layla asked.
Luke studied the scene.
“Nobody’s killing each other.”
They drew closer.
“Isn’t this an exact copy of the island outside the haunted city?” Charlie asked. “It looks the same. What do you think, Master Luke?”
“It’s very similar. Trust me, I drank a lot on that island,” Stephen said.
[Dungeon Challenge 1 “Reach the Island” was completed successfully]
“I think I just saw a familiar face,” Evangeline said, using her binocular skill. “What was that guy’s name again? Doug?”
“It’s him,” Luke said.
They anchored and disembarked.
“If other teams are here too, that means we’ll have to compete against them to clear the Beacon. Which means we’ll eventually have to go against Triss’s group,” Eleanor said.
They accepted that possibility, but decided to approach first, since nobody there seemed to be fighting.
“We meet again,” Luke said.
Doug stood in the rain.
“Oh, I knew I’d run into you people again,” he said.
“Can you tell me what kind of insane challenge this Beacon has?” Luke asked.
“It looks like some of the city’s Beacons are linked, and a few of us got sent here,” Doug said.
“What happened to your group after the pirate attack?” Eleanor asked.
“We escaped by taking one of the side channels,” Doug said.
“So we’re enemies here, apparently,” Luke said.
“Oh, no,” Doug said. “This challenge doesn’t pit us against each other, and there’s no crazy timer either. You just finish the route and your team wins.”
“Route?” Jack asked.
[Dungeon Challenge 2 activated!]
Objective: Ahead lies a flooded city overrun with creatures and monstrosities. The violent storm waters create waves capable of swallowing rowboats and even ships. Your objective is to cross the city, survive its threats, and reach the horizon. But be warned: within the city roams a powerful creature capable of sinking ships and dragging the unwary into the depths. A terrible... kraken.
Fun fact: this chapter has some cute artwork of Eleanor waiting over in that other place.
Even though it doesn’t have much to do with the events of the chapter, I sometimes leave random character artwork at the end. I decided to mention it here on RR. I’m not sure if I should, but people often ask me whether there’s artwork of the characters, so consider this a little fun fact for you guys.
