𝒪𝐕𝗅xt.𝓒𝓞𝔪

About half an hour after most of the nobles went to sleep, the atmosphere in the forest suddenly changed.

“Mm?”.

The Arch ranks all noticed there was something off, and then a cold mist raised from the ground, obstructing the view, it only stopped spreading across the forest when it had completely blocked the camp from the rest of the world.

The peak Arch rank was the first to react.

“We are under attack, make a circle around the camp and don’t lower your guard!”, the peak Arch rank seemed to have a decent military background as he soon took the leading role.

“Boom!”, loud explosions what illuminated some spots of the now completely mist flooded forest, could be seen from afar.

The arch rank from the Damar family, raised an eyebrow recognizing the areas where those flashes of light kept appearing.

“Those are the traps set by my young master, whatever they are, they are coming without any care for their lives”.

At this point the nobles in their tents and carriages had already woken up, including the princess, Aisha and the Risha sisters, who noticed the commotion outside.

Liliana brought the ice dome where Daimon was cultivating with her, of course she changed the properties of her ice so that others couldn’t see from the outside

The peak Arch rank frowned and then a realization hit him like a truck, he jumped to the center of the camping area and shouted.

“All the youngsters come next to me; guards take a few steps backwards!”.

Noticing the situation was getting quite serous, everyone was quick in their feet, and the very second everyone was in the position the peak Arch rank took out a small blue marble and threw it to the ground.

Then a light blue-transparent membrane spread across the camp, just in time to block what seemed to be a spear coming from within the mist.

“Clang!”, the sound of metals colliding echoed through the forest, but the “spear” couldn’t pierce through the protection created by that blue marble, but from the point of contact there was a green liquid oozing on the ground creating sizzling sounds upon contact

Soon the owner of that “spear” became visible to the ones inside of the protection.

“What the hell is that?”, shouted the nobles.

In front of then, there was a strange black creature, its body had a half moon shape with two different pairs of tentacles ones short and the others large with spiked ends, the latter were that “spear” that clashed against the protection, it had one eye in the middle of what should be its head and it had scales all over its body, making it look like the result of combining a jellyfish with a reptile of some kind.

Even Aida who is pretty knowledgeable about the magic beasts of the Clear Water kingdom, was at a loss right now, what they did know was that the creature was up to no good, since it kept trying to stab its way into the protection.

It wasn’t her fault though, the other Arch ranks were as lost as her, the only exception was the peak one, who was working as the bodyguard of the princess, and judging by his grim expression, the answer wasn’t something he liked to know.

“That is a Mist Horror, a creature from one of the forbidden parts of the Maelstrom Sea, and that can only mean… some bastards from the Stingray Devil pirates are eyeing us right now”.

As soon as the peak Arch rank finished speaking, a hoarse male voice came from within the forest.

“Kekekeke, a survivor from the Hazzlig incident, now that’s an even rarer sight than pirates appearing inland, if I say so myself, don’t you agree boys!”.

“You are right boss, there was one in a couple of thousands who managed to escape with the tail between the legs after all”.

“Hahahah!”.

Other voices including some loud laughs also came from all the directions, making it obvious that they were surrounded.

The peak Archmage gritted his teeth, and the princess was surprised to see her bodyguard, a veteran from the navy of the kingdom losing his temper, something she hasn’t seen in all the time he has been protecting her.

“Uncle Spencer, what is that incident they talking about?”.

The peak Archmage noticed he wasn’t acting properly and he calmed down immediately.

“It’s not something the young miss should be aware off, as it was ordered to us, from the very Lord Trident Marshal to keep it to ourselves… but I guess none of that matters now”.

‘In case this old man doesn’t make it out alive this time’, he mentally added before saying.

“As you all know, nobles have the ability to tame sea magic beasts to a certain extent, the capacity, races and quantity differs from one noble house to another, being the founding houses the strongest in that aspect as they can tame late-stage Mortal realm magic beasts with years of training of course”.

“The royals on the other hand, every now and then have the capacity to directly control a sea magic beast, from the moment they are born, but this is an extremely rare situation so much that only the king and his direct descendants are known to be able to do this, and it’s not all the generations”.

“But that belief was shattered in front of me when I was a greenhorn in a fleet that explored the wrong cave, mist covered everything, then we heard splashing sounds and the next thing I knew was that 90% of the presents had their heads and chests tore apart by spear like limbs”.

“The three vice admirals in the fleet joined hands and blew everything away to take whoever was still alive, two of them gave their lives to leave the third one and about ten survivors to escape… the worst defeat in the history of the navy”.

“A couple of days later we got a letter with the seal of a stingray saying the Stingray Devil pirate crew was born, using the blood of two late-stage Mortal experts and thousands of other officers and soldiers”.

“Being strict about the capacity we the mermen race have, we can only control sea magic beasts, but the ones that live in the Maelstrom Sea are practically all mixed blood, the rumored captain of the Stingray Devil pirates claimed to be a hybrid of a merman and a skelefiend… with the ability to control a whole race of aerial magic beasts”.

“Mist Horror…”, mumbled the princess.

The peak Archmage nodded in silence, before he added.

“Out of the ten that survived, only three remain, I’m the only one that overcame the fear caused by those things, and in honor to the vice admiral Ronz who gave his life to save mine, I fought my way to the peak of the Mortal realm”.

*Clap*Clap*Clap

“What a lovely story, but you forgot to tell how afraid was the navy to keep exploring the Maelstrom Sea, so they signed the “Hazzlig” treatment, in honor to our boss, so that none of you would ever approach our little training grounds ever again hahaha”.

The same voice that spoke before mocked Spencer after listening to the story.

Spencer felt the rage filling his whole body, but this wasn’t time for that.

“What the hell do the Stingray Devil pirates want in the Clear Water kingdom, that idiot captain of yours assured that we stayed out of his trashcan, but that also meant you wouldn’t approach our territory!”.

…

A sepulchral silence fell in the area before the same voice of before answered.

“Well, you know the say, there are no eternal enemies just eternal benefits, we have reached an agreement with those old boneheads, with the low price of a few heads from you fish bastards, we’ll get a good opportunity”.

Spencer who had started to built up his mana for a strong spell, followed the conversation.

“Knowing you bastards, you wouldn’t be talking with us if we were your target, so what do you want with us?”.

“Well, unfortunately for you, the heads we need are those from all the nobles that are travelling to attend that banquet, so while you old fishmen are having tea parties, we’ll get rid of all your young generation kekeke”.

“And as a plus, we ended up finding some nice cuties to spend some time, hell the gem of the Crystal Dolphin family is as beautiful as the rumors say”.

“That other brat tried to act all tough, but as soon as he saw the Mist Horrors he cooperated and gave away your group, he bought the right to keep his head in exchange for that little princess, ah of course he mentioned there were women worth a second gaze, and damn he was sure!”.

Spencer spat on the floor and then his mana exploded out of his body, apparently mermen had the different affinities instead of only water, because he was surrounded by flames right now.

The flames illuminated the whole place and surprisingly the mist was driven back, although it was just a bit, it was enough to reveal the many pirates sitting on the branches of some trees around the camp.

But then a scene that was enough to sent shivers down the spines of even an expert like Spencer appeared, besides the first Mist Horror that was still trying to get inside the protection handed to him by the father of the princess, a Half Stellar rank, there were another two lurking in the mist.

The pirates laughed and then they all jumped from the branches revealing their numbers.

“One late and two early-stage peak mortal experts, plus three Mist Horrors… damn it”.

Knowing that a fight was impossible to avoid, the other Arch ranks took out their weapons, and prepared themselves.

“Take care of the pirates, I will hold the Mist Horrors… young miss It’s been a pleasure to serve you, this marble was given to me by your father, so he will be coming here now that I have used it, but the barrier won’t last long if those things keep attacking it”.

The leading pirate laughed one last time and then shook his head.

“I wouldn’t worry about that, the whole forest has been blocked, so that help signal didn’t fulfill its purpose, no one will be coming, surrender and maybe we’ll let some of you live, who knows, the performance of those misses might soften our hearts hahaha!”.

Spencer didn’t pay attention to the taunts of the pirate, instead he turned to see two of the early-stage Arch ranks.

“You two, while we hold the enemies, fly as fast as you can, get to a place that isn’t blocked and call for help, here this is a direct contact to a Half Stellar expert”.

The two that got the device handed by Spencer sighed, but they nodded.

“It’s been three thousand years since that day and the aching in my fists hasn’t decreased at all, at the very least I’ll take some of you down with me”.

With those last words, all the Arch ranks jumped out of the protection and clashed with their respective opponents, the two middle Arch ranks went against the leading pirate, while Spencer attacked the three Mist Horrors, the others each chose a pirate to fight, or flew away to get help.