Chapter 187: Smirk

As the ship came closer and closer, the crew began to shake. Some of them attempted to use bows and stuff to fire in haphazard fury but the ship full of laughing people- laugher we could hear from a large distance- was only making them shake harder.

The ship came close, and stood roughly ten meters away from us. Crude ship of roughly three stories high. The wood looked… dead. Yet it was all held in place and was it me or was something… something in the water. A large shadow. I'd been told there were vicious monsters in these parts of the water and that we'd never make it and all that but whenever something even remotely big came near us, they probably sensed Alustur's presence and just turned tails. But even among those things… this thing was clearly miles bigger.

So, this is a high-ranked fiend?

"Har har har, what have we here!" One man laughed a tad louder than the rest and jumped aboard our ship. The whole boat beckoned and swayed but didn't sink, so all good.

The man was about half as tall as Alustur, but still taller than me. His teeth were black and his skin was like a relief map, pores and holes. Kinda boney and with an eyepatch. He wasn't missing any limbs though.

"Lost at sea, captain," someone said. I hadn't even noticed them climbing aboard. A goblin, no, a sea-goblin.

Now that I paid more attention, the whole crew was full of fishpeople. So the stuff down there… hmm…

"You sure you want a bigger ship?" I whispered.

Alustur smirked.

Well, he was a monster.

 His problem Sol, not yours.

The crew was of course shaking. They were pretending, as far I knew. Yet, some of their acting was darn right perfect. Or maybe they 'are' afraid? Could be.

"Hand over ya precious!" Anyway, the leader of the pirates spoke in somewhat of a mixture of demon and sea tongue but I could understand him to some extent.

Alustur casually flicked his sword out, and walked ahead. I loved how he did that.

Shing!

The ship swayed and tumbled a fair bit. A lady had flung just over Alustur's head. Two swords connected, Alustur's gaze was on her, hers- on him. "Careful Boss," the lady said. "Guy's a menace."

She rocked a tank top and pants but I could tell, she was somewhat buff. Not overly muscular but enough for me to see some bulges.

Every single one of the crew drew defensive stances. But the leader pirate was of course not bothered. "Surrender or we'll drown ya," he said. "We can swim and survive underwater, ya cannot."

"I can," I said. The water around me sizzled and bits of it swirled around as if to imply something. Some streaks manifested and spread about on the surface. The shadow that was just below us kind of dived down a fair amount. "I would not be so sure about your chances of survival."

The pirate captain's face hardened as he glared. "Kill the boy first."

The woman swiveled her body and almost swirled my way. A wall of water came before us, charged water. She flew through it, expecting to slice my head off. However, she might have misjudged what those pesky small currents could do to her muscles. Not only had it slowed her but it also gave Alustur adequate time to catch up and knock the literal fuck out of her head with the back of his sword. Next, he instantly went for the head of the leader pirate but by that point the pirate had jumped back to his ship and was probably thinking of attacking us with his full forces.

The lady held her head, eyes closed, swayed around like she was about to pass out. And she probably should have but she didn't. Instead, with literal tears, she glared around. "Sink US!" She managed, before shrieking and groaning.

The pirate leader scowled but the ship traveled backwards.

Not much wind here, and the currents were kind of a mess since I messed with it. Yet they moved just fine. Which did make me wonder, was the moving shadow in the water making the ship move?

The lady kept crying and groaning and trying to reach for her sword, to presumably kill me. But sadly her brain probably wasn't working.

Bits of blood trickled down her brown hair, coloring her nape somewhat crimson; her nose and ears leaked too. She looked human for the most part. Symmetrical oval face, about as tall as Alustur, and kind of pleasant to stare at, especially because of those muscles but… but her eyes… they were kind of slitted, almost like a cat's; green.

"Don't get too close," Alustur pulled me away. "Also, maybe try to be a bit more cautious. What do you think would have happened if I didn't make it in time?"

"But you did, right?" I smirked.

He sighed. Yeah, I knew he was right but I didn't expect my bluff to backfire that badly.

"Now," Alusutr bent down near the girl, taking the sword from her. "Good sword, good skills, but too impatient."

The woman was of course still groaning but she didn't forget to glare and scowl. "Screw you." She couldn't even keep her eyes open, heh.

"A lot of people would like to, yes," Alustur shrugged. "Bind her. Be sure to bind her legs and mouth properly. We don't need her kicking or biting anyone."

"Yes sir!"

"So much for our big ship," I said.

"They'll be back," he said. "She's too much of a precious commodity."

"Do you think they might have someone stronger than you?"

"I doubt it. If they were present, they would have shown themselves."

"No, I mean, maybe they went to get their strongest or something," I said.

"Definitely possible. I know it's a tough thing to do but could you… could you try using wind to boost our sail?"

"I can try… but I'll be wasting a lot of precious metals."

We were almost out of the manazone. So the mana required was going to be greater too.