The Arrow of Light
The Arrow of Light
After the initial shock, the experienced seaman of the Charming Beauty picked up their weapons to resist the demonic beasts while trying to sail towards the poop deck. Though it was impossible for them to defeat so many enemies alone, the witches on board, were their greatest hopes.
The situation instantly reversed as Ashes joined the battle.
She struck the enemies like a gust of wind, leaving the monsters screaming and wailing behind her. Any monster that dared to face her great sword would ultimately be cut in half. Soon, the deck was littered with body parts.
Andrea, unwilling to fall behind, raised her Magical Longbow. It was able to use anything as arrows, shooting them accurately at an astounding speed. That was why she rarely prepared regular arrows but instead a bag of glassbead. The demonic beasts within 20 steps were falling under her shooting without even a chance to scream. The beads were hard and strong enough to slam into the beasts' heads and smash their brains.
With the invisible barrier protecting them from the demonic beasts, Breeze and Shavi were going back and forth on the deck, rescuing the injured seamen.
Although Tilly saw that all the demonic beasts would soon be killed, she did not let her guard down.
She noticed that the boat was shaking violently. It seemed more like the result of an enormous monster thrusting the boat from underneath the water than from the fish-shaped monsters ramming into them. Without Molly's Magic Servant defending them, a few more impacts would be enough to destroy the boat. In this case, the witches would barely be able to protect themselves, while the seamen would most probably be doomed to feed the fish.
Just as she had expected, when Ashes smashed the last demonic beasts with her big sword, a giant shadow was spotted in the water ahead of the boat. There was absolutely no way for a fish to have such a huge figure. Within a short period of time, the shadow neared the surface and was about to bump into the Charming Beauty.
"Watch out!" Tilly shouted.
The giant shadow brushed under the bottom of the boat before the shouting died down. The sailing ship shook fiercely again causing two masts to swing with horrifying a sound. It was as if they would fall at any time. Fortunately, the shadow suspended the attack after its strike and disappeared rapidly into the deep water. It seemed that the monster had intended to knock over the boat with its back before feasting on the seamen and witches.
Tilly landed on the deck and then briefed the other members of the situation.
"We must force the damn monster to surface or it'll sink us sooner or later." Ashes frowned.
"Let me have a try," Shavi said, "I can block the impact with a barrier whenever it gets close."
"Sea God be good." The old Jack prayed and wiped away the sweat from his forehead. "If it's as giant as Lady Tilly described, a regular strike won't be able to work on it. Even if we can make it surface, how can we kill it?"
"Leave it to me," Andrea said as she pulled her drooping hair back to her ear and smiled confidently, "No enemy is strong enough to take my all-out strike within 10 steps."
Soon, the shadow reappeared. This time it attempted to strike from another direction, the tail of the Charming Beauty.
When Tilly who was watching in the mid-air signaled the alert, Shavi ran and jumped out of the edge of the boat with a rope tightly wrapped around her waist. Ashes held the other end of the rope to steadily control Shavi's descending height.
With the strike impending, Shavi instantly weaved the barrier and it started to spread along an abruptly-emerged crack in the gray water, as if the water was cut by something invisible.
The dash against the barrier was so hard that the giant body stopped dead. Shavi gave a grunt with her hand dropping down weakly, as if most of her strength had been sucked away. She saw the size of the shadow beneath her was expanding in her view quickly and that the water was abruptly rising.
"Pull her up!" Tilly shouted as she swooped down.
With one tug, Ashes pulled Shavi back on deck. That was when the giant sea monster roared out of the water, waving the boat fiercely. At first glance, it looked like a mixture between a tooth shark and an octopus with several tentacles sticking out of its triangular head. The tentacles stuck straight to the deck.
The bizarre impact had significantly riled the monster. The witches could sense its rage simply from its roaring. The tentacles which were as thick as an adult's thigh, swept over the deck causing the poles to scatter all around, but yet the attack was still blocked by the barrier, which almost depleted Shavi's magic power.
"Andrea!" Ashes bent down and folded her fingers to form the shape of a bowl with her hands.
"I'm coming," Andrea stepped on Ashes' palm and said, "Leave it to me!"
Ashes launched Andrea into the sky in an extraordinary fashion. Andrea arced in the air and had reached above the head of the monster in a blink of an eye.
She summoned the magical bow and drew the string. Suddenly, a dazzling light burst out from the bow. The light was like the sun shining through thick clouds, dying the water golden.
"Go!"
With a flash of light, the arrow that was made of pure magic power, pierced into the monster like a lightning accompanied by the sound of thunder. The dust-colored monster suddenly inflated and soon golden cracks crawled all over its body. Finally, the light shone through the cracks and ripped apart the monster.
The titanic explosion rippled the water. Meanwhile, the splashing dark black blood dyed the water while body parts began raining down from the sky. The monster whose head was blown open, sank to the bottom of the sea, and its tentacles that had bound the boat, slowly loosened and began withdrawing.
Andrea fell into the water with a splash.
"Ah... Help, help! I can't swim! Who... give me a hand?"
Ashes glanced at the tired Shavi and sighed with resignation. "An idiot that likes to play cool." She untied the big sword on her back and jumped into the water, swimming towards Andrea.
Tilly was relieved that the boat was no longer at risk of sinking. At least they did not need to worry about swimming to Border Town.
Suddenly, she felt a cool breeze on her nose. She looked up and could not help being stunned.
At some point, snow began falling from the gray sky, like the elves dancing in their visual field.
"This, this is snow?" Breeze stared at the ice crystals melting on her palm and asked, "Does it snow in the autumn in Graycastle?"
"Ha, I said it was getting colder as we moved west," One-eyed Jack said as he pulled out his pipe and lit it, "and it seems that you really live in a tough place."
Tilly was quiet and solemn. The snow seemed rare even in winter for Breeze who came from the Kingdom of Dawn that had spring all the year round and the old Jack who was a resident of the Fjords. But the snow signified something special in the Western Region of the Kingdom of Graycastle.
The court mentor had told her that the endless snow signified the invasion horn of demons. It symbolized the beginning of the Months of Demons. It would not subside until the Months of Demons came to the end.
Although the Months of Demons had never ended at a regular date, it always began in winter. Could it be that demonic beasts were invading Border Town now? What was worse, the water spirits that used to haunt the east of Searing Flame Island could now also be spotted at Southernmost Cape. No one knew if those monsters would attack merchant ships that traveled between different lands.
Tilly became increasingly worried.
After two day's navigation in heavy snow, they finally caught the sight of the hazy coastline.