Like a gigantic ice sculpture, the ship and its raiders had become one with the sheet of thick ice!
The raiders' final moments were visible with their emotions and expressions resonating through their body language. The fear and urge to survive were fossilised by the cold breath.
This shook the morale of the invading raiders. They tried to escape, but the combatants of the other ships defeated them.
But what happened next was beyond anyone's expectations!
The iceberg that enveloped the raider ship began to crackle and crumble. Except for the ice statues, the whole ship was exposed to air.
'Wait, what?'
Lee personally felt the magnitude of the threat the cold air possessed. He witnessed the raiders freezing alive. Even the Chief Raider's magic could not put up a quality resistance.
After all this, the ship broke through the ice like it was nothing.
Chunks of ice floated away from the ship. Its dark wood texture along with excellent craftsmanship was disclosed to Lee Shen's eyes. As he inspected the ship, he found one person still alive and struggling to stand up.
"WHO ARE YOU?!?!"
For a normal human, the threat in the tone and the loudness of the sound were impossible. Yet this person on the upper deck, who struggled to stand up, shouted at Lee Shen.
[Lee, I am sensing the presence of multiple artefacts on the ship.]
'No wonder.'
The range of powers and extent of purposes were well known to Lee Shen. He knows that they are capable of doing things that are impossible otherwise.
Cryo lowered his head while rounding the ship and Lee Shen carefully stood upon the beast's neck. The sword was transported to the spatial ring before he commanded Cryo to fly near to the ship.
The passengers of the ships saw the figure standing on the wyvern's back. Though Lee did not have an aura around him, the spectators assumed him to be abnormally powerful for his feat of riding a colossal beast.
With a loud thud, Lee Shen jumped onto the ship's deck and the wood under his feet did not show signs of breaking despite its old and worn appearance. When he raised his torso from his superhero landing pose, Lee saw a tinge of fear, confusion, rage, and arrogance in the eyes of Chief Raider.
"For a human, you sure have a lot of guts to enter the infamous Jewel of Jealousy."
The words conveyed some information but it did not convey how Lee felt the presence of an imminent threat in the proximity. As he observed, the chief, wearing a ragged trench coat with a menacingly decorated staff in one hand, raised his other hand in the air and chanted something.
'No, you don't.'
When Lee Shen pulled out the sword from the spatial ring, a ball of ice came shooting at him. With the flat side of the sword, Lee swatted the ice and it shattered into smithereens.
But his gut instinct told that this was not the end.
Holding onto his instinct, Lee jumped backwards and a sharp needle pierced where he stood a second ago. The ice got embedded in the wood and another one came landing more nearer to Lee.
'This man has ice affinity.'
Dodging the strikes, Lee Shen drew close to the person in a strategic way. Due to the incompletion of the soul, Lee Shen was only a little faster than the Chief's attacks.
It was then something got caught in Lee Shen's eyes.
[A Death energy artefact.]
The pitch-black gem at the centre of the golden sunflower pendant hanging from the neck of the chief was supported by a golden chain.
At the first glance, Hudson sensed the repulsive energy stagnant inside the gem. It emitted a sensation similar to ten thousand corpses piled up and decaying while plunging the surroundings into unrest and mayhem.
[Beware of that pendant. It reeks the stench of blood and screams of souls.]
After missing a few shots, the man brought his staff in front of his chest. The pendant came in contact with the magic object and its bluish hue turned black.
"By the gem of the jealousy, ye shall be sunk into the deep sea!"
The man shouted and the entire ship trembled for a second. Then the miasma of death began to spread over the surface of the ship.
Lee Shen tried to jump away from the corrosive force, but the miasma was faster. It coiled around his leg and pulled him down to the ship.
At once, the frozen statues of the raiders disintegrated and was removed from existence. Several apparitions began to take form from the miasma and raised their figure over the dense black cloud.
[Lee, we were mistaken. There are no multiple artefacts on the ship. The ship itself is the artefact!]
A peculiar sensation surrounded Lee Shen as he heard Hudson's voice. When he gripped the sword, he raised his eyes and saw a barbaric grin on the Chief Raider's face.
Simultaneously, he felt Hudson's voice thinning and vanishing from his ears. The Draconic Wyverns distanced themselves from the ship after the miasma appeared. Though they growled, Lee Shen was unable to hear their voices.
'Not again.'
While slicing down the apparitions forming around him, Lee Shen felt a bit of despair. The sword in his hand was humming lightly, and it signified that D was trying to communicate.
The warriors on the other ships freed themselves from the harpoons of the raiser ship. Then they saw a change of air around the ship and went pale after seeing the ghostly apparitions arising from the deck of the ship.
While they felt fortunate for breaking the bindings, they were also concerned about the young man fighting those figures. Their eyes then fell on the Chief Raider cloaked in a ragged trench coat.
Helplessness could be felt from them as they found themselves unable to support the man who broke the enemy morale.
Then, a faint breeze swept past the raider ship and the Chief flinched in fear.