Chapter 23: Sea God
From the horizon, a swarm of sharks swam towards them as they smelled the blood in the water as well.
"Gloppy, recall as many slimes as you can! Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, command them to throw as much away as possible, Blackbeard..."
Leo was about to give an order to The Apex as well but got stopped in the middle of his sentence.
"Already on it kid!"
Blackbeard let go of the wheel, letting it rotate to the right side, making a sharp turn and changing the direction in which they were going.
The sounds of movement under them became quieter with time. This was not because the slimes were slacking off, but because they were trying to lose as much weight as possible.
Either of the slimes didn't have work to do? Recalled instantly to leave more Summoner Slot to Leo.
And the moment he saw any Slots free up, a Hellbat was summoned to barrage the sharks with an unending torrent of fireballs.
But the damage was still not high enough as the monsters kept coming towards them, slowly but surely catching up.
[Spirit Sword Style: Magical Blade]
[Magic 105]
The damage output of his summons suddenly tripled as he switched the style of his Spirit Sword. This made their attacks strong enough to deal some damage to the monsters behind them.
Each fireball dealt around 10 damage, which was not a lot, yet the monsters kept dying to the sheer quantity of them.
[XP +1 000]
[XP +1 000]
[XP +1 000]
...
One after another, the sharks started to die. The waters under them started to boil due to the amount of heat transferred into them, stopping the rest of them in their tracks.
[11:25:21/12:00:00]
'This was only 30 minutes? It felt like forever.'
Leo wanted to go downstairs to help them throw everything away, but all of a sudden he became dizzy.
Everything around became fuzzy and hard to see, his muscles felt like they were being torn apart with each step he forced himself to take.
'What's happening... did I get poisoned?'
[Status]
[No Status effects]
Cien spoke to him through the sword. Leo was about to fall to his face when the black mass extended to prevent him from doing that.
The closest he was to sleeping for the past week or so happened during the fight with the Ifrit when he fell unconscious.
But it was not the time to fall asleep now, a splash of water woke him up. And just in time, a swarm of piranhas started biting into their ship.
"Gloppy your turn!"
All of the Hellbats got recalled, letting the Warlord summon his own army, coating the underside of the ship with the summons' bodies.
This worked just fine to prevent the fish from biting through the structure but burned rather quickly through Leo's Mana.
Chug chug chug
Both of them kept juggling the Summoner Slots to stop different types of beast, not getting a moment to rest.
***
[5:53:29/12:00:00]
Leo sat down on the hardwood beneath him. Finally able to catch his breath as they sailed onto shallow waters, where the enormous monsters wouldn't catch them.
"That was only 6 hours!?"
[Leo Astralis - Level 21]
Only now was he able to pay attention to the status window. Inside he was jumping with joy like a kid on Christmas Eve.
'4 more levels for the next milestone...'
"How long until we reach the island?"
He inquired Blackbeard, who in the meantime brought one of his skeletons to life and used him as a musician.
Because of that, he wasn't able to hear Leo's question, being too lost in the pleasure sailing and freedom brought him.
'This senile old man... is he really The Apex?'
[Mind Archive]
[Can't get more information due to the difference in level]
Not even the name... not even the level, nothing at all. Whoever the man was, his strength was way superior to his.
The ship stopped all of a sudden which grabbed Leo's attention to its front.
He expected to find an island to which they were going but instead was met with a terrifying sight. An iceberg tall enough to cover the whole ship blocked their path.
Before he could even react, the sides of the galleon started to crack as the ice spread over. Strong steps accompanied the sound of ice falling as a tall figure entered the ship.
Ruby ran up to check what was going on and jumped towards the imposing figure the moment she saw them.
In the middle of her jump, a lump of ice on the ground expanded into a fist that froze the slime and crushed it into a million pieces at the exact same moment.
Gloppy and the rest tried to go up as well but Leo stopped them.
"Don't move!"
Step by step, the man got closer to Blackbeard, his bulging muscles dripped with water. The only thing he wore was pants.
But who would blame him? His bulk was so massive that nothing would fully fit him. The most noticeable part was a tattoo on his back saying "Justice".
Without even looking Leo's way, he passed towards the old man by the steering wheel, who himself didn't look too concerned about it.
"How long has it been?"
"At least 10 years since I caught you, you scum. And I'm here once again to fulfill my promise to you."
The ice around them got even worse as a blizzard picked up.
"To think the Sea God of the navy would come for me once again, I must feel honored."
'I need to do something, if he dies then I won't get my rewards.'
[Spirit Sword Style: Balanced Overdrive]
He called out for as many Hellbats as it would let him and made them shoot at the man in front of Blackbeard.
And as he saw a smoke screen from the mix of water and fire, he dashed forward.
'I got this! We leveled up, I should be able to strike him!'
Leo jumped into the middle of the air, thrusting his sword at the Sea God. The tall man turned around and put his arm forward the sword's path,
Blood sprayed everywhere as the summoner penetrated his palm.
No! It was water the arm shattered into small ice cubes as the man grabbed Leo by his face and threw him across the entire ship.
"Enough!"
The Apex shouted, grabbing the ice and controlling the opponent's attention.
He looked at Blackbeard, sweat falling down his face as he ran closer to him.
"I pay respect to The Apex of Piracy, Vice Captain Iceborn reporting for duty."