A total of four ships emerged from the coastline.
Leading the way was a ship with a black and red color scheme. Its crest, resembling a hand of molten lava, marked it unmistakably as the Hand of Burning Blood. Alka looked carefully and saw that, aside from some damage, the entire ship was relatively intact.
The three ships behind were not as lucky. One of them had a brown and white color scheme, with a pattern on its sail of a knight’s lance piercing a shattered skull. This symbol signified smashing pirates, and the ship belonged to the Skull-Crushing Knight Order, a team led by a female captain specializing in combating pirates. The ship showed obvious signs of damage, but its overall structure was still relatively intact as it closely followed the Hand of Burning Blood.
The last two ships shared the same color scheme: a faint gold paired with purple lines. Their sails bore the emblem of the Tulip Empire’s fleet, which had been the last to arrive earlier. Alka remembered their team should have comprised three ships. Their flagship had been the largest among all the vessels present at that time and carried the most ordinary people. Until the very end, they hadn’t allowed a single ordinary person to disembark. But now, only two ships remained. The larger flagship was severely damaged, and the smaller ship had a massive, unrepaired hole in its stern.
At this moment, all the Spells on the four ships lit up, and they began sailing towards Alka’s vessel at maximum speed. It seemed as if they were fleeing from something. They were being chased.
Suddenly, the Spells on the smaller Tulip Empire ship extinguished. The remaining three ships showed no intention of waiting; they continued sailing quickly. Then, suddenly, something erupted from the sea’s surface! Countless white, thread-like lines shot out from the water, directly piercing the ship that had been left behind. These white, thread-like entities wove in and out of its hull, and Alka even saw a person impaled by the threads and lifted into the air.
Seeing this, Alka immediately waved his hand. The Sound of Dawn received the order; its sails, masts, and the Spells at the bottom of its hull all lit up. The ship’s speed surged once more, its bow slicing through the waves and sending spray arcing to either side.
The sudden acceleration made everyone on deck unsteady. They grabbed onto whatever was nearby to stabilize themselves.
"What’s happening? Why did we suddenly increase speed to maximum?"
Since they were on deck, they hadn’t witnessed the fate of the last ship. All they could see were the two fastest ships ahead of them. As their speed increased to maximum, the breeze, which usually blew from behind, now unusually buffeted them from the front.
Alka remained in the watchtower, observing the area behind them, constantly alert. He witnessed how the abandoned Tulip Empire ship was sliced into fragments by those white threads and sank into the sea, eventually disappearing from view. Even at this distance, the threads were clearly visible. Meanwhile, the three fleeing ships also gradually vanished from sight, thanks to the Sound of Dawn’s extreme speed.
As for stopping to save people, such thoughts didn’t even cross Alka’s mind. Saving and assisting others was something they could only do if the situation was within their control, not in an obviously dangerous one . As captain, Alka didn’t want to needlessly endanger his crew. He had to be responsible for them. Not to mention, the Hand of Burning Blood and the Skull-Crushing Knight Order were known to possess Treasures. Moreover, those other crews weren’t small Treasure Hunting Teams; they had numerous members. Excluding Alka himself, who held two Treasures, and Julia, with her Six Spirals power, either of those two forces alone could overpower his own team. Under such circumstances, with even those powerful groups fleeing, stopping to help was out of the question. And the thread-like monster that had obliterated the ship reminded Alka of the wreckage they had seen earlier. As the others on deck had mentioned, the cut surfaces of those wrecks were too smooth, as if sliced by a sharp blade. They bore no resemblance to fractures caused by crashing waves. This, combined with the booklet Alka had discovered in the cave... The booklet mentioned that, an unknown number of years ago, ships had been destroyed by an unusual Sea Beast. Many wrecks found on the island from that time also exhibited similarly smooth cuts. This indicated that the Sea Beast had been rampant in these waters for at least several hundred years. It hadn’t been eradicated in all that time; instead, it had destroyed countless ships. Clearly, they couldn’t deal with such a creature. In this situation, running was the only sensible choice.
Alka continued to observe from the watchtower. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novel•fire.net
Due to the ship’s sudden increase in speed, Chadite and the others had roughly understood their predicament. They all remained vigilant on deck, ready to fight at any moment.
Alka only descended from the watchtower two hours later, once he confirmed it was completely safe. Pororo came up to take his place, continuing to watch their surroundings vigilantly.
When Alka finally came down, everyone gathered around him.