As they approached the ship and entered its interior, they saw that even with many missing parts, it could still regenerate complete structural components to replace them.
This was heavily linked to what Alka had learned last night.
It was speculated that the mutual-destruction attack by the apostate had been launched from their own wooden ship.
And it was triggered by that Treasure.
The only problem was that this Treasure was not marked on the map.
"There’s nothing more to see here. Let’s go to the upper deck," Alka said, pulling out the map.
At this moment, one blue dot on the map had disappeared. At their current position, one gold, one blue, and one white dot remained.
Alka had roughly calculated the position of the white dot.
They had also just seen the open-air deck of this ship while circling around earlier. There was only one corpse on it, which Jason had already sniped.
The remaining blue one was the Four Spirals, along with the golden Six Spirals.
The remaining upper deck required even more vigilance.
This suggested the upper deck had been the main battleground. If so, the death toll might have been higher, meaning more undead could be gathered there. Chapters fırst released on NoveI(F)ire.net
Thinking of this, Alka said, "It’s dangerous up there. Everyone stick close. If anything seems off, we rush outside immediately."
Everyone nodded in understanding.
They then stepped back a bit. The stairs leading upwards were broken, but plenty of holes still allowed access to the upper level.
"Let’s all go up together. You two, stay with the group," Alka said, as Lucilia and Ling looked like they wanted to scout ahead.
Lucilia hesitated, then nodded. She and Ling then merged into the shadows.
A few ribbons flew out from Julia’s back, wrapping around everyone’s hands.
Two wrapped around Chadite, giving her an even sturdier Shield.
If not for fear of alerting the enemy, Julia would have already been singing.
She didn’t sing outside because the beneficial effects of her songs were powerful but short-lived.
At the same time, most of her songs also had debilitating effects on enemies, making them best used during combat.
In this kind of situation, one couldn’t be hasty or drag things out; they had to manage their time wisely.
The upper deck was relatively intact. However, this also meant it was pitch-dark, with only slivers of light penetrating through some broken holes.
As the lantern illuminated the area, an arm suddenly reached out from the darkness.
The enemy was startled first. The lantern, under Alka’s control, floated forward slightly, revealing his appearance.
He was an undead whose legs had turned into structural components, which made him very fast.
The moment he was startled, he charged towards them, his steps making the decaying wooden floorboards groan.
A red Energy Blade appeared in his path, striking at his left leg.
In an instant, it sliced a huge gap in the structural part, black oil seeping out.
An Ice Bullet fired, pinning him in place. With his leg damaged, he immediately toppled over, exposing a blue outline on his back.
So this was the Four Spirals enemy.
After toppling over, he continued to struggle, shattering the fragile surrounding wooden planks and making a loud commotion.
Hearing this, Chadite stepped forward and punched him in the neck.
Silver light burst forth, penetrating his body and instantly stopping his struggle.
The earlier noise had been too loud; it would surely alert the other undead lurking in the darkness.
A red light shot out from a wooden plank to the side, but it was deflected by Chadite’s Shield and reflected out, piercing through the wood.
The other enemies awoke too quickly, far exceeding their expectations.
Seeing this, Alka shouted without hesitation, "Out!"
At his words, Chadite kicked aside the nearby wooden planks and leaped out.
Julia, right behind Chadite, quickly followed. Meanwhile, Alka and Jason slid down to the lower deck and rushed out through a side hole.
A sudden weight settled on Alka’s shoulders; Lucilia and Ling had dropped onto them from the shadows.
The intense commotion had already put Pororo on alert. Seeing the group land after jumping down, she charged towards them, positioning herself in front to shield them.
The commotion had also alerted all the enemies on the upper deck.
Roars filled the air.
The already unstable wreckage began to undergo another large-scale collapse. Dust and wood chips swept through the air.
Everyone quickly retreated to an open area, their backs to the nearby forest.
The sound of the collapse also drew out other nearby enemies, who began crawling out from various corners of the ruins.
Through the billowing dust, Alka spotted a glimmer of gold rapidly approaching.
"Be careful! Many enemies are surrounding us! Back to back!"
As he spoke, Alka held a card between each finger of both hands.
A total of eight cards. With a swift flick of his hands, several red cards shot into the dust cloud.
The cards exploded instantly within the dust cloud.
Countless columns of fire erupted. Flames following the same path even merged into a fire wall, and the resulting shockwave scattered the surrounding dust, igniting the collapsing ship.
Some rushing undead were set ablaze, turning into flaming figures, but they still charged onward.
Alka was also able to see the golden-glowing target.
He was an undead completely different from any they had previously encountered.
His entire body incorporated structural components. Metal and floating, Spell-etched stones seemingly replaced his skeleton and internal organs, all forming parts of his body.
Yet flesh still adhered to these structures, and even pulsating blood vessels were visible.
He had entirely transformed into a grotesque fusion of construct and flesh.
This corpse wasn’t truly dead. Some internal components still faintly glowed. Alka could even see exposed organs throbbing, with blood still slowly flowing through his vessels.
But in such a state, one couldn’t consider him truly alive; it was merely his shell that still moved.
And that gold-glinting object was the headband he wore.
Though covered in grime, it didn’t obscure its golden silhouette, which shone brightly in Alka’s eyes.