Chapter 53: Chapter 53: A Temporary Alliance
Just then, the old man in the military uniform snapped out of his madness again.
He looked at the horror in front of him, closed his eyes, and let out a long sigh.
"We were too arrogant."
With that, he tightened his grip around the grenade in his hand. While the King of the Mist Phantoms wasn’t paying attention, he jumped out of the control room at once.
The King of the Mist Phantoms noticed him and pointed a hand at him.
A spear formed from blood-red mist shot out at high speed.
But a golden light flashed around the old man, somehow blocking the bloody mist spear.
The old man didn’t stay to fight. He ran with everything he had, rushing straight toward the ship’s power furnace.
By the time he reached it, he was gasping hard. That short sprint had almost drained every bit of strength he had left.
He clenched his teeth and stared at the power core still pouring out energy. Then he tightened his fist again.
"Damn it! If I can’t kill you, then we’ll die together. This is my ship. I won’t let you take it!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the old man tore the pin from the grenade.
Boom!
Flames burst out in every direction.
The frigate’s power furnace took the hit and exploded on the spot.
At that moment, the King of the Mist Phantoms was still enjoying the rush of fresh life energy. Then the shockwave beneath its feet threw it into the air. The terrifying blast nearly swallowed half of its body.
In the middle of the chaos, it let out a furious roar.
Huge amounts of blood-colored mist sprayed from its wounds. Like a balloon with a hole in it, it shot up into the sky at high speed. The ten-meter-long flying dragon Mist Phantom that had brought it here caught it firmly.
The King of the Mist Phantoms lowered its head and looked down.
The powerful frigate that had looked so grand moments ago had now turned into a sea of fire.
It had already lost a large amount of blood mist energy because of Kevin’s sneak attack. It had finally recovered a little by devouring the life energy of the Survivors. But now, this explosion had blasted away another part of its blood mist energy.
After doing the math, it hadn’t gained anything at all.
It had lost even more.
And what made it even angrier was that the frigate it wanted to take had already been blown into flames. It was useless now.
Filled with rage, the King of the Mist Phantoms lifted its head and screamed at the sky. Its cry was sharp and awful, and wild sound waves spread across the sea.
Even fleets more than ten nautical miles away heard its roar.
At that exact moment, Keston happened to be passing through the area.
After seeing the distress calls from Nova, Celula, Monchhichi, and the others, his face darkened at once.
"Damn it! If Bella finds out I didn’t save Stephanie, will she blame me?"
"No. No way!"
Keston roared, "You damn monster, you’re dead!"
He pulled hard at the ship’s side, filling the sails with wind, and charged toward the island where Kevin was.
At the same time, the news that every Survivor on the modern frigate had been wiped out spread through the regional channel.
The Survivors who had been full of confidence before, treating the King of the Mist Phantoms like a prize waiting to be claimed, finally calmed down.
"Oh my God. Even a fully armed active warship couldn’t handle that monster? Should we retreat? Is it still not too late to leave this sea area?"
"That thing is a Commander-level Eldritch Entity. No one on the kill ranking has ever killed a monster of that level. I think we need to get out of here, fast."
"Right! Right! What’s the point of rankings and rewards when your life is on the line? We can always come back for revenge once we get stronger."
On the bridge of their brig, Monchhichi listened to the chat and turned to Kevin. "What do we do? The fleet coming to help might bail."
Kevin grinned. "Bail? Where to? Most of their ships are slower than ours. Which means, if they run, they’ll just leave their backs open to the dark zone."
"So they only have two choices," Kevin continued. "Sail straight here to back us up, or take a long detour. And if they take the long way, they’ll risk getting picked off one by one by the Mist Phantom King."
Nova nodded. "If danger is unavoidable no matter what, should we stir up some talk and push them to fight the monster?"
Kevin nodded. "If none of them are thinking straight, then we—"
Before he could finish, Celula’s eyes went wide. "Looks like someone beat us to it. They’re already organizing."
Kevin checked the regional chat again.
Sure enough, a Survivor named Raphael had stepped up and stopped the retreat.
"Everyone, stay calm! The Mist Phantom King flies way faster than our ships. If we scatter and run, it will just pick us off like prey."
"Based on how fast it flew from the island to the frigate, by the time we finish our detour, at least eighty percent of us will be dead."
"And I have to remind you all—it’s almost dark. We don’t have to tell you how dangerous sailing at night is."
Raphael’s words worked fast. By the time Kevin read through the chat, Raphael had already set up a temporary command center.
Celula even got a message. Raphael wanted her help broadcasting real-time coordinates to everyone.
Nova got one too. Raphael got straight to the point: "Ms. Nova, we’ve decided to go all out and surround the monster. We need you to coordinate with us and move as one."
Kevin was impressed. This Raphael had sharp instincts and real leadership skills.
But respect or not, Kevin wasn’t about to take orders from anyone. "Tell her we’re anchored. We can only share live coordinates. Everything else can wait until we meet up."
With that, Kevin summoned the Lance of Longinus. He swung it without looking, piercing the glass bottle next to him. The Mist Phantom trapped inside was impaled and instantly broke apart, fading into glowing dust in the air.
Stephanie watched him act so cool and calm, tears welling up in her eyes. She held back a sob and thought silently, Kevin, you killed that monster to avenge me, didn’t you? I knew you really cared about me!
[Affection +100]
Kevin snapped the spear back into his grip, the move smooth and clean. But the sound effect behind his ear made him jump.
He glanced around. The Affection numbers floating over the girls’ heads hadn’t changed at all. He looked totally confused.
Then he noticed Stephanie in the corner, quietly crying. He turned his head and saw the truth: Stephanie’s Affection for him had just shot up to 400.
"Damn it. Is she doing that crazy fantasy thing in her head again?
Affection at 400. That beat both Luna and Amelia. She’d officially become my biggest fan.
Just picturing it made Kevin’s chest tighten. He felt breathless.
He had zero interest in Stephanie. She was just some party girl. She didn’t even make the cut to be his "covenant-bearer."
"Ahem. I’m gonna get things ready. You all keep at it." With that, Kevin hopped out the window and landed clean on the deck.
Above, falcon-shaped Mist Phantoms still circled the sky.
As summons of the Mist Phantom King, they acted like his eyes, never stopping their watch on the brig.
Kevin didn’t hesitate. He quietly popped the cap and drank a bottle of Fish Fiend Holy Spring.
A heavy, pale green mist poured from his pores in seconds, swallowing him whole.
Kevin waved his hands in front of his face. The fog was so thick he couldn’t see a thing, even though he knew his own hands were right there.
Perfect. Kevin followed the layout in his head, walked to the edge of the ship, and jumped off.
Using the thick fog as cover, Kevin climbed over to George’s sloop. He still needed to scan two things on board: the Vessel Anchoring Mooring System and the Vessel Water Supply & Drainage System.
The scanner read 67%. "Alright, that’s at least two more hours. Add in crafting time, I need to move fast."
He sat cross-legged right next to the anchor chain and activated the scanning mode for his Mechanical Sovereign talent.
[Scanning mechanical structure: Vessel Anchoring Mooring System]
[Scanning progress: 67.01%... 67.04%... 67.08%...]
At the same time, Raphael reached out to nineteen fleets. He put together a temporary alliance.
The nineteen ships would close in on each other, planning to link up in the waters near Kevin’s island.
The rule was simple: every ten minutes, every captain had to drop their coordinates and updates in the region chat.
Raphael stood at the helm, eyes locked on the region chat. "17... 18... 19. All ships are safe. Looks like we’re closing in. Once we’re together, our chances against that monster go way up."
An old man with a long beard stood next to him, frowning. "Something’s off. It’s been over an hour, and not a single ship has been hit. Wasn’t that monster supposed to be hunting us?"
Before Raphael could answer, a red alert popped up from Celula. "Captain Dickharald’s ship. He and his crew are gone. My Navigator talent just lost their signal."
"What?" Raphael’s eyes went wide. "If he’s dead, then who’s been posting coordinates in the chat?"
He switched his view to the region feed. Just two minutes ago, Dickharald had still been broadcasting their position.
Celula was quiet for a beat before typing back. "This is the era of the Eldritch. Sometimes, Survivors don’t even realize the danger is there until it’s too late."
