Chapter 198: Guild Skill
"Leader!"
"It’s Captain!"
"Captain, there’s someone else racing straight toward the Sea Dragon Monster!"
"Oh?" The Captain leaned over the railing and narrowed his eyes at the distant figures cutting across the waves. "We’ve got competition, do we?"
Angel’s enormous crystalline shell gleamed beneath the stormy sky as she charged through the ocean. Water surged around her massive body and rose in tall curtains along both sides, while Martin and Rias stood firmly on her back with their attention fixed on the serpentine monster thrashing ahead.
A broad grin spread across the Captain’s face.
"Hah! Then into the cannon I go! Make way for yer Captain!"
"Wait, Leader! I recognize them!"
At that, the Captain slowly turned his head.
The guild member quickly corrected himself. "Captain! I recognize them! It’s Emperoar and his pet. There’s also some chick with him!"
"Taking a lass out to sea?" The Captain planted one boot on the railing and peered into the distance again. "And hunting the Sea Dragon Monster together, at that? Hah! I like this lad already!"
"That’s not the issue!" another guild member shouted. "How did someone from another academy get into our most carefully hidden dungeon? I’ve never seen him around our academy, and I definitely haven’t heard anything about him building a reputation here."
"No academy owns the sea!" the Captain declared. "Any man brave enough to cross these waters may sail wherever he pleases, and he can bring as many lasses aboard as he wants!"
"That still doesn’t explain how he got inside!"
"We’ll question him after we show him who rules these waters." With his coat snapping wildly in the wind, the Captain thrust one arm toward the towering beast. "Today, they’ll witness the grit, courage, and unmatched might of the Storm Guild!"
His crew raised their weapons and answered with a roar that rolled across the deck.
Satisfied, the Captain turned toward the row of cannons. "Now get out of me way!"
He marched over to the largest cannon mounted along the side of the ship. Its barrel was wide enough to launch a boulder, yet he climbed onto the rim without hesitation and began squeezing himself inside.
Several guild members chuckled as his boots disappeared into the barrel. One of them stepped up to the crystal controls beside it and rested his hand on a glowing lever.
"Angle?"
"Straight at the blasted beast!"
"That isn’t an angle."
"It’s the only angle a proper pirate needs!"
The operator sighed before pulling the lever.
Lines carved into the cannon’s metal frame lit up one after another as bright blue mana flowed from its base toward the mouth of the barrel. The energy gathered inside with enough force to make the entire section of the deck tremble.
Off to the side, one of the guild’s advisors rubbed his temples.
"I’m too tired for this bullshit."
Ignoring the growing hum behind him, he studied Angel instead. Even from this distance, her enormous shape stood out among the waves. Every flash of lightning reflected across the thick blue crystals covering her shell, and the ocean churned beneath her charge until she resembled a moving island cutting through the storm.
"I’ll speak with Emperoar later and ask how he got here," the advisor muttered. "Anyone with a pet that useful is worth negotiating with, assuming the Captain doesn’t challenge him to a duel first."
The cannon’s hum climbed into a deafening whine.
"Ready!" the operator shouted.
From deep inside the barrel, the Captain’s muffled voice answered, "Then fire, ye coward!"
BANG!
The cannon fired alongside the rest of the row.
Blue mana erupted across the deck, snapping ropes and sending loose equipment skidding over the wooden planks. Although the recoil shoved the ship sideways through the water, the Captain had already vanished into the sky.
He shot past the surrounding vessels like a living cannonball, drawing every player’s attention upward. His coat thrashed behind him as thin arcs of electricity crawled across his arms. When he tightened his grip around the hilt of his sword, mana poured into the weapon until blue sparks began snapping from its sheath.
"Muahahaha!"
His laughter rolled across the battlefield with enough force to cut through the roaring waves, creaking ships, and furious cries of the Sea Dragon Monster. The sound boomed directly inside every player’s head.
The Captain certainly knew how to steal everyone’s attention.
He drew his sword and raised the glowing blade over his head.
"GUILD SKILL: LIGHTNING SEAS!"
A pulse of blue light exploded from his body and swept across the ocean.
The wave passed through every Storm Guild player and vessel in its path. Cannons, harpoons, swords, spears, and arrows lit up with the same electric aura, while glowing lines spread along the hulls of the fleet as raw mana surged through them.
At once, cannons thundered from both sides of the formation while harpoons tore through the rain. Players launched themselves from the decks with movement skills and crashed into the Sea Dragon Monster from every direction.
Each successful strike left a thin thread of electricity clinging to the creature’s scales.
One thread became ten, and ten quickly became dozens. Blue currents spread across the serpent’s enormous body until entire sections of its scales flashed with restless light.
The monster twisted and roared as the assault continued. Every blow that landed fed more energy into the marks covering its body, causing them to burn brighter and spread farther.
High above the battlefield, the Captain watched as the final marks locked into place. His wild grin sharpened once his crew completed their part of the attack.
The electricity surrounding him answered their pull.
Every glowing mark on the Sea Dragon tugged at the current wrapped around his body, changing his course through the air and drawing him toward the wounded serpent. Rather than fight against the force, he turned with it, adjusted his shoulders and hips, and aligned his raised blade with the length of the monster’s body.
Hundreds of blue trails stretched between them, guiding him toward the perfect angle.
"LIGHTNING PARLEY!"
Apparently, this was how the Captain negotiated.
The pull took hold, and he disappeared in a flash of blue light.
A streak of lightning tore down from the sky and struck the Sea Dragon Monster directly behind its head. The impact released a thunderclap powerful enough to shake every ship nearby, but the first strike only accelerated him.
The marks scattered across the monster’s scales dragged him onward. His sword ripped through one glowing section after another, and every new connection increased his speed.
A glowing wound split open in his wake, beginning near the creature’s neck and stretching along the curve of its enormous body. Blood and flickering blue mana burst from the torn scales as the cut continued almost all the way to its tail.
The Captain finally crashed into the ocean with enough force to raise a pillar of lightning and seawater. For one blinding moment, the entire battlefield turned blue.
Branching currents raced across the surface and forced nearby players to retreat. By the time the electricity reached Angel, it was still strong enough to crackle through the water around her massive limbs.
She dug into the waves and stopped so suddenly that Martin and Rias both lurched forward.
The Sea Dragon Monster reared above the ocean and unleashed a cry loud enough to drown out the storm. Its tail slammed into the water as it thrashed, raising a wave taller than several of the ships around it.
Blood and unstable mana continued pouring from the gash along its side. Several scales had split apart completely, exposing the damaged flesh beneath them, while stray currents crawled through the wound and made the creature convulse with each surge.
Angel remained still, but the electricity was no longer the reason she had stopped.
Her round sapphire eyes stayed fixed on the wounded monster. Even she seemed stunned by the force of the attack and the pain it had inflicted.
Martin and Rias watched in silence as the wave raised by the Sea Dragon’s tail passed beneath Angel. Her massive body rose with it before settling back onto the churning water.
Rias recovered first.
"Have you ever seen a guild skill before?"
"No." Martin slowly shook his head while the fading blue light reflected across his face.
Rias narrowed her eyes at the Storm Guild’s fleet. "It’s powerful, but I doubt every member can use it. The rest of the guild probably has to stack those marks before their leader can activate the finisher."
"But that dude pulled it off perfectly."
The Captain had not hesitated once during his descent. He had trusted his guild to apply the marks, trusted the skill to drag him into position, and adjusted his body at exactly the right moment.
Rias nodded. "He knew what he was doing."
She turned her attention to the monster’s status.
[Lv. 70 Sea Dragon Monster]
[HP: 6,112,214]
[MP: 6,420,000]
A thrill raced down her spine when she saw the numbers. Its health had fallen from more than ten million to barely over six million after a single coordinated assault.
The same surge of adrenaline rushed through Martin.
The Sea Dragon was still terrifyingly strong, but the Captain’s attack had proven that it could be made to bleed, stagger, and scream.
More importantly, Martin now knew exactly how much force the finishing move carried.
His gaze remained fixed on the point where the Captain had first struck.
"I want to take that skill head-on with my shield."
Rias glanced at him before lowering her gaze to the shield strapped to his arm.
"Isn’t that a low-level shield?"
All the excitement drained from Martin’s face as he turned toward her with a deadpan stare.
Rias covered her mouth, but her shoulders still shook with quiet laughter.
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