None Satisfied

Rumble!

The orange-red Energy Bullet had barely left the barrel before it slammed into the Magic Shield Yinsen had cast! The deafening explosion, fierce impact, and scattering flames were all blocked by the Magic Shield. However, the unprotected Lord of Flame on the other side suffered badly. The tremendous force shoved the ship backward, damaging the hull and snapping the grappling hooks connecting the two vessels.

"Not good!"

Yinsen immediately realized the problem. If the two ships were pulled apart, they would be stuck taking hits passively. What if Gino focused entirely on bombarding them with the cannon?

"Abandon ship?"

His calm mind allowed him to prepare for the worst. If it came to that, he could only abandon this ship, use the larger vessel as a shield, and leave with Arthur aboard the small boat they had originally arrived on.

Yinsen looked up at the large ship opposite them. He did not dismiss the Magic Shield. Instead, he increased the Magic Stone's energy output and expanded its defensive range.

With the distance widening, their enemy had more angles from which to fire. During that time, Arthur had finished off the remaining enemies aboard the ship and come to stand beside Yinsen.

"What do we do?"

"There's no good solution unless you can jump onto their ship and kill them."

Arthur glanced at the distance between the two ships and shook his head helplessly. "I can't jump that far."

Yinsen rolled his eyes. Did Arthur think he didn't know that? He had only been complaining that there was no good solution.

To his surprise, Arthur said he did have another way.

"Huh? You have a plan?"

Arthur looked somewhat hesitant, as if he was not entirely sure.

"I'm not sure either, but I have a feeling that I can reach the ship over there."

"A feeling?"

If this had been Yinsen in his past life, he would have calmly told him, "Forget it. That's just an illusion!" But Yinsen of this life did not dare be so certain. After all, he had personally experienced similar things and had been saved by inexplicable feelings more times than he could count.

"Are you confident?"

"I can try. There isn't any other option." Arthur adjusted his armor, then nodded at Yinsen. "When I rush out in a moment, remember to lower the Magic Shield first."

"Don't worry. I won't let you crash into it."

The Magic Shield did not defend in only one direction. Yinsen's side would be blocked by it as well.

This shield was actually magic cast by the Book of Inheritance in his hand. Yinsen could only be considered its indirect controller and could not manipulate the Magic Shield with such precision.

Yinsen waited for the right moment. Just as Arthur rushed to the rail and was about to jump, he withdrew the Magic Shield. He watched Arthur leap into the air... then plummet straight down with a whoosh.

The guy was still wearing armor. He was young, and his strength had yet to reach its peak. How could he possibly jump that far?

Yet neither Yinsen nor anyone on the opposing ship laughed. Instead, everyone stared at the blond boy with disbelief written across their faces.

The moment Arthur sprang into the air, he knew he could not jump far enough and would likely fall immediately. Yet he had always had a strange feeling that he would not be hurt at all.

Things turned out exactly as he had sensed. Arthur leaped from the deck. It was not especially high, but it was not low either. At such a height, it would not have been unusual for Ordinary People to break bones if they fell carelessly.

Yet Arthur landed on the surface of the sea with remarkable ease. When he "landed," the seawater dented beneath his weight. Then, after absorbing the force of his fall, it steadily lifted him back to the surface. Arthur stood firmly atop the water.

"That's impossible!"

"Can a human stand on water?"

While the ordinary sailors had their worldview shattered and began questioning life itself, Gino—who had just become the new Hand of Flame and Captain of the Lord of Flame—immediately assumed that the boy possessed Magic Stone Equipment that allowed him to move freely across water.

"Magic Stone Equipment! It must be Magic Stone Equipment!" Though he had no idea what sort of Magic Stone could produce such an effect, equipment that allowed someone to walk freely over the sea's surface had immeasurable value in this world of endless water!

"Kill him! Aim the cannon at that blond!"

Gino's mind kept echoing with one thought: That Magic Stone belongs to me!

Compared with the ability to use Water Walking, he did not care at all about casting lightning. He had already acquired gloves that could wield fire, so losing one lightning ability would not matter much!

"Use bows!"

It would be extremely difficult to stop the nimble Arthur with a single Magic Stone Cannon! Moreover, as the distance between them grew smaller, aiming the cannon downward was quite troublesome.

As for bows, a consumable weapon, even the Hand of Flame's group—already considered a powerful force in the Sea of Tranquility—did not possess many. Only a handful of people took out bows, and the number of arrows in their quivers was pitifully low.

"Fir... Captain... we used up most of our arrows earlier..."

The sailor had almost called him First Mate out of habit, but fortunately he reacted quickly enough. Besides, Gino had no time to care about such trivial matters.

"Damn it!"

"Um... actually, there aren't many Magic Stones left either. The cannon can only fire four more times..."

Gino's eyes turned red. It felt as though that Magic Stone had sprouted wings and was flying farther and farther away, going from being within reach to nearly too distant to see...

After realizing there was no chance, Gino instead calmed down. Watching the blond boy race across the sea and rapidly approach, he finally made up his mind.

"Raise the sails! Full speed ahead!"

"Huh?"

The sailor beside him was stunned by Gino's order, then the new Captain kicked him aside. "I said raise the sails! Ignore that brat! We're retreating!"

Retreating—giving that command felt like a knife twisting through his heart, but he had no choice.

He was far weaker than Sean. Sean had been unable to deal with those two young men, so he certainly could not either! His greatest reliance was his crew, and when they could no longer provide him with enough help, the Lord of Flame became his final support—his enemy did not even need to do anything else. They only needed to find an opportunity to punch a hole in the bottom of his ship, and everyone aboard would have no choice but to Wait for Death.

After analyzing the situation calmly, he realized that it had become impossible to seize what he wanted from those two today. If they continued dragging things out, it would only put them at a disadvantage, so he decisively gave the order to retreat.

It was troublesome for a sailing ship to build up speed, but the impact from earlier had pushed the two ships quite far apart. Though the remaining momentum was not much, the Lord of Flame still continued drifting slowly away.

The distance between the two sides kept increasing. At the same time, although the earlier cannon fire had failed to hit, it had successfully hindered Arthur's advance and bought them enough time.

"The next time we meet, I'll become stronger, and then..."

Gino shot a resentful glance at Arthur, who had gradually stopped and stood upon the water, then ordered his men to leave the area as quickly as possible—he did not intend to go to Stat Island. He knew those two young men would definitely head there, so he planned to find an island to rest and regroup on. After some time, he would return to Stat Island to recruit new men and gather methods to make himself stronger.

Sean was dead. No one could suppress his growth anymore, and after realizing his own weakness, Gino desperately wanted to become stronger...

Watching the Lord of Flame speed away, Yinsen narrowed his eyes and thought it over before understanding. The other side was most likely worried Arthur would destroy their ship, which was why they had not used their cannons to attack after widening the distance. That left only one possibility: they had run out of cannonballs!

"So the Magic Stone Cannon is a consumable weapon? It isn't the pure Energy Weapon I imagined, one powered by magic stones that can fire continuously."

Rubbing his chin, Yinsen felt another possibility was that each shot consumed a magic stone, and that the quality of those magic stones might not have been as high as he had initially estimated.

"Perhaps that guess is closer to the truth."

Thinking of how both captains had coveted the Magic Items in his possession, it was clear how alluring magic stones were to them. Even if they obtained them, they would prioritize using them for themselves. It seemed high-quality magic stones were not so easy to find.

"At least, that's the case in the Sea of Tranquility."

They lowered the rope ladder and let Arthur, who had returned, climb back aboard. The two silently began cleaning up after the battle, while recalling the earlier battle that had ended so abruptly.

"Arthur."

"Hm?"

"Next, we need to properly test that pile of things Merlin gave you."

"Mm, I think so too."

The two of them had been busy learning about each other's abilities and had instead overlooked the fact that Merlin had given Arthur quite a few things before this journey. He had even specially cast a Blessing Spell on Arthur.

If they had known earlier that the spell allowed Arthur to move freely across the water's surface, they could have made plans specifically targeting their enemies from the start. There was no way they would have let them escape so easily.

Yinsen was not a bloodthirsty person, but he understood that if enemies like this were not completely killed, they might pop up someday just to disgust you. Even if they could not threaten him, they would still be endlessly irritating. So once he determined that someone had become his mortal enemy, he would strike ruthlessly and refuse to leave behind future trouble.

This time, he had actually watched them escape right before his eyes. It left him extremely displeased and dissatisfied with his own strength—he was still not strong enough. If he could have killed Sean with overwhelming ease, the others would never have been able to flee. Before that, he could have killed or subdued everyone.

I have to keep training hard!