Return Voyage! Turn Back at Once!

A few minutes earlier, on the Sea of Mists.

A burly man tightly gripped the longsword in his hand and viciously swung it at Laud. Yet just as the blade fell, it abruptly stopped. The fierce expression on his face gradually turned into one of extreme conflict as he cautiously asked, "Mr. Laud, do we really have to chop it off?"

"Quit talking nonsense. Chop!" Lame Laud said through gritted teeth, holding his right arm straight out to reveal the highly conspicuous Flame Mark on the back of his hand.

Even as he spoke, Laud's heart gave a violent twitch. But this was an utterly helpless choice.

From the very beginning, he had not held much faith in a certain wizard's bold and outrageous rescue plan. So when he discovered that Harbor Town had suddenly descended into chaos, and all their previous plans had ended before they could even begin, Laud immediately concluded that the wizards remaining in Harbor Town would soon all be finished!

For that very reason, Laud made a swift decision and took advantage of the chaos in Harbor Town to organize people to flee.

Thanks to the Church focusing most of its attention on dealing with Lynn and the others, they had seized control of this warship without much difficulty. Then, after loading up the easily transportable valuables, they sailed away from Harbor Town.

The only thing worrying Laud now was the Flame Mark he carried on his hand. If that wizard lord realized he had run away while facing danger, he might very well drag him into hell before dying.

Laud, who knew little about magic, could think of only one way to deal with it: chop off this hand!

The muscular brute held his sword in a conflicted grip, not daring to bring it down for a long while. Laud's emotions rose and fell with every passing second until, in irritation, he snatched the longsword away. With all this dithering, he might as well do it himself!

"Boss, a signal! It's a signal!"

At the bow, a sailor suddenly shouted. Laud instinctively looked up and saw a fireball rise from the harbor docks before exploding in the night sky.

Laud was rather surprised. He had thought that sly and ruthless wizard lord was most likely dead, but the man had actually fought his way back to the harbor docks.

At that thought, he looked toward the first mate beside him, who was holding the Alchemy Goggles.

"I saw a lot of Black Armored Guard. They've all been deployed, and Archbishop Antioch is there too! Those wizard lords seem to be surrounded..." The first mate swallowed hard and spoke with difficulty.

Laud immediately understood. So they had been chased all the way here. After giving it some thought, he said bluntly, "Launch one round of fire arrows as planned, then sail across the sea immediately!"

Since the other side had successfully drawn Antioch and the others to the agreed location, he naturally would not be so heartless. Firing off a round from afar would take little effort, but docking to receive them was out of the question.

Laud did not believe the other party could do anything in such a hopeless situation.

Surely he was not going to advance into a Great Wizard on the spot, then wipe out several thousand elite guards with a few spells?

That was beyond merely outrageous.

More than three hundred sailors and guards immediately took out the oilcloth they had prepared beforehand and wrapped it around their arrows. They lit them with torches, drew their bows, and fired in high arcs toward the distance. They did not care about accuracy at all; that wizard lord's order had been simply to get the arrows into the harbor docks.

Laud only glanced over before looking away, gripping the longsword and repeatedly gesturing with it.

Should he cut it or not...

How much should he cut off...

That was a question worthy of careful thought!

Just as Laud made up his mind and prepared to act, the entire ship suddenly shook violently. A thunderous roar erupted beside his ears, followed by an immense impact that knocked him to the deck. His body rolled all the way to the base of the mast, and his head slammed heavily into the crossbeam.

Laud's head buzzed. His clothes were drenched by the waves kicked up around them. Only after quite some time did he manage to sit up while clutching his aching waist and abdomen, then raised his head to ask the first mate beside him, "What happened? Did we run into a storm?"

Yet the first mate did not answer. He stared blankly in the direction of the harbor docks and muttered to himself, "It's over. It's all over..."

"What's over?" Laud frowned in displeasure.

Could it be that the battle at the docks had already been decided, and those wizards were all finished?

Laud turned to look. Once he saw the scene before him clearly, he could not stop himself from drawing in a sharp breath.

Only then did he realize that it was not the wizards who were finished—it was the entire Harbor Town!

A massive cloud of dust was rising over the city. At some point, the dim night sky had been illuminated into a dazzling crimson, as though something had torn open the black curtain of night.

The once prosperous and splendid docks had become a field of ruins. Billowing smoke rose everywhere, surging heat swept upward and set the sky ablaze, while dense rain of fire drifted down from that enormous dust cloud, forming a hellish scene.

Laud swallowed with difficulty, his legs trembling faintly. Even from so far away, unable to see what had happened at the docks, he understood that before such power, the so-called Black Armored Guard and Church priests were not worth mentioning.

Could he really have misjudged him? Was the other party actually a deeply hidden Great Wizard?

The magic he had called "fireworks" was actually this terrifying... Laud wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. The fall of an entire harbor city—this truly was the most "brilliant" sight he had ever seen.

"Mr. Laud, are we heading back now?" a sailor asked with a stutter.

Before Laud could reply, a brilliant Death Ray shot over from the docks and struck the sea a hundred meters away. It blasted up a wave dozens of meters high, and the sailing warship shook violently once more. Laud immediately leaped to his feet and shouted in terror, "Turn back! Turn back at once!"

The sailors hurriedly hauled on the sails and adjusted their course, not daring to delay for even a moment.

To everyone aboard, this was undoubtedly a naked warning from that wizard lord!

If they did not turn back now, the next spell would probably strike this ship directly!

Laud hastily changed into a proper set of clothes and tidied his appearance. Though his legs were still somewhat weak, he put on his warmest smile and prepared to greet that brutal wizard lord. He did not mention cutting off his hand again.

The burly man beside him tugged hard on the ship's ropes, immensely thankful for his earlier judgment. Good thing he had not brought down the blade just now—otherwise, the one getting chopped to death now would have been him!