Fierce Battle

"Gunnery officer, alchemy bombs—fire again!" Gell reacted even faster than Evan. The moment he sensed something was wrong, he realized the sea monster was still beneath the ship.

"Bomb crew, prepar—"

Before the gunnery officer could finish his order, the hull shuddered violently.

Before the sailors aboard could react, the seawater churned furiously as countless sticky, deep-blue tentacles climbed onto the deck from both sides of the ship. A heavy fishy stench spread with them, making people want to vomit.

Like the feelers of a demon from the depths of the abyss, they seemed determined to drag the entire ship down to the bottom of the sea. In the monster-disaster movies from Evan's previous life, if the people aboard had not screamed and scattered in panic, they would have been letting down the production crew's burning budget.

But here, that would have been rather disappointing for the audience.

"Hold steady! Stay at your posts!"

Other than the newcomers who had only just boarded, no one panicked. The old soldiers were nervous as well, but they restrained the newcomers and kept everyone firmly at their posts, awaiting their officers' orders.

Creak... creak...

In a short time, the sea monster and the warship had become entangled. It kept tightening its tentacles, securing itself firmly to the Silver Wing.

At this point, they could no longer use alchemy bombs against the sea monster. Otherwise, the only outcome would be a boom that sent both the warship and the monster flying into the sky.

"Boatswain, lead your Assault Team and cut off those tentacles! Stop it from causing widespread damage!"

Gell knew that a Small Species sea monster lacked the Extraordinary Power needed to drag the Fifth-Rate Warship Silver Wing into the depths. The only thing they needed to worry about was it destroying the sails and ship's wheel, rendering the warship immobile.

If they fell into that situation, they could only let the sea monster slaughter them at will. Even a Formal Knight would face a grim fate.

Faced with tentacles flooding onto the deck like a tide, the sailors' true close-quarters battle had finally begun. Although this style of combat better allowed them to use their numerical advantage, the sea monster's strength was clearly not something ordinary sailors could contend with.

"Get back to the bottom of the sea, you monster!"

"Aah—!"

"Die—!!"

The moment battle began, several sailors were carelessly seized by tentacles and dragged into the water within just a few breaths. Blood-red stains soon rose to the surface, making it clear that they were doomed.

"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"...

The sailors' muskets fired continuously, but they could only make the tentacles recoil slightly in pain. Lead bullets were not very effective against creatures covered in mucus with tough skin.

Fortunately.

The alchemy bombs thrown earlier had not been entirely useless. Many of the tentacles that climbed aboard were damaged, and even one of the two thickest tentacles had been severed. The main body, which had yet to reveal itself, could not possibly have emerged unscathed.

Looking at the difficult battle on the deck, Evan felt slightly relieved. The earlier battle between the ship's cannons and the sea monster had been thrilling, but he could only stand by and watch, unable to help at all.

Honestly, the feeling of being completely unable to affect the battle and only being carried along by events was awful.

So when Gell gave the order to attack freely, Evan charged forward in a single stride. His longsword flashed like silver lightning as he fought a tentacle as thick as an adult's waist.

Even now, he had not seen what the sea monster's main body looked like. Yet this tentacle, despite already being as thick as a human waist, was only average among the more than twenty tentacles that had climbed aboard.

After a few exchanges, Evan realized that this sea monster did not seem particularly intelligent. Once its tentacles climbed onto the deck, they only tried to drag the sailors constantly attacking it into the sea. They showed no initiative in destroying the sails.

Moreover, the tentacles' movements were merely instinctive reactions. They lashed and swept about wildly, far less dangerous than a true back-and-forth fight against a human opponent.

Even though its strength far surpassed that of an Apprentice Knight, perhaps even a Formal Knight, Evan felt it was still within his ability to handle. Ignoring the twitching and whipping tip of the tentacle, he found the part rooted against the edge of the deck.

"Hah—! Slash—!!!"

Holding his sword in both hands and raising it high over his head, he used the most powerful move in Military Swordsmanship—Jump Slash—and directly cut halfway through the tentacle.

Taking advantage of the instant it stiffened from pain, he leaped up swiftly and delivered another Jump Slash, completely severing it.

Sizzle—

Blue blood gushed out, splattering across a large section of the deck.

At the same time, Evan saw a ten-man squad working together. At the cost of one companion, they had also severed a slightly smaller tentacle.

The sailors had clearly realized that as long as they severed the sea monster's tentacles one by one, even if they could not kill its body, it would no longer have the strength to keep entangling them.

Only by restoring the Silver Wing's mobility could they regain the initiative.

So everyone on the ship fought desperately!

After severing one tentacle, Evan ignored the foul-smelling blood staining his body and quickly ran toward another. He freed several Ordinary Crew Members who were barely holding on, allowing them to join the Assault Team.

Thud—

Thud—

Blades chopped and axes hacked, severing tentacle after tentacle. Yet as the crew's stamina gradually dwindled, their casualties slowly increased as well.

Only now did Evan truly understand how correct the saying "sea monsters are the rulers of the sea" was. Even a half-crippled Small Species required the crew to suffer enormous losses to deal with, let alone the legendary Large Species and Giant Species.

At this rate, the navy could still drive back the sea monster, but the losses they would have to pay would not be small. As former crewmen of Fourth-Rate Battleships, Evan believed that the veterans who had sailed through the Outer Sea would not be so easily defeated.

The situation had become somewhat critical. While dealing with the increasingly frenzied tentacles, Evan scanned every part of the ship, searching for the person most likely to turn the battle around.

"There!"

A tall, imposing figure stood at the highest point of the bow. As the ship rose and fell with the waves, only he remained utterly motionless, as if his feet had taken root.

The instant Evan looked over, Gell seemed to have discovered something.

"Attention, all crew! Hold the sea monster's tentacles in place and prevent it from escaping!"

After shouting the order, Gell raised a pure steel javelin covered in barbs high above his head.

"Hah!!! Fifty percent Flesh Liberation!!!"

Like a volcano suppressed for tens of millions of years suddenly erupting, a savage and violent aura burst from Gell, making everyone tremble uncontrollably. If they had not seen Gell's back with their own eyes, they would have thought some savage beast from ancient times had suddenly descended upon the ship.

Gell's right arm, raised with the javelin, swelled as though inflated. Muscles rolled and leaped beneath his skin, becoming thicker than an adult's thigh in the blink of an eye, filled with the cold, hard color of metal.

"Go!"

Whoosh—

The javelin turned into a streak of lightning and shot into the water, yet miraculously did not splash a single drop.

In that flash of lightning, it seemed as if nothing had happened, yet it also seemed as if everything had already ended...

But Evan knew that strike had certainly succeeded.

Because the instant the javelin entered the water, the tentacles that had been wreaking havoc across the deck all stiffened. Then, as if all their strength had been drained away, they went limp and slid back into the sea.

The Silver Wing was freed. Driven by its sails, it began moving again with a rush of waves.

"Victory!"

"Aahhh! Long live the captain!"

"The sea monster's finished! Haha!"

The next moment, countless cheers drowned out the entire warship.

Gell, standing at the bow, did not move. His right arm had already returned to normal, and he held another pure steel javelin in his hand. His sharp eyes remained fixed on the sea surface without relaxing in the slightest.

Only several minutes later, when a huge black shadow slowly floated to the surface and bobbed with the waves, did Gell finally let out a light breath. He summoned First Mate Perry and had him lead men to deal with the sea monster's corpse.

Evan saw everything.

Uncle Gell had not acted at the beginning. Instead, he observed the battle between the sailors and the tentacles, used his rich experience to judge the hidden location of the sea monster's main body from the speed of the tentacles' responses, then finally unleashed his power and delivered an earth-shattering fatal blow that secured victory!

While silently cheering, Evan was also awestruck by the power possessed by a Peak Knight.

Since embarking on the Knight's Path, aside from Grandpa Leo, who had already been seriously injured, this was the first time he had seen a Peak Knight fight with his full strength.

Like a hero who had stepped out of an ancient myth, powerful and mysterious yet capable of turning the tide, Gell made Evan yearn even more deeply for the power of the Knight Tier.

This kind of power... soon...!