It turned out that when Patrick appeared and Ian took Isengard on a strategic retreat, slipping into the sea, the pirates had already ceased fire with the exploration ship.
The former knew that their targets were the two fleeing youths, while the latter dearly wished to vanish into the sea. Who would have thought that this voyage would not only mean being battered by the Great Storm, but also being targeted by an entire pirate fleet and a Second Energy Level expert? It was simply far too thrilling.
Of course, the more important reason was the storm itself—without their captain holding the fort, and without the protection of Master Gose and Ian, the pirate fleet could barely hold on. The exploration ship, with only one Wave-Singer left, could merely ensure that it was not overturned by the monstrous waves.
But no matter how desperately the Wave-Singer aboard the exploration ship fought, it all became meaningless when the Ruins gate suddenly opened afterward.
Both the exploration ship and the pirate fleet were swallowed into the ruins. And because their targets were too large, the automatically adjusted currents directed them into an inlet of equal size. After a surge of raging waves, they somehow followed an utterly flooded cavern and fell into the Ice Abyss.
"At first, we were still confronting the pirates... but then, a passage above the glacier suddenly spewed out a whole lot of disgusting parasitic monsters and giant bugs!"
"To stay alive, we and the pirates had no choice but to use the ships as cover and fortresses while fighting those parasitic monsters."
"But shells were limited. We had to find a way out, or the monsters would wear us down and kill us where we stood—then we noticed abnormal vibrations coming from the direction where you were,