Escape from Death

"Roar..."

The sea monster outside the door nearly went mad at the sight of them, desperately slamming against the wooden door with such immense force that everyone found it hard to believe.

Through the cracks in the door, Green and the others could clearly see more sea monsters being drawn over from afar. Despair immediately filled their hearts.

In terms of combat strength, it would already be impressive if the Wizard Apprentices in this room could kill even one sea monster—and that was only if Lafi used that Vine Witchcraft.

Everyone braced themselves against the wooden door, trying to buy time.

Just then, the unfamiliar male Wizard Apprentice, who had remained relatively calm, suddenly shouted, "There's still hope!"

As he spoke, he charged madly toward the large hole that had just been torn open in the cabin. Almost at the same time, everyone realized something, and hope flared in their hearts.

They remembered that countless lifeboats hung from ropes along both sides of this Hailun, and those ropes were connected to the railings on the deck.

Yorkris's room was on the fifth level of the ship's cabins, only five or six meters below the deck. They could still climb up the ropes using their own strength.

The male Wizard Apprentice was the first to rush out. He grabbed a hanging rope and began climbing upward. The other Wizard Apprentices who had come to their senses quickly followed, rushing for the ropes.

Because Yorklianna was frail and had an injured eye, Yorkris carried her on his back as he climbed.

Although Green's leg was injured, it did not affect his climbing at all. He had worked since childhood and was quite strong. Climbing seven or eight meters was no problem for him.

Lafi, however, had grown up pampered, and as a girl with poor stamina and an injured shoulder, she could only barely hang from the rope. No matter what she did, she could not muster the strength to climb, and panic showed on her face.

As for the unfamiliar female Wizard Apprentice with a wooden stick lodged in her abdomen, she was already at death's door. Excessive blood loss had left her unconscious, and the table and bed blocking the room's entrance had already been pushed aside by the sea monsters outside...

Yet the people on the ropes were stunned by something else.

They discovered that on this side of the Hailun, three enormous sea snakes had emerged from the seabed and were crawling toward the deck!

Heavens, could these giant "sea snakes" be creatures that traveled in groups?

And this Hailun stood more than thirty meters tall. One could only imagine how long those sea snakes were.

Boom!

Suddenly, an earth-shaking explosion erupted above the deck. Everyone felt the temperature drop sharply. Then, to their horror, they saw the sea snake climbing upward beside them become encased in solid ice, which spread downward at a visible speed.

"Wuu..."

As the ice spread, the Hailun began to shake violently, as though a gigantic monster were rising from the depths. Amid a surge of crashing waves, an enormous octopus head emerged from the sea, letting out a pained howl and churning the surrounding waters into towering waves.

"An octo... a giant octopus?"

Everyone who saw this cried out in disbelief. Then their expressions changed as they realized something.

Could those so-called "sea snakes" in their eyes merely be the tentacles of this terrifyingly huge octopus!?

If that were true, just how enormous was this dreadful thing!?

For these Wizard Apprentices who had never seen much of the world, this was a monster that could only exist in nightmares! It was practically legendary...

Suddenly, as the octopus tentacle beside them was covered by the spreading ice, it seemed to lose all strength and crashed down into the sea with a boom, kicking up a massive storm.

Green felt a gust like a hurricane sweep over him. The hanging rope swayed violently, and he had no choice but to cling to it with all his strength.

"No! Help!"

A desperate cry fell downward. Green looked down and saw that it was the unfamiliar male Wizard Apprentice, the one who had climbed the highest. He had fallen into the sea.

In this vast ocean, falling into the water was practically a death sentence.

Then Green suddenly noticed that more than one person had fallen. Lafi had also been blown off by that hurricane-like gust. Fortunately, at the critical moment, she used witchcraft to create a vine and grabbed the rope tightly, leaving her body hanging in midair.

But maintaining witchcraft required magical power. With Lafi's level of magical power, lasting a few minutes would already be impressive. She was still in grave danger, and the next moment could very well be her death sentence.

By then, all color had drained from Lafi's delicate face. She bit down hard to keep herself from crying, though tears shimmered in her eyes.

After casting a helpless glance at the raging sea below, Lafi looked pleadingly at the others. Yet whether out of fear or pride, she only clenched her teeth and refused to utter any weak words of begging, though her entire body trembled uncontrollably.

At that moment, only two people could help Lafi: Yorkris and Green.

However, Yorkris was carrying his sister and had already reached his limit. He clearly had the will but lacked the strength, leaving Green as the only one.

Seeing Lafi's pitiful gaze and her stubborn refusal to lower herself and beg, Green's heart softened.

Although the city lord's daughter usually acted arrogant and looked down on Green for being a commoner, she had unintentionally helped him learn quite a bit about the Wizard Continent. Nor had she ever used her witchcraft to bully him.

Besides, they were all heading to the unfamiliar Wizard Continent to study. Perhaps they would have to look after one another in the future. If so...

Green gritted his teeth and stopped hesitating. After taking a deep breath, he slid down the rope until he reached the lifeboat at its end. After finding a way to secure himself to the lifeboat below, he raced against time to pull up the vine created by witchcraft.

Green had endured plenty of hardship since childhood, so he had the strength to lift more than a hundred jin. With all his might, he finally pulled Lafi back from the brink of death.

"Phew..."

Having raced against time, Green was exhausted. He leaned against the suspended lifeboat, panting heavily.

Lafi was equally shaken. She merely stared blankly at Green, her eyes shining as tears kept gathering in them.

Green had rarely been stared at by such a beautiful girl in his life. He casually wiped his nose, feeling awkward as he tried to hide his embarrassment.

"Uh..."

Green had just wanted to say something to ease the atmosphere when a fragrant breeze swept over him. Lafi threw her arms tightly around him and wailed.

"Wuu wuu wuu, I thought I was going to die! I thought you were all going to abandon me! I already told Father that I didn't want to go to a place like the Wizard Academy, where people eat you alive without even spitting out the bones! Wuu wuu wuu..."

Feeling the warmth radiating from the graceful body pressed against him, Green suddenly became incredibly nervous. His body stiffened, and he had no idea where to put his hands. Even the words he had prepared to ease the tension were stuck in his throat. He did not know what to do.

Lafi's tears ran down Green's neck, but he did not dare move.

After quite a while, Lafi finally calmed down. She seemed to realize how improper she had been and released Green. Her reddened eyes looked at his nervous, evasive face, and seeing his helplessly stunned expression, she burst out laughing. "What are you standing there for? Do you want to hang from this lifeboat with me for the rest of your life?"

"Uh? Oh... No, no."

Green stammered.

Deep down, Green truly did not like this spoiled girl who looked down on commoners. He did not hate her, but he certainly had no favorable feelings toward her either.

After a brief stir in his heart, Green forcefully stopped his wandering thoughts, calmed himself, and nodded. "Mm, let's climb up quickly."

Then Green noticed the mangled wound on Lafi's shoulder. After hesitating, he asked, "Should I carry you up?"

"Mm!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Lafi nodded. She immediately wrapped her arms around Green from behind, pressing her soft, curvaceous body tightly against his. Green could even feel her warm breath brushing against his neck.

Suppressing the strange feeling in his heart, Green took a deep breath and began climbing upward with the hundred-jin girl on his back.

On the other side, seeing that Green and Lafi had resolved their crisis, Yorkris did not delay any longer. Carrying his sister, he continued climbing upward and soon reached the deck. He then grabbed the rope Green was climbing and helped pull him up.

A while later, Green and Yorkris leaned against the railing, panting like dogs from exhaustion. But when the hellish scene on the deck came into view, they all involuntarily sucked in a breath, even forgetting the fatigue in their bodies.

The enormous deck, over a hundred meters long, was covered in craters and pits. Hundreds of the sea monsters that had invaded the cabins lay dead everywhere. In the center of the deck, a severed giant octopus tentacle twitched unconsciously, leaking dark green blood that gave off a foul stench.

Yet among the countless sea monster corpses were the bodies of sailors and scattered Wizard Apprentices. Some were mangled beyond recognition, while others had died in bizarre ways. It was impossible to tell whether they had been human or sea monsters before death.

Boom!

With a tremendous crash, everyone looked over. The room where Wizard Dila had been staying was already in ruins, but after another attack from the terrifying octopus tentacle, it was completely wiped from the deck, reduced to countless scattered wooden fragments.

Wizard Dila's face was flushed an unnatural red. His black eyepatch had been removed, revealing a complex Mechanical Gear that turned endlessly, making him look extraordinarily sinister and terrifying.

At Dila's feet lay a sea monster corpse that had been completely frozen in ice, though no one knew why he protected it so fiercely. Even when the giant tentacle, which alone stretched more than twenty meters across the deck, attacked, Dila chose to resist it head-on with witchcraft, creating a massive ice shield seven or eight meters high.

With a bang, ice fragments flew everywhere.

Wizard Dila cast another spell, blocking the giant octopus tentacle's attack and stubbornly guarding the frozen sea monster corpse beneath him.

Elsewhere, the remaining sailors desperately held the cabin entrances, preventing the sea monsters from getting inside.

Among those resisting sailors, Green and the others were horrified to discover two Wizard Apprentices—a man and a woman—who had emerged from Wizard Dila's room that day!

And at that moment, those two Wizard Apprentices were actually using strange witchcraft, their power so formidable that it was almost unbelievable.