Chapter 104: Ignite! Decisive Battle! 

A suffocating sensation— The suffocation of having his head forced under, choking on seawater.

The strength pressing his head down was far greater than his own, so much so that even his death-gripped, pale-knuckled hold on the ship’s plank couldn’t help him struggle.

Every nerve was flooded with the terror of “near death.”

But this sort of terror, unbearable for most, was something Lin Nuo had already endured four times.

Blaineau forced him from the bow to the stern; Lin Nuo managed to shatter the deck with a knee strike, and the two of them ended up fighting from the stern all the way into the cabin.

It was here, where the splintered planks revealed everything within the cabin.

Haystacks, brandy, the pungent stench of some sea demon’s fat…

“Clang!”

As the thoroughly soaked Lin Nuo struggled to pull himself from the sea, he barely drew a breath before Blaineau’s sword once again clashed against the bracer on his neck, sending up a screech of metal and a shower of sparks.

This sword from Blaineau was aimed at his vital point.

“…You want to set it on fire?”

As if something had dawned on him.

Blaineau gritted his teeth, but try as he might, he couldn’t grasp Lin Nuo’s true intention. 

Suddenly, he collected himself and twisted his sword to stab at Lin Nuo’s waterlogged clothing.

As something inside was slashed apart and spilled across the floor,

Blaineau used the momentum to retreat, eyeing Lin Nuo warily from a distance.

With that strike, he had slashed apart the water-soaked matches hidden in Lin Nuo’s robes.

“As I thought… you were going to torch me, perish together?!”

Blaineau’s face cleared in understanding. 

He kicked the sword blade he himself had just broken, his tone turning even more mocking, “Your plan really is easy to see through!”

Lin Nuo didn’t reply.

His ears were filled with seawater, making it impossible to hear the changes in the wind outside.

But from this angle, he could see that the Surrender Flag planted on the deck was fluttering, its edges whipped by the breeze.

He saw the broken matchstick on the ground roll a little, as if pushed in a certain direction.

The chance had come!

Always on the defensive, Lin Nuo suddenly launched his own attack at this unbeatable foe.

Could he grasp this sliver of opportunity?

“Crack!”

“Heh.”

Seeing the man before him, who had been reduced to a bloodied mess, suddenly surge at him—only to collapse face-first at his feet with a dull “thud,” too weak to even stand—Blaineau’s sneer grew all the more pronounced.

“Got angry just because I saw through your scheme? But your anger won’t change a thing.”

The wind on the ship grew stronger.

The sea breeze blew in through the gaps Lin Nuo’s body had broken, causing his prone figure’s robe to billow in the cabin.

Yet he still struggled on.

Lin Nuo’s voice was as weak as a dying candle in the wind: “I remember… the first thing you asked me just now was, why did I stop, was it because I was so scared by our momentum that I lost my nerve…”

“After all this, you still want to say you weren’t scared? Hah!”

“But what you should’ve asked,” Lin Nuo, seemingly mustering all his strength, spoke in a hoarse voice, “is why I deliberately blocked the ship here…”

‘Buzz!’

A warning siren blared in Blaineau’s mind at these words, he had taken precautions against any tricks.

Other than linking the main monster-laden warships with Iron Chains, he’d left a few ships on the periphery, serving as the outermost defensive line.

But the spot where Lin Nuo’s patrol ship stopped…

It seemed to have created a gap in the barrier formed by the other warships up front, a breach that could not be closed.

“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh”

The flags on the ship were now being whipped into a frenzy by the wind; Blaineau’s robe swelled ever more violently, and the fog around them began to surge with the wind. 

All their ships were now drifting downstream but what use was it?

Could a man who was now utterly spent, lying at his feet, have any right to resist?

The veins bulged on Blaineau’s forehead, disgusted with himself for ever having been alarmed.

“Thud!”

Blaineau kicked the prone Lin Nuo aside.

Only then did he realize—

In Lin Nuo’s hand was the blade he had chopped in two, the one he’d kicked aside just now.

‘The necessity of surrender is only to keep them from noticing the wind’s rise, to prevent them from making preparations in advance.’

‘To let us seize the best opportunity to attack, right at this moment.’ Lin Nuo recited in his heart.

Under Blaineau’s shocked gaze.

He bent his arm, wedged the half-blade he had just managed to pick up by feigning collapse between the bracer on his forearm and the armor on his upper arm.

He squeezed it with all the strength he had left.

“Ssssk—”

Sparks burst from the friction between bracer and blade, illuminating Lin Nuo’s bloodied lips and his fearless face for an instant.

Time seemed to slow.

As Blaineau realized what was happening and lunged frantically to stop him—

Lin Nuo saw only a single spark drift from his arm.

It danced with the wind, landing on a haystack soaked in brandy beside him.

“Boom!”

A flash of fire blazed in his eyes.

The tongues of flame leapt up the stalks in an instant, spreading rapidly. 

Blaineau’s feet slammed down onto the cedar deck, forced to a halt.

At the same time, two patrol ships laden with knights, as if waiting for ages, crashed through the water with the wind at their backs.

The Magical Creatures aboard could now see, beyond the fog being swept away by the wind, the ghostly silhouettes of those two patrol ships.

Both ships flew Surrender Flags, and seemed to have very few aboard, so much so that even the Great Priest among the monsters didn’t grow suspicious at first.

In the space of a few breaths, the Saint Knights frantically paddled, the oars pounding the water and propelling them astonishingly close in mere seconds.

“Splash, splash”

The wind-whipped waves crashed around them.

At last, a former pirate among the Cultist bodyguards was the first to sense something was amiss.

“It’s rare for Saint Knights to surrender, especially without offering grain, weapons, or captives.”

“Their ships should be heavy, riding low in the water…”

“Great Priest, look… why are those ships… so light and buoyant?”

“What’s actually in those holds?!”

These words, together with the sparks that had flown during Blaineau’s sword fight with that man just now, seemed to inspire some of the black-robed, cautious and meticulous monster bishops around.

At that moment, the patrol ship where Blaineau and Lin Nuo had fought erupted in flames with a “boom,” sending the scent of burning across the sea, and instantly plunging one bishop’s heart into icy dread.

“If this is a damned human trick—feigning surrender, then attacking with Fire Attack…”

“These Iron Chains are enchanted! Our brute force… is useless!”

“How are we supposed to defend?!”

The faces of several Great Priests, moments ago certain of victory, went blank as if struck by lightning.

The deliberate “clang-clang” of monsters forging iron to undermine enemy morale, meant to hasten victory, now seemed stretched thin by the howling wind—

“Quick!”

“Stop their ships!”

The corrupted Magical Creatures immediately obeyed the Great Priest’s command, gathering the warships at the front—the first and only line of defense, those not chained together.

But the ship Lin Nuo had purposely blocked in the middle was already ablaze; the fire sent the monsters into chaos.

“Where are the arrow dolphins?!”

“Fire! Quick, fire!!”

The monsters up front, under repeated orders from the Great Priest, grew increasingly disordered.

“Stop them!!”

“Block them for me!”

“Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh…”

“Whoosh whoosh whoosh!”

But all this had been anticipated.

Arrows without magic could easily be blocked with knight shields; led by the grim-faced Dax Migludia, the knights charged forward on the sudden southeast wind, undeterred.

“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—”

The fog dissipated even faster with the wind, exposing even more of the Cultist warships, chained together.

The Saint Knight ships, meanwhile, rode the fiercer winds, approaching at unimaginable speed—

Fifty meters…

Thirty meters…

Ten meters!

Five meters!

Though they were vastly outnumbered, and victory seemed impossible from the front, from those few patrol ships—

A captain’s heroic call sounded from among the Saint Knights: “Light the fire as the signal! Ram the enemy ships!”

With a thunderous crash as ships collided.

The water-spraying fire-frogs, startled by the shaking warships, toppled into the sea, and the whole fleet of chained-together monster ships was thrown into frantic, haphazard preparations.

Next, the Great Priest, leaning on the rail and observing the enemy, saw—

More ships, which had somehow laid in wait, now emerged as the fog receded, each one lighting their haystacks with torches.

Several more patrol ships loaded with Saint Knights fired their deck-mounted catapults.

“Whoosh—”

Burning jars of liquor streaked through the night sky like shooting stars!

To the monsters, it was as terrifying as seeing the Goddess of Purification herself!

“Bang!”

As the flaming spirits burst open, as the burning patrol ships set the monsters’ warships ablaze, the fire spread like a plague, leaping from patrol ship to monster ship, and in the howling gale, it raged out of control, threatening to engulf all.

The knights charged onto the decks, swords raised to the heavens.

Someone’s furious shout instantly ignited the whole battlefield.

“Light the fire!”

“Kill!!”

“Yosena, is Sister Xī letting us all leave so she can protect us?”

“Does she… does she really have no choice?”

“I heard the clang of metal from the water… Why did that big brother go fight alone in the fog…”

Having counted heads again and found not a single native missing, it meant that blond guy’s plan remained airtight—a good thing.

But as the little merfolk crowded around her, Yosena could only sigh helplessly.

She wanted to comfort these children, but when she thought of those two hundred thousand Magical Creatures, a headache no matter where they went; thought of the terrifying Ankalamuheng; thought of how Lin Nuo’s mistake exposed the Iron Chains tactic, vastly boosting the monsters’ power—

She truly, truly couldn’t find any comforting words.

They could all leave Shilang Bay.

Only Sister Xī couldn’t go; Yosena was just as afraid that Sister Xī had sent them away to protect them… 

‘Did they really want to leave their home?’

“Chirp!”

Perched on the unicorn of the magic whale, Fatty Bird fluttered over to land on a little mermaid’s shoulder, flapping its wings as if to dry her tears.

Only this bird seemed so carefree.

Yosena and the six Paper Angels, masked and hovering in the air, led the children in the water for a long while.

When the sound of that desperate charge rang out in the distance.

Yosena’s eyes grew strange.

More and more scale demons realized that the four thousand Treading Wave Sea Guard Knights, facing a force of monsters fifty times their number, had not routed at all. 

The shouts of battle had not stopped for even a moment.

Shilang Bay, which should have suffered the brunt of the attack, tonight saw not a single spark of war spread across it.

And… In the now-dispersing fog, the sight of burning ships was faintly visible.

In just a few breaths, over two thousand monster warships, from all directions, were encircled by roaring flames.

The wind howled ever fiercer…

The fire raged out of control…

As the wind grew stronger still.

They saw tongues of fire cover more and more of those two thousand warships and what they heard was the roaring of the knights.

Those inspiring shouts of slaughter grew louder and more unrestrained.

The Blood Skull Banner of the monsters toppled and swayed, and countless black dots fell into the sea, trying desperately to extinguish the flames on their bodies, only to be shot down by archers with their bows.

Some black dots tried to pull out the Iron Chains fastening the ships together, but in the chaos, they couldn’t manage it, and could only flee, staggering further back.

The scorched smell of burning cedar and sea demon fat spread over the entire sea.

At the same time— The battle cries shook the sky!

When they saw the fire, not only surrounding the monsters but now covering more than half of the monsters’ and Cultists’ two thousand ships—

Yosena, shocked to the core, could only swallow hard, unable to regain her composure for a long time.

The wind was in their favor!

The Iron Chains tactic exposed, it should’ve spelled certain death.

‘How did he turn a battle with a fifty-fold difference in numbers into something nearly equal, even with a hint of counterattack?’

“This… Can we really win?”

“Chirp…”

Her tail fin, trembling with excitement, surfaced; the little bird perched atop her fin pecked her scales twice. 

Yosena, of course, couldn’t understand bird language, but she nodded as Lin Nuo would: “Mm, you’re right.”

Yosena turned and handed Fatty Bird to the crying little mermaid, “It says we can win.”

“Chirp?”