Kays Translations

Chapter 89: Battle on the Great River

*Clink, clank, clink, clank!*

A short bell rang out, signaling an emergency as it echoed from the lookout platform.

This signal not only informed those on the ship but also served as a sign for nearby vessels about the emergency situation.

At this point, the wide river spanned only about 500 meters, with approximately one-third in the middle serving as a navigational route. Several ships were visible within the visible range.

"Raise the battle flag and smoke signals! Those who can use magic, starboard side! Bring all the thunderballs! Don't let them get close!"

Captain Revecchio quickly issued instructions.

"Isamu-sama, I'm sorry. We've encountered a group of monsters. It rarely happens..."

"No, no, Revecchio-san, it's not your fault. It's monsters, so when they appear, they appear. By the way, 'river sharks,' was it? What kind of monsters are they?"

Encouraging the captain while asking rapid questions about the newly appeared monsters, Isamu listened attentively.

"River sharks are monsters that have been in the Rusarsa River since ancient times. They're sharks unique to the river, about 3 to 5 Melte in size. They come at the ship, or when you think they're just fish and relax, they jump onto the deck to bite. So, be careful."

"On a ship of this size, a few of them are nothing to worry about, but 20 is a bit challenging..."

"Can't we escape? Raise the sails and accelerate?"

"No good. They are faster."

It seemed that even in a speed contest with aquatic creatures in their territory, there was no chance of winning.

"How do you usually repel them?"

"Regular bows can't deal decent damage, and close-quarters combat is impossible. So, while repelling them with magic and thunderballs, we use that opportunity to escape to the shore. They can't swim well in shallow areas, so if we can escape to the vicinity of the shore, we can get through."

"Thunderballs?"

Isamu tilted his head at the unfamiliar term.

"It's a disposable magic tool. By fitting a thunder magic stone and throwing it, lightning occurs underwater, paralyzing the opponent. It's quite handy to use, but both the magic stone and the magic tool are one-shot deals. Plus, they're expensive. Even on this ship, we don't have more than 10."

It seemed to be something like an electric shocker. Indeed, for striking underwater enemies, electricity might be effective. The larger the opponent, the greater the resistance, and the more significant the effect.

While something like depth charges might be more effective, it seemed incompatible with a ship mostly made of wood.

Since the distance at which it could be thrown manually was known, and shockwaves had no directionality, it was unavoidable that the ship itself would be affected.

"Captain! We're ready!"

With preparations for interception complete, a voice came from the starboard side.

"Felix-san! We're preparing magic too! However, please avoid explosive ones. We're scared of the impact on the ship!"

Isamu also ran towards them and called out to the captain who was already waiting on the starboard side.

"Understood! Marcela, use Rock Fist, Liddell, and I will use Ice Lance together! Adjust your magic power so that you can shoot three times!? Mizeroi, if there's one flying at us, knock it down! The young lady and Karina-san, stay prepared. Move after seeing the outcome of the first attack!"

"Yes!"

"Understood."

Felix quickly issued instructions, and the members all entered combat readiness simultaneously.

As Isamu was about to join in magic attacks and started running, he suddenly stopped.

"Revecchio-san! May I have one thunderball?!"

"No problem! Hey, someone, get Isamu-sama a thunderball!"

Taking a thunderball from a crew member who had brought it from the hold, Isaum quickly examined it.

Though named "ball," it was cylindrical in shape, about the size of a 500ml PET bottle, a little thicker. It had a lid with an activation circle on the top, and an attribute-less magic stone was embedded for activation.

Opening the lid revealed a circuit board just barely fitting in diameter. According to Revecchio, it seemed that a lightning magic stone would be set on this board.

Isamu quickly checked the circuit board he took out and silently pumped his fist.

"All right! Bingo!"

Shouting so, he rushed to Felix and whispered to him.

"I can make a new magic tool from the magic circle of the thunderball. I'll get to work right away, so sorry, but I'll step aside for a moment!"

"What?! Uh, understood!"

"Eto-san! Wilem-san!"

Turning on his heel and running towards where the carriage was moored, Isamu called out.

"Please help me for a moment!"

"Huh?"

"Help??"

Although surprised, the two who were asked what they were going to do in the midst of the approaching enemy followed after him.

"I could read the magic circle of the thunderball!"

As soon as they entered the bath carriage, Isamu dropped a bombshell.

"What the heck are you talking about!?"

"Is it true?"

The two responded with surprise and asked again.

"Yes. When I heard it was disposable, I thought about it. Considering those I couldn't read from the artifacts we found in the ruins before, they seemed to be made with extra effort, right? If it's something meant for short-term use with a simple effect, wouldn't they avoid such trouble? That prediction turned out to be spot on."

"I see... Putting effort into something that will break immediately is a waste."

"So, I plan to modify this and create a more powerful thunderball. I don't have much time, so it will be a simple modification, but I believe it will be effective."

Saying so, Isamu began explaining the details of the modification.

The original function of the thunderball was extremely simple. It utilized the magic power extracted from the lightning magic stone to activate the lightning magic. That's it. Perhaps because it was intended for throwing, the activation circle had a timer for a delayed activation, which was the only notable feature.

However, this was a wasteful use of the magic stone. Extracting magic power at the maximum output and activating the lightning magic meant discarding a magic stone that likely had more than 90% of magic power remaining. Taking into account its nature as a throwing weapon, even if it was acceptable to activate only once, transferring the delayed activation process to the functional circle would significantly increase its power.

Whether there was a deliberate waste for some reason or if it was just a failed product was unknown at this point...

So, Isamu decided to make three major modifications. The first was to eliminate the disposable aspect. The second was to enhance the power. The third was to extend the duration of the effect.

For the elimination of the disposable aspect, due to the lack of time, he simply tied a rope to it for easy retrieval. For enhancing the power, he planned to use the magic power variable used to move the ruins' functional circle to boost the magic power. Regarding the duration of the effect, he set it to activate five times and then stop through loop processing.

If there was time, he would have liked to make a switch for on/off control, but using the available materials, the distance achievable before the lightning magic was activated was at most around 5 meters. Since a short effective range would allow enemy approaches, it was decided to maintain the throwing style for now.

Additionally, making it continuously release magic as long as there was magic power was also an option, but not knowing the duration made it very inconvenient to use. Trying to recover something with remaining magic power might lead to a dangerous situation where lightning magic would be activated at close range.

Explaining these circumstances quickly, they divided their tasks and started the improvements.

Isamu was in charge of the functional circle, Eto handled the casing, and Willem took care of the activation circle. Since Willem had recently made a high-power activation array for ruins, he had become capable of drawing simple activation arrays.

In the meantime, the ship veered to the left, distancing itself from the river sharks on the left side. Since river sharks wouldn't pursue into shallow waters, escaping to the shore was the standard procedure. However, the opponents were faster, gradually closing the distance.

Finally, as Isamu and the others began the magic tool modification, the battle on the starboard side commenced.

The humans took the initiative.

"Rock Fist that shatters walls, emerge before my eyes. Rock Fist!"

Marcela scattered her Rock Fists towards the group of river sharks that had approached to about 70 meters, creating a radial splash of water. Rather than aiming to directly defeat them, it was an attempt to restrain them and create distance.

Nevertheless, reasonably sized rocks were flying at high speed, so hitting would result in considerable damage.

"Splash!"

"Gyakkkk!?"

Three river sharks swimming in the front were hit by Rock Fist. An unfortunate one seemed to have taken a direct hit to the head, floating up.

"Whoa, it's huge!?"

Seeing the 4-meter-long, quite thick and chubby river shark floating up, Marcela unintentionally raised her voice.

“My hands that twist the freezing air, cast a cold spear of ice. Ice lance! ”

Adding to that, Felix and Liddell's Ice Lances struck the group of river sharks that had slightly slowed down due to Rock Fist. About ten ice spears, each about 70 centimeters long, pierced the group of river sharks.

The slender and pointed Ice Lances disappeared into the water with small water columns. After a brief moment, two impaled river sharks floated up, and the area was filled with what seemed to be the red blood of the river sharks.

"Ohhh! Truly, as expected of the knights of Klaufeldt known for their strength! They've already taken care of three!"

"All right, let's keep it going!"

Cheers erupted from the crew towards the knightly order that had taken down magic creatures at a distance that their magic couldn't reach. The Klaufeldt Knight Order, boasting a power leaning towards the old magic, also had an impressive magic range.

After closing in to about 50 meters, two crew members who could use magic also unleashed their spells on the creatures. Unfortunately, they didn't manage to defeat them, but they succeeded in slowing their movements.

However, at this point, the creatures changed their tactics. Instead of staying grouped together, they began to spread out, surrounding the ship.

"They've gone to the bow and stern! Don't let them circle to port!"

A lookout shouted. If they circled to the port side, it would be difficult to bring the ship closer to the shore.

"Damn it, take this!"

A crew member threw a thunderball towards the river sharks that had circled to the bow. The thunderball made a small splashing sound and sank a few seconds later. The dazzling flash of lightning dyed the water white.

Distantly, a faint "sizzle" sound could be heard from the ship.

Two creatures swimming at the front floated up after being struck by lightning and were carried downstream.

Following that, with the remaining thunderballs and magic, they managed to defeat or stun more than half of the creatures. While somehow preventing them from encircling to port, the ship approached the shore.

"Oh no! Stop the rudder!"

As they finally felt the shore getting closer, another lookout shouted. The sudden change in the direction of the rudder caused a commotion on the shaking ship.

"What the heck, if we don't get closer to the shore... Oh no!!"

A crew member, cursing, who was trying to peek over the port side hastily jumped back.

With a bang, right where the crew member's head had been a moment ago, the jaws of a leaping river shark closed.

Splash! Making a sound, it dived back into the water.

"Darn it, another group!? We're surrounded!"

The lookout cursed. Perhaps lured by the smell of blood, about ten more river sharks had surfaced on the port side.

"Be careful! They're coming at us!!"

The captain's tense voice echoed.

"Ladies, to the center of the deck! Mizeroi, to port, Liddell, to the bow, Marcela, to the stern! Knock them down!"

"Understood!"

"Got it!"

"Roger!"

While activating the Felis 1 model himself, Felix shouted.

Splash!

First, the attack came from the port side. A river shark leaped straight at Mizeroi.

"Take this!"

Mizeroi, wielding the Felis 5 type, a weight-variable hammer that he had become quite familiar with over the past week, swung it and increased the weight with the magic stone at the moment of impact.

Directly hitting the side, the river shark made a dull sound, Bogan, and was blown away towards the port stern, creating a spectacular splash before returning to the river.

"All right, this should work!"

While flicking away water droplets from the hammer, Mizeroi grinned.

"Nya, nyaaa~n..."

Suddenly, Orihime’s meowing was heard. Feeling that the meow was unusually weak, Mizeroi looked around. There, in front of a water puddle created by the leaping river shark, Orihime was shivering slightly.

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