Chapter 704 - Long distance skulduggery

“It’s been rapidly getting cloudy… Looks like it’s going to rain.”

Sofia stood straight on top of the ship’s highest mast. Two giant human skulls were slowly rotating around her as if surveying the horizon. 

It’s been a while since I’ve used the choir like this.

Sofia cleared her throat, and started speaking, her voice amplified a thousand times by the giant skulls repeating everything she said.

“Hello everyone! Sofia speaking! I should be pretty easy to spot right now if you follow the voice. Here is some friendly advice, move away. Bad things will happen to you if you stay close or in front of us. You have been warned!”

Dispelling the skulls, Sofia jumped back down, joining Mornn at the front of the ship.

“Was that really necessary? We could have eliminated some competition,” Mornn noted.

“My sis’ will probably realize right away she’s a fake if I let you hit her like that. Maybe the system would prevent that from happening but I don’t want to take any chances. Besides, we might need to keep the others around, especially if the ‘Gobliath’ shows up again, the more potential targets the safer we are.”

“You got a point there, I don’t want to end up in that thing’s belly if I can avoid it. Still though, why would you care if the fake realizes she’s a fake?”

Sofia scratched her head, “Well… It would just feels like shit, you know? Even if she is a fake, she’s still a copy of my sister. If it was one of your relatives would you like them to know they’re a fake bound to disappear as soon as the trial’s over?”

“Huh, didn’t know you saw things like that. We should hang out more after this.“

“Sun knows where I live, you can visit anytime.”

“Assuming she lets me.” Mornn sighed, looking at the sea and the goblin mountain-ship in the distance. It was not too far anymore, two or three kilometers at most. “It’s interesting that they stopped attacking, preparing something maybe? Your warning’s worked at least, everyone’s moving,” she said, taking position and preparing her sword, mana starting to gather in the tall blue blade.

“They were trying to avoid me in events in the first place, not surprising they’d move when I warn them. I’m more surprised you didn’t get the same kind of attention when you’re also on a perfect win streak.”

“I won’t say it twice but… My swords aren’t quite as impressive as your explosions, is probably why. Also your new specialization is disgusting, but that’s another subject.”

In the distance, alarms rung all over the humongous goblin ship, it seemed that they, too, were trying to move out of Mornn’s way, but their giant hunk of steel was woefully slow.

“Think you’d beat me in a duel?” Sofia asked.

“You? If you fight without Pareth and the fairy, I think I get you nine times out of ten, honestly. All three at once? I’m super dead meat, it’s not even a fight.”

“Underestimating me now, are you?”

“Ahah. Really not. But let’s keep that talk for later, I’m ready!” Mornn announced, her muscles bulging and bursting with veins as she held her sword up high.

“Show us where your confidence comes from!” Sofia cheered her on.

Standing at the very tip of the galleon’s bow, facing the giant goblin ship in the distance, the saintess brought her sword down. Sofia watched wide-eyes as the blade ripped through space, mana detonating like a torn seam in reality. The sound of the sword strike was like an explosion, and the shockwave was the same, yet for a very short instant, it seemed almost like the strike had done nothing.

The sea roared, splitting as Mornn’s blade carved a chasm through the waves. Water surged apart, a canyon of roiling seas revealing the ocean’s depths now marked with a new scar. The sky above shuddered, clouds sheared in two, their edges glowing gold as sunlight pouring through. The goblin’s mountainesque ship, grotesque behemoth of floating steel, stood no chance. The invisible arc of mana tearing forward through space ripped it in half, sliced trough from side to side. The steel groaned and split, its halves plummeting into the abyss. The goblins’ screams could be heard from kilometers away.

Sofia kept the galleon airborn through this ordeal, as the sea had been chased away, she had quickly granted it the [Blessing of permanent Frame] locking it in place.

The spectacle lasted only an instant, almost as violently as it had been chased away, the sea returned, two gigantic walls of water slamming into one another. The goblin ship disappeared, engulfed by the depths as the sea collided with a deafening crash, waves exploding upwards in chaotic fury. A colossal whirlpool formed where the goblin ship sank, and gigantic waves rippled outward.

Sofia had to quickly disable her kill notification because there were so many it clogged her vision. Holding Bookie’s book form firmly against her waist, she let the wave pass. The blessing kept the galleon steady against the raging seas, and as for the others, be it the trialees or the rest of the goblin fleet, they were washed away by the sudden tsunami.

What a strike.

When finally the wave was gone and Sofia could breathe again, not that she needed to, she checked if everyone was still there.

Mornn was still standing in the same spot, looking spent but unarmed. Kuli was still holding the wheel, though her wet rabbit ears made her look particularly comical, and Pareth was still moving around the ship. He was already busy trying to fix the sails even though he knew very little about how the ropes worked. Bookie was with Sofia, so only Pestle was left unaccounted for.

Pestle?

Searching for the fairy’s presence, Sofia found it below the ship.

What are you doing?

“So, what do you think?” Mornn asked at the same time, gasping for air, “Worth buying a sword with extra damage against water?”

“That’s one ridiculous item description if I’ve ever heard any,” Sofia answered, “Nice spectacle, though. This doesn’t pale in comparison to my bolts. I think you killed about half the people who were still in the race, judging by the number of alerts. What’s the cooldown on that again?”

“A day…”

“Honestly, not bad.”

Sofia felt Pestle coming back from under the ship so she looked in her direction, only to see not a tiny skeleton fairy coming out of the water, but a huge purple-scaled shark, landing right onto the deck, meters away from her.

It’s dead.

Pestle crawled from under the creature, skull dripping with sea water.

“Found sea-leg!”

Sofia had to try hard to contain her laughter.

Someone’s got their priorities right.

After dispelling the blessing, letting the boat start to advance toward the supposed next checkpoint again, now with no obstacle beyond a deadly whirlpool, Sofia heard Pestle out about her leg. She wanted to share, for once. So, while the other groups were in a rush, trying to repair their ships and correct course back to the checkpoint after being washed away by a second tsunami, Sofia gutted a shark and practiced her un-picked roastmaster specialization.

As Sofia slowly rotated the shark impaled on a bone in front of her firebird skeleton, she suddenly felt an attack incoming before she could even see it. She [Heat death]ed it away with nanoseconds to spare, a fifth of her entire mana disappearing in an instant. The attacked had come from far away, and it had been so fast a trail of light could still be seen where it was cast despite Sofia dispelling it. It pierced straight through Sofia’s right hand and would have basically engulfed it and the shark without hitting anything else.

Using her fake eye to zoom in on the ships in the direction the attack came from, Sofia located the attacker, 

“Tsk tsk… Sneaky Andarian, munching on an Apra and trying to ruin our meal?” You’re lucky Pestle is playing with the mimic downstairs. Ah crap, the choir is still on cooldown. Wait, he’s right in range.

Sofia stored the red Apra in Ezerid’s hand, and summoned it right back into her own. She took a large bite of the fruit, before storing it back and bringing it back out on top of Ezerid’s head. Which seemed to leave him speechless.

Heheheh. That’s what you get.

And Pestle! Stop distracting the mimic, we need to get to that checkpoint!

The galleon suddenly sped up, down below deck, Sofia could tell Pestle was spinning.

… I should focus on that shark… 

[You have reached the second checkpoint! Vote on a perk for your vessel!]

[Available perks (2) :

• Sailing Speed +100%

• Event map]

Map?!

Without even a need for discussion, everyone voted for the map, and in the corner of their vision, a new system window opened, showing a birdseye view of the sea. It was a square centered on the ship’s position, with three ‘landmarks’ scribbled on. They read as ‘Ark’, ‘Goblin Destroyer - Checkpoint 2’, and in the upper right corner, an arrow pointed out of the map, marked labelled ‘Cannon Canyon - Checkpoint 3’.

“We continue straight ahead!” Kuli shouted to the others from the wheel, “Sofia can you prepare a diversion? No reason to show the others the way!”

“Give me a minute to think of something, the food’s almost ready!”