Zich jumped to the closest boat. Sailors struggled to fight off the monsters rushing in. A sailor guarded himself with an oar and another person swung a stick furiously at anything coming his way. One man was even fighting off a monster with a tiny knife, which quickly proved to be too weak to battle a monster. Of course, if he had as many skills as someone like Zich, he would have been able to crack most monsters’ heads with even a wooden club. However, that was too much to expect from an ordinary boatman. As evidence, one sailor was dying over a pool of blood on the deck.
“Try it, you bastards! Come at me!” the sailor holding the oar shouted. Yet, his hands were trembling.
Kiah!
The monster revealed its sharp teeth and rushed forward. Using the oar, he managed to push away one monster, but he couldn’t do anything about the one next to him. The monster raised its pointy nails up high and ran towards him.
“Uh, ahhhh!” Contrary to the war cry he made just before; the sailor fell on his bottom while shrieking. It seemed like he would soon be shredded apart by the monster’s nails.
Slice!
A chilling sound rang loudly. The sailor watched as the head of the monster that rushed towards him was split into two.
Shaaa!
The monster was thrown back to the deck as its blood and other fluids scattered across the air. The same thing happened to other monsters around him. Without a pause, monster heads split into two and their bodies fell to the ground. It almost seemed like a miracle from God.
Thud!
The sailor stood blankly while soaked in monster blood when he heard something. It came from the sail, and he raised his head. There was a young man standing on top of the sail with a strange sword. Instinctually, the sailors knew that he was the one who had created this miracle. The young man swung his sword—it was so fast that they couldn’t see it properly, but its effect could be clearly seen. All the monsters crawling to the boat spilled blood and sank into the ocean.
Thud!
Zich jumped off from the sail since he had completed his work. Showing off capabilities that only a bird might have, he jumped down the sail of another boat. The same thing happened there, and the sailors watched with their mouths hanging open.
“What are you guys doing! Come to your senses! This isn’t over yet! We are heading to the pier now!” The captain roared, the sailors regained their senses, and they began to busily move again. They placed the oar they had taken out in the right place again first.
Babababam!
All the sailors blocked their ears and fell to the ground simultaneously. The captain also stuck his head against the rudder. An intense noise and shining light passed by their surroundings in an instant.
“W-What…” One of the sailors looked up at the sky where one black dot floated in the sky. When he narrowed his eyes and peered closely, he realized that the dot was a human. A light flashed inside the person’s hand.
Babababam!
A loud ding rang again, and the sailors blocked their ears.
“I-Is it lightning? A person is scattering lightning?”
“Must be a m-mage.” The sailors talked amongst themselves while trembling.
“Hey, look at that!” Other sailors pointed their fingers towards a certain place. In the middle of an ocean, they saw monsters corpses burnt to crisps, floating on top of the waters. The lightning from before appeared to be the most likely cause.
“Are they clearing the monsters?”
“Isn’t that what they are doing?”
“You bastards! I told you guys to focus! Go back to your positions immediately!” The captain hollered again. Sailors jumped in surprise and began to move quickly. The captain grabbed his rudder. He snuck a glance at Zich and Lyla fighting off the monsters and shook his head. ‘I have lived all my life riding boats, but I have never seen anything like this.’ The captain was sure that if he got out of this situation alive, he wouldn’t have run out of stories to tell his grandson until he died.
* * *
Thanks to Zich and Lyla, many boats were able to escape from the swarms of monsters. Yet, no matter how amazing Zich and Lyla were, there were only two of them, and they couldn’t protect all the boats in the wide ocean. There were even some cases where the ship couldn’t move with the small number of crew members who had survived. In those cases, Zich dropped them off at the nearest decks. As time passed and as more people successfully escaped or died, the number of moving people decreased. Thus, Zich moved the battlefield towards the harbor. Soldiers were pushing off the monsters using several buildings and goods as their support. Zich and Lyla mixed in with the group and fought them. As most people even in the harbor fled and found safety, the soldiers began to slowly retreat. Fortunately, they were guarding the road leading to Shootuol sturdily thanks to Hans, Snoc, and Elena’s splendid performance.
“Sir Zich!” After slicing the monster blocking his path with Estellade, Hans ran towards Zich’s side.
“How is the situation?”
“We didn’t let a single monster pass! Even the monsters climbing up the cliffs failed to trespass!” Hans clearly explained the current situation.
“Good. Let’s keep blocking from here,” Zich instructed.
“Yes, sir!”
With Zich and Lyla joining them in guarding, a steel-like barrier formed, and monster corpses piled up along the roadside. The number of monsters decreased more and more. They didn’t see any more strong monsters like the Kraken. Eventually, as if they had given up on their attack, the monsters began to return to the ocean one by one.
“Waaaaaaah!”
“We won!” As the last monster disappeared into the ocean, the soldiers screamed. They had managed to fend off a sudden, wide-scale monster attack; they hugged each other and let out a string of fresh curses at the ocean where the monsters disappeared. However, Zich acted differently from the soldiers; he quietly stared at the now calm and peaceful ocean and stroked Windur. It was covered in blood, and it no longer emitted out a murderous aura that it had a few moments ago. Instead, it was completely silent. However, Zich remembered how Windur shook loudly before the monsters ambushed them.
‘My dream and Windur’s movements. And the sudden monster attacks…’
This city became even more suspicious than before.
* * *
After saving the people in the harbor, Zich and his companions were treated like heroes in the city. They were given rooms that were one level more luxurious than their previous lodgings, and they were also given compensation. Hans, Snoc, and Elena looked touched by the people who praised them.
“They’re so easily touched. Shouldn’t they be used to it by now?”
“Just leave them be. It’s nice that they’re so pure.”
Zich and Lyla were sitting in the same room and drinking together. Lyla sipped the wine and ate one piece of cheese. Then she said, “It’s surprising that we got used to this type of reception. We really did go through a lot of amazing events.”
“There were times when we went looking for them as well.” Zich chuckled and gulped strong brandy down his throat. “We also came here, and an incident happened. We really are good at finding and going to places with a lot of trouble.”
“Is that something to be happy about?”
“Well, it’s not a bad thing.”
“Ordinary people would definitely consider it a bad thing.”
“Then, let’s cheer for those of us who refuse to live like ordinary people.”
Lyla looked at Zich who had his glass pushed forward and was sure of this—if he drowned in a lake, only his mouth would float on the surface.
Then Lyla asked, “So Windur shook?”
“Yep.”
They stopped exchanging jokes and began embarking on a serious conversation.
“Before the monsters ambushed us, Windur suddenly began shaking.”
“Windur doesn’t have the function to give a warning when monsters are about to ambush us.”
“Yeah. The reason why Windur shook is probably not because it was trying to warn me. But it’s also difficult to say for sure that its strange movements had nothing to do with the monsters’ ambush.”
“So you’re saying that Windur shook because it sensed something that triggered the monsters’ ambush?”
Zich nodded. “No matter how you look at it, there’s definitely something in Shootuol. But I don’t know if it’s what we are looking for.”
“I really hope it’s what we’re looking for.”
“I think there’s a high possibility.” Zich tapped Windur’s hilt, which was raised next to his side. “This guy is related to Clowon, so there’s a high possibility that what made Windur react today is also probably related to Clowon.”
“Yeah, I really hope you’re right.”
The two of them clinked their glasses again. Lyla asked, “What are you going to do now? Are you going to walk around recklessly and try to find places where Windur shakes?”
“That’s also one possible method, but I’m going to first explore the city to see if there might be something like ancient ruins around here.”
“Now that you mention it, everything related to Clowon was all part of the ruins.” It was the same for the tomb in Violuwin and Adrowon.
“Even if there is no information about the ruin, there might be legends or folktales that are passed down through generations. So, I’m going to look around this city and find old people.”
“I hope we find useful information.”
“Yeah, I feel the same way.”
The two of them gulped down the alcohol in their glass in one shot.
* * *
Zich and his companions began exploring the city. Since the city’s security measures were not lowered yet, there weren’t many people wandering around the streets; this was especially true for the elderly. However, they couldn’t just go to any house and barge in to find old people, so Zich and his companions fell into a dilemma. However, Zich easily solved this issue.
Zich said, “Connections should be used for situations like this.”
The mayor easily accepted his request when he requested for help. Since they were heroes who saved the city, fulfilling Zich’s request was a very small matter. Zich met many elders and asked about nearby ruins or famous stories. The elders sat down and relayed the stories they knew; in a way, they looked like they were having a more fun time than Zich or his companions. Older people loved telling stories they heard when they were young to youngsters. Like this, Zich and his companions met many elders and listened to many stories in a span of multiple days.
Lyla said, “There was nothing about ruins.”
“Yeah.”
It was disappointing, but it wasn’t as if they obtained nothing. Most of the stories that the elders told were useless things such as educational stories or stories to prevent people from going to dangerous places; they were all interesting but nonetheless meaningless stories to them.
However, one folktale was different.
“I think there’s something about the tale called ‘The Cave that Eats People’.” Lyla also seemed to have the same thought as Zich when she first brought up this topic.
The folktale was about a sea cave that was a little far from the city. The cave was on the coastal cliff, and since seawater flowed through the cave, people said it was a place that one couldn’t enter without a boat. It was also said that the cave was very deep and there was a vortex inside, so even the people in Shootuol did not know the exact size and shape of the cave.
“They said it was a cave connected to Hell, so demons from Hell would crawl out nearby and capture people.” Just this part of the folktale was like an ordinary horror folktale; there was a high possibility that this tale was being passed down to scare away children from going into a dangerous cave.
However, Zich and Lyla found an interesting detail in this tale. In one part of the story, it was said that a long time ago, the subordinates of a great emperor occasionally entered the sea cave to defeat the demons inside.