Five days later.
Cale looked at the sun setting over the horizon as he started to speak.
“The winter ocean is cold.”
“Human, are you cold again? Should I use temperature regulating magic again?”
“… No, I was just making an observation.”
“They’re finally here.”
Choi Han, Rosalyn, Raon, Gashan, and Paseton in his small Humpback Whale form all looked toward the horizon after hearing Cale’s comment.
They could see small specks beyond the horizon. Those specks would be the tens of ships headed their way.
The Humpback Whale Paseton approached the boulder where Cale was standing and started to speak.
“Young master Cale-nim, my sister wanted me to tell you that we are ready.”
There were Whale tribe members and tens of whales currently waiting in the ocean to move.
Cale started to speak.
“Gashan.”
“Please prepare.”
The closed eyes of the shaman opened.
Tens of crows appeared from the forest behind him. Gashan started to speak.
“Go.”
The crows broke into groups and started to head toward the other Hais Islands.
They would serve as messengers for the Tiger tribe, Whale tribe, and Cale’s group who were all stationed at the different Hais Islands. Rosalyn approached Cale and started to speak.
“Young master Cale, I understand why you dispatched Miss Mary and Mr. Ron together, but will it be okay to leave Miss Hannah on her own?”
Mary and Ron.
The two of them were in charge of one of the Hais Islands together.
“Even if Miss Hannah said that she can take them on her own…”
Rosalyn could not hide her concern.
The sword master Hannah. She had said that she would defend an island by herself. Choi Han started to speak before Cale could respond to Rosalyn.
“She’ll be fine.”
“… In your opinion?”
Choi Han smiled toward Rosalyn.
“Yeah. She'll be fine in my opinion. I taught her.”
Rosalyn did not say anything else as she trusted Choi Han’s judgment. At that moment, Cale remembered what Hannah and Ron had said earlier.
‘Young master-nim, please leave the island with the densest forest to me. I will stealthily kill all of them.’
Ron said that before replacing his benign smile with a chilling smile. Hannah had laughed before saying her part.
‘Cale Henituse. I am fine on my own. Don't send anybody else with me.’
‘Will you be fine on your own?’
‘It’s not a matter of if I will be fine or not. I don’t think I’ll be able to differentiate. Once I start to see blood, I can’t stop myself from killing anything in front of me.’ [1]
Cale quickly tried to erase the memories of these two vicious people.
He didn’t know why Arm would turn those two scary people into their enemies.
Cale felt bad for them as he looked back toward the horizon.
He could hear Raon's voice.
“Human, the sun is setting! It is time to destroy everything!”
‘What a vicious Dragon.’
Cale let out a sigh and started to speak.
“Step back.”
Swooooooosh-
All of the preparations were ready.
Cale had never used his powers to the max.
Even the thunderbolt from the Fire of Destruction was not at max power.
However, at this moment, he used the Sound of the Wind at the maximum power.
Swooooooosh-
Raon had something else to do and could not do this. He was the most suited for this task.
Plop plop.
Rosalyn grabbed the end of her robe that was fluttering and moved away from Cale.
“Little Rosalyn, let’s do it.”
Rosalyn nodded her head at Raon. The magic circle that Raon had created was huge.
Plop plop!
The sound of clothes fluttering became even louder.
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh-
The trees in the forest started to shake. Rosalyn lifted her magic staff into the air. She had never performed such grand magic before.
However, she was about to do it.
She stabbed her staff into the center of the magic circle that had five highest-grade magic stones in it.
Puuk.
At that moment, red mana started to rise up from Rosalyn’s body. She could hear Gashan’s voice at that moment.
“Wind that is the breath of the tired. Please gather in my undeserving body and become a large typhoon.”
Rosalyn lifted her head.
The Black Dragon had his two front paws pointed to the sky.
The sky that was slowly turning dark along with the setting of the sun started to become filled with black rain clouds.
The large rain cloud covered half of the fifteen Hais Islands. There was also thunder and strong gusts of wind.
Rosalyn clenched onto the staff that she had stabbed into the magic circle.
Just thinking about it amazed her.
Plop plop.
She looked toward the source of the wind.
Both Choi Han and Rosalyn were looking at the same spot.
Swooooooosh-
Cale’s shirt was fluttering wildly. He was using the Sound of the Wind to it’s maximum to do this.
‘This is quite difficult.’
Whenever he ran out of strength while using the Sound of the Wind, the Vitality of the Heart would activate in order to energize him once again.
‘… This is weird.’
He was able to call forth the wind as easily as a squirrel running on a wheel. [2]
Although he was running out of strength, the Vitality of the Heart would active every time a whirlwind the size of a fist was created.
But something was weird.
“Ugh.”
‘This is weird.’
He was starting to summon new whirlwinds faster than before.
‘Will I be able to get rid of them at the end?
Cale's forehead started to get covered in sweat.
Swooooooosh-
Splash, splash.
Waves started to form in the water. Paseton quickly moved away from the shore. Gashan and Paseton were looked at Cale with shocked expressions.
It was hard to see Cale as he was surrounded by a ton of whirlwinds.
“Ugh.”
Cale let out a groan.
“Human, stop! I will destroy everything if you get hurt!”
Raon shouted toward Cale, whose arms were shaking. Cale wanted to speak but he did not have enough strength to do so.
‘That’s what I'm trying to do!’
That was what Cale wanted to say.
However, Cale was having difficulty just making the whirlwinds remain by his side. Cale made eye contact with Choi Han through the whirlwinds.
Although his clothes were fluttering wildly, Choi Han was standing firmly.
‘Although it is not to a satisfactory level, I did take a step forward.’
Cale nodded his head toward Choi Han. Choi Han started to speak.
“Please start!”
Once Cale heard Choi Han shout he released the whirlwinds he had kept at his side.
Splaaaaaaash-
The whirlwinds cut through the ocean in order to arrive at their respective locations following Cale's will. Cale lifted his head up.
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh-
He could hear the sound of the trees in the forest as he looked up at the sky that was covered by black clouds. The rain clouds were expanding to the east.
Cale turned his head to the other side. The sun was disappearing to the east and night was starting.
A storm and whirlpools.
The dangers of the ocean were being artificially created.
It would only affect the area around the Hais Islands.
Cale fixed his clothes that were messed up by the wind and looked toward the horizon. The tens of ships that were just specks earlier were now visible.
Ruuuumble-
Thunder started to roar in the area.
Drip. Drip.
Opid, the leader of Arm’s First Battle Brigade. He looked toward the raindrops falling on the ship and started to frown.
“Raining in the nighttime, is it about to storm?”
“It is only a few drops right now, so I think we should quickly rush to the Hais Islands and see what happens.”
“Is it possible to get there before it gets much darker?”
“Yes sir.”
Opid nodded his head at his subordinate’s response and looked around. Many people on each ship were moving around quickly in order to prepare for the rain.
“Tsk, should we have brought crews with us?”
“Leader, we had no choice.”
His Assistant Leader Greetel approached Opid and patted his shoulder.
“We had to quietly go while hiding our identities. We could not bring large crews with us. It’s already going to be a pain killing all of the navigators once we get to our destination.”
“Greetel, you're right, but…”
Ruuuumble.
Opid looked up after hearing the thunder and had an ominous feeling.
Splaaaaaaash-
A new noise that was different from the noise of the ship cutting through the ocean reached his ear.
Splaaaaaaash-
Splaaaaaaash-
It was not just once.
‘It’s coming from the back.’
Opid turned around.
He was located at the center of the formation of ships.
He looked toward the ships following behind his ship.
Gwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-
A loud roar was followed by a large lifeform jumping into the air.
“… Whales.”
It was the Whales.
Approximately ten Whales appeared on top of the water before disappearing back underwater.
He noticed one Whale among the group.
It was a Humpback Whale. This Whale had an X shaped scar on her back.
Opid’s eyes opened wide.
He had been told that the Whale tribe was up north. The Whale King, Shickler, was said to not move from their territory.
Arm’s First Battle Brigade had only moved after receiving that information from the Northern Alliance. So why was it that the Whale tribe’s future Queen was here?
“Leader! It is the Whale tribe. Why are they here?”
Assistant Leader Greetel started to frown and asked. Opid did not respond and instead gave an order to his subordinates.
“We will head for the closest Hais Island.”
Facing the Whale tribe in the water would result in severe casualties. No, they would need to prepare for death.
“Put the black flag on the spotlight.”
After giving the order to raise the black flag that signaled that there was an emergency, Opid looked toward Assistant Leader Greetel.
“Got it.”
Opid looked toward everyone moving quickly and bit down on his lips.
Splaaaaaaash.
Ooooooo-
The Whales started to move faster toward them.
Opid started to frown.
“Raising the flag!”
The black flag slowly went up the mast after the subordinate's report.
Opid touched the sword on his waist. Opid was a highest-grade expert and a middle-grade mage. He was about to move to get his armor.
It was at that moment.
“Huh?”
Baaaaang!
The loud bang coming from in front of their ship made Opid turn around.
“What was that?”
A whirlwind suddenly shot out of the ocean. It started from there.
“Leader-nim, whirlwinds suddenly shot out of the ocean!”
Opid had already started to use magic to jump across the ships before the subordinate had said that.
“Son of a-!”
Although only one whirlwind shot up to the air, there were many large and small whirlpools in the water.
Shaaaaaaaaaaa-
It started to rain harder.
Opid raised his head.
There were no stars in the sky. It would have been completely dark without their magic lights.
Ooooooo-
The only thing that he could hear was the sound of the Whales’ roars. Opid gave an order to the fleet.
“Go to the Hais Islands! Get there as quickly as possible!”
“But the whirlpools!”
“Dodge them! The Whale tribe is rushing toward us. Get to the islands if you don't want to die!”
They could fight properly if they reached the islands. However, it was a stormy night. Meeting the Whales in the ocean during a storm would solidify their deaths.
“Leader, I woke up all of the members!”
“Opid-nim! We will not be able to anchor all of the ships on one of the Hais Islands!”
Opid verified the speed of the Whales approaching them from a distance and quickly gave the order.
“Divide up and get to whatever piece of land you can find! Greetel, divide up the members to the different ships!”
Each of the members of the First Battle Brigade had their own large group of subordinates.
He could see one of the ships in the back getting caught up in a whirlpool.
Aaaaaaah!
He could hear the screams of the people on board.
“Should we go save them?”
Opid heard something as his subordinate asked that question.
Gwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-
It was the Whales.
“No. We will continue to move forward no matter what. We will be able to survive until tomorrow if we get to an island even while losing some ships. Contact Central as soon as we arrive at an island.”
Screeeech. Ooooo.
Opid held onto the railing. The ship tilted to one side. The high-grade assassin and swordsman Greetel had already started to move in order to follow Opid’s orders.
“Damn it.”
Why was this suddenly happening?
Opid held on to the railings tighter after seeing the silhouette of an island in the distance.
He did not have time to think about which of the fifteen Hais Islands that one was.
“… Another whirlpool!”
There were many whirlpools in between the islands. It was difficult to see them in the distance because of the rain.
“It looks like we will all need to split up!”
“Do what you have to do to safely land!”
The tens of ships divided up to head toward the different Hais Islands.
Baaaaang!
Crash.
Opid turned around. One of the mid-sized ships had been damaged. He could see a Humpback Whale roaring to the side.
“Hurry up!”
“W, we are almost there!”
The navigator felt the tip of Opid’s sword on his back and shouted back. They avoided a large whirlpool and could barely see one of the Hais Islands.
Opid gave an order as soon as the ship docked by the island.
“Everybody hurry out and get into formation!”
Opid’s subordinates quickly rushed out of the ship. Opid watched the other ships avoiding multiple whirlpools and turned his gaze toward the island.
He could see a small forest behind the sand. Opid immediately headed for the forest.
This was an island located between the Eastern continent and the Western continent.
Nobody lived on these islands. Although his mind was chaotic after seeing the Whale tribe, he still needed to quickly inspect the forest and find a good location.
‘It will be difficult for the Whales to get past the whirlpools as well.’
Opid started to walk faster with a slightly relieved mind.
It was the moment he entered the forest.
Rustle.
Opid stopped walking.
Rustle, rustle.
It was the sound of someone walking.
Opid faced forward.
It was at that moment. He could see a golden light.
Slice-
That golden light cut through one of the trees.
It was a woman with black spiderwebs on her face. The woman was laughing as she sent out more golden lights.
Opid let out a groan.
At that moment, the other divided members of the brigade started to hear odd noises.
Grrrrr.
They heard the roars of animals and could see people with vertical pupils that were characteristic of feline animals appear in front of them.
Ron, who was on Hais Island 13, started to speak to Mary.
“I will take care of the assassins. Miss Mary, you can rest.”
“Yes, grandfather.” [3]
Ron, who had seen Assistant Leader Greetel, disappeared into the darkness.
Cale had his arms crossed as he looked down and started to speak.
“What a great giant mess.”
The view from above was quite satisfactory.
The night was only just beginning.
2. This is a Korean idiom for how easy it is. Instead of a hamster, they have a squirrel in a cage.
3. Koreans use the term grandfather for all old men, not necessarily just their blood-related grandfather.