The only thing I could see were the flashes of sparks where their blades would meet as Emilia and that pirate leapt around the space while slashing at each other.
Their figures blurred around the battlefield, none of us being able to keep up with their speed.
I still managed to catch brief glimpses of the two locked in combat. They would appear for the briefest of moments with their sword clashing against the other’s before disappearing again.
They suddenly reappeared in the centre of the beach, Emilia with her sword raised up to block a downward slash from the one eyed pirate.
While Emilia looked practically untouched, there were shallow cuts on the pirate’s arms and a few parts of his clothes seemed to have been sliced as well.𝑜𝑣𝗅xt.𝗰𝑶𝓂
Emilia smirked at him, “Ha! I admit that you are also rather fast, but you still can’t match me!”
The Inugami grunted, “Heh… Don’t say that so soon, especially when I got you right where I want you! I command the flame to form under my direction! [Ember]!!”
The pirate removed one of his hands from his blade to point at Emilia, shooting out a small ball of fire right towards her face.
Emilia clucked her tongue and jumped back, disengaging from the pirate to avoid the fireball that almost burned her face.
Her figure disappeared again, only to reappear in front of the pirate with her sword slashing towards his neck.
The Inugami pirate responded by bringing his cutlass up to parry the blow away before his arm swung forward to smash his hilt towards Emilia’s abdomen.
Emilia saw it coming and moved her hand down to grab it, preventing the pirate from escaping before she delivered a kick at the back of his knees.
He winced but managed to stay on his feet, shoving Emilia away from him to bring his sword down in an overhead slash.
The Nekomata rotated her wrist, deflecting the attack away before her palm raised up to point right at his face.
“Drench and soak my enemies, the waves and water shall flow as I will it! [Water Blast]!”
A jet of water blasted the pirate right in the face, sending him flailing back as he tried to block the water with his left arm.
That proved to be a mistake as Emilia swung her sword back around to cut his hand off at the wrist.
To his credit, the pirate only flinched from the pain before he swung his sword in front of him in an arc, the blade flying straight towards Emilia’s neck.
The Nekomata took a step back to avoid the sword swing but she did not notice the pirate had also swung his decapitated arm at her, causing the blood spurting out from the wound to hit her near her eyes.
In that moment where she was forced to blink, the pirate moved past her guard and swung his sword down across her chest.
Emilia let out a yelp as the sword left a cut from her shoulder to her chest.
The wound would have been worse had she not moved back at the last moment, otherwise the blade would have cut into the bone.
“Bastard! I liked these clothes!” Emilia shrieked, twirling her blade to slash at the pirate.
The pirate captain barely avoided being decapitated by leaning his head back, suffering only a slight graze to his cheek instead.
“Now!!” He shouted out of the blue.
A pirate from the crowd suddenly thrusted his arm forward and shot a bolt of electricity at Emilia.
I instantly recognised the magic was [Static Bolt] and Emilia was not in a position to be able to dodge it. Looks like she was spot on in assuming that the pirates were not going to fight fairly.
To be honest, this was a relatively well laid trap.
Even if Emilia were to be able to avoid this spell, the pirate captain would have been able to chase after her and cut her down immediately. And if she were to be hit by the spell, she would be momentarily paralysed which gives him the prime opportunity to attack her as well.
And even if we were vigilant the entire time and rushed to her aid, the pirate would still be able to get to Emilia before us under normal circumstances.
It’s just unfortunate for them that I am an oddity by myself.
I followed my instinct and shot my own [Static Bolt] at the pirate captain without chanting, figuring that everyone would just assume that I’m using some kind of magic tool to make it possible.
Emilia ended up getting hit by the magic and froze up, her body refusing to move despite her efforts to counter the effects.
The pirate captain was in the midst of raising his cutlass dramatically as a show of triumph before my bolt hit him on his side, paralysing him as well.
Emilia quickly realised what happened and immediately stabbed her sword through the pirate’s chest when the paralysis wore off.
“Heh… I told you she could kill your entire crew if she wanted to. Your head is mine!”
Not even giving him a chance to respond, Emilia pulled out her blade before spinning on a foot, her sword slicing through his neck like a hot knife through butter.
She then took out her earplugs from her sleeve and stuffed her ears with it, confusing the other pirates as she lowered herself into a stance to face them.
“I think you should sing now, Delmare,” I told her, activating my [Mind Shield] at the same time.
Odeta also took the hint and plugged her ears, just as the Siren started to sing.
Her voice echoed around the beach and every pirate immediately switched their gaze to Delmare, their expressions turning from confusion to shock before settling on what I could only describe as lovelorn.
Emilia did not even hesitate before her figure disappeared, only to have multiple heads fly through the air a moment later.
Odeta scoffed, “Hey!! Leave some for me too!”
I don’t think she can hear you with her earplugs in, Odeta…
Nevertheless, the Amrap charged forward as well, smashing the pirates that were unfortunate enough to be in her way.
As for me… Well… I figured this was the best time to do a little bit of training on my magic which I have been neglecting lately.
Thus, I went ahead to cast all the spells I knew that were combat oriented at the crowd of pirates that were trying to make their way towards Delmare, none of them even caring that their comrades were being killed all around them.
It really just drove home how terrifying such a magic could be when one wasn’t prepared for it.
I mean… I would know since I was a victim of it too. The sea is really a scary place.
Some of the pirates tried to fight against the magic’s influence but all they managed to do was to stand still instead of shambling forward like the rest of their comrades.
Unfortunately, that made no difference to their current situation as they were cut down by Emilia, smashed by Odeta, or burned, electrocuted, eviscerated and flattened by my magic.
There were so many of them that I did not even need to worry about missing my target since I would just hit another pirate if I did.
It’s just a shame that my proficiency in the basic elements are so low that the spells I can cast aren’t really that fatal.
If only I could cast a bigger ball of fire…
Right as I thought of that, the spell for [Fire Blast] suddenly came to my head.
Wait… No way?!
[Name: Aster Nilm
Title: Young Mistress of Nilm Family, Dragonslayer, Most Adored Young Mistress, Lover of Sweets
Race: Meslatar
Gender: Futanari
Stats:
452 Strength
437 Dexterity
451 Endurance
472 Magic
Skills:
Hunting (Tier 2), Cooking (Tier 2), Alchemy (Tier 1), Navigation (Tier 1), Sailing (Tier 1), Martial Skill-(Dagger Proficiency (Tier 2), Unarmed Proficiency (Tier 2), Bow Proficiency (Tier 2), Sword Proficiency (Tier 2), Polearm Proficiency (Tier 1), Axe Proficiency (Tier 1))
Magic Skills:
Mana Management (Tier 2), Umbramancy (Tier 2), Electromancy (Tier 2), Lumenmancy (Tier 2), Pyromancy (Tier 2), Hydromancy (Tier 1), Aeromancy (Tier 1), Geomancy (Tier 1), Iatromancy (Tier 1)
Unique Skill:
Mind Shield]
Yessss!! Pyromancy is at Tier two now!! I can cast bigger fires to burn stuff now!!
I immediately went to test it out by shooting a gout of fire at the people closest to me, watching them topple over as fire consumed their bodies with a sense of satisfaction.
I tried to use my other Magic Skills to see if any of them would reach tier two but unfortunately, it seems like only Pyromancy managed to reach Tier two today.
Oh well, you can’t have everything you want I suppose.
Still, this was already a big step forward! Since I learned Pyromancy alongside the other basic elements at the same time, it can only mean that the others should also be close to improving soon!