Leonard stood frozen in place, his eyes locked on the ’Sea god statue’, now radiating a strange and ominous energy. He didn’t dare touch it, not yet. Instead, he maintained a cautious distance, thodically gathering every valuable item from the alchemy lab and storing them in his ’space ring’.
A low, guttural murmur echoed from the statue, like a voice speaking in a language both ancient and incomprehensible. Leonard’s grip on his staff tightened, his brow furrowing. Sothing wasn’t right.
The tension snapped like a bowstring when the statue emitted a sudden, ’sharp and piercing sound’, loud enough to make Leonard’s ears ring. He dropped to one knee, hands clamping over his ears as the sound seed to burrow into his very bones.
Experience tales at Freewebnovel
With every ounce of focus he could muster, Leonard lunged forward and shoved the statue into his space ring. The mont it vanished, the sound cut off, leaving an eerie silence in its wake. Leonard gasped for breath, his head pounding as he steadied himself.
"If it weren’t for the space ring, I’d probably be dead," he muttered, shaking his head to clear it.
---
Outside, the once-calm sea had turned chaotic. ’Massive whirlpools’ churned on the surface, dragging the ship into their grip. The vessel shuddered, its forward motion slowed significantly.
Standing at the ship’s prow was the ’ghost captain’, a translucent figure glowing faintly blue. His voice bood across the deck, laced with fury.
"This is a wizard’s ship! You damn sirens dare block its path? Have you forgotten the last massacre? Do you want history to repeat itself?"
As his words echoed across the waves, a ’green lantern’ at the mast flared to life, casting an eerie glow over the surrounding sea.
The noise drew wizard apprentices out from their cabins, their eyes widening at the sight before them. Illuminated by the lantern’s glow, the waters were teeming with ’humanoid creatures’.
These beings floated on the surface of the sea, their naked upper bodies gleaming with ’hard, scale-like skin’. Their faces were hauntingly human, save for the ’gills along their necks’ and their ’glowing eyes’, which glared at the ship with unsettling intensity. Long, seaweed-like hair clung to their wet skin, and their hands clutched weapons ’tridents’, ’scimitars’, and other crude armants.
In the distance, ’rmaid-like figures’ rode massive sea beasts, circling the ship like knights preparing for battle. The ship was entirely surrounded, the sirens forming a loose blockade.
Yet, despite their numbers, they did not attack. They lingered, their intent unclear.
One of the wizard apprentices, a nervous young man, whispered, "Sirens… intelligent creatures from the sea. Why are they blocking our path? Have they gone mad?"
Another apprentice, more cynical, sneered. "Mad or not, they just killed Neuris."
The group’s eyes shifted to the ’body lying on the deck’, illuminated by the green glow.
Neuris, a wizard apprentice from another kingdom, lay sprawled on the wooden planks. His chest bore a massive, gaping wound, his lifeless face still frozen in shock. Blood had soaked his clothes, and seawater dripped from his body, but there was no visible weapon to be found.
"Neuris is dead," soone whispered, their voice trembling. "The sirens killed him."
The outrage began to boil over.
"These sea monsters dare attack wizards?" one apprentice snarled. "Do they have a death wish? I heard wizards slaughtered their kind during the last war, driving them into the deep trenches of the ocean. And now they dare crawl out of their holes to challenge us?"
"We should teach them a lesson," another apprentice growled. "Soone needs to inform Master rlin. He’ll punish these creatures for their insolence."
The group nodded in agreent, their voices rising in anger and fear.
---
"Quiet."
The ghost captain’s command cut through the noise like a blade. His glowing figure lood over the deck, his expression grim.
"I’ve already sent a ghost sailor to inform Lord rlin," the captain said coldly. "If you value your lives, stay out of the way."
Even as he spoke, doubt flickered across his translucent face. ’Why hasn’t Lord rlin co out yet?’
Just as the thought crossed his mind, a faint, ’rasping cough’ echoed from the cabin. The apprentices fell silent, their gazes snapping toward the sound.
A low, ’gloomy voice’ followed. "Soone died."
The atmosphere shifted instantly, the oppressive presence of a powerful wizard descending over the deck. From the shadows of the cabin erged ’Lord rlin’.
---
rlin was a striking figure, both intimidating and oddly elegant. His ’lavender hair’, streaked with silver, cascaded down his shoulders, and a thick beard frad his face. His hooked nose and thin eyebrows gave him a hawk-like appearance, and his pale violet robes swayed as he moved with deliberate slowness toward the corpse.
He stopped beside Neuris’s lifeless body, crouching to examine it. His fingers brushed the edge of the apprentice’s wound, and his lips curled into a faint, humorless smile.
"The heart was pierced by an ice crystal spear," rlin murmured, his voice calm and asured. "A clean strike. The water around the wound lted the ice, an impressive hit, I must admit. Clearly the work of a sharpshooter."
He rose to his full height, his sharp gaze sweeping across the sea.
"No one wants to take credit?" he asked, his tone almost playful. But there was a dangerous edge to his voice, like the calm before a storm.
When no reply ca, rlin’s smile widened, though it carried no warmth. "You attack a wizard academy’s ship, yet you don’t have the courage to face the consequences? Very well. Perhaps your sea monster clan in the Heuto Sea needs a little reminder, a massacre, perhaps."
His words were laced with venom, and the air around him crackled faintly with magical energy.
Suddenly, a voice rang out from the sea.
"It was , great wizard."
The sirens began to part, revealing a single figure stepping forward.
Leonard, still standing in the shadows near the deck’s edge, narrowed his eyes. The tension in the air was palpable, and he could feel the storm brewing.
A strikingly ’beautiful rmaid’ erged from the sea, mounted on the back of a massive sea beast that swirled beneath the surface. Her shimring scales glinted in the green lantern light, her long, seaweed-like hair flowing around her sharp, yet alluring face. With an air of authority, she raised her voice, firm but respectful.
"We did not realize this was the ship used by the Wizard Academy for recruitnt. Our deepest apologies, Your Excellency." Her lodic tone carried across the tense waters as she dipped her head slightly in deference. "We are willing to offer compensation for the offense."
The wizard apprentices on the deck whispered nervously, their eyes darting between the formidable rmaid and the silent ’Master rlin’.
The rmaid continued, her voice laced with humility but underpinned by urgency. "The treasure sacred to our tribe was stolen. The thief used magic to escape in this direction, and we believed the culprit to be aboard this ship. That is why we intercepted you. We had no intention of provoking a conflict with wizards."
Her words were genuine, but her helpless tone betrayed her frustration. As beings of the sea, the sirens were dominant in their waters, feared by sailors and warriors alike. But in the presence of a wizard, their power ant little. Sirens knew all too well the stories of their kind falling under the wrath of wizards in ages past.
She glanced around the deck, her expression guarded. "Had we known this was a Wizard Academy vessel, we would have avoided you at all costs. This… is unfortunate."
---
rlin, standing tall in his flowing lavender robes, remained motionless as he listened. His expression was a blank slate, betraying no emotion.
For a mont, there was silence. Then he spoke, his voice calm but cutting, like a blade gliding through water.
"You should have been more careful."
The rmaid leader winced but held her composure, her eyes flicking anxiously toward the deck of the ship.
rlin turned slightly, gazing at the sirens spread out across the sea. "Your kind has grown arrogant in recent years. Many of your tribes have gained favor with wizards, and in turn, you believe yourselves untouchable. But you forget your place. This ship is not just any vessel, it carries the future students of the Wizard Academy. By obstructing it, you’ve committed a grave offense."
He paused, then added coldly: "Take a hundred corpses from your ranks and leave them here. I require fresh materials for my experints."
---
The words sent a ripple of unease through the sirens. Waves rose and crashed as the sea creatures murmured in alarm, their collective distress manifesting in the restless waters. Large sea beasts circled beneath the surface, their backs breaking through the waves like silent predators. The green lantern light reflected in countless glowing siren eyes, dotting the sea like stars in the night sky.
For the wizard apprentices on deck, it felt as though the ship were surrounded by a ’legion of sea warriors’, ready to strike at any mont. A sense of foreboding gripped them.
"This is madness," one apprentice whispered. "If the ship sinks, we’ll be slaughtered. This is their ho turf!"
But before the tension could boil over, the ’rmaid leader’ raised her hand, silencing her kin. Her face was calm, but there was a flicker of resignation in her eyes.
"Yes, Your Excellency," she said without hesitation.
The apprentices stared in disbelief as the rmaid turned to her warriors and barked an order in their native tongue. The sirens obeyed without question, moving swiftly.
---
The ’slaughter was swift and brutal’. Strong siren warriors descended upon their own kind, dragging hundreds of their brethren into a deathly embrace. The dark waters turned a sickening shade of blue as siren blood spread across the surface. The sound of piercing cries echoed through the night but were soon silenced.
In no ti, the bodies of ’a hundred slain sirens’ were hauled to the ship, stacked like offerings on the deck. The rmaid leader watched the scene with an impassive face, though her clenched fists betrayed her inner turmoil.
When the task was done, she bowed her head to rlin. "The bodies are yours, my lord. May this satisfy your request."
Without another word, she raised her hand, and the surviving sirens began to retreat. One by one, the glowing eyes that dotted the sea vanished beneath the waves. The whirlpools that had held the ship in place dissipated, leaving the water calm once more.
The rmaid lingered for only a mont longer before she, too, sank into the sea, disappearing with her kin.
---
rlin stood motionless, staring at the pile of corpses on the deck. He raised his right hand, and a flash of ’silver light’ flickered across his fingers. In the blink of an eye, the bodies vanished, leaving no trace of the massacre.
The apprentices on deck exchanged uneasy glances. No one dared to speak until the wizard turned and began walking back toward the cabin. His presence alone seed to drain the air of life, leaving only cold silence in his wake.
Reviews
All reviews (0)