Chapter 8: Human Soul Required |
The sounds of the sailfish’s bumping lingered on, there were now several scratches on every porthole’s glass.
Not long after the attack began, the many silver level sailfish began to use their innate magic.
The water began to cool quickly, and in a flash, ice began to form around the Deep Sea Monster Fish, decreasing its speed greatly.
The survivors’ situation was going from bad to worse.
“The artificial magic beasts really were broken things. As long as they have their racial magic, the silver level school of fish is a threat the gold magic ship cannot trifle with.”
The young captain observed the battle progress with wrinkled brows.
“Ah!” Someone suddenly cried out fearfully.
Others also jumped back in fright.
The person had watched a sailfish maxilla suddenly pierce the hull like a sharp sword, the tip of which was but a finger’s length from them.
“It’s too difficult, I fear this battle will have disastrous casualties.” Zong Ge looked grave.
A moment later, the young captain and the half beastman shouted at nearly the same time, “Prepare for battle!”
“Hold on. Let me come!” Cang Xu suddenly ran over to join them.
The alchemy ship was difficult to control, thus Cang Xu deduced that rather than trapping himself in the cockpit, he would rather turn the situation in their favor on the battlefield.
“I need at least 5 meters to preform my spells!”
Cang Xu placed his hands on the cracked porthole, and concentrated on moving his magic power.
He softly chanted as his eyes suddenly became blue.
The corresponding magic materials in his human skin storage bag in his chest merged with the magic.
A few seconds later, the necromancy death magic, Wave of Death, was cast.
It had a radius of at least 20 meters.
Everywhere the wave spread, sailfish died, instantly becoming corpses.
Only the magic beasts of the sailfish survived.
The farther the ripple spread, the weaker it became. Therefore, the silver sailfish close, iron level sailfish mid distance, and bronze level sailfish far from to the origin point were still alive.
Everyone was amazed.
Cang Xu was only at the iron level, yet with one attack, he killed at least a tenth of the sailfish!
At least 6 iron level sailfish of equal level, along with countless bronze level and ordinary sailfish were dead. Although the silver level sailfish weathered the spell, it was clear they were seriously injured, and that the ferocity of the offensive had slowed and subdued.
However, a moment later, the school of fish rushed forth once again, all of them enraged.
Cang Xu took out a blue bottle of medicine from his chest cavity storage pouch and drank it.
A moment later, he began to chant again.
A few breathes later, Wave of Death was cast again.
It still had a strong impact, inflicting even more major casualties on the sailfish.
But the shoal of fish didn’t retreat, on the contrary, the spell aroused even stronger feelings of fierceness and brutality.
The Deep Sea Monster Fish struggled to float up.
Cang Xu weakly took a step back, his eyes were dark, and his ears were drumming.
Using that powerful magic consecutively had consumed not only a great amount of his magic power, but also a lot of his spirit.
Cang Xu knew his situation inside and out.
“The medicine has expediated the regeneration of my magic power.”
“But it isn’t fast enough, I cannot used a third Wave of Death for a short time.”
“Even if I could, the likelihood of a miscast is high, and it will put my spirit in a terrible condition.”
If a spell was miscast or failed, the magic would backfire on the magician. The stronger the magic, the more disastrous the backlash.
Cang Xu gasped for breath, and decided to use another necromancy spell.
Junior Soul Summoning.
He chanted loudly, this time a few steps away from the porthole.
Quickly after, a layer of gray light began to emit from all over his body.
The Junior Soul Summoning spell was very successful.
In the battlefield, the souls of many sailfish ghosts began to emerge from their carcasses.
The school of ghostly sailfish swayed their fishtails, and with astonishing speed, began to savage their former comrades.
Every living sailfish the sailfish ghosts threw themselves at immediately froze in place, then died.
After a murderous ghost sailfish created a corpse, it would look for another target.
Even worse for the fish, Cang Xu continued to use the Soul Summoning spell.
Consequently, when the ghost sailfish had killed enough, a second group of ghost sailfish was created.
The school of ghost sailfish was quickly expanding.
Due to the chaos, the sailfish school no longer attacked the Deep Sea Monster Fish.
The sounds of sailfish banging against the hull gradually faded away.
The ship eventually grew quiet.
Most watched the ghost sailfish wanton slaughter with calm faces, none felt joy in their victory, rather they felt fear and nervousness.
If the young man had been the one doing the killing, the survivors would have shaken the heavens with their cheers and applauds.
But the necromancy spells were both strange and horrifying, they desecrated the dead, and when they saw how the fish souls wreaked havoc, everyone felt their hearts tremble.
Zong Ge’s brows tensed tightly.
“I didn’t expect necromancy to be so powerful!”
“These fish souls can only be withstood and be destroyed by the sailfish’s racial magic.
“Cang Xu is only at the iron level, yet with only his power, he destroyed this sailfish school.”
Zong Ge couldn’t help but think about the empire’s military orders.
Among them was this: If you encounter a necromancer or an undead, no matter the circumstances, destroy them without mercy!
Zong Ge had left the army long ago.
But if Mystifying Monster Island hadn’t brought them together, he would have killed any necromancer he found.
“Great work, Cang Xu!” At that moment, an abrupt voice smashed the silence.
The speaker was the young captain.
“That is the power of a magician.”
“Indeed, with just your strength, you changed the entire battle.”
The young captain was not miserly with his admiration.
The praise caused the grim expressions on the others to dwindle away.
With the sailfish school problem alleviated, the Deep Sea Monster Fish quickly floated towards the surface.
However, not long after, the sunfish also untangled itself from the sailfish and quickly charged at the Deep Sea Monster Fish.
Cang Xu promptly had the fish souls attack the sunfish.
The sunfish was greatly impeded as a dozen fish souls charged at it. However, it soon used its racial magic, causing it to shine all over.
The shining radiance seemed to melt the fish souls like snow, clearing them away and allowing the sunfish to continue with its hunt.
The Deep Sea Monster Fish and the sunfish passed through the scattered sailfish school.
The distance between both began to close.
No longer able to stand, Cang Xu sat down on the ground, his body shuddering, his complexion deathly pale, and his aura falling to its limits.
He had used up all his battle strength.
Everyone suddenly panicked.
“There isn’t enough time!”
“We still haven’t surfaced yet.”
Zong Ge sighed, and shouted once again, “Prepare the ship for battle!”
“Lord Captain!” Cang Xu focused his eyes, enduring an intense vertigo and headache to beckon the young captain over.
“Quickly, return me to the alchemy cabin, I’ve thought of a way that might resolve our problems with the tower spirit!” Cang Xu weakly gasped.
The young captain trusted Cang Xu and immediately took him to the alchemy cabin.
“I’ll leave this place to you.” The young captain hurriedly explained the situation to the others before leaving.
Despite not being mentioned by name, Zong Ge knew he was the one being spoken to, and he nodded his head without turning to look back, “Don’t worry, I am here!”
A moment later, the half beastman pursed his brows.
He saw ten fish souls penetrating the hull one after the other, all headed towards Cang Xu.
The Deep Sea Monster Fish was a gold level alchemy ship created by War Merchant, it had both formidable physical and magical defenses.
But necromancy was a new school of magic, and currently, there were few methods that could restrain it.
Therefore, Cang Xu’s necromancy magic could easily penetrate the hull, of which the ghost fish school was gently doing.
After receiving these fish souls, Cang Xu’s aura became gloomier, as if he lacked humanity.
The young captain felt like he was carrying a block of ice. No, to be more precise, this was colder than ice, it was so cold that it stung the soul.
“Lord, please call President Zi Di over too,” Cang Xu said en route.
He was in bad shape, and his face was no longer pale, rather it was a placid blue purple.
His body was beginning to stink like a corpse.
The young captain quickly reached the alchemy cabin, with Zi Di following in soon after.
“Please control the alchemy puppets, President Zi Di. I will control the alchemy formation.” Cang Xu barely muttered.
Zi Di’s eyes flashed, “Have you figured out a way overcome the tower spirit?”
Cang Xu nodded, “Perhaps. It is also something that suddenly came to mind.”
After saying that, he turned to speak to the young captain, “If this attempt fails, I ask your Lordship to immediately smash the crystal ball away, disconnect it from the alchemy formation and alchemy puppets. The tower spirit is very cunning!”
The young captain immediately nodded.
He was a knight, not a magician.
This kind of specialized matter was handed over to the professionals.
The prior scene reappeared once again, and the crystal ball inside the alchemy formation began to bubble out with white light. It was the tower spirit violently resisting and doing its utmost to connect with the alchemy ship and seize control of it.
But this time things were different as Cang Xu raised a finger.
A fish soul flew into the crystal ball.
The light coming out of the crystal ball was instantly diminished by half after the fish soul charged in.
“It works!” Zi Di was ecstatic.
Seeing his attempt yield results, Cang Xu continued to work.
One by one, fish souls entered the crystal ball, wreaked havoc, then exited.
The crystal ball shuddered as the fish souls swam about to and fro as they wished.
The tower spirit was no longer its rambunctious self as the fish souls pushed it about, causing it to retreat little by little.
Taking advantage of that, Zi Di controlled the alchemy crab puppets and their small rotating alchemy formations and began to control the crystal ball.
“No good, this isn’t enough. The tower spirit has a tenacious guard, despite hits weakening power, it isn’t defeated just yet.” Zi Di sensed the true progress of the battle going on within the crystal ball and immediately reported it back.
The fish souls were being depleted.
Cang Xu’s aura was so feeble, it was nearly imperceivable.
His body rocked and his eyes were black, if he died moments later, it wouldn’t be surprising.
He struggled to speak, “My previous conjecture was right.”
“The tower spirit is an intelligent being, made from magic. But it is very expensive to create, the magician who created it would have surely lost a portion of their spirit’s upper potential.”
“Why?”
“I guessed that it was very likely that true magic principle behind this creation is that a magician would expropriate a fragment of their soul and use it to create a tower spirit.”
“Since it involves the soul, the tower spirit can be eroded by the fish souls.”
But the fish souls are not enough.”
“I surmise that the fish souls are not intelligent enough. Right now, the quantity makes up for that disparity. After all, the crystal ball is the tower spirit’s headquarters!”
“The most intelligent souls are the souls of people.”
“This is our sole hope, Lord Captain!”
After explaining this to the young captain, Cang Xu suddenly gazed at him, his eyes cold and resolute.
The young man’s heart quaked!
The sunfish was nearing, to deal with it, they had to rely on the Deep Sea Monster Fish.
From the Deep Sea Monster Fish’s automated defenses, one could see glimpses of the alchemy ship’s true might.
In addition to this, if the survivors fought in the water, even if they won, they’d suffer disastrous casualties.
To activate the entirety of the Deep Sea Monster Fish’s power, they needed a way to control it.
The tower spirit likely had it within the data it guarded!
To defeat the tower spirit and obtain that data, they needed human souls.
This also meant one of the survivors needed to sacrifice themselves.
It would either be done of their own accord or not.
“Lord Captain, don’t hesitate, this is the best way currently.” Cang Xu had long foreseen the young man’s misgivings and immediately urged him forth.
The young man clenched his teeth and stood motionless for a moment.
He knew Cang Xu was right.
This really was the best way.
But…
“Would I sacrifice one for the sake of the many?”
“Is this the right thing to do?”
“Who would want to sacrifice themselves? After finally escaping Mystifying Monster Island, who among them is willing to sacrifice themselves for other?’
Suddenly, the young captain thought of the big guy.
Based on the big guy’s affection for him, he would sacrifice himself.
Furthermore, the big guy was dumb and could be deceived.
But the young man would do no such thing!
The big guy trusted him, and treated him as his true father. On Mystifying Monster Island, the young man promised the dying boat craftsman to take care of the big guy.
“I don’t want to sacrifice the big guy, but what right do I have to sacrifice any of them?”
“Everyone believes in me, and acknowledges me as their leader. Was it so, in this critical time, that I could choose who to sacrifice for them?”
“Doing this will end in strained morals.”
“But!”
“If this cannot be done, what else can be?”
In just a few short breaths, the young captain was drippling with cold sweat.