“Ina, get down!” Bucolayven roared, his voice cracking with adrenaline.
Ina flinched, dropping to the wooden deck in shock just as her teammate leveled his heavy sniper rifle over the railing.
“Damn pirate bastard, die!” Bucolayven locked his sights directly onto the scarred face of the pirate captain and squeezed the trigger.
Whoosh!
A bullet supercharged with glowing Magic Power tore out of the barrel.
It ripped through the salty ocean air, crossing the distance between the two ships in the blink of an eye.
Yet, just as the lethal projectile was about to pierce the captain’s skull, the space directly in front of him warped.
A distorted, sickly green light rippled like a stone dropped in a stagnant pond.
The magic bullet plunged into the anomaly and vanished without a sound, swallowed by thin air in a bizarre, deeply unsettling display.
Sitting under a sun umbrella near the stern, Chase paused.
His pupils narrowed slightly.
He slowly lowered his half-eaten pastry to the saucer, his gaze fixing on the scarred pirate captain with genuine surprise.
If his memory served him right, that specific type of magic was…
“Wh— How is this possible?!
What the hell just happened?!” Bucolayven’s face drained of all color.
His hands shook so violently that the heavy sniper rifle slipped from his grip, clattering uselessly against the floorboards.
“Boring little parlor tricks.” The pirate captain sneered, slowly rising to his full height.
The skulls strung around his thick neck ground against one another, emitting a faint, hollow sound like the whispers of trapped demons.
Stepping up to the very edge of his ship’s bow, he raised a heavily tattooed arm and flashed a feral grin.
“Listen up, boys!
Let today’s hunting carnival begin!” “Oh oh oh oh!!” The pirate crew erupted into a chorus of terrifying, bloodthirsty cheers.
A second later, the enemy deck lit up like a festival.
Magic circles flared to life one after another beneath the pirates’ boots.
Under Ina’s despairing gaze, the crew members rose from the wood, carried upward by levitation magic until they swarmed the sky like a hive of venomous hornets.
Laughing maniacally, they spread out into a wide perimeter, completely boxing in the immobilized merchant vessel.
This was the source of their absolute arrogance on the high seas.
Whether they faced hired guards or trained Mages, anyone lacking flexible aerial combat magic was nothing more than a moving target.
Fish in a barrel, waiting to be slaughtered.
Buzz.
Buzz.
Buzz.
More magic circles ignited, this time from the palms of the hovering pirates.
Sickly neon lights of fire, lightning, and wind magic blotted out the distant sunset, locking onto the merchant ship from every conceivable angle.
The suffocating pressure of imminent death crashed down on the deck.
“Bucolayven!
Transfer all your remaining Magic Power to me!” Ina bit her lip hard enough to taste copper, forcefully shoving down the paralyzing terror gripping her chest.
She scrambled across the rough wood to her teammate’s side.
“We absolutely cannot let them hurt Mr.
Lambert or Chase!” Bucolayven just stared at his empty hands, his eyes glazed over, entirely broken by the sight of his ultimate attack vanishing into a spatial void.
Ina grabbed him by the collar and shook him violently.
He finally snapped out of his daze, gritting his teeth as he channeled the last dregs of his magical reserves into her.
Empowered by the sudden surge, Ina slammed both hands flat against the deck.
“Enhance: Solid Barrier!” Whoosh.
Pale red geometric patterns spiraled outward from her palms, forming a massive, complex magic circle.
A translucent dome of crimson light erupted upward, expanding until it completely encased the merchant ship.
A split second later, the pirate bombardment rained down.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Torrents of scorching fire, jagged lightning, and slicing wind slammed into the barrier.
The concussive shockwaves violently rocked the ship.
Neatly stacked cargo crates shattered under the sheer kinetic force, spilling hundreds of apples and oranges that rolled wildly across the tilting deck.
The entire vessel groaned, the hull screaming as if it were seconds away from splintering into a million pieces.
“Damn it!
Hold together!
Please!” Under the crushing magical pressure, the skin on Ina’s arms began to split.
Blood oozed from her sleeves and trickled down the corner of her mouth.
Her knees buckled, but she stubbornly locked her joints.
Through the blurry crimson light, she could see Captain Lambert and his crew huddled together in the cabin, weeping in terror.
They were the targets of this escort commission.
She absolutely refused to abandon them, even if it meant burning away her own life force.
Because…
“We are Mages of the Black Teal Foot Guild!” Ina screamed at the sky, pouring her very soul into the barrier.
Unfortunately, her guild was not Fairy Tail.
There was no triumphant surge of power.
No miraculous second wind.
Just a sickening, crisp crack.
The crimson dome shattered like cheap glass, drowning out Ina’s defiant roar.
The barrier dissolved into thousands of twinkling red particles, drifting away on the sea breeze.
The merchant ship was entirely exposed.
Strangely, the pirates didn’t immediately follow up with a lethal volley.
Instead, they hovered in place, exchanging twisted, mocking grins.
They looked down at the bleeding Mages like cats playing with half-dead mice.
“Hehehe, keep trying, little girl!
Use whatever tricks you’ve got left!” “Heh, so this is a Fairy Tail Mage?
You’re even more pathetic than the rumors say.
What a massive disappointment!” “Hey, back off, her figure’s actually pretty nice.
I call dibs on the girl!” The floating pirates, utterly convinced of their victory, openly debated how to divide their spoils.
Lying in the splintered wreckage of a cargo crate, Ina weakly lifted her head.
Her vision swam, but confusion pierced through her exhaustion.
What did they just say?
Fairy Tail?
Where did they get that idea?
She was proudly wearing the mark of Black Teal Foot!
Back in the corner, safely shaded by the sun umbrella, Chase slowly set his teacup down.
He uncrossed his legs and leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table.
“So, this is why every single Mage who took this job was attacked without fail.” Chase tapped his index finger against the S-Class commission flyer resting on the table.
“Marshall Whitedove…” Ever since arriving in Astrobia City, Chase had deliberately kept his guild affiliation a secret from the locals, including Captain Lambert.
The only person in the entire port who knew he was from Fairy Tail was the client who issued the job: Marshall.
When he first accepted the request, Chase had been deeply suspicious about the total disappearance of every previous escort team.
If Marshall was secretly the mastermind backing this pirate fleet, the entire puzzle clicked together perfectly.
The client knew exactly when and where the merchant ship would sail because he arranged it.
The bizarre, mandatory condition of “capturing the pirates alive” wasn’t born from a grieving father’s desire for justice—it was a deliberate handicap designed to restrict the Mages’ combat options and give the pirates a massive tactical advantage!
But why go through such elaborate lengths to lure random Mages out to the open sea?
Marshall couldn’t possibly hold a grudge against every single guild in Fiore.
Combine that mystery with the highly advanced spatial magic the pirate captain just used, and Chase realized he had stumbled into something far more complicated than a simple escort mission.
“Playing the background character really does let you gather all the best intel.” Chase sighed softly, brushing a stray crumb off his dark red cloak.
“Looks like I can’t just slack off and collect the S-Class reward for this one.” He slowly pushed his chair back and stood up, rolling his shoulders to stretch his stiff muscles.
Whatever Marshall’s grand conspiracy was, capturing this pirate crew would rip the lid right off it.
And conveniently enough, capturing them was exactly what he was hired to do.
“Alright, enough screwing around!” The pirate captain bellowed from the opposing bow.
“Leave these pathetic Mages to me.
The rest of you, slaughter the crew and strip the ship of anything shiny!” The captain took a heavy, thudding step forward.
He curled his thick fingers into a claw and thrust his hand toward the broken Mages on the deck.
Boom!
A terrifying, suffocating wave of Magic Power erupted from his body, heavy enough to make the very air feel like sludge.
This wasn’t a joke.
This Magic Power was genuinely S-Class.
Thick, rolling black smoke violently condensed into a massive, pitch-black demonic claw.
It shot across the open water, its jagged talons aimed directly at the paralyzed Ina.
Is this it?
Am I going to die?
I couldn’t protect Mr.
Lambert…
or Mr.
Chase.
Ina stared up at the descending shadow.
Even as her body trembled uncontrollably, she refused to close her eyes, watching the manifestation of her own death approach.
Rumble!
The colossal demonic hand smashed through the ship’s reinforced railing, tearing up the wooden deck like wet paper as it plowed toward her.
I don’t want to die like this…
I’m not ready…
A single tear slipped down Ina’s dirt-streaked cheek.
“Die like this?” “Sore wa dou kana—I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” A calm, deeply resonant voice cut through the roaring wind.
Before Ina could even wonder if she was hallucinating, a blinding, incandescent light erupted directly in front of her.
Deafening thunder cracked the sky.
A violent, localized hurricane materialized out of thin air, sweeping up the splintered wood and violently shredding the pitch-black demonic claw into harmless wisps of smoke!
Quick-Play Spell Card: Mystical Space Typhoon!
Ina, Bucolayven, and the third silent teammate froze, their jaws slack.
Reflected in their wide, disbelieving eyes was a tall, imposing figure.
Standing dead center in the fading light of the hurricane, his dark red cloak whipped wildly in the artificial wind.
There, stamped proudly on his exposed right arm, a familiar emblem glowed with residual magical energy.
The unmistakable fairy with a tail.
That was…
Chase?
He was actually a Mage of Fairy Tail!
[Akarin’s Note: Enjoying the story?