“You all did very well.
Leave the rest to me.” He stood before them, the fabric of a dark red cloak snapping wildly in the gale.
To Ina and her two battered companions, that crimson silhouette looked like a beacon piercing straight through their despair.
Where did a sleeveless, dramatic cloak come from when he had just been wearing a standard traveler’s robe?
He had swapped it out at light speed the moment he decided to step in, naturally.
Presentation mattered.
In truth, Chase had originally planned to hang back a little longer.
He wanted to see exactly what these pirates were planning.
That giant magical claw had looked intimidating, but it lacked the lethal force to actually kill Ina’s trio.
It perfectly aligned with his earlier theory: their client, Marshall, was working with these corsairs on something massive, an operation that required a steady supply of living Mages.
If the Black Teals Foot trio had just been arrogant blowhards, Chase might have stayed in the shadows to watch the plot unfold.
But Ina had thrown herself in front of danger, declaring that guilds had to protect each other.
He simply couldn’t stand by and let a genuinely good-natured group suffer.
The ensuing cleanup would be a bit more tedious without the element of surprise, but the solution remained simple and brutally effective.
He was going to blast these pirates out of the sky.
“Mr.
Chase, please be careful.” Ina leaned heavily against Bucolayven, struggling to sit upright on the splintered deck.
She raised a trembling finger toward the pirate captain hovering above, whose face had twisted into an ugly scowl at Chase’s sudden interference.
“I’ve seen that Black Claw magic before.
I am absolutely certain.
That man…
he is Cluny Blood, the Guild Master of the Dark Guild, Deep Mire!” Chase blinked, a flicker of genuine surprise crossing his features.
“Deep Mire?” He knew the name.
They were not part of the Balam Alliance—the dark trinity of Oración Seis, Grimoire Heart, and Tartaros—but rather an independent syndicate that had surged in notoriety across the Fiore Kingdom a couple of years ago.
Right around the time Chase had departed for his ten-year mission, Blue Pegasus had led a coalition to wipe them out.
The dark guild had vanished without a trace.
To think they hadn’t disbanded, but simply fled to the ocean to play dress-up as pirates.
“I see.” Chase turned his back to the injured mages, waving a hand dismissively as he studied the airborne raiders.
“That is completely useless information to me, but thank you for the warning.” Ina choked on her next breath.
She had only blurted out the captain’s identity in a desperate bid to help, but his casual dismissal stung.
Did he really have to add that first part?
If her ribs didn’t ache so badly, she would have shouted a retort.
“Hey, what is he doing?” Bucolayven muttered, cutting off Ina’s internal grumbling.
She looked up.
Chase was strolling casually down the length of the shattered deck, his boots crunching over the ruined timber.
He stopped right at the jagged edge, gazing down at the churning black waves below.
Above them, the hurricane winds finally died down.
The hovering pirates snapped out of their daze, their eyes locking onto the distinct emblem stamped on Chase’s arm.
“That mark…
this brat is a Fairy Tail Mage!” “I knew it!
Mar—cough, I mean, how could a merchant ship this huge only hire three amateur losers for protection?” “Who cares?
This just makes it better!
Stomping a Fairy Tail Mage into the dirt sounds like a great time, hehehe!” Despite their arrogant jeers—and one idiot nearly leaking their employer’s name—the pirates weren’t entirely stupid.
They channeled magic into the glowing circles beneath their boots, ascending to a higher altitude.
Anyone who could casually shatter Captain Cluny’s magic was a threat.
They needed to maintain absolute aerial superiority.
Chase tracked their ascent with a lazy gaze.
A faint, golden light sparked to life in his right palm, solidifying into the crisp edges of a monster card.
Aerial advantage?
A meaningless concept to a Duelist.
“I don’t particularly care what you think of me,” Chase called out, a dry smile curving his lips.
He hooked a thumb over his shoulder, gesturing to the battered trio behind him.
His eyes sharpened, taking on a dangerous glint.
“But I do need to correct you on one thing.
They are not losers.
They are excellent Mages.” Without another word, Chase pushed off the splintered ledge and plummeted straight into the raging sea.
“Mr.
Chase!” Ina and Bucolayven screamed in unison.
They scrambled toward the ledge, panic seizing their chests, but a deafening, guttural roar shattered the night air before they could even reach the edge.
The ocean surface detonated.
A massive geyser of seawater erupted upward as a colossal, dark-yellow shadow tore into the sky.
Skeletal wings, jagged and immense, caught the gale.
The beast’s body was a terrifying construct of spiked bone, pulsing with crimson energy nodes that glowed like the fires of hell.
The pirates shrieked, their arrogant smirks melting into absolute terror.
It was a dragon.
A skeletal, undead dragon radiating an oppressive aura of pure malice.
[Curse of Dragon] — Five-Star Monster Card.
A cursed, evil dragon brimming with dark energy.
Chase sat comfortably atop the beast’s massive skull, looking down at the scattered pirate formation with a brilliant, predatory smile.
“Now then,” Chase’s voice carried easily over the roaring winds.
“As you wished, let’s get to that battle you thought would be so incredibly fun.” He leaned forward.
“Curse of Dragon.
Break them.” The skeletal beast unleashed a deafening shriek.
Its bony wings beat the air, generating a chaotic vortex as it launched itself directly into the pirate formation at terrifying speed.
In Earth Land, dragons were the stuff of apocalyptic legend.
Even a skeletal variant was enough to short-circuit the pirates’ brains.
The vanguard didn’t even have time to blink before the Curse of Dragon plowed through them.
Bodies shattered against the bone armor, launching the pirates through the air like cannonballs.
They crashed into the dark ocean below, sending up massive plumes of water.
In a span of five seconds, half the aerial unit was completely wiped out.
“Damn it!” one of the surviving pirates shrieked, his face twisting in desperate fury.
“I don’t care what kind of monster that is!
If it’s made of magic, we can kill it!
Everyone, attack!
Turn that Fairy Tail brat to dust!” Overcoming their primal terror through sheer volume, the remaining raiders summoned their magic circles.
Dozens of glowing glyphs lit up the night sky.
Torrents of wind, jagged lightning bolts, and spheres of roaring flame converged from all directions, sealing off every possible escape route for the skeletal beast.
“You aren’t the only ones who can sling magic,” Chase murmured.
He patted the rough bone of his mount’s neck.
“Show these ignorant fools your true power.” The Curse of Dragon’s eye sockets flared with blinding crimson light.
Deep within its cavernous maw, a sphere of blistering heat began to spin, compressing rapidly until the surrounding air warped and distorted.
“Hellfire.” A blinding torrent of superheated flames erupted from the dragon’s jaws.
The sheer temperature of the blast instantly incinerated the incoming elemental spells, vaporizing the wind, lightning, and fire on contact.
But the beast wasn’t finished.
It whipped its massive skull to the side, dragging the unbroken stream of Hellfire in a wide, devastating arc across the sky.
Screams echoed through the night as the remaining pirates were caught in the blaze, plummeting into the dark waters below with long trails of thick black smoke billowing from their charred clothes.
Just like that, the entire aerial ambush was reduced to cinders.
Down on the ruined deck, the Black Teals Foot mages watched the spectacle in absolute, slack-jawed silence.
“Summoning legendary creatures to fight using cards…” Ina muttered, her breath hitching as she stared at the man riding the skeletal dragon.
Her eyes widened to the size of saucers.
“I remember!
I finally remember who he is!” She pointed a shaking finger at the sky.
“He’s Fairy Tail’s S-Class Mage, Chase Lin Edogado!” It seemed the airheaded girl possessed the bizarre trait of only recognizing famous figures once she saw their signature magic in action.
“That’s…
that’s incredible,” Bucolayven breathed out, utterly awestruck.
“Is this the true power of a Fairy Tail Mage?” His gaze drifted away from the sky, slowly sweeping over the deck of the massive merchant ship.
The stray embers from the dragon’s Hellfire had rained down during the sweep, igniting the splintered wood.
Massive flames were now rapidly spreading across the hull.
Bucolayven’s awe instantly turned into sheer panic.
“Wait, isn’t this a bit too much power?!” he shrieked, waving his arms frantically.
“Fire!
The ship is on fire!
Quick, someone get some water!” [Akarin’s Note: Enjoying the story?