Cluney rose to his feet with slow, arrogant confidence, raising both arms overhead, fingers curling into some bizarre shape.
“Niel…Wielg….Mion…” “Terse…
Elcantaeus…” As Cluney chanted, muttering through what sounded like some obscure, unintelligible ancient tongue, dark green vortexes began churning to life above his raised hands.
The air around him buckled under the pressure of it.
The sea itself grew choppy, and the whole pirate ship shuddered.
“Wait, wait, Guild Master!
If you use that here, we…
we won’t have time to get away!” “Please, at least wait until we’re actually free to move first!” “Damn it!
What even are these three swords of light?
Why can’t I break loose?!” Still pinned in place, the pirates trembled, panic written across every face.
Knowing exactly how dangerous Cluney’s magic could get, they threw everything they had into breaking free, desperate to dive off the ship and into the sea before it hit.
It didn’t matter.
Every last one of them stayed locked in place.
Across the deck, Chase set his teacup down and rose, eyes narrowing, the easy look on his face giving way to something far more serious.
He hadn’t been wrong.
The same magic Cluney had used to silently erase that sniper bullet was identical to what Minerva, of Sabertooth, used.
That’s right.
It’s a lost, ancient kind of magic…
The Eighteen Battle God Magic!
“The plan’s in its final stages.
Once I’ve got Chase, the rest of you useless trash are out of a job anyway.” Ignoring his crew’s desperate pleading, Cluney’s mouth curved into something vicious.
He clasped both hands together, aimed them straight at Chase past the Celtic Guard standing between them, and spoke the final word of the incantation.
“Yagdo Rigora!” Chase made his decision in an instant and flipped over the trap card he’d already set beside him.
Space itself, compressed past its limit, detonated like a volcano going off, a column of raw energy tearing straight up into the sky.
Force swept outward in every direction, kicking up waves across the entire sea.
Its power was immense enough that even Lambert’s merchant ship, still a hundred meters off, felt the shockwave, cargo equipment overturning and crashing across the deck.
Ina and the others clung to the mast and railings, staring in horror at the pirate ship, completely swallowed by the pillar of light.
None of them had ever seen a fight on this level before.
Their minds went blank, and all they could do was hope, silently, that Chase was still alive out there.
The whole thing lasted only seconds.
It felt like an hour.
As the light finally faded, the roar of it went with it.
When they looked up again, the once-formidable pirate ship had been reduced to wreckage.
The hull was cracked clean through, the mast toppled, both magic arrays shattered beyond use, leaving only half a broken hull still floating on the churning sea.
The pirates themselves were simply gone.
Scattered to dust, folded back into the sea.
“Where are Mr.
Chase and Cluney?” Ina and the other two scanned the wreckage anxiously until they finally spotted two figures at the shattered bow.
A second later, their eyes went wide with disbelief.
Chase stood with his arms crossed, his outfit spotless, without a single mark of damage on him.
Cluney, by contrast, the one who’d unleashed that terrifying magic in the first place, was covered head to toe in wounds, both arms hanging limp and bloodied, not one inch of him untouched.
His bare chest heaved with each ragged breath, and he looked barely able to stand.
What exactly just happened?
It wasn’t just Ina and her team asking.
Somewhere deep down, it was the exact same question tearing through Cluney’s own mind, closer to a scream.
The moment he’d unleashed the Eighteen Battle Gods Magic, he’d caught the faintest glimpse of some kind of barrier flickering into existence in front of Chase.
Then my own attack came right back at me.
Out of nowhere!
“Cards?
Not those damn cards again?!” Cluney forced the words out through a throat thick with blood, glaring at Chase.
“Congratulations.
You guessed it.” Chase smiled and snapped his fingers, and a face-down card sitting nearby slowly turned itself over.
Trap Card, Mirror Force: an incredibly sturdy barrier, capable of blocking an attack outright and reflecting it straight back at its source.
The stronger the incoming magic, the more of Chase’s own reserves it cost to sustain, right up to the very edge of what he could hold.
Him sitting there sipping tea a minute ago hadn’t been carelessness, and it definitely hadn’t been underestimating his opponent.
Quite the opposite, actually.
Using Swords of Revealing Light to lock the pirates down, sending out the Celtic Guard to fight, all of it had bought him the time he needed to set his real trap.
Mirror Force was powerful enough that even Chase needed real time to finish the incantation for it.
So he’d already had this whole plan in motion from the moment he first saw Cluney erase that bullet.
And that was exactly what he’d meant earlier, before any of this started, about having “something to confirm” first.
Just as expected, Cluney had ended up shooting himself in the foot.
Shame about those pirates.
They were supposed to be leverage for squeezing money out of the Council…
Doesn’t matter either way, though.
This crew burned, murdered, and looted their way across the open sea.
Killed more honest merchants like Lambert than anyone could count.
They had it coming.
The big fish is still right here, though.
Chase looked over at Cluney, temper fraying further by the second.
“Still up for more, Guild Master?” Light gathered nearby, and the Obnoxious Celtic Guard, stubbornly immortal, materialized once again.
“Ha.
I can tell your breathing’s pretty ragged.” “That spell of yours must have burned through a lot of your magic, hm?” Cluney let out a cold laugh, raising his bloodied right arm, the dark green vortex already churning back to life around it.
He still had enough left to fight.
Chase didn’t bother arguing the point, just gave the Celtic Guard a small nod.
The swordsman understood immediately, sword already raised, and moved to strike.
“You really think I can’t handle a piece of junk like this?!” Cluney roared, and with a sweep of his arm, the space around the swordsman warped violently, twisting into a dark green vortex.
No matter how hard the swordsman fought against it, there was no breaking free.
He was pulled straight into some alternate dimension, cut off from reality entirely.
“Can’t be destroyed, so you found a loophole.
I have to say, I didn’t expect you to actually have some talent for this game.” Chase clapped, honestly appreciative.
“Instead of wasting your breath, maybe worry about yourself first.” Face twisted with murderous intent, Cluney stepped past where the swordsman had been and started closing the distance to Chase, one step at a time across the broken planks.
As far as he understood it, a card mage’s whole strength lived in the cards.
Their actual physical combat ability barely registered.
So even banged up like this, as long as that damned swordsman wasn’t standing in the way, he could still smash this guy to pieces in a couple of hits.
The advantage, right now, was his.