Chapter 17: Suspicious Ships
After parting ways with Ruri, Kotaro headed for the port where the suspicious ships had appeared. An unpleasant sensation had rocked his body, a sensation that Rin had most likely felt as well. That was why she hadn’t said anything about him leaving Ruri to go off on his own. But Kotaro needed to see what was happening. He was sure the dragonkin couldn’t handle this on their own.
Kotaro had a barrier in place around Ruri, so he knew she’d be safe. Rin was also there for added insurance. Even so, he had still been a bit worried, so he’d told the lesser spirits in the capital to make their way to the castle. His reason for doing so was two-fold: to give Ruri some extra protection and to protect the spirits from the disturbance he’d felt. With that taken care of, it was high time to do something about this.
The capital town was in turmoil, understandably so, due to the ships’ attacks. Still, this would have been only a minor incident if the arrival of the suspicious ships had been the only commotion. Not only did they come with a multitude of normally rare krakens, but they were laying siege with cannon fire. Rubble lay on the ground in several areas, remnants of buildings destroyed in the wake of the bombardment. And people yelled from every direction—no doubt the injured who had either been pinned underneath or hit directly by debris.
Kotaro, however, simply glanced in that direction and continued to fly toward the port. He’d considered helping them, but he had something more important to do at the moment.
The port was a jumbled mess of ships, some flying the flag of the Nation of the Dragon King and some from parts unknown. There were also scores of thrashing kraken, impeding the Nation of the Dragon King’s ships. They must have been tamed somehow. Kraken didn’t just show up around these parts, especially in such large numbers. Due to their interference, the ships of the Nation of the Dragon King were pretty much stuck where they floated.
The krakens were massive, and just one of them could easily suck up a ship and drag it to the briny depths. The Nation of the Dragon King’s navy, however, was putting up a good fight against the sea creatures, dodging their attacks and proving they were not to be trifled with. Though as powerful as the navy was, they had their hands full with their tentacled opponents and weren’t able to fend off the attacks from the mystery ships in the rear.
That was when the dragonkin, led by Jade, arrived on the scene. Now in dragon form, the fleet of dragonkin took on the giant krakens. They were at last able to gain a leg up instead of remaining solely on the defensive.
As Kotaro observed the waging battle, he remembered that Ruri had wanted a kraken before.
“Perhaps I should bring one back with me,” Kotaro said aloud with a canine grin. He thought of how Ruri would be delighted and would hug him. “I should ask her to make this ‘takoyaki’ of hers.”
Even though Kotaro had no idea what an “octopus” or “tako” was, Ruri always made the best dishes, so this “takoyaki” was bound to be delicious, whatever it was.
While Kotaro nonchalantly mulled over his dinner plans, a fierce clash unfolded below. Jade was moving around, giving orders to his soldiers. Just then, there was a loud kabooom and the mystery ships unleashed a hail of cannonballs toward the capital. Without a second to lose, Jade ordered his men to stop the attack. Several soldiers unleashed their magic into the air. The cannonballs made contact with their magical veil, which normally would have stopped them, but for some reason, they broke through the magic and whizzed toward the town at even greater speeds.
The soldiers were flabbergasted.
“What the hell?!”
“Hey, what the hell is going on?”
“No clue! Our magic isn’t working!”
A second wave of shots came flying in. The dragonkin tried to stop them once again, but those cannonballs were impervious to magic.
“I knew it,” Kotaro said, sensing the cause of the disturbance. He descended over to Jade, who was standing there at a loss for what to do.
“Oh, it’s you, Lord Kotaro.”
“It’s no use. Those things are using Spirit Slayer.”
“They’re what?”
“Even if you use magic against those cannonballs, they’ll simply absorb the mana and increase their force.”
“That’s terrible. Then, what should we do?” Jade asked.
Wind started to rise and wrap around the port. Though not visible to the naked eye, it was clear that there was a large blockade of wind around the area.
“I’ve built a wall to prevent any more damage to the town. Now you just need to destroy the main culprits—the cannons.”
Kotaro had built a barrier large enough to cover the town of the royal capital. Even though Jade should have been used to this display of power by now—the power of a supreme-level spirit—Jade couldn’t help but be surprised.
“Thank you for your help,” Jade said.
Kotaro then took to the skies again. As he looked at the people from overhead, several more shots came from the cannons. But Kotaro’s powers outmuscled them, ensuring that no harm came to the town.
Spirit Slayer magic was in use here again. No doubt about it, Yadacain had to be behind this. It wasn’t just the cannons that were using Spirit Slayer either. He felt a disturbance from the enemy ships as well. They were probably using the siphoned mana for power. They were moving far too fast to be a regular sailing ship, and mana was flowing into their sails.
Kotaro was relieved he’d evacuated the other spirits to the castle beforehand. The Spirit Slayer would have siphoned out all their powers.
The only people capable of processing Spirit Slayer magic and using it like this were the witches who’d first created it. This fleet had to be from Yadacain, the nation founded by those witches.
Considering that the residents of Yadacain never left their island, spirits were safe so long as they never approached it. That was why the supreme-level spirits had strictly ordered the less powerful spirits to stay away, essentially abandoning the island. But if the residents were to leave their home and come into the outside world with Spirit Slayer at the ready, Kotaro would probably have to do something for the sake of the other spirits. Otherwise, there was a real possibility that the spirits would get hurt.
Kotaro considered wiping them out—nation and all.
At the moment, there were four supreme-level spirits in the Nation of the Dragon King. Rin of water, Chi of earth, Heat of fire, and himself, Kotaro of wind. Since they were supreme-level spirits, they were the strongest among all spirits. They had more than enough power to take down a nation. The other three would certainly cooperate if it were to save the spirits. Ruri’s protection would be stretched thin in the meantime, but it wouldn’t really matter.
If push came to shove, a supreme-level spirit had enough power to do things on their own. Heat could burn the entire island to cinders with fire. Rin could wash everything to the currents with water. There were a plethora of methods available. Whatever the case, Kotaro would need to talk it over with the other supreme-level spirits currently in the kingdom.
As Kotaro pondered all of this, the ships from the Nation of the Dragon King slipped through the opening that the krakens had made and approached the enemy ships. Dragonkin in dragon form swooped down from the sky to crush their cannons. However, the enemy ships were much faster than their own due to the Spirit Slayer magic boost, so it was hard to follow after them.
Seeing them struggle to keep up, Kotaro lent his power to the dragonkin ships. His wind gave them the push they needed, and they sped up and made contact with the fleet of enemy ships. Using bridges, they raided the ships one by one, taking out their cannons.
“That should do it.”
Kotaro’s powers rendered the cannons useless, and the dragonkin in dragon form slew the kraken. The Nation of the Dragon King’s troops boarded the enemy ships by sky and by sea and commandeered them. The outcome was all but decided. All that was left was to wait for soldiers to completely overtake the enemy ships.
Something concerning stood out, however—a ship in the very back of the fleet of enemy ships. It looked no different from all the others, but something about it stimulated Kotaro’s senses. He watched it closely to see if it would make any moves, but then he heard yells from the ships in front. Screams came not from the enemy but from the dragonkin, the group that should’ve had the upper hand.
“Wha?! What the hell is this?”
“H-Hey! Are you okay?!”
“I can’t get out of here!”
“You gotta do something!”
A few of the dragonkin were encased in some sort of black, spherical membrane. None of them could break free despite their best efforts. Their companions on the outside tried to slash at it with their swords to free them, but the mysterious membrane deflected their weapons. Punching, kicking—they tried everything they could think of, but the sphere showed no signs of breaking.
Kotaro looked at the black sphere and squinted at it suspiciously. He realized what it was and his eyes widened in shock.
“Impossible. That can’t be...!”
The black spheres floated up and carried the dragonkin still trapped inside across the water to the place that Kotaro had been observing just a moment before—the enemy ship furthest to the back. By the time Jade noticed this and gave the orders to the dragonkin in the sky, the spheres had already reached the back ship. Then that ship abandoned its fellow vessels and began to move out into the open sea.
“After it!” Jade ordered, but all the available ships were still attached to the other enemy ships. They couldn’t take off right away. In addition, not only was the back ship far away, but they were using Spirit Slayer to move their ship even faster. They were too speedy to catch up with.
The airborne dragonkin tried to pursue it, but the cannons from earlier shot at them. Since their magic was ineffective, they had no choice but to dodge them. However, their tight aerial maneuvers allowed them to navigate through the bombardment and continue chasing the ship.
The flying dragonkin were almost at the back ship when the black spheres that had captured their comrades assaulted them. The spheres practically swallowed them whole. No attack, inside or out, proved effective against them. It encased the dragonkin inside and carried them off toward the ship. There was nothing they could do now. If they pursued the ship without a plan and were captured by those spheres as well, then it would just be even more damaging. The group hovered in frustration, no other choice but to watch them sail away.
Watching from the skies, Kotaro was astonished. He hadn’t been just looking at the spheres that took the dragonkin. He had blasted them with his wind powers, but the wind had fizzled out. There were only a handful of people who could shut down the powers of a supreme-level spirit like Kotaro.
“Don’t tell me. Those are Darkness’s...”
It was unbelievable, but at the same time, Kotaro couldn’t say it was absolutely impossible.
Supreme-level spirits referred to one another as “brethren.” That wasn’t to say that they were particularly close, though it didn’t mean they didn’t get along either. Some of them were very close with one another, but that didn’t apply to all supreme-level spirits.
It was safe to say that Kotaro, in particular, didn’t have much interaction with other spirits. He was “hands-off” when it came to his fellow spirits’ business, but his brethren never really got involved in each other’s affairs either. As a result, he didn’t pay much attention to what his brethren were currently up to. That power that he just saw, however...
When Kotaro had initially realized that one of his brethren might be involved, he’d frozen for a moment. Fights between spirits were taboo, but if one of his brethren was involved in this Yadacain raid, that would mean that Kotaro was locked in a fight with them. He had just been thinking about wiping Yadacain off the map earlier as well. He realized that if he had done that, his brethren likely would have stopped him.
More importantly, why did his brethren snatch away dragonkin? At this rate, war would break out between the Nation of the Dragon King and Yadacain. Kotaro, of course, would side with the dragonkin should that happen, but it meant that he’d have to oppose his brethren siding with Yadacain.
“I can’t make this decision on my own, I suppose...” Kotaro said. He needed to consult on this matter. It was too much for him to decide on his own. He would talk to Rin and the others, and if necessary, he would employ the help of the dragonkin.
Just to be sure, Kotaro tracked down the enemy ship to see where it was heading. Sure enough, it sailed toward Yadacain—the land of witches.
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