「Gururururu~!」

Set’s happy cry echoed through the sky.

Rei and Set were flying through the sky on the way to the port city of Emoshion. The spring sunshine made the heavy rain from the previous day feel like it never happened.

Ahead of the two of them was a vast horizon that seemed to never end.

Some ships could be seen moving off the coast of Emoshion while others were moored at port. As for the kinds of ships that were visible, there were huge ships designed for open seafaring, ships that travelled between the various ports of the Mireana Kingdom and ships built for fishing.

Both Rei and Set were fascinated by the scene they saw from the sky.

However, at that moment……one of the ships within their line of sight began throw everything they had into the sea, whether it was arrows, magic, swords, spears or barrels.

「……What?」

For a moment, Rei wondered if they had been boarded by pirates or something. However, he soon realised that pirates wouldn’t show up within visible distance of the port. The next moment, he remembered why he had come to Emoshion in the first place.

「Ah right, is it because of the monster that’s been rampaging outside the port?」

From what he saw, lightning arrows, fireballs and water spears were cast out one after another, but the monsters in the sea were protected by the seawater, which absorbed most of the power of the magic attacks. Even so, the people on the ship didn’t stop attacking. Despite the monsters not appearing above the surface, the ship eventually started to tilt and sink, as if a hole had opened up underneath it.

Whether they were on their way to rescue the ship or to hunt the monsters to earn some money, many ships could be seen leaving the port at the same time.

「Gururu~?」

What do we do? Troubled by the situation, Set tilted his head as he turned to look at Rei.

As for rescuing people, aside from Rei, the best that Set could do would be to carry women or children. If the person they had to rescue was wearing heavy equipment like armour, it would make it very difficult to handle.

It would be possible to grab them using Set’s front claws, but even if they hadn’t drowned yet, there was a high chance they would be injured by Set’s claws and even die from that.

「But……let me think. This is a good opportunity to promote myself here. If I give a good impression here, I should be able to avoid more idiots.」

Making his decision based on rational benefits rather than an act of kindness, Rei turned to look towards the sea.

The bottom of the ship must have already been completely destroyed as the ship was sinking fast.

「Set! For now, we’ll rescue them to make ourselves known. Try to avoid the port walls!」

「Gururu~!」

Giving a high pitched cry at Rei’s words, Set flapped his wings as went down towards the sea.

Rei didn’t forget to tell Set to keep away from the outer walls, considering the possibility that there was a countermeasure in place to stop flying monsters similar to Gilm’s walls.

Of course, it wasn’t necessarily the case since Gilm was a unique case as a frontier city. However, Rei didn’t want to take that chance. He didn’t want to die by crashing to the ground due to a city’s defence mechanism while trying to help others.

 

 

As Set headed out to sea, bypassing Emoshion, most of the rescue ships that had left the port had yet to arrive at the scene.

A few magic ships had already arrived and were keeping a watching eye on the sea as they rescued people thrown into the water. However, most of the other ships either used oars or sails, which made them a lot slower.

However, there wasn’t just the monster that had sunk the ship earlier. There were other monsters that targeted the people that had been thrown into the sea.

「Damn it, attack it with more magic! You don’t have to kill the monster, so just try to shoot as many weak attacks as you can to try to buy time! Reinforcements from the port will be coming soon! We can kill the monsters then!」

One of several magic ships that first to arrive at the scene. It was actually only a small boat about 3m in length and didn’t have much room. There was no space to rescue those who had been thrown into the sea. Because of that, the leader of the adventurers on the boat didn’t try to rescue the people in the sea, but instead focused hard on keeping the monsters targeting them at bay.

「Please, hurry……」

Looking towards the ships heading towards them from the port as if praying, he threw a harpoon in his hand towards a monster with the upper body of a crab and the lower body of a jellyfish.

The attack itself was blocked by the double barrier of the seawater and the crab-like shell, so no actual damage was inflicted. However, it was still enough to restrain it as it turned around and dived back into the sea.

「Leader! Right now, can we get the ship close enough to rescue those people!? At this rate, there will be too many monsters for us to deal with!」

At the shout from a fellow adventurer, the leader shook their head as if they had just bitten into a bug.

「Impossible. If we try to get people on the ship now, we won’t be able to move. If that happens, the resulting damage will be even greater!」

「But……hah! It’s persistent!」

A female archer shouted as she fired arrows from her bow.

Her arrows pierced into the head of a huge fish about 2m in length that had been trying to swallow a person whole, killing it.

The dead sea monster sank into the water where smaller monsters immediately gathered and bit it into tiny pieces.

「Hey hey hey! Over there! There’s a large group of snake like monsters coming!」

As the leader turned towards the voice from another adventurer, he saw that there was indeed a large group of snake like monsters coming towards them from the open sea.

「Tch, that’s a bad amount to have to deal with. Suore, wide range magic! I’m pretty sure you know a lighting based one right?」

「I can’t, I can’t, I can’t! We’re surrounded by the sea! The people in the water will also be hit by it!」

Monsters in the sea were vulnerable to lighting magic, but if they used it, it would naturally hit the people who were also stuck in the sea.

Remembering that, the leader was lost for words for a moment……but that moment led to a fatal delay.

「AHHHHHH-!」

「What!?」

Hearing a sudden scream, he turned just to see a middle-aged man in his forties sink into the sea.

Because the sea was quite clear, the leader could clearly sea what had caused the man to sink.

「Damn it, it was a decoy!」

Yes, the group of sea snake like monsters which were heading towards them were just decoys. The real danger was much closer and swimming much deeper.

They weren’t thick, but the snake like monsters were more than 4m in length. Opening their mouth filled with sharp teeth, it wound it’s body around the man floating in the sea……the next moment, the water was filled with blood.

「Damn it, damn it, damn it! Where are our reinforcements!」

He turned around and shouted as he looked towards the ships coming towards them. However, they didn’t appear to be much closer than they had been before.

At the current rate, by the time their reinforcements arrived, they themselves would be in danger, let alone helping those who had fallen into the sea.

Not just them, all other parties which had arrived on the scene in magic ships thought the same in despair.

In a moment like this, rather than dying out here, should they run away themselves? Such thoughts passed through their minds. However, seeing the people still stuck in the sea, they couldn’t do that.

「Leader, there’s a big one coming!」

The leader turned towards one of the archers in his party. It was at that moment that a huge mouth large enough to swallow him whole and filled with innumerable teeth entered his sight.

(Ahh, this isn’t good……)

The leader thought that in his mind. The monster was already too close to avoid and there was no time to intercept it.

Would his life of less than 20 years end just like this? As his mind was filled with despair.

「Flying Slash!」

At the same time as that shout, the huge mouth that had been about to swallow him was forcibly shifted in mid air……flying right past the leader. The huge shark like body, 5m in length, flew over the magic ship and dived back into the water without managing to get anything inside it’s belly.

「……What was that?」

Shouldn’t he be dead? Why was he still alive? Whose unfamiliar voice had he just heard? He muttered to himself but didn’t get any replies from his party members. No, for some reason, they hadn’t intercepted the monster heading towards him just a moment ago and instead were looking up towards the sky with their mouths wide open.

The leader was confused, but it was just the same for the other adventurer parties that had come out on magic ships and the people who had been thrown into the sea.

Trying to understand what had just happened, the leader turned to look up on reflex.

「Tch, it’s tough. I didn’t think a Flying Slash would only leave a scratch.」

With the flapping of wings, a voice came down from above.

「Gururu~」

「Ahh, yes. Anyhow, I know I can deal with sea monsters if tries to attack like it did just before. The rest is timing……hey, are you okay?」

The leader was brought back to reality at the voice of a young boy. But for a moment, he couldn’t fully believe he was back in reality. Maybe he was just still sleeping on a bed at an inn back in Emoshion. Maybe this was all just a dream, was what he thought.

After all, he was looking at a monster with the upper body of an eagle and the lower body of a lion, an A rank monster, a Griffon. On its back was a kid who seemed to be an adventurer, carrying a huge scythe the same height or even taller than himself.

Even though he was an adventurer……no, because he was an adventurer, he was stunned by the incredible sight. In his shock, his eyes met with Rei’s, who had been looking down towards the sea.

「I’ve come to help, if you can, I’d like you to assist me.」

Hearing that, the leader finally remembered what they had come out here for.

In addition, the ships that had left the port were finally closing in. Several of the faster ones were already quite close.

Seeing that, the leader called out to Rei after quickly checking his surroundings.

「I’m grateful that you’ve come to help. We’ll leave the details for later, please rescue the people in the water and take them to the big ship coming from the port! I know you’ve come to help us, but I’d like you to save them first if you can.」

「I don’t mind……hey, you’re persistent!」

Noticing the huge shark like monster coming up from the sea again, Rei moved the Death Scythe to his left hand as took out a spear from the Misty Ring in his right.

「A fish is just a fish……get skewered!」

With those words, he threw the spear, which not only cut through the air, but even the water as it pierced the mouth of the shark like monster which had been about to spring back up into the air.

As Rei himself had said, the spear pierced all the way through the shark like monster as it sank back into the sea.

(It sank? I thought things would usually float when they die. Especially since this is the sea. ……I might have to give it up. It will be hard to get the magic stones of monsters I kill like this.)

If it simply just sank back into the sea, the water was clear enough that he would be able to pull it back up. However, there were many other monsters in the surroundings and they wouldn’t overlook such prey. That included monsters that were be killed by adventurers.

In fact, the shark like monster that Rei had just killed already had a large number of sea monsters surrounding it, rapidly decreasing its size. Perhaps there would only be bones left in a few minutes.

「Hey, you! Rescue them first! Carry those people in the water to the large ship heading towards us!」

A male adventurer, who was finally able to catch his breath because most of the sea monsters had gone after the one Rei had killed, called out to Rei. Rei immediately turned his eyes towards the people floating in the sea and nodded.

There about 100 of them still in the sea. There had been many more on board the ship, but some had died fighting the monsters while others had gone down with the ship. Above all, many had fallen prey to the monsters swimming in the sea, reducing their numbers to the current state.

「Considering their weight, the only ones I can carry on my Griffon are women and children. Is that okay?」

「Y-Yes! Please!」

If he pushed it a little, they could manage to carry an adult man. However, that would rapidly drain Set’s stamina, so Rei wanted to avoid that in a situation where he didn’t know how long the rescue would take. But……

「Gururu~!」

Set gave a cry as he showed Rei the necklace hanging around his neck.

Love of Shizukuishi. It was a magic item that gave a constant healing effect, which included stamina. Set insisted that he would be okay carrying an adult man to the larger boats nearby, even if the necklace’s effect wasn’t that strong.

Stroking Set’s neck, Rei told him that they should still rescue the women and children who didn’t have a way to fight off the monsters first.

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