Fran disarmed the two executives she captured before sitting them down so she could interrogate them.
Her goal was of course to get them to divulge the Water Dragon Warshipâs secrets.
ăHow to control dragon?ă
ăN-No idea.ă
ăNn?ă
ăGiiiiiiiii!ă
One of the execs tried to play dumb, to which Fran reacted by mercilessly stabbing me into his thigh.
ăHow to control dragon?ă
ăT-The only ones that can tell you thatâll be the boss and the guys right under him!ă
ăW-Weâre telling the truth! Weâre just regular pirates that happened to get raised up through the ranks! They wouldnât tell the likes of us anything!ă
ăTell all known information. Even if insignificant.ă
ăI-Iâll tell you everything I know, so please, pull your sword out of my leg!ă
ăNn.ă
The pirate that agreed to talk began wailing in a mix of pain and fear as she removed me from his thigh.
His companion, the mage, paled. He realized that he would soon suffer the same fate as the spearman heâd been working with should he refuse to talk. To that end, the small framed caster immediately began spouting off everything he knew, and even went as far as to elaborate on things without us needing to ask.
Though he really didnât know too many details, he was at least capable of confirming that the dragon simply seemed to obey orders; it wasnât being controlled through some sort of large scale magic item. That said, it would only really ever listen to the prince, the guy the pirates called their boss.
Asking them about exactly how the prince was controlling the dragon failed to lead to any results. They didnât even know whether it just recognized him as someone it should listen to, or if it was being manipulated through some other means. In other words, smaller scaled items, skills, and spells were all possibilities we still had to consider.
The most useful thing we got them to do was tell us a bit about the prince. His name was Suarez Sheedran, and could best be described as a brown-skinned hulk of a man with silver-blonde hair adorning his head. Suarez was well versed in combat; the average adventurer supposedly wouldnât be able to match him. His main weapon was a massive battleaxe, one he was likely to be carrying around right this moment. Capturing him sounded like it was going to be much easier said than done.
Of course, we also managed to get them to talk about the magical device they were using to strengthen the dragon. Apparently it was quite large, and near the shipâs rear, but as the part of the ship holding it was cut off from the rest, we wouldnât be able to find it if we just walked around.
Annoyingly enough, neither of the two we captured knew how to get into the cut off section. In fact, they were both oblivious to its precise location. This, of course, stemmed from the fact that the prince didnât trust them. They, unlike many other executives, hadnât started off as his followers. They were instead just the former top brass of the pirate brigades that used to occupy the area prior to the princeâs arrival. Though he did trust them enough to allow them to keep their positions, the prince basically never let them in on anything too important.
ăW-Weâve told you everything you asked for!ă
ăS-So please, donât kill usâŠ!ă
ăGot it.ă
ăT-Thank you so mguraaaaghh!ă
Fran kicked the mage right in the face. The sheer force of the strike sent him spiraling off the shipâs deck.
ăD-Didnât you say you wouldnât kill us if w-we told you what you wanted!?ă
The spearman screamed indignantly as he watched his friend plunge into the sea.
ăDidnât kill. Just dumped in sea because in the way.ă
ăW-What the fuck is that suppraaaaghghhhh!ă
She wasnât wrong. Fran hadnât actually killed either of the two men. Instead, sheâd just knocked them overboard while also depriving them of their consciousness. Though it was rather likely that theyâd die, they could still live if they were lucky, so it would be more accurate to chalk their deaths up to their own inability wake as opposed to attributing them to her. Besides, they were pirates, professional seafaring pests. As far as I was concerned, they were sure to survive.
ăDamn Teach, youâre totally merciless!ă
ăI really love that part of her.ă
ăIt looks like we should take after her example and start doing stuff like that too.ă
Franâs apprentices threw in a few comments as they watched the second man follow the first into the sea. The first two, Miguel and Naria, seemed impressed, whereas the third, Liddick, began making note of her behaviour. Realizing that theyâd been watching led me to contemplate whether or not they would benefit from imitating her merciless tendencies. My first instinct was to refute the thought, but then I considered the possibility that they might one day get stabbed in the back and die because they sympathized with a foe. From that, I determined that Franâs approach would probably be best for them in the long run. Probably.
ăA-Anyway, why donât we go hunt Suarez down?ă
ăNn.ă
We informed all the other adventurers still on the shipâs deck about Suarez so we could have them help us look for him. We hadnât been able to talk to Mordredâs party directly, as theyâd already started invading the shipâs interior, but, we attempted to make up for it by asking everyone else to relay the information to him him if they happened to see him.
I had no idea exactly how strong Suarez was, but there was a chance that, Fran aside, Mordredâs party would be the only ones capable of dealing with him.
ăUrushi, search too.ă
ăWoof!ă
All the Algiebaâs sailors already knew that Urushi was Franâs familiar, so the chance of him getting attacked by one of our allies mid-search was incredibly low.
ăCapture him if you can, but come right back if you think heâs too strong for you, alright?ă
ăWoof woof!ă
ăStart.ă
With a single word and nothing more, Fran ventured into the shipâs interior through the nearest exit.
Our allies had already taken out most of the pirates within, so we were able to look around without any interferenceâor at least that was how it went until we went down a flight of stairs.
Enemies began attacking us the moment we descended, and continued to do so as we explored. Not a single one of them was anywhere close to being Franâs match, but they were still quite annoying nonetheless.
A dense aura of battlelust began to assault us as we moved a bit further along. It seemed weâd found our mark.
ăFran!ă
ăNn!ă
Fran traced it to a remarkably large door, which she kicked down to reveal something along the lines of an empty warehouse.
Several adventurers and pirates were facing off against each other in the roomâs center. The bloodlust Fran had tracked down had originated from the two most powerful people in the room.
One was our ally, Mordred. And naturally, the other was Suarez, the pirate weâd been looking to capture.
The Sheedran prince was honestly quite strong. He had Divine Bow Arts, and several other skills indicated he was obviously an accomplished warrior. But, despite that, I didnât find him to be qualified enough to function as the captain of a pirate ship. He lacked too much in the boatmanship department for me to really think him a sailor.
Unfortunately, appraising him didnât tell me much about how he was controlling the dragon. None of his skills indicated that he was capable of taming or summoning monsters.
ăYouâre idiots, retards! Did you really think you could defeat a Water Dragon Warship?ă
ăItâs true that your ship is strong, probably the strongest there is, but that doesnât mean shit if we can just take the people aboard it.ă
ăGyahahaha! Nice joke! Iâll torture you even more than all my usual prey before feeding you to the fishes!ă
So he likes torturing the people he captures? Thatâs pretty lowâŠ
The two combatants engaged as I pondered the princeâs distasteful hobbies.
ăDorryaaaahhhh!ă
Suarez swung his battleaxe straight at the crown of Mordredâs head. His attack had quite the speed to it; he looked to be at least as strong as a C ranked adventurer.
But despite that, we werenât even the slightest bit concerned.
ăToo slow.ă
ăKuh! How impertinent!ă
Mordred received the blow head on with his spear and cleanly parried itâa move which appeared well within Suarezâ calculations. The axe-wielder didnât let the resulting impact throw him off balance. He promptly twisted the weapon around and brought it back for a second slash. I had to admit, the technique was skillful, and it wouldâve been more than enough for him to take down the average adventurer.
But Mordred was no average adventurer.
ăMetal Controlă
ăW-What the!?ă
ăYour axe is mine. Itâs already fallen under my control.ă
At a glance, it almost looked as if Mordred had stuck his right arm up out of desperation after realizing that he couldnât block the attack, but of course, that wasnât the case.
The massive axe that had seemed to be on course to sever Mordredâs arm bent out of shape the moment it was about to make contact. It almost looked like the battleaxe had actually been made out of clay and not steel.
Though Suarez had already basically lost, Mordred didnât let up. He assured his victory by manipulating the axeâs metal and wrapping it around Suarezâ body. The way it coiled around its former wielder had almost made it appear like some sort of living creature.
Mordredâs actions had demonstrated why Lava Magic was so fearsome. It allowed its wielder to take control of and freely manipulate metal-based substances.
ăShit! What just happened!?ă
Suarezâ axe, or rather, his newfound fetters, had already returned to a hardened state. The prince tried to break free, but soon found himself unable escape his restraints. The steel hadnât just been melted down and reshaped. Itâd also be strengthened.
ăGuooooooohhhhh! Release me, damn it!ă
ăStop struggling. It wonât be possible for someone as weak as you to escape.ă