Chapter 601

There were a lot of them, but we didn’t have much difficulty dealing with the Modoki.

It took a lot of effort to hit them because we couldn’t do anything too flashy, but we rarely took any damage. Even if we did, it was only a slight scratch.

Well, we could perform surprise attacks on the Modoki that were attacking ships, and we were much stronger than them to begin with. That was why we wouldn’t have much difficulty dealing with them.

But we wouldn’t let our guard down.

(Master, someone is watching us)

『Yeah, I could feel it on me too. But I don’t know from where it is coming――』

(I don’t know too)

We could clearly feel that someone was watching us.

It was not coming from the people of the Commercial Fleet that were watching in amazement at the mysterious girl who one-sidedly defeated the Modoki.

It was a much more persistent and disturbing gaze. It was as if they were observing an interesting subject for an experiment. Or as if they were planning to kidnap a young girl they spotted on the street. It was quite unpleasant.

I was eager to find out where they were and beat the shit out of them right away.

And it was not just us they were watching. Apparently, they were observing the entire battlefield.

I wonder who they were? We would find out when we caught them, but we didn’t even know where they were.

It was either they were too far away from us, or they had advanced stealth abilities.

But that was just what I and Fran felt.

(Woof woof!)

After evolving into a Ragnarok Wolf, Urushi’s keen sense seemed to have caught the owner of the gaze for sure. As expected of Urushi.

『Urushi, keep tracking their whereabouts』

(Woof!)

The first thing we needed to do was to get rid of the Modoki. The other Adventurers had started to join the fight, but we still didn’t have enough strength to handle all of them. If we left now, the fleet would surely suffer a great deal of damage.

『Our next strongest forces are Lovren and――Sierra, huh?』

(Nn. That sword is amazing)

『Yeah…』

To Fran’s surprise, the jet-black sword wielded by Sierra was a much more powerful magic sword than she had imagined. Although she couldn’t appraise it due to its Evil Spirit, there was no doubt that it was a high-ranking magic sword.

It was not simply about its attack power. I could see that it was clearly raising Sierra’s strength. Moreover, the strengthening rate was quite great.

But still, the movements of the D-ranked Sierra were nowhere as good as Lovren’s.

However, the sight of him holding a jet-black sword and running across the water at high speed, slashing through the modoki one after another, was unlike that of a D-ranked Adventurer.

But for some reason, I could sense something akin to impatience from Sierra. It seemed to be different from either caution or anger towards the Modoki.

I wondered if it was his determination in the face of such a powerful opponent that made him think that way, but with Sierra’s ability, he would be able to fight even a pack of Modoki without a problem. It was strange that he seemed to be so tense.

So then why did he seem that tense?

As I observed Sierra taking down the Modoki, he seemed to be looking for something.

Apparently, he seemed to be looking for the same person who was observing the battlefield just like us.

『Well, we’ll be the one to find that person first!』

「Woof!」

I was so proud of our win, but it was entirely thanks to Urushi.

『All right, we’ve defeated most of the Modoki, I’ll leave finding that guy to you, Urushi!』

Once we were sure that there were no more Modoki in the fleet’s vicinity, we made our move without a moment’s delay. We didn’t want to let them get away.

『Let’s get to the owner of that gaze before they escape!』

(Woof!)

Our strategy this time is quite simple.

Urushi would use his shadow transfer to surprise the hiding opponent, and then we would follow Urushi’s signal and teleport there. That was it.

The only problem was if the opponent is too far away to be reached by our teleportation――

「Woooof!」

It apparently wasn’t a problem. Urushi then dove into the shadows on the spot.

And in the next moment, Urushi’s presence appeared a few dozen meters behind the fleet.

『How should I put it, aren’t they quite close!?』

「Nn」

This meant that they must have been highly skilled in their stealth abilities, and the fact that they could deceive Fran and I when we were only 200 meters away was quite impressive.

『Don’t let your guard down!』

「Nn!」

I teleported with Fran, who was ready for battle, to where Urushi was. Of course, we’d made sure to leave no trace of our presence. It would be pointless for us to take them by surprise if they discovered us right after we teleported.

We teleported slightly above Urushi, and below us, Urushi and a man were facing each other.

Black tentacle-like things were wriggling around Urushi and the man standing on the water’s surface. It was probably a binding spell that Urushi had unleashed. But it seemed to be blocked by the barrier that the man had set up.

『Zelyse!』

The blond-haired, blue-eyed man looked familiar. He was the psycho handsome guy, Zelyse. I had a hunch, but as I thought, it was this guy who was watching over us before.

「Master!」

『Okay!』

Fran quickly readied me. In response to her words, I transformed myself into my katana form. It had been a while since I’d felt this way. It may have been the first time in a long time that we’d been able to communicate so well as a team.

A sword and its wielder. I was Fran’s guardian, but I was also her sword. Therefore, it was inevitable that the place where we could understand each other best was in battle.

「Nn」

『Yeah』

I understood. I understood what Fran was telling me.

She readied her Sheaths of Wind and aimed it to slash at Zelyse. Without using teleport, she added the power of falling to her slash. The reason why she used the Wind Attribute was to hide our presence. And of course, she also activated a variety of other skills at the same time in this attack.

Fran narrowed her eyes in satisfaction and smiled slightly as she saw that I had activated the skill just as she had wanted.

『Here we go, Fran!』

「Nn!」