Chapter 138: Stormy Seas, SAN Check
The Crying Innsman was far too mangled to still be called a ship. Its masts were snapped, its hull riddled with holes. The damage to the bow made it look as if a colossal ship-monster had opened its mouth to laugh… Obviously, this was not the kind of damage a vessel could sail with. And yet, despite bearing wounds that made physical navigation impossible, the Crying Innsman bounded through the raging waves, closing in on us without fail.
Akitsu Akane: "Wahyaaa?!"
Ceecrue: "Bugyao!? D-Don't use this one as a sleddddd—!"
Akitsu Akane, having spectacularly tripped, went sliding toward the stern with the mantle pinned beneath her. But nobody—player or NPC—was laughing. This wasn't just a matter of bad footing. Dancing on horseback would be easier!
Modern people rarely encounter "danger." I'll skip the digression into probability theory and the transience of human existence—the fact remains that no one in this day and age sails through a storm on a sailing ship. But this is a game, and a fantasy one at that. The unnatural rocking wouldn't let the deck stay level for a single second. Even I felt like I might lose my balance if I let my guard down.
Sunraku: "You okay?! We're fighting in this shit!!"
Psyger-0: "I'll… manage somehow…!"
Rust: "This much is nothing."
Mold: "Help me, Rustuuuuu…"
Two were fine. Two plus one bird weren't. As for the NPCs… well, they were pirates by role, so they were managing to hold on wherever they could grab. I'd pretend I didn't see Stude clinging to the mast with all four limbs like a baby sling doll… call it a man's mercy.
Sunraku: "Don't just attack blindly! Draw 'em into range, then hammer 'em!!"
Stude: "I-I'm the one giving orders here!!"
Sunraku: "Shut it! Save those lines for when you can stand on your own two feet!"
Stude: "Ughhh…"
Man's mercy? Don't make me laugh—that shit won't even work as fish bait. Ptoo!
The crew somehow managed to man the ballistae set up on the ship in place of cannons. Rust even shoved a crewman aside to try operating one herself, but who cared who fired it as long as it hit?
We were already less than twenty meters apart. The figures aboard the other ship were starting to come into blurry view. Then a dazzling flash of lightning lit up the area, and we saw them clearly.
Sunraku: "So what kind of 1D-something roll am I supposed to make...?"
Emul: "Th-They're so gross, wa…!"
They were far too ugly, far too hideous to call human. They had humanoid shapes, but their festering bodies looked like rotting meat forcibly pressed together, every inch covered in scales. Their faces were even more inhuman than their bodies: bulging eyes, seeming ready to pop from their sockets, darted about restlessly with unfocused movements. Their mouths, stretched downward, were lined with irregular rows of needle-fine fish teeth—nothing like a shark's or orca's. These grotesque creatures wore tattered rags over their fish-man bodies, looking for all the world like drowned corpses that had crawled up from the seabed, transformed into fish-monsters. The sight forced every pioneer present to viscerally confront a primal terror that gnawed at human instinct.
Witnessing the Deep Ones firsthand: pioneers must make a SAN check. Success/Failure: 1d3/1d10… No, wait, what the hell am I thinking?
NPC Pirates: "H-Hiiiieee…!"
Sunraku: "Ah, shit—so I passed my Idea roll, that it?!"
Unlike the players, who could dismiss all this as just game enemies with a meta-perspective, some of the NPCs were clearly on the verge of losing their minds. Bastards. If they just turned into dead weight that'd be one thing, but friendly fire in this chaos would be a goddamn nightmare.
Sunraku: "Psychoanalysis (Physical)!"
Stude: "Gwuh?!"
Sorry, but I never learned any healing magic. Shock therapy's all I've got.
Stude: "M-My cheek hurts…"
Sunraku: "You're the captain, so act like it and snap your panicking crew back to their senses!"
I'd literally slapped some sense into Stude—who, senseless with terror, had been about to tumble overboard—and gave the cheek-clutching little shithead a terse order before readying my weapons again.
Sunraku: "Born anew from the finest materials—even if they were leftovers—this is no longer the Marsh Dagger. Hell no. Here's their debut: Duxram, Blade of Aspiration!"
There are blades called famed swords. Blades called holy swords. Blades called demon swords. Those masterworks are one of a kind, and no matter how closely you imitate them, you'll never reach that singular edge. But if you layer insufficient blades together and forge them into a single sword—surely that would become a mighty blade that could hold its own against the swords of heroes.
A pair of such one-handed swords deflected the raindrops, their bodies gleaming with the light of the thunderbolts.
Having evolved from the Marsh Dagger line that had endured countless battles up to now, these one-handed swords possessed almost no special effects. The hidden power of these blades was simply their toughness. Whenever a critical hit landed, their durability would not decrease—a simple ability, but one couldn't be more perfectly suited to me.
There had been an upgrade path to evolve the Marsh Dagger into the "Lake Gleam Shortblade" while keeping it as a dagger, but with the competition being the boss-killer Togetsu and the status-inflicting Empire Bee Twinblade, a straightforward enhancement wasn't enough. So I'd had them undergo "True Forging" into a pair of one-handed swords.
Sunraku: "It’s not passing us—it’s going to ram us!!"
Rust: "Firing…!"
The Crying Innsman was barreling straight for the Scarlet Whale. It was a direct course that made clear she had no intention of passing alongside—this was a deliberate head-on collision. The crew scrambled to get clear of the bow.
In contrast, the players—leaving aside the ones who'd slid aft—moved without hesitation: Rei-shi and I, the vanguard, surged forward, while Rust, our sniper, lined up her ballista shot.
Rust: "Steady aim… Now!!"
A massive impact between two enormous masses, overwriting the storm-tossed shaking. In the next instant, several fish-men trying to leap from the enemy ship to ours were blown away, impaled by the giant iron bolt Rust had fired.
Sunraku: "You rotten fish-paste bastards! I'll show you who's boarding who!!"
With that roar, I kicked a fish-man aside and leaped onto the ghost ship.
Actually, I'd had a suspicion ever since I first saw the scenario name. The scenario was called "Drill the Disciple of the Abyss." Whether it ultimately connected to a Unique Monster or not, the target within this scenario was clearly a being called a "Disciple of the Abyss." Even if it were a scenario boss, it wouldn't be stronger than a Unique Monster. I'd expected something on par with or weaker than an area boss. And the enemy mobs that had appeared on the ghost ship were just those rotten fish-men bastards.
I'd wavered on whether to bring Emul, but against swarm-type enemies like this, fighting while protecting her is all too easy.
Sunraku: "Emul! Target the ones farther away!"
Emul: "Hai na!"
The difference between dual-wielding daggers and dual-wielding one-handed swords completely transforms your approach to combat. I grasped the shifting balance between volume of attacks and raw firepower, adjusting my movements as I went.
The fish-men swarmed around me—I'd jumped in alone—but while their movements weren't especially fast, the sheer weight of numbers wasn't to be underestimated. I slashed at the fish-man directly in front of me, then kicked him down while he staggered, slipping through their encirclement. I glanced back over my shoulder, just my head turning, to secure Emul's line of fire where she clung to me.
Emul: "This is clearly a dire situation, waa!"
Sunraku: "Hahaha, relax, Emul—we've got other party members, so it's actually sa—"
FWSSSH! An iron bolt shot past right next to my face. The impact sound immediately behind me told me I understood the intention, but…
Sunraku: "—Actually, maybe it's more dangerous."
Emul: "I wanna go hoooome, waaa!"
Sunraku: "I'll listen to your whining later! For now, work your tail off!"
Emul: "Uwaaaaaahn! Magic Edge!!"
Three blades danced wildly across the ghost ship. The clash between the pirate ship and the ghost ship intensified, as if in answer to the raging sky above.