Chapter 99: Granting Freedom (6)

[Lalala~ Lala~]

"Uh, woah!"

Brightman's ship was the first to have problems. Its helmsman fainted, and the ship, which was heading toward us slowly, suddenly sped up greatly. Our ship's helmsman was the next to faint, giving us no chance to move our ship. There was no doubt that the singing was attacking our minds, just like the voices of the sirens that attacked Odysseus on his way back to Ithaca!

"Mike, do something!"

"Shit. There's not enough time...!"

"O wind!"

Thankfully, someone on Brightman's ship seemed to be able to wield wind, as a strong wind suppressed the motor that had gone out of control, diverting Brightman's ship away from us. However, after changing directions, they were charging towards the giant toothsaw.

"Hey, ramming it with your ship isn't going to do much damage!"

"Stop saying stupid things and start chanting, Mike!"

Paul yelled at Mike and ran next to me. Then, the singing voice once again rang out.

[Lalala~ Lala~]

"Eh... Eh?"

Paul made a stupefied voice. Come on, S rankers, you should be able to endure some mental attacks! I urgently shouted in a loud voice.

"Everyone snap out of it!"

[You used Orc Lord's Warcry! All party members are cleansed of negative status effects. All party members' attack power increases by 50 percent for the duration. All party members become super-armored, unfazed by enemy attacks.]

The next moment, Paul, who was staggering, stood back up. His eyes were clear and unconfused.

"Wow, your shouting voice is amazing, T.K.! My mind feels clear, and I can feel strength surging through my body! I feel like I can even smack that guy to death with my shield!"

"You exaggerate too much! Just focus on blocking that thing's attack! Hwaya, do you know where the voice is coming from?"

"I'll find out!"

Since I had already revealed Thunder Arrow, I decided to use Peika's abilities freely.

"Peika, please."

[Leave it to me, Master! Thunder Spear!]

A large spear of lightning formed in mid-air, drawing everyone's attention. I ignored their gazes and threw the lightning spear at the toothsaw. At the same time, I realized something important. Brightman's ship was still charging straight at the toothsaw!

"What, why haven't they recovered they consciousness!?"

"Oh, so your shout really did have a special power...!"

The moment Paul let out an exclamation of surprise, I realized. They weren't my party members!

"Madam Brown!"

"I'm already on it! 'Mind Recovery!'"

Madam Brown spread her arms out and used mind recovery magic. A few of the people on Brightman's ship raised their heads. Brightman was, of course, one of them.

"Kuk, what is this voice...!?"

"Brightman, turn the ship around!"

Paul shouted. Brightman and the other rankers realized the situation they were in and ran to the steering wheel. At the same time, the toothsaw began to move. Towards us.

"Eh?"

"Huk, it must be because you attacked it, T.K.!"

"Kuk... Fine, I'll take care of it."

Because of the sheer size of the thing, I wasn't exactly sure what to do, so I decided to take care of it in an orderly way. First, its eyes. Then, its frightening saw. With that, I threw a second Thunder Spear at its eye.

[Kiaaaaa!]

[Lalala~]

The singing voice once again rang out. At the same time, hit by the Thunder Spear, the toothsaw screamed and swung its sawblade randomly. Then, it saw Brightman's ship, as Brightman and the others had once again fallen in a daze to the singing voice. Not only did they fail to turn the ship around, this time their wind magician also lost his consciousness. Come on, don't you guys have a healer too!?

"Oh no, they're too far from us! We'll have to go there ourselves...!"

"Agh, so annoying...!"

[Lalala~ Listen to my singing~]

"If it's singing, you should do it at a concert!"

I retorted angrily and once again threw a Thunder Spear at the toothsaw. Hwaya also shot a huge fireball at it.

"Come over here, you shark bastard!"

"Done! Ocean Guidance!"

Mike finished his magic at the perfect moment. Surprisingly, the rough lake waters began to roll artificially, and Brightman's ship began to move toward us.

"Oooh, Mike!"

"Hahaha, this is the power of my magic!"

"The magic's name is Ocean's 'Guidance,' but..."

[Lala~ Why aren't you listening to me? Lalala~]

The girl's voice was changing slightly. Throwing a Thunder Spear at the toothsaw, I asked Hwaya without facing her.

"Hwaya, did you find it yet?"

"Ah, sorry. I missed it because I was attacking the toothsaw."

"Alright, then let's just finish the toothsaw before it appears. Madam Brown, when that ship gets closer, use that recovery magic attack."

"Leave it to me."

When my attack stopped for just a moment, the toothsaw vibrated its sawblade strongly. Just when I was wondering what it would do, it stuck it beneath the water. Then, waves began to rise up violently. Come on, this was a lake, not the ocean! The waves rolled strongly, and Hwaya fell in the middle of shooting out her flames. Before she dropped her flames on the floor and caused a disaster, I jerked her arm and held her in my embrace.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm not okay! How are you okay!?"

"Because I trained."

Paul seemed to be hanging on, while Mike was floating in the air. Levitation! I heard about that magic before!

"Hwaya, didn't you say you were originally a magician!? Can't you use levitation?"

"I can... Hold me like this for a bit."

"Got it."

Supporting her with my chest and one arm, I used the other arm to continue throwing Thunder Spears. The problem wasn't our ship, but Brightman's. We managed to get it to approach our ship with Ocean Guidance, but because of the violent waves, the ship had stopped in the middle and was now trying to spit out its passengers! When I told the others about it, Mike responded.

"It's probably easier to get them to come to our ship! The ship's too heavy, it's hard to drag it from so far!"

"Hey, say that earlier!"

Hwaya shouted in annoyance and threw a fireball. Immediately afterwards, the bottom of Brightman's ship exploded and the ship cleanly flipped over. However, there was a problem. The toothsaw was charging at us. In its path were the people that fell overboard from Brightman's ship.

"Mike, hurry!"

"That guy's timing is impeccable!"

[Lalalala~ You don't like my singing?]

"I don't want to hear it!"

[How rude!]

The owner the voice responded to me for the first time. Hwaya also made her move. Using levitation, she floated up into the air. Then, she stretched her arms towards the toothsaw and shouted.

"Die!"

Two rays of white flames shot out from each of her hand, spiraling together and forming a thick white line. The next moment, the toothsaw's eye exploded. As my Thunder Arrow had already destroyed its other eye, the toothsaw lost its vision. As a result, it was now acting more violently.

[Kuaaaaaang!]

[Agh, shut up! Because of you, I can't sing!]

Weren't you guys friends!? Kuk, no, I can't listen to her! She might charm me again! I tried to ignore her to the best of my ability and shouted at Mike.

"Mike, hurry up! They're in danger!'

"I know, I'm hurrying!"

"Eit!"

Paul jumped into the lake. It seemed he was going to go save them in person. It was a good idea. I threw another Thunder Spear at the toothsaw, then jumped in after Paul.

"Die, die, die!"

Hwaya shot out white flames repeatedly. As an SS ranker, each of her attacks dealt critical blows to the toothsaw. Although some of them missed their mark, every time the attack hit the toothsaw, it writhed in pain and swung its saw violently. Seeing its blood spread through the lake water, I felt a sense of foreboding. Immediately afterward, Paul, who was on his way back with people in his embrace, looked in the water and shouted.

"Damn it, T.K.! Toothsaws are flocking toward us!"

"I was just thinking that might happen. Hurry, Paul! Go up first and protect the others!"

With two foreign S rankers in his embrace, Paul jumped onto the ship. I also saved the two S rankers that came to help Britain and threw them onto the ship. Although Paul signaled me to come up, I shook my head.

"T.K., come up!"

"What about the others? If we leave them, they'll die. If they're going to be killed, I'll be the one to do it, not some monsters like them."

"But it's dangerous down there!"

I ignored Paul and asked Peika.

"Peika, can you see the weakest person among the people floating there?"

[Yeah!]

"Can you make your lightning not work on that person only?"

[If it's just one person, I can do it!]

"Good, then we're going with max output now."

[Okay!]

I took in a deep breath, and gave all my mana to Peika. I deactivated Spirit Aura without anyone noticing. Although it wasn't as strong as when Peika was materialized, Peika could still make full use of her power. Floating up in the air, Peika opened her folding fan. Her golden eyes flashed.

[Thunder Wave!]

In an instant, the surface of the lake was dyed golden.

[Kiaaaaaaak!]]

The large toothsaw screamed, then became paralyzed. At the same time, the violent waves stopped. Using this opportunity, Hwaya raised her hands and shot out an especially large fireball, and the toothsaw exploded without leaving behind a trace. Although it had lost its two eyes, it still should have had ample health. Even so, Hwaya's fireball had obliterated it so cleanly. It was slightly terrifying. Her firepower was indeed excellent, but her flaw was that it took a while for her to gather it...

Then, two of the three people left floating on the lake, Brightman and Tommy, trembled. I believe you guys can endure it! Though, I'd be fine even if they didn't!

Finally, the toothsaws that were flocking from the smell of blood fainted from Peika's strengthened Thunder Wave and floated up to the surface. Just from a glance, there seemed to be more than two hundred of them. The people on the boat made awestruck exclamations.

"No way..."

"Thunder Knight, amazing...!"

I quickly swam. Although it would have been good if all the toothsaws were dead, my elemental magic wasn't that strong yet. If I couldn't save Brightman and the others while the toothsaws were unconscious, things would become more gory than what happened in the movie Jaws. I didn't want to see such a horror film, nor did I want to experience it. Most importantly, if they died, Britain would be troubled.

I first grabbed Tommy and the A+ rank healer, and threw them onto the ship. Then, I heard the voice again.

[Kyaaaaak! It hurts, you're so mean! All I did was sing, and you bully me like this!]

She was hurt by Thunder Wave, too! So she was hiding inside the lake. She was the reason I was in this mess, so what was she going on about? When I looked around the lake in the middle of rescuing Brightman, her voice rang out again.

[I'm going back. Hero is a meanie! Other kids are going to come kill you. Beh!]

"Other kids... will come kill me...?"

I instinctively retorted, as a word I couldn't ignore was mixed in her statement.

[That's right! Because we've been told to kill the Hero!]

I didn't know where or how she was talking to me, but her voice reached my ears clearly. In any case, she was told to kill me? By whom? Why? Plus, how did she know I was the Hero? Just what is a Hero anyways? Hearing the word I hadn't expected to hear, I froze for a moment.

[I felt bad because you were getting bullied, so I was going to play with you, but you electrocuted me! Beh, beh! I don't care if you die now!]

"W-Wait, talk to me! Where are you!?"

[I'm not coming out! If you're going to apologize, you better bring me some apple pie!]

With that, I no longer heard her voice. Damn it, don't just disappear after saying that!

"Where am I even going to get an apple pie...?"

I was dumbfounded. She didn't even reveal herself, and disappeared after saying what she had to say. However, my party members on the ship were staring at me like I was acting strange.

"T.K., what are you talking about? Apple pie?"

"Are you okay?"

"... You guys, did you not hear what the owner of the singing voice said?"

"Hm? We didn't hear anything other than the 'lala's."

"..."

Then she only transmitted her voice to me? There was just too much to wrap my head around. Before my brain overloaded, I hit my head. Right now, I had to use my body, not my head. I had to save Brightman, even though I didn't want to even touch or see him. Before he became a corpse in Graveyard Over the Lake.

"I'm sorry that you have to do this."

"You should be."

Couldn't those magicians levitate other people with their magic? Even as I bluntly answered Hwaya, I swam toward Brightman. Then, I held him in my hands.

It was then that he opened his eyes.

Then, he punched my face.

"Kuk!"

As I did not expect him to open his eyes, much less punch me in the face, I did not resist his punch in the slightest. Plus, it hurt. Although I was used to pain from all those years I spent as a dungeon explorer, the pain I felt now ranked among the highest. Just from a single punch, my body rose up from the water and flew dozens of maters back.

"Kyaaaak! Brightman, what are you doing!?"

"No, damn it! T.K.!"

Hwaya was shocked and Mike cursed. Hm? Why Mike? In the middle of flying, I turned my head. As it had been a while since I experienced being unable to control my body, I actually enjoyed the refreshing feeling. Brightman, I won't kill you gracefully, you son of a bitch.

When I turned my head thinking such idle thoughts, I surprisingly saw a melting tuna. It was an extremely large melting tuna. It was even bigger than the giant toothsaw from before. Not to mention, this one's body was entirely red. It seemed at least three times as strong and fast as the giant toothsaw. Continuing to hide my strength seemed dangerous. The moment I tried to summon Ruyue...

The melting tuna opened its mouth.

Without a chance to do anything, the melting tuna swallowed me whole.