Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume2 Phase03 (section)

===Part 2===

The 950 esoule<ref>Approximately 1140 meter.</ref> warship tilted like a seesaw. The entire front half of it did. If Ayato’s group had still been there, they would have been crushed along with the stepped array of cannons.

With a deafening boom, the crocs trying to reach the side deck via a different route were thrown out into the air before falling down into the pure tropical ocean with only the intercontinental stone bridge intruding on nature.

From here, it was impossible to tell whether the ship had been pierced through or the ice spike had shattered.

“Kyah!!”

“Miss Henrietta, you take care of Miss Mamilis! I will handle Miss Teleria!!”

He grabbed the blonde girl’s hand in midair and let momentum carry him back-first into a right triangle sail to absorb the shock. But it was not over yet. They were now more than three stories up from the deck, which was a problem. The partner he held in his arms aimed her sorcery guns toward the ship’s large sail and fired several instances of ice magic. Instead of fully freezing, she left the masses in a sherbet-like state that caught them and reduced their speed as they dropped.

“Wow,” said tall and slender Mamilis from Henrietta’s arms.

The giant winged fish had failed to break the Predator Island in two with a single attack. The ice spike emerging from the tip of her nose had shattered. However, the bow was almost entirely nonfunctioning.

The steam must have detonated because Fleurelisia herself bounced up from the crushed deck and flew to port.

That was enough to create a massive wave that threatened to capsize the warship.

The Crocodilia Mk. VIIs were the least of their worries now. That was the Water Lord and she did not seem at all bothered by the lightning energy that would have fatally electrocuted a human in the blink of an eye.

A different atmosphere hung over the place.

“Kh!”

“Ayato, hold on tight!!”

Hadn’t the villain said they loaded on too much chloride-treated mana conducting silver weaponry and armor because they so feared the Water Lord? That was no exaggeration. Ayato would want that too if he were seriously planning to fight Fleurelisia.

The gray ship was still sliding to the side.

But not just due to the massive wave. This had more to do with the sails than the rudder. It was doing everything it could to get away from there.

Unfortunately, a ship’s width to the side was the most it could manage.

The ocean parted and that colossal form flew high into the sky once more.

If the Predator Island had not taken evasive action, it may have been pierced through from below and torn to pieces. The Water Lord’s belly only grazed against it, but the giant waterwheel on one side of the ship was torn away and thrown into the air while falling apart.

The wreckage of that military weapon was scattered across the pristine ocean.

Ayato honestly felt silly for having spent so much energy fighting those Crocodilia Mk. VII weapons made from the incubators.

Fleurelisia was not specifically focusing on any of the threats on the deck. She was simply rampaging around, which was enough for the army of sorcery devices to be thrown into the sea where they vanished into the depths.

“The scale of this fight is insane,” groaned Striker Henrietta with bolt-action carbine in hand.

Missing the ship as a whole while rising from the ocean did not actually hurt Fleurelisia any.

She simply rotated around in midair.

Would she attack next with an ultra-heavyweight body slam? It was all over once she crushed the surviving aft half of the ship. The stepped array of anti-aircraft guns and autocannons began a magical barrage resembling an eruption, but it was too late. Not to mention that ordinary magic could not seriously harm one of the Four Lords. It was not an issue of her dodging it or not; her thick muscles would forcibly contain the damage while she crushed the insolent warship before it could damage her.

The only injuries she would receive were from the ship’s wood and armor piercing her as it split apart beneath her. The ordinary cannons could not leave a scratch on her.

Only two sets of three main cannons remained at the stern.

They aimed as high into the sky as they could manage, but six felt terribly insufficient. Plus, each set had to attack as a group, so they only really provided two chances. That was less than a revolver. If their two opportunities were evaded, that was that.

A high-pitched cracking sound erupted from the sky.

Ice spears as long as Fleurelisia herself appeared in the air around her. She clearly intended to destroy that ship no matter which way it tried to flee.

So.

When that Four Lord was stopped, it was not by any kind of firepower.

It could not have been.

Her colossal body twisted as she descended.

Almost like she had spotted ''something'' on the aft end of the ship and did not want to crush it.

Her great mass crashed into the ocean nearby.

As did the giant spears she had prepared as insurance.

The ship violently shook and seawater was dumped down on Ayato’s group. They had been entirely helpless to intervene in that battle between two titans and they were honestly relieved to find that seawater had not been electrified. But by the time they finally regained their balance, they found Fleurelisia had inexplicably moved away from the gray Annihilator-class Predator Island.

The water parted in the far distance and that giant emerged on the surface. She created a circular rail of ice with a diameter of about 8500 esoule<ref>Approximately 10 kilometers.</ref> around the Predator Island and propelled herself along it using steam to move quickly around. All while picking up speed along that circular track. When a single tackle could sink the warship, that sight could only be described as a threat.

However…

“What?”

Just to be sure, Ayato stabbed his Linkage Plug into a crocodile still managing to cling to the deck, hacked it, and sent it inside a nearby hatch, but there did not appear to be any other Crocodilia Mk. VIIs left. His fingertips completed hat work on autopilot because his mind had gone entirely blank.

The main cannons roared.

They failed to hit the Water Lord, but the ice rail was stationary and thus easily destroyed. Meanwhile, Fleurelisia made a quick step to the side. She had apparently created more than just the one ice ring. She had prepared several so she could jump to an adjacent one if need be.

Since she had moved away from the island, the artillery shells produced towering pillars of water in the empty ocean. There was less chance of the shells hitting Laguntreat’s village now, but she still gained nothing from drawing this battle out. Even at her size, a direct hit from one of those 0.5 esoule<ref>Approximately 60 centimeters.</ref> cannons would do considerable damage. Those were legitimately deadly weapons even to one of the Four Lords and drawing out the battle would increase the risk of being hit.

The sets of three main cannons mercilessly fired.

The blast was powerful enough for the entire giant gray warship to slide to the side.

More than a blow to the eardrums, Ayato’s group felt it like a hand grabbing their spine and shaking them.

Meanwhile, Fleurelisia made a rapid trip around the warship, constantly rotating around it near the horizon while swinging around some kind of impossibly long straight line. She had used ultra-pressurized water to launch a band of finely shattered ice. It was like a chainsaw capable of slicing right through a fortress. With a pleasant popping sound, the 0.5 esoule<ref>Approximately 60 centimeters.</ref> shell most on a direct course for her was sliced in two. Massive pillars of water rose on either side of her.

That had required godlike skill, but the Four Lord should not have had to resort to that in the first place.

Ayato blinked in confusion while clinging to the side deck railing.

“Why did she move away? She was safest as close to the ship as she could get. The lightning energy leaking out into the ocean should only be a slight tickle at her size.”

If she had a goal in mind, she could use brute force to have her way.

Based on what Fire Lord Blasthogg and Demon Lord Nirvelphany had done at the sky city, that was the way lords handled things. Yet she was not doing that.

Maybe she was worried about torpedoes being scattered from the side deck like fish bait, but even that should not have been a concern. If she truly would take very little damage from anything other than the main cannons, her safest bet would have been to smash through the ship’s hull as soon as possible.

What was the downside for her there?

Or was this a product of frustration and compromise?

Ayato recalled how the unseen villain had claimed the ship contained something Fleurelisia could never destroy.

“…”

Meanwhile, right next to the boy, Teleria had grown very pale while holding a hand to her large chest. She looked like she very much wanted to say something but could not bring herself to do so.

Henrietta pushed the dazed girl aside to make a realistic suggestion to Ayato.

“Dangerous individual, I know all of this came as a surprise, but will standing and staring fix anything!?”

“You’re right. We need to destroy those aft main cannons before this develops into a colossal brawl!”

He squeezed his Linkage Plug sword again and made up his mind on that one point. Fleurelisia was a threat, but that did not mean they could let this warship run amok.

The Water Lord began to make her next move in the distance.

She hopped upwards while circling around the Predator Island.

She was changing direction.

After building up her momentum, she was diving back into the ocean.

And Ayato seriously doubted it would end there.

She had to be moving swiftly through that water to target the Predator Island while unseen.

“Ah, look, Coach!”

With a sharp sound, three enormous ice sculptures rose up from the ocean. They rose up much like the ski jumps seen on the north end of the continent. Then a thick pillar of water erupted explosively upwards.

But not because Fleurelisia had jumped out.

“That was a feint!?”

Henrietta’s eyes widened.

The ice jumps and the blast of water vapor had both been bluffs. This Four Lord was not some simple beast. She was intelligent and had constructed the optimal strategy for this situation. While the Annihilator-class Predator Island fell for it and fired into the empty air, a massive shadow swam silently through the water.

The warship’s shellfire was finally catching up.

Those shells were absurdly large for Ayato, but they had to be mere specks for that Four Lord. The smallest cannons were still large enough for him to stick his arm down the barrel, but she did not seem at all concerned about that barrage. The only real threat was the two sets of three main cannons, but since those were all on the rear of the ship, they could not turn toward her if she was near enough to the bow.

It was too late for them now.

Fleurelisia must have known she was in a safe zone because she burst up above the water. The water resistance must have been a nuisance even for a ruler of water. She skipped across the surface a few times like a flat rock on a river and then she made a powerful leap straight up.

She curled up in the sky like a crescent moon and Ayato’s group could hear all of her muscles straining.

Shockingly, she was going for a kick with plenty of strength built up.

A dolphin kick like that would probably obliterate everything on the deck.

Her position suggested she was aiming for the opposite side of the ship from Ayato’s group.

Was she going for the side she had already crushed and damaged with her great size?

“Eek!?”

There was no stopping her from the Predator Island, so Teleria quickly grabbed the side deck railing again with both hands.

Just then, the giant cannons briefly fell silent and the two turrets began to rotate with obvious intent behind the action.

But not toward Fleurelisia as she began to deliver a roundhouse kick with her extra-large fish tail.

No, they were turning toward the island.

Toward Laguntreat, where a single blast would crush everyone in the village.

“What!?”

Teleria frantically aimed her twin handguns that way, but she was too far away and the angle was off. She could not blast the barrel with magic to destroy it from within.

Fleurelisia had moved out to sea before fighting instead of remaining on the island.

Did the villain controlling the Predator Island conclude she was not willing to let the islanders come to harm over this?

The giant form in the sky bent at an even more unnatural angle. She had forcibly used her massive wings.

The bottom level of the stern was hit by a great roar that sounded like space itself rupturing.

She would have unleashed a powerful dolphin kick attack, but she instead struck the empty air with her colossal fish tail to unnaturally change direction in midair and cross over the entire warship.

She used the bottom of her belly to crush one of the main cannon turrets on the stepped layout of the Predator Island’s stern. Flattening the turret must have been more important to her than power or efficiency because she was positioned perpendicular to the warship, forming a cross shape with it.

The back guide weakness no longer mattered.

She did this with pure brute force.

It was a lot like the mixed martial arts jumps seen in seedy shopping districts back on the Static Continent.

With the sound of bending metal, the thick turret was flattened like a paper box underfoot. However, that triggered a large explosion from within the main cannons. Fleurelisia seemed to have created a thick ice shield below her belly, but the point-blank blast tore through the shield and struck the Water Lord. A ton of shrapnel must have stabbed into her as well. She twisted around and roared in agony.

She could have easily avoided that pain if she had simply let the attack happen.

“The Four Lord – that monster – protected the island!?”

Striker Henrietta squeezed out a voice of utter shock.

But this was not over yet.

The surviving set of three main cannons on the stern’s middle level was aimed at the defenseless island. For no other reason than to draw out the Water Lord.

They fired with an explosive boom.

There was no time to set up an ice shield this time. Fleurelisia slammed her large wings against the deck protected by chloride-treated mana conducting silver armor to force herself back into the air. She leaped to the side to place herself in the path of the main cannons and protect something precious from those deadly shells.

A scream echoed out and it began to rain red.

“––––––––––!!”

Short Teleria clasped her hands to her mouth, but it was not enough. Desperately suppressing her voice did nothing to stop the tears. She staggered to the side in her black tights, so Mamilis had to grab her slender shoulders. Except she must not have been able to fully support her because both of them collapsed onto the side deck.

Water Lord Fleurelisia was unshaken.

Instead of fleeing into the ocean, she remained in the line of fire while surrounding one enormous wing with ice and prepared to slice through the remaining main cannons and the ship below with that makeshift guillotine.

The cannons fired again.

The shells did more than stop that icy blade. The entire raised wing was torn from her and launched into the air.