Primordial Villain with a Slave Harem

Chapter 1955: A Strange Man

Narethi lurched over the hatch as her spell burst through the breach. Outside, the spear-carrier was hurled away from the hull, his lower arms wrenching sideways against a current she hadn’t made.

The water inside her hold began flowing backward.

It streamed around the carpenter’s legs, carrying loose nails and splinters through the hole. A separate current lifted the crate off the floor and set it against the opposite wall.

The kobold stared down at his feet.

"Captain...?"

Narethi reached into the water with her magic and felt a broad, rising flow beneath the keel. Some weird phenomenon was supporting her ship while drawing the sea out of it.

Her own exhausted spell slipped from the breach. The foreign current took its place, holding the ocean outside a hole wider than her spread arms.

She could let go.

The realization left her trembling. Her fingers had cramped around the hatch frame, and she had to pull them free before she could straighten.

Wind swept her wet hair from her face. Narethi raised her head from the cargo hatch, looking along the main deck toward the stern.

A man stood on the stern rail in full black armor, a pitch-black saber lowered beside his leg. Crimson light burned through the seams of his plates and gathered beneath his helmet in a pair of red eyes.

The pirate nearest him turned, raising an axe with both upper hands.

"Who the fuck are you?"

The man turned his free palm toward him.

"Just a wanderer. [Gust]."

Wind slammed into the pirate’s chest and flung him off the ship. "H-hah?! Wind magic!" His scream followed him across the gap before he struck his own vessel’s mast.

Narethi stared up at the stranger.

He was looking at her while he held the water back, her damaged ship cradled in his magic.

"Can your people close that hole if I keep the sea out?"

She opened her mouth to answer, but the mounted bow fired at his chest. The man raised his forearm, fingers spread.

"[Fortress Wall]."

Stone grew across the bolt’s path, layer forming behind layer as the enchanted shaft tore into it.

*BOOOOM!*

The impact shattered the mass above the rail. Narethi flinched, but the stranger stopped the fragments with his wind before they could fall on her crew.

They hung around him, spinning slowly, their broken edges turning toward the pirates.

He swept his hand toward the pirate deck.

"[Boulder Throw]."

His wind hurled the fragments along the line of his fingers.

The largest fragment drove the bow’s loader beneath its mounting with a scream. The captain drew a broad arc with his lower hands.

"[Water Wall]! Get behind it!"

His barrier caught the remaining fragments before they could smash into the crew.

"Water, wind, earth?!" Narethi gasped.

Their rescuer lifted off the rail. His wind carried him across the gap, and Narethi felt his current beneath her hull change direction.

He was moving her vessel away.

"H-he’s doing so many things at once!"

The boarding chains snapped taut. A petite black-haired woman appeared beside them, her katana flashing through the links before they could tear out the rail.

The armored man lifted his free hand, palm upward.

"[Tidal Wave]."

Across the widening gap, the pirates’ ship began climbing an enormous swell.

"Hold her!" their captain bellowed. "He’s turning us over!"

"[Tidal Brace]!" The captain pressed his lower palms downward. His casters echoed the spell beside him, forcing the rising water down beneath their bow.

Their combined magic could resist the stranger’s. Narethi felt the clash through the sea, saw the Fomorian captain bare his tusks as he began forcing his ship level.

"This is my sea, you bastard!" the pirate captain shouted. "I’ll drag you to the bottom and feast on your heart!"

The red eyes remained on him as the stranger turned his raised wrist, closing his fingers one by one.

"Good luck."

His wind twisted through their rigging.

"[Inferno Blast]."

Fire followed the turning current into their sails.

Flames climbed the sails in a howling rush, wrapping canvas around the mast as the wind twisted it. One of the casters released [Tidal Brace] and swept his lower hands over his burning crewmates.

"[Water Shield]!"

The bow lurched upward again.

"Stay on the water!" the captain roared.

"We’re fucking burning!"

Narethi clutched the broken hatch frame. The pirate shielding his crewmates had stopped helping hold the bow down.

Their rescuer pushed more water beneath it while the remaining casters struggled to make up for him.

The armored man raised his closed hand above his head.

"[Magma Rain]."

Molten rock gathered over their burning mast as he slowly opened his fingers.

The glowing mass spread until its red light covered the foredeck. Narethi could feel its heat across the water, and her first mate stumbled back from the rail.

"Just what in the Goddess’s name is he?"

"...I don’t know. But he’s on our side!"

Her attention had gone to the carpenter, who was getting to his feet on a drained floor.

Their rescuer was still holding that gentle current against the breach. He had room to keep one frightened kobold dry while trying to break a ship full of savage pirate mages.

Narethi could follow his currents, but trying to imagine shaping them all herself made her head swim. He had spoken to her while doing it.

"Get below the rail!" she cried.

The stranger brought his hand down, and his wind hurled the molten rock after it.

*BOOOOM!*

"[Rising Tide]!" The pirate captain thrust his lower hands upward. Seawater crashed into the descending mass, bursting into steam while molten fragments punched through onto the deck.

Men screamed beneath glowing shields. Burning rock struck one Fomorian between the shoulders, folding him over the rail, while another crawled through the embers with a blackened lower arm dragging behind him.

Their captain spread his water into a sloping roof, carrying the molten wreckage off his crew. He kept them alive through the downpour, blood running from his broken nose as he fought the stranger for every opening.

The armored man poured fresh magma into the steam, forcing them to keep their shields raised while their vessel burned beneath them.

"Into the sea!" the pirate captain roared. "Under the merchantman! Make him come down here!"

"Excuse me. Could you move your tail?"

"!!" Narethi recoiled, drawing her coils away from the short-haired elf beside the hatch. Armed women were appearing across her deck, close enough to touch her sailors.

Her first mate raised his spear halfway before a golden-haired elf held up an empty hand.

"We’re his wives," she beamed, indicating the armored man. She gestured between herself and the smith. "We’re here to help."

"His..." Narethi looked from them to the man above the sea. "Why? You don’t even know us."

"We saw you in distress. Isn’t that reason enough?"

Seraphiel smiled at her, then looked toward Garron as he groaned beside the mast. Her expression changed immediately.

"What’s his name?"

"Garron."

"Garron, I’m coming to help you. I’ve never healed anyone of your race. Is there anything specific I should know?"

"...It’s hard to heal someone like me-"

"The patient shouldn’t decide how difficult the procedure is."

"...Okay."

"Good~"

The elf passed Narethi and knelt beside her defender, tracing a shining pattern above his wound as she murmured, "[Healing Light]."

Narethi watched the dark blood slow beneath Seraphiel’s hands. These people had found them out here and decided they were worth saving. She had spent the last moments of her life expecting nobody to come.

"Captain?" Kaelira asked softly. "I can reinforce the patch. Could your carpenter get it into place?"

"Yes! Yes, he can."

Narethi called down to him. The lynxkin braced their timber against the breach while the smith drew runes along its supports.

"[Runeweaver’s Armory]."

Behind Kaelira, a blonde dogkin crossed her clawed gauntlets.

"[Umbral Step]!"

She vanished and reappeared behind a boarder. His lower hand seized her wrist before her claws reached his throat, twisting it until she cried out.

"[Veil of the Hollow]!"

Her body dissolved in his grip. She reappeared beside the katana-wielder, cradling her wrist against her chest.

"They’re very fast!!"

The swordswoman met the pursuing pirate’s axe. Steel screamed against steel, and the force drove her backward across the wet planks.

She turned the axe aside before he could force her katana into her chest. His free upper fist passed close enough to her cheek to tear a strand of hair away.

"Yeah. Everyone watch out! The stats of their elites seem to be around level 100, but their classes aren’t very strong!"

"What did you say, bitch?!"

"That you are simple brutes."

"I’ll make you mine and teach you how women should behave!"

His lower fingers hooked toward her.

"[Water Lash]!"

Seawater whipped over the rail toward her ankles. She touched her katana’s flat with two fingers and cast, "[Stormstride]!"

The swordswoman burst past the first lash. The next caught her calf, dragging her off balance before the axe descended.

A serpent-patterned blade slid beneath its edge.