"Dashnyu!"
Ina was greatly shocked.
"Damn pirates! Die!"
Bukolevin successfully locked onto the pirate captain and violently pulled the trigger.
BANG!
The bullet, infused with magical power, shot forth and reached the pirate captain in an instant.
But just as the bullet was about to pierce his skull, the space in front of the pirate captain suddenly distorted with green light.
The bullet entered the twisting space and eerily, terrifyingly vanished into thin air!
Chase's pupils slightly contracted. He abruptly set down his pastry and looked surprised at the pirate captain with his face full of flesh.
If he remembered correctly, that magic was...
"H-how?! What just happened?!"
Bukolevin's face turned pale. In his disbelief, the sniper rifle slipped from his hands with a clatter.
"Boring little tricks. Your magical power is this weak—where did you find the courage to oppose us?"
The pirate captain sneered and slowly stood up. The skull necklace rattled around his neck, emitting a soul-destroying demonic whisper.
Reaching the bow of the pirate ship, he raised his black arm and grinned fiercely, "Boys! Let the hunting spree begin!"
"OOOOOH!!"
The pirates responded with spine-chilling, deranged laughter.
Immediately after, magic circles lit up one after another on the pirate ship's deck.
Under Ina's shocked and despairing gaze, pirates using floating magic rose into the air like a swarm of poisonous bees.
The pirates laughed wantonly, surrounding the merchant ship stranded helplessly on the sea.
This was how they committed atrocities at sea.
Whether merchant ship guards or mages—if they lacked flexible aerial combat capabilities, they were just moving targets, easy prey!
BOOM BOOM BOOM.
Magic circles appeared successively in the pirates' palms, their varied colors overwhelming the setting sun's afterglow on the distant horizon, locking the merchant ship in all directions.
An overwhelming sense of danger rushed toward them!
"Bukolevin! Transfer all your magic power to me! We must not let them hurt Mr. Lambert, Chase, and the others!"
Ina took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the fear and unease in her heart, and quickly ran to Bukolevin's side.
Bukolevin's eyes were vacant, still not recovered from the bullet vanishing into thin air.
Only after Ina grabbed his shoulders and shook him violently several times did he wake up, urgently activating his remaining magical power.
Receiving the boosted magic power, Ina pressed her hands to the merchant ship's deck and shouted with all her might, "Addition: Solid Barrier!"
WHOOSH.
Light red lines formed the pattern of a magic circle. A light screen spread outward from Ina in all directions until it enveloped the entire ship.
Almost simultaneously, the pirates' attacks arrived.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Flames, lightning, hurricanes—all kinds of attacks bombarded the light screen wildly. The shock waves from the explosions overturned neatly stacked cargo boxes, sending all kinds of fruit rolling across the deck.
The entire merchant ship is violently shocked, as if it would be torn to shreds at any moment!
"Damn it! Hold! My magic!!"
Under the immense pressure, blood began to seep from Ina's arms and the corners of her mouth.
Even so, she gritted her teeth and persisted—she saw Captain Lambert and the crew huddled together, trembling in the cabin.
These people were the goal of this request. Even if it cost her life, she could never give up.
Because...
"We're mages of Black Pheasant Foot!!" Ina screamed at the sky.
Unfortunately, her guild wasn't Fairy Tail.
No background music played. Only a crisp "CRACK" sounded.
The magic light screen shattered, drowning out Ina's shout as it dissolved into countless floating specks of light.
The unprotected merchant ship was completely exposed to the vicious pirates' sight!
Oddly, the pirates didn't press their advantage. Instead, as if intentionally leaving the three alive, they tacitly halted and cackled.
As if this was something they often did.
"Hehehe, little girl, show us whatever tricks you have left!"
"Hah, so this is a Fairy Tail mage? Weaker than imagined—how disappointing!"
"But that female mage's figure isn't bad. Nobody steal her from me—I'm calling dibs!"
The pirates hovering in the air, believing victory was assured, began to discuss without restraint.
Severely wounded and collapsed in the ruins, Ina looked up with difficulty, her eyes filled with confusion:
What did they just say?
Where did Fairy Tail come from?
She was clearly a Black Pheasant Foot mage!
In the corner, under the sun umbrella, Chase slowly set down his tea, uncrossed his legs, and sat up slightly.
"So this is why every mage who took this request was attacked without exception."
Chase tapped the table lightly, looking at the unfolded S-Class request slip. "Marshall Whitedo..."
From the moment he arrived in Aslova, he'd never revealed to any townsfolk, including Captain Lambert, that he was a Fairy Tail mage.
The only one who knew everything was the client—Marshall!
When accepting this request, Chase had wondered why every mage who took it vanished without a trace, none returning.
If Marshall was the mastermind behind these pirates, everything made sense.
——He would naturally know exactly where the mages he sent to the merchant ships went!
The additional condition demanding the pirates be taken alive was probably meant to limit the mages' effectiveness, giving the pirates an advantage—not some bullshit about his wife and daughter being killed!
But why go through all this trouble to lure mages out to sea?
It couldn't be that he had grudges against every guild in Fiore and was out for revenge!
Combined with the space magic the pirate captain used earlier, Chase vaguely felt he'd been dragged into some kind of serious incident.
"Staying out of sight really lets you gather quite a bit of intelligence."
"This S-Class request isn't something you can just slack through..."
Chase sighed softly, set aside his thoughts, slowly stood up, and started stretching.
Whatever Marshall was plotting, as long as he caught all these pirates and brought them back, every doubt would be answered!
And that was exactly what his request required!
"Enough with the damn chatter! Leave these mages to me. You lot deal with the others on the ship—take anything valuable!"
The pirate captain across the way yelled angrily at his boys in the air, then stepped heavily and forcefully to the bow. Curling his five fingers, he reached out toward Ina and the others on the merchant ship's deck.
BOOM!
Terrifying, profound magical power erupted like a volcano, making even the surrounding environment unusually oppressive, crushing the breath out of anyone.
This magical power was solidly S-Class level!
Black smoke billowed, coalescing into a pitch-black devil's claw that spanned the sea, reaching straight for the immobilized Ina and her companions.
"Am I going to die?"
"In the end, I still couldn't keep my promise—to protect Mr. Lambert and Mr. Chase."
Watching the huge demon claw enlarging in her pupils, Ina, though trembling on the deck just like her two teammates, still stubbornly stared with despair-filled eyes.
BOOM!
The huge demon claw smashed through the merchant ship's railing, advancing along the deck that was tearing apart like foam.
"I don't want to die like this... I really don't..."
A tear slid down Ina's cheek.
"Die like this?"
"Sore wa dou kana!"
In her despair, Ina seemed to hear a deep, powerful voice.
Before she could process whether this was a dying hallucination, an intensely blinding light suddenly blossomed before her.
Accompanied by thunder and lightning, a hurricane tornado erupted in front of her, swirling countless wood chips and crushing the death-filled demon claw into nothing!
Quick-Play Spell Card: Cyclone, activated!
Ina and her teammates, snatched from the jaws of death, stood frozen in shock.
Six wide eyes all reflected a single figure with an upright posture.
Within the brilliant light, amid the lightning and hurricane, that person stood motionless, his dark red cloak billowing crazily.
On his exposed right arm, the gracefully dancing fairy guild mark shone brilliantly.
That was... Mr. Chase?
He... was actually a Fairy Tail mage!!!
***
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