81: Chapter 81 The Fleeing Crowd

Cecilia had not boarded the boat yet.

She stood on the beach with Richard, holding up her kite shield, its face angled toward the direction the demons were rushing from.

Her blood-red eyes stared intently at the eight-legged demon rushing at the very front; with shield in her left hand and sword in her right, she assumed her most proficient sword-and-shield starting stance.

An imp with half its arm chopped off lunged from the side.

She slammed her shield into the imp's lower body, knocking it several steps to the side.

Immediately after, she delivered a backhand slash at the joint between the imp's metal shell and flesh tissue, her Sharpness-enchanted blade slicing through the fragile structure.

The imp let out a shrill shriek, rolling onto the ground and twitching.

Richard rushed forward and pierced the imp's head with his halberd blade.

He didn't even have the mind to check his experience points when, at that moment, an arrow whistled through the air and embedded itself in the gunwale of the small boat.

This arrow was not an attack from the demons; it had been shot from the direction of the half-elves.

The arrow bit deep into the wood, the white feathers at its tail still vibrating violently.

Richard turned his head to look in the direction the arrow had come from.

Selan and his sister were shouting toward the beach while swinging their swords to parry the demons' blades.

His voice was nearly cracking from hoarseness: "You can't leave! Let our people on the boat first! Let our people..."

A second arrow thudded into the sand just a few paces from Richard's feet.

This arrow was shot by Vera.

Her bowstring was still vibrating, her expression cold.

She didn't speak, but her arrow conveyed her intention more clearly than any words: If we can't get on, don't even think about leaving.

Richard looked at the arrow still vibrating slightly at his feet, his mind filled with rage and killing intent.

But he quickly suppressed his emotions and immediately made a cold decision.

He didn't shout back, completely ignoring the half-elves; he wouldn't waste a single second at a time like this.

In a voice calmer than usual, he said to Cecilia:

"Hold up your shield to cover our teammates as they board first. I'll throw you up in a moment and cover the rear."

Cecilia nodded, propping her kite shield in front of her and standing firmly on the beach.

Looking toward the city, the number of demons was simply overwhelming; with the naked eye alone, hundreds of demons of various sizes could be seen closing in not far away.

Selina pulled herself up from the boat, the lightning-struck wood bracelet channeling energy as silver-blue electric arcs exploded in succession.

One bolt of Paralyzing Lightning after another accurately struck the demons rushing at the front.

Every hit faltered the demons' forward momentum for a brief moment, buying time for the small boat to pull away.

Black Cat's hand crossbow fired continuously, also helping to prevent the demons from approaching.

After stalling them for a moment, Richard mustered his strength, grabbed Cecilia's belt directly, lifted her entire body, and threw her toward the small boat.

Cecilia was agile; she flipped in mid-air and landed steadily on the small boat.

The half-elf in the distance was furious, shooting another arrow at Richard.

But in the next second, Richard vanished into thin air and reappeared at the stern of the small boat.

Blink, activated!

Richard sneered at the half-elf group on the shore and urged his companions and the sailors to quickly move the small boat away.

The captain stood by the helm of the sea dog, watching the horde of demons rushing on the shore, his eyes filled with nothing but deep dread.

He bellowed in a rough voice: "Weigh anchor! Full sails! Hard to starboard!"

The mainsail suddenly swelled with the sea breeze amidst the harsh screeching of the pulley blocks, and the entire ship began to move slowly and unstoppably toward the open sea.

The sailors on the small boat rowed with all their might, the rope stretching taut; the small boat bumped violently on the rough sea as it was dragged away from the beach by the sea dog.

On the beach, the last Archer of the Silver Leaf Sentinels was sliced in half at the waist by a demon's metal blade.

The treant summoned by the sorceress Evelyn was completely torn to shreds.

Her mana was also quickly depleted; after using a few offensive spell scrolls, she was surrounded by several demons and met a tragic end.

Selan watched his team members die right beside him, and his expression completely collapsed at that moment.

He released his grip on his sword, drew the last arrow from the quiver on his back, and nocked it on his bowstring.

He did not shoot at the demons, but rather at the sea dog as it pulled away from the beach.

The arrow veered in the sea breeze, grazing the stern railing as it flew past, vanishing between the gray sky and the waves.

Soon, dozens of five- to six-meter-tall demons crashed in from the side, tackling the half-elf siblings to the ground.

No one could stop the sea dog from leaving the shore anymore.

Not far away, several sailing ships also set sail one after another; even the pirate ship bearing the skull-and-crossbones flag was fleeing in panic.

Once the small boat pulled up steadily alongside the sea dog, Richard grabbed the railing of the accommodation ladder and, using the strength of his right arm, flipped himself directly from the swaying boat onto the deck.

Upon landing, he immediately turned to pull Cecilia and the others who were still in the small boat up, then tossed the rope back to the sailors.

Selina was the last to scramble onto the deck from the ladder. Just as her feet found their footing, she staggered a step backward.

The moment the hull cleared the shallows, Storm Sense captured abnormal fluctuations underwater, and she immediately issued a warning.

"Something is catching up underwater! Two of them! Very fast!"

Richard drew his dwarven roaring battleaxe and stood by the gunwale, looking down.

Under the shadow of the hull, the sea appeared a murky dark green, with extremely low visibility.

But soon, there was no need to strain to make things out.

Two deformed demons suddenly burst out from the water on both sides of the stern, the splashed water leaving two heavy, wet patches on the deck.

Their bodies were slightly smaller than those seen on land earlier, but they were faster.

Their bodies were slender, and the claws at the ends of their six legs had evolved into webbed structures suitable for paddling in water.

Instead of closing upon contact with seawater, the eyeballs on their metal shells opened even wider.

A sort of dark-red phosphorescence burned in their pupils, allowing them to see clearly even underwater.

They climbed up the gunwale so fast that it gave no one time to react.

The moment the first demon landed, it swept its metal-bladed forelimbs, knocking down the two sailors closest to the stern.

One sailor had half his shoulder sliced open by the blade and collapsed in a pool of blood before he could even let out a scream.

The other was struck in the chest by the flat of the blade, flipping over the gunwale; the splash he made was quickly swallowed by the waves.

Chaos instantly erupted on the deck.

Several sailors who were still furling the sails drew the cutlasses at their waists.

But their weapons couldn't even leave a scratch on the demon's metal shell; instead, they were sliced in two, along with their swords, by the demon's backhand strike.

Ordinary people were as fragile as paper before these two demons.

"Get out of the way, let us handle this!"

Richard roared, charging forward through the pools of blood on the deck.

His steps were unaffected by the swaying of the ship, his Second Heart beating like a war drum in his chest.

He rushed head-on toward the demon closest to him, sidestepping the trajectory of the blade the moment the demon swung its bladed forelimb.

Immediately after, he hacked down fiercely with the battleaxe in his right hand, the axe blade accurately striking the joint of the demon's forelimb.

The light of the Anti-magic Rune erupted the instant the axe blade made contact with the metal shell.

The runic power pierced the protection of the metal surface, and the axe blade embedded itself into the flesh tissue between the gaps of the joint.

The demon let out a high-pitched shriek, the strength in its entire forelimb losing its support the moment the joint was destroyed.

Its blade slammed askew onto the deck planks, shattering a large section of wood, but failing to injure anyone.