Chapter 7: Narwhal

"It is a problem, but Drake will find a way to solve it," the captain said. "We can finally have our meal."

Baking potatoes is quite simple, but the potatoes were freshly purchased from尖颚港. The chef added a generous amount of butter and bacon, and even mixed in a bit of mead. The sailors' portions did not have as many ingredients, yet they seemed quite pleased with their meal. The mage walked among them, happily noticing that the vague tension that once lingered among them had dissipated.

"That narwhal is still there," the first mate of the Little Sparrow whispered. "It's too dangerous; the Sea Demon has three metal ratchet crossbows, and it will be pierced through."

Use it by itself

At this moment, the Sea Demon was not closer to the Golden Lady than the Little Sparrow, when a small purple dot suddenly appeared on the deck of the Golden Lady, and after a brief flash of magic, it vanished

"True North, Whale" shouted the vigilant lookout, devoted to his duty

I believe they should be able to hold on for a while longer," Captain of the Little Sparrow said seriously, but hesitated for a moment, "Slow down a knot." He raised his brass telescope and looked around. When he saw a three-masted ship with a pitch-black hull and white-painted main mast and sails approaching from a distance, he immediately relaxed, "It's the Sea Demon, an old acquaintance of Drake. Alright, we can make it, let's go.

"How strange." He said again: "What about Drake's mage!"

The beautiful four-masted ship struggled to move forward, surrounded by layers of sharks, dolphins, and whales. They took turns colliding, creating waves, lifting the hull, gnawing at the rudder, and interfering with the vessel's navigation, all while displaying remarkable orderliness and politeness, carefully avoiding the human harpoons and stone projectiles. One dolphin was injured by a broken oar and immediately swam away, only to be replaced by a twenty-foot-long thresher shark, which promptly bit the oar into pieces as it struck.

The little orca quickly abandoned the leather cloak, diving beneath its mottled belly. The narwhal descended, and when it resurfaced, it swam alongside the little sparrow, its long, grayish-white horn, as long as a support pillar for a house, was delicately lifting the water-soaked leather cloak.

Under the blazing sun, the sea water presents a pure and flawless grandmother green, with waves as transparent as crystal or air. A shadow, constantly changing in color and shape, rises swiftly and lightly like a bird. Five pairs of suction-cup-laden arms climb onto the keel of the Golden Lady, and the shattered razor-like shells and wooden splinters on the keel do not affect it in the slightest. It is so soft yet so resilient, so enormous that a single arm can cover that elegant and noble beautiful lady. The crew aboard the Golden Lady remains completely unaware that true disaster is approaching. A squid, only the length of a human arm, can easily crush a crab's claw, so how terrifying would be the beak of this red thorn king squid, which is nearly half the length of the Golden Lady.

Aside from the crew member with yellow eyes, it seems that no one knows he once lifted a killer whale that nearly struck the foremast, but many witnessed how he captured the yellow-eyed one and bound him to an apple barrel. They expressed their gratitude for saving their friend, transforming that appreciation into warm smiles

I believe it was that narwhal that summoned them he said with certainty to the person he was asking

The Sea Demon will capture his crew," said the first mate

The clever red thorn king squid did not linger too long over the wooden box filled with small pieces of meat. After catching enough, which amounted to ten individuals, it relaxed its muscles, slid down from the Golden Lady, and returned to its familiar deep sea.

At the bottom of the harbor at尖颚港, the captain's passengers thought to themselves as they walked by nonchalantly

And that narwhal has long since disappeared without a trace

"Just wait and see," the captain said, as he closely monitored the movements of both the people and the fish

The troubles brought by the whale to the Little Sparrow were considerable; neither the captain nor the crew had the heart to sit down for a meal, and even their guests only ordered a baked potato with butter and diced bacon.

Fortunately, this misunderstanding was quickly resolved, as the lookout of the Little Sparrow spotted the Golden Lady on the sea surface fifty miles away

The people on the small sparrow boat cannot see how the sea water surges violently into the cabin, tearing apart the ribs and bulkheads of the ship, nor can they hear the desperate cries and pleas for help from the oarsmen shackled to their seats. However, they can see the tentacles of the squid reaching into the interior of the vessel, extracting its food from within, just as a child would reach into a candy jar, always filling their fists to the brim. Each tentacle, densely covered with red thorns, carries a person, some of whom have been forcibly torn from their shackles, their feet bloodied and mangled, while others are soldiers wielding weapons. Yet, they can see the squid's tentacles reaching into the ship's interior, extracting its food from within, just as a child would reach into a candy jar, always filling their fists to the brim. Each tentacle, densely covered with red thorns, carries a person, some of whom have been forcibly torn from their shackles, their feet bloodied and mangled, while others are soldiers wielding weapons. The gilded trident can easily pierce through chainmail and its protection, but it cannot inflict effective damage on the octopus's resilient and smooth tentacles.

"May the gods bless us." The sailor exclaimed with deep emotion, "How many goblets can be made from this long horn?"

The expression on his companion's face suddenly became very strange

At the gathering, his companions speculated that the recent unexpected incident had consumed a considerable amount of their energy, and he missed the chef's pickled cabbage and cured meat eggs

A crew member skilled in lassoing helped the mage retrieve the leather cloak, while the narwhal cast a meaningful glance at the Little Sparrow, swimming outward with the chattering little orca.

A blue-gray back, resembling a shadow, is slowly rising from beneath the water, covered with numerous white spots, and a spear-like tusk is pointing towards the sky. This is the largest narwhal ever seen by sailors, swimming to the right several hundred feet away from the ship Little Sparrow, while emitting a long and resonant call

The value of the Golden Lady is not merely reflected in its figurehead; to prevent collisions with reefs and fish, as well as to guard against the erosion of shells and seawater, its hull below the waterline is encased in a layer of lead plates. Between the lead plates and the wooden boards, there is an additional layer of tarred canvas. However, under the beak of the red thorn king squid, which is one foot long, they are no more solid than an eggshell.

What is it summoning these whales for!" the previous crew member continued to ask

"Should we slow down, Captain?" the first mate asked hesitantly

"Don't be foolish," the captain said. "Clearly, that is a druid."

Oh no. The captain shook his head: "This is terrible, the narwhal's tusk can pierce through ice blocks."

There are also several narwhals inside, but the largest is still the one they have seen, which should be using its enormous sharp tusk to pierce the part of the ship that is not below the surface of the sea

"Drake has escaped," Captain of the Little Sparrow said with a chuckle. "Someone is going to be very disappointed"

The whale and the orca swiftly passed by the solitary narwhal, but the little orca that had nearly destroyed the main mast was still circling around the small vessel. The white patches on its cheeks were as round as the artificial beauty spots that southern ladies apply to the sides of their faces. It had found an interesting new object: a gray wizard's cloak that had fallen into the sea. It nudged it with its nose and prodded it with its pectoral fins. Just as it was about to take a bite, the narwhal swam over, calling to it with a whistle-like sound.

The pod of whales and the sharks silently descended into the depths, vanishing without a trace; apart from the battered hull of the Golden Lady, there was nothing to prove that they had ever been there

As for whether Drake desires the terrifying woman from the Sea Demon, who is equally insatiable both in bed and on the ship, the matter of rescue is no longer something anyone on the Little Sparrow can care about or be willing to concern themselves with

Accompanied by this cry, the orca and the whale departed from the terrified crew of the Little Sparrow and swam towards the southeast by west

Do you think they want to eat that narwhal?" a crew member asked amid the gradually calming sways