Ning arrived at the beach and saw the clear blue water extend to the horizon where only then did he see the ships.
Moreover, these weren't the typical travel ships or fisherman's ships, but rather military ships that guarded this open side of the King's palace.
Ning wondered why the king didn't simply make his palace at the center of the city like any sane king would do in this situation. But then he remembered how the king was and realized this was probably his choice to show no fear.
"Hurry teacher, hurry! I want to see a biig monster," the little princess shouted at Ning.
Ning turned around to see the cute, little princess and asked. "What sort of beast do you want to see?"
"A big one," she said, gesturing the size with her tiny little arms.
"Umm, do you want to see one that can walk in the land or the ocean?" Ning asked.
"I don't care. Just hurry and summon a big one," she said.
"Very well," Ning said and turned towards the ocean. Then, he closed his eyes and used his spiritual energy.
As a Rank 7 Bondforger, more commonly known as a summoner, Ning now had so much energy that he could start tempting the stronger, bigger, and more intelligent beasts to move.
Since he didn't have much requirement of them this time, he assumed there wouldn't be many beasts that would give up on the opportunity.
He then remembered Saphandra's angry face at messing up his bond earlier that day, so he made sure to make the bond with the least loophole.
"I need a giant beast, regardless of strength and potential to come to be summoned. In exchange for being summoned and controlled by me, I will give all the spiritual energy in my body," Ning said.
Many lights faded this time around due to his size requirement in this case.
Of the few lights that remained, Ning chose one that was particularly bright and summoned it.
"Woah!" the princess said with anticipation as light shined beneath the surface of the water.
Ning opened his eyes to see what exactly he was summoning. He could tell what he was going to summon if he focused enough on the light he captured, but that would ruin the surprise and his chance to guess from the summoning circle.
Unfortunately for him this time, the summoning happened below the water so he couldn't see anything.
Suddenly, the ocean exploded into a massive spray of water a the sudden appearance of the summoned beast.
"Princess!" Joann shouted as she went up to the little girl to cover her with her body from the water.
Ning simply put his hand up and created a golden barrier in front of him to stop the water from falling on them all.
When the sound of the rain disappeared, the princess started shouting from behind them. "Move away, I want to see. Joann, move away."
Recognizing that there was no reason to keep protecting the princess, the servant girl let her go and finally turned around to look at the beast themselves.
"Woah!" both the girls said at once when they saw the beast in front of them.
It was a massive octopus the size of a building. It was nearly three stories tall in comparison, even when half of it was clearly under the water still.
If it were to stand on its tentacles, Ning wouldn't be surprised if the beast was at least 40 or 50 meters tall.
"So big," the little princess said in awe.
"Of course," Ning said. "You wanted to see it right?"
"I… I don't think she meant this big," Joann said from the side.
"Huh?" Ning asked.
"The biggest beast she's seen yet are elephants. She probably meant beasts as large as an elephant when she said big, not… this," Joann said.
"Ah, well… that's no problem, right? I gave her what she wanted," Ning said before turning towards the princess. "Do you like it, Janice?" he asked.
He was desperately hoping that he didn't just scare the living hell out of this little girl. If she ever became traumatized about summoning, then this job of his would never end, and he would have to go back defeated.
He couldn't admit defeat.
"I… " the girl continued staring at the giant octopus as she tried to form her words.
"I…"
"Yes?" Ning urged her to speak. 'Please don't say you're scared. Please don't say you're scared."
"I… " the princess' face suddenly lit up in amazement as she shouted, "I want to ride it."
Ning felt a wave of relief when he saw that dazzling smile. "Yes, yes, you want to ride it huh? Let's go ride it."
He suddenly grabbed the princess and jumped directly onto the octopus.
"Alright, octopus, take the princess in that—"
His words stuck to his mouth when he saw the many ships that were patrolling the waters were now coming towards him.
"Uh-oh," Ning said. "I think I caused some problem."
"What?" the princess asked and looked. "Hehehe, they want to play too."
"Uh, no they don't want to—"
Suddenly a cannonball shot from one of the ships at the front and attacked the octopus.
One of the octopus' tentacles flew out of the water and stopped the cannonball from hitting him.
"They want to play too," the little princess started giggling. "Occy, go play."
The princes shouted so loudly that people in the ships started noticing her.
"What?" the captains of the shops started getting wary of attacking the octopus. Then they saw Ning on top of the octopus with the princess in his grab and started assuming the worst.
"All hands on deck! The enemy has captured the princess," they started shouting.
"Uh…" Ning couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Summoners, start getting ready to fight. Everyone else, get to battle station. There should be more than one enemy," the captains shouted and were instantly in fight mode.
Ning had a blank face as he looked at the battleships surrounding him. "Uhh… how do I get out of this?"
