A few moments ago:
Daimon and the others were advancing through the underwater current, when Karmandi suddenly spoke.
"Careful, there is a pack of magic beasts ahead, they are lead by a couple of peak Mortal level guys".
Something suddenly clicked on Daimon's mind as he sent a message directly to Karmandi's ears.
'It has already started, the isolation array got weaker'.
The snake general's eyes glowed, he immediately injected mana into the scale who protected his heart and to his surprise it illuminated with a rune in the form of a crown.
'Done, I also did what you asked'.
Daimon nodded in response.
'Help me with the magic beasts, we don't have time to lose here, once the Stellar ranks start fighting, we'll get dragged into the mess'.
Karmandi leaked some of his mana and just as they planned before, he created a vertical twister that covered the whole area around fifty kilometers.
The girls saw the water rotating at an insane speed around them and they unconsciously tightened their grip on Daimon's body, Karmandi had already finished unsealing his Half Stellar powers, so right now they were surrounded by the attack of someone who has greatly surpassed the Arch ranks, it was instinctively intimidating even if it wasn't aimed at them.
But the girls were handling it pretty good, a second later they got over it, the nobles on the other hand were pale, some of them even fainted on the spot, of course it didn't escape the girl from the Bamboo Forest sect, that Daimon didn't even flinch.
Even she whose father a Stellar rank, had prepared her to not feel intimidated so easily, couldn't help but shiver upon the imposing sight of Karmandi's spell, it was something innate as those who have set a foot in the Stellar rank are on a whole new level.
'Who is this guy?', she wondered.
Uly who was guiding everyone saw the whirlpool and he pointed at the left side of a large rock formation ahead of them.
"That's the entrance to the tunnel that lead to the surface, we just need to avoid a couple of obstacles".
Daimon smirked in response.
"I don't see such a thing as obstacles and you Karmandi?".
The snake general wildly smiled as he said.
"Me neither... Drill Whirlpool!".
The rotation of the whirlpool doubled and then the thing bent upwards, piercing everything in its way.
"Prepare for the impact ladies", said Daimon.
The Risha sisters stared at each other and then smiled, before they leaned against Daimon, making Aisha who was still leisurely using her son's thigh as a pillow giggle.
"You cunning little birds~", she mumbled.
Back at the surface the tension has reached its peak, Vincent might haven't been in the front for a long time, but that doesn't mean his skills are rusted.
He extended his hand in front of him and a blue trident appeared on his hand, upon seeing the old man's weapon, both Black Beard and Horrorclaw changed their cocky expressions to way ones.
They both took out their weapons too, Black beard had a pair of black sabers and Horrorclaw used a pair of rusty metal gloves with red claws.
"Oi, are you sure you want to do it the hard way, that cute niece of yours will pay the price, ah right I forgot to mention but we also have quite a nice stock of hostage nobles in our files, so tell those weaklings to put their weapons down", said Black Beard as he pointed at the patriarchs of the sects and the clan heads of the noble houses.
If possible, he didn't want to clash with Vincent, he might be one of the two best rune masters in Neptune, but in battle terms there was no one who would dare to affirm was capable of beating Vincent in a 1v1 fight.
If not why would he have gone through all the trouble to take the princesses of the Clear Water kingdom as hostages.
"You too Aurora, with a single order I can make your granddaughter experience hell, in exchange if you let her come with me peacefully, I can promise she'll at least live", added Horrorclaw.
Vincent saw the worried expressions on the faces of the nobles and he snorted.
"Use your damn brains, do you think this idiot wouldn't have demanded even our clothes if he had the hostages he says he's got, attack!".
The patriarchs and the clan heads saw the confident expression in the face of the Trident Marshal and their recovered their moral.
"Humph, don't come crying when you receive a severed arm with a ribbon later on, you old bastard!", shouted Black Beard.
"Booom!", the four Stelar ranks raised into the sky and then a horrifying thunder-like explosion, followed by a four colored flash of light that forced everyone to look away.
Before leaving, Vincent snapped his fingers and a few portals appeared behind the nobles, from which his personal subordinates as well as the soldiers from some of the noble houses and the neo nobles entered.
The battle maniac Dominic laughed out loud as he pointed his spear at one of the big secondary ships floating in the sky.
"Spear of the sea, sink that ship!", he shouted.
"Ohhhh!", the neo nobles were many things but cowards isn't one of them, following their general they poured towards the ship pointed by Dominic.
The sound of cannon explosions filled the whole area, the other clan heads sighed now that things have gotten like this, then there was no use in waiting.
"That crazy idiot, your majesty this subject will go help at the battlefield, please consider degrading that fool when all this ends", said the Blackfin Duke as he bowed towards the king and then became a black flash who shot itself towards another of the big ships.
Above in the sky, Black Beard's sabers had red runes engraved all over them, as he clashed against the Trident Marshal.
"Clang!", the sound of metals colliding echoed through the sky, as Black Beard was forced backwards a couple of centimeters, he is just a high ranked Stellar rank, while Vincent has reached the maximum stage.
But as a rune master, his weapons were of the best quality, which was enough make up for most of the difference... and yet he was still being put under pressure.
'Fucking outrageous old bastard, where are those fools why haven't they returned with the hostages!', screamed Black Beard in his mind.
Though the Trident Marshal was acting all confident, he had his doubts, the only reason as to why he gave the attack order, was because Annete assured him, Mellie was fine.
'I hope you know what you are doing lass', said Vincent to the queen who was graciously redirecting the attacks of the battle ships.
'I gave the kid my pendant, if Mellie is in danger I would feel it, but nothing of the sort has happened even now'.
Vincent's eyes glowed, he then fiercely gazed at Black Beard, if Annete said so then... he had no reason to hold back.
Aurora, Horrorclaw and Black Beard felt Vincent's mana going up another notch, the old woman wasn't following what the Trident Marshal was doing, she thought they were just applying some pressure, but judging by the current state of Vincent he has started to getting serious.
'Old Trident, am I missing something?', she directly asked to Vicent.
'I have confirmed my niece is fine, so I will be teaching this punk some manners', was the only the thing Vincent explained before he glared at Black Beard.
"Shit", Black Beard cursed, the crossed his swords and his skin tone paled, red runes appeared all over his body and then both he and Vincent took some distance as they started fiercely clashing weapons.
At the same time, without others noticing the ground a few kilometers behind the battlefield the ground trembled before a large breach exploded, water at a high pressure erupted out of the ground.
A fierce water pillar raised into the sky, then an unmeasurable amount of magic beasts poured out of the breach in the ground.
All the presents turned to see such an strange phenomenon, though it wasn't uncommon for some magic beasts to get caught in the underwater currents, the amount was just too much for it to be normal.
The only ones who didn't stop clashing were Vincent and Black Beard, and almost as if it was orchestrated, a black plate which was hanging from Horroclaw's waist.
"Lord, we were ambushed, the mermen and magic beasts had joined hands from the very beginning, they killed almost all the pirates, and our soldiers too, general Uly was lost in action... we lost all the hostages and Lady Shirel was kidnapped instead!".
... A sepulchral silence fell on the battlefield, before a black-green light exploded out of Horrorclaw's body.
"What!!!".
Black Beard who was now able to match up to the Trident Marshal, saw his ally losing his cool and he shouted.
"Calm down Claw, Sting will take care of it!", he shouted.
The Skelefiend calmed down, his black teeth formed a smile as she unleashed a third of his mana just like Vincent.
"Worthy of the legendary Trident of the Clear Water kingdom, but I bet you didn't predict this", he said as he clashed with Aurora, who snorted, a white castle image appeared behind of her as she received the attack head on.
"Boooom!", once again the nearby people and ships were blow away due to the impact.
Annete who parried the impact suddenly felt a familiar sensation appearing the nearby area.
'There you are child of the promise, let's see if my bet has paid off~', she thought as she flew towards the area were the ground exploded a moment ago, the water was still pouring out at an insane ratio, at the same time the tsunami-like wave reached the area mixing with it, creating an even larger wave.
...
Suddenly a huge magic beast's corpse surfaced from below the water, on top of it there were a large number of people, two cages as but nothing else.
Daimon who had to accommodate his hair which was dripping wet, softly cursed.
"Stupid Skelefiend, that wasn't just a few obstacles, it was a whole damn pack of magic beasts", he said as he spat some of the sea water which he nearly swallowed.
The girls were also soaked right now, well almost everyone but Leslie who dried her clothes immediately and Liliana whose body was leaking a cold mist.
Daimon looked at the current battlefield and he realized they arrived a bit late to the party, the fights had already started.
"Mellie", Daimon turned to see Mellie and the princess nodded, she tapped her beast pouch which was finally working and a peak Arch ranked thirty meter seahorse appeared in the sea in front of them.
"Let's go!", with Daimon's order, everyone jumped onto the seahorse, which then grabbed the two cages with its mouth before it started advanced at a high speed towards the small hill which the nobles were using as their fort.
Daimon could already feel the presence of the queen coming towards them, and he let out a sigh of relief, before his instincts screamed danger.
"Donge!", she shouted.
"Boooom!", a large explosion echoed through the battlefield, a small ship which was at the floating alone exploded into pieces.
A tall man with short black hair and gray toned eyes came out of the explosion with a twisted expression.
The man didn't say anything, his aura poured outside of his body making it clear he is a Stellar ranked by right, he waved he hand and a large wound appeared on the chest of the seahorse.
"Kia!", Mellie saw her magic beast gritting her teeth, the thing endured the pain and changed its direction, moving even faster than before as if it was putting its all into escaping from this place.
The man snorted and he waved his hand again, but this time he was met with a different situation.
"Do you think I'm just going to let you do as you please!".
"Booom!", the attack of the man was stopped in the air, a huge devil goblin shark was floating in between the seahorse and the man, it was Blacktooth, who had finally made its appearance.
But there were a couple of differences when compared to its previous self, the first and probably the most noticeable was the fact that it had arms, with three large claws, that and his aura was that of a Half Stellar rank!
"Hahaha, why didn't you say you treated your subordinates so good young master, let this Blacktooth fight for you... what the hell isn't that a Stellar ranked!", shouted Blacktooth in disbelief.
A silver haired youth who was standing on top of the Devil Armed Goblin Shark, shook his head.
'Luckily I sent this fool a piece of Ulkrear's arm just in case... to think the Ruler of the sea had this effect too', he thought as he opened his eyes showing his pupils had a vertical yellow line in them.
"Humph, a mere recently ascended Half Stellar beast, how dare you believe you can fight me!", shouted the man.
To which Daimon smirked.
"What kind of fool will fight a Stellar rank with just a Half Stellar magic beast, I just need to distract you".
All the hairs on the body of the man stood on their ends, his eyes contracted like needles as he looked at the sky.
"Fuck!!!", the man shouted and he tried to unleash all his mana at once, but he was interrupted because blood exploded out of his mouth, nose, eyes and ears.
"Blacktooh, barrier!", shouted Daimon.
The poor shark wanted to cry but had no time for it, he jumped towards the seahorse and his body shone in a black light, before everything went blank.
'What evil did I do in my previous life, to have to experience this spell twice', thought the shark as he tried to seal his ears.
"Crack!", a loud shattering sound filled the battlefield and the next thing everyone knew, was that some of the enemies from the pirate's side vomited blood all at the same time, the strange thing is that it was pretty random, some suffered but others didn't.
