Urushi and Fran split up to rescue the people floating on the lake.
「Are you okay?」
「I-I’m saved…」
「Woof?」
「Hiiii!」
The ones we rescued were not only the Adventurers who stepped onto the ship with Lovren, but also ordinary people who worked on that ship.
The Adventurers were generally grateful to us, but those who weren’t screamed when they saw Urushi approaching them. They probably thought that they were going to be attacked by the giant wolf.
Urushi was using his mouth at first to pull them up after all… A normal person would find it hard not to be frightened at the sight of his giant body and dreadful looks.
『That’s why so don’t be so upset』
「Woof…」
Later, the Adventurers who could walk on water like Lovren joined in the rescue, and we were able to rescue quite a lot of people.
But still, not everyone was safe. We also recovered a lot of dead bodies floating on the lake.
「…Zelyse…!」
『Where the hell did that bastard go!?』
「Grrrr!」
At the sight of the wreckage, Fran muttered in anger. The same went for Urushi and me.
Zelyse must have had some kind of teleportation ability, but I didn’t think that he had gone very far yet. Could we just find him with Urushi’s nose? Or maybe, the current us now could detect his presence with our skills.
『Zelyse should still around here somewhere――』
Boooom!
『W-what!?』
「Another explosion!?」
「Woof!」
As we were thinking of ways to find Zelyse, we heard a loud explosion again. We hurried to check it and saw a pillar of fire coming from a different ship than this one.
We knew right away what ship that was. That was where we were just a moment ago.
『That’s the Mesther Merchant Association’s ship…!』
Just like the ship that had been set on fire by Zelyse, the Mesther Merchant Association ship was also engulfed in flames and smoke and was slowly sinking.
The fire was spreading incredibly fast. It seemed that the ship had been modified in some way to destroy the evidence.
「Let’s go!」
『Yeah!』
We once again went to the rescue. However, we were only able to rescue the Adventurers.
Many of the people from the merchant association must have been tied up and could not escape the fire. Even if they had successfully jumped into the lake, some of them would have drowned because of their tied hands and feet.
But things didn’t end there.
Crack!
There was another loud sound again.
However, the sound this time was not caused by an explosion.
Rather than an explosion, it sounded more like a fracturing sound, as if something was creaking and breaking.
Crack! Booom!
And I could hear it happening over and over again.
『Fran!』
「Nn!」
We ascended and looked in the direction where the sound came from.
『This is… quite bad, isn’t it…』
「Master! Let’s go!」
『Yeah! Urushi, hurry up!』
「Woof!」
It seemed that our detection skills had not gone crazy.
『Why are there so many Modoki coming here…!?』
「Did Zelyse summon them?」
『That’s crazy! The people living around the lake didn’t even know their ecology, right!?』
To our surprise, several ships in the Commercial Fleet had been attacked by the Modoki. Some of the ships were already surrounded and had large holes pierced in their hulls.
Many Adventurers must have been sent to the Mesther Merchant Association and the atelier ship, so the security around the Commercial Fleet was quite weak right now.
And then, because of the sheer number of Modoki, they couldn’t deal with them in time.
Was this a coincidence?
The Modoki were suspected to be after the Scarlet Waterweed medicine. And when the atelier ship and the merchant association ship exploded, a large amount of Scarlet Waterweed medicine must have been spilled into the lake.
Moreover, the loud noise and the conspicuous pillar of flame were still happening around here.
That must be the reason why Modoki was attracted here.
We didn’t know exactly how many there were, but there must have been more than 30 of them around the fleet. And more of them were likely to be coming here.
『Anyway, let’s hunt the Modoki!』
「Nn!」
『Fran, Urushi, don’t use any flashy magic, okay? We’ll kill them in close combat so as not to cause any damage to the fleet!』
「Just like before. Don’t worry」
「Woof!」
『All right! Let’s go!』
We split up into two groups and took the nearest Modoki down first.
I actually thought about splitting into three groups. If I fought underwater, it would be unlikely that I would be exposed as a sword that could move on my own.
But I decided not to do that.
There was a chance that Zelyse might still be in the vicinity. And I didn’t want to leave Fran alone in such a situation.
I think it was unlikely that the current Fran could be easily defeated. However, something was unsettling about Zelyse that could not be measured by strength or status. I was afraid of what he might do.
「Master?」
『Aah, sorry. I was just a little worried about Zelyse’s whereabouts. Anyway, we’ll have to deal with the Modoki first』
「Nn!」