How to Survive as a Mage Inside a Game-Chapter 67: Prisoners of the Ship (4)

[Lv.41]

[Madwoman of Lubally]

“First, I’ll need to get rid of that annoying bitch up front. You’re not lovers, are you? Aah! That’d be even better. I wonder how someone would react watching their beloved die right before their eyes...”

“How’d you escape from prison?”

Karl cut off her manic rant with a blunt question.

She narrowed her eyes with a grin, just like before.

“Darling, is that really what you care about right now? Aren’t you curious what’s about to happen to you instead?”

“If you spit out another crazy word, I’ll rip your mouth open. Just answer.”

The woman exaggeratedly shrank back as if scared, then burst into laughter.

“So intense! I like it. Since you’ve won me over, I’ll tell you. How did I escape, huh?”

“......”

“Honestly, I don’t know either. Some other prisoner broke out first, and then they just let the rest of us out.”

She shrugged.

“Wasn’t totally ugly, kind of halfway ugly—some shaman guy. You know how shamans always have all kinds of freaky abilities? He probably used some insane ritual to get out. That guy didn’t feel like he was on the same level as the others.”

At the same time, darkness began to spread behind her.

It instantly filled the corridor, engulfing both Karl and Meylin.

“W-What is this...!!”

Meylin’s voice trembled with panic.

Karl, on the other hand, didn’t flinch.

Because he recognized the spell immediately.

<A Nightfog of Confusion Ritual>.

A wide-area shamanic spell that spreads darkness to disorient the senses of enemies.

A sealed space was the perfect battleground for a shaman.

No matter how strong the prisoners were, Karl now understood why the place had descended into such chaos. It was because of this.

“Stick your back to mine!” Meylin shouted urgently.

But Karl stood motionless.

The Nightfog of Confusion had no effect on someone equal to or above the caster in power.

In other words, the darkness smothering the area had zero effect on Karl.

“Heheh! The knights I killed below reacted the same way. Not that it mattered in the end.”

The woman’s mocking voice echoed from beyond the dark.

“From the moment I saw you, I thought it—your eyes are so damn pretty. Like sapphires.”

“......”

“So I’ll pluck them out after I kill you. Keep them with me forever. Oh, but wait, are there any mages among the prisoners? I need to freeze them as fast as possible to preserve their beauty...”

Meylin visibly trembled at the sound of the deranged cackle.

Pitch-black darkness. Numbed senses.

Even a knight would find it hard not to feel fear in a situation like this.

“Ahh, I can’t take it anymore! I’ll just get rid of the bitch first and then have my fun! Kyahahah!”

The woman, madness spilling from her face, raised her sword and charged.

Karl waved his hand toward her.

A formless, spike-like force shot out and pierced through her legs like lightning.

“...Kyaaaaaaah!!”

A shriek ripped out of her along with a gush of fresh blood.

She collapsed and tumbled to Karl’s feet from the momentum of her own charge.

“Aaaagh! My legs...!!”

Karl looked down at her, writhing in agony, and asked indifferently:

“Where are the other prisoners?”

“Ugh, uuugh...”

“Quit screaming like a pig and answer me.”

His voice fell cold and sharp from above her head.

Finally silenced, the woman strained to lift her head and meet Karl’s eyes.

Fear appeared in her gaze.

She hadn’t even sensed the attack coming. Only now did she realize Karl was far above her in power.

“You...”

Shluk!

Another burst of blood. Both of the woman’s arms were nearly severed, dangling by threads.

“Giiii—!”

“Spare me the garbage. Next one’s your neck.”

Tears and blood streaming down her face, the woman shouted in desperation.

“T-The deck! They went up to the deck!”

“......”

“The inside’s probably been cleaned out already, so of course they’d head up! I-I’m sure they’re all gathered on the deck by now. Hrk... sob...”

Karl cast a detection spell.

Just as she’d said, he sensed a crowd of presences a few floors above.

“S-So please, don’t kill me. I’ll do whatever you want, okay? Look at me—don’t you want my body? It’d be such a waste to just kill me, right?”

The woman smiled pathetically through her pain.

Karl silently flicked a finger upward.

Her body floated into the air.

CRACK!!

Her body slammed into the wall with a bone-shattering crunch, crushed beyond recognition.

It was the same death as the sailor she’d murdered earlier.

Meylin flinched at the sight.

“Let’s go.”

Karl walked off, unfazed.

She stared blankly at his retreating back.

His strength was one thing—but what truly shocked her was how he had dealt with the prisoner.

She’d thought he was just some naive rookie mage, but this level of brutality? What the hell was that?

Meylin hurried after him.

In this darkness, even a little distance and you’d lose sight of him completely.

“......”

The farther they walked down the corridor, the more horrific the scene became.

Blood soaking the walls and floor. Bodies of knights and sailors—slashed, ripped apart, tossed around like garbage.

Meylin, who’d seen her share of grim sights fighting criminals, had to cover her mouth from the stench alone.

“Oh? There’s more over there.”

A few stragglers still remained inside. A group of prisoners appeared from the other side.

As soon as Karl spotted them, he waved his hand.

CRACKLE!!

A burst of lightning engulfed them, reducing them to puddles of blood in an instant.

Meylin glanced nervously at Karl.

“What... will you do now?”

Technically, it wasn’t Karl’s place to decide—the passengers weren’t in charge—but Meylin didn’t even realize it.

“There are still some prisoners inside. We’ll finish clearing them out and rescue any survivors...”

His detection spell spread out wide.

Karl’s eyes darkened.

“Let’s head up to the deck.”

* * *

What the hell is going on?

Henry kept swinging his sword, cutting down rampaging prisoners, but his mind was in disarray.

Prisoners escaping out of nowhere. Darkness swallowing the deck.

“Graaah...!!”

“Block the left! They’re attacking from this side!”

The situation was a disaster.

It wasn’t just the reduced visibility.

Knights exposed to the darkness were acting like their senses were broken, unable to respond to the prisoners’ attacks at all.

Only Henry was still fighting properly.

Slish!

He sliced the throat of a prisoner before him in a single blow and shouted:

“Everyone, gather at my position! Follow my voice—this way!!”

Suddenly—an attack flew in from somewhere.

Henry swung his sword in a flash, cutting through the formless energy.

Then he saw someone approaching at a calm, almost leisurely pace—completely unfitting for the chaos.

“As expected, it doesn’t work on you.”

Henry instantly recognized him.

“It was you, wasn’t it?!”

The shaman freak—one of the prisoners being transported this time.

Henry growled. Aguf smirked.

“Looks like things aren’t going well for you. Just a few hours ago, our roles were reversed.”

Henry didn’t answer. He charged straight in.

If Aguf was the one spreading this darkness, then he had to die—immediately—if there was any hope of saving the others.

CRACK!

A barrier in the shape of a gray cube blocked Henry’s sword aura.

Aguf shook his head.

“You’re not the one I’m meant to fight.”

Henry flinched and whipped his head around toward the sudden presence behind him.

A man was trudging forward, arms dangling at his sides.

“...Bahon!”

The man’s identity was unmistakable—Bahon.

Henry ground his teeth and shouted.

“So in the end, you really crossed the line! How are you even—?!”

“I didn’t exactly plan this myself. Though... I must admit, I’m quite pleased with how it turned out.”

Bahon twisted his lips and swung his sword toward Henry. The speed was monstrous—far beyond anything the other prisoners could manage.

Boom!

Henry’s hands twisted out of form as he struggled to block.

His insides churned, and a stream of blood dripped from his lips.

This was Bahon—the monster who singlehandedly annihilated an entire noble house, who killed three high-ranking royal knights all at once.

Every casual strike from him was a deadly blow that Henry had to block with everything he had.

Clang!

It was over in an instant.

A red flash of steel shattered Henry’s sword and tore across his chest.

“Guhk...!!”

Coughing blood, Henry collapsed to his knees.

Bahon gazed at him with a calm, sunken stare.

“It’s almost over.”

Aguf sneered as he waved his hand, looking down at Henry as well.

Only then did the darkness lift, revealing the deck in full view.

It was a massacre.

Most of the knights were already corpses, and the few who remained were surrounded, locked in a losing battle with [N O V E L I G H T] the prisoners.

The sailors huddled in the corners of the deck, shaking as they watched the horror unfold.

“Hey, Sir Knight! Come on, fight a little harder! Shouldn’t you be cutting down these filthy prisoner bastards in a single stroke? Kahaha!”

“Shit, almost got me! Quit squirming and just die already, damn it!”

Henry, numb with pain, trembled as he looked out over the carnage.

Soon, every knight on the deck was either dead or subdued.

Drunk on victory, Aguf shouted to the prisoners:

“We’ve still got the other ships to seize—this isn’t over yet! And leave the remaining sailors alive!”

The prisoners clearly didn’t like the order, but they obeyed without protest.

They owed everything to Aguf. Without him, they’d still be rotting behind bars.

And they all knew better than to try opposing him.

“Oi! There you are!”

Just then, a one-armed prisoner spotted Henry and strode toward him.

“You remember me, you bastard? Huh?”

Henry had been the one who cut off his arm.

The prisoner radiated murderous energy as he drew his sword.

“I’m not letting you die easy. I’m gonna skin you alive, strip off your flesh one slice at a—huh?”

A sword blocked his path.

The prisoner scowled and glared at Bahon.

“Who the hell are you supposed to be?”

Bahon jerked his chin.

“Get lost, maggot.”

“What? This son of a—!”

Enraged, the prisoner raised his sword toward Bahon—

SHLACK!

—and his body split cleanly in two.

Silence fell over the deck.

All the prisoners turned to stare at Bahon, expressions frozen in shock.

Aguf sighed and shook his head.

“Everyone, stop paying attention to that side.”

Even Aguf couldn’t control Bahon.

The other prisoners quickly averted their eyes and went back to their chaos.

“Let’s go play with the knights that’re still alive. Heheh, it’s been a while since I got to have this kind of fun.”

“Weren’t there some female knights, too? Don’t see any here. Should we go back inside and check?”

Henry’s eyes reddened, like blood was about to spill from them.

His comrades—people who had shared half a lifetime with him—were being defiled and butchered by scum.

Standing beside him, Bahon murmured:

“Now you finally understand how I felt.”

“Grrraaagh...!!”

Henry glared at Bahon, spitting out his words like venom.

“I’ll curse you! Even in death, I’ll curse you to rot at the bottom of hell!”

“I’m going to hell regardless. No need for you to bother.”

Bahon let out a bitter smile.

“Watching any longer will just make it worse for you. Let me send you off now.”

He raised his sword high.

The moonlight gleamed off the blade as it came down toward Henry’s neck—

“...?”

Suddenly, Bahon froze in place, sword still lifted.

He furrowed his brow and slowly turned his head.

His gaze landed on the passageway leading back into the ship.

BOOM!

The door exploded.

Someone emerged, walking out through the smoke and splinters.

Every pair of eyes on the deck turned in unison.

A young man in a robe.

It was Karl.

“......”

Karl scanned the deck, taking in the swarming prisoners and the fallen knights.

Behind him, Meylin stood frozen in shock at the gruesome scene—then spotted Henry and cried out:

“...Captain!!”

One of the prisoners chuckled.

“What’s this? Who’s the brat?”

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He swung his sword lazily as he approached the two of them.

“Should’ve stayed hidden, kid. What, you think the knights’ll protect you now?”

Pop!

The prisoner never finished his sentence.

Karl waved his hand—and the man exploded.

Bits of flesh and blood splattered across the deck.

“......”

The other prisoners, who had been sneering, now froze with their expressions stiff.

Karl turned his gaze to Henry.

The knight stared blankly back at him.

“Sir Henry, there are too many.”

In the cold, still night air,

Only Karl’s voice rang out, quiet and calm.

His eyes shifted to Bahon, standing beside Henry.

[Lv.57]

[Avenger, Sword Demon of Holdein]

“There’s someone pretty strong mixed in. It’ll be difficult to subdue them all one by one. I know these prisoners are technically property of the kingdom, but... that can’t be helped.”

His chilling voice swept across the deck like a blade of frost.

“We’ll have to kill them all.”