Chapter 730: Centipede Guild
Angor agreed to Erwin’s suggestion because he trusted the experience provided by this professional mariner. Besides, he would also admit that Summerdew Ridge could provide the best chance of survival right now.
He was never sure if he and Toby could fully protect The Limpet from the tornado. There were many unknown parts at Devil’s Water deadly to powerful wizards. It would be troublesome if The Limpet was blown off into somewhere extremely dangerous.
At least they were more familiar with Summerdew Ridge. And since The Limpet was a “frequent guest”, the witch might let them pass.
In the worst-case scenario, if Summerdew decided to destroy The Limpet, Angor could still escape with Toby and grab the captain and Helen with him. Even if Summerdew was a wizard, she might not keep up with the full speed produced by the sequence of gravity.
After that, they would simply ride on Gondola and head to Ferran Land faster, with Helen and Erwin to tell the directions.
In fact, Angor would have already done this if he could make up his mind and abandon The Limpet along with all the sailors on it.
...
The tornado had arrived.
Angor returned to the balcony of his room and watched the unfolding calamity under the protection of gravity power.
The sea was like a slumbering monster that suddenly woke up to feed on trespassing folks.
The Limpet rose and fell among the tidal waves like a roller coaster, while the sailors were thrown up and slammed back onto the deck by their safety ropes helplessly. Angor couldn’t hear their painful screams across the raging wind, but the invading tides mixed with blood was enough to tell him the brutality of the battle.
He kept his attention on Erwin and Helen. As soon as The Limpet was a lost cause, he would take the two captains away.
Yet no matter how terrifying the disaster was, Helen and Erwin retained their cool and skillfully commanded The Limpet to wrestle against the scourge. And so far, they were winning.
There were several times when Angor believed the ship was hopeless. Then Erwin and Helen somehow turned the bulky vessel into an agile dancer who masterfully hopped on the tips of tides and remained above the crashing walls of water.
“Guess mortals can have such amazing talent too...” Angor muttered.
The ship finally escaped from the worst turbulence and began heading straight toward their planned direction. Seeing this, the wounded sailors all cheered in delight.
“It’s not over yet. There’s still some distance until we get to Summerdew!” Helen called through the speakers on the ship.
“Victory will be ours!” the sailors called back.
Angor smiled and retracted his spirit feelers from his bracelet. He had fully trusted that the high morale combined with the techniques of two captains was enough to get The Limpet out of the dreadful situation again.
He headed back inside his cabin and was a little annoyed to see all his materials and items scattered on the floor and drenched in water.
But before he could do anything to repair his room, he suddenly sensed a powerful energy wave coming from behind him. At the same time, Toby bolted outside.
He turned around and saw a dozen men wearing gray wizard robes floating above The Limpet. The energy he felt came from a thick energy beam that was aimed right at the ship.
Toby halted in the air and released a barrier made from gravity energy, which deflected the coming beam.
Terrified, the attackers saw their own trick coming back at them and quickly scattered about.
“Who-who are they?!” The sailors saw what just happened and began to panic.
Angor grimaced. “Ignore those people and mind the ship! I’ll deal with them.”
He left an energy waymark on the ship and leaped into the air.
“Toby. Use your Griffin Form.”
His words were followed by a yellow flash, inside which Toby the bird instantly turned larger and became a half-eagle beast.
Angor landed on top of Toby’s back and went to confront the gray robes.
“Officer Helen, what should we do?” A sailor asked, “Should we wait until Mister Wizard comes back?”
Helen gave Erwin a grim look, who didn’t look pleased either. To them, having multiple incidents striking at the same time was most unpleasant.
Helen tossed her wet captain cap to the floor and bound up her loose hair. “We keep moving!”
“But what if we run into monsters?!”
“Mister Padt told us to move! And we’ll trust him!”
However, Helen wasn’t so confident since she wasn’t sure if Angor could fight against so many seemingly powerful people all by himself.
But it wasn’t something she should worry about right now. She forced herself to forget about Angor for the moment and told her men to keep steering the ship.
...
Angor observed the group in front of him across the veil of night.
He saw 13 people, all covered under hoods. They showed varying power levels ranging from level-2 apprentice to level-3.
“That guy is Sunders’ student, right?”
“I’m not sure... They told us about a teenager around 16 or 17, but he looks older than me.”
“He used some trick to change his look, dumb*ss! Look at his bird! Or whatever that is! That’s Angor’s familiar pet, no doubt about it.”
“Fu*king Song of the Deep. We shouldn’t have to run so far and into this damn weather if not for those losers who stopped us.”
They seemed like a group of random rogues. Angor could sense their tension, as well as their fear against Toby.
“Are we doing this, boss?” The apprentices all looked at a hunchback man in the middle of the group.
“So you’re Angor?” Their “boss” spoke in a raucous tone. “Come with us if you cherish your life. We won’t do anything too harsh to an alchemist like you. But if you resist... Heh heehee...”
Angor glanced behind him and made sure The Limpet wouldn’t be involved in any possible attacks.
“The Centipede Guild disappoints me,” Angor said in a cold yet confident voice.
He knew who these people were from the first look—those cheap fabrics used on their flax robes only suggested poor, wandering apprentices who didn’t belong to any proper organizations. And the Centipede Guild happened to be the perfect place to house such people.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” “Boss” didn’t look pleased to hear Angor’s response.
“I mean, your guild sent YOU lot to get me? Man, I feel offended.”
Angor gave the surprised apprentices a big smile, and their surroundings suddenly changed.
The wind was still blowing, but apart from that, a dense mist suddenly rose around them and blocked their sights.
“An illusion? But when? I didn’t see him channeling magic!”
“Hurry up and find the illusion nodes, or we’re in trouble!”
“Arrgh!” someone yelled in pain.
“What was that, Twelve?”
“He-he’s coming for me! He’s right in front!”
“Boss” suddenly got a bad feeling as he called to his men, “Don’t move! This must be a trap.”
He was too late. Several members unleashed their attacks at where “Twelve” was pointing at, which caused another man to scream.
And it was not Angor.