"…Hm? Did you hear something?"
A certain goddess with the physique of a young girl looked up, puzzled.
"…What, sound?"
The Minotaur standing beside her tilted its head in confusion.
"Good grief, I mean that sound of something heavy falling from the sky!"
"Sky, falling…?"
Asterios
repeated the young goddess's words, listening carefully.
"Sound, heard!"
In less than two seconds, Asterios, now clearly hearing the sound, became quite excited.
But the young goddess, with her fully intact intellect, knew this wasn't due to any improvement in Asterios's hearing—it was because the sound was rapidly growing louder!!
"What's the use of hearing it now! It's getting closer and closer—Quick, protect me!"
Sensing that some large object was crashing down towards them, the young goddess shouted in a panic.
The next second.
A massive object fell. The labyrinth where they had been staying was like it had been hit by a demolition charge, crushed flat for the most part. Dust billowed, and rubble flew in all directions.
—The Golden Hind had landed directly on top of the labyrinth they were in.
Once the vibrations from the direct impact subsided, everything returned to silence.
"We're alive!"
A pirate, whose body was draped over the railing, lifted his head sharply, his face full of disbelief.
"Ah, land, my beloved land—"
A pirate who had landed on the ground was kissing the ground, as if reuniting with a long-lost lover.
"I never thought there would be a day I'd love the feeling of solid ground under my feet so much…"
Another pirate, standing on the deck, looked up, spread his arms wide, his eyes already brimming with hot tears.
"Ugh…"
Drake, who had been flung to some unknown spot on the ship, rubbed her head where it had been painfully bumped, then seemed to remember something.
She quickly swiped the dust from her eyes and looked in Lin Qi's direction.
Lin Qi was upside down on the slanted deck, staring blankly at the sky, still clutching the flag tightly in his hand.
Seeing this, Drake breathed a sigh of relief, an unconscious, relieved smile appearing on her face.
'Pushing himself to that state, he must be completely exhausted…'
But still, it was good—
"Everyone who can still move, quickly stand up and make some noise!"
Drake suddenly shouted towards her surroundings.
"Ooh!" × N.
All the pirates who heard her responded in unison.
Drake looked around, counting all the people who stood up and waved.
—Looks like Little Lin's efforts weren't in vain after all.
All the crew members had survived successfully, and the most severely injured among them had only minor wounds that didn't hinder movement.
"Boss, if we get another chance in the future, let's not play this game anymore, alright? My heart can't take it."
Bessie patted his chest, his eyes filled with the relief of having narrowly escaped death.
Although it was his second time flying, this time was much higher than the last, and the landing spot was solid ground. That they hadn't been destroyed and killed was entirely due to Lin Qi's full-power release of his Noble Phantasm.
"True, this kind of game is enough once or twice. Playing it too often is asking for trouble—How about we try something else next time?"
Drake stroked her chin, as if thinking of something even more exciting, her eyes suddenly lighting up.
The assembled crew: "…"
They kind of didn't want to ask what other 'games' their captain had in mind.
"By the way, what the hell is this place?"
Finding no one to share her enthusiasm, Drake pouted in boredom, looked around, and asked, puzzled.
"Looking at this place, it seems like some pretty fancy building, huh? Did our ship just crash into someone's house and smash it?"
The bearded pirate looked at the scattered human structures around them and spoke thoughtfully.
But as he spoke, he started laughing at the absurdity of his own words.
After all, in a godforsaken place like this, aside from their group of pirates, where would there be any other human activity?
"The Golden Hind flies in and crashes into a noble's castle? Hahaha, just thinking about it is hilarious!"
The big-nosed pirate imagined the scene, laughing and clapping his hands.
"Crash—!"
Suddenly, a rapid, powerful sound came from the right rear, as if something had been thrown high into the air.
Some pirates with a good angle saw what had been thrown upwards.
It was rocks, large and small, the biggest of which was even larger than a full-grown adult.
Simultaneously, bestial, heavy breathing and the sound of angry teeth-grinding also came from the right rear.
The pirates froze, turning their heads stiffly, jerkily, to look behind them.
They saw a brawny man, over two meters tall, nearly three, with horns on his head and numerous chains wrapped around his body, staring at them with eyes glowing crimson.
"…Enemy, bad, fight!"
The Servant named Asterios glared fiercely at the pirates, then, without another word, lowered his head and charged at the group.
A Servant possessing physical abilities at the Servant level certainly wasn't using a simple bull rush—at the very least, it had to be on the level of a dump truck charge!
Faced with this ferocious charge, the pirate selected as its target could only look on in terror, his legs pedaling backward uncontrollably as he shouted:
"Don't come over here!!!"
At this critical moment, Lin Qi, who had also sensed something wrong, flipped over, stood up from the deck, then leaped down, holding the flag, and blocked the path in front of this unlucky pirate.
The name Asterios might be somewhat unfamiliar to people, but his other name—the Minotaur—is probably known to almost everyone.
The monster with a bull's head living in the labyrinth, signifying a born monster, destined to be slain by a born hero, finally found in his hiding place by Theseus using a thread and defeated by him.
As a non-human monster, he possesses Strength and Endurance that a human Servant could never hope to achieve, both ranked A++.
Lin Qi, clashing with him, was like a toy in the face of this terrifying power.
He provided almost no resistance at all, being pushed backward frantically as Asterios drove him on.
All Lin Qi could do was probably position himself correctly, use the flagpole to brace against Asterios's horns, preventing them from directly piercing a hole through his chest.
Then, he had to exert force to twist slightly, altering Asterios's attack trajectory just enough so he wouldn't crash into the ordinary pirate behind him.
Behind Lin Qi was a ruined wall, about several tens of meters away.
Several tens of meters would take a human maybe seven or eight seconds to cross, but for a Servant, it would take at most one or two seconds.
Even though Lin Qi was using all his strength, the trend of being pushed back showed no sign of change. If he did nothing, there was a high probability he would be skewered through by those horns in two seconds.
Damn, this ox's strength is seriously immense…
This was the first time Lin Qi had experienced being completely outmatched in terms of raw power.
Coupled with the fatigue from his body wanting to give up at any moment, Lin Qi understood that a direct confrontation meant certain death.
Knowing what he had to do, Lin Qi used his peripheral vision to observe the rapidly approaching wall behind him. At the instant before impact—
'Dodge!'
Lin Qi's body became intangible. Asterios also felt a sudden lightness on his head, passed right through Lin Qi's body, and slammed directly into the wall behind.
BAM!
With a sharp sound, Asterios crashed through the wall, his horns getting stuck inside.
Where is he?
With his head buried in the rubble, Asterios finally realized Lin Qi was gone, a flash of confusion in his eyes.
'Saved…'
Lin Qi hurriedly ran away from Asterios's side. Watching the young bull who still hadn't figured out the situation, he let out a sigh of relief.
Everything had happened too fast and too suddenly. Even now, Lin Qi's head was a bit dizzy, unable to fully sort out what was happening.
But Asterios's head was quite clear.
In his eyes, Lin Qi and the others were the bad guys who had suddenly smashed his home and nearly harmed Euryale!
Bad people, must be fought!
"Uwaaa—!"
Asterios let out a furious roar, pulled his head out of the stones, and glared angrily at Lin Qi beside him.
He pawed at the ground with his foot, much like a bull, looking like he was about to launch another ferocious charge.
Suddenly, a voice came from not far away.
"Hey, you big oaf over there! Use your head a bit. Don't you dare hurt my little Lin Qi, otherwise…"
"You wouldn't want this little girl to get hurt either, right?"
Drake held a pistol to Euryale's head, smiling as she looked at Asterios.
Euryale, held hostage, had a very unpleasant expression on her face.
…