The sea looks gorgeous.
I'm standing in front of the ship, looking towards the sea in excitement as thankfully, I didn't experience any seasickness as the ship sailed smoothly.
The weather is perfect today, making us move a considerable distance as we are on our way towards our first stop before going to the location of the first guardian monster.
Lion and Bahar are doing some kind of a duel with their weapons as Bahar is using some kind of trident as his weapon.
Hmm.
I soon got distracted by Ghost's shout as he saw something from his telescope. He is our lookout and spent his time at the crow's nest in which he doesn't mind as he took this opportunity to use his telescope which I designed for him.
Alpha is the one controlling the ship while Orm is beside him, glancing around for any signs of enemies.
Sly is watching the duel between Lion and Bahar, taunting Bahar whenever Lion gets the upper hand.
I used to suffer from seasickness a lot whenever I travelled by ship back on earth. So I never had any good memories, only memories of me puking in the ship's toilet.
We are planning to stop at the first island to replenish our supplies as we decided to stop at any port we can see as we don't know how long we get to visit the next one.
I was beginning to get bored as it was quite some time we didn't see anything else, just the sea when Ghost gave another shout, telling us that he can see the island up ahead.
Alpha made the ship go a little faster with Orm's help as Orm created some breeze using his magic.
Finally, we arrived at the island where I can see so many different creatures that I didn't see way back at the territory. Most of them have darker complexion and have leaner bodies compared to those living at the territory.
Lion gave Ghost his permission to accompany me to the market as Ghost wanted to show me the place and at the same time, may tempt me in buying stuff.
Lion cannot accompany me as he is keeping an eye on Bahar in which Bahar constantly challenged him to a duel all the time.
To my surprise, Lion and Bahar are almost equal in terms of their strength and skills in their regular form.
I don't know if they are almost equal if they transform to their other form. I'm not sure about Bahar's ultimate form though.
I continued to ignore him especially as I noticed that he seemed to stare at me with greed in his eyes which became intense whenever Lion doesn't look at his direction.
I get chills whenever I see him looking at me.
I don't have a good feeling about him.
But since Lion is with him most of the time, I didn't think much of it.
Lion is becoming better with his fighting and magic skills as I just noticed that he doesn't wear his other magical jewelry anymore. It's only the necklace that I gave him and some earrings in which I casually mentioned to him awhile back, that I find him alluring whenever he wears earrings.
Somehow, he wears earrings all the time after that, even when he is bathing or sleeping.
Alpha and Orm are staying behind the ship, trying to check and maintain the ship's condition while Sly had to stay behind despite his protests as Lion insisted that the two of them keep an eye on Bahar.
Ghost and I had a good time, as we both loved buying random stuff. I bought some seafood and some sea plants as well since I'm planning to cook a nice dinner for everyone that they haven't tried before.
I smiled to myself, anticipating their reactions.
Suddenly, I felt Ghost intertwining his hand with mine. I glanced up at him as he averted his eyes while turning red.
I don't mind though as I enjoyed his company.
We had fun looking around as he tried to show me things that I haven't seen before back in the territory.
While we were walking towards the ship, I thanked him for giving me a good time in which he stopped walking.
He sighed while looking at the sky as I somehow get the feeling that he is reluctant to say what he is about to say to me.
I just gave his hand a little squeeze as he didn't let go of my hand yet.
Then he looked at me with a tender look in his eyes and told me that Lion is really lucky.
Ah.
I get it.
He was about to continue walking when I told him that I want to spend time with him again in the future in which he gave me a radiant smile.
....
Sly raised his eyebrow at Ghost when he saw us holding hands as we went back to the ship. I gave him a quick smile as I hurriedly went to get my magical notebook and pen.
I can hear them bickering as I tried to ignore them. I called Orm to help me make a portable grill, stove and other kitchen equipment. Alpha helped by placing the stuff inside one of the ship's room. Lion and Bahar continued to duel in which I was beginning to get irritated.
Orm and Alpha then helped me bring the seafood and the sea plants in which they kept on asking me on what I'm planning to make this time.
I grinned at them while shooing them out of the kitchen, telling them to prepare a long table and some chairs on the deck as I will call them as soon as I'm done.
All right, let's get cooking.
....
I heard everyone's voices outside the door as they kept begging me to let them in. I smiled to myself as I ignored them while I'm putting finishing touches on the food.
It smelled good that I'm tempted to eat everything.
I threatened everyone earlier with my rocket lightning launcher as they kept pestering me while I'm cooking.
Satisfied, I opened the door and asked them to bring the dishes to the table on the deck.
I grilled and fried some seafood, made some soup, seaweed salad and even made some cocktail in which everyone wanted to taste first.
I raised my eyebrow and everyone behaved, including Bahar.
I still don't like him.
As soon as everything was placed on the table, everyone excitedly waited for me to give the signal to start eating. As soon as I did that, everyone ate instantly, with delighted looks on their faces. I prepared lots of food so that everyone can eat, regardless if they are predator or prey.
Good thing that I prepared a lot as they kept on eating as if they are starving.
Soon, everything was gone and I told Ghost to get the covered dish from the kitchen. Everyone excitedly asked me what it is, in which I just smiled at them without answering.
When Ghost came back, to everyone's dismay, he ate almost half of the fruit sorbet that I made.
If it weren't for me offering cocktails to everyone, there would be another brawl.
....
Lion and I took a bath together in which he kept on apologizing to me for being obsessed with dueling against Bahar lately.
I didn't answer him.
Instead, I just closed my eyes, feeling a bit exhausted after a long day.
I didn't hear anything after that since I fell asleep.
....
I suddenly woke up and felt that the ship is moving. I can feel Lion's arms around me as he is still sleeping.
I'm not in the mood for cuddling.
I admit that I'm annoyed at him being with Bahar lately as I still have grudge against Bahar. I still don't get it why Lion continued to spend time with him, even if they are just dueling.
Common sense starts to sink in as I realized that Bahar is the closest rival he could ever have for now.
I still hate his guts though.
Slowly, I got out of the bed without waking Lion up and changed my clothes. Puma managed to pack some pants so I decided to wear pants this time.
I don't want to look pretty.
The most decent top Puma packed for me is a spaghetti strap top in which I reluctantly wear. I wore underwear underneath my clothes though. I still couldn't hide the straps of my bra much to my dismay.
Oh well.
I tied my hair into a ponytail as I try to recall what I read about the legendary monsters in the fantasy novels.
It sounded calm outside so I decided to go out without waking Lion up while carrying my rocket lightning launcher.
....
It sounded too calm.
Aside from the noise of the duel between Sly and Bahar in which Sly is clearly losing, and of Ghost's constant yelling at Orm, somehow the calmness doesn't feel right.
I glanced at Alpha, hoping that he might have noticed but to no avail as he was distracted by Ghost and Orm's bickering.
I slowly went towards the ship's side as I gripped my rocket lightning launcher tightly, trying to peep at the sea below when, to my horror, I saw the presence of constant bubbles and inky black color on the water that is slowly increasing in amount.
Time for battle.
I yelled at everyone to shut up in which they looked at me with surprise as I'm beginning to panic.
Just then, Lion walked towards me, about to ask me why I left him when I grabbed his shirt and told him in a shaking voice that a guardian monster is below our ship.
Lion signaled everyone to prepare for battle in which Alpha stopped the ship.
Lion nuzzled me on the neck as he spoke words of comfort to me, assuring me that he will protect me.
Then everyone held their weapons as Ghost signaled that something colossal is coming out of the water.
Lion told me to get back as the ship starts to sway uncontrollably.
I hurriedly went back towards the cabin when I heard a giant, deafening ROAR in which I saw the colossal size of the kraken in real life.
Lion signaled everyone to stay in position while I slowly back my way towards the cabin.
I'm scared. I was too overconfident.
It's different when you see it in real life.
I tried my best to calm down when some of the Kraken's tentacles started to hold the ship, making it sway violently.
Lion and Bahar flew above the air to attack some of the giant tentacles while Ghost tried to hit the monster's tentacle that is holding the mast, hitting it with lightning attack, making the monster roar in anger as it withdrew the tentacle.
An electric arrow strike near the Kraken's eye as Orm tried to blind the monster, sending electrical waves throughout its body.
Sly successfully chopped off 2 tentacles in which there should be remaining 8 tentacles as what the novels usually depicted.
As I tried to count the remaining tentacles, I realized to my horror, that the kraken has 12 visible tentacles in which I suspected that there are many more tentacles hidden.
I heard several high pitched sounds and the sounds of several thwacks that turned out to be a human sized monster octopuses crawling on the ship. Alpha tried to attack them using his spear and summoning lightning explosions that got rid some of them.
The rocket lightning launcher proved to be very effective too as I took out several of the monster octopuses too as they tried to attach themselves to us.
Sounds of lightning crashes and gigantic roars surrounded us as the kraken kept attacking us and the ship with more tentacles. More and more monster octopuses went inside the ship as Alpha and I desperately tried to get rid of them.
They seemed endless.