Eva returned with Serra at full speed, holding the smaller girl by placing her hands underneath her armpits.

The way that Serra hung straight down underneath Eva reminded Fenrir of those pictures and memes involving long cats being lifted up and hanging straight down.

Fenrir wanted to see Serra in one of those memes with cat ears atop her head, but that could be saved for later.

“Serra, I need you on that—” Fenrir started giving an order, but he saw there was no need to continue it when Serra was already at The Shoebill’s only remaining cannon.

Serra even gave the cannon a gentle stroke along the side of its barrel before kissing the top of it. “I’m happy you’re okay,” she whispered to the cannon.

“I’ve already got it loaded,” Saya said, standing next to the cannon. “But Onii—I-I mean, Fen, told me to wait and let you handle the firing.”

“That cannon has seen better days,” Fenrir said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it breaks down at any moment, so I want every shot to count.”

“You could always just say what you really mean. ‘I trust Serra more than you.’”

“No need to point out the obvious.”

Fenrir flashed Saya a quick smirk, prompting Saya to stick her tongue out in return.

As for Serra, she gave the cannon a couple of pats and said, “It won’t break. I believe in it.”

“Well, if you do, then I know it’s good,” Fenrir said. “Now, I’ve got a priority target for you. The fifth ship in, we’re coming up on it. Aim for the monster’s head. It deserves it.”

Serra pulled a classic move of hers: shooting Fenrir a thumbs-up. She might not have known why the monster he pointed out deserves dying before all the others, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was killing the invaders trying to interfere with their lives… and also getting to shoot a cannon at some live targets.

It had been far too long since Serra last got to be a part of some ship-to-ship combat.

“I’ll try to line up a good shot for you,” Fenrir called out. “Fire whenever you’re—”

Serra fired.

Following the loud eruption of the cannon, the shot she fired hit the target with extreme precision. It went straight through the moving monster’s head, blowing it to pieces and exiting through the other side where it then penetrated the hull of the ship strapped atop its back.

The cannonball might not have done much damage to the ship’s hull, but it did, however, manage to send a sizable, wooden splinter right into the neck of a nearby player. He only had half of his neck after that. More importantly, with the beast of burden’s death, its corpse rolled over onto its side which brought the ship with it.

Fenrir wasn’t sure how the submersible element of the ships worked, but he did know that they clearly weren’t designed to flip over and hit the water on their sides as that made quick work of the hull.

“I knew I could count on you, Serra,” Fenrir said. “The rest of the targets are up to you. Saya will help you with loading, but target acquisition is all you. Let me know if you need me to bring us around in any specific direction or angle.”

“Got it,” Serra said before helping Saya with loading the cannon.

“What about me?” Eva asked Fenrir. “Anything you want me to do?”

The idea of sending her out to fly over the enemy ships, damaging them from above using her body’s bestial capabilities, came to mind… but if they knocked her out of the air, she would land and potentially drown in the water at best. At worst, she would land on one of the ships, surrounded by enemies with no morals nor concerns for ethics, and he didn’t want to think about what might happen to her avatar in that case.

Fenrir did have another idea, though. “Would it be possible for you to enchant the cannonballs? You know, like, make them electrocuted or something?”

Eva shook her head. “Don’t forget, I don’t actually know magic, and that’s something magic would be needed for.” Eva flapped her wing of a thunderbird, summoning crackling electricity around it. “It might look like magic, but that’s technically a ‘natural’ phenomenon. I’m pretty limited with what I can do with it.”

“In that case, head back over to Nameless. You’ll be more useful over there than here.”

“You sure you don’t want me to fly around and breath fire or zap the enemies?”

“I want you to, but what I want even more is to not risk you getting knocked out of the air and captured.”

“Captured… oh. I just remembered something.”

“And what would that be?”

“I’ve got a deus ex machina built into me. Completely forgot about it since it was never useful before, but it would be if I got captured. And since I’ve never gotten to use it before… can I let them capture them?”

“Do you have any idea how fucked these guys are? If they—”

“Fen, I love you, but don’t forget that I’m a proud member of the Scholars. It’s my job to know more than you. I know what’ll happen if I got captured. If I didn’t have my ‘deus ex machina,’ then I’d immediately wake and wait to see if my avatar got rescued or not. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t even bother immersing again, remove my access to this character, and start over. Trust me, nothing bad is going to happen to me. Some pretty bad things will happen to everybody else, though.”

Fenrir couldn’t hold back the concern on his face while Serra fired her second shot in the background, but he gave in with a sigh and said, “Alright. As long as you promise me you’ll be safe.”

“Oh, no, I’m not promising that at all. If anything, I’m promising to be the opposite of safe. I’ll only promise that those guys won’t get to have their way with me.”

“I’m going to trust you that that’s good enough.”

“Good. All you need is to trust me. After all, I didn’t take on the heart of a loonomb for nothing.”

“A—a what?”

Eva smirked. “I’ll explain later. When you see me g o down, if they even manage to knock me down, make sure to watch for a show.”

With those words and a flap of her wings, Eva shot up into the air and flew over toward the enemy fleet. It didn’t take long for the first eruption of flames from her mouth to strafe over one the wooden deck of one of the ships, and she followed up with a bolt of electricity once she was out of flames.

All of the enemy players with ranged capabilities tried to shoot her down in retaliation, but none managed at first. She was too fast and agile of a moving target for them. It helped that Eva had no intention of making it easy for them.

Meanwhile, Serra fired her third shot. Just like the two before it, she went for the heads of the monsters to instantly kill them and render the ships useless.

The naval side of things was turning in their favor. With The Shoebill back in action, Fenrir at the wheel, and Serra at the cannon, there were few threats on the water that could pose any danger to them. Saya helped too, of course, with assisting Serra in loading the cannon.

But… that actually slowed Serra down. Not that Serra would admit that, of course, since the time lost in having Saya’s help was minimal. She was just so used to handling it all on her own that she already had the routine perfected and actually managed to get it done slightly faster when on her own.

There was nobody better than Serra at manning a cannon.

Even so, no matter how great the teamwork might have been, they were still only one ship against a fleet of ships. No amount of masterful steering would save The Shoebill from every shot fired their way.

And given that their enemies were still using those cannonballs capable of spreading toxic fumes wherever they landed, it only took one hit to cause a serious issue for them.

The enemy’s one, successful shot penetrated The Shoebill’s hull and landed atop the lower deck, the toxic gas within seeping out and quickly spreading through some of the gaps and holes left on the main deck. Seeing as how The Shoebill wasn’t completely restored yet, there were plenty of small gaps for that gas to seep through, and it didn’t take long for The Shoebill’s crew to notice it around their feet.

Before Fenrir could even say a single word about it, Saya stepped back from the cannon and looked at him to say, “I’ll deal with it,” earning a nod from him.

He didn’t want to let her, but he knew that there wasn’t any better option at the time.

Taking a deep breath, Saya rushed below deck where the the toxic fumes were already heavy in the air. Even though she held her breath, the gas still managed to get inside of her system through other orifices. Her nostrils, her eyes—she felt the same painful sensation everybody else did who fell victim to the gas. Even so, despite hardly being able to see through her tears, she rummaged around until she found the source of all the gas and lifted the toxic cannonball up underneath her shirt. Spreading those fumes above the deck was the last thing she wanted, so she tried to contain them as best she could.

And as soon as Saya made it back above deck, she dove overboard straight into the ocean below. Water was what neutralized the gas back when Fenrir first dealt with these fumes, and they were going to be what neutralized the gas again. Or, at the very least, Saya got to release the cannonball from her shirt so it could sink down to the ocean’s floor where it would be somebody else’s problem.

What she did next, though, was much riskier.

Saya had no idea if it would even work or not, but she drowned herself. Kind of, at least. She opened up her mouth and swallowed the ocean’s water in addition to breathing some in through her nostrils. She kept her eyes open as well so that any chemicals from the gas on them would hopefully get diluted or washed away.

Naturally, such a plan had its downsides.

She was in the open ocean with a throat and lungs filling up with water, and that was on top of feeling pain from the toxic fumes in the first place.

But… that pain was going away.

In a desperate attempt for fresh air, Saya swam up to the surface and coughed out as much water as she could, some black sludge similar to when Rao coughed from the fumes mixed in with the water she coughed out.

Saya’s internals felt like they were on fire between the intake of salt water and the toxic fumes, but she managed to stay afloat until something familiar landed in the water in front of her.

It was the end of Rod’s line.

Looking up, she saw The Shoebill up ahead with Fenrir standing at the rear, Rod in hand waiting to reel her in.

While Saya might have feared what sort of lame jokes he might make later about “catching” her and reeling her in, she shoved those fears to the side so that he could bring her in.

It didn’t take long for her fears to become reality.

As soon as Saya made it to The Shoebill’s side where she could climb back up, she saw Fenrir lean over it and heard him say, “Looks like I caught a waifu. Does this mean you’re a dogfish now?”

“I’m letting myself drown next time,” Saya grumbled.