Chapter 89: Life and Death Crisis
Kevin saw what was happening and immediately turned to look at the *Two-Masted Sloop*.
Raphael, Celula, Monchhichi, Nova, Luna, Amelia, Toti, and Stephanie were all standing on the deck, attacking the Eldritch Entities around them.
Raphael seemed to notice the look on Kevin’s face.
She smiled and waved at him, fighting her tiredness as she called out loudly: "Captain Kevin, I heard you want all the crew members to make it into the top ten of the battle rankings. Toti and I still don’t have enough points. Do you mind if we steal some of your monsters to boost our score?"
Kevin grinned. "I don’t mind at all."
The battle that followed lasted a full three hours.
The girls worked together, saving their ammunition, and finally managed to kill the last Eldritch Entity.
Celula plopped down on the sand, kicked off both of her leather shoes, and revealed a pair of white feet. "I’m so tired. This is the first time I’ve ever felt that killing Eldritch Entities could be this exhausting."
Monchhichi crouched beside her and laughed. "You killed hundreds of Eldritch Entities. Of course you’re tired."
"Hundreds?" Celula’s eyes went wide when she heard her own score. "Does that mean I can make it to the top of the rankings tomorrow too?"
Raphael looked at Celula’s cute expression and smiled. "Of course. I think all of us will be able to get tomorrow’s food reward."
"Yay!" Celula screamed with excitement.
Ever since the Eldritch arrived, life on the terrifying sea had been full of danger. The only thing that could comfort Celula’s heart was the food reward from the battle rankings every morning.
But just as they were imagining how they would celebrate the next day, a terrible pressure suddenly fell from the sky, crushing the girls and making it hard for them to breathe.
Kevin immediately looked up into the sky.
There was Bibi Vespa, wearing a long black dress, her wings flapping behind her.
Kevin had never seen an Eldritch Entity like Bibi Vespa before, but the presence she gave off made him feel extremely dangerous.
Suddenly, Eliana, who was standing behind Kevin, turned pale. She cried out, "Empress... Empress."
Bibi Vespa sensed the energy coming from Eliana, and her face changed instantly. "Useless thing. You let a human take control of your soul."
As soon as she said that, Bibi Vespa’s eyes glowed with a rainbow light. An invisible force shot out, lifting Eliana into the air.
Kevin saw this and let out a cold snort. "Stop right there!"
He raised his Glock 19 Pistol with his left hand and fired a "Great Fireball Bullet" straight at Bibi Vespa’s forehead.
But the bullet only made it halfway before it was set off by the powerful psychic field around Bibi Vespa.
A huge mushroom cloud bloomed between Kevin and Bibi Vespa, blocking their view of each other.
Bibi Vespa saw this and smiled with contempt. "Hmm, interesting. But if you think you can fight me with tricks like that, you’re way too naive."
She raised her wrist, and thin streams of water shot up from the sea, twisting like tornadoes and rushing toward Kevin.
But before those water tornadoes could travel very far, waves of dark green mist suddenly rose from the ocean surface.
Luna, Amelia, and Nova all drank the Fish Fiend Holy Spring at the same time and summoned [Deepsea Mist].
Most of this mist came from the terrifying sea water itself. As the three girls deliberately pulled it in, the water tornadoes Bibi Vespa had summoned were drained of most of their moisture and disappeared into the air.
"Oh? Interesting." Bibi Vespa’s eyes lit up with rainbow colors again.
A strong wind blasted toward the Two-Masted Sloop. The [Deepsea Mist] the girls had just summoned was blown away in an instant.
What’s more, the wind pressure from her psychic power swept across the deck, leaving bloody cuts on the girls’ clothes.
"Put up the shields!" Amelia screamed.
Except for Raphael and Toti, all the girls opened invisible barriers around themselves, cutting off the psychic force and escaping the storm.
Raphael didn’t have the [Windwhisperer] set, so she couldn’t block such an all-around attack.
As bloodstains started to appear on her clothes, Toti stepped right in front of her.
"Iron Body!"
Toti let out a loud shout, and his body quickly turned to steel. He stood firm and blocked Bibi Vespa’s psychic storm.
Seeing that her attack had been stopped twice in a row, Bibi Vespa’s face twisted with anger. "Damned pests! Once I wake up Eliana’s mind, I’ll deal with all of you."
Bibi Vespa raised her hand, but suddenly a beam of holy light shot straight toward her face.
At the very last moment, Bibi Vespa quickly used her psychic power to twist the space around her, barely dodging the sneak attack.
But even though she avoided a direct hit, the holy energy still wounded her. The black dress she was wearing was half destroyed by the light, revealing her pale, flawless body.
Now Bibi Vespa was truly furious. "You’re asking to die!"
She let out a sharp scream, and a powerful wave of Eldritch curse energy swept across the entire beach.
On the deck of the Two-Masted Sloop, Celula, Monchhichi, Raphael, and the others all covered their ears, their faces twisted in pain as they tried to resist the sound attack.
[Sanity -10]
[Health -10]
[Stamina -10]
...
Wave after wave of Bibi Vespa’s scream crashed over them. The girls’ Sanity, Health, and Stamina were all dropping rapidly.
Seeing this, Nova let out a scream of her own.
She opened her throat and sang a high C in a pure, powerful voice, awakening her [Cursed Wraith Songstress] Talent.
Her notes drove her own sound waves, cleansing and neutralizing Bibi Vespa’s attack.
Even though it didn’t completely stop everyone’s Sanity, Health, and Stamina from falling, it bought them enough time to react.
Luna tossed out bottle after bottle of [Tears of the Goddess]. The girls caught them and, without a second thought, tilted their heads back and drank. Even Toti and Raphael took the bottles Luna handed them and downed the liquid.
With the cleansing and steady healing effects of the [Tears of the Goddess], everyone huddled behind Toti and managed to hold out against Bibi Vespa’s full-scale attack.
But that meant they had no strength left to interfere with the fight between Bibi Vespa and Kevin.
On the other side, Kevin had run out of ammo for all his Vulcan Cannons, RPG Launchers, and the main cannon on his Military Armored Vehicle.
Without those modern weapons to back him up, Kevin could only keep summoning [Lance of Longinus] and hurling it at Bibi Vespa.
Bibi Vespa, while still controlling Eliana, kept twisting the space around her to dodge the incoming spears.
For a moment, the two sides were locked in a strange, twisted stalemate.
Finally, after Kevin’s bullet clipped off a few strands of her hair, Bibi Vespa’s rage boiled over. She shouted again, "You annoying human! I was going to kill you myself, but since you’re in such a hurry to die, I’ll grant your wish."
The tail behind Bibi Vespa suddenly spread open.
She let out a series of uncomfortable moans, and then one by one, human-faced wasps radiating terrifying energy crawled out from her tail.
One...
Two...
Until fifty of them had emerged. Only then did Bibi Vespa close her tail, looking both pleased and exhausted.
Kevin noticed right away that these human-faced wasps looked very different from the ones he had seen before.
Not only were they bigger and stronger, but every single one of them gave off the presence of an Elite-level Eldritch Entity.
Bibi Vespa saw the caution on Kevin’s face and sneered. "Now you know fear, don’t you? Don’t worry. I won’t let you die so quickly. I want you to watch your companions fall one by one, right in front of you. I’ll take them away to mate, and they’ll give birth to human-faced wasps that look just like you. Hahahaha!"
Her voice grew more and more twisted, and the fifty human-faced wasps suddenly charged like they were pumped full of stimulants, rushing straight for the deck of the *Two-Masted Sloop*.
Facing the sudden attack, Raphael calmly gave orders: "Toti, you take the lead up front and soak up the damage. Celula, you sneak attack from the side and try to inflict as many wounds as possible. I’ll use water tornadoes to split up the battlefield so they can’t focus all their attacks on one of us."
Raphael turned to look at Amelia and Nova. "I don’t know exactly what you two are capable of. I can only do my best to put together a temporary formation. The rest is up to you."
Nova raised an eyebrow at that. "You’ve already done well, future Commander."
She began to hum softly. Everyone present—including Raphael and Toti—felt their spirits lift, an extra surge of energy rushing through them.
Celula flipped excitedly. Sparks of fire were already kicking up beneath her Wheels of Flame & Wind. "I feel like I’ve got endless strength! I could take down two tigers!"
Luna tilted her head back and downed four potions in one go. She let out a small burp and grinned. "Then let’s go."
Right after that, to everyone’s utter shock, Luna’s eyes flashed with four beams of red light in quick succession. She froze the four elite human-faced wasps charging at the front of the pack.
It was only a few seconds of immobilization, but it threw the entire swarm into chaos.
Raphael’s eyes lit up. Seizing the moment, she summoned a water tornado.
The wind, heavy with moisture, tore through the mass of human-faced wasps, ripping them apart.
Toti grinned wide. "Now’s our chance!"
He hoisted his RPG Launcher and fired three rockets in quick succession into the swarm.
For a moment, firelight and water mist intertwined, exploding among the human-faced wasps.
But these attacks only caused some minor trouble. The wounds on the elite human-faced wasps were far from fatal.
Soon, they regrouped and began surrounding the *Two-Masted Sloop* once more.
Raphael saw the injuries on the creatures—superficial at best—and her face darkened. "This is bad."