The story of the black silk female knight

"I am medical support."

Valensa interrupted Rick with a smile and conjured holy light in her palm.

Chapter 33 New Type of Fog Demon

"So the Duchess is also a paladin of Her Majesty the Goddess. That's wonderful."

Rick was overjoyed and even instinctively reached out to grab Valensa's arm, but realized it would be impolite to do so halfway through, so he quickly withdrew his hand and scratched his head.

"Sorry, I was abrupt."

"It's ok."

Valensa laughed heartily:

"Saving lives is the priority, please lead the way, sir."

"it is good."

Rick, with Valensa in tow, quickly entered the heart of the defenders' line of defense.

Valensa took the opportunity to examine the shipwreck up close and was surprised to find that it was likely a large ship not much smaller than the Seravina, which in her previous life would have had a displacement of at least 70,000 to 80,000 tons.

The fighting power of that group of wild beast pirates was absolutely insufficient to destroy such a large ship.

If Rick weren't there, that would be a different story, since there's a Star-level member among the Beast Pirates. But with Rick, also a Star-level member, on the sidelines, the Beast Pirates should be easy prey for them!

Was it other enemies, or powerful enemies, that destroyed this ship?

Valensa made this judgment in her mind.

Then, led by Rick, she met the three wounded men. Just like the ones she had seen from afar on the warship using detection magic, one of them was seriously injured.

The man was a middle-aged man, around 50 years old, who appeared to have been caught in the blast wave; his body was pierced by a piece of ship debris that resembled a fan blade.

Someone performed emergency hemostasis treatment on him, but dared not remove the ship debris, and now the middle-aged man is having difficulty breathing.

The other two young injured people appeared to be family members of the middle-aged man. Judging from their appearance, they were siblings. The brother sat leaning against the wreckage with a sorrowful expression, while the sister held the middle-aged man's hand with red eyes.

Upon seeing this, Valensa immediately went to treat him. She first applied several buffs to the already very weak middle-aged man to enhance his physique, then quickly removed the ship fragments from his body. Next, she used Holy Light to cast healing spells like there was no tomorrow.

Unlike traditional support-type priests who rely on precise healing spells, Valensa's healing spells depend entirely on throwing bricks with tremendous force. If one healing spell isn't enough, she'll cast ten; if one Holy Light isn't enough, she'll use ten.

This simple and direct method is only used by clergy who are especially favored by the goddess, but most simple and direct methods are also quick and effective.

Bathed in holy light, the middle-aged man quickly recovered from the danger. His breathing became steady, and his complexion improved significantly. Apart from weakness caused by blood loss, he was otherwise fine.

The older brother among the young injured men finally breathed a long sigh of relief and immediately began to pray devoutly, presumably to thank the sun goddess.

The younger sister was noticeably more cheerful and emotional. Overjoyed, she cried and jumped around, hugging Valensa's arm to express her gratitude, but this reopened her own wounds, causing her to cry out in pain.

Valensa smiled and offered a few words of comfort before treating the brother and sister in turn.

The brother and sister were probably caught in the explosion, with many parts of their bodies injured by debris from the blast. Fortunately, they were not seriously injured and were only superficial wounds that could be healed quickly with healing magic.

While Valencia treated the wounded, the pursuit by the Wave Knights also came to an end.

The fish-men beasts, collapsing like clay chickens and earthenware dogs, were all wiped out, but the lion-man beast Lasha was also not spared.

In battles at the Shining Rank and above, unless there's a significant difference in strength between the two sides or both fight to the death, it's usually a close call with little chance of victory or defeat. Lasha, who was desperately trying to escape the lion-man beast and didn't want to risk going ashore to venture deeper into the desolate lands, really couldn't do anything about it.

Now that the wounded have been treated and the enemy has been repelled, Valensa could no longer suppress her doubts:

"Was your ship destroyed by the Wild Beast Pirates, Mr. Morgan?"

Morgan is the surname of the middle-aged man who almost died, and the young brother and sister also have the surname Morgan; they are all his children… Valensa casually asked these questions during her treatment.

"No, it's not."

Mr. Morgan, supported by his children, shook his head:

"Our ship was probably destroyed by the Fog Demon, and then we encountered the Wild Beast Pirates... But you'll have to ask Mr. Rick for the specifics. I was knocked unconscious in the explosion when the ship was destroyed, and I thought I was going to die."

"The Fog Demon?"

Valensa frowned even more; this answer was even more unexpected.

The Fog Demon is indeed one of the main culprits behind various shipwrecks, perhaps even the biggest one, but it rarely destroys ships like this.

They often appear suddenly on the ship after the fog clears, fighting with the escorting sailors on the deck, in the cabins, and other places. They only kill, they don't steal anything or destroy the ship... or rather, the fog demons only summon fog to engulf the entire ship after all the escorting sailors have been killed or escaped using teleportation scrolls.

Destroying the ships without completely eliminating those seeking help is very unlike the Mist Demon's behavior.

Valensa wanted to ask for more details, but at that moment the lifeboats from the direction of the warship arrived, so she could only help send all the people seeking help onto the warship so that these poor souls who had first encountered the fog demons and then the wild beasts could get some rest.

The three Morgans, who were just ordinary people, fell asleep quickly after entering the guest room. The guards and sailors were also exhausted, so Valensa, who wanted to ask more questions, didn't dare to disturb them.

Fortunately, Rick, a Star-level warrior, was pragmatic. He simply used the bathroom to take a quick shower and change into new clothes before approaching Valensa and Lasha to answer their questions.

"Thank you again for your help."

Rick first thanked him in a very friendly manner, and then made a statement:

"I know you all have many questions, but our Drago Security is a bodyguard hired by Mr. Morgan through a formal contract. Before obtaining Mr. Morgan's authorization, I must apologize that I cannot answer questions regarding information that is explicitly stated to be confidential in the contract."

However, if you just want to know about our experience of being attacked, that's fine too.

"Well then, tell me about your encounter with the Fog Demon."

Even Valencia, who was on her first voyage, could notice the suspicious points, so naturally Lasha, the vice-captain of the Wave Knights who had served in the navy for decades, could also see them.

When asked this question, Lasha's expression became somewhat serious:

"As far as I know, the Fog Demons usually board merchant ships and attack the sailors and guards directly. This seems completely different from what you've experienced?"

"Of course I know all that you're talking about. After all, we Drago Security are mercenaries who specialize in maritime escort in America."

Rick sighed and gave a wry smile, his expression turning serious:

“But I can swear to the Sun Goddess that everything I have said is true… Our ship was indeed destroyed by the Fog Demon, a new type of Fog Demon that I have never seen before.”

Chapter 34 Undetectable Underwater Strike

After swearing an oath to the Sun Goddess, Rick recounted his voyage to Valensa, Lasha, and the fleet command center, which was monitoring the situation via magical projection.

Drago Security is a well-known mercenary group in America, doing similar work to Valencia's previous life's security company, specializing in providing security services for various top figures.

Rick is skilled in naval warfare, so he is mainly responsible for sea missions in the mercenary group. He and his men have escorted merchant ships hundreds of times and have extensive combat experience against fog demons, sea monsters, and wild pirates.

Rick's mission this time was to escort the Morgan family's large merchant ship from America to the Four Islands Alliance, and then back from the Four Islands Alliance.

The Morgan family is one of the most prominent families in America, with various businesses and a city under their control that has administrative and law enforcement powers.

Rick guessed that the reason they would encounter the new type of fog demon attack was most likely related to what the Morgan family had done in the Four Islands Alliance... but what exactly that was involved was a confidentiality agreement, and Rick could not say without Morgan's authorization.

They encountered the fog demon about 10 hours ago, not far from where their ship wreckage was drifting.

"The first thing to appear was a mist demon that looked like a large bird."

Rick recalled:

"Although this combat method of directly attacking the ship without using the fog as cover was a bit strange for the Fog Demons, we didn't pay too much attention to it at first."

We've fought quite a few of these fog demons before, and besides our Drago Security guards, Mr. Morgan's ship also has a spellcasting team consisting of five magic towers and over thirty lighthouse-level mages, so theoretically there's no need to fear these fog demons.

And that was indeed the case. Although there were many of those large bird-like fog demons, and they kept bombarding us with compressed fog balloons that could explode and were highly corrosive, the shields built by the spellcaster team using magic towers were indestructible and blocked all of the birds' attacks.

My men and I kept firing back with our magic nail guns, shooting down the big birds one by one in the air, which then turned into mist and disappeared.

We all thought this fog demon attack would probably end like this, but we never expected that we had fallen into the fog demon's trap.

"trick?"

Valensa raised an eyebrow:

"Is the Mist Demon deliberately feigning weakness, waiting for you to become careless before suddenly sending out a more powerful new type of Mist Demon to launch a strong attack?"

"Not really."

Rick shook his head with a wry smile:

"Those large bird-shaped mist demons are actually the most troublesome type among the individual monsters that can appear in large numbers... We can deal with them calmly because we are relatively strong. If a merchant ship were to encounter an air raid of that scale, it would most likely have no choice but to abandon ship and escape."

The fog demons' trick wasn't to feign weakness before launching a surprise attack, but rather to use a diversionary tactic.

"Founding in the east and attacking in the west?"

Valensa frowned slightly, thought for a moment, and said:

"You mean... you were attacked underwater while defending against aerial bombardment?"

"Yes."

Rick let out a long sigh:

"The bombardment from those Mist Birds in the air is quite fierce. The spellcaster team has to use most of their magic power to defend the upper part of the ship when building the shield in order to ensure that the entire ship will not be damaged. However, this makes our defense relatively weak when facing underwater attacks."

Of course, while the underwater defenses have been temporarily weakened, underwater detection and sensing have never been relaxed. The magic tower can completely monitor all underwater conditions within at least 3000 meters of the ship.

But this time, the fog demon's underwater attack perfectly evaded the magic tower's detection, and I only spotted it with my naked eye on the deck when it was less than 200 meters from our ship.

"An underwater attack that cannot be detected by the magic tower?"

Valensa, Lasha, and the fleet command center, who were watching the scene through magical projection, all gasped in surprise at Rick's statement.

For the magical warships of this world, the monitoring function of the magic tower is equivalent to the radar and sonar of a technologically advanced navy.

How terrifying is an underwater attack that cannot be detected by radar and sonar? At least in Valensa's previous life, it could destroy any surface fleet!

"What kind of attack was that? Could you see the attacker?"

A naval officer at the fleet command finally couldn't hold back any longer and asked through a magical projection.

"We can't see the attackers, so this must be a long-range attack, which was probably launched simultaneously with the Mist Bird's air raid on us."

Rick thought for a moment before saying:

"After discovering the attack, I rushed to Mr. Morgan's place immediately out of professional ethics. I didn't examine the attack closely; I only had a general impression of it."

As he spoke, he pointed at Valencia:

"It was a metal cylindrical object moving at high speed in the water, about three times the height of this paladin lady, and about the same thickness as her waist."

...A metal cylinder moving at high speed in water? Isn't that a torpedo?

Valensa frowned slightly, mentally muttering a complaint, and then asked:

"Was it that destroyed your ship in one blow?"

"Yes, that thing is extremely powerful, definitely as powerful as a high-level spell from a Radiant-rank spellcaster."

Rick nodded solemnly:

"That's why, even though I rushed to Mr. Morgan's place immediately after discovering the attack, I was still a step too late, and he and his children were injured in the explosion."

At that time, it was obvious to anyone with eyes that our ship was beyond saving, so many people chose to use teleportation scrolls to escape.

The spellcaster team did the same, but they still had some conscience... Before they teleported away using the magic tower, they used up all the magic power they had originally used to build a shield defense, and released a large spell that almost completely wiped out the Mist Birds in the air, relieving a lot of pressure for us afterwards.

I originally intended to take Mr. Morgan and the others away using the teleportation scroll, but as you can see, Mr. Morgan was severely injured in the explosion and could no longer withstand the turbulence of spatial teleportation... So I had no choice but to stay behind with my men and some brave sailors to protect Mr. Morgan and await rescue.

Fortunately, although Mr. Morgan could not withstand the turbulence of spatial teleportation, he still had another life-saving magic scroll he carried with him that could be used... It was a group invisibility scroll with the strength of a Radiant Rank, which could allow us to hide in the ship wreckage without being detected.

It was thanks to the power of this scroll of group invisibility that we were able to avoid the battle with the underwater fog demon. It didn't detect us, and simply searched the wreckage of the ship before leaving.

Unfortunately, the effect of the group invisibility scroll didn't last long. Shortly after the scroll expired, we encountered that group of savage pirates again... and you probably all know what happened next.

Chapter 35 Mr. Morgan was also wronged

First, they use a fierce air raid to draw attention, forcing the spellcaster team to focus their defenses on the airspace above the ship. Then, they launch extremely powerful torpedoes that can evade magic perception and kill in one hit—this is the combat method of the new type of fog demon that Rick mentioned.

As for the appearance of this new type of fog demon, based on Rick's memories and descriptions, the naval mages on the warship also roughly constructed it using magical projection.

From an overall perspective, this new fog demon looks a bit like a manta ray, about the size of a basketball court, and is entirely black, giving it a metallic feel, but Rick wasn't sure what it would feel like to touch.

On the back between the eyes of this manta ray-like fog demon (a manta ray is a devil ray), there is a creature that looks like a human girl. Rick can see her upper half more clearly. Apart from her pale skin, her features are quite pretty. Her lower half is integrated with the entire manta ray-like fog demon, or rather, she herself is an organ similar to an external brain of the manta ray-like fog demon.

After destroying Rick and his crew's ship with a weapon that resembled a torpedo, the manta ray-shaped mist demon surfaced near the wreckage. The mist demon girl, who only had half a human body, searched the wreckage with her eyes before diving back down.

That's all the information Rick provided.

Having made a vow to the Sun Goddess, Rick is unlikely to lie; at most, he might conceal some information that the Morgan family requires to be kept confidential in their employment contract.