Tilly injected magic into the flying magic stone, leaping into the air to overlook the entire deck.

The crew of the Graceful Beauty were mostly experienced sailors. After the initial panic, they grabbed their weapons and fought the evil beasts, gradually moving towards the sterncastle. They were clearly aware that they couldn't defeat so many enemies with their own strength, and their only hope lay in the witches on board.

The situation quickly changed when Ashes joined the battlefield.

She was like a whirlwind, leaving behind the screams and wails of monsters wherever she went. Any evil beast that dared to face the giant sword would be cut in two, with severed limbs and broken arms scattered all over the deck.

Andrea was not to be outdone. Her magic longbow could fire any handy object as an arrow, with astonishing power and accuracy. Therefore, she rarely prepared regular feathers, but a bag of glass beads. The evil beasts hit by her didn't even have time to scream before they twitched and collapsed to the ground—hard marbles were enough to penetrate the skull within twenty steps, turning the inside of the skull into a mush.

Winfred and Sylvie crisscrossed the deck, rescuing the injured sailors. With the protection of the invisible barrier, the evil beasts couldn't get close to them at all.

Seeing that the evil beasts were soon to be slaughtered, Tilly still did not relax her vigilance.

These fish-shaped monsters were clearly not enough to cause the Graceful Beauty's initial violent shaking—it felt like a huge monster was hitting the bottom of the ship underwater. Without Moriel's servant's protection, a few more such impacts would probably turn the ship into a pile of broken planks floating on the sea. The witches could barely protect themselves, but most of the sailors on board would probably escape being buried in the belly of the fish.

As she expected, when the last evil beast was smashed flat by Ashes' greatsword, a huge shadow appeared in the sea in front of the ship on the left—it was definitely not the size a fish could reach. The shadow quickly approached the surface of the water and rammed into the Graceful Beauty.

"Be careful!" she shouted.

Before the words were finished, the shadow swept under the ship, and the sailboat shook violently again. Two masts emitted a series of frightening sounds, as if they would collapse at any moment. Fortunately, the shadow didn't make any other attacking moves and quickly disappeared into the depths of the sea—it probably wanted to overturn the Graceful Beauty with its back and then have a good meal.

Tilly landed back on the deck and briefly recounted the situation.

"We must force it out of the sea, otherwise this damn monster will sink the ship sooner or later." Ashes frowned.

"I'll try," Sylvie said. "Since it's coming along the bottom of the ship, as long as I'm close enough, I can use the barrier to block its impact."

"By the Sea God," Old Jack wiped the sweat from his forehead, "If the opponent is really as huge as Tilly said, ordinary attacks may not be effective. Even if it is forced out of the sea, how can we kill it?"

"Leave it to me," Andrea tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, revealing a confident smile, "Within ten steps, no enemy can take my full blow."

The shadow appeared soon. This time it changed direction, rushing towards the Graceful Beauty from the stern.

Tilly, who was monitoring in the air, immediately issued a warning signal. Sylvie ran to the position and jumped off the ship's string, with several circles of rope tightly tied around her waist—the other end of the rope was held in Ashes' hand, steadily controlling the opponent's descent height.

The shadow struck, and Sylvie instantly opened the barrier. A gap suddenly appeared in the gray sea water, as if it were separated by something invisible.

The monster crashed into the barrier, and its huge body suddenly stopped. Sylvie let out a muffled groan, her hands drooping softly, as if it had taken a great deal of strength. The shadow under her feet rapidly expanded, and the sea water rose sharply.

"Pull her up quickly!" Tilly swooped down and shouted.

Ashes used force with one hand to lift Sylvie onto the deck. A huge sea beast roared out of the water, and the waves it stirred up caused the Graceful Beauty to sway from side to side. It looked like a mixture of a sawshark and a clawfish. Several tentacles extended from the top of its triangular head, directly striking the deck.

Even by the sound, one could tell that it was incredibly angry about this inexplicable collision. The tentacles, as thick as an adult's thigh, swept the railings to pieces, but it was still unable to penetrate Sylvie's defense, which she barely managed to maintain.

"Andrea!" Ashes bent over, her fingers clasped together, her hands forming a bowl.

"Coming," the latter stepped on Ashes' palm, "Leave everything to me!"

The Transcendent threw her out with force. Andrea turned into an arc, and in the blink of an eye, she had flown above the monster's head.

She summoned the magic bow, drew it to its full extent, and a dazzling light suddenly erupted between the bow and the string. This light was like the sun peeking out from the clouds, turning the sea surface into a golden color.

"Go!"

Lightning flashed, and this arrow made purely of magic emitted a shrill bang, like thunder, piercing into the monster's body. The monster's grayish-brown skin suddenly swelled, and golden cracks spread all over its body, revealing wisps of light from within. Then, with a bang, it exploded into pieces.

The huge explosion created ripples on the sea surface. Black blood plasma was like ink, dyeing the sea water black. The shattered entrails fell like rain. The tentacles that had been wrapped around the ship shrank back, sinking to the bottom of the sea along with the giant beast whose head had been blown open.

Andrea fell into the sea with a plop.

"Ah... Save, save me, I can't swim! Glug, who... Who will give me a hand!"

Ashes glanced at the exhausted Sylvie and sighed helplessly. "What a show-off and a fool," she untied the greatsword behind her back, plunged into the sea, and swam towards her.

Tilly finally breathed a sigh of relief. The threat of the shipwreck was gone, so at least she didn't have to worry about having to swim to Border Town.

Suddenly, she felt a coolness on the tip of her nose. She raised her head and was stunned on the spot.

Gray snowflakes were drifting down from the gray sky, like elves dancing in the sky, covering the entire field of vision.

"This... is snow?" Winfred stared blankly at the melting ice crystals in her hand, "Does it snow in Graycastle in the autumn?"

"Heh, I was wondering why it was getting colder as we went west," Jack.One-Eye took out his pipe again and lit it. "It seems you really live in a burning hell."

Tilly did not answer, but looked grave. Winfred was from the Everwinter Region, where it was like spring all year round, and Old Jack was a fjord man. Even in winter, it was rare to see heavy snow. But for the Western Region of Graycastle, snowfall had a special meaning.

The court mentor had said that this heavy snow was endless, accompanied by the devils' call to invasion - it symbolized the beginning of the Evil Moon, and would not subside until the Evil Moon ended.

Although the Month of the Demons never had a fixed end date, it usually started in winter. Was Border Town already under attack by the evil beasts? Moreover, the water ghosts in the sea basically only appeared east of Scorching Island, and now they were even found in the vicinity of Extreme South Cape. She wondered if merchant ships traveling to and from the kingdom's mainland would be attacked by these monsters.

Tilly became more and more worried.

After sailing for two days in the heavy snow, they finally saw a hazy coastline.