Two hours after visiting the mayor. Roadside café.
"I've gathered data on all the previous attacks. Over the past two months since the attacks began, the Alluring Sirens have enchanted the crews of more than thirty ships in total, most of which were fishing boats," Ling Ling began reporting the information to us.
"Notably, the Sirens don't sink them themselves but lead the ships to small rocks, where they smash to pieces, leaving the crews to be devoured by sea beasts. Based on what I said earlier, I suggest sailing to those rocks and searching the nearby area. These Sirens seem quite lazy from their behavior, so they could easily have made their lair right next to their feeding spot," Ling Ling outlined the initial plan.
"But isn't it dangerous to sail straight into the sea monsters' lair? I thought we were going to kill them from the shore," Jiao Jiao voiced her concerns, and TuTu nodded in agreement.
"As far as I know, Mu Bai has a contractual beast that's a water elemental creature at the peak Chieftain level. In the water, until the Commander arrives, it could scatter all the Sirens single-handedly. Sea monsters may be stronger than land ones, but they can't compete with an elemental on its home turf. What do we have to fear with that kind of protection?" Ling Ling reasonably dispelled their doubts.
"But couldn't the Commander show up, like you said?" TuTu latched onto her words.
"Well, we'll definitely make it to the rocks. And once we're on solid ground, without the risk of sinking, I rate our team's chances of surviving a fight with the Commander at nearly one hundred percent," our little planner stood her ground.
"Girls, don't argue. We came here first and foremost to gain experience fighting sea monsters, not to stay safe. We'll stick to the old scheme: I'll stand back and provide cover, while you handle all the combat work. If you don't trust our cutie's plan, at least trust your man," I smiled confidently at them.
"Have you even fought sea monsters yourself to be lecturing us, cover boy?" the ungrateful girl turned to face me. I'm protecting her here, after all!
"Trust me, I have more than enough experience dealing with those beasts. I might even know them better than you do," I proudly lifted my chin.
"Hard to believe," Ling Ling muttered but didn't pursue the topic. She knows it's not in my nature to joke about the girls' safety. Especially now that they're both fully mine.
Renting a fishing boat with the mayor's full cooperation was no trouble. True, it was completely empty, and none of us knew how to operate it. But no problem—summoning Bula solved that. We didn't even need to start the boat; my summon pushed it in the direction we needed.
Unlike boat handling, everyone could read maps, so twenty minutes later we were at the rocks we wanted, and no one had attacked us yet. I was scanning the surroundings with my spirit element to warn the girls if necessary. But I'd only do it if the danger was enough to threaten their lives. Otherwise, let them learn from their own bumps—experience sticks faster that way, especially the bad kind.
Leaving the boat farther from the rocks to avoid smashing it, I asked Bula to transport us directly onto them, which he did by enveloping us in a water orb and gently setting us down on the solid stones. The rocks were indeed small. In area, they were probably comparable to a medium-sized grocery store. True, the surface was very uneven. Fighting on that would be inconvenient.
Jiao Jiao must have realized it too. She used her plant element to sprout Silver Grass into every crack between the stones, and once a more-or-less even surface was created, she compacted it. Now we stood not on slippery rocks but on a rough grassy covering. With that grip, we could fight without worrying about slipping into the water.
"Mu Bai, send your summon on recon," Ling Ling commanded me.
Either she trusts me enough to sail with us, or she trusts the protective artifacts her grandfather gave her. I want to believe it's the former, but realism suggests otherwise. Or maybe she's just an adrenaline junkie—who knows.
Not objecting, since the order was sound, I sent Bula on recon. He returned literally ten minutes later and bubbled the info to me through our link.
The Sirens' nest was indeed right next to these rocks, just a couple minutes' swim away. Inside were gnawed human bones and some items from sunken ships that caught the Alluring Sirens' fancy. Nothing valuable—just trinkets the monsters found interesting.
There were Sirens in the nest too, a total of seventeen. Maybe not all of them, but definitely the main group. They feed on everything in a human body, bones included. Since they were lounging peacefully in the nest, the Sirens were full and hadn't gone hunting. I relayed all this to the girls.
"Well then, we need to lure them out. Preferably not all at once. Upon reaching maturity, Alluring Sirens immediately break through to Chieftain rank and possess strong spiritual attributes. Their strongest weapon—you've neutralized it with your artifacts—and in physical strength, they don't stand out much among other sea monsters. So if the whole pack doesn't attack at once, you'll handle them easily," Ling Ling quickly sketched the plan.
"I'll have Bula lightly wound one of them, holding back his aura and power to Servant level. The whole pack won't rise for that. Plus, from Bula's description, as we thought at the start, these are young ones, recently matured. Perfect for a first experience," I voiced my thoughts and got to implementing them.
Five minutes later, Bula leaped onto our shore and hid behind my back, playing the role of a weak Servant being chased by scary Chieftains.
Right behind him, five Alluring Sirens slithered onto the rocks. These creatures had long snake-like tails. Then came a human-shaped torso topped with a head flattened on the sides, from which grew cartilaginous tendrils like hair. Their webbed limbs were adorned with large claws.
"They're all yours, girls," I stepped back, shielding Ling Ling with my body. Artifacts are artifacts, but with her light frame, one random hit from such a beast would send her flying twenty meters. And there's water all around. The girl saw my move and nodded gratefully.
My girls don't need much coaxing for a fight. During their time in the City of Criminals, where they clashed daily, they'd gotten used to it. If they didn't have a good brawl at least once a day, they felt uneasy. I hope that passes soon. A battle-maniac girl is a family curse. And two of them...
Both coordinated their spells. TuTu cast Binding at the third step of Initial level, entangling all five monsters. Jiao Jiao used Tornado at the first step of Intermediate level but deliberately weakened it enough to lift and spin the Sirens just a bit, not hurl them high.
While the monsters were disoriented, TuTu applied the second step of Intermediate level Wild Growth, and along the thin bundles of Silver Grass still wrapping the monsters' bodies, a wave of grass ran, transforming into spears upon reaching them and riddling them like sieves.
The whole fight took less than a minute, and corpses of five Chieftains lay at my girls' feet. Their main contribution came from the fact that the Alluring Sirens' primary weapon—mental attacks—didn't work, creating a slight delay before their physical assault.
That was plenty for the girls to quickly kill the five beasts in an energy-efficient mode. But their combat skills and perfect teamwork played the key role.
"That was too easy somehow. Are they really three times stronger than land monsters?" TuTu eyed the riddled bodies strangely.
"Toss one corpse into the water; that should lure the rest," Ling Ling said calmly, ignoring the girl's words. Such scenes were routine for her.
Looks like we'll finish this quest soon.