A dent in the ship and vikings both on board and overboard

Seeing an attack worthy of upper tier 5, Mizuki swiftly activated [Words of the World] and spoke.

"Brace."

The moment that word was uttered, every member of the crew currently on deck as well as Mizuki herself were covered in a layer of mana.

By instinct but mostly by Mizuki's skill activation, everyone jumped below deck only a moment before the attack hit.

The next scene could slightly remind one of a certain movie about the caribbean.

The cannons and ammunition barrels almost fell overboard while broken wooden planks flew.

The ship rocked heavily, letting no one on board stay stable, exept Mizuki.

But the attack didn't just rock the ship, oh no.

It was much, much worse for the ones on the lowest deck, in the cells.

...

Moments before..

"... Lia. For some reason I feel that something terrible is about to happen."

"Are you talking about the storm? Isn't that pretty common?"

"Aren't we in the southern sea?"

"Well.."

Before Lia could awnser Hinami, she felt a strong wave of mana. A horrifying wave of mana.

"F*CK! Get down!"

"..brace..."

Right after yelling and covering Hinami from the incoming blast using her body, another, softer yer colder voice could be heard.

Everyone in the cells were coated in mana, providing another layer of defence.

Lia used the granted mana to form a barrier of shadow on the cell's walls.

Through moving, the trap in the spell activated causing not just her but multiple others who fell over from the intense rocking to have entire body parts frozen over and destroyed.

*Crack*

Just as a crack was heard from the wall, the barrier broke and a huge hole was made in the side of the ship, dragging multiple wounded into the mana absorbing depths of the sea.

Lia was one of those unfortunate souls.

"Lia!!"

"Cap'n! Hold it! It's too late for them."

"NOO! No it's not! I can save them!"

"Hinami! The water absorbs mana, you'll be out in the blink of an eye."

Slightly calming down, Hinami knelt and looked at the sea before her a tear fell into the salty abyss.

"... damn.. it."

From the original 37 imprisoned pirates, only 12 remained.

...

Deactivating [Words of the World], Mizuki frowned at her huge loss of mana but glanced over it to check up on her slav-.. her crew.

"Everyone alive?"

"Should be fine, that weird mana barrier blocked most damage." Salon stated.

"That was terrifying, I almost thought that the hydra was gonna jump us when you said 'brace' captain." Tomi said with a deep sigh.

"Hey Tomi. Is it just me or are you a lot more fearless than before?" asked Salon, taking a glance in his direction.

"Must be that one skill that I got recently."

"If everyone is so fine and dandy to be talking then set sail towards the location where the hydra had retreated. Natyr take over, I'll check the damage, Tomi you come with. I'll leave you in charge of the lower decks since you've already met the other inmates."

While Tomi paled, Natyr, Salon and Eric started walking back above deck.

Heading deeper below deck, they found a fracture right next to the second bottom most staircase. A strangely Maryse shaped hole.

"Looks like Maryse is dead."

"Huh...? But.. I- I left her right here. How could she crash through the side of the ship when the hull is as tough as steel. It-It.. has to be a mistake.. right captain?"

"Tomi."

Mizuki looked Tomi in the eyes.

"She is most likely dead. When we get to land you can make a funeral."

"B-but.."

"From your words, she was tied up here but not tied up against anything and from the sound coming from further below, we suffered one big dent, that explains the deep cracks in the hull."

Mizuki glanced at the hull before closing the hole and all the visible cracks with a layer of ice and moving on further.

"It really isn't suprising to crash through an already mostly damaged hull when the impact was that strong."

Taking one last glance towards the now kneeling and grieving Tomi, Mizuki left him alone with a few simple words.

"Even a mana barrier can't block the effect of physics."

'Human emotions really are a bother. She's dead, so what? A problematic crewmember is all she could be seen as.'

'...Maybe I should place the same curse that I have on the crew, emotionless puppets are easier to control than emotional mental recks.'

Reaching the bottom most layer of the hull, Mizuki was pretty suprised.

'They're clothes are fine.'

The last she had seen the skeletons, they had holes and slashes through most of their clothes, while some didn't even have any pants. 'I guess their killers liked their pranks.' was her reasoning.

'Must be a sort of skill one of them posesses.'

Closing the visible large hole in the ship with ice, Mizuki could see a mostly short girl kneeling down infront of the hole.

As she looked up at the ice she made eye contact with Mizuki through the reflections.

"So. You must be some rather old pirates considering the state your corpses were in."

This was directed towards the short looking girl.

Standing up was a little girl about the same height as Mizuki with a slightly smaller chest, dark grey hair with light blue streaks and dark blue irises that occasionally had a streak of blue lightning flash around the light blue pupil. Wearing royal looking pirate clothes that had a mixed color of dark and light blue with a few of black and gold stitches.

The previous captain of this vessel and the last true pirate lord, Hinami, then spoke.

"Pirate Lord of Weather and second princess of the Atland Empire, otherwise known as Hinami Atland the Mermaid of Iron."

'From her introduction, this 'Hinami' probably holds a form of Atmokinesis and either a skill or element to control metal. Judging by the chaotic yet machine like way her aura works.'

Looking the 'pirate lord' straight in her eyes, Mizuki wanted to smirk.

'An interesting one.'

"Mizuki Murasaki, the current captain of this ship. It's a pleasure."

A spark flashed in Hinami's eyes as she furrowed her brows.

'So she is the one who threw us in here. From her aura I can... I-I can't read it.'

A bead of sweat ran down Hinami's forehead.

"...What... are you really?" she asked, still not seeing a hint of emotion in those eyes or face blocked by a cloth mask.

"I am also currently your warden in this little prison I've whipped up. Awnser a few questions I have for you and I can let you 'out'."

"..."

"For now I'll let you grieve. So I'll see you tomorrow, inmates."