In a blink of an eye, Michael removed their heads clean off. Blood was everywhere as some of the headless bodies stammered around the deck before collapsing down into the water or to the floor. The half of the ship Michael stood on was slowly sinking into the water. He grabbed the captain by his collar and dragged him down the stairs and into the captain's cabin. Although Michael's instincts told him that he wouldn't find a thing inside, he still wanted to make sure before the ship completely sank into the water.

Michael turned the knob, but the door didn't even bulge. Without a second thought, Michael kicked the door as it crumbled down like a withered piece of wood. When the door was broken down by Michael, an empty dark room with a table and a few chairs welcomed him. For a captain's cabin, it was completely empty, without a single parchment or a piece of paper except for the mao on the table. Michael strolled toward the table, dragging the ghost ship captain.

The floor creaked as Michael felt the ship tilting to a side. He quickly ascended to the air to keep himself balanced. The saltwater rapidly made its way to the cabin through the cracks, speeding up the sinking process. Michael quickly grabbed the map on the table and flew out through the door. But before he flew away from the sinking ship, Michael hovered toward the main sailing pole that slowly tilted to the side and was on the verge of completely falling down, he grabbed a silver box attached to it. The box had a handle on top and was engraved with numerous runes and designs.

With the box and the ghost ship captain, Michael flew straight to Big Bertha. Suddenly, Michael stopped in mid-air. Gaya felt something was wrong when she saw him suddenly stop flying, so she came to his side.

"Take him and this box to the castle," Michael's voice had a bit of seriousness. Hence, Gaya didn't ask him any further questions at the moment and took out a teleportation scroll from her space ring. She then grabbed the ghost ship captain by his collar and the box and activated the teleportation scroll. As Gaya vanished into thin air, something flew straight toward Michael. It was an arrow big enough to impale a dragon. The arrow was at least six meters long and as thick as an average man's hand. When it was just a few inches away from his head, Michael caught the arrow as another arrow shot out of him from above.

Michael caught the second arrow as easily as he caught the first one. When the third one soared through the air toward him, Michael's eyes turned pitch black before dark beams shot out and burnt the arrow to oblivion. Then, Michael rose above the clouds at full speed, leaving an afterimage of himself that lasted for a few moments. Michael flew through the cluster of white clouds and found himself floating in a blue sky. Below him, the clouds stretched as far as one could see like a floor made of white cotton candy.

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Then, another arrow shot out from the clouds, only to get obliterated by Michael's dark beams. Michael indeed noticed these arrows obliterating Fairbank's attempt to escape the battle via the mirror. Even when Michael was underwater, he scanned for the second ship but found none. Hence, Michael was led to believe the second ship or the thing responsible for the arrows left the area, out of his Environmental scanning range. To be honest, Michael was surprised when he suddenly sensed something above him.

Floating above the clouds, Michael activated his thermal vision and finally saw a ship the size of a typical fishing boat hovering in the air with a couple of men atop. They were using a giant ballista to fire these big arrows. This was another freaky invention he saw today. Not that the ballista itself surprised Michael, but the fact someone had built it to fire arrows from a mile afar surprised him.

For him, the ballista or the sonar wouldn't be a problem at all. The same couldn't be said for his army. With a hundred or so ballistas like this, one could take on an army and completely obliterate them. He wanted to find the root of this problem before it grew into a giant headache for him and his army, especially if they could fly above the ground and target the army on the ground.

Michael cast the lightning dash spell, flew straight to the flying ship, and saw two men dressed in white fur coats and metal armor operating the ballista. With Michael's black robes, he stood out among the white clouds. The two of them were stunned to see the Dark Lord up close. As soon as they saw him, they reached for the daggers to cut their throats. They didn't even try to fight the Dark Lord because they knew there was no point in fighting him.

Michael was disappointed to see them try to kill themselves. Without giving them the pleasure of a quick death, Michael dashed at them and landed right beside them in a blink of an eye.

"Nice ballista," said Michael before grabbing their throats. He looked at the daggers in their hands as dark beams shot out of his hands and cut off their wrists.

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Blood sprayed out of their wrists. Still, they didn't cry or shout. Instead, all Michael heard was muffled groans. He couldn't see their faces through the conical mask they wore, resembling a Halloween ghost costume.

"Let me see your pretty faces," Michael headbutted one guy in the face and put him down. Then, he pulled out the mask from the other one.

"An elf?" Michael was surprised to see the pointy ears of the man. At that time, the one who was knocked down stood up back to his feet. The man tried to stop Michael from removing his mask, but Michael was too fast for the man to react in time. Michael expected to see an elf behind the mask, but to his surprise, the man behind the mask was a beastman. His face was completely covered in fur and resembled a puma.

"An elf and a beastman working together. Now I have seen it all," Michael snickered.

Michael's hold around their throats tightened as he expected them to scream. Once again, they only groaned and didn't even utter a word. While Michael was manhandling the elf and the beast man, he looked over his shoulder to see Gaya flying toward him. When she saw the scene, her brows arched up.

"Who are these clowns, and what is this thing?" Gaya floated to the ballista and stared at it curiously. She was more curious about the ballista than the elf and the beastman. As far as she could tell, they were deadmen.

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"This would be a good time for you two to say something," said Michael.

"Thu," instead of talking, the elf spat out. When the blob of saliva was just a few inches away from reaching Michael's face, Gaya put her palm between the spit and Michael's face. The blob of saliva hit her palm. The next thing the elf remembered was a sharp pain in his face. Michael heard a sickening crunch and saw the bone sticking out of the elf's nose.

She snatched the elf from Michael's hand and threw him overboard. Even after seeing Gaya throw his buddy overboard, the beastman had no signs of fear or shock in his eyes. The beastman remained calm and collected while the elf soared through the clouds and headed straight for the ocean. They were at least twelve kilometers high from the sea. So the elf had no chance of surviving the fall despite the sea below. The moment the elf's body hit the ocean, his bones would shatter, and his internal organs would become a mess.

"Do you hear him screaming?" Michael asked Gaya, although he knew the answer very well. For a moment, Gaya was confused by his question. But when she thought about it, it felt weird to Gaya. any sane person would have screamed by now or at least let out some sound. Yet the elf uttered no word. Gaya jumped down from the ship to find out why the elf wasn't screaming. Michael on the other hand, went with a simple approach. He forced open the beastman's mouth. To his surprise, Michael saw no tongue inside the beastman's mouth. He was not an expert in beastmen anatomy, but he was pretty sure they had tongues.

"Did the cat get your tongue?" Michael joked. Jokes aside, Michael had a bad feeling in his guts. Whatever group these guys belonged to, they had powerful weapons, training to control their emotions, and soldiers with no tongue. The latter made sure that even if they were caught somehow, they wouldn't be able to utter a word. After seeing no tongue inside his mouth, Michael couldn't help thinking about whether the ghost ship captain was the same or not. In case he didn't have a tongue, there was no point in interrogating him,

A soldier who was willing to lose their tongue and kill themselves wouldn't give out the secrets of their employers. The beastman squirmed and even tried to bite Michael. His eyes were filled with intense hatred toward Michael. Meanwhile, Gaya returned to the ship with the elf in her hand. The elf's golden hair was a mess, and he looked flustered after almost falling to his death. The elf's mind may have been resistant to fear, but his body acted differently to the fall.

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"Put them in another cell," said Michael, taking out a syringe filled with gray liquid. He injected the paralyzer into the beast man's neck and did the same to the elf. The injection paralyzed both the elf and the beastman, so they would not be able to kill themselves in the cell. Afterward, Michael teleported the prisoners and the ballista. Before teleporting, he destroyed the flying ship to pieces with a ring of fire.

By the time Michael left the sea, the ghost ship completely sank into the water, and Big Bertha was on her way to Corey's island for repair. As for Michael, he had three prisoners to interrogate, although two of them had no way of speaking.