The crew of the Red Trickerss's ship all had expressions of despair.
They knew that they were coming to an end.
Whether due to falling or being attacked by the Z-Emperor pouch, nothing good awaited them.
Rina, the girl with short bob-style blonde hair in Martha's arms, stared at Martha's desperate expression in silence.
Since Rina was quite close to their Captain's younger sister, Tiony, she knew Martha quite well.
The Red Trickerss were originally a pirate group formed by Martha and Tiony's father.
In its heyday, the group was quite famous and had more than 10 Flying ships.
After a dispute between other pirate and monster attacks, their pirate group has been reduced to what is left of the present.
Martha and Tiony's father was killed at that time.
As a woman, Martha herself was not very talented when it came to leadership.
She was initially awkward and didn't know what to do.
It was only after so many years of being a Captain that she became a little better at leading their group.
However, Rina knows how fragile their captain is.
She was still too easily worried.
When faced with a situation that was most likely caused by her like this, Martha found it difficult to get up from the pit of guilt.
Rina obviously didn't want to see their captain fall like that.
She tightened the red bandana that adorned her head, then held both sides of Martha's cheeks.
"Boss!"
Feeling pain in her cheek, Martha looked up to look at Rina.
"This is not your - Uwaahhh!!"
Rina was just about to say a few words of comfort when the entire ship suddenly shook violently as if it had just hit something.
The ship's falling force seemed to decrease for a while, before falling back down, and decreasing once again.
The constant change in falling speed made Rina and the rest of the crew dizzy.
Their heads are spinning. Some even hit the ceiling.
Rina forgot what she was planning to say.
When she tried to remember what she was about to say earlier, the ship seemed to fall to the ground.
The ship stopped falling, but Rina and the rest of the crew were left to crash into the cabin floor.
Rina's forehead kissed the floor and turned red with embarrassment and pain as a result.
Strangely, the expected hard dams did not come.
They did fall quite hard, but they all managed to survive.
Martha wakes up when she realizes that they weren't killed.
She looked at the faces of all her crew members and let out a very long sigh of relief.
She felt like she was almost dying of guilt.
Martha knew that they would all probably die one day, but she didn't want her to be the reason the others were killed.
Taking a deep breath, Martha calmed herself down.
She drew her sword and stared vigilantly at the surroundings in anticipation of the coming attack from the dark tendrils.
She was again able to think clearly after being free from her previous fears.
"Everyone, get up quickly! The Z-Emperor Pouch had sealed off the entire town. We haven't really survived!"
The crew of became reminded of the existence of the Monster that formed the giant dome before.
They were mortally pale with fear, but they were all aware that they only had the option of continuing to fight until the end.
They stood back one after another and pulled out their respective weapons.
Keeping their guard up, they began to walk out of the ship's cabin with Martha as the leader, as usual.
When they came out, they were shocked to see the condition of the town.
With a tight dome covering the entire town, the town seemed to have returned to a state of night.
The only source of light in the town was just a few pillars of light coming from small cracks in the dome.
Everyone could only curse at the giant figure of the monster that threatened them.
How could they even fight against this kind of creature?
After being stunned for a moment, Martha remembered the driver of their boat.
"Where is Ben? Hurry up and start looking for him!"
""Ay-ay Boss!""
Some of the ship's crew quickly nodded and checked the wheelhouse with lanterns in hand, while warriors like Martha and the magicians guarded the surroundings.
After a while, the crew who checked the wheelhouse returned.
Their faces turned pale as they shook their heads to convey what they had found.
Martha frowned.
She sighed before instructing what they should do next. Her voice sounded very heavy as if she was on the verge of crying.
"Lower the boat ladder. We must check the surrounding area and eradicate the Zombies that inhabit this place. Being on a ship is too dangerous because it will be too easy for Z-Emperor Pouch to find."
Most of the crew had thought the same thing. After receiving Martha's orders, they immediately descended the ship's ladder and started to get off the ship with some minimum items, such as: food, and so on.
Surprisingly, the process of their descent turned out to be very smooth.
They seemed to land on the roof of a building, so the Zombies didn't wander there.
However, Martha felt that something was wrong when she realized that even the Z-Emperor Pouch was not attacking them.
The dome still covered the entire town, but not a single attack came.
"What happened?"
Martha would certainly be very happy to be able to successfully escape death, but it was too unnatural for the Z-Emperor Pouch not to attack after successfully locking them up.
Instead of being happy, she became more and more worried.
As expected. The unknown is far more frightening than the obvious threat .
When Martha disembarked from the ship, she realized that her subordinates had been huddled at one point.
Noticing Martha's arrival, Rina ran to her side and reported, "Boss, we've found a hole in the roof. Oddly enough, it seems that this hole had just formed a moment ago. Also..."
Rina's face looked hesitant before she continued, "... It seems that there is someone buried there. Someone, I mean, a child."
"Hah?"
Martha rushed to see the hole in the roof directly.
Under the lighting of the lantern, she could see that among the ruins, the silhouettes of small feet and hands could be seen.
After staring at those feet and hands for a while, Martha asked Rina again.
"Are you sure this hole just formed?"
Rina nodded along with the rest of the crew around.
Martha frowned.
She once again stared at the small hands and feet sticking out of the pile of rubble. After looking more closely, she noticed some spots of blood on those legs and hands.
She also felt that the skin of the hands and feet was too pale.
"That thing was probably a Zombie crushed by the ruins. Try to check carefully. There may be other Zombies downstairs, so you guys have to be careful."
""Yes!""
All the crew nodded in response.
***
Martha looked up.
Covering the sky of the Frincaal town, the dome knitted by the dark tendrils remained there, squirming from time to time.
Martha sighed.
"Z-Emperor Pouch..."
As the captain of this pirate group for several years, Martha naturally had quite a bit of knowledge about the source of the threat that sky-rowers like them should be wary of.
Both Zombies, Monsters, and other Humans. Everything is a form of threat depending on the situation.
The Z-Emperor Pouch is a type of mutation of the 'Kraken Pouch' monster that is contaminated with a Zombie outbreak in one way or another.
Many things can cause mutations.
However, among the many possible situations, the situation where a Kraken Pouch consumes too many Zombies is the most likely, and also the worst possible situation.
Kraken Pouch that consumes too many Zombies will be affected by the 'instincts' left on the Zombies it consumes.
The stronger the Zombie it ate, the greater the effect would be.
And the 'Effect' referred to here is not on physical factors, but traits and behavior.
There have even been Z-Emperor Pouch species and other types of zombified monsters that have turned into monsters with a sufficient level of intelligence to be able to understand language and rational ways of thinking.
Naturally, the chances of intelligence growth in them were obviously very low.
However, when a monster that possesses a physique and brute strength far beyond humans acquires rational intelligence, then... Well, that would be bad news.
Martha was very sure that the Z-Emperor Pouch had been aware of their location from the beginning.
Even so, this monster did not attack.
Why?
Martha frowned as the fear of not knowing the enemy's purpose began to grow within her.
After staring pensively for a few moments, Martha realized her helplessness.
When she turned her head towards her subordinates, she could only strengthen herself.
She gripped tightly on the hilt of her sword.
The expression painted on the beautiful face of this red-haired captain is a real embodiment of determination.
***
Flaming Punch Technique - Burn up.
Even in the past, Zen had managed to reach this special state of this [Flaming Punch Technique].
The only requirement to open the Burn up mode is as long as a person has enough water or ice energy in their body.
In the past, Zen had a Lapiz Blue Body – or at least, he had a similar type of constitution, but slightly different.
As a result, with enough mastery, he managed to smoothly enter the Burn up state.
The water energy produced by Zen's constitution makes the [Flaming Punch Technique] able to penetrate deeper into the Zen body without worrying about burning the user's body. Under the protection of the water energy, the flames [Flaming Punch Technique] grew and continued to grow, until eventually, it became strong enough to form the so-called Burn up.
Zen's Zombie Body did not have this kind of special constitution.
However, the Zombie's body is very strange.
The body is like something that is at the crossroads between life and death at all times.
The type of constitution in Zen's body could not be determined thanks to the death energy that was always lurking right beneath Zen's feet.
Actually, the reason why Zombies lost their sanity was also caused by this death energy.
The energy of death is very powerful.
It continues to overshadow the existence of every Zombie, trying to pull what should have been dead back to death.
However, the death energy could not bring the Zombie's body to death.
As a result, the energy of death targets another target - the soul.
This is the source of danger that always looms over Zen.
His soul was in danger, yet he could not find an effective solution to deal with it other than to continue to cultivate and strengthen his soul in the process.
Well... Back to the topic about the [Flaming Punch Technique].
Zen in his life this time did not have a special constitution of water or ice elements.
The only source of the water element in his body was the result of cultivating the [Water Flowing Crystal Technique].
However, he still managed to achieve Burn up even with such a condition flaw.
Although Zen's cultivation art – the modified [Storm Azure Fluidance Serpent art] – had successfully helped him enter the Burn up state in an attempt to suppress the fire energy from the swelling [Flaming Punch Technique], some negative effects were still unavoidable.
In addition, Zen also practiced the [Flaming Punch Technique] as his Initial Martial Technique this time.
This fact opened up the true potential of the [Flaming Punch Technique].
Under normal circumstances and Zen had all the requirements to cultivate this technique, then this was a very good thing. However, this fact was bad for Zen this time.
Zen's blood energy and mental strength were currently in a mess.
Although his body was indeed injured quite severely, it was insignificant considering the endurance of a cultivator's body and the regeneration ability of the Zombies.
However, Zen was still unconscious.
In the river [Water Flowing Crystal Technique] that was now in a boiling state and filled with hot steam, Zen's mental personification burned like a ferocious flame.
He was the cause of the state of this river.
The river water continued to flow and wash his body, but Zen's mental body still burned strongly.
Even if the water managed to extinguish it for a while, the fire would soon grow shortly after.