That Time I Got Sent to Another World Where All of the Girls Are Super Hot and Super Into Me Because I Am Super Strong and Have Very Powerful Abilities that God Gave to Me Because Me and Them Were Friends When I Was in Grade School and God Is Actually A Loli Who is Also in Love with Me Because I Am A Super Epic Person Who Will Defeat The Demon Lord Who Threatens The Entire World but the Demon Lord Actually is in Love With Me and the Demon Lord is a Super Hot Busty Babe Who is Actually Just Trying to Get My Attention Because I Have a Cellphone That Can Contact the Internet and Can Get Anything Shipped To Me Within 2 Days But I Barely Need It Because I Am Actually the Most Strongest Guy Alive Because I Have Super Strong Powers Like Being Able to Lift Your Mom Really Easily Which is Nearly Impossible Because Your Mom is So Fat But is Actually A Secret Anime Busty Babe Who is Really into Me Because I Am Super Cool and Better Than Your Dad Because He is Super Lame Which I Am Not

Crash 2.43 (p. 3)- That time I was reincarnated into another world and had a tragic boating accident

"[GIGA IMPACT]!" Ciel shouted, slamming her mace down on Ghostbeard's head as she plunged from the sky. Her [Arte] activated, sending an explosion of force downwards, shattering the section of ship the ghost had been floating above, and plunging the spectral menace deep into the sea. Ciel air-hiked backwards, landing on the slowly-sinking section of ship she'd just destroyed. She quickly hopped across a few floating crates, coming to a stop on a chunk of ship's hull that seemed thick enough to support her.

She wheeled around, her shield and mace at the ready as Ghostbeard breached the surface of the water, like a furious, incandescent whale. Unlike a whale, he drew his ghostly sword, and lunged towards Ciel, roaring in anger. The Paladin blocked his blow with her shield, the [Divine] energies within negating the [Ghost Touch] effect of his ghost sword. Ciel whispered a quiet word of thanks to Kamiko.

Ciel spared a glance towards Wanda, who was hesitating. In the distance, Ciel could see Bonbon hanging from a mast that had skewered into Ghostbeard's ship. Ciel winced. Bon-chan was a good cook, but upper body strength wasn't exactly her forte. Time was of the essence, here!

"Go!" Ciel shouted, waving her away. "I'll handle this guy!"

Wanda nodded and disappeared across the deck, leaving Ciel alone. In front of her, Ghostbeard was chuckling mirthlessly.

"Aye? Ye'll handle me?" he mocked her. "Arr... ye don't truly think that being able to touch me means ye stand a chance o' winnin', do ye? That's worth a laugh, girlie."

Ghostbeard threw his head back and laughed, a malicious belly-chortle that echoed as he suddenly faded from view. Ciel hesitated, lifting her shield and looking around. Where was he? Had that been... [Teleportation]? No, he would have blinked away instantly, he wouldn't have faded out slowly. It must be [Invisibility]. Ciel clenched her eyes shut, then activated [Detect Evil], opening her eyes again, a ring of orange outlining her gray-blue irises. She turned slowly, scanning the landscape with her detection skill active.

There were faint, ghostly dots superimposed on her vision, light red spots that indicated the position of the surviving mansharks that Ghostbeard employed(?). But the ghostly dot she was after was nowhere to be seen. Somebody as heinous as Ghostbeard should have had, like, a massive [Evil] aura. She frowned. He hadn't actually run, right? She wouldn't complain if he had, but she really doubted it. She turned again, doing another scan of the environment. She had to look very carefully, especially since he was a ghost. It wasn't enough to just scan the tops of debris, because he could fly, and could go through...

A sudden shock ran through CIel's head and she looked down, just in time to see the brilliant red aura below her, and a ghostly sword phase through the wood under her feet to slash across the back of her ankles. She leaptout of the way, but not before the sword sparked the orange square ripples of her [Bulwark of Faith]. She felt the Temporary HP provided by her Mojo dip, far more than she was comfortable losing.

Ciel twisted in midair to land facing the offending arm. Ghostbeard appeared, phasing up through the wood and gliding straight for Ciel. He raised his sword over his head and faded from view, activating his [Invisibility] once more. Ciel raised her shield to block, and felt a sudden raking sensation against her stomach. H-huh!?

She felt her Temporary HP drop again, as Ghostbeard reappeared, his sword held out to the side.

"D-dang it..." Ciel swore. His overhead attack had been a feint! As soon as he'd gone invisible, he'd changed the angle of his attack to take advantage of her opening! She struck out at him with her mace, but he quickly drifted back out of her range, flying up into the air. Ciel grit her teeth. She wasn't an amateur when it came to hand-to-hand combat. Feints were easy enough to protect against... usually. But how the hell could you defend against an attack you couldn't even see?!

This fight... wasn't playing to her strengths. Sure, as a [Paladin], she had a type-advantage over the [Undead], as well as plenty of STAB from her [Divine] element attacks, but that didn't matter if she couldn't land a hit on him!

The ghost [Pirate] faded from view once more, and Ciel quickly reactivated [Detect Evil]. The bright red dot which marked his rough position drifted to the right, and started dipping beneath the water again, circling around her. She stepped carefully, keeping her shield pointed roughly towards her opponent. He darted suddenly under the chunk of hull she was standing on, the light dimming slightly in her vision as the wood cut off line of sight. She jumped back just as a ghostly sword sprang out of the deck under her, drawing her once again into the world's deadliest game of "This Little Piggy". The sword slashed viciously through the space she'd been standing before, leaving green streaks through the air as it flurried this way and that.

Ciel raised her mace for a counterattack, but hesitated. There was nothing to attack. The rest of Ghostbeard's body was beneath the ship. She could try attacking his hand, but to do that, she'd need to close in on the sword, which was now making low, exploratory sweeps around itself. Ghostbeard couldn't see where she was, she realized. He was playing it safe, attacking through the wood, and leaving Ciel with no means of a counterattack. The sword slashed a bit closer to her, and she stepped back, setting her foot gently on the deck. At once, the the sword locked onto the sound of her footfall, snapping to point directly at her before lunging towards her, disappearing with [Invisibility] at the same time.

Ciel turned and leapt out of the weapon's presumed path, launching herself off the hull of the ship and reaching up to catch hold of some rigging that was hanging from a broken mast. She scrambled up it then turned, standing on the rungs of the rigging and keeping one arm free to hold her mace. Ghostbeard turned visible once more, drifting up until he was floating about level with Ciel.

"Arrr... the higher ground don't be particularly advantageous against an enemy that flies, lassie. Especially if ye don't have stable footing..." he piratesplained to her. "If a landlubber like ye tries fighting amongst the rigging, ye'll wind up tangled.

Ciel thumbed her nose at him, grinning a cocky smile. "Yeah? Come and prove it, then! Let's see how tough you are when you don't have any walls to hide behind, you coward! Or, uh... floors!"

Ghostbeard sneered, wrinkling his nose at her before zooming off to the side. Ciel watched him cautiously as he arced through the air, heading back towards her. He shot forward, pulling up at the last minute to slash the ropes above her instead of attacking directly. Damn it! Ciel shoved off the rigging moments before it fell limp, reaching out and catching a pole as she fell. She swung underneath it, using her prodigious core strength and [Six-Pack Basics - Lvl 3] to swing herself up and on top of the broken wooden beam.

Ghostbeard was hovering below, looking with disappointment at the rigging that had fallen into the sea. He let out a quiet "Arr..." of annoyance, shifting his eyepatch from one eye to the other.

Ciel had only a moment to catch her breath before he was soaring towards her once more. She clutched her mace tight, waiting as he drew closer. From this angle... Thirty feet... twenty feet... almost... now!

She lifted her mace above her head, her eyes flashing.

"[Paladin Artes: Divine Starburst]!"

A blast of golden light erupted from the head of her mace, blasting Ghostbeard, who let out an inhuman scream of pain as steam rose from his body. The shockwave of her attack hit him, slamming him and sending him spiraling back down towards the water.

Now was her chance! Ciel leapt off the tower, gripping her mace with both hands and raising it over her head.

"[GIGA IMPACT]!" she shouted, plunging down towards the ghost, her mace glowing with energy. Ghostbeard's spinning slowed, and he turned to stare wide-eyed at Ciel. She swung the mace down towards him, but before she could make contact, he lunged downwards, disappearing beneath the hull of the ship once more. Ciel's mace slammed into the boat with an earth-shattering (and by extension, boat-shattering) blast of force, her [Arte] utterly exploding the chunk of ship into dozens of pieces. With one last groaning creak, the hull crumbled entirely, depositing Ciel into the water amidst a cloud of sea spray and wood chips.

Damn it! As cool as it had been to explode a big chunk of wood, Ghostbeard had managed to evade her again. And now she was in trouble. Ghostbeard was somewhere below her, and while she might have to tread water and swim slowly, he could drift just as freely as if he were in the air. She had to get out of the water. She was a sitting duck like this! There was one thing that could help, but-

Ciel's thoughts were cut off as she felt a vice-like grip seize her ankle and yank her below the surface. Cold shocked her as the water seeped into the various artisanally-crafted holes in her armor. When you'd trained as a [Paladin], you learned ways to make your Mojo protect you from most things, but cold water usually wasn't one of them. The barrage of stabs that Ghostbeard was peppering her side with, on the other hand... That, her Mojo was putting in overtime to defend against. But it was costing her.

Her Temporary HP were almost completely depleted, and it wouldn't refresh until she'd either slept or had performed an appropriately dramatic turnabout. She did have the [Bulwark of Faith] skill, which would let her replenish some of her Temporary HP at the cost of Gacha coins. But... well... this week's Summer Kamiko Collection Banner had been really good. She'd already spent the entirety of her Gacha coins. She'd managed to get that swimsuit she'd used earlier, which was great! But maybe there was a lesson here, for her to pretend to remember before succumbing to her addiction again later..

She swung her mace, but even with her admirably-superhuman tomboy upper-body strength, swinging a weapon underwater was effectively fighting in slow-motion. She kicked out with her legs, catching Ghostbeard in the stomach. The ghost responded by twisting around behind her, letting go of one of her legs to grab her by the back of her sash instead, slipping his hand up and under her belt before making a fist against her lower back. With his wrist mooring her securely, he continued to haul her deeper and deeper into the abyss. The dim light from the fire and the sunset faded away, drowned out by the bulk of water above her, until the only source of light was Ghostbeard's glow. Ciel covered her mouth and nose with her hand, feeling the water pressure building around her. How deep was she now?

This... this wasn't good at all. She wouldn't be able to overpower him enough to haul him to the surface. She had one spell that might work, but magic wasn't exactly her strong suit, and she wasn't entirely sure how the spell would even react in this situation. Still... it was that or drown!

Ciel shifted one hand to touch the holy symbol on her sash, closing her eyes and concentrating, activating her [Lesser Magic Conscription] to mentally draw the glyph, then her [Lesser Magic Casting] to imbue it with Mana. She wasn't about to try saying the spell name out loud, so she thought it really hard, hoping it'd still work fine.

'[WATERWALK]!!'

Instantly, Ghostbeard jerked to a halt. Ciel's descent had stopped entirely. The pirate yanked against her, but couldn't force her any further down. Ciel slowly began to ascend, drifting up at a steadily increasing pace. Ghostbeard tugged at the belt, trying to free his hand. It wouldn't come loose. Confusion drifted across his face, followed soon after by panic. His resistance was only pulling the belt tighter against his wrist. Ciel couldn't help but grin as the pair rapidly torpedoed towards the surface. He'd probably hooked his hand under her belt to make sure she couldn't get away, expecting to be able to phase through her clothes if he needed to escape.

But this sash... was a Limited, Special-run Official Kamiko ~Spring Harvest Banner~ Floral Delight Sash that Ciel had won a few years back! It was imbued with just as much [Divine] energy as the rest of her body! Ghostbeard lashed out, flailing against her and raining his sword down against her back, most of the blows clattering uselessly off of shield.

She rocketed up towards the surface, propelled by the magical buoyancy of her [Waterwalk] spell. At this speed... Ciel smiled. She might have an opportunity. She gripped her mace in one hand, the other slipping down to the front of her sash. Below her, Ghostbeard let out an inarticulate howl of fury, the noises garbled and echoed by the water. Just a little bit more...

She closed her eyes, and burst from the water as if she were shot from a cannon, launching up into the air and hauling Ghostbeard up after her. She rocketed upwards from the momentum imparted by her magical buoyancy, soaring high above the wreckage, until she began to slow and reach a zenith a hundred feet into the air. Her eyes sprang open. Now!

With one hand, she untied her sash, wrapping it around her hand and pulling as hard as she could, hauling Ghostbeard closer while using the tension to spin in midair, and bring her mace slamming down directly into the ghost's face.

"ONE MORE TIME!" She roared. "Eat this! [GIGA IMPACT]!"

Ciel gripped the mace with her free hand and shoved down, plummeting towards the sea once more. Her mace glowed with an awesome power, sizzling and steaming away the features of the pirate's face. His head blurred, shifting and writhing as if it were made of snakes which were themselves made of mist. His body was slowly dimming, losing coherence as he clutched at her weapon, trying to pull himself away from it. Ciel grit her teeth and pushed down harder.

"YE DAMN LANDLUUUUUUBBEEEEEER!!!!" Ghostbeard roared, as he plunged towards the earth.

And then Ciel hit the surface of the sea like the fist of an angry god.