Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

Morwenna rested her forehead against his chest with her face flushed a deep burning crimson and her chest heaving violently as she tried to catch her breath.

Her stormy gray eyes were wide, dazed, and thoroughly glossy with affection.

Silas smiled warmly, leaning down to plant a soft gentle kiss right on her smooth forehead.

He looked down at the flustered Dread Queen in his arms with his gravelly voice dropping into a low reassuring whisper.

”Truth be told, Morwenna... I was scared of kissing you before. I was afraid you would punch my jaw through the ceiling if I made a sudden move.”

Silas cupped her flushed cheek, his golden eyes filled with genuine sincerity as he added.

”But I’m not scared anymore. From now on... I promise I will ensure to shower you with kisses always.”

Morwenna stood there in his arms with her heart hammering against her ribs so loudly it felt like a war drum.

She had commanded fleets, slain sea leviathans, and faced down god-tier beings without blinking an eye... yet right now, looking into Silas’s golden-ringed eyes and hearing his sweet promise, she felt helplessly overwhelmed.

Morwenna didn’t know how to react.

Overcome by dizzying embarrassment, Morwenna suddenly pushed off his chest, leaping backward three full paces with a loud sound of wind.

WHOOSH!

She landed in a low crouch, holding her wooden sword in front of her face, trying frantically to hide her bright red cheeks behind the timber blade.

Her gray eyes flickered with a messy and fiercely happy light.

”Y-You better...!” Morwenna stammered out, her raspy voice trembling slightly as she cleared her throat aggressively. ”You... you better keep that promise, Captain! Or... or I’ll cut your boots off!”

Silas chuckled warmly, shaking his head as he adjusted his grip on his wooden longsword.

”I always keep my word. Now... show me the stance.”

Morwenna took three deep breaths, forcefully suppressing the blissful fuzzy sensation swirling inside her chest, forcing her master-swordsman composure back into place.

”Right! The stance!” Morwenna called out, dropping into position.

She demonstrated the footwork clearly.

”The Tidal-Blade Sub-Style requires a wide fluid base,” Morwenna explained, pointing her wooden blade forward. ”Unlike regular styles that anchor your weight solidly into the ground, water styles require your weight to float continuously between your heels and the balls of your feet... like a ship riding rolling ocean waves. Turn your hips thirty degrees, lower your center of gravity, and align your lead shoulder with the target.”

Silas carefully observed her positioning, adjusting his stance to mirror hers perfectly.

STEP!

Silas shifted his feet, sinking his hips and aligning his lead shoulder with her wooden cutlass.

His weight distribution shifted seamlessly between his boots, mimicking the fluid motion of sea waves.

Morwenna inspected his form, walking around him and gently tapping his right hip with the flat of her sword to correct his angle by an inch.

”Good. Perfect posture,” Morwenna praised. ”Now... for the water film itself.”

Morwenna held her wooden sword out in front of her.

”You need to channel a paper-thin layer of water mana directly over the surface of your wooden blade. It cannot be thick like a defensive shield, nor can it be sloppy like a wave. It must be a microscopic uniform sheath... no thicker than a single strand of hair.”

Silas closed his eyes, focusing his mind.

Inside his chest, his Gold Core responded instantly to his command.

Because Silas had already achieved high-tier mastery over the fundamental water element... having previously learned [Tidal Impact] and various water manipulation spells, gathering the water element was second nature to him.

FWOOSH!

A gentle cooling wave of blue water mana flowed down his right arm, travelling into the hilt of his wooden training longsword.

Silas meticulously compressed the fluid, spreading the water out across the timber until a pristine paper-thin film of clear liquid wrapped around the wooden blade from guard to tip.

Silas opened his eyes, looking at his sword. ”Like this?”

Morwenna looked at his wooden blade with her jaw dropping slightly in genuine surprise.

He had achieved the uniform paper-thin liquid sheath on his very first attempt!

”By the sea...” Morwenna murmured softly under her breath. ”Your elemental affinity truly is absurd...”

She cleared her throat quickly, regaining her composure.

”Ahem! Yes! That part is correct! But now comes the difficult part... the high-frequency rotation.”

Morwenna tapped her blade, showing him the internal mana flow.

”A static film of water is just wet wood,” Morwenna explained clearly. ”To give the water its terrifying cutting power, you must force the liquid film to spin around the blade at extreme rotational velocity... You must create thousands of microscopic, spinning fluid saws running along the edge simultaneously.”

Silas focused his mind on the thin layer of water covering his wooden sword.

He channeled his Gold Core mana, trying to force the stationary film of water to begin rotating rapidly around the wooden edge.

’Spin...’ Silas thought, concentrating his core output. ’Spin at high frequency!’

ZZZZZZZT!

However... controlling the fluid dynamics of a high-speed rotational sheath was infinitely harder than simply holding a static film.

The moment Silas applied centrifugal acceleration to the water, the rotational force broke out of sync as the water mana expanded unevenly, creating a violent, unbalanced wobble along the wooden blade.

VRRR... BANG!

”Whoa—?!” Silas gasped out.

The extreme uncontrolled vibration generated by the uneven water rotation caused the wooden training sword to violently jerk out of his hand.

The sword shot straight out of his grip like a pressurized missile, flying across the training vault and embedding itself deep into the granite wall with a loud sound.

THWACK!

Silas stood there with his empty right hand still extended in mid-air, blinking in deadpan shock.

Across the room, Morwenna stared at the wooden sword sticking out of the stone wall, held her breath for two seconds... and then threw her head back, bursting into a loud hysterical laugh.

”AHAHAHAHAHA!” Morwenna cackled loudly, clutching her stomach as her hearty laughter echoed off the stone arches. ”Oh, Captain! That was bloody brilliant! You didn’t slice the enemy, you disarmed yourself!”

Silas turned his golden eyes toward her with a prominent vein popping on his temple as he glared at the laughing Dread Queen.

”It’s called trial and error, Morwenna,” Silas grumbled dryly, walking over to the wall and yanking his wooden blade out of the stone.

”Heh... fair enough, fair enough,” Morwenna chuckled, wiping a tear of laughter from her eye. ”Try it again. Don’t force the whole film to spin at once... Start the rotation at the hilt, and let the centrifugal wave carry the fluid up to the tip.”

Silas walked back to the center of the floor, taking a deep breath.

He closed his eyes, resetting his core rhythm. He recalled Morwenna’s advice... visualizing the water not as a solid metal shell, but as a rolling ocean current starting from a narrow river mouth and expanding into a roaring vortex.

FWOOSH...

Silas wrapped the wooden blade in the thin liquid film once more.

Starting at the crossguard, he gently applied a spinning rotational frequency to the mana.

He guided the spin upward, allowing the fluid momentum to build naturally along the wooden fuller until it reached the tip.

ZZZZZZZZZT!

The wooden longsword began to hum softly.

Silas opened his eyes.

The paper-thin film of water covering his practice sword was now rotating seamlessly at high frequency.

The liquid looked almost invisible, vibrating so rapidly that the air around the wooden edge shimmered with a faint razor-sharp blue distortion.

Morwenna stopped laughing with her eyes widening as she looked at his stable high-frequency water blade.

”Outstanding...” Morwenna praised genuinely, a proud smirk spreading across her face. ”You mastered the rotation in two tries. That’s remarkably good, Captain.”

She raised her own wooden cutlass, her high-frequency water film humming in response.

”That’s very good...” Morwenna declared, her gray eyes flashing with fierce competitive excitement. ”but let’s see whose blade is sharper!”

BOOM!

Morwenna didn’t give him a single second to celebrate as she launched off her back boot, shooting across the stone floor like a blue wave.

Silas’s Gold Core instincts flared instantly.

He dropped low into his wide stance, shifting his weight between his boots, and brought his high-frequency wooden blade up to intercept her incoming horizontal slash.

”Come on!” Silas shouted, swinging his blade forward with all his might.

KRA-THOOM!

The two spinning-water wooden blades collided in the dead center of the vault as a shockwave of pressurized water mist and wind exploded outward from the point of impact, blowing back the torch flames along the walls.

For one second, their weapons locked mid-air...

Then—

SLICK!

Morwenna’s centuries of refined fluid compression completely overrode Silas’s newly learned execution.

Her high-frequency water film cut cleanly through Silas’s water layer, gliding straight through his wooden longsword like a hot razor through butter.

CLINK... THUD!

The top half of Silas’s wooden training sword was cleanly severed, falling to the stone floor.

Morwenna’s momentum carried her past his left shoulder.

She spun gracefully on her heel, coming to a smooth elegant halt right behind him, holding her sword at her side.

Silas stood there, looking down at the half-length wooden stick remaining in his hand, letting out a long quiet sigh.

”Dammit,” Silas muttered drily. ”Still got chopped.”

Morwenna sheathed her wooden cutlass with a crisp click then she turned around, looking at Silas’s back with a wicked mischievous grin spread across her gorgeous face.

”Now then, Captain...” Morwenna purred softly. ”As for your punishment for losing this round...”

Before Silas could turn around to ask what she meant—

STEP.

Morwenna strode up right behind him.

She reached out her long, muscular arm, wrapping her fingers around the broad curve of Silas’s right rear, giving his butt a firm and completely shameless squeeze.

SQUEEZE!

Silas flinched, his golden eyes going wide in utter surprise.

”Hey—?!”

Before he could react, Morwenna grabbed his shirt collar, forcibly spinning him around and pulling his sharp face down to meet hers!

She stood on her tiptoes, capturing his lips in her own version of a kiss.

Because she was still relatively new to soft romantic affection, her kiss was terribly clumsy... Even worse than Eluned...

She essentially slammed her lips against his with a loud and aggressive smack, tangling her mouth against his with unrefined enthusiastic passion.

After five seconds of clumsy, passionate lip-locking, Morwenna pulled her flushed face back, resting her hands boldly on her hips.

Her stormy gray eyes sparkled with joy with her face glowing bright red as she delivered her new training rule.

”From now on, Captain... each time you fail a clash during practice... I’m going to squeeze your butt like that and kiss you!”

Silas stood there holding his broken wooden stick, looking down at the bold, blushing and completely shameless Dread Queen standing before him.

Inside his mind, Silas let out a slow degenerate smirk.

’A penalty where an SSS-Rank gorgeous pirate goddess squeezes my ass and kisses me every time I mess up...?’ Silas thought to himself with his golden-ringed eyes twinkling with playful mischief.

He tossed the broken wooden handle aside, picking up a fresh practice sword from the rack.

”Is that so?” Silas smirked, dropping back into his low stance. ”Well then, Master... let’s clash again. I might just have to fail a few more times.”

...

No...

Silas regretted agreeing to this punishment arrangement.

What he had originally assumed would be a fun flirtatious training incentive between a Lord and his SSS-Rank pirate goddess had devolved into something nothing short of pure hell.

CLANG! ZZZZZZT!

Their wooden swords collided once again in the center of the vault.

High-frequency, microscopic films of spinning water roared along the edges of both timber blades, spraying fine mist across the damp air as the friction generated a high-pitched buzzing drone.

”Hehehehahaha~”

Morwenna threw her head back, letting out a husky melodic laugh that echoed off the granite arches.

Hearing that hearty laugh, Silas couldn’t help but feel a cold terrifying chill run straight down his spine.

His muscles locked up, his Gold Core pumping liquid gold mana through his arm just to keep his wooden blade from getting deflected.

Truth be told, Silas was managing to hold his own against her strikes just fine.

His fluid stance was solid, his weight distribution between his boots was balanced, and his high-frequency water sheath was humming smoothly.

In fact... he was holding his own because he was genuinely terrified.

’If I let go of this momentum for even a fraction of a second...’ Silas thought, his golden-ringed eyes wide with frantic focus as sweat dripped down his temple. ’she is going to do it again.’