Path of Conquest

The sound of boiling rose.

The deathly still ocean churned, its waves unceasing.

Under the searchlights, streaks of pitch-black color emerged from the shadowy sea, rapidly spreading in from afar like winding mist or streams.

Utterly unafraid of steel constructs, they suddenly slammed into the foremost warship. At once, wave after wave of scalp-crawling, shrill scraping erupted, mingled with the sound of boiling water—utterly bizarre.

Screams rang out.

On the deck, the sailors of Devour City staggered back in terror. The colossal creatures leaping from the sea had already landed on deck, writhing and slithering about. They were monstrous fish, taller than ordinary people, ugly and enormous. Layer upon layer of fangs spread from their mouths like dense brush bristles. As their huge jaws opened and closed, they left furrows across the deck. Anyone caught in those jaws was bitten cleanly in half at the waist, blood plasma and entrails spraying forth. Piranhas!

The monstrous fish flopped and writhed, crawling wildly all over the deck. Some returned to the sea, while others were shot into mangled heaps of flesh on the spot under indiscriminate gunfire. Yet even with their brains and organs blasted apart, those hollow eyes remained fixed on the food around them. Their mouths opened, and they twisted their way forward.

They could not comprehend death, could not feel pain, and had no need to think. They had only instinct.

All those damned things had in their heads was eat, eat, eat. Even without brains, they could still control their bodies through the nerves in their spines and their other organs... Even if broken in the middle, the remaining upper half would keep wriggling and bouncing forward, choosing people to devour.

Even more alarming, amid waves of scalp-crawling friction, cracks rapidly appeared across the hull as countless monstrous