The Only Resistance

The wizard in temporary command didn't tell anyone why all the mermaids had suddenly mutated and died, but no one was curious now. They were all focused on dealing with the gigantic monster first.

At once, the wizards flying nearby began attacking the enormous Mermaid Variant, following the plan they had rehearsed.

Only Thor and Stuart frowned, holding back from acting rashly.

Thor even took a few steps back without thinking.

"Pfft! Pfft!"

"Chhk—"

Witchcraft of every color bloomed across the Mermaid Variant, accompanied by the sound of arrows piercing flesh.

Strangely, though, the various magical effects that should have followed never appeared. The attacks seemed purely physical.

"Mermaid flesh is extremely resistant to Corruption. By the same logic, it reacts just as little to Magic Power," Thor realized in an instant.

Stuart nodded beside him. "The mermaids were alive before. Now they're not."

A creature that had fully undergone Alienation was like a chemical reaction that had become irreversible. Even death couldn't stop the process.

And most of the time, the Alienation reaction didn't need to be controlled by a living being.

Like the Black Tide Monsters Thor had helped fight a few days ago. Their charge toward land was only an instinctive response as the Black Tide swept their bodies along. All their cells had been left with nothing but the urge to fight and destroy.

More and more flesh rose above the sea, as if a giant had come to stand between heaven and earth. But the giant had no eyes, only a bloated, vaguely humanoid outline.

The wizards kept fighting, but with Thor and Stuart still holding back, their attacks seemed to do little beyond adding a few hundred holes to the Mermaid Variant.

Some wizards with stronger elemental magic even managed to inflict smaller wounds