They had tamed Pollution?
Only then did Theus's expression turn serious.
To be honest, Theus had never considered the Fishmen much of a problem. Even the Banshees, who had not yet escaped the water pressure, could fight several enemies alone. Now that the Banshees no longer had to sustain Flesh Magic or consume their life force to cast spells, dealing with the Fishmen would be no different from child's play.
Even if they could not win, the Banshees could simply retreat to shore. Theus had had someone dissect Fishman corpses before; they were utterly unsuited for moving on land. He could just bombard the water from shore. They were not much of a threat at all.
But if they had tamed Pollution, that would be entirely different.
If it were merely Pollution on its own, it might not be all that dangerous. Theus himself had stockpiled several pools of solidified Pollution, intending to use it as fuel. But if that Pollution were gathered together...
When Monica had been contaminated, her enormous mountain-like body had left a crater with every strike against the ground. Even if the Banshees gathered together, they would have been unable to suppress her, at most holding her back.
Although the Banshees had clearly held back when surrounding Monica, a monster of that size would cause immense losses to Castel simply by existing.
"Tell me in detail. What happened?"
Ash nodded. "We found quite a few enormous monsters among the Fishmen. We had never seen them when we were enslaved before. They looked somewhat like snakes, roughly as thick as a person, but their length was impossible to estimate. All we could see were these long snakes stretching into the distance."
"These snakes were located at the center of the Fishmen's settlement, so we could not get