Qin Ran and Smoot locked eyes, their fighting spirit rising.
Sparks seemed to fly as their gazes crossed.
But a moment later, both looked in the same direction-
The warships at sea.
Or, more precisely, the house-sized crate on the flagship.
Barry was already nowhere to be seen.
But the crate had opened.
A dense cloud of sinister black mist spilled out, enveloping the entire warship within a breath before spreading toward the others.
It looked almost as though it were devouring them.
Qin Ran could even clearly hear sharp teeth chewing.
When he saw the indistinct figure within the black mist, his eyes immediately narrowed.
A crimson, writhing body rapidly coalesced within the mist. It had only a head, chest, abdomen, and arms. Structures resembling both tentacles and blood vessels protruded from its abdomen, extending downward and adhering to several warships to form an extraordinarily bizarre, hideous lower body.
Roar!
With that piercing roar, all the black mist was sucked into the monster's mouth.
Its true appearance was revealed.
A bald head, a single crimson eye, and a huge mouth filled with fangs.
Its enormous, heavily muscled arms were particularly striking.
Its lower body, composed of several warships, was stranger still.
Yet both Qin Ran and Smoot focused their gazes on the monster's single eye.
"A Cyclops?"
The demonized Qin Ran murmured the question inwardly.
Although its lower body was attached to several warships, its upper body was almost identical to the Cyclopes Qin Ran knew of.
But according to the records, Cyclopes should have vanished from this world hundreds of years before the Blood Moon.
As expected of a power that rules an entire region. They even managed to find a surviving Otherkind like this!
And...
Recalling the unusual way this particular Cyclops had appeared, Qin Ran couldn't