Touch of the Deep Sea

The calm voyage was utterly shattered late one night several days later. A crescent moon hung high overhead, making the already pitch-black sea even harder to see.

The giant ship had been sailing steadily, all around it silent save for the monotonous sounds of wind filling the sails and waves slapping against the hull.

Most of the reserve apprentices in the lower cabins were immersed in meditation or uneasy, shallow sleep.

Suddenly.

"Boom!"

A dull, heart-stopping crash came from beneath the ship.

The entire wooden vessel was hurled viciously upward as though an invisible giant hand had tossed it into the air, before crashing heavily back down.

The violent tremor instantly turned the cabin upside down. Straw, miscellaneous items, and even people were violently flung into the air and smashed against the walls. Piercing screams, agonized wails, and the splintering of wood erupted all at once.

Li Ang awoke the instant the tremor struck. His reaction was incredibly swift; the [Breeze Technique] activated instinctively, forming a supporting current of air around him. It offset most of the impact, leaving him only staggering into the cabin wall instead of splitting his head open.

"Enemy attack! Sea monster!" A sailor's heart-rending roar came from the deck, followed by a teeth-grinding, slimy scraping sound, as though countless enormous suckers were latching onto the hull.

"Ooooo—"

A shriek filled with terrifying pressure and savagery pierced through the deck planks and stabbed straight into their souls.

An invisible mental shock crashed into everyone's spiritual world like a colossal hammer.

The lower cabin instantly filled with pained groans and vomiting. Some reserve apprentices with weaker constitutions went limp as though their bones had been pulled out and fainted on the spot.

Li Ang felt as though his head had been struck by an iron hammer. His vision went dark, and only after stars flashed wildly before his eyes did he barely manage to steady himself.

Under the moonlight, the sea instantly resembled a boiling pool of ink as a massive monster rose from the water. Its head alone was as large as a small mountain.

It had the appearance of an octopus, but was far more ferocious overall. Its body was covered in thick, dark-purple armor, and beside it writhed more than a dozen thick tentacles covered in suckers, each ending in bony spikes.

Several of its tentacles were tightly wrapped around the ship. One had just delivered a savage lash, leaving a horrifying dent in the sturdy hull.

"It's an Abyssal Stalker—a Level 3 sea monster! Everyone, be on guard!"

Wizard Selenst's voice boomed like thunder, instantly dispersing the chaos caused by the sea monster's mental assault.

At some point, he had already appeared atop the highest point of the bow, his black robes snapping wildly in the gale.

A slender wand was clutched in his hand. He raised it, aiming its tip at the sea monster as fire elements in the air rapidly gathered around the wand.

[Level 3 Spell · Flame Binding Technique]

With a flick of his wand tip, several flame chains as crimson as magma and radiating terrifying heat appeared out of thin air.

Like venomous snakes endowed with life, they shrieked through the air and accurately coiled around the enormous tentacles trying to tear apart the ship.

"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!" The flaming chains wrapped around the sea monster's armor and suckers, producing a scalp-crawling sound of burning.

The dark-purple armor rapidly reddened and cracked under the heat. The suckers contracted violently, spewing thick white smoke with a foul stench. The sea monster let out a pained shriek, and the tentacles around the ship loosened somewhat.

Selenst's eyes were utterly merciless. One hand held the wand, while the other was loosely clenched before his chest.

Violent fire elements compressed and gathered frantically in his palm, forming a dazzling point of blazing white light. The destructive heat radiating from it distorted the air around him.

[Level 4 Spell · Flame Spear Technique]

He suddenly thrust his palm forward, and a gigantic flame spear more than three meters in diameter, made entirely of highly compressed, raging fire, shot forth in an instant.

Trailing a long tail of flames, the spear tore through the night sky with a piercing shriek like divine punishment descending from heaven, shooting viciously toward the center of the sea monster's enormous head.

"Pfft—BOOM!"

The flame spear pierced effortlessly through the sea monster's heavily armored head. A charred black hole appeared instantly, while the armor and flesh around its edges vaporized under the extreme heat.

Destructive energy exploded violently within the sea monster's head.

The sea monster's enormous body suddenly went rigid, and all its tentacles began twitching madly.

"Oooow!" A desperate, miserable howl rang out beneath the heavens.

Then, a scene that made their scalps tingle unfolded—the heavily wounded sea monster's head suddenly exploded.

The scattered chunks of flesh split into countless strange creatures the size of basketballs, like dark-purple jellyfish trailing slender barbed tails.

Like hornets whose nest had been stabbed, they let out dense, piercing hisses and shot away in all directions.

One small group of around a dozen, like sharks that had scented blood, followed the violently fluctuating spiritual power of the terrified reserve apprentices below and swiftly slipped through the vents into the lower cabins.

"Aah!"

"Help! What is that thing?!"

"Get away! Aah—!"

Heart-rending screams instantly erupted from the lower cabins.

Those dark-purple "jellyfish" were incredibly fast. Their tail spikes carried dim-blue corrosive venom and could easily pierce flesh.

The reserve apprentices they struck were instantly paralyzed. Their skin festered and blackened at a visible rate, and amid miserable screams, the light of life swiftly faded from them.

Li Ang's pupils contracted sharply. A dark-purple "jellyfish" squeezed out through a gap in the room's vent, its blood-scented tail spike glimmering with dim-blue light as it stabbed straight toward his face.

At the brink of life and death, Li Ang's mind reached an unprecedented level of focus.

[Breeze Technique]

It activated almost instinctively, and a powerful repelling airflow slammed viciously into the "jellyfish."

"Bang!" The monster was struck as though by an iron hammer and violently smashed against the cabin wall. Dark-purple fluid splattered everywhere, corroding the wooden planks with sizzling sounds, but it also stopped moving entirely.

A small object with a metallic texture fell from its shattered body, landing on the damp floor with a soft clink.

It was an antique brass pocket watch smeared with slime.

"Huh? What did this monster drop? It looks like a pocket watch?"

Seeing the corroded floor around it, Li Ang had no choice but to take out a handkerchief, use it as padding, and bend down to pick up the pocket watch. Before he could inspect it closely—

"No, stay away! Help me!" A scream filled with despair and terror came from the nearby passageway.

He knew that voice well. It was Helena's!

Li Ang could only put away the pocket watch first, then dashed out of the room in a single stride.

The passageway was a complete mess. Several people lay sprawled at odd angles, while cries for help occasionally came from the rooms around them.

Helena was pressed against the cabin wall, her face deathly pale, futilely waving an ornamental dagger in her hand.

Before her, two ferocious dark-purple "jellyfish" hovered to either side like scorpions stalking prey, their tail spikes raised high and about to strike.