The calm voyage was completely shattered late one night several days later. A waning moon hung high overhead, making the already pitch-black sea even harder to see.
The great ship had been sailing steadily, its surroundings silent except for the monotonous sounds of billowing 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, earth-shaking crash that seemed to stop their hearts came from beneath the ship.
The entire wooden vessel was flung upward as though by an invisible giant hand, then slammed heavily back down.
The violent jolt instantly threw the cabin into chaos. Straw, debris, and even people were hurled into the air and smashed against the walls. Piercing screams, agonized cries, and the sound of splintering wood erupted all at once.
Li Ang woke the instant the shock hit. He reacted quickly, instinctively casting [Breeze Technique], forming a lifting current around his body. It offset most of the impact, leaving him only stumbling into the cabin wall instead of cracking his head open.
"Enemy attack! Sea monster!" A sailor's heart-wrenching roar came from the deck, followed by a nauseatingly sticky scraping sound, like countless enormous suckers clinging to the hull.
"Woooo—"
A shriek filled with terrifying pressure and savagery pierced through the deck boards and stabbed straight into their souls.
An invisible mental assault crashed into everyone's Mental World like a giant hammer.
The lower cabins instantly filled with pained groans and vomiting. Some of the frailer reserve apprentices went limp as though their bones had been removed and fainted on the spot.
Li Ang felt as though his head had been struck by an iron hammer, his vision going black. Only with his Astral Stars flashing wildly did he barely manage to steady himself.
Under the moonlight, the sea suddenly resembled a boiling pool of ink as an enormous monster rose from the water. Its head alone was as large as a small hill.
It had the appearance of an octopus, but was far more grotesque. Its body was covered in thick dark-purple armor, and more than ten thick tentacles lined with suckers and tipped with bony spikes writhed at its sides.
Several of its tentacles were tightly wrapped around the ship. One had just delivered a savage blow, leaving a horrifying dent in the sturdy hull.
"It's an Abyssal Stalker—a level-three sea monster! Everyone, be on guard!"
Wizard Selenst's voice was like thunder, instantly dispelling 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 in the gale.
He held a slender wand in his hand. Raising it, he aimed its tip at the sea monster as fire elements in the air rapidly gathered around it.
[Level 3 Spell: Flame Binding Technique]
With a flick of his wand tip, several scarlet chains of flame, red as magma and radiating terrifying heat, materialized out of thin air.
Like venomous snakes with lives of their own, they hissed sharply 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 monster's armor and suckers, producing a hair-raising burning sound.
The dark-purple armor quickly reddened and cracked under the intense heat. The suckers contracted violently, releasing billowing white smoke that stank horribly. The sea monster let out a pained shriek, and the tentacles around the ship loosened slightly.
There was no mercy in Selenst's eyes. He gripped his wand in one hand while holding the other loosely before his chest.
Violent fire elements compressed and condensed wildly in his palm, forming a dazzling, blazing-white point of light. The destructive heat radiating from it warped the air around him.
[Level 4 Spell: Flame Spear Technique]
He thrust his palm forward, and a massive flame spear over three meters in diameter, formed entirely from highly compressed raging fire, shot out in an instant.
Trailing a long tail of flame, it tore through the night sky with a piercing shriek like divine punishment descending from the heavens, hurtling straight toward the center of the sea monster's enormous head.
"Pfft—boom!"
The flame spear pierced through the sea monster's heavily armored head without resistance. A charred hole instantly appeared, while the armor and flesh around its edges vaporized beneath the extreme heat.
Destructive energy exploded violently inside the sea monster's head.
The monster's massive body suddenly went rigid, and all its tentacles began to twitch frantically.
"Wuuuaah!" A shrill, despairing wail rang through the heavens.
Then, a scalp-numbing sight unfolded—the heavily wounded sea monster's head suddenly exploded.
The scattered chunks of flesh split into countless bizarre creatures the size of basketballs, like dark-purple jellyfish trailing long tail spikes.
Like hornets whose nest had been disturbed, they gave off dense, piercing hisses and shot away in all directions.
One small cluster of roughly a dozen, like sharks that had scented blood, followed the violently fluctuating mental energy of the terrified reserve apprentices below and swiftly slipped into the lower cabins through the ventilation shafts.
"Aah!"
"Help! What is that thing?!"
"Get away! Aah—!"
The lower cabins instantly erupted with heart-rending screams.
Those dark-purple "jellyfish" were incredibly fast. Their tail spikes carried faint-blue corrosive venom and could easily pierce flesh.
The reserve apprentices who were struck became paralyzed instantly, their skin ulcerating and blackening at a visible rate. Amid miserable screams, their lives quickly faded away.
Li Ang's pupils contracted. A dark-purple "jellyfish" wriggled out through a gap in the room's ventilation shaft, its blood-scented tail spike gleaming faint blue as it stabbed straight at his face.
At the brink of life and death, Li Ang's mind reached an unprecedented level of focus.
[Breeze Technique] activated almost instinctively, and a powerful repelling gust slammed into the "jellyfish."
"Bang!" The monster was smashed into the cabin wall as though struck by an iron hammer. Dark-purple fluid splattered everywhere, corroding the wooden boards with a sizzling sound, but it also completely stopped moving.
A small object with a metallic sheen fell from its shattered body and landed on the damp floor with a soft clink.
It was an antique brass pocket watch covered in slime.
"Huh? What did that 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 a pad, and bend down to pick up the pocket watch. Before he could inspect it—
"No! Go away! Help me!" A scream filled with despair and terror came from the nearby passageway.
He recognized that voice immediately. It was Helena!
Li Ang had no choice but to put away the pocket watch first, then dash out of the room.
The passageway was a complete mess. Several people lay sprawled at odd angles, while cries for help occasionally rang out from the surrounding rooms.
Helena was pressed against the cabin wall, her face deathly pale as she futilely waved an ornamental dagger in her hand.
Before her, two vicious dark-purple "jellyfish" flanked her from both sides like hunting scorpions, their tail spikes raised high and about to strike.
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