Chapter 75: Merfolk Tsunami
Anse ignored him, slapping the ship’s hull as he passed by. The 【Sea Shark】’s stern suddenly burst into bright light, with a three-to-four-meter diameter section of the hull emitting a bright glow reaching twenty to thirty meters.
He had Metamagic: Distant Spell, which could turn touch spells into ranged spellcasting, but he felt this minor issue wasn’t worth wasting Metamagic on.
Nolnos ran past the stern, quickly vanishing into the night.
Hels and the crew members who rushed over could only see a blurry back figure.
Just a few seconds later, a red glow suddenly lit up ahead, revealing a sleek hull.
“Get out of the way—” Hels’s expression changed drastically as he turned and fled.
The next second, a massive fireball roared toward them. The red light quickly filled their gaze, giving a sense of inescapable despair.
“Boom—”
The fireball crashed into the sterncastle, exploding violently. The intense flame shockwave tore off half the sterncastle, with burning wood chips and debris blooming like fireworks in the night.
Flames shot into the sky, reddening half the heavens. Faintly, fiery figures could be seen screaming as they jumped into the sea.
【Target Death, gained 7 Combat Experience】
Several experience prompts flashed through his mind, invigorating Anse.
‘So spectacular.’ Watching the scene, he felt a thrill inside. ‘Almost there, almost there. Once I master Fireball, it’ll definitely be more powerful than this.’
At this moment, the 【Sea Shark】 was a chaotic mess. Everyone was trying to put out the fire. With the ship burning, there was hope if they fought it, but without, they could only perish in the sea.
Anse rode around the ship to observe and found the fire raging fiercely. They really couldn’t ignore it.
He locked his gaze on those figures who only moved their mouths. If you’re not fighting the fire, what use are you? Might as well die!
“
Sorcerous Burst – Lightning!
The resounding Dragon Speech carried no warmth. Dim spell shadows quietly swept across the sea surface, through the thick smoke, and slammed into a shadow figure with a bang, lightning flashing.
The target stiffened, then fell flat onto the deck.
【…Sea Shark First Mate hit, takes 6 lightning damage, current Life 32/38】
‘Heh, got the right one.’
Anse adjusted his position, firing Sorcerous Bursts one after another, chasing the target. The attributes kept changing— one was flame, the next might be poison.
Sorcerous Burst had no lock-on, often missing or blocked by shield, but no matter, it was just a cantrip—he could afford to spam it.
The 【Sea Shark】 First Mate was furious. What grudge, really? Do I have to die today?
He felt helpless inside and wasn’t afraid of his subordinates laughing. He pulled over several slaves to block him solidly and huddled in the corner without moving.
Anse wasn’t annoyed and continued searching for the next target. Anyway, no one could afford to idle.
On the 【Sea Shark】, Captain Hels hid in the corner. The firelight flickered on his face, anger boiling, yet he was helpless.
“You forced my hand!”
With that, he pulled a palm-sized horn from his pouch, put it to his mouth, and blew with all his strength. A low, bull-like horn blast echoed across the sea area.
At the same time, an imperceptible ripple spread along the seawater toward the distance.
‘What’s this, calling for help?’
Anse paused, lightly patting Nolnos. Man and horse decisively returned to the 【Quesser】.
Salian and the crew were tense too, silently extinguishing lights and pulling away from the pirate ship. But after waiting over half an hour, with the pirate ship’s fire extinguished, still nothing happened.
“Bluffing us?” Kalenno asked doubtfully.
“Look.” Salian pointed toward the 【Sea Shark】.
Everyone turned to see. Under the sporadic firelight, bubbles rose around the pirate ship in strings, followed by green-skinned monsters emerging—fish-finned backs, spears in hand, sharp teeth, and ferocious faces.
“Sea Devils!” Halfling First Mate Colin exclaimed.
Sea Devils were shark-folk who worshipped the shark god Sekola, bloodthirsty and brutal, known as “deep sea devils,” one of the main threats to Sword Coast fishermen and maritime trade.
Besides shark-folk, the Sword Coast hosted numerous marine life, like Kuo-Toa, sahuagin, mermaids, etc., with constant conflicts among them.
Anse hadn’t expected the Nahshival Family to have ties to shark-folk. Fortunately, their numbers were few.
This summoning horn was highly unpredictable. Even if shark-folk were nearby, they might not respond.
“These things are the worst.” Salian had a massive headache.
Ordinary shark-folk weren’t that strong, but they could damage the hull from underwater, which was extremely annoying.
After obtaining the Carved Scale Dragon Scale Amulet, Anse’s gaze was much sharper than before. Looking at the churning sea surface in the distance, he sensed something off:
“They seem to be fighting something?”
“Huh, there seem to be other fishfolk too?” Salian said in surprise.
The night was dark with high waves, hard to see clearly. But as the surrounding sea surface gradually “boiled,” everyone finally saw it: two groups of fishfolk!
Tall green-skinned fishfolk and short purple-skinned fishfolk fought fiercely. Corpses kept floating up, and the surrounding seawater was discoloring.
“Kuo-Toa? What’s going on?” Anse was stunned, his mind blank.
What side was this horn summoning exactly—or both?
“Hoist sails, sail south, get far away.” Salian didn’t care about details, just wanted to flee quickly.
On the 【Sea Shark】, crew members huddled on the deck, terrified at everything around them.
As a purple-skinned fishfolk and green-skinned fishfolk fought from sea to ship, crew and slaves got caught in it. More fishfolk boarded the deck, killing on sight, plunging the ship into chaos.
Many crew died as a result. In their final moments, they glared at the captain, not understanding why he did this!
In the corner, Hels stared at the horn in his hand, plunged into deep self-doubt:
‘Did I summon this? What have I done? What the hell happened?!’
In the distance, the 【Quesser】 went full speed, rapidly pulling away. The mast creaked under the wind. Luckily, the ship had been upgraded multiple times—full sails might hold the mast, but not the hull otherwise.
“Have Greyhawk keep an eye, stay safe.” Anse patted Finn’s arm.
“Mm.” Finn’s expression was serious.
Anse thought for a moment, activated the King Butterfly Cloak, and flew to the main mast top to gaze into the distance.
But visibility tonight was poor, pitch black with nothing visible.
Minutes later, distant clouds parted by sea wind let moonlight spill down. In view appeared a unique white wave stretching miles across the sea, surging toward Silver Scale Bay.
The white wave’s edge just grazed the 【Sea Shark】, nearly capsizing it. The wave swept the deck; when the hull rocked back, over half the deck was empty.
Several experience prompts flashed through Anse’s mind in succession.
The wave started unremarkable but grew faster, crests rising—three meters, four meters, five meters…
The raging torrent crashed into Silver Scale Bay like an avalanche!
Anse seemed to glimpse black shadows in the waves, but too far—he chalked it up to illusion.
“What is that?” Salian shouted up to Anse, voice urgent.
Anse shook his head slightly, expression puzzled. He wasn’t sure, only certain it wasn’t a tsunami.
Fortunately, the massive wave didn’t reach them. After the crest passed, even the fishfolk around the 【Sea Shark】 were gone. The slave ship survived, but few lived aboard.
Anse landed and gripped Finn’s arm hard: “Did you see?”
“Fishfolk, countless fishfolk… landing.” Finn’s voice was hoarse.
“Landing where?” Kalenno asked in shock and doubt, expression distraught.
“Silver Scale Bay!”
“Impossible?” Kalenno gripped the mast tightly, veins bulging.
Anse called out, and Nolnos quickly came over. Man and horse charged toward the sea area where the 【Sea Shark】 was.
His gaze flickered, ideas surging and being discarded one by one.
‘Kuo-Toa, how so many Kuo-Toa? Have they gone mad? What happened in the Underdark?’
Corpses floated in the sea ahead, the sea wind carrying a bloody scent.
Nolnos slowed. Anse examined the Kuo-Toa corpses closely and noticed their racial features weren’t uniform.
‘Outsider Kuo-Toa? Besides the Underdark, where else…’
