Chapter 320 - 315: Armor-Shattering Shrimp

Chapter 320: Chapter 315: Armor-Shattering Shrimp

In the murky seawater, rubble and silt slowly drifted down.

Several Multi-Armed Race shamans dragged the corpse of one of their own.

Its symbiotic shell was intact, but the shockwave had turned its internal organs to pulp.

Dark green blood seeped from the cracks in its shell, trailing long filaments in the water.

Unas stood before the collapsed tunnel entrance, gazing at the devastation before him.

A Centurion swam up to him and lowered his head.

"Chief, the entrance was bombed and has collapsed. They used alchemical explosives. We’ve lost twenty Warriors who were clearing rubble, along with five Beast Tamers and their five Sea Beasts."

Unas said nothing, only waving one of his tentacled arms.

The water stirred in the shadows behind him as a creature slowly emerged.

It was much smaller than a Siege Crab, only five meters long, but its form was far more menacing.

A thick carapace, like polished Obsidian, covered its shrimp-like torso, marked all over with strange, spiraling patterns.

Most striking was the pair of folded claws on its chest, which were disproportionately thick for its body. The tips of the claws were two massive, hard, hammer-like bone clubs.

A Level 4 Magical Beast: the Armorcrusher Shrimp.

The Centurion lowered his head even further.

"Chief, are you sure you want to use it? The upkeep on the Armorcrusher Shrimp is immense. It takes half a barrel of Original Blood Crystals to power it for a single day, plus... the meat of an entire adult manatee." 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

"We can’t afford the delay," Unas said, his tone flat. "If we continue digging by normal means, the land-dwellers will just use their alchemy to destroy our progress again and again. Time is now on their side."

His tentacled arm pointed toward the collapsed ruins.

"Continue."

At the Beast Tamer’s command, the Armorcrusher Shrimp crawled toward the pile of giant boulders blocking the tunnel.

It adjusted its stance, sinking its body lower as its two hammer-like claws slowly unfolded.

One of the claws drew back to build power. The surrounding water instantly imploded, forming a momentary vacuum.

The next moment, the bone club shot forward.

There was no great boom, only a muffled crack, like a dry thunderclap underwater.

The house-sized boulder at the very front of the pile began to crack. A web of fissures spread from the point of impact, and then the great rock silently disintegrated into countless fragments.

A powerful shockwave radiated outward, violently shoving aside the surrounding murky water.

The Armorcrusher Shrimp retracted its claw, and the other immediately shot forward in its place.

THUD.

Another massive boulder was pulverized.

Before it, the reef rock was as fragile as a sun-dried clod of earth.

Behind it, several plump Deep-sea Slime Beasts, resembling sea cucumbers, squirmed in its wake.

As the Armorcrusher Shrimp cleared a section of the tunnel, these Slime Beasts would crawl onto the newly hewn rock walls and secrete a viscous, grayish-white fluid from their skin.

Upon contact with rock and seawater, the fluid rapidly solidified, bonding the loose rubble to the tunnel walls and forming a smooth, sturdy inner lining.

Shattering, then reinforcing.

A tunnel, far sturdier than before, was extending into the depths of the ore vein at an astonishing rate.

...

Minas Tirith, the council hall of the Lord’s Mansion.

THUMP.

A dull impact, heavier than any before, reverberated up from deep underground.

The wine in Baron Kroo’s goblet sloshed, spilling onto the tabletop.

His face was deathly pale. He stared fixedly at the floor, as if he could see a monster swinging a great hammer right beneath his feet.

The council hall fell silent.

The nobles exchanged glances, the earlier joy on their faces gone without a trace, replaced by a fear of the unknown.

The main doors were pushed open and Tristan strode in. He walked directly to Velin and spread a sheet of parchment covered in data on the table.

"My lord, the enemy has changed their excavation method. The impact energy has increased, and the frequency has stabilized at three times per minute. Their attack pattern has shifted from multi-point, sustained scraping to single-point, high-energy impacts."

He drew a line with his finger across the bottom of the parchment.

"At their current rate, they will reach the outer perimeter of Mining Sector Three within six days."

THUMP.

Another impact sounded, as if to confirm Tristan’s report.

This time, the expressions of several nobles soured, and an uneasy stir spread among them.

"Six days... We only have six days!" Baron Kroo shot to his feet, his voice cracking with urgency.

"Your Excellency! We can’t wait for some full moon! If Baron Ola’s demolition succeeded once, it can succeed a second and third time! We can keep at it until we bury those seabed vermin for good!"

"He’s right! Baron Kroo is absolutely right!" another noble from Dawn Territory immediately chimed in, emboldened by their previous victory.

"My soldiers can’t sleep at night listening to that noise all day! Our morale is being ground to dust! I propose that even if we can’t bomb them again, we should launch the final plan ahead of schedule! We can wipe them all out in one fell swoop before they break through!"

"If we wait any longer, we’ll lose our advantage entirely!"

However, a scarred officer from the Grey Marsh Territory gave a cold snort.

"What’s all the panic about? Master Tristan just said we have six days. Lord Velin has a plan. Acting prematurely will only disrupt our deployment."

A rift began to form within the alliance over the pacing of their strategy.

"What are you arguing about?"

A roar cut through the argument.

"When has the Lord ever been wrong? If you’re scared, then crawl back into your beds! Don’t stand here squawking like a bunch of women!"

Ola, who had been silent until now, finally spoke, his voice low and his arms crossed over his chest.

Baron Kroo’s face flushed an even deeper red at the rebuke. He pointed at the floor and retorted.

"Baron Ola, this isn’t squawking! We are discussing military intelligence! Your men succeeded once, so why can’t we do it again? Are we supposed to just stand by and watch as they dig through our very foundations?"

Ola remained motionless, his arms still crossed. "My job is to follow orders, not argue with you all. What we do next is up to Lord Velin and the Count."

He scanned the agitated nobles from Dawn Territory, his voice growing deeper still.

"If any of you have a better idea, say something worthwhile instead of just trying to stir everyone else up."

Baron Kroo was left speechless. He opened and closed his mouth a few times before finally sitting back down, looking disgruntled.

Diana remained silent, her gaze sweeping over the attendees. Her fingers tightened slightly on the hilt of her sword, silently maintaining a modicum of order at the meeting.

Although the debate hadn’t escalated into an outright argument, everyone understood that a convincing plan was the only thing holding the alliance together.

In the end, all eyes fell upon Velin, who had remained silent from start to finish.

Velin stood and walked to the table, lightly tapping Tristan’s report with his finger.

"The demolition was a success, but it seems they’ve found a solution," he began calmly, his words extinguishing the nobles’ enthusiasm for trying the Alchemy Bombs again. "Physical means can no longer stop them."

"I can say with certainty that executing the plan prematurely will only cause our final trump card to fail. We need to change our approach."

He looked at Tristan.

"If we can’t destroy the tunnel, then we’ll make the excavators stop on their own."