Chapter 323 - 318: Coral Cage

Chapter 323: Chapter 318: Coral Cage

The night sky was cloudless, the full moon hanging at its zenith.

A silvery brilliance carpeted the surface of the sea. Gray Bay was calm, the winds still. The usual sound of waves crashing against the reefs had vanished, leaving only the faint murmur of the current.

Minas Tirith, Fifth Level.

Velin rested his elbows on the stone railing, the sea breeze stirring his black hair.

He looked at the round moon, sensing a subtle change in the sea, as if some critical point had been breached.

He raised his hand and touched the hive terminal on the back of his neck.

’Final Plan, activate.’

The command, though silent, spread to every commander throughout the fortress via the hive terminals.

Hundreds of meters deep underground, within a waterway secretly excavated over a long period.

Ola walked at the very front, the current submerging his meticulously braided beard.

Behind him was Finley, the foremost Level 5 Knight under Diana of Dawn Territory, holding a longsword.

Twenty Level 4 operatives followed close behind. The current slammed against the heavy leather packs on their backs, producing a muffled thudding.

"Sir Finley, your warriors holding up? Moving in the water is a lot more tiring than on land," Ola said without turning, his voice echoing in the waterway.

"Don’t worry, Baron Stonebeard," Finley’s voice was steady. "We’ve already acclimated. Our combat readiness won’t be affected."

Ola nodded silently and said no more.

The end of the waterway was not an exit, but a dead end blocked by a thick rock wall.

Ola went forward, tapped the wall with the butt of his battle-axe, and listened for a moment before whispering into the mental channel.

’We’re almost there. We’ll have to dig through this last section ourselves.’

The Knights said nothing, immediately stepping forward to begin digging with their weapons and personal tools.

A moment later, as Ola brought his axe down with one last mighty blow, a crack appeared in the rock wall.

PFFT—

A jet of water burst from the crack, and then, under immense pressure, the entire rock face collapsed with a deafening crash.

A surging current, thick with a heavy, fishy stench, rushed toward them, filling the waterway.

The space ahead suddenly opened up.

A massive undersea cavern appeared before them. This was the central section of the Multi-Armed Race’s excavation site.

Dozens of Sea Beasts of various forms served as manual labor, hauling away rubble under the guidance of Beast Tamers.

Some Multi-Armed Race Warriors moved among the resting Sea Beasts, tossing large, bloody chunks of feed into their troughs.

’Go,’ Ola ordered.

A total of twenty-two Extraordinary Warriors slid out of the waterway.

They quickly unslung their packs and took out clay jars.

Silently and stealthily in the water, they twisted open the wax seals on the jars and aimed the mouths toward the swiftest part of the current.

A thick, dark green liquid poured into the seawater, rapidly spreading into a strange "fog."

As this poisonous mist flowed past the warriors of the assault team, a faint green glow appeared between their chainmail and their skin, silently repelling the toxin, leaving them completely unaffected.

The members of the Multi-Armed Race on logistics duty had yet to understand what was happening, but the Sea Beasts reacted first.

They let out pained shrieks, their bodies beginning to thrash.

A Magical Beast resembling a giant sea scorpion violently swung its pincers, slamming its Beast Tamer against the cavern wall. The tamer’s carapace cracked, and its bodily fluids splattered everywhere.

Another Beast Tamer tried to calm his charge, but the usually docile Ray-shaped Giant Fish suddenly turned its head and bit off three of his arms.

His screams were distorted by the water.

’Kill!’

Ola’s battle-axe was the first to slice through the water. Like an enraged bull, he charged straight toward the Beast Tamers who had been thrown into chaos.

Sir Finley took a separate path.

His sword technique was simple and unadorned. With every swing, a Multi-Armed Race guard attempting to form a defense would fall.

He led his subordinates, rapidly cutting into the Bonebreak Clan’s logistics unit.

「Meanwhile, at the head of the tunnel.」

Unas stood before the giant octopus Magical Beast, supervising the digging progress of the armor-shredding shrimp.

The rhythmic sounds of impact were steady and powerful. Each strike sent large chunks of rock crumbling.

He estimated they would break through the mine tunnel very soon.

Suddenly, a guard swam over quickly.

"Chieftain! We’re under attack from the rear! The beast pens are in revolt! The enemy... the enemy came out from behind us!"

Unas spun around abruptly.

’Those land-dwelling insects dare to harass us again!’

"Guard detail, with me!"

Without hesitation, he took his fifty most elite Personal Guards and shot off toward the source of the chaos.

「Minas Tirith, the hidden underground anchorage.」

’Father, the target has taken the bait.’

Velin nodded and stepped aboard Leviathan One.

’Leviathan squadron, deploy.’

A massive underwater gate, blended seamlessly with the seabed, slowly and silently opened.

From the darkness, three shadows, larger than any warship, glided out.

Inside the lead vessel, Leviathan One, Velin stood in the command cabin. The outside world was projected directly into his mind via the Mental Terminal.

Behind him, Leviathan Two and Leviathan Three followed closely.

The three Deep Sea Giant Beasts made no sound as they followed a pre-planned route, moving at high speed beneath the calm, moonlit bay.

Their target was the stretch of coastline not yet occupied by the enemy.

Inside Leviathan One’s command cabin, all was silent.

Velin took a crystal vial from his pocket. Inside was a deep, mysterious blue liquid.

This was a potent, specially-made Spiritual Power Potion, designed to stimulate his bloodline talent to its absolute maximum.

He uncorked the vial and downed the cold potion in one gulp.

An extreme cold slid down his throat, rushed through his body, and finally converged in his brain.

The world before him changed abruptly. The undersea view, perceived through the Mental Terminal, was infinitely magnified. He could "see" the outline of every grain of sand and "hear" the faint disturbance in the water from a distant school of fish flicking their tails.

The three Leviathans reached the eastern starting point of the designated sea area.

Velin stretched out his hands, placing them on a command console made of warm, organic material.

VMMM—

His consciousness sank into the mind of the Deep Sea Lord, merging as one with the massive, biological submarine.

In that moment, he *was* the Leviathan.

His "Spring Messenger" bloodline ability was pushed to an unprecedented extreme.

Growth.

On the seabed, the pre-planted seeds of the fast-growing Red Leaf Trees were activated, stimulated by a vast amount of Spiritual Power.

Countless fleshy-red shoots tore through the sand, growing rapidly upward.

The main trunks shot up several meters in just a few seconds. Countless branches, like living things, intertwined and compressed, twisting together into massive cables.

The plants’ surfaces rapidly dehydrated, their color changing from green to gray, finally hardening into a bark as tough as rock.

’Two, release the Crystal Coral Insects.’

’Three, deploy the nutrient solution.’

Hatches opened on the sides of Leviathan Two.

A cloud of shimmering particles, like stardust, was released, quickly dissolving into the seawater.

Immediately after, several pipes extended from the underside of Leviathan Three, spraying a green liquid under high pressure, scattering it evenly across the seabed below as if sowing seeds.

The released Crystal Coral Insects, attracted by the newly grown trunks and the Ether Energy, naturally attached themselves to the surface.

The substance they secreted rapidly formed a silvery-gray shell with a glazed, vitreous sheen on the surface of the trunks, filling and sealing every gap.

A wall was growing up from the seabed.

The three Leviathans, in a triangular formation, advanced at high speed along a massive arc.

Behind them, a magnificent dam broke through the calm surface of the sea, constantly rising and extending, casting a long shadow in the brilliant moonlight.

...

「The central section of the Bonebreak Clan’s undersea cavern.」

Unas and his guards had brought the situation under control.

On the ground lay the corpses of a dozen or so Multi-Armed Race logistics personnel, as well as a few Sea Beasts that had been driven mad by the poison and had to be put down.

After causing sufficient damage, the assault team led by Ola and Finley had already retreated back into the secret waterway.

"After them!" Unas commanded.

But his guards had only pursued a few dozen meters into the waterway when a muffled BOOM sounded from ahead. The entire waterway shook violently, and was then completely blocked by collapsing rock.

’Those damned land-dwellers actually planted explosives in advance.’

Unas stared at the blocked passage, speechless.

Just then, a Scout responsible for perimeter security swam up to him at top speed.

"Chieftain! The sea... the bay... outside..."

The Scout’s arms gestured wildly in the direction of the sea’s surface.

Unas turned. He had indeed felt a slight change in the direction and pressure of the current.

He immediately led his main force out of the primary entrance of the excavation tunnel.

Every one of the Multi-Armed Race Warriors froze.

They floated to the surface and looked up in the direction of what was once the open sea.

Unas followed their gazes.

Beneath the moonlight, a massive, grayish-white dam, stretching for miles and towering out of the water, connected two fortresses and completely sealed off the entire bay.

The surface of the dam still glistened with an undried, glassy luster, radiating a newborn dampness.

It stretched from the eastern cape to the western cliffs, forming a semicircle that completely cut them off from the open sea.

They were trapped.