Chapter 325 - 320: Battle of the Full Moon (Part 2)

Chapter 325: Chapter 320: Battle of the Full Moon (Part 2)

Moonlight cascaded over Gray Bay.

But the water in the bay was rapidly receding.

At first, only the giant siege turtles with the deepest drafts scraped bottom, letting out uneasy, low growls.

Then, all the Multi-Armed Race warriors felt something was wrong—their bodies felt heavier.

It wasn’t an illusion!

"What’s going on?"

"The water... the water’s disappearing!"

Panic spread through the Bonebreak Clan’s lines. The water, once more than ten meters over their heads, was now slowly receding, escaping out of the bay through the holes in the coral reefs and the fissures in the seabed.

High above, Velin sat astride Nefarian, looking down on the spectacular scene.

He had calculated Gray Bay’s hydrology.

The spring tide on the night of a full moon would already cause the water level to drop significantly.

And the long coral causeway he had built not only blocked their retreat but also acted as a one-way valve.

It blocked the inflow of seawater during high tide, yet magnified the natural seepage effect of the water inside the bay several times over during the ebb tide.

「In just half an hour.」

The once-turbulent deep-water battlefield had become a massive mire.

The deepest part was now no more than five meters, and in most areas, the water was only two or three meters deep.

The situation for the Deep Sea Giant Beasts was the most miserable.

A dozen or so Rock-Breaking Giant Crabs had their abdomens pressed against the mud, their eight-jointed legs flailing uselessly in the black sludge like overturned beetles.

The giant siege turtles’ heavy shells pressed them halfway into the sand, and their flat, paddle-like limbs were now useless for movement.

Unas stood on a reef.

He watched his pride and joy, his deep-sea army, now struggling helplessly in the mud like fish and shrimp washed ashore by a storm.

’So this was the land-dwellers’ trap. All that defense, all that obstruction... it was all for today!’

’It wasn’t that they were afraid of a direct confrontation... they were waiting for the perfect moment to attack!’

Unas tilted his head back, glaring at the enormous full moon, and a guttural, defiant growl escaped his throat.

"Velin Klein!"

The furious roar was carried away by the wind, inaudible to Velin high above.

His command was transmitted through the Hive-Terminal to every commander.

[The time has come.]

[All forces, advance!]

The three forces, which had been fighting their own battles in the chaotic melee, changed their tactics.

"HAHAHA! You stinking saltwater fish! Look whose home turf it is now!"

Ola’s wild laughter echoed across the rapidly shallowing water.

Waist-deep mud and water was a fatal obstacle for other races, but for his short, stout frame, it was as if he were welded to the earth.

He no longer focused on slaying the enemies before him. Instead, he swept his great-axe, using its flat and his own brute force to smash the Multi-Armed Race warriors trying to form ranks, sending them staggering and forcing them back.

The Heavy Knights behind him followed his lead, forming a moving wall of steel. They used their shields to ram and their warhammers to drive the enemy, compressing them toward the shallows.

"Change formation! Tighten the encirclement!"

Sir Finley’s command was even more concise.

The Knights of Dawn Territory quickly switched from a charging formation to a defensive one. They stopped engaging the enemy in close combat, instead raising their Kite Shields and advancing step by step.

The battle was no longer a simple slaughter but had evolved into a methodical hunt.

The three forces advanced slowly from different directions, continuously shrinking the Bonebreak Clan’s space to survive.

The underwater mobility the Multi-Armed Race warriors prided themselves on was gone. Their heavy symbiotic shells had become a burden, making every step through the sludge a struggle.

They were pushed and herded by the "walls" closing in from three sides, forced to retreat.

A Multi-Armed Race Centurion trying to organize a defense was targeted by Sir Finley.

Just as the Centurion raised his bone spear, Sir Finley closed in like a phantom, using a reef for leverage. His longsword drew a silver line under the moonlight.

Blood sprayed from the Centurion’s throat. Until the moment of his death, he never managed to pull his bone spear from the mud.

His fall caused the resistance in that small area to instantly collapse.

「On the open sea, aboard the Sea Serpent.」

The deck was silent.

"Boss... what... what kind of Witchcraft is this?" the first mate’s voice was hoarse, the tattoos on his face twisting as his muscles twitched. "Did he... did he drain the sea?"

Barbossa’s single eye was wide, reflecting the moonlit slaughterhouse in the distance.

"This job... are we still taking it?" a captain asked, his voice trembling.

Barbossa snapped back to his senses and stomped on the deck.

"Take it? My ass!" he roared. "Orders! Entire fleet! Weigh anchor, now! We’re leaving!"

He didn’t know how that pioneer lord had done it, but he knew one thing—this was no longer a place he should be.

The Pirate Fleet turned hastily in the night, like a startled herd of beasts, desperate to escape these waters that reeked of death.

「In the center of the tidal flat battlefield.」

Unas swung his bone spear, sending two charging Dawn Territory soldiers flying.

He used a few reefs for cover, leading his Personal Guard to hold the very front line.

’Defeated?’

Unas sneered inwardly.

He admitted the land-dwellers’ plan was clever, and that he had fallen for it.

’But you have your trump card, and I have mine.’

With a thought, a pressure born from primal instinct erupted from the depths of the seabed.

The warriors on both sides, human and Multi-Armed Race alike, felt a sense of unease, their movements faltering involuntarily.

The ground began to tremble.

Ola had just smashed a Multi-Armed Race warrior into the mud with the flat of his axe when he suddenly felt the ground give way beneath him, nearly swallowing him whole.

He staggered back in horror, watching as the mud in an area dozens of meters wide ahead of him collapsed downward, forming a massive pit.

BOOM!

Several purplish-black tentacles, each as thick as an ancient tree, burst violently from the mud!

They thrashed wildly in the air, each tentacle covered in millstone-sized suckers and vicious, bony barbs.

A giant octopus-like Magical Beast, its body the size of a hill, slowly rose from the depths of the sludge.

A Level 5 Magical Beast—the Scourge of the Deep.

It had been lying in ambush deep underground, and now, summoned, it had forcibly burst forth.

A tentacle swept out.

A dozen human soldiers, unable to dodge in time, were swatted away like pebbles, their bodies twisting and breaking in mid-air.

ROAR!

The Scourge of the Deep opened the massive maw at the center of its countless tentacles and let out a series of roars.

The sound waves, mixed with tidal surges, blasted away a layer of the surrounding mud and water, revealing even more writhing appendages below.

The battle line was torn open.

Unas leaped onto a tentacle that extended before him.

The octopus slowly lifted him high into the air.

He stood upon the tentacle, looking down at the human army whose formation had been thrown into chaos, a look of wild madness on his face.

He raised his scimitar high, his voice echoing across the entire battlefield.

"Land-dwellers!"

"Now, face true despair!"