Chapter 354 - 346: Dimensional Strike, Warship Implosion

Chapter 354: Chapter 346: Dimensional Strike, Warship Implosion

Deep beneath the sea, three prowling Leviathans silently opened their hidden bay doors directly beneath the Pirate Fleet.

One by one, palm-sized, fish-like creatures were released, melting silently into the frigid seawater.

In the pirates’ eyes, everything was normal.

The Golden Sail Commerce Association’s fleet was still "fleeing in panic" up ahead. The spoils of victory seemed to be within arm’s reach.

Aboard a Level 4 battleship named the Black Shark, the chief Mage maintained the shield’s energy output with an arrogant expression. A pale blue curtain of light enveloped the entire warship, giving everyone on board a profound sense of security.

"Boss, those idiots on the merchant ships aren’t even trying to dodge! They’re just making a beeline for the open sea!"

A helmsman shouted to the captain with a laugh.

The captain spat, the coarse flesh of his face jiggling. "Once we catch them, all the treasure on board will be ours!"

Little did he know that dozens of "shield-mimicking fish" had already arrived stealthily right beneath the hull.

The surfaces of their small bodies began to shimmer with a faint light, vibrating at the same frequency as the shield. An instant later, like drops of water merging into one, they passed through the energy curtain without any resistance.

They attached themselves to the thick hull planks and slipped into the crevices around the rudder.

Inside Leviathan One, Velin watched the light screen. All the tiny dots of light, representing the "torpedoes," had infiltrated their targets. He lightly pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Elvin."

"Ready!" Elvin pushed up his glasses, his voice trembling slightly with excitement.

"Begin."

"As you command, my Lord!"

Detonation command: sent.

The Black Shark’s hull shuddered violently, as if squeezed hard by an invisible giant’s hand! The still-laughing helmsman slammed his head against the ship’s wheel, while the chief Mage stumbled and nearly fell.

"What was that? Did we hit a reef? How could there be any reefs in this godforsaken place!" the captain roared, his voice a mix of shock and fury.

Before he could finish, a series of explosions erupted from deep within the hull! That wasn’t the roar of cannons, but... bombs!

"BOOM! RUMBLE!"

The deck buckled upwards in an exaggerated arc as the keel groaned under the unbearable strain. Massive cracks snaked up from the bottom of the hull!

Seawater, mixed with splintered planks and debris, gushed madly through the holes in the lower deck!

To his horror, the chief Mage discovered that the energy sustaining the shield was draining rapidly. The power core was damaged!

The shield flickered violently a few times and then winked out.

"The ship... the ship is sinking!" a pirate shrieked in despair, pointing at the ever-tilting deck.

The same scene played out simultaneously aboard all twelve capital ships of the Blood Sails Fleet. These floating fortresses, once the pride of Barbossa, were not struck by a single cannonball, yet at the very same moment, they began to collapse and disintegrate from within.

The flagship, the Sea Serpent, was no exception. Its hull shuddered violently as a series of muffled thuds echoed from belowdecks.

Though its sturdy keel held, several massive holes were blown in the hull, and seawater flooded the lower decks.

The ship’s chief Mage discovered to his terror that the energy core sustaining the shield had been damaged in the explosions. The pale blue curtain of light flickered violently a few times, then died.

Barbossa stared blankly at his fleet. One after another, his ships were breaking apart, listing, and sinking without any warning. The sea was littered with struggling men and the wreckage of their vessels.

"Why... What’s happening?!" He couldn’t comprehend the bizarre and terrifying scene unfolding before his eyes.

Just then, ahead of the "prey" he had been chasing, the surface of the sea began to churn violently, as if three massive volcanoes were erupting simultaneously beneath the waves.

"BOOM—RUMBLE!"

With a thunderous roar, three colossal shadows burst through the surface on the left flank, right flank, and rear of the Blood Sails Fleet.

Torrents of seawater cascaded off their hides, creating three immense waterfalls.

An immense head was the first to breach the surface, its two gigantic, abyss-like eyes gazing down dispassionately at the insignificant creatures below.

Three Leviathans, like world-ending beasts of myth, had sealed off every escape route.

"A trap... It’s a trap!" The color drained from Barbossa’s face as shock and terror gripped him.

He finally understood. He hadn’t been chasing a lamb to the slaughter, but a deadly lure meant to drag him into the abyss.

What drove him to despair was the fact that the enemy had destroyed his proud fleet before he had even laid eyes on them.

"All of you, fucking calm down!" Faced with death, Barbossa’s final reserves of savagery were ignited. He drew his cutlass and roared, "All ships still afloat, open fire! Blast them to smithereens!"

However, the sporadic cannon fire that struck the Leviathans amounted to less than a tickle.

This completely shattered the pirates’ last shred of morale.

"Phase two," Velin’s voice remained calm.

Massive hatches on the Leviathan’s flank slowly opened. Eerie blue lights began to glow in the dark water. Korsh and the hundred Multi-Armed Race Warriors under his command emerged in formation.

"For our new home!" Korsh roared.

The one hundred deep-sea predators charged without hesitation toward the sinking wooden behemoths and the men in the water.

They clambered onto the listing decks, their sharp arm-blades easily slicing through the hulls to drag out hiding pirates. Their multiple arms thrashed through the water like a grim reaper’s scythes, pulling pirates who had fallen overboard down into the abyss one by one.

The sea was quickly dyed red, and the pirates’ screams were drowned out by the crashing waves and the thunderous groans of their own sinking warships.

Aboard the Sea Serpent, Barbossa stared in a daze at the hellish scene before him.

His body began to tremble uncontrollably. He whipped his head around, his single eye fixing on Mia, who was cowering in the corner.

Even the biggest fool would have put it together by now. All the clues clicked into place—the vanished "honored guests," the intelligence that appeared at the perfect moment, the pillow talk that catered to his every greedy whim...

"It’s you..." He squeezed the two words out from between his teeth, his voice hoarse. "You bitch!"

He lunged at Mia like a crazed beast.

But Mia was faster.

The instant Barbossa lunged, she had already darted to the doorway with feline agility.

She glanced back, the pitiful, helpless look on her face gone, replaced by a cold, cunning sneer tinged with triumph.

"Farewell, dear Captain."

She blew Barbossa a kiss, then turned without hesitation and leaped into the chaotic waters below.

Barbossa’s lunge met nothing but air, and he crashed into the wall.

He didn’t give chase. He knew it was too late for everything.

In his final moments, this notoriously brutal Pirate King showed his true colors as an opportunist.

He abandoned his flagship, abandoned his kingdom, and abandoned any thought of revenge.

He rushed to a secret compartment in the captain’s quarters and activated his final escape device: a small, single-person alchemical speedboat.

With a loud WHOOSH, the speedboat shot out from the bottom of the Sea Serpent and fled away from the battlefield like a slippery eel.

However, he didn’t get far.

A few nondescript black shapes closed in on him from different directions.

As Barbossa watched in utter terror, the "little fish" gently bumped against the speedboat’s hull. One even leaped into his lap.

Reflected in the infamous captain’s desperate gaze, a ball of searing white light suddenly blossomed, swallowing everything.

The violent explosion tore a cavity in the sea, which collapsed in on itself an instant later.

The alchemical speedboat, on which he had pinned his last hope, vanished into seafoam, taking the former Pirate King with it.

On a ship lingering at the edge of the battlefield, Elias slowly lowered his binoculars.

There was little joy on his face. As he watched the pirates struggling in the water and the sea dyed red with their blood, he simply clasped his hands and quietly recited a Prayer of the True Origin Sect.

He mourned for the lives that were lost—not for these pirates, of course, but for the innocent countrymen who had died at their hands.

He turned to look at the man behind him, who had remained perfectly calm from start to finish.

He knew that as of today, the chaotic era of pirates running rampant was over. A new epoch, belonging to the Grey Marsh Territory and the banner of the thorny flower, was dawning with the arrival of this monarch of the deep.𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂