Chapter 526 The Plan and Timely Support

"Splash."

The seawater was freezing.

Beneath the surface felt like an entirely different world.

The howling gales, freezing rain that hit like iron pellets, and towering wave ridges—everything the storm brought was completely shut out by the deathly still, frigid ocean water.

The five senses humans relied on to perceive the outside world were suppressed across the board.

Smell and taste went without saying. Because humans were not aquatic creatures, the necessary act of holding one's breath to prevent choking immediately reduced those two senses to the absolute minimum.

For touch and hearing, exposed skin could only feel the icy chill of the water. The currents rushing into their ears made it feel as though a thick layer of fog had wrapped around their brains; they had to focus intensely just to hear the churning currents and the shrieks of the fishmen from the ocean depths.

Vision was arguably the least affected, but the leaden clouds blanketing the stormy sky blocked out the sun, reducing underwater visibility to terrible levels. Even with the physical constitution of a Class Holder, it was incredibly difficult to see clearly.

If an adventurer from the inland regions was forcefully thrown into the sea without adequate preparation, they likely wouldn't be able to display even a tenth of their true strength.

Although Xia Nan instinctively resisted fighting in the sea, it didn't mean he lacked underwater combat capabilities altogether.

In fact, ever since the battle at Twin Canyon, where he discovered that the underwater environment perfectly suited his [Meteor Blade Hunter] class, Xia Nan had significantly increased the proportion of underwater combat in his daily training.

He would even take the opportunity to personally dive into the water while fishing, training himself while punishing some of the more disobedient sea fish.

Right now, having plunged from the deck into the water, Xia Nan felt slightly unaccustomed at first due to the sudden environmental shift, but he quickly adjusted.

"Swish!"

The dark gray blade stirred up fine white foam, leaving a perfectly sharp arc of light in the seawater.

Due to the drag of the water currents, his sword speed was slightly slower than usual. However, his physical strength—which far exceeded what his Class Level should possess—combined with the innate sharpness of the [Ember Fall] straight sword, still easily outmatched the reaction speed of the Sahuagin lackey swimming toward him first.

Unsurprisingly, the phantom silhouette of a black wolf gradually materializing in the water bit through the fishman's neck.

Slightly manipulating gravity to push away the ruined Sahuagin corpse blocking his line of sight, Xia Nan swept his gaze toward the distant seabed, glancing over the massive figure that was slowly approaching with bared fangs and brandished claws.

He didn't linger.

His current targets were those two Sahuagin Priests.

His focus was highly concentrated, and his Perception was pushed to the absolute limit.

Faintly detecting a high condensation of magical particles somewhere to the southeast, Xia Nan abruptly opened his eyes.

"Found you."

A deep, abyssal wolf howl instantly erupted through the water.

His dark, slender figure vanished from the spot.

Taking its place was a vacuum path carved through the seawater by an explosive surge of force.

Having ventured through the Southern Archipelagos for years, the Blade of Vengeance Squad naturally had experience fighting massive marine monsters, and they had prepared themselves mentally before diving in.

They had even prematurely consumed the highly expensive Water Breathing Potion specifically prepared for this mission.

But as they truly floated in the freezing seawater, gazing at the massive, twisted silhouette in the distance, waves of fear still uncontrollably rippled through their hearts.

In many cases, even if the actual gap in combat power wasn't that severe, the psychological pressure brought about by the environment and the sheer difference in size would weaken the combat capabilities of adventurers before the battle even began.

"Sizzle—"

Flames burst across the surface of the [Scale-Fire Scimitar] gripped tightly in her right hand. The scorching heat seemed capable of burning straight into the soul, dispersing the negative emotions in Lorraine's heart.

Her expression was calm and stern as she made a hand signal to the three people beside her, indicating for them to follow the original plan.

In the next second, she took the initiative to swim toward the gradually approaching Wind-Seed Octopus.

Communication was impossible in this water-filled environment, but the Blade of Vengeance underwater squad had clearly made very careful plans and exchanges before jumping off the deck.

Seeing Lorraine taking the front, the twin Warriors, Ryan and Gordon, exchanged a glance and gave a slight nod. Then, with extreme tacit understanding, they split up, following behind Lorraine and swimming toward the left and right sides of the monster.

The Barbarian, Aken, carried his anchor-shaped battleaxe single-handedly. Coming from a savage island tribe, the totem tattoos radiating a faint blue glow across his body seemed to grant him the ability to move freely underwater; he wasn't dragged down by the weight of his weapon.

With just a few alternating strokes of his thick legs, his entire body rose a fair distance with a relatively graceful posture, just like an aquatic creature.

Aken was in no rush to act. Instead, he waited for Lorraine and the twin Warriors to swim toward the monster for a short while before dragging his giant axe and approaching the enemy from a higher angle in the water.

The Wind-Seed Octopus was closing in.

The long horn atop its head, completely submerged in the sea, was currently emitting a high-frequency call that sounded like a whale's song. Swirling ripples could be seen spreading outward with the horn at their center.

Its eight long, slime-covered tentacles fanned out radially from its main body. Like a giant net constantly tightening and releasing, they adjusted its direction and tension, allowing it to move through the seawater at a speed that looked slow but was actually terrifyingly fast.

Suddenly, it paused. Those cloudy, empty eyes, a dark green that bordered on black, seemed to have spotted something. The eight tentacles stopped simultaneously, retracted inward, and then flared out again, shifting from a movement posture into an attack stance.

Perhaps because of its massive size, it often ignored small creatures that couldn't even be considered food. But when that tiny speck of blazing orange-red light rapidly approached, bringing with it bursts of scorching heat, it finally realized the presence of enemies.

"Sizzle!"

The raging flames coiling around the [Scale-Fire Scimitar] were not extinguished by the surrounding seawater. Instead, fueled by the rising battle intent in Lorraine's heart, they burned fiercely, blasting a trail of boiling bubbles along the blade's edge and leaving a pale white wake of steam in the water.

Lorraine's target was the dark green eyes of the Wind-Seed Octopus.

Her rich maritime experience taught her exactly how to deal with such massive monsters.

Compared to their enormous size, simple superficial wounds were nothing more than an itch.

Even if she went all out to sever a tentacle, the terrifying regenerative abilities of the monster would allow it to recover on its own in just a few days.

She had to strike its vitals!

Only by inflicting severe enough wounds to demonstrate their threat level could they possibly repel this gigantic Wind-Seed Octopus.

Lorraine's plan was, of course, flawless.

Relying on the [Scale-Fire Scimitar] and the special abilities of her [Oathflame Helmsman] class, she had drawn almost all of the Wind-Seed Octopus's attention at this moment.

"Splash!"

The water churned.

A thick, long tentacle whipped over from the side. Its inner suction cups flared open, revealing hook-like keratin within the dense ringed gaps that were enough to send a chill down anyone's spine.

Being underwater already restricted her mobility. Facing such a strike, Lorraine's attack was instantly interrupted.

If she took a direct hit from the majestic force contained within that tentacle, she would likely be smashed into meat paste.

She instantly retracted her flaming scimitar. Her center of gravity, which had been leaning forward as she swam, shifted backward. As her legs kicked rapidly in front of her, her forward momentum halted, transitioning into a backward retreat.

"Boom!"

The descending tentacle slammed down, practically brushing past Lorraine's forehead. The churning water caught in its powerful wake swept her away, sending her tumbling continuously through the sea.

This was no mindless, low-intelligence beast. While the Wind-Seed Octopus hadn't reached the level of a sapient creature, it was smart enough to accumulate and remember combat experience.

Facing the ball of fire that had narrowly dodged its attack, it didn't hesitate in the slightest. A nearby tentacle raised almost simultaneously, looking as if it were about to smash down.

Right at this moment, the twin Warriors—who had fallen a few seconds behind Lorraine and flanked the Wind-Seed Octopus from both sides—finally reached their positions.

"Slash!"

Two single-handed swords, condensing light upon their surfaces, chopped down from the left and right.

One cleaved toward the side of the Wind-Seed Octopus's main body, while the other slashed into one of its limbs.

Driven by Class Grade swinging force, combat techniques, and razor-sharp weapons, the blades instantly tore through the Wind-Seed Octopus's highly resilient skin. Pale blue, near-transparent blood immediately seeped from the wounds.

But before the blades could cut deeper to expand the injuries, the Wind-Seed Octopus, feeling the pain from both sides of its body, whipped its tentacles over like swatting away flies.

Compared to Captain Lorraine's timely reaction, Ryan and Gordon, whose attacks had just landed, were clearly not as agile.

Facing the incoming tentacles, they had absolutely no time to dodge. They barely managed to raise the bucklers on their left arms in front of them, using a defensive combat technique condensed with silver light, before the massive appendages smashed into them like cannonballs.

The majestic impact forced blood out of the twin Warriors' noses and mouths.

"Swish!"

The seawater was cleaved apart by the axe blade.

Trailing at the very back, Aken had taken advantage of his teammates' distraction to arrive directly above the Wind-Seed Octopus, waiting patiently according to the original plan.

He waited until his three teammates had acted one after another, drawing the monster's attention. Seizing the perfect opportunity the second after the octopus swung its tentacles, the tattoos across his body erupted with a dazzling blue light.

His body, which had been floating lightly in the water, suddenly sank. It was as if someone had violently shoved him from behind, sending him plummeting straight toward the octopus below.

Gripping the axe handle tightly with both hands, the dazzling blue light flooded the surface of the anchor-shaped axe blade he had raised to gather power.

And the target Aken aimed for was exactly what he had asked Sarissa about earlier—the Wind-Seed Octopus's vital spot: the root node where the sharp horn atop its head connected to its torso!

The four-person squad's plan linked together seamlessly. With the Wind-Seed Octopus's intelligence, it was impossible to see through it; it was practically being led by the nose.

As long as the Barbarian's all-out axe strike landed on its vitals, the sheer force of the attack, even if it didn't kill or heavily injure the Wind-Seed Octopus on the spot, would inflict agonizing pain and severe damage.

By then, the beast's limited capacity for thought would be obliterated by the pain. It would turn into a wounded animal driven purely by rage, shifting its target and desperately trying to exact revenge on Lorraine and the others.

With that, their goal of stopping the Wind-Seed Octopus from approaching the Blade of Vengeance Ship would be mostly accomplished.

As for how to handle the Wind-Seed Octopus's fury—the pressure might indeed increase a bit, but as long as they switched from offense to defense, covered each other, and kited it, they should be able to hold out for a while.

However, what they hadn't considered was that this was never a fair, so-called "boss fight" to begin with.

Aside from the Wind-Seed Octopus before them, their enemies also included the Sahuagin lurking in the depths of the surrounding waters.

"Hum!"

A flash of magic instantly illuminated the dark seawater.

A Sahuagin Priest held a shell in each hand, clashing them together in front of its chest.

A pink magical glow, like sparks born from the friction, shot out from between the shells. It instantly crossed the spatial distance and directly enveloped the descending Barbarian Aken.

—2nd-Circle · Enchantment · Hold Person!

The pink magical radiance collided with the blue glow erupting from Aken's tattoos. His burly, muscular body could be seen shuddering violently, his brows furrowed tightly as if he were wrestling with some invisible force in his mind.

Perception check—Failed!

The blue light from his tattoos abruptly dimmed, completely swallowed by the pink radiance of Hold Person.

Aken's previously fluid, power-gathering swing ground to a halt, freezing rigidly in place like a paused frame.

It was entirely predictable that if things continued like this, the Barbarian, whose bodily movements were completely locked down, wouldn't just fail to deal any effective damage to the monster; he had also lost the ability to defend or dodge.

Once the reacting tentacles swept him up, he would be reduced to an unrecognizable paste of flesh at the bottom of the sea.

But right as the pink light enveloped his entire body and "Hold Person" took effect, a deep, abyssal wolf howl rang out through the seawater—coming from the inland direction.

The Sahuagin Priest, who had just finished casting and was maintaining its concentration, didn't even realize what was happening.

Death descended amidst the wolf's howl.

Like a candle flame in the dark night, the magical radiance it released had attracted the attention of the predator treating the sea as its hunting ground.

There was zero mercy.

The twisted, abyssal black Wolf Head lunged from the shadows behind it, its ferocious Wolf's Maw snapping shut.

"Crack."

A perfectly clean severance.

The head separated from the neck and shoulders.

Luminescent fishman blood wildly spewed from the wound, faintly illuminating the deep, dark wolf silhouette behind it.

With the Spellcaster's death, the concentration maintaining the "Hold Person" spell was immediately broken.

Aken's paralyzed state lasted for less than a second before the pink light coating his body dissolved into countless motes of light, fading into the surrounding seawater.

Before he even had time to thank Xia Nan for the timely support, the Barbarian's two arms reflected the blue glow of his tattoos, bulging and engorging with blood. The veins pulsing beneath his flexing muscles looked like they were about to burst through his skin.

"Swish!"

The anchor-shaped axe blade, enveloped in a radiant glow, viciously chopped down, landing squarely on the root of the Wind-Seed Octopus's sharp horn.

Rumble—