Chapter 576 Wrapping Up, The Next Step

The commander's death dealt a massive blow to the morale of every sahuagin on the field.

Many of the fishman grunts—and even some elite guards—who had fought the weakened adventurers so fiercely under his encouragement now lost their momentum, stripped of their backbone.

The tide of battle, which had instantly reversed when the commander came ashore, tilted back toward the adventurers.

This was entirely expected.

After all, the presence of a fishman commander acted as a subtle double-edged sword.

A fishman tribe led by such an elite individual could display the discipline and mobility of a large-scale army of intelligent creatures, integrating the power of grunts, guards, and priests to unleash strength far beyond their usual limits.

But if the commander fell, the morale boosted by its presence would suffer a severe backlash, plunging the entire sahuagin tribe into a bleak, sluggish stupor.

Given that premise, when Xia Nan charged through them with Fang Hunt imbued with the Night Mother's Gaze feat, they instantly lost their will to fight and completely collapsed.

Unable to exert even half their usual combat strength, they were either slaughtered by the coordinating adventurers or routed back into the sea with shrill screams.

In less than ten minutes, the tense battlefield was cleared of every last breathing sahuagin.

Casually flicking a sword flourish to scatter the glowing blue blood from the Gray-Black Straight Sword, Xia Nan drew a piece of gauze from his pocket and simply wiped the stains from the blade, planning a thorough maintenance once the battle was entirely over.

Xia Nan sheathed his sword and looked across the field.

The adventurers were obviously in rough shape.

They had already been heavily weakened by the Ritual Secret Realm, and after finally returning to reality, they were plunged into this fierce battle before their bodies could fully adapt.

Even though the Raging Tide Warband and Windforged were famous elite squads in the Southern Archipelagos, both had suffered heavy losses against the fishmen.

This included the dwarf Copper Rock, the Rogue Leslie, and even Fink, the deputy captain of Windforged, who died on the spot with his head blown to pieces by a Magic Missile.

Even though they had ultimately won the battle, the mood across the field remained exceptionally oppressive. They silently gathered their teammates' corpses, only occasionally letting out a whisper or a sharp gasp from severe pain.

Xia Nan had never been the type to lighten the mood. Facing this scene, he naturally offered no empty platitudes, choosing instead to silently review the battle in his mind.

For the two adventurer squads before him, the fishman attack had brought extremely severe consequences.

But from his own perspective, the battle with the sahuagin had helped him further adapt to his strengthened body and familiarize himself with the specific changes after upgrading Meteor Blade Hunter to Iv4.

Just as Xia Nan had expected, his combat abilities had greatly improved after leveling up. Several of his combat techniques had been strengthened in both damage output and execution speed.

The most obvious change was, of course, Heavy Tide, which had just reached the Iv3 Proficient tier before entering the secret realm, but was now fully leveled to Mastery upon coming out.

This combat technique—which imbued attacks with a "heavy momentum," increasing damage and carrying a probability of interrupting enemy actions to throw them off balance—had received a comprehensive enhancement across all its effects after reaching the Iv5 proficiency level, amounting to a qualitative change.

The only pity was that, unlike Spinning Slash and Fang Hunt before it, it did not grant an additional related feat upon reaching max level, leaving Xia Nan feeling a bit disappointed.

However, thinking of Gravity Control, which was only a sliver of proficiency away from leveling up, a faint premonition rose in his heart.

'Perhaps, when the latter is upgraded to Iv2, I will gain something extra?'

With the proficiency upgrade progress bar so close to completion, Xia Nan had plenty of patience. He didn't dwell on it much longer before slightly heavy footsteps approached from nearby.

"That damn 'Algae Scale' Dodd, I'm going to pluck the filthy scales off your body one by one—"

Tieg, the captain of the Raging Tide Warband, had long since lost the spirited appearance he carried during his first meeting with Xia Nan at the tavern.

Thanks to Xia Nan's timely support, he hadn't suffered any serious injuries in the battle with the fishman commander.

But the glowing blue blood splashed across his pant legs like paint, his sweat-drenched face and sideburns, and the three braided beards on his chin—tangled and messy from the fight—made the short, stout half-blood, whose height barely reached Xia Nan's lower chest, look exceptionally miserable.

Seeing Xia Nan's gaze sweep over him, Tieg's expression paused involuntarily before he subconsciously squeezed out a somewhat stiff smile.

"Thanks to you being here this time. These brute sea rats are a real pain to deal with."

"Yeah... If you ever need anything in the future, just come find me. I owe you a favor."

Previously, he had paid a certain degree of attention to Xia Nan due to the supplementary request from the collector Auriel and the moniker of "Sea Fang."

But having never seen him fight with his own eyes, he had possessed no concept of his exact strength.

This battle against the fishmen, however, allowed Tieg to fully recognize the exceptionally young, black-haired adventurer, instilling a genuine desire to befriend him.

Nodding in response and exchanging a few brief pleasantries, Xia Nan turned his gaze to the other side.

He saw Zephyr, the pure-blood Elf and captain of Windforged, also tallying his team's losses.

Compared to Tieg, the Elf adventurer had clearly tidied his appearance a bit after the battle and didn't look quite as disheveled. However, through his expression and posture, one could equally feel a deep resentment toward "Algae Scale" Dodd that practically solidified the air.

There was no doubt what inhumane torture the great pirate would be subjected to if he fell into his hands.

But unexpectedly, even with his mood deteriorated to such an extent, when Zephyr noticed Xia Nan's gaze, the Elf forced his neck muscles to move, offering a stiff, slight nod in Xia Nan's direction, just like Tieg.

That was how the adventurer profession worked, following the jungle law of the survival of the fittest.

Xia Nan's strength far exceeded what his apparent age suggested, and he had provided considerable assistance to both sides during the battle.

Given this, the adventurers on the field granted him the respect owed an expert.

To some extent, the reason the enmity between the Raging Tide Warband and Windforged had dragged on for so many years was that the overall strength of both squads was roughly equal.

If either side possessed combat power that overwhelmed the other, the dispute would have ended long ago—whether in a decisive final battle or by fleeing and disbanding into anonymity.

Now, after the battle against the sahuagin, the long-standing hatred between the two teams naturally couldn't be resolved just like that. But facing a powerful common enemy on Stodd Island, the members of the Raging Tide Warband and Windforged would at least exercise restraint until they completely extracted themselves from the incident.

It was noticeable that the atmosphere among the adventurers on the field had indeed eased somewhat. Even the indignation from the betrayals experienced earlier in the secret realm gradually faded as the battle ended.

It was worth noting that Xia Nan hadn't hidden his combat style during the fight.

Therefore, all the adventurers present had witnessed the pitch-black wolf beast sprinting back and forth across the beach and the ocean surface.

And quite a few of these adventurers had been eliminated from the ritual in the secret realm by an adventurer possessing an almost identical monster.

It was hard not to draw a connection.

For a moment, the expressions on everyone's faces turned strange.

However, intimidated by Xia Nan's exaggerated performance that rivaled a high-level adventurer, they didn't dare say much.

But it was foreseeable that after the Stodd Island battle concluded, his moniker of "Sea Fang" would spread further across the Southern Archipelagos, making him a genuinely famous figure.

After the battle ended, it was naturally time to distribute the spoils.

Thanks to Xia Nan's combat performance, the entire distribution process went without a hitch and was quickly wrapped up.

As the undisputed MVP of the entire battle—having first charged into the enemy's rear lines to draw away a large number of troops while consecutively beheading three fishman priests, before rushing back to the shore in time to provide support and personally killing the fishman commander—Xia Nan undoubtedly received the most valuable portions of the loot.

This included the casting props of the three priests, as well as the elite fishman commander's Deep-Blue Goldstone Harpoon and armor.

He estimated their value might even reach four digits in gold coins.

As for the remaining scraps on the field, such as the weapons and equipment on the fishman grunts and guards, the plan was to bring them back to Barracuda Bay later to exchange for gold coins.

Among them, the Halfling Alton hadn't fought the fishmen in any practical sense, but the music he played had provided considerable assistance to the adventurers on the field.

At the end of the battle, it was precisely because of his brief crowd control that Tieg and Zephyr had the chance to inflict damage on the fishman commander.

Therefore, his contribution was second only to Xia Nan's, ranking even higher than both captains.

However, looking at the little guy's grinning expression, he probably didn't care much about the gold coins.

"Speaking of which, after Dodd died back then, besides our side, there was one other dot of light still lit up in the secret realm. That must have been you, right?"

Xia Nan glanced at Alton, who was holding the delicate little Lute beside him, and asked aloud.

The floating ocean perspective he had when drawn into the secret realm allowed him to see very clearly; the little guy had exited the secret realm at almost exactly the same time as him.

"Yeah!" With absolutely no intention of denying or hiding it, Alton nodded crisply. "This ritual was pretty interesting. I never thought before that red dragons don't actually rely primarily on their wings for flight. A lot of the time, they just flap them to maintain balance."

"The Dragon Lair wasn't very interesting, though. Besides gold coins, there was just some shiny, boring stuff."

'A red dragon?'

Hearing Alton say this, Xia Nan suddenly came to a realization.

No wonder someone with the little guy's non-aggressive personality managed to survive until the final stage of the ritual.

No wonder Dodd's dot of light had overlapped with Alton's for so long, yet in the end, it was Dodd who fled.

It seemed Alton had been spawned as a red dragon hatchling inside a Dragon Lair deep underground—there might even have been adult dragons standing guard beside him.

'Is this the charm of being blessed by the Goddess of Luck?'

For a moment, Xia Nan actually began seriously considering the feasibility of finding a reliable casino after this whole mess was over, bringing a few hundred gold coins, and thoroughly currying favor with the Goddess of Luck using the little guy's method.

'But... wouldn't just a few hundred gold be a bit too little? Should I bring more? But blowing four digits all at once would actually hurt a bit...'

Having cleared the battlefield, the adventurers were either tending to their own wounds or closing their eyes in devout prayer to unknown gods for their fallen teammates.

As the leaders of their respective squads, Tieg and Zephyr temporarily set aside their past grievances and exchanged information about the island with Xia Nan.

He hoped to pull them into his camp, adding a bit more strength for the impending battle against "Algae Scale" Dodd in the near future.

After omitting some information that might involve his Golden Finger panel and the Dream Weaving Corridor, Xia Nan shared his encounters and theories in the secret realm with the two men.

"I knew it! I knew you'd think that too!" Tieg nodded repeatedly, arms crossed, his tone excited. "The reason that long-tailed bastard held this massive ritual and dragged us all in was because he wanted us to act as stepping stones for his promotion to the Transcendent Tier!"

"Heh. Judging by the layout on the island, Dodd was quite thoroughly prepared," Zephyr sneered, a vicious, ruthless glint flashing in his eyes as he spoke with pointed meaning.

"But right now... he's highly likely just like us. Not only did he fail to advance, but his combat strength has also been heavily weakened, and he might have even suffered the backlash of a failed promotion."

Xia Nan acutely noticed their intense hatred toward Dodd, as well as a certain restlessness born from the desire for revenge. Knowing he couldn't rush things at this moment, he didn't push the issue actively and instead smoothly changed the subject.

"I need to head back to the port first to find my teammates from the Blade of Vengeance. What are your plans?"

"Damn it!" Reminded by Xia Nan, Tieg seemed to suddenly think of something, his short body nearly jumping up. "My ship is still docked over at the port! These sea rats wouldn't go after that too, would they?"

The Windforged squad's ship was also docked at the port. Knowing the troop scale and organizational level the sahuagin had just displayed—a meticulously planned operation—it was definitely not the isolated action of a single fishman tribe. There was a very high probability that massive numbers of fishmen had already surrounded the entire island.

It was impossible for them to only land here. The port direction was very likely the main battlefield.

The somewhat relaxed expression the pure-blood Elf Zephyr had just shown instantly turned cold, and an indescribable urgency could even be seen deep in his pupils.

"Then let's not waste time here. We need to leave immediately."