Chapter 585 Great Conquest

This was a hideous Shark Beast of a massive scale Xia Nan had never seen before, exuding a powerful aura from head to toe.

To some extent, calling it a "Shark Beast" was no longer quite fitting.

Compared to the Shark Beasts Xia Nan had fought in the past, the creature before him still retained the unique physical traits of a shark, but its overall appearance had shifted closer to a humanoid form.

The physical difference between it and previous Shark Beasts was akin to the gap between a pureblood dragonborn and a half-blood like "Algae Scale" Dodd.

It looked like a scarlet giant with twisted contours. Standing nearly five meters tall, even Aken, the tallest and strongest Barbarian among the adventurers, would barely reach its waist.

Tieg of the Raging Tide Warband, with his dwarf bloodline, wouldn't even be as tall as one of its legs.

Its thick, coarse skin bore a pale red hue, as if soaked in fresh blood. Branch-like veins spread visibly beneath the surface, pulsing and heaving with every breath.

Its head was shorter and blunter than a typical Shark Beast, allowing its humanoid facial features to be clearly distinguished. Only its gaping maw, which could split open all the way to the base of its ears, retained the hideous traits of a shark.

Sharp dorsal spines, radiating a faint bloody gleam, ran from the back of its head down along its spine in a flash of cold light. At the end of its thick, powerful tail, they morphed into a scythe-like bone blade.

Unlike the other summoned Shark Beasts that arrived bare-handed, this powerful monster—brought into this world using the commoners and adventurers of Stodd Island as sacrifices—carried a weapon from the very moment of its descent.

A heavy ship anchor, bound to its arm with metal chains, hung down to the ground, causing the sandy soil beneath it to cave in slightly.

There were many things worth noting.

But for Xia Nan, what commanded his utmost attention was the metal ring embedded dead center in the creature's chest. Forged from a delicate material distinct from anything commonly seen in this world, it bore a completely alien style.

The [Dream Weaving Corridor] ring vibrating violently between his fingers meant that this was exactly the terminal key he had been bitterly searching for!

Now, with the corpse of "Algae Scale" Dodd sacrificed, the key had somehow transferred to the Shark Beast's chest, deeply embedded beneath its coarse, pale red skin.

'With things at this point, if I want to get the key, a fight is probably unavoidable,' he thought.

Right then, the Shark Beast on the other side of the battlefield made a move that made Xia Nan's heart skip a beat.

It raised its empty, webbed left hand and lightly touched the ring on its chest, seemingly confused as to why such an object had appeared on its body.

Fortunately, it was just the key. Without the main body of the [Dream Weaving Corridor] in Xia Nan's hands, it looked like nothing more than an ordinary metal ring.

Carrying a hint of doubt, the creature rubbed its chest twice. Seeing no special reaction, the Shark Beast paid it no more mind and lowered its left hand, letting Xia Nan breathe a sigh of relief.

Lacking an understanding of Sahuagin culture, Xia Nan wasn't sure of the Shark Beast's standing within their tribe.

But referencing his past encounters, he figured that to the Sahuagin who summoned them, Shark Beasts were likely equivalent to some sort of super soldier holding a degree of privilege.

They were allowed to commit out-of-line acts like attacking their allies, but in essence, they were still used as war machines.

Yet right now, the impression this Bloodskin Shark Beast gave on the battlefield was entirely different.

As the ultimate goal the fishmen had aimed to achieve by gathering their main force, this creature not only appeared stronger and more rational, but it also seemed to hold some transcendent status among them.

"This is not a complete shell."

Spoken in the Sahuagin tongue, the thick, sluggish low roar echoed over the coast, carrying deep dissatisfaction.

The elite guards and the few fishman commanders gathered on both sides of the altar were almost instantly frightened into prostrating on the ground, their bodies trembling.

Even the elderly priest Urk, who commanded the entire fishman army and hosted the sacrificial ritual, respectfully and slowly lowered their head in the face of the Shark Beast's displeasure.

Just moments ago, in the final seconds when the ritual was about to succeed, Xia Nan's attempt to interrupt it using a harpoon imbued with Gravity Etching had ultimately worked.

Though it failed to prevent the Shark Beast's descent, the erupted force field energy had severed the flow of the ritual's energy to a certain extent, causing the summoned monster to lose its supposed peak, complete state.

Large swaths of everted wounds spread across its coarse skin near its joints, ribs, and spine, exposing the flesh and pus beneath. Its breathing was visibly labored, its entire upper body heaving along with its chest as if every inhalation required all its strength. Even its scarlet eyes looked unbearably cloudy.

"I descend from the seat of the Shark God. I should have been clad in abyssal armor, arriving with the black tide—"

Hailing from the divine kingdom of Sekolah, the patron deity of the Sahuagin race, it might not have been some high-ranking official, but its status as a "divine envoy" was enough to make every fishman on the field bow their heads.

"Forgive us, Envoy. It was the invaders who interrupted—"

Urk's panicked explanation was cut short by a low roar rumbling from the Shark Beast's throat.

Its consciousness had arrived well before the ritual concluded. It had a far more profound experience of the summoning process being interrupted by the force field energy than Urk themselves.

The Shark Beast knew better than anyone what these adventurers had done, and exactly who had severed the energy transmission right as the ritual neared completion.

"The hunt approaches. The black tide shall devour the coast."

"Merciful and great Lord, God of the Giant Sharks and the Deep Sea, any arrogant fool who dares defy Your will—shall be punished."

Unable to understand the Sahuagin language, Xia Nan had no idea what the enemy was saying.

He knew that after interrupting the ritual, he was highly likely to become the enemy's target.

Xia Nan kept his eyes glued to the Bloodskin Shark Beast and the fishman priest ahead, maintaining high vigilance over their every move.

But the fishman commander he had just been brawling with—the one whose harpoon he had humiliatingly snatched away single-handedly—wasn't just going to stand by and watch.

Having just recovered from the pain of a knee strike, it roared and lunged in Xia Nan's direction.

Reacting in time, Xia Nan turned sideways and raised his left arm, using the Snake-Scale Arm Shield to block the fishman's claw strike. Simultaneously, his right hand swept the straight sword upward. Backed by tremendous force, the sharp blade smoothly sliced off the fishman's left arm.

Glowing blue blood splattered from the wound onto his face. Following through, he kicked its abdomen to widen the distance, then stepped forward with explosive power. The Gray-Black Straight Sword flashed in a crescent arc through the air, shearing off half of his opponent's head.

He had remained vigilant all along. Even in the midst of fierce combat, Xia Nan continuously kept a close watch on the activity around the altar.

But the opponent he had just fought was a powerful fishman commander after all.

Even though it had lost its weapon and suffered a massive drop in combat power, it still required his full focus to handle.

This caused Xia Nan's attention on the altar to inevitably waver when he delivered the final, executing strike of his [Spinning Slash].

And it was exactly in this shift of focus, lasting less than a second—

—when he fluidly drew his sword back and turned around to look at the altar once more, that all he saw was the fishman priest slowly raising their head.

Hum—

A massive shadow loomed over him. The thick stench of blood suddenly flooded his nostrils, and a sense of fatal danger erupted in his heart.

From behind and to his side came the shrill wail of the air being torn apart.

Without the slightest hesitation, functioning almost purely on instinct, the silvery-white ring on his right index finger—its inner band etched with an inconspicuous pattern—erupted with a blinding magical flash.

One of his trump cards, usable only once a day: the Deflection Field from the [Deathline] ring formed into a semi-transparent, dark red energy barrier that enveloped Xia Nan's entire body.

As the scale of his battles continued to escalate, this enchanted equipment that had helped him immensely at the start of his adventuring days was gradually falling behind.

Xia Nan didn't even get to see the moment the barrier collided with the enemy's attack before the dark red shield violently trembled and shattered into drifting stardust.

But regardless, the [Deathline] ring had ultimately bought its user a precious half-second.

It allowed Xia Nan to complete his half-turn, raise his left Arm Shield, and place it firmly in front of him.

Only then did he finally catch sight of the Bloodskin Shark Beast that had vanished from its spot, and—

—the iron fist of the Shark Beast, almost half the size of his body, bringing with it a scarlet gale of blood as it smashed down amid the explosive roar of shattered air.

Time seemed to freeze in this moment.

Reflected in his pitch-black eyes was the blood-red, hideous figure before him. Xia Nan could even see the viscous saliva flying from between the Shark Beast's sharp teeth due to its high-speed movement, as well as the skin on its knuckles slightly caving in upon contact with the Snake-Scale Arm Shield.

Immediately after—

"Boom!!!"

Like being struck head-on by a train moving at full speed, Xia Nan felt an absurdly massive force transmit from his left arm, surging through his muscles and bones to penetrate his entire body.

The crisp crack of fracturing bone echoed in his ears.

But at this moment, Xia Nan no longer had the capacity to distinguish which part of his body had sustained heavy damage.

His consciousness nearly scattered under the impact of the colossal force.

He was never good at defense in the first place. He focused on mobility and kiting during combat, and his margin for error was completely propped up by his equipment and combat techniques.

Taking a punch head-on almost forced his life to flash before his eyes on the spot.

Fortunately, the massive amount of gold coins he had invested in his gear—enough for an ordinary person to live comfortably for a lifetime—ultimately proved their worth in this moment.

Acting as the most fragile yet vital first layer of defense, his precious enchanted accessory, the [Deathline] ring, used its Deflection Field to initially weaken the force of the Shark Beast's punch.

Then, crafted primarily from the scales of an otherworldly Legendary creature, the blue Rare-grade [Darkscale Coiled Guard] invoked its "Greater Toughness" effect to negate a massive amount of damage for Xia Nan.

The third layer of protection was the [Abyssal Current] armor, which possessed "+10% Bludgeoning Damage Resistance." Although it focused more on underwater mobility than defensive performance, its defense was far from weak, once again diminishing the sheer force transmitting into its wearer's body.

After these three layers of protection, by the time the Bloodskin Shark Beast's fist stamped onto Xia Nan's body through the Arm Shield and armor, its force had already been mostly canceled out.

It was precisely because of this that he didn't instantly lose consciousness and enter a near-death state.

Rather, he was left in a daze of intense agony before being launched backward by the tremendous kinetic impact of the punch.

"Splash."

The sound of a body crashing into the water echoed from the distant sea surface.

The sudden shift in the battlefield's dynamic exceeded every adventurer's expectations.

From their perspective, even though their previously advantageous situation had ground to a halt due to the fishman priest's spellcasting and plunged them into a bitter struggle, it was still within a manageable range.

Even the sacrificial ritual itself had been stopped by the young adventurer nicknamed "Sea Fang."

But with the appearance of the injured Bloodskin Shark Beast, the fishmen currently brawling with them seemed to receive a morale boost, becoming even more ferocious.

The boom of shattered air was fleeting. Sarissa, who stood in the distance and witnessed the entire event, could only spot a blurry streak of scarlet blood despite holding the [ranger] class and possessing outstanding dynamic vision.

She had absolutely no time to call out a warning before the Bloodskin Shark Beast arrived behind and to the side of Xia Nan.

She could only watch helplessly as he took a direct hit from the punch, rocketing backward like a cannonball before crashing into the sea.

Hailing from the divine kingdom of Sekolah, the [God of the Deep Sea and Giant Sharks], this Bloodskin Shark Beast clearly possessed higher intelligence and emotional control than its kin.

After knocking Xia Nan away with a single punch, it did not succumb to the frenzy of the battlefield and blindly attack the surrounding creatures.

Instead, it lowered its head, glanced at the diamond-shaped imprint stamped into the back of its fist by the Arm Shield, and then raised its head to shoot a glance toward the distant sea.

Recalling the force of their brief clash, it knew that such a strike had most likely failed to instantly kill its target as expected.

But it should have inflicted a heavy injury at the very least.

The aquatic environment was the home turf of the fishmen to begin with. Like sharks smelling blood, the Sahuagin originally lurking in the nearby waters swam en masse toward the spot where Xia Nan had fallen the moment he hit the water.

His fate was already sealed.

Having arrived in the Material Plane shouldering a mission and laden with numerous tasks on all fronts, the Bloodskin Shark Beast retracted its gaze and shifted its attention to the adventurers fiercely battling the fishmen across the field.

These greedy and cunning scums had endlessly encroached on territory that rightfully belonged to them for years. Like parasites, they built hideous structures on island after island, piloting their laughable ships as they sailed back and forth across domains that were not theirs.

The merciful and great Master had endured far too much, so much so that these lowest, most pathetic little bugs dared to push their luck, even going so far as to forget the terror of the deep sea and the shark fin—a terror that should have left them shivering and cowering under their covers.

But today.

Using Stodd Island and the Lunar Tide Banquet as the nexus.

Using the blood of these adventurers before it as the beginning.

The [God of the Deep Sea and Giant Sharks], the majestic and mighty Sekolah, would lead His most devout Sahuagin servants forward, marching toward a great conquest of the entire ocean.