Chapter 586 The Only Two Trump Cards

"Ahhhh!!!"

The fury-filled battle cry carried a formless energy, stirring faint ripples in the air.

The dark blue tattoos—the mark of a tribal priest—glimmered like living creatures, squirming and twisting as they climbed from his collar to cover half his face.

As a dwarf-barbarian hybrid, Tieg possessed a dwarf's stocky, powerful physique alongside a barbarian's ability to harness Rage and invoke ancestral totems.

Activating a combat technique, his skin took on a metallic sheen. Looking as though he were forged from solid iron, he delivered a shoulder bash that flipped a four-armed fishman elite guard.

The heavy hammer in his hands smashed down with such savage force that the ground faintly trembled.

He did not stop until the corpse beneath him lost all recognizable facial features, its bone fragments and blue-white slime mashing together until it was dead beyond dead.

Only then did the ferocious warrior widen his round, beast-like eyes, his nostrils flaring as he let out a long breath.

Had the Sahuagin Sacrificial Ritual succeeded?

Perhaps it was only half successful.

The massive commotion from the altar allowed him to see Sea Fang's thrown harpoon explode over it, and witness the descent of the Bloodskin Shark Beast—a creature radiating immense power, yet already maimed and wounded the moment it arrived.

Tieg was not sure what status this monster held among the Sahuagin, but he could feel the shift. With the Shark Beast's appearance, the Sahuagin—who had been losing ground to the adventurers' counterattack—seemed to find their anchor.

Their morale soared to a near-frenzied state.

The situation, which had previously held a chance for a turnaround, instantly sank into a quagmire.

Tieg had come from rough beginnings, having grown up in an island Barbarian Tribe.

He knew very well that in a predicament like this, he had to rally their morale and forcefully hold the line.

Otherwise, a single instance of desertion would cause the entire defensive line to be instantly washed away by the enemy, like a bursting dam.

Because of this, even though his physical condition had been heavily weakened after the Secret Realm, he still pushed himself to the limit. Leading the members of the Raging Tide Warband behind him, he held his ground at the very front of the battlefield.

Every time he killed a fishman, he let out a barbarian battle cry to boost morale.

It had to be said that Tieg's approach was truly effective for the adventurers on the field, who had lost the uplifting tune of Alton's lute.

For a time, these Adventurer Squads—who might have never met before, let alone fought side by side—actually managed to hold out through roar after roar, turning the fishmen battling them into rapidly cooling corpses.

However, everything had two sides.

While Tieg's soaring, impassioned battle cries boosted the adventurers' morale, they also drastically raised his presence on the battlefield.

That was exactly why, when he swung his iron hammer once more—crushing the chest of a fishman guard in front of him, granting it death, and letting out the final battle cry of his life—he drew attention.

Where his gaze landed, the Bloodskin Shark Beast—which had just sent Sea Fang flying far into the ocean and was slowly retracting its fist—turned its head and looked straight at him from afar.

Boom—

It was difficult to describe in words what Tieg felt when he saw those slightly cloudy yet brutally violent crimson eyes.

It was like the time he slept alone in a shack as a child, watching a panther's head slowly poke through the doorway; or perhaps like the first time he encountered a storm at sea, facing a pitch-black wall of waves that blotted out the sky.

In this moment, Tieg even forgot to breathe. Driven only by his body's instinctual desire to survive and years of tempered muscle memory, he subconsciously raised his iron hammer with both hands, holding it defensively in front of him.

The next second.

The Bloodskin Shark Beast, which had been far away just a moment ago, arrived right before him.

Its thick, powerful long arm drew back like a bowstring. Falling with a shriek that tore through the air, its knuckles slammed onto the handle of the iron hammer.

Obviously, strictly from the standpoint of Strength, the weakened Tieg—exhausted by the Secret Realm—was completely incapable of resisting an impact of this magnitude.

He could not even manage a brief struggle.

His legs sank down. His already less-than-tall stature was practically smashed into the sandy soil by the Shark Beast's fist, bringing him down to the height of a normal dwarf.

The handle of the Fine weapon in his hands, forged by an excellent blacksmith, twisted and bent downward.

The arms supporting both ends of the giant hammer trembled violently. The dark blue tattoos on his skin burst with radiant light, only to suddenly dim as if the impact had exceeded their limits of endurance.

When the massive fist—large enough to nearly cover his entire upper body—lifted after the strike, Tieg's jaw was clamped shut. The veins practically bulged out of the skin at his temples. His face flushed bright red, and glaring blood trickled from the corners of his eyes and his nostrils.

Relying on his flesh and weapon, he had barely managed to block the Shark Beast's incoming punch at the cost of severe injuries.

But at the same time, after taking such a blow head-on, Tieg entered a state of stiff paralysis, unable to move.

Above him, the webbed claw covered in reddish scales shifted from a fist to a palm. The talons lightly grasped the already-bent handle of the giant hammer.

As easily as taking a toy from a child, it snatched the iron hammer from Tieg's hands and casually tossed it aside.

The struggling dwarf tried to fight back, but a slap sent him crashing to the ground.

Before he could even get up, a terrifying whistle tore through the air. The massive, bloodstained ship anchor, driven by its chain, dropped from above his head.

"Bang! Crack—"

The crisp sound of metal colliding with skull rang out almost simultaneously with a noise like a shattering egg.

Blood gushed out, washing away the viscous brain fluid.

Stained with even more crimson blood, the messy yet brutal anchor was slowly lifted from the ground by the fishman's broad hand.

It revealed the gruesome, headless remains underneath.

Tieg was dead.

Standing nearby, the members of the Raging Tide Warband witnessed the entire process of their captain's death.

Of course, they had made moves to support him.

In fact, the one closest to Tieg—or rather, his corpse—had already reached the Shark Beast's side.

But everything happened too fast.

Before he could even bring his longsword down, the blood splattering from his captain's bursting skull landed on his face.

With a casual swing of its arm, it sent that closest adventurer flying.

The Bloodskin Shark Beast stood in place. Facing the adventurers who were still trying to surround it out of instinct, it suddenly planted its feet to brace its center of gravity. Then, engaging its waist and core like someone throwing a shot put, it grabbed the chain wrapped around its right arm and violently swung the heavy ship anchor in two massive circles around its body.

It did not distinguish between friend and foe.

Several Sahuagin trying to offer support and a few unlucky adventurers who could not dodge in time instantly turned into a mist of blood and mangled flesh.

With its immense individual strength, the morale boost from the Sacrificial Ritual, and the support of the fishmen, the Bloodskin Shark Beast that crashed into the battlefield slaughtered everyone in its path with crushing, irresistible force.

It was easy to foresee that if no adventurer with enough strength stepped up to deliver a heavy blow against it...

...in the not-so-distant future, every living thing on the coast aside from the Sahuagin would be reduced to minced meat under that anchor.

But just then, from the surface of the sea behind it...

An inexplicable, strange commotion ringing out from the water caught the attention of the Bloodskin Shark Beast, which was gradually immersing itself in a long-lost slaughter.

Turning its gaze, it found no enemy.

It could only see a blurry black shadow whistling through the water just beneath the surface, accompanied by continuous flashes of magical light, along with glowing blue blood and severed fishman limbs floating to the top.

Xia Nan, of course, could not possibly lose his combat ability just because of that punch.

He had to admit that the Bloodskin Shark Beast's strength truly exceeded his expectations, and he himself did not really have any defensive combat techniques or special abilities.

Even with three layers of protection from his enchanted equipment, taking that punch head-on had left him quite badly wounded.

Fortunately, he was always cautious. Knowing he did not excel at defense, he had made ample preparations well before setting out to increase his margin for error in combat.

The very next second after Xia Nan was sent flying into the ocean, his consciousness clearing from the intense pain and his body regaining mobility...

...he briefly assessed his injuries and immediately pulled out a Potent Healing Potion from his waist pouch. He had spent a three-digit sum of gold coins to buy it from an alchemist's shop at the Adventurers Association.

You get what you pay for.

The price was several times that of an ordinary Healing Potion, and its effects were similarly multiplied.

Even with the current resilience of Xia Nan's body, after chugging the potion, he could clearly feel surges of heat rushing through him, repairing his wounds.

Just to be safe, the teardrop-shaped necklace hidden against his chest burst with an emerald glow. A cluster of vibrant green light, brimming with life energy, enveloped Xia Nan's hand.

He patted the few spots that his Perception told him were severely injured to accelerate the healing.

"Lesser Healing", an enchanted spell from the [Tears of Spring Breath] necklace, could be used three times a day. Its effect restored a small amount of health to the touched creature.

"Spring Pulse Cleansing Heal", which had a massive one-week cooldown, needed to be saved as a trump card. Now was not the time to play it.

A Potent Healing Potion, plus a few minor healing spells, was enough for Xia Nan to recover from his injuries.

Cleaving apart a harpoon thrusting at him from the front with a single sword strike, he used [Fang Hunt] to pull back slightly. As Xia Nan dealt with the incoming attacks from the surrounding Sahuagin, he analyzed the situation on the battlefield.

First, the summoned Bloodskin Shark Beast was not in its peak condition because he had interrupted the ritual. It suffered from missing parts and severe injuries all over its body.

But even so, it was an incredibly troublesome enemy.

That brief exchange just now gave Xia Nan a rough initial judgment of its strength.

Under normal circumstances, in a one-on-one fight, he was no match for it.

If he activated Stage 2 of [Ember Echoes]...

It was hard to say.

But it was already his only way to win.

However, if he had to fight the Shark Beast head-on while simultaneously dealing with the threat of Spellcasters from the rear, that sliver of a chance would turn to dust.

Through the ocean water, Xia Nan could vaguely see that the Bloodskin Shark Beast had already crashed into the battlefield and begun its massacre after sending him flying.

He logically should return to the field to assist the adventurers.

But from an absolutely rational standpoint, staying here and taking the opportunity to thin out the fishmen Spellcasters while the Shark Beast was drawn away was the best way to maximize the adventurers' odds of victory.

Without hesitation, the moment the thought flashed through his mind, Xia Nan made his decision.

Just like the deceased Tieg, whose battle cries had raised everyone's morale but consequently drawn the enemy's attention.

The Bloodskin Shark Beast's descent into the Material Plane had similarly boosted the fishmen's morale to the point of near madness.

But exactly because of this, those fishmen guards—who had originally stuck by the Spellcasters due to discipline and orders—were driven by their surging blood. Roaring, they rushed ashore, trying to lend their strength to their Shark Beast commander.

This gave Xia Nan a precious opportunity for a surprise attack.

[Fang Hunt] tore across the area. The blurry silhouette of a pitch-black Wolf Head darted and weaved nimbly through the seawater, bypassing the fishmen charging at him as much as possible.

If he encountered those he truly could not dodge, he held nothing back, using his full strength to crush them.

At the same time, while maintaining his movement and crisp combat rhythm, he split his attention to deal with the magical lights shooting over from all directions.

He ignored mind-control spells like [Hold Person]. With the resistance from his [Gaze into the Abyss] Feat bolstered by his Perception attribute, Spellcasters at the level of these fishmen priests had no chance of breaking through.

For spells carrying toxins and corrosive effects, he defended with the Snake-Scale Arm Shield—its immunity to damage below the Legendary rank went without saying.

As for other types—he dodged if he could, and if he could not, he tried to block them head-on with his sword.

When he had no other choice, he could only tank them with his body.

It made his heart ache a little, but had he not spent so much money on custom armor exactly for times like this?

The combat style granted by his techniques and personality allowed the resolute and singularly focused Xia Nan to display a breathtaking, exaggerated efficiency in this moment.

One, two, three—

He had even forgotten just how many sword strikes he had slashed out or how many spells he had endured during this time.

He just kept his mind racing, using every ability at his disposal to deal with the various situations arising in the battle one by one.

When he surfaced, forcibly hacking apart the thick, tough seaweed trying to bind him with his straight sword, his free left hand surged with [Heavy Tide]. A heavy punch shattered the head of the fleeing fishman priest. As he took a long-awaited breath of fresh air...

...the surrounding sea was already covered with mangled fishmen corpses.

And his own body, which had just recovered slightly under the effects of the [Potent Healing Potion], was once again plunged into a state of severe injury.

Looking up, he saw the final Spellcaster of the fishman forces on the coast not far ahead. The elderly fishman priest stared at him with an incredibly complex expression, the tip of the Bone-White Staff in its hand flashing with light.

Xia Nan's mind was empty of thoughts.

He activated [Fang Hunt], turning into a black wolf phantom and rocketing forward.

An emerald light burst from his neck.

From the [Tears of Spring Breath], the Fourth-Circle healing spell "Spring Pulse Cleansing Heal"—one of his only two remaining trump cards—was played.

Life energy washed over Xia Nan's body, rapidly healing the injuries he had sustained over this time.

Sea spray splashed.

The pitch-black Wolf Head leaped out of the sea with a deep howl.