Chapter 403 - 387: Bottom-dwelling Demon Fish

Chapter 403: Chapter 387: Bottom-dwelling Demon Fish

"A Shell Ship!"

Catching sight of the massive, slumbering behemoth in the distance, Duraga shouted in excitement and carelessly tossed his tools to the ground.

Then, like a child who had just spotted a beloved toy, he laughed heartily and began to run forward with heavy strides.

Watching the Gray Dwarf leader’s jubilant back, Roland let out a long sigh of relief. The tension that had been gripping him finally loosened.

For one, finding the Shell Ship meant he could finally leave these sunless underground tunnels.

For another, this legendary vessel would be a great convenience for his journey to Aiselon.

However, Roland didn’t charge ahead recklessly like Duraga.

He first scanned his surroundings cautiously. After confirming there was nothing unusual, he instructed the nearby Gray Dwarves to set up a perimeter and had the exhausted team members rest on the spot.

Thanks to the friendly relationship he had established with Duraga, the Gray Dwarves had no objections to these arrangements.

Once everything was settled, Roland finally began walking toward the slumbering ship with steady steps.

As he drew closer, the Shell Ship’s silhouette grew clearer in the faint blue glow of the Crystal Clusters, eventually filling Roland’s entire field of vision with its colossal form.

When viewed from afar, it resembled an asymmetrical giant snail prostrated at the far end of the cavern.

Its hull, a mix of pale white and deep purple, had a biological quality to it. The surface was covered in overlapping, spiraling shell-like structures, and several thick, tentacle-like appendages were dug deep into the rock, as if drawing nutrients from the earth.

Its true scale only became apparent as he continued to approach.

By the time he was halfway there, Roland could already feel its immensity.

The coiled section of the bow alone was comparable to the dome of a Gray Dwarf fortress, casting a Shadow large enough to swallow dozens of fully-armored Warriors.

When he finally stood at the foot of this creation and looked up, an almost suffocating pressure washed over him.

The shell, which had looked like a simple curve from a distance, was now a towering cliff of pale white and deep purple that seemed to connect heaven and earth, disappearing up into the gloom of the cavern ceiling. More details came into view.

The shell’s surface was covered in nerve-like patterns, between which an occasional glimmer of Spiritual Energy would flash. These patterns, which had been mere fine lines from a distance, were now as clear as gullies carved into a rock face.

The huge, torn gash on one side of the hull looked more like a monstrous canyon cutting across a mountain wall up close. The curled shell fragments at its edge were large enough to be used as Shields, revealing the complex, faintly glowing structure within.

The entire Shell Ship was silent, yet it radiated an unsettling Life Energy.

It wasn’t so much docked here as it was a mountain range forcibly embedded in the earth, a primeval behemoth slumbering within the rock.

"What do you think, old friend!"

Duraga heard the footsteps and called out loudly without turning his head, excitedly slapping the cold shell beside him.

"Look at this thing! Those damn squid-heads from the Otherworld are nothing special themselves, but their technology... it’s truly astonishing!"

Roland’s gaze swept over the fine, seemingly breathing patterns on the hull’s surface. He nodded slightly, about to voice his agreement.

But in that instant, an icy chill shot up his spine without warning.

His Spiritual Perception, which constantly radiated outwards from him, sent a sharp alarm, as if it had been violently pierced by a needle.

"Watch out!"

Without a moment to think, Roland yelled, grabbed Duraga’s shoulder with his left hand, and yanked him sideways with all his might.

Almost at the exact moment their bodies moved, a viscous, pale-white Energy Beam reeking of rot and decay—like a tentacle reaching out from the Abyss—silently struck the spot where they had just been standing.

There was no deafening explosion, only a grating "HSSSSSS" of corrosion.

The hard rock floor instantly melted, forming a bubbling crater with charred black edges.

Wisps of pale smoke carrying a hint of Spiritual Contamination rose from it, seeming to briefly distort and devour even the faint blue light of the crystals in the surrounding air.

Duraga, still shaken, stared at the smoking crater, then whipped his head up to look toward the Darkness from where the attack had come.

The relaxed expression on his face was gone, replaced by the grim ferocity of a man facing a powerful, unknown enemy.

"What was that?" he growled, his War Axe already clutched tightly in his hand.

His voice was still echoing in the air when the Darkness ahead began to writhe like a disturbed, deep pool.

The next second, the attackers’ forms emerged from the gloom.

It was not one, but a group.

They looked like mutated, giant fish, their pale skin covered in slime that reflected a wet sheen in the faint glow of the Crystal Clusters.

Most unsettling were their multiple pairs of long, lifeless eyes and the slowly dancing tentacles extending from their heads.

They weren’t crawling on the ground but were floating bizarrely in mid-air, as if swimming through unseen deep waters.

Their massive bodies twisted and writhed with an unnaturally graceful posture, forming a heart-pounding encirclement.

"Bottom-dwelling Demon Fish!"

Duraga sucked in a sharp breath, the muscles in his arm tensing as he gripped his War Axe.

"These ancient Nightmares... they should have been washed away by the river of time long ago! To think they’d be lurking in a place like this!"

He quickly took half a step back to stand back-to-back with Roland, simultaneously letting out a short, sharp whistle.

Thanks to Roland’s earlier arrangements, the Gray Dwarves hadn’t suffered heavy casualties from the first wave of attacks by the Bottom-dwelling Demon Fish.

Hearing Duraga’s call, they immediately sprang into action, tightening their formation, raising their Shields and weapons to form a solid defensive line.

"Rudolph!"

Duraga’s voice was heavy and urgent, his gaze locked on the Demon Fish swimming through the air.

"You and I have fought these ugly bastards more than a few times on our past adventures! Listen, just like when we fought side-by-side before, my kinsmen and I will take the front and draw their attention!"

He swung his War Axe forward with a fierce battle cry.

"You deliver the killing blow!"

Before his words had even faded, the Gray Dwarf leader shot forward like a cannonball, leading the phalanx of Gray Dwarves to bravely meet the terrifying, swimming Shadows.

Roland sidestepped a whistling, pale Energy Beam and shouted at the Gray Dwarf leader’s charging back, "Fight side-by-side like in the past?"

"Duraga! I’m Roland! I don’t have those memories right now!"

But Duraga had no time to pay him any mind.

His heavy boots shattered the ground as he roared and charged the swimming Shadows in the air, completely drowning out Roland’s shouts in the din of battle.

The battle erupted in an instant.

The experienced Gray Dwarves’ War Axes came crashing down with the force to split mountains and shatter stone, but they only left shallow white scratches on the pale, slimy hides before being deflected by an invisible Force Field.

Their heavy Shields could barely block a direct hit from the Energy Beams, but the corrosive power still rapidly pitted the surfaces of the steel-forged Shields, and the arms holding them were jolted numb.

What was more despairing was that these ancient creatures seemed to lack physical bodies entirely.

They twisted gracefully in the air, easily dodging most physical attacks, their multiple pairs of long, narrow eyes showing no emotion, only cold scrutiny.

One after another, pale Energy Beams shot out from between their dancing tentacles, precise and lethal.

The battle became a one-sided slaughter almost the instant it began.

The Gray Dwarves’ solid formation was cut through like a hot knife through butter, swiftly divided and penetrated.

Pained grunts and enraged roars replaced the initial battle cries as Warriors continuously fell under the corrosion of the Energy Beams, their Armor and flesh dissolving together.

"Dammit! These monsters’ hides are harder than refined gold!"

Duraga parried an Energy Beam with his axe, the recoil forcing him back half a step. He watched his kinsmen fall into a disadvantageous position in an instant, his eyes filled with rage and a hint of powerlessness.

Conventional attacks had little effect against these ancient Nightmares.

Just as Duraga and the Gray Dwarves were struggling to hold on, Roland’s figure cut into the battle like a silver flash of lightning.

The first thing to erupt was the terrifying Power granted by his [Giant Dragon Bloodline].

His Mithril Longsword shrieked as it tore through the air, cleaving down on the slimy flank of a Bottom-dwelling Demon Fish with the force to sunder mountains.

However, the expected scene of blood and gore did not occur.

Before the blade could touch the pale skin, it was blocked by an invisible Force Field. The immense recoil numbed Roland’s arm.

In the end, it only created a ripple on the Force Field, barely knocking the Demon Fish back a few meters without leaving so much as a scratch.

Roland’s eyes sharpened, and his attack pattern changed abruptly.

His sword instantly ignited with searing Holy Light as he brought down a [Supreme Slash].

The Holy Energy collided violently with the invisible Force Field, producing a piercing shriek, but the Holy Light then slid off the field like water and dissipated.

Seeing this, Roland didn’t pause. He made a grasping motion with his left hand, and an Instant Cast [Flaming Arrow] shot out as a blazing fireball.

But as it neared the Demon Fish, it was precisely intercepted by several pale Energy Beams that appeared out of thin air and was annihilated.

Even his pride-worthy speed seemed useless at this moment.

Even though he could weave between the Energy Beams with his Extraordinary Agility and occasionally find an opening to strike the Demon Fish’s body, his blade still couldn’t break through that damned Force Field and its incredibly tough hide.

Roland used the momentum to retreat, his breathing slightly ragged as he scanned the battlefield with sharp eyes.

His mind raced, analyzing this unprecedented enemy.

’Almost absolute physical and Energy defense... precise interception of Energy attacks... and... bizarre mobility and form...’

Roland muttered to himself, his brow furrowed. ’Trouble...’

’These ancient creatures’ defense mechanisms are practically tailor-made to counter every known type of attack.’

’Everything I’ve relied on in the past seems like a futile struggle right now.’

Seeing Duraga and the Gray Dwarves retreating steadily under the Demon Fish’s assault, their defensive line on the verge of collapse, Roland’s mind spun.

’Rudolph... According to Duraga, the "me" he remembers could easily slay these monsters back then...’

Gazing at the nearly invincible ancient creatures before him, a thought leaped into his mind.

’Do I... have to use [Dragon’s Breath]?’

The thought of the indiscriminate, terrifying impact of [Dragon’s Breath] and the catastrophic cave-in it could cause made Roland hesitate.

In that moment of hesitation, the battle took a sharp turn for the worse.

A Gray Dwarf champion’s Shield shattered completely under a continuous barrage of energy, and his entire body was instantly engulfed by a pale beam, dissolving along with his Armor into a pool of charred remains.

Duraga let out a roar of rage and anguish.

The Warriors around him were falling fast. The defensive line they had just formed was now riddled with holes and about to break.

If they didn’t find an effective countermeasure, everyone would die here!

’I can’t hesitate any longer!’

Roland’s eyes sharpened. He took a deep breath, preparing to unleash the power slumbering deep within his bloodline, regardless of the consequences.

However, just a moment before his Spirit was about to resonate with [Dragon’s Breath], an extremely subtle change registered on his highly focused Perception.

At the same time, a bold hypothesis flashed through Roland’s mind like lightning.