Chapter 16: Black Dragon! (1700 Monthly Tickets Update!)
2015-01-19
Author: Floating Tower (诸生浮屠)
In the salty and bitter sea breeze.
Soren watched the female pirate gradually swim to the shore, then ordered the ghost ship to leave. Whether the target would wait for him here, Soren had only half confidence. In the initial conversation, he had already used the Gaze of Fear for psychological suggestion and deliberately created an oppressive atmosphere. If this still didn’t achieve the desired effect, it could only be said that his ability in this regard was lacking; after all, he wasn’t adept at everything.
The ghost ship began to speed up, the mist shifting with its battered hull.
Soren gradually approached the deep sea area. As the sea and sky ahead became more open, and the seawater gradually changed from azure to deep blue, he knew he had reached the territory of the Naga. The Naga were not the rulers of the ocean; there were many dangerous creatures in the waters of this world. Even the sharkmen and Naga sea monsters could only occupy a portion of their territory. The number of ocean monsters was vast, especially in the abyssal regions of the seabed, near the sunken continental shelf, which was an area the Naga sea monsters dared not easily venture.
Because there was intense energy radiation there!
This was a disaster left over from the Arcane Empire, and even thousands of years later, it had not changed. The central region of the ocean was a danger zone, where octopuses could grow to the size of a king squid, reaching lengths of about 14 meters, capable of capsizing a ship, and sometimes giant monsters capable of preying on whales would appear. Therefore, trade across the ocean continent had always been in a refrigerated state. Although some had explored the continental shelf across the ocean, it was limited to interactions between spellcasters.
Ordinary people could not pass through and could not bypass that dangerous area.
The continental shelf would have slight movements. The Soros Archipelago was once part of the continental shelf, and Soren’s current location was in the deep-sea canyon. Beneath was an abyss over ten thousand meters deep, and it was unknown what was within; in any case, the Naga tribe lived near this sea area.
Rumbling.
There was a slight tremor in the seabed. Soon, a warship resembling a bizarre elven ship emerged.
It was a long and narrow fast ship, with a sharp front and a sculpture of a snake-headed female demon at the rear, and on the hull were multiple Naga sea creatures. Among them was a figure Soren recognized. The Naga priestess was among them, unlike before, she was now clad in azure armor, with four arms simultaneously holding a longsword, a morningstar, a staff, and a shield. Although she did not possess the spellcasting ability of a legendary priest, her biological level combined with her priest level absolutely equated to legendary combat power.
Her priest level should be around level 18.
The opponent was equipped with heavy armor and also carried a shield. If Soren weren’t aware of her identity, he might initially mistake her for a warrior.
In this world, priests were not difficult to deal with.
They did not have as many restrictions as wizards; wearing full armor did not affect their divine techniques. High-level priests could wear heavy warrior equipment and could fight while casting spells, occasionally granting themselves divine power boosts. After reaching legendary status, they could even summon otherworldly messengers. Such beings could sometimes be quite frustrating; fortunately, divine techniques were all modified versions of spells. While priests had strong comprehensive abilities, they did not particularly excel in any outstanding area.
Moreover, it was almost impossible for priests to have the opportunity for the Investiture of the Gods; at most, they would reach the level of an Elect Saint.
“Keep up!”
As the opponent’s warship moved, Soren ordered the ghost ship to follow. It seemed the Naga tribe used alchemical warships. Although alchemy was considered a taboo in many places, the Naga sea monsters had fewer concerns. Warships were the primary tool of the Naga; they could not tame sea creatures like sharkmen, whales, and so forth, so using warships was certainly faster than swimming.
A day passed quickly.
The next day, after Soren had completed his spell memorization again, they encountered another supporting force.
They were sharkmen riding giant tiger sharks, the most loyal servants of the Ocean Goddess. Unfortunately, these guys had very low intelligence. It was rare for priests and spellcasters to be born among them.
Under the azure sky!
The sea surface rose with waves, followed by more than ten tiger sharks appearing before them.
In front of Soren was a sharkman wearing armor that resembled woven seaweed, almost only having a humanoid outline, with robust arms wielding tridents. As they approached the warship, a loud roar erupted, and the tiger sharks began to circle around. At the same time, a sharkman drove the tiger shark closer to the Naga priestess, speaking in a language Soren could not understand.
d*mn ocean language!
Indeed, learning languages and writing was never too much.
The expression of the Naga priestess became serious. After listening to the other’s words, she immediately ordered: “Full speed ahead! Our prey has appeared. There are other hunters, too!”
The ghost ship began to accelerate forward.
Soren wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but he seemed to see the sea surface tremble.
No, no!
It shouldn’t be called the sea surface; it was as if the entire ocean had trembled, as if an invisible vibration spread through the seabed, causing a wave-like feeling to diffuse across the sea surface. The Naga priestess seemed to sense something as well; her expression quickly turned serious. She picked up a conch-like object and began to whisper prayers in a strange language. The sound was like waves, spreading with an unusual resonance across the sea, transmitting all the way to some distant place.
“Gosaloo! … Go … salo … loo! …”
Ahead, a Naga warrior let out a deep and excited roar, as if shouting the name of some creature, but Soren couldn’t understand at all.
However.
He now had a very clear feeling that this battle was probably not simple.
It could be determined that it was at least of legendary level!
………………
Time passed little by little.
The sea surface gradually revealed barrels and wooden debris, along with traces of fire. It seemed a battle had taken place previously here. The smell of bl**d attracted schools of sharks and other marine carnivorous animals. The sharkmen urged the tiger sharks to emit excited howls, followed by certain casting actions, among which some sharks actually began to move along with them.
This was ‘Charm Ocean Creatures’!
A spell similar to ‘Charm Animals’, belonging to the sharkmen’s innate spell-like ability.
Ahead, corpses began to appear.
Soren saw a white bone flag floating on the sea surface, which caused his expression to turn slightly unpleasant as he muttered, “The Pirate King’s flag?”
This was a war flag.
Or it could be said to be a bl**d-sacrificed war flag.
A battle had already occurred in the nearby sea area; they had arrived quite late, but he didn’t know whether the betrayer’s fleet had been taken down. Soren wasn’t particularly concerned about this wealth, as even if he seized it, he wouldn’t be able to take much. However, he had to come; otherwise, he might suffer the Ocean Goddess’s curse. Although the gods had fallen into slumber and lost contact, they were not completely unaware. Such a crucial matter would definitely catch the Ocean Goddess’s attention.
Buzz!
The tremor from the seabed seemed to reappear.
The surrounding fish seemed frightened, frantically fleeing to the distance, even the sharks began to grow restless.
In the distance, a solitary island appeared.
It looked as if it suddenly rose from the seabed, which looked quite bizarre and made one feel inexplicably uneasy. Before him was already the outermost edge of the Soros Archipelago. This sea area was dotted with many oddly shaped solitary islands, remnants of the war of the Arcane Empire, resembling mountains that had been smashed.
Roar!
A dull, low roar suddenly came from afar.
Then, a massive black shadow soared into the sky. It elegantly spread its dragon wings, spiraling up from the sea surface to hundreds of meters high. Following that, the black silhouette dove from the horizon, a deep booming sound resonated from behind the island ahead, and then a dragon breath swept down from the sky, turning into a flame pillar of twenty to thirty meters covering the ocean.
“Black Dragon! …”
Soren silently tightened his curved blade and turned to glance at the Naga priestess. He was indeed right; that dragon could not resist the temptation of such astonishing wealth.
Rumbling!
A tremendous noise came from ahead.
Soren vaguely saw a woman dressed in a white long dress, perhaps not exactly a white dress, but something resembling a wedding dress. The reason it stood out was that behind her, a pair of massive dark red dragon wings unfurled, making it visually striking, and even more incredible was that she was engaged in direct combat with the black dragon.
And it was close combat!!!
What spellcaster in this world could engage a giant dragon in direct melee combat?
Without a doubt.
Only one type of being could achieve this—that was a Dragonblood Sorcerer!
In front of him stood a legendary-level Dragonblood Sorcerer, who had completed a transformation into a half-dragon, hence the dragon wings could morph from her back. A legendary spellcaster combined with the power of a half-dragon; this woman was likely the legendary Duchess. Unexpectedly, she actually possessed the bloodline of the red dragon.
The seabed seemed to tremble again!
“Advance!”
“Descend!”
Soren and the Naga priestess issued two completely different commands. The Naga tribe’s warship suddenly accelerated, and the Naga priestess rapidly cast spells with both hands. As her incantation echoed, a wave of elemental energy emerged on the sea surface, followed by the appearance of a giant water elemental of near-legendary status. The elemental life stood on the sea surface, moving along with the warship ahead. Meanwhile, Soren’s ghost ship began to descend, and as seawater surged from all directions, the undead on the ghost ship were also prepared for battle.
It seemed they had arrived neither too early nor too late!
……………… (To be continued ~^~)
