Chapter 19: Deep Sea Beasts
2015-01-21
Author: Floating Tower
Soren is not afraid of death!
But he also absolutely would not seek death; in a fight with no certainty, he would only run as far away as possible.
If it were just a legendary-level opponent, he could still exchange blows in his transformed state as a Slayer, but the Son of Dagon before him is a scion of the Demon God, a challenge at the demigod level, and it is on the opponent’s home turf in the ocean. Within the spatial dominion of the ocean, even a quasi-legendary deep sea beast can be regarded as a legendary monster. The Ocean Goddess’s avatar cannot kill it, and Soren doesn’t believe these men can be stronger than the Ocean Goddess’s avatar.
However, he also did not expect that the Ocean Priestess would summon a pureblood Hydra.
This thing is quite remarkable!
The legend of the Hydra spreads throughout the multiverse and belongs to a cross-dimensional species that can be found in the Material Plane, Bottomless Abyss, Elemental Domains, Hell of Bartok, and so on, along with subspecies propagated by them. There are even legends of Hydras in the tales of Middle-earth, where in ancient times it was called ‘Xiang Liu’.
“[Xiang Liu], a serpent with nine heads, devouring countless people; wherever it goes, it turns the land into marshes.”
Xiang Liu breathes out toxins—anyone who comes into contact with it faces certain death, and ingesting it offers no salvation. Xiang Liu’s blood is a deadly poison; not only does it kill all living things, it also taints the land, preventing crops from growing and polluting everything. In the end, Xiang Liu was slain by the great Yu, who, legend has it, called upon the power of the heavenly gods to build a high platform to suppress it, cleaving the polluted land into pools.
The nine-headed Hydra from Western legends need not be further illustrated.
The previous passage could also apply to the monster before him; the Hydra in this world possesses extremely potent toxicity, capable of spitting out a dragon breath-like attack. Its blood is a toxic liquid, and as long as the nine heads stay alive, they can regrow. Any area ravaged by the Hydra is easily altered into marshland, and its blood will taint the earth, rendering it barren for a long time.
A pureblood Hydra is even more difficult to deal with than a giant dragon!
…
There are three major branches of ocean giants.
The first major branch is the [Tentacle-type] ocean beasts, with the ancient demon ‘Dagon’ from the Bottomless Abyss as its king. The second major branch is the [Multi-headed] ocean beasts, ruled by the mother of Hydras, ‘Hydra’, who is a special demigod. Though she does not have a defined divine profession, she is a servant of the Ocean Goddess, and her main body does not reside in the Material Plane but rather in the divine kingdom of the Ocean Goddess.
As for the third major branch…
Soren prefers to call them the [Dinosaur-type]. These ocean monsters are the most dangerous and the strongest. The most representative of this group is [Godzilla], but the indigenous people of this world do not call it that; [Godzilla] is merely a title circulated among players. The indigenous people refer to this terrifying monster as [Divine Bastard]!
Indeed.
It is a living Divine Bastard.
In the remote regions beyond the continent, there exists a deity known as ‘Father of Dinosaurs’; he possesses strong divine power and once had conflicts with the Lord of Storms. He attempted to create a god-child of his own, not one with the mortal bloodline like the Demon Son of Fear, but a god-child born from the direct union of deities. Such an entity is innately a deity, but due to certain laws, it is highly likely to perish at birth. If it dies, the result is a [Divine Bastard].
This is the origin of the [Dinosaur-type] deep sea beasts.
…
Although Soren has directly joined the battle, he has no intention of getting close to the Son of Dagon.
He would absolutely not enter the battlefield of a demigod sea monster; to ensure he maintains enough distance, Soren intentionally let the nearby pirate escape a bit farther before launching an attack. The arrival of the Hydra undoubtedly attracted the Son of Dagon’s full attention; facing an equally ranked deep-sea beast, it gradually retracted all its tentacles. The sharkmen spread out, and tiger sharks formed a surrounding circle that surged in.
The Naga Priestess also seemed to have no intention of remaining at the center of the battlefield of the two great ocean giants.
Her initial warship has already been destroyed, and now she could only approach the Ghost Ship, then suddenly leaped onto the deck.
“Gosaru will handle the Son of Dagon!”
The Naga Priestess cast a deep glance at Soren, then solemnly said, “We must leave the others behind. There is an important offering to the Ocean Goddess here!”
If Soren hadn’t mentioned this monster, she might not have summoned the Hydra at all.
But it seems Soren was indeed right.
The sharkmen have decent battle power in naval combat, but it is very difficult to sink those warships. The undead on the Requiem began to move; the tattered black sails swelled. Soren activated the ghostly sails on the ship. The Requiem started to accelerate, shooting out like an arrow, quickly catching up with the fleeing storm pirates. On the other side, the deep-sea Hydra has already engaged the Son of Dagon; the nine heads faced the hundreds of entwining tentacles, gnawing through them one by one in turn. To other beings, its highly toxic blood might seem deadly, but to the deep-sea Hydra, it appeared to be a delicacy, with six heads dealing with tentacles on the surface while the other three dove underwater to attack.
Waves began to swell!
The battle between the two super giant deep-sea monsters created gigantic waves dozens of meters high, crashing down like city walls from all sides. Soren’s act of retreating was undoubtedly correct; some sharkmen were swept away by the giant waves, along with tiger sharks flying over a hundred meters high. Don’t think that falling into the water means safety; these sharkmen had to endure a very high difficulty Constitution check upon hitting the water, or they could get knocked out by the impact.
A massive shadow made contact!
Both deep-sea giants dove beneath the waves, and streams of blood began to spread—some belonging to the Son of Dagon, and others to the deep-sea Hydra.
Chunks of torn flesh expanded in the water, and enormous waves swirled in all directions. Nearby sharkmen and tiger sharks, caught too close, began to rot and become poisoned due to contact with the blood of the two deep-sea giants. Soon, several unfortunate souls met their demise in the spreading bloodwaters. Only beings at a certain power level can approach the battle zone without facing death, and sometimes the deaths can be inexplicable. [Death Check due to Toxin!]
“Block it!”
The Naga Priestess seemed to be sensing something with her eyes closed. Suddenly, she opened her eyes and sharply commanded, “There! Fire! Sink it!”
—“Great Vortex!” [Divine Technique]
A series of strange oceanic languages rang out as the Naga Priestess quickly chanted incantations. The water before her suddenly began to swirl, forming a massive vortex that enveloped the nearby ships. The suction of the vortex prevented the ships from escaping, and several high-ranked figures rushed out from within, abandoning the ships being gradually pulled into the whirlpool to retreat to another position. This vortex possessed tremendous pulling power, even the Requiem was being drawn into it, inching closer to the eye of the vortex.
“Fire! Fire!”
Soren showed no fear; instead, he calmly continued the attack. This was obviously a special divine technique of the Ocean Goddess; if other ships sank to the seabed, it would be of no consequence; a ghost ship sinking to the bottom could always resurface.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The cannons of the Requiem began to fire, a side cannon tearing apart the mast of an enemy ship, while another shot blew a large hole in the ship’s hull, revealing many pirates jumping overboard. As the ship gradually cracked under the increasing force of the whirlpool, the speed at which it broke apart was accelerating, making it more likely for those left aboard to perish.
Splash!
The Naga Priestess surprisingly jumped into the sea, as if something incredibly important was on that ship.
Soren, although eager to reap the heads of pirates, was more curious about what made the Naga Priestess so attentive, and so he quietly jumped into the ocean as well. By now, the battle was nearly done; those capable of escaping had already collected their benefits and left, such as the Storm Priest and Duchess of Red Dragon, among others. The spellcasters had fled long before things turned dire with the appearance of the Son of Dagon; what remained were mostly some unfortunate melee professionists.
The battle determining the distribution of wealth was between the Son of Dagon and the deep-sea Hydra; they were merely tagging along.
Soren remained calm.
Since arriving in this world, he has often merely gone along for the ride. If it weren’t for his rapid increase in power, he might not even qualify to be here.
Curiously enough!
The swirling vortex on the surface of the sea pulled strongly, while below the surface, things were relatively calm, rotating at a slower speed, possibly because it was not a natural whirlpool but rather a divine technique granted by the Ocean Goddess. Soren saw the Naga Priestess swimming towards the remains of the ship; he felt something too, swimming in that direction, but deviating south by several dozen meters. An unseen force seemed to be attracting him, as if sparking a desire, a hunger-like yearning within him.
He discovered something!
Soren opened a chest flung far away by the whirlpool, which emitted a golden glow; it was a bone the size of a thigh. It seemed like the bone of some kind of creature?
No! No, that’s not right!
This isn’t a golden sculpture; it’s simply a bone!
Soren looked at the strange golden bone before him; its shape resembled a toe bone, but what kind of creature’s toe could be as thick as a thigh?
As he reached out to touch the golden bone, a line of data suddenly appeared:
“Unknown Divine Residue detected! …….”
“Activating Divine Fusion and Devouring ability! …… Divine power transferring! ……”
“You have gained 1 point of Divinity Value.”
“You have gained 1 point of Divinity Value.”
“You have gained 1 point of Divinity Value.”
……………… (To be continued ~^~)
