Chapter 285: Section 73: Deep Sea Hydra
Sky Pillar Sea Eye.
The waters were turbulent, with the sounds of battle thundering across the sea surface.
The Justice Pirate Group was engaged in combat.
Some pirates occupied the deck, shooting with bows and firearms. Others defended the ship’s railings, wielding sailor knives or boarding axes, chopping at any Fishman trying to climb aboard.
“grall! gural!”
“wamm!”
...
Numerous Fishmen shrieked and emerged from beneath the waters, scrambling to cling onto the ship’s body. Some rushed towards the deck, while others dived directly into the windows of the cannon positions.
Bai Ya, exerting his full strength, moved a barrel and smashed it downwards.
The barrel rolled, smashing at least seven or eight Fishmen clinging onto the hull back into the sea.
“Well done!” the pirate defending that section of the ship’s railings praised loudly, as Bai Ya’s attack resolved his urgent problem.
“Be careful.” The next moment, Xu Ma suddenly pulled Bai Ya.
Bai Ya fell backward, narrowly dodging a blow dart.
The Fishmen also had ranged attacks; a group of blow dart Fishmen stayed hidden at a distance, occasionally emerging to shoot their darts.
Seeing the dart stuck in the mast, its length as thick as a finger and smeared with a strange green poison, Bai Ya felt a terrifying chill and hastily thanked Xu Ma.
Xu Ma shook his head and sighed, “I told you not to show off too much. You’ve knocked down quite a few Fishmen with that barrel, haven’t you?”
Bai Ya scratched his head.
He had unexpectedly discovered that such high-ground attacks could easily cause greater casualties.
He had quite a knack for hurling barrels.
He had Zong Ge to thank for the military training. The training involved half of the pirates swimming around the ship while the other half, standing by the railings, tried to hit them with barrels.
Xu Ma sighed, “All you think about is winning honors; don’t you know the leading goose gets shot? You’d better stick by me.”
Bai Ya felt his arms numb and his mind unsettled.
He was eager to continue fighting but knew he was reaching his physical limits and had already become a target for the dart Fishmen. Continuing the fight would make it easy for him to get shot down.
“My physical strength is too little, merely that of an ordinary person…”
“If only my bloodline were better, even just a little better, allowing me to have Bronze-level Fighting Energy, I could continue to achieve great deeds!”
Bai Ya was full of regret and helplessness.
He enviously glanced towards Justice.
On board the Justice, one figure was particularly noticeable—the Big Guy.
The Big Guy, clad in heavy armor, stood at the railing, continuously swinging the Wolf Fang Club in his hands.
His movements resembled sweeping; the Wolf Fang Club swept across, sending the unlucky Fishmen flying off, some of them getting crushed against the ship’s hull into a heap of broken flesh.
The Big Guy had already achieved Bronze Cultivation. His Fighting Energy flowed, enhancing his strength and endurance.
He was handling the workload of more than a dozen people, staunchly defending a section of the railing; no one dared approach, whether Fishman or pirate.
“Truly a Divine Bloodline.” The Dragon-man youth stood outside the captain’s quarters on the corridor, his hand resting on the rail, watching the Big Guy.
He was always closely monitoring the Big Guy’s condition.
The bloodline of the Earth Giant displayed its dominant aspect, suppressing and squeezing the Human Race bloodline in the Big Guy, gradually transforming him into a pure Earth Giant.
The Divine Bloodline gave the Big Guy a tremendous enhancement, increasing his strength to eight times what it had been!
The Big Guy’s body was also rapidly developing; he was quickly getting taller, but his chest, back, and limbs were also becoming more robust.
“It’s a pity that the Big Guy has low intelligence; even learning simple Earth-centric Fighting Mantras took a lot of effort.”
“If he were to learn Combat Skills…”
The Dragon-man youth shook his head silently.
It was difficult for the Big Guy to learn Combat Skills.
It wasn’t that the youth lacked the patience to teach and impart Combat Skills to the Big Guy, but he was more concerned about his safety.
If a Combat Skill failed, it would backlash against the fighter.
If the Big Guy were to learn Combat Skills, he would inevitably be riddled with injuries, potentially embarking on a suicidal journey.
“Even without Combat Skills, as long as the Big Guy is equipped with armor and heavy weapons, he cannot be overlooked on the battlefield!”
Currently, all the Big Guy’s equipment was sponsored by Bishop Hao Fu.
Bronze-level full body armor.
Bronze-level Wolf Fang Club.
His combat power had already surpassed that of Black Iron.
The body quality of an Earth Giant juvenile had comprehensively surpassed most Silver-level Human Race fighters!
The Wolf Fang Club struck the ship’s body, causing the Big Guy to pause in his movements momentarily.
He turned and glanced at the Dragon-man youth, thus getting distracted.
Fortunately, Justice’s hull utilized a metallic coating alchemy technique, immune to such light impacts.
When the Big Guy saw the Dragon-man youth smiling at him encouragingly and appreciatively, he grinned happily for a moment and then continued to “sweep.”
“This big fellow…” the youth sighed helplessly in his heart, “He still needs to deepen his understanding of combat.”
The Big Guy not only frequently got distracted on the battlefield, but sometimes, his large movements would even sweep the nearby pirates away.
The Dragon-man youth shifted his gaze, his dragon pupils focusing on the nearby Silver Hook.
Silver Hook was also a Black Iron-level demon energy ship, captained by Zong Ge.
Zong Ge stationed himself at the ship’s bow, facing the strongest opponent of this battle—a deep sea four-headed serpent.
This was a sea beast with immense size, even larger than the Silver Hook.
It exuded a strong Silver aura; its heads were as large as carriages, and three of them spread in three directions, simultaneously striking at Zong Ge.
However, midway through the attack, two of the heads encountered heavy resistance.
The attacker was a newly joined member of the Justice Pirate Group, a Silver-level Archer—the One-eyed Elf!
Rushing towards Zong Ge, only one head remained.
Zong Ge sneered suddenly drawing his Two-Handed Greatsword.
Deploying a Combat Skill, his greatsword cleaved downward, instantly generating a solid blood-red blade shadow.
The blade shadow struck the serpent’s head squarely, tearing through the tough Snake Skin and splitting the solid snake bone.
Snake blood and brain matter sprayed wildly.
The remaining three snake heads let out sharp wails together.
The snake head that Zong Ge had struck was now sliced partly off, and the snake’s body below it thrashed wildly on the deck, flinging many pirates overboard.
Zong Ge stood proudly in place, looking down appreciatively at the greatsword in his hand.
This greatsword was none other than the Demon Blood!
It was 1.8 meters long, with a tip as sharp as a bird’s beak, and the entire blade was a dark red color. The hilt was pitch-black, with grooves that resembled palm lines spreading from the hilt along the blade, ultimately converging at the tip.
Some snake blood splashed onto the blade. The grooves in the blade burst forth with suction, quickly absorbing the blood.
It was like a person in the desert, long deprived of water, suddenly finding a source of drink!
The blade trembled excitedly, as if shouting to Zong Ge:
“More, more!”
“Kill, keep killing, don’t stop!”
Zong Ge snorted coldly, gripping the greatsword and sprinting a few steps before leaping fiercely onto the hydra.
He swung the greatsword about, stabbing holes and spilling blood everywhere on the hydra’s body.
The Demon Blood Greatsword, saturated with snake blood, grew even sharper.
After a struggle, the hydra sustained severe injuries.
“Truly worthy of being a Gold Level weapon,” the Dragon-man youth remarked to himself.
He had long known about Zong Ge acquiring the Demon Blood Greatsword and was quite happy for the Half-Beast.
Zong Ge’s commanding presence greatly boosted the pirates’ morale.
Injured, the hydra submerged into the sea.
The underwater environment was complex, and since Half-Beasts weren’t adept at underwater combat, he chose not to pursue but returned to the deck of the Silver Hook.
Having one of its heads gruesomely killed and bleeding profusely, the hydra was incredibly furious.
It didn’t flee but chose to attack from under the water.
But the pirates of the Justice Pirate Group were well-prepared.
The Silver Hook was even better prepared.
For during this time, Zong Ge had been running military trainings, focusing on how to respond to underwater attacks.
“Release the float bombs!” Sanda, the first officer of the Silver Hook, immediately gave the order.
Consequently, numerous specially designed barrels were pushed into the sea.
These barrels slowly sank.
When the hydra surged upwards, it collided with the barrels, setting off the explosions.
Boom, boom, boom…
Explosions resounded non-stop, causing waves to crash upon the sea surface.
The hydra was dazed by the blasts, its injuries compounded.
“Deploy the barbed fishing nets!” Sanda ordered again.
The next moment, several alchemically-enhanced fishing nets were cast down.
Attached to each knot of these nets were sharp blades.
Once in the water, the blades automatically sought the enemy, covering the hydra’s body.
The blades dug deeply into the hydra, which felt itself trapped and thrashed about trying to escape, but the nets only tangled tighter, and the blades drove deeper.
These military supplies had been recently obtained by Cang Xu in exchange from the Empire.
Because they were searching for the Mei Lan temple, the Justice Pirate Group had already considered scenarios involving underwater enemies.
Exhausted, the hydra finally tore through the numerous nets and, pierced by many blades, burrowed deeper into the ocean.
It abandoned the fight and began to flee.
“Watch this!” Lan Zao had been waiting for his chance and suddenly threw something.
The Elastic Black Silk Fishing Net!
It must be said that Lan Zao had a knack for net-throwing; he actually managed to catch the multiple-headed hydra.
However, it only delayed the inevitable.
The Elastic Black Silk Fishing Net was soon torn apart by the hydra.
By then, the Dragon-man youth and Zong Ge had already dived in and caught up with the hydra.
Together, they quickly killed it.
When the corpse of the hydra was pulled up onto the deck of the Justice by the two, the Fishmen’s morale utterly collapsed, and they fled in all directions.
The pirates pursued them for a while with bows, firearms, and cannons until the battlefield returned to calm.
Silence lasted but a few breaths before the entire Justice Pirate Group erupted into cheers.
It was a cheer of victory.
The Dragon-man youth ordered the cleaning of the battlefield.
Soon after, Cang Xu came to the captain’s quarters to report the victorious outcome.
It was a great victory.
The Justice Pirate Group had minimal losses, while the Fishmen suffered heavily, and the hydra was the biggest prize.
The Dragon-man youth was not surprised at all. In fact, this battle had been under his control from start to finish.
The Deep Sea Monster Fish had scouted the enemy here, and the Justice Pirate Group had purposely moved in, provoking the hydra’s retaliation.
But it was just a Silver Level Magic Beast, no match for the Justice Pirate Group.
“Next, we will continue to delve deeper into the Sea Eye.”
“We’ll actively seek indigenous creatures to train our troops through combat,” the Dragon-man youth declared.
“Captain, we’ve also captured some Fishmen,” Cang Xu reported. “I need some subjects to help me with research on crafting the Memory Crystals.”
The Dragon-man youth nodded: “The Fishmen I’ve selected, regardless of whether they live or die, should first be sent to the Monster Fish. The rest are yours to deal with.”
After their conversation, Fat Tongue reported, “Sir, the victory celebration is ready.”
The Dragon-man youth and Cang Xu then went to the cafeteria, where the atmosphere was electric.
Dinner was enhanced with lots of snake meat, as well as limbs from the Fishmen.
Before eating, the pirates each said their prayers.
Di Lou and others were the loudest, and Lan Zao also began to pray enthusiastically.
He earnestly praised the Goddess of the Nets, for in this battle, he had successfully delayed the hydra with his nets, contributing significantly to their victory.