Chapter 290: Section 78: Pickled Fishman Comes to Challenge
The Fishman youth finally managed to infiltrate the Fishman Town through the merchant caravan.
He appeared calm on the surface, but was carefully observing his surroundings with the large eyes typical of Fishmen.
Although there were many Fishmen in the town, the facilities were quite rudimentary.
The houses where the Fishmen lived were mostly small caves carved out of rock or natural gaps in coral formations.
The roofs and windows of these houses were made of seashells of various sizes. The structures were typically held together by seaweed bindings.
There were also some large underwater caves where many common Fishmen lived together.
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Overall, the craftsmanship of the buildings was rough, only slightly better than that of primitive tribes.
Despite its primitive appearance, from a military perspective, these were sturdy and durable defensive structures.
Combat in water, being between land and air battles, created a complex fighting environment. Enemies could swim and linger overhead for long periods. Thus, attacks could come from all directions, including from above and below.
In such an environment, the stone caves provided comprehensive protection for the Fishmen.
The passages between caves were often narrow and slippery with complex terrain. Only the Fishmen who had lived there long-term were familiar with the layout. Additionally, Fishmen’s fingers and toes had adhesive abilities, and they were skilled swimmers, allowing them to move quickly through the passages.
In such battles, the Fishmen had significant geographical advantages.
Each Fishman Town was quite defensible and hard to attack.
“The Justice Pirate Group has thousands of members, but they wouldn’t think of attacking an underwater Fishman Town like this. The population here is about the same as the size of the pirate group. Most pirates are ordinary people, incapable of reaching the depths of the sea. The water pressure alone would kill them.”
“Even if magic were used to counteract the water pressure and temporarily grant the pirates the ability to breathe underwater, these ordinary pirates would struggle to fight effectively in a watery environment.”
“Doing so would not only lead to the sacrifice of pirates but also waste the precious mana of our own mages.”
The youth remembered discussing this issue with Zong Ge—how to effectively take down a Fishman village underwater.
Zong Ge’s suggestion was a precision strike.
Send an elite team of Bronze, Black Iron, and Silver-level Transcendents, temporarily endowed with the ability to fight underwater through magic, and quickly break through Fishman defenses, swiftly decapitating the Fishman leaders to cause morale to collapse, and then chase down the fleeing Fishmen.
Zong Ge also highlighted several points to be particularly cautious about.
First, hide your troops well before the raid. If the Fishmen get wind of it and move beforehand, that would be problematic.
The Human Race wouldn’t be able to catch up to them. They couldn’t swim as well as the Fishmen in the water, a natural difference between the species.
If the Fishmen simply fled, the cost invested in the war would be almost impossible to recover. The Fishman villages were rudimentary, with little of value.
If the Fishmen were to lead on the Human forces and then stop, drawing them further in, that could be even more hazardous. The spells on the Human Transcendents were time-limited, and if the Fishmen attacked when those spells were close to expiring, the Human forces would find themselves in a precarious situation.
Second, if the Fishmen didn’t manage to flee and chose to fight stubbornly, the Human forces should avoid engaging them if their initial attempt to cut off the head failed.
This way, the Human forces would lose Transcendents while the Fishmen would largely lose only commoners.
Such a trade-off in forces, unless it yielded a significant tactical or strategic advantage, would be a loss.
A direct assault on the Fishmen’s underwater settlements by the Justice Pirate Group was nearly impractical.
The risk of warfare was too great!
Thus, after entering the village and observing for a while, the Fishman youth was even more relieved that he possessed a Blood Core, enabling him to mutate and disguise as a Fishman.
“Also, thanks to that Fishman Sage, without his bloodline, I wouldn’t have been able to understand the Fishman language.”
“What a good Fishman.”
As the caravan entered the town, the commotion drew more and more Fishmen out of their dwellings to scrutinize these visiting Fishmen.
“Welcome home.” Soon after, the Fishmen naturally parted, allowing an elderly Fishman Shaman to step forward.
She held a cane, her back was stooped, and her fish whiskers were numerous and drooping.
At first glance, the Fishman youth thought she was an old Fishman grandfather, but when she spoke in a female voice, he realized her gender.
Indeed, Fishmen’s gender characteristics were not obvious. Though there were males and females, it was difficult for outsiders to distinguish. The Fishman youth felt the same.
“Stand properly!” the caravan leader, an old Fishman, roared.
The caravan members gathered together.
The old Fishman was among them.
The old Fishman Shaman began to chant, casting a spell that caused a brilliant light to fill the water.
A blood-like radiance shone on all the members of the caravan until the light gradually faded without any unusual occurrences.
This was clearly a form of reconnaissance.
Seeing this result, the old Fishman Shaman breathed a sigh of relief and again said, “Welcome home, children; you’ve had a hard journey.”
The Fishman youth relaxed slightly.
The caravan leader, the old Fishman, also breathed a sigh of relief; he had been particularly watching the Fishman youth and now patted his shoulder, “You’re not from the Swordfin Tribe; we can all rest easy now.”
The Fishman youth shrugged. “I told you, I’m just a wanderer and a hunter.”
The old Fishman said, “If it weren’t for the fact that you and I share the same brown scales, I wouldn’t have brought you along. But this is still not safe. The Swordfin Tribe is our adversary and has previously sent spies into our town.”
Fishmen were a wise species, and the words of the caravan leader, the old Fishman, showed that there were conflicts among them. They valued intelligence in their competition and employed spy tactics.
This made the Fishman youth think of when he had voluntarily asked to join the merchant caravan. The old Fishman leader of the caravan indeed hesitated for a moment.
Then, the youth continued to clarify, “I just want to find a safe environment to rest for a few days, and then I’ll leave.”
As soon as he said this, it relaxed the other Fishmen a bit.
But it gave the old Fishman of the caravan a new idea.
He led the youth, arranged his living quarters, and then secretly called his own disciple.
His disciple was a Green-scaled Fishman with a pair of big yellow eyes.
“Pickled Fishman,” the old caravan Fishman slapped his disciple’s sturdy back, “I have a task for you, go challenge that newcomer.”
Pickled Fishman showed great respect to the old Fishman, “Understood, Master! How much should I teach him a lesson?”
The old Fishman said sternly, “I don’t want you to bully the outsider, just test his strength. If his strength is weaker, then you restrain yourself.”
“Oh, I understand, Master.”
The old Fishman looked at his naive disciple, still a bit worried, and cautioned, “Be careful of his scimitar, capable of wiping out two Ironskin Batfish at once, he’s not easy to deal with.”
“Yes, Master!”
Pickled Fishman always fully executed his master’s orders.
So, he found the Fishman youth immediately.
“You want to challenge me?” The Fishman youth sized up the Green-scaled Yellow-eyed Fishman in front of him.
Compared to other Fishmen, he was noticeably more muscular and taller, the muscles on his limbs were more prominent.
He was also of Black Iron Level.
“I heard your scimitar is formidable. I am the only disciple of my master, inheritor of my master’s scimitar skills, no other Fishman fighters in town can match me. So this time, I’m formally challenging you. Do you dare accept?” Pickled Fishman shouted, his voice deliberately loud, immediately drawing the attention of other Fishmen.
“Of course,” the Fishman youth agreed immediately.
This probing was within his expectations.
Fishmen had backward living conditions, lived underwater, and faced many predator threats, so they were all very martial.
Without being martial, it was impossible to survive.
Pickled Fishman challenging the fellow Black Iron Level newcomer wasn’t wrong at all. In fact, if he didn’t challenge him, other Fishmen were already eager to try.
However, Pickled Fishman was recognized as the strongest among the young adult Fishmen.
As soon as the news of his formal challenge to the newcomer spread, other Fishmen all chose to be spectators.
That afternoon, the location for the duel between the Fishman youth and Pickled Fishman was already surrounded by Fishmen early on.
The youth arrived on time, and the observing Fishmen all stared at him, opening a pathway for him.
“Is that him?”
“So young and already at Black Iron? Just as the rumors said, a genius like Pickled Fishman!”
“Pickled Fishman has the Bloodline of the Man Yu tribe, but he looks to be Brown-scaled. How could someone so young reach Black Iron?”
The Fishmen were discussing curiously.
When the Fishman youth walked through the crowd to the center of the venue, awaiting Pickled Fishman stood up, picked up a scimitar from the ground, and held it tightly in his hand.
He used two scimitars, in the dual wielding style.
“Come on, I’ll let you attack first!” Pickled Fishman grinned fiercely, deliberately clashing the two scimitars together, producing a loud clanging noise.
The Fishman youth flipped his wrist, twirling the scimitar into dazzling patterns, provoking exclamations from the other Fishmen.
Pickled Fishman, dissatisfied, snorted coldly, “All flash and no substance.”
Still, he watched the youth’s scimitar with a very grave look.
Because the youth’s scimitar quality had reached Black Iron, such weapons were rare in the Fishman settlements.
The old Brown-scaled Fishman leader of the caravan was also at Black Iron, had struggled for a lifetime, yet only had two Bronze Level scimitars. Pickled Fishman himself only had ordinary scimitars, and the pair of Bronze scimitars he now held was specifically lent to him by his master, old Brown-scaled.
His master cherished this pair of Bronze scimitars very much, so it was the first time Pickled Fishman used them openly.
Pickled Fishman was both excited and nervous, “I wonder if Master’s treasures can withstand the opponent’s Black Iron scimitar?”
The Fishman youth, twirling his scimitar, slowly approached Pickled Fishman.
Pickled Fishman was very cautious, holding the scimitars in front of his chest, bending forward, and constantly shifting his stance.
Suddenly!
The Fishman youth lunged forward.
The surrounding Fishmen, thinking the two sides would tussle for a while, were surprised by the sudden attack and exclaimed.
Amid the exclamations, the Fishman youth reached Pickled Fishman in the blink of an eye.
Pickled Fishman, always prepared, calmly raised his dual scimitars, intending to block the youth’s direct chop.
But the youth suddenly changed his move, hurling his scimitar as if it were a throwing knife, forcefully flinging it.
Pickled Fishman was astounded, “Such a good weapon, and you just throw it?!”