Anser ignored him. As he passed by, he raised his hand and gave the hull a light pat. The stern of the Sea Shark suddenly blazed with light—a section of hull three to four meters in diameter burst into brilliant illumination, casting bright light for twenty to thirty meters.
He possessed Metamagic: Distant Spell, allowing him to convert touch-range spells into ranged casting, but he felt such a trivial matter was not worth expending metamagic.
Nornoth brushed past the stern at a run and quickly vanished into the night.
Hels and the crew who rushed over in haste could only see a vague silhouette.
Just a few seconds later, a cluster of red light suddenly flared ahead, outlining the long, slender hull of a ship.
"Dodge—!" Hels's expression changed drastically as he turned and fled.
The next instant, a massive fireball came howling toward them. The red light rapidly filled their vision, giving rise to a sense of despair with nowhere to escape.
Boom—
The fireball slammed into the aft deckhouse and detonated violently. A fierce fiery shockwave tore away half a level of the deckhouse, and burning wood chips and fragments burst into the black night like fireworks.
Flames shot skyward, painting half the heavens red. One could vaguely see figures of people ablaze wailing as they leapt into the sea.
[Target killed. Gained 7 experience points.]
Several experience notifications swept through Anser's mind, lifting his spirits.
'So spectacular,' he thought as he looked upon the scene, feeling a surge of excitement as well. 'Soon, soon—once I master Fireball, it'll definitely be even stronger than this.'
At this moment, the Sea Shark was in utter chaos. Everyone was trying to put out the fire—the ship was already burning. If they fought the flames, there was still a chance to live; if they did not, they could only be buried at sea.
Anser rode his horse around the ship to observe and found the fire raging fiercely. It truly was impossible not to intervene.
He fixed his gaze on those figures who only moved their mouths. If you are not putting out the fire, what use are you? You might as well die.
"જાદુઈવિસ્ફોટ"
Sorcery Burst—Lightning!
The clangorous Draconic words carried not the slightest warmth. Dim spell light silently skimmed across the sea, pierced the thick smoke, and with a sharp bang struck a figure, lightning crackling.
The target stiffened, then collapsed forward onto the deck.
[… The first mate of the Sea Shark was hit, taking 6 lightning damage. Current Hit Point: 32/38.]
'Heh, looks like I picked the right one.'
Anser adjusted his position, Sorcery Burst shots flaring out one after another as he chased the target, the attributes constantly shifting—one shot fire, the next possibly poison.
Sorcery Burst had no lock-on and often missed or was blocked by shields, but that did not matter. It was only a cantrip, and he could afford the expenditure.
The first mate of the Sea Shark was driven mad. What kind of grudge is this? Do I absolutely have to die today?
Helpless, and not caring if his subordinates laughed at him, he dragged several slaves over to shield himself tightly and curled up motionless in a corner.
Anser was not annoyed. He continued searching for the next target—after all, no one was allowed to be idle.
The captain of the Sea Shark, Hels, lurked in a corner. Firelight cast his face into alternating light and shadow. He was furious, yet utterly helpless.
"This is what you forced me to do!"
As he spoke, he pulled a palm-sized horn from his belt pouch, raised it to his lips, and blew with all his strength. A deep horn call, like the lowing of an ox, resounded across the surrounding sea.
Meanwhile, an almost imperceptible ripple spread outward through the seawater toward the distance.
'What is this—calling for reinforcements?'
Anser paused, lightly patted Nornoth, and man and horse decisively turned back toward the Quesser.
Salian and the crew were also tense. They silently extinguished their lights and widened the distance from the pirate ship. Yet after waiting for dozens of minutes, the fire aboard the pirate vessel had been put out, and still nothing happened.
"A feint?" Kaleno asked in confusion.
"Look," Salian said, pointing in the direction of Sea Shark.
Everyone turned to look. In the scattered firelight, the seawater around the pirate ship began to bubble in strings. Then, one after another, green-skinned monsters emerged—fins growing from their backs, long spears in hand, mouths full of sharp teeth, faces ferocious.
"Sea devils!" cried Colin, the halfling first mate.
Sea devils were Sahuagin, worshippers of the shark god Sekolah. Bloodthirsty and brutal, they were known as "devils of the deep" and were one of the primary threats to fishing and maritime trade in the Sword Coast.
Anser had not expected the Nashivaar Family to have ties with the Sahuagin. Fortunately, their numbers were not large.
The uncertainty of such summoning horns was very high. Even if Sahuagin were nearby, it did not mean they would necessarily respond.
"I really hate these things," Salian said, his head aching.
Ordinary Sahuagin were not particularly strong, but their ability to damage a ship's hull from underwater was extremely troublesome.
After obtaining the Carved Hide Dragon Scale Amulet, Anser's gaze was noticeably sharper than before. Watching the surging sea in the distance, he sensed that something was off.
"Are they fighting something?"
"Huh? It looks like there are other Merfolk as well?" Salian said in surprise.
With the night dark and the waves high, it was indeed hard to make out details. But as the surrounding waters gradually began to "boil," everyone finally saw clearly—there were two groups of Merfolk.
Tall, green-skinned Merfolk and shorter, purple-skinned Merfolk were locked in a ferocious battle. Bodies kept floating to the surface, and even the surrounding seawater had begun to discolor.
"Kuo-toa? What's going on here?" Anser froze, his mind momentarily blank.
Which side was this horn summoning—or was it… summoning both?
"Raise sails and head south. Get as far away as possible," Salian said, not caring about the answers, intent only on fleeing.
Aboard [Sea Shark], the crew huddled on deck, staring in terror at everything around them.
As a purple-skinned Merfolk and a green-skinned Merfolk fought their way from the sea onto the ship, crew and slaves were caught in the spillover. More and more Merfolk swarmed onto the deck, killing anyone they encountered. The ship descended into complete chaos.
Many crew members died as a result. In their final moments, they stared fixedly at the captain, unable to understand why he had done this.
In a corner, Hels looked at the horn in his hand, already sinking into deep self-doubt: 'Did I summon this? What have I done? What on earth is happening?!'
In the distance, [Quesser] pushed its speed to the limit and rapidly pulled away. The mast creaked under the wind; fortunately, the ship had undergone multiple upgrades—otherwise, even if the mast could withstand full sail, the hull would not have.
"Have Grey Eagle keep watch. Stay safe," Anser said, patting Finn on the arm.
"Mm," Finn replied, his expression grave.
After a moment's thought, Anser activated the Royal Butterfly Cloak, flew up to the top of the main mast, and scanned the distance.
But visibility was extremely poor tonight—everything was pitch-black, and nothing could be seen.
A few minutes passed. In the distance, the dark clouds were blown apart by the sea wind, and moonlight poured down. Within their line of sight appeared a distinctive white surge stretching for several miles, rolling forward as it rushed toward Silver Scale Bay.
The edge of this white surge happened to sweep past [Sea Shark], nearly overturning it. Waves washed across the deck; when the hull rocked back into balance, more than half the deck had been cleared.
Several experience notifications flashed through Anser's mind in rapid succession.
At first, the wave was not especially striking, but it grew faster and faster as it advanced, the crest rising higher with each moment—three meters, four meters, five meters…
Raging waves surged forth, crashing into Silver Scale Bay with earth-shaking force!
Anser seemed to glimpse shadowy figures within the swell, but they were too far away. He could not help feeling it might have been an illusion.
"What was that?" Salian shouted urgently up at Anser.
Anser shook his head slightly, his expression confused. He could not be certain—only that this was not a tsunami.
Fortunately, the massive waves did not reach them. After the surge passed, even the Merfolk around [Sea Shark] had vanished. The slave ship narrowly escaped disaster, though there were hardly any survivors left aboard.
Anser descended, gripping Finn's arm tightly. "Did you see it?"
"Merfolk… countless Merfolk… they've landed," Finn said hoarsely.
"Landed where?" Kaleno asked in alarm, his expression unsettled.
"Silver Scale Bay!"
"How is that possible?" Kaleno clutched the mast, veins standing out on his hands.
Anser called out, and Nornoth ran over at once. Man and horse charged at full speed toward the waters where [Sea Shark] was located.
Anser's gaze flickered as countless thoughts churned through his mind, only to be rejected one after another.
'Kuo-toa—how could there be so many Kuo-toa? Have they gone mad? What in the world has happened in the Underdark?'
Ahead, corpses floated across the sea. Even the wind carried a faint scent of blood.
Nornoth slowed his pace. Anser carefully examined the bodies of these Kuo-toa and suddenly noticed that their racial characteristics were not uniform.
'Foreign Kuo-toa? Other than the Underdark, where else could they come from…'
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