Chapter 114: Oceanic Beast Tide
“A beast tide?” The dragonman youngster was stupefied.
Every time the rising and falling of Two Eyes Island happened, the surrounding ecosystem would change and be displaced, attracting many predators to a gluttonous feast.
“But to say it is a forming beast tide somewhat ridiculous. The dragonman youngster scanned the information, inwardly speechless at the scale of this beast tide.
He was not unfamiliar with beast tides.
On Mystifying Monster Island. He had experienced many.
This was the first one he had experienced after leaving Mystifying Monster Island.
Electric sharks, ghost face fish, noble flying snappers, seafloor mountain snails, narwhales, venomous jellyfish…it really looked like a large exhibition of seabed creatures.
The scale of the school of fish far exceeded any beast tide on Mystifying Monster Island, and although the majority of it was composed of ordinary ocean fish, there were still many magic beasts in it.
There was no magic prohibition domain here, thus the magic beasts could use racial magic.
Therefore, the beast tide was far mightier.
Even the dragonman youngster felt anxious about this information.
“Fortunately, although the beast tide has formed, the schools of fish are scattered and aren’t under a unified command.”
It would have been even worse if a beast king appeared.
“According to the information, this beast tide doesn’t have a gold level magic beast in it yet.”
“Two Eyes Island’s defenses shouldn’t be bad either.”
The dragonman youngster assessed it to himself.
Two Eyes Island’s commerce was flourishing and Hun Tong definitely had money,
Everyone looked up at Two Eyes Island’s defenses. Even during normal times, Two Eyes Island did not have many externally visible defenses.
The Deep Sea Monster Fish’s detection abilities still exceeded Two Eyes Island’s. After all, it was War Merchant’s gold level magic ship.
A dozen minutes later, an alarm suddenly rang through Two Eyes Island’s port.
Not long after, a port official ran over to notify, “This is the order directly from Feudal Lord Hun Tong. A beast tide has appeared, he hopes your corps can immediately depart and cull it down!”
This was the mercenary mission given by the feudal lord himself, and the rewards were generous.
The dragonman youngster had no reason to refuse.
Besides the mission, he also wanted to provide support to Zong Ge and the others.
Half the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ ships had gone out before this. These troops were being led by Zong Ge and were doing training,
Due to the port blockade because of the necromancer search, Zong Ge’s training plan had been delayed by a lot.
At once, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ remaining ships all swung into action and left the harbor at the same time under the dragonman youngster’s leadership.
As they traveled across the ocean, the dragonman youngster noticed that other ships were leaving port too.
Most were large fishing boats, and some were merchant alliance transportation ships.
Leaving aside the fishing boats, merchant alliance transportation ships had decent combat capabilities. After all, voyages were very dangerous these days, with pirates running amuck, one needed battle strength to guarantee the safety of the merchandise.
What most attracted the dragonman youngster’s attention was the two other mercenary corps’ fleet.
On Two Eyes Island, there were two mercenary corps stationed at all times.
One was the Iron Club Mercenary Corps, and the other was the Bandage Mercenary Corps.
To live as a mercenary corps on the ocean, they naturally had their own fleet.
The mercenary corps clearly received the mission and were departing at similar times.
The Iron Club Mercenary Corps was a bit bigger at 14 ships, and their flagship was a dark iron ship. The iron ship’s planks had a half sphere sticking out of every one of them.
The Bandage Mercenary Corps had 12 ships, its flagship was made out of wood, but regardless of whether it was the hull, deck, or mast, all of them had a white bandage tied to it, a very visible characteristic.
Each fleet’s flagship was a bronze level magic ship.
In comparison, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ fleet was a bit smaller, and their flagship was of ordinary level.
Anyways, if one wanted to calculate everything in the comparison, the two mercenary corps fleets combined would not even be worth half the Deep Sea Monster Fish.
After the dragonman youngster sized them up for a bit, he returned to his captain’s room.
Amongst the ear-piercing alarms, numerous ships left port and scattered from each other.
The beast tide was coming from all directions, and each ship was headed towards a different front.
After the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps advanced for 20 minutes, they came to their first destination.
The dragonman youngster received Zong Ge’s transmission.
When Zong Ge heard about the beast tide, he decided to fight where he was, and did not plan to return back to converge with the other group. He believed that this was a rare and beneficial opportunity to drill his troops.
“This guy…” The dragonman youngster was a little exasperated.
He trusted the half beastman.
Since Zong Ge acted like this, he must be sure of it.
But as the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ foremost leader, he wanted to think things through more.
At once, the dragonman youngster immersed himself in the ocean map on his desk,, his finger slowly moving across it.
“The route has to be altered.”
“Deal with this side, then hurry over here, then we will break towards where Zong Ge is.”
“When we reach the third location, we will be close enough. Even if something unexpected happens, we will be able to support Zong Ge’s squad on time.”
Although the Deep Sea Monster Fish had scouted out a lot of intelligence, the beast tide was not completely transparent.
No one could say precisely what was hiding in it.
“A large school of fish ahead, prepare for battle!” The dragonman youngster ordered.
On the deck, mercenaries proficiently pulled sails and restrained rope.
Some mercenaries were on the sides of the ships, preparing fishing nets.
In the hull’s midsection, cannon holes were being opened up.
Three to five mercenaries worked together to push cannons forward so their mouths were sticking out of the hull.
Bai Ya was one of the gunners.
“This is the first time I’ve seen a beast tide in the ocean.” He swallowed his saliva nervously.
Bang, thump, boom.
While smoke puffed from cannon mouths.
After a burst of bombardment, the ocean surface in front of the fleet was mixing with blood.
Countless ocean fish turned on their bellies and floated to the surface. Many severed limbs jumbled in the waves, sinking or floating in the seawater.
The first round of bombardment had scattered the school of fish.
The remaining quarter of the ocean fish were horrified and fled in all directions.
The mercenaries began to throw nets and fish out the spoils of war.
“We will sail in fifteen minutes.” The dragonman youngster commanded.
“But Lord Commander, that isn’t enough time to gather the spoils.” A sailor raised an objection.
The dragonman youngster smiled, “Throw away these fish, there are better things waiting for us.”
He had first-hand intelligence on hand.
He knew there were more valuable schools of fish waiting for him to harvest.
In the early stages of the beast tide, many schools of fish were dispersed about, thus, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps sallied out and routed one after the other.
To the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps, this was a profitable hunting opportunity.
Not long after, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps hurried to their second destination.
This school of fish was unlike the previous one.
The water under them was as dark as the night.
Normal cannon shells couldn’t hit them.
But the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps had many kinds of alchemy shells in their armory.
The dragonman youngster chose to use sonic shells.
This kind of artillery shell was specialized for shooting into underwater depths. Their original purpose was to target nagas or fishmen. After the shell detonates, a strong sound wave will be produced, capable of destroying the hearing of seafloor lifeforms, vibrating them to death or unconsciousness.
Using the sonic wave shells on deep sea fish felt like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, the effects were really outstanding.
Countless ocean fish floated up, and for a moment, they filled the ocean surface for several hundred meters in a spectacular sight.
The mercenaries were constantly throwing nets and catching them as best they could.
Large quantities of fish filled their holds.
“We don’t have enough fishing nets.”
“We need more fishing nets.”
“This is only the second location, and our hold is already a third full.”
The mercenaries were happily worried.
“Perhaps we can use alchemy puppets to remodel the ships to have more storage space.” Cang Xu proposed.
“Unnecessary.” Zi Di calculated, “We can return to port early and sell off these fish to clear out the holds before setting out again.”
“When the beast tide strikes, there will be numerous catches.”
“The price of this in the market for these fish will be constantly falling. We want to dump them as soon as possible so we can make the most money.”
“As for afterwards, when the beast tide becomes more compressed and schools of fish crowd around each other and attack Two Eyes Island together, if we set out again, it will be too dangerous.”
Zi Di’s business abilities had long been approved of.
When the dragonman youngster heard this, he immediately adopted her proposal.
Something unexpected happened in the third location.
The school of fish in the information was annihilated by a group of electric sharks.
The original target was gone, replaced by the group of electric sharks.
The beast tide had gone through a violent change.
The electric sharks were undoubtably a bigger challenge.
But at the same time, the spoils of war were more valuable.
Zi Di said, “We need the electric sharks’ electrode vertebrae. We can refine them into scout shark models. To build the medicine database, we also need some electric shark fat and oil.”
“Understood. I will act myself.” The dragonman prepared to fight in light of that.
The electric sharks were in the depths and couldn’t be threatened by ordinary cannons. Even if sonic shells were used, the magic beast sharks would only be tickled by them.
Zi Di tore an underwater breathing scroll and casted it on the dragonman youngster.
Plop.
The dragonman youngster jumped into the water and dived down to face the shark group.
With magic boosting him, he could freely breathe in the water.
“It just so happens I can use actual combat to familiarize myself with my new body structure.” The dragonman youngster thought as he transformed his body.
All around his body, ring mounds appeared.
The spurting smoke dragon transformation was added to the dragonman youngster’s body.
Suddenly, a burst of icy coldness wrapped around him entirely.
The spurting smoke dragon didn’t like water as much as the Flame Dragon King did.
It didn’t have gills and couldn’t breathe underwater. However, if it lacked food, it could act like a seabird and dip into the sea to catch fish in the shallows.
Battle skill – Surge!
With the spurting smoke dragon transformation, the Surge battle skill activated, instantly accelerating the dragonman youngster.
After two seconds, he exploded into the shark group like an artillery shell.
An unlucky electric shark was smashed by him.
All things considered, electric sharks were magic beasts with rough skin and thick flesh, unfortunately, they ran into the dragonman youngster, an inexplicable monster beyond common sense.
The dragonman youngster also felt dizzy when he collided with and killed the iron level electric shark.
The other electric sharks were alarmed and angry, and other after the other, they encircled and attacked the dragonman youngster.