Chapter 116: Helping the Iron Club Mercenary Corps
“Be careful!”
“Turn the rudder left, rudder fully to the left now!!”
“It’s too late, prepare to meet the enemy! Boys, stand by my side and defend the deck.”
The Iron Club Mercenary Corps’ fleet was sinking into a panic.
They had just cleaned up three schools of fish, but halfway en route, they met something unexpected.
A school of ghost face fish broke from hiding and ambushed them.
Ghost face fish looked like flatfish, their bodies were very flat, and when fully grown, their bodies were asymmetrical, their eyes were both on one side, and their mouths were bent. Like flatfish, ghost face fish also were naturally disposed to sitting on the seafloor in perpetuity.
They had a concealment racial magic.
When they were hunting, they would frequently use this innate skill en masse. After “disappearing” from the seafloor, they would flow with the ocean currents to shallow waters and go hunt the more abundant food there.
When prey got close, they would unleash their other racial magic – Soul Absorption.
The prey’s soul would usually be frozen by this racial magic for a short time, allowing the school of ghost face fish to easily nibble them clean.
The ghost face fish school that ambushed the Iron Club Mercenary Corps was silver level. Their leader was a silver level ghost face fish.
When the mercenary corps was enveloped by the soul type magic, the ordinary members fell to the ground rigid, the bronze levels were barely able to stand, and the iron levels were still able to fight.
Even worse, ghost face fish schools usually had ghosts accompanying it.
This involved the ghost face fish’s third racial magic – Soul Summoning.
These ghosts came from the ghost face fish’s prey.
When a soul summoning was successful, the ghosts produced would follow the school of fish.
When the school of fish attacked, the ghosts too would appear to attack simultaneously.
The Iron Club Mercenary Corps’ flagship was a magic ship, its hull was nearly all made of iron, its ship hull was thick and had many semicircle lumps in it. The magic ship’s name represented this trait and was called the Iron Lump.
In the past, the Iron Lump was known for its defense.
But now, against the ghostly assault, this defense was an empty shell.
Three iron level ghosts and twenty four bronze level ghosts penetrated the hull and stormed the hold.
Commander Tie Bang was a silver level fighter and instantly had to deal with three iron level ghosts.
For a moment, he was surrounded and unable to escape.
The other mercenaries mostly concentrated on the deck in a defensive battle. Because fighting inside the hold was disadvantageous for the sailors.
Humans would be yoked by the narrow space.
The stairs, ship doorways, as well as other installations were not conventional bunkers because the ghosts could penetrate them at will.
Therefore, after the ambush occurred, almost all of the Iron Club Mercenaries ran to the deck.
But the situation on the deck was also far from good.
Not only did they have to face ghosts penetrating from below, but they also had to deal with ghost face fish flying at them.
Ordinary ghost face fish were the size of a carriage. When one leaped, they looked like they were floating and could swoop over the sides of the ship and dive down onto the deck.
Usually when a ghost face fish landed onto the deck, they would open their sinister fish mouth, bite a hapless person, then taking advantage of the deck’s friction, jerk and flop away.
If there weren’t that many people on deck, the mercenaries could dodge this.
But now, because the ghosts made the ship hold too detrimental, all of them were concentrated above deck. As long as ghost face fish were diving down, the large swath of mercenaries would be hit, and the unluckiest guy would be dragged into the ocean.
Commander Tie Bang brandished his fists, blocking left and right.
Although the three ghosts he was fighting were only iron level, they could penetrate through obstacles, making the Commander Tie Bang very annoyed.
The Iron Lump’s interior was also mostly made of iron and had a thick and strong defense.
But now, they greatly interfered with Commander Tie Bang, he couldn’t even use his iron club.
As a silver level, his battle qi couldn’t leave his body, he lacked that qualitative change.
“I can’t go to the deck.”
These three iron level ghosts will cause an immense slaughter.”
“I have to entangle them here!”
For a long time, Commander Tie Bang could only fend off the ghosts tearing at him.
The negative energy consequently assailed his body, however, compared to his body, his heart was growing even colder.
Commander Tie Bang fought more recklessly.
“The mercenary corps is in a terrible situation!”
“If my flagship is in a bitter struggle because of the ghost face fish ambush, then the situation on the other ships must be worse.”
“Damn it, even if we drive back these ghost face fish, the mercenary corps will suffer disastrous damage!”
Then at that moment, Commander Tie Bang suddenly heard a subordinate foraying over to report, “Commander, ships are approaching, it is the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps!”
“The Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps?” Commander Tie Bang’s eyes lit up, and he blurted out, “Send a distress signal now!”
The mercenaries on deck also saw the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ ships.
They shouted loudly, while still being on edge.
“Are they here to save us?”
The Iron Club Mercenary Corps and the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps were unrelated, they were merely strangers coming together by chance.
In all fairness, if it was within one’s abilities, they would act.
But this was a group of ghost face fish!
Although it wasn’t big, its combination of water path and necromancy was very troublesome.
If they fought, they would likely suffer serious damage.
Unless they had a cleric that could use divine spells on the ghost face fish.
But casters were always precious, clerics even more who usually waited upon the gods inside their churches, who among them would sail with them?
Normal mercenary corps and caravans didn’t have such people.
Without divine spells, it was very difficult to deal with necromancy.
When it came to battle qi, only gold level battle qi and above could leave the body and attack.
Using magic against ghosts wasn’t particularly effective either.
Commander Tie Bang was fighting inside the hold and couldn’t see the situation outside, causing him to worry about personal gains and losses.
“The Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps set out earlier.”
“Why are they returning from the front line so soon? Don’t tell me they encountered a formidable fish school, and the damage forced them back to the port to rest and reorganize?”
“I cannot overestimate them too much. After all, they are a newly established mercenary corp.”
“It seems that the key to this bitter struggle is still me!”
Commander Tie Bang tried to steady his mind and did his best to fight on bravely.
The Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ flagship.
“Commander, a battle has been detected ahead, one of the combatants is the Iron Club Mercenary Corps.
“They have sunk into a hard battle against a group of ghost face fish.”
“Their luck is quite terrible.” The subordinate reported.
The dragonman youngster was standing on the side of the ship. He nodded. He had already received the pertinent information from the Deep Sea Monster Fish protecting them from the abyss.
The young man took out a telescope and gazed into the distance.
He first observed where the battlefield was the fiercest.
He didn’t see Commander Tie Bang.
However, the Deep Sea Monster Fish’s detection method included sound, light, and life aura.
Therefore, the dragonman youngster knew that Commander Tie Bang was fighting inside the ship hold. The ghost face fish leader was also concealed near the Iron Lump.
The young man then observed the deck.
A glance could make out that the Iron Club Mercenary Corps had suffered high casualties.
Every time a ghost face fish leaped and dived onto the deck, they frequently crashed into a mercenary. They were quivering, their flat fish bodies were very vigorous, their fish scales were also very tough and ordinary weapons found it difficult to cut into.
“The main thing severely restricting the mercenaries is still the racial magic, Soul Absorption.”
The dragonman youngster changed his attention to the hull.
The Iron Club Mercenary Corps’ ships were scarred greatly, many of the ordinary ships’ hulls were damaged and had been temporarily repaired with planks.
It was very clear that these holes hadn’t been created by this battle.
Before encountering the ghost face fish school, the Iron Club Mercenary Corps had gone through other fierce battles.
On the flagship, Iron Lump, the dragonman youngster found the terrible tool that made those holes.
There were several “cavalier pikes”. These were in fact the spiral horns of narwhals. By its length, it was estimated that the horn belonged to an iron level narwhal.
Narwhal groups weren’t often big, and they usually roamed from place to place with only a few individuals in a group.
The narwhal’s bloodline was a bit more superior.
The highest life level they could reach was the gold level.
The Iron Club Mercenary Corps indeed had gained much.
They had annihilated a narwhal group and captured the narwhal’s most valuable part – their spiral horns.
But that harvest absolutely couldn’t compare to the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’!
After the dragonman youngster and Zong Ge converged back together, they eliminated several fish schools.
Their holds were crammed with fish. So much so that many sailor quarters had been cleared out to make more storage space.
There weren’t enough fishing nets, and because there was so many fish that weighed so much, many broke as a result.
Contrary to Commander Tie Bang’s imagination, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps was returning from a rewarding journey and had to empty their holds, because they couldn’t hold any more spoils of war.
This included the Deep Sea Monster Fish on the seafloor, which had stealthily stored a portion of the spoils earlier.
“We have the Deep Sea Monster Fish’s intelligence; it is far more exhaustive than what others have. Not only can it determine the scale and location, and weak points of the beast tide, it can also monitor the real time trend of nearby fish schools, effortlessly seize the occasion in battle, and avoid the strong while attacking the weak.” Zi Di sighed ruefully.
Cang Xu looked at the ghost face fish group, “It seems that the Iron Club Mercenary Corps was ambushed by the ghost face fish school. We won’t. We have detection methods that can find them ahead of time. Right now, I am more concerned about those fish. You know, ghost face fish skin is a top-notch necromancy material.
The ghost face fish’s name came from its alternating black and gray fish scales that when put together, produced a twisted ghost face.
Although the risks in this ocean beast tide were immense, the gains were likewise immense too.
The dragonman youngster put away his telescope, the distance between the two parties had closed enough.
He firmly transmitted his order, “The other party has already given a distress signal, we will act immediately, no hesitation.”
“Throw the Sweet Blood Potions.”
Complying with the order, the mercenaries took action and began to hurl the potions.
Among the most that performed this task outstandingly was the big guy. He was tall, strong, and was simply a humanoid catapult. Normal people could only throw one jar, while he could throw a bundle of 10.