Chapter 183
Chapter 183
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 183
Chapter Title: Merfolk Assault
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Whenever schools of glowing jellyfish swirled around the castle, the structure made of coral and quartz shone brilliantly in rainbow hues.
In places where the sturdy quartz pieces met, it looked as if gold had been melted to join them—a beautiful castle.
Another merfolk man swam hurriedly toward the massive man lounging on a shell-shaped throne at the very bottom.
He clutched a single fish in one hand.
“Baruk! Baruk, look at this.”
“What’s all the fuss? And what’s that fish?”
As Baruk sat up on the throne and asked in response to the merfolk man’s frivolous tone, the man spun a quick somersault in the water and swam right up to him.
“It’s from Nibiz!”
Baruk’s eyebrow twitched at the man’s words. Nibiz used small sea creatures as messengers thanks to her special trait, but it hadn’t even been long since she’d sent out for scouting—how had the fish gotten back already?
If nothing was wrong, she would have come herself.
Baruk waved his hand, shaping the nearby water like a hand to grab the merfolk man and yank him right to his face before snatching the fish away like it was his.
“Humans. Ship. Human ship.”
“Humans?”
A gill-less race had dared to venture this deep into merfolk territory?
It was always like this. Those pests who got in the way! Most recently, hadn’t they stolen the Orb of Storms?
They might be a different group, but humans were humans in the end.
And if Nibiz still hadn’t returned...
‘No way they’re after Levinia.’
They’d known about the Orb of Storms.
Which meant they might know about Levinia too. Or if Nibiz had been dealt with, they were from a hostile force.
‘Or could it be Levinia’s awakening?’
On top of that, Baruk was the strongest of the merfolk, even if he was little more than a false king for now. His instincts were screaming.
Baruk hurriedly gripped the trident beside the throne and poured mana into it forcefully.
It hummed briefly in resonance, and the vibration originating from the trident spread through the nearby sea in an instant.
“W-what? Assembly order? Out of nowhere?”
“Nibiz only sent this message and hasn’t returned—it’s as good as saying she was killed in one blow. I have a bad feeling.”
His siblings scattered across distant seas wouldn’t make it back, but this would gather 200 to 300 within an hour.
“If it’s nothing, that’s good. But there are too many variables. In the end, as long as we get Levinia in our hands, it doesn’t matter.”
If he could, killing her would be the fastest solution. But royal blood. Those who carried even indirect traces of the merfolk king’s lineage couldn’t kill Levinia, the royal blood incarnate.
‘But if someone’s helping Levinia...’
He couldn’t kill her, but he could plunge her into despair.
Or even if they weren’t helping her but using her.
“I ran out in the middle of eating.”
“Why the sudden emergency muster, bro? And in battle formation, no less.”
“Baruk, if it’s nothing, you’re paying us back in jewels, for real. I was in the middle of a good time with my lover.”
After a short while, the throne was surrounded by groups of lesser merfolk royals. Baruk gripped his trident and spoke.
“If everyone’s here, we move out.”
Nibiz sending no more fish was certain. That meant she’d been killed in one go.
If Nibiz were an ordinary merfolk, it might be different, but she was lesser merfolk royalty too. Killing her in one strike meant the enemy was an overwhelming powerhouse.
‘But the sea is merfolk territory.’
Thanks to the merfolk’s swift swimming, white bubbles trailed their tails like afterimages. Every sea monster nearby hid its fins at the approach of over two hundred merfolk royals.
“Everyone, assimilate your mana with the water as much as possible. Assume the enemy has someone specialized in mana detection.”
“They’re just humans anyway, right? That’s what Kaz said.”
“Even so, Nibiz got taken out. I think it’ll be fun.”
“The water mana’s already unstable after the storm passed, so hiding our presence is a piece of cake.”
They were all lighthearted. As the frivolous Kaz had said, they were just humans, after all.
Nibiz dead?
She must’ve had some skill. But with a hundred royals—not even regular merfolk—what was there to worry about?
Still, they all hid their presence at Baruk’s command.
Not out of awe for his words or fear, but because it seemed fun.
They hid like it was a game of hide-and-seek. A few who’d rebelliously refused at first joined in after their siblings teased that it’d be amusing.
That was why Kane hadn’t detected them until they reached Storm Island.
“A ship. A real human ship? But just one?”
The sharpest-eyed one spotted a tiny dot shimmering in the distance, and the other merfolk laughed.
“Just one? You joking?”
“Baruk, we could all take a bite and it still wouldn’t be enough. What’re we doing?”
“We know you’re the strongest, but dragging all of us out here for no reason... Uh...? Baruk?”
A single, tiny bird feather. The faintest wisp of down from it. The sensation of drawing it across his skin.
Out of all these merfolk, only one felt it.
Baruk alone sensed the ki.
Someone on that ship had extended their ki all the way here. At the faint tickle, Baruk drew up water mana.
‘An incredible powerhouse.’
But no one could beat merfolk in the sea.
Destroy that ship, and they’d be mana-draining in open water until they suffocated.
He stopped suppressing his presence and gathered water mana in moments, rising above the surface and thrusting his arms forward to hurl a massive water bomb.
Faster than a bird, it flew toward the human ship just entering the vortex zone, then split in two and exploded.
“They reacted to that?”
“It was condensed water mana, and they sliced it in half!”
“I sense it. Levinia’s on that ship!”
Someone shouted. At Levinia’s name, the merfolk royals’ eyes gleamed.
If she returned and reclaimed the throne, their lives of jewels and feasts would vanish like shark blood spilled in the water.
“One more!”
Baruk’s follow-up water bombs were detonated as someone approached from their side.
Even if it was just a lump of water, it wasn’t ordinary—slicing condensed water mana like that so easily.
On top of that, the enemy’s blatant mana scan felt like an electric eel shock prickling their bodies.
‘This strong?’
‘Daring to challenge us in the sea, in front of merfolk?’
They’d indulged in the spoils of abandoning their true queen, but they were originally her guards.
Merfolk royals were all bred for battle.
Killing intent began to flicker in those almond-shaped eyes.
“They’re coming.”
The moment someone muttered that.
Aura rained down from above. Mana naturally diffused into the environment, bound by incantations in spells, while aura refined in the body clung even more fiercely—unless intensely compressed, it dispersed.
Firing dozens of shots powerful enough to slice through seawater, not even air.
Several clustered merfolk royals screamed, clutching arms or tails as they writhed.
“Scatter and condense water mana!”
On land, weapons might dominate, but in water, water mana itself was the weapon!
Merfolk twisted water mana into whipping streams that lashed at Kane, who stood tall on the surface like it was solid ground, snaking toward him like serpents.
Kane sliced through them, and every time he burst one of Baruk’s water bombs, the area filled with thunderous booms.
Aura-laced blasts into the sea created mana torpedoes, water pillars shooting skyward everywhere before raining back down.
Dozens of tiny rainbows flickered into existence and vanished.
Their mutual blows split the water repeatedly, and sea mist began to form around them.
“What the hell is that human!”
“Is that even human? What is this!”
Baruk channeled mana into his trident and thrust it out of the water, where it clashed and tangled with a black, matte trident.
Boom! The backlash hurled the merfolk back, silence falling for a moment as Baruk and Kane locked eyes—one in the water, one above.
“...Strong, human.”
But your weakness is being alone.
Baruk retracted his trident and bellowed at the merfolk.
“Everyone, combine your water mana and restrain that human. Pour it on!”
I’ll head alone to that ship and retrieve Levinia.
At his words, the other merfolk royals exchanged glances before resonating their mana as one, drawing water chains that wrapped around Kane as he pursued Baruk.
“You dare.”
Flame-like intensity flickered in Kane’s golden eyes.
But as every merfolk chose defense over attack, wrapping him in water chains that drained his mana and sealed his aura, Kane ground his teeth once before reversing the flow—plundering water mana from the merfolk royals.
“My... my mana!”
“You’ll burst if you swallow this much mana, human! Stop!”
At the sight, every merfolk drew up mana to resist Kane’s absorption.
‘No time for this.’
Kane’s ki sensed his party crossing the vortex zone overhead—and a massive merfolk man approaching nearby.
On land, maybe, but here atop an unfathomable sea.
‘Dangerous.’
The overflowing water mana dulled ki precision compared to standing on solid ground. Scattering here meant they might never regroup.
Kane’s eyes gleamed coldly as he eyed the water chains binding him tight and every merfolk linked to them.
“You wanna die? Stop!”
“Just stay pinned here!”
“A human can’t handle it! Your body’ll tear apart!”
Ignoring the screams echoing from below, Kane sucked in all that water mana.
His meridians, strained from facing the jade-sword elder, boiled.
Cold, violent water mana surged through him like a tsunami, wrecking everything in destructive agony—but Kane ignored it, moving amid the sea of blood vomited by a hundred merfolk royals.
He expelled the massive water mana swirling inside, propelling himself forward; the air ripped with bangs in his wake.
Faint steam condensed and trailed the path he’d taken.
His flight to the vortex zone had worked—the massive merfolk man had only just spotted the party, raising a tsunami toward Zero cradling Adelrian, reaching with water mana to snatch her away.
“Adelrian!”
Kane gripped Ska, channeling the body-rending water mana into a slash through the air.
“Gaaah!”
The tsunami split in half.
Small vortices in its path shattered, on the verge of merging into one massive whirlpool—then stilled like a calm eye, red blood spraying.
At once, he dumped the remaining water mana, compressing it to hurl the massive merfolk man far away, then turned.
Atop the vortex, only Kane remained.