As Sophia looked over, the creature suddenly froze. Its head slowly turned a full 180 degrees, the bones in its neck creaking with a sickening sound, before it locked eyes with the cold-faced Sophia and the terrified soldiers.
“Hissss—” It grinned, revealing sharp teeth as it flicked a blood-red, serpent-like tongue. Its vertical orange pupils glowed like lanterns in the dark, creating an eerie, unnatural effect.
Sophia’s eyes turned cold. Without hesitation, the last remnants of her magical energy surged within her, causing the temperature in the hold to plummet. Ice crystal chains began to form in the air, twisting like serpents as they shot toward the creature.
Bang! The chains pierced through the monster’s body and fell to the ground. The ship’s defense magic array automatically activated, and blue glowing runes appeared on the floor. Though the ship was unharmed, the creature suddenly reappeared in front of Sophia with astounding speed, leaving an afterimage behind.
Whoosh! The creature’s sharp claws sliced through the air, aiming directly for Sophia’s heart. She had underestimated the monster’s strength; it was at least a high-tier creature. Coupled with her already exhausted mental energy, her reaction was sluggish. By the time she tried to dodge, it was too late.
“Hiss!” The creature’s eyes gleamed with a cruel, bloodthirsty light, as though it could already see Sophia’s heart being ripped from her chest. Its pupils narrowed in excitement.
Boom!
Suddenly, an explosive sound rang through the ship’s hold.
The creature’s vision blurred, and it felt as though everything before it was spinning.
It blinked in confusion until it saw a headless body before it, its eyes widening in shock.
Pssh! Torrents of black blood gushed from the creature’s body like a fountain, but not a single drop touched Sophia. A black wind shield surrounded her, protecting her from the splatter.
“Are you okay?” Sophia, still in a daze, heard a familiar voice from behind her. She turned, surprised to see Luca standing there, having appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Behind him, two wings formed from swirling hurricanes fluttered, keeping him suspended in mid-air.
It was Luca who had saved her in the nick of time with a wind blade.
“What are you doing back here?” Sophia sighed in relief, but also felt a little confused.
Luca glanced at the headless body on the floor and explained, “I learned something on the island. I found out that there might be monsters among the crew, so I rushed back.”
As Sharp had predicted, a monster had indeed infiltrated their ship—though the question remained, how many more were there?
There was no time to waste. The most important thing now was to clear both ships of any threats.
He turned to Sophia. “Senior, don’t stay too far from me. I—”
Before he could finish his sentence, a jet-black water arrow suddenly shot toward Luca’s back with a vicious speed, aiming to strike him down.
The attack was incredibly fast, and the timing was perfectly calculated.
Luca noticed it just in time, but he couldn’t dodge. Sophia was right in front of him.
Bang! The dark water arrow exploded against his back, sending a spray of blood mixed with the black water flying in all directions!
-153,000! A crimson number appeared above Luca’s head.
“Are you alright?” Sophia’s expression changed, and for the first time, a rare look of concern flashed across her face.
“Don’t worry, this kind of wound means nothing to me.” Luca flashed her a reassuring smile, signaling that she didn’t need to worry. After all, he was the man whose health had exceeded a million!
He then turned to look at the direction from which the arrow had come. There, standing behind Sophia, was the soldier who had been trailing them. But now, his body had sprouted greenish scales, and his eyes had transformed into eerie vertical slits.
“I guess I was right,” Luca said slowly, his voice rasping and grating, like metal scraping against glass. “You’re not easy to deal with.”
The creature looked up at Luca, grinning maliciously. “We were only planning to kill the woman and the people on the ship, not you. We didn’t expect you to come back.”
As he spoke, his skin began to tear open, revealing blood dripping from the wounds. The scales on his body stood upright, and sharp claws grew from his hands.
Sophia bit her lip tightly. She never imagined that the soldier who had been following her so loyally was also a monster. If the creature hadn’t been waiting for the right moment, if Luca hadn’t arrived in time, she might have already been killed.
Even though she had grown accustomed to danger, the thought still sent a chill through Sophia’s spine.
Luca showed no sign of fear. He frowned and asked, “Who are you? Why are you attacking us?”
The monster sneered. “You’ve ruined our plans time and time again, and you brought that Exile to the Sea of Mist. How dare you ask us why we’re trying to kill you?”
Luca was completely bewildered. When had he ever ruined their plans? He didn’t even know what kind of creatures they were!
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand,” the monster sneered. “Either way, you’re about to become a corpse.” As the creature finished speaking, a line of soldiers suddenly walked into the ship’s hold.
They looked no different from normal soldiers at first glance, but their eyes had all turned into vertical slits.
These were all monsters who had taken over the bodies of the soldiers, and they didn’t even know when it had happened.
Luca was secretly stunned. What a bizarre ability!
All of them were staring at Luca and Sophia, their eyes filled with murderous intent. The leader of the group, another monster, spoke coldly, “Hand over that Exile from the Barnes family, and we will spare your lives. This is your last chance.”
Ellie? Luca finally understood. So these creatures were after Ellie. He couldn’t help but feel a bit of disbelief at the girl’s awful luck. Why was it always her they were targeting? Explore new worlds at empire
“What if I don’t hand her over?” Luca sneered, not bothering to waste words with them. He raised his hand, and azure water condensed in the air, forming small, marble-sized droplets.
“Then you will die!” The monster lunged without hesitation. In the blink of an eye, it vanished and charged straight at Luca with brute force.
Luca was prepared. He wrapped his arm around Sophia’s waist, and silver magic runes glowed beneath his feet.
As he dodged the monster’s attack, he gestured with his mind.
The water droplets in the air shot forward like bullets, relentlessly targeting the monster.
The attack was so dense and fast that the creature had no chance to dodge. But strangely, it didn’t even try to avoid them, confident in its own defense. It assumed the attack would be as ineffective as a mere itch.
However, it soon realized just how wrong it was—dead wrong.
The seemingly ordinary water droplets exploded the moment they touched its scaly skin!
Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft!!!
The sound of bullets embedding themselves in flesh echoed as the lead fish-man was riddled with holes!
Superclass magic runes—Mercury Rain!
“This… this can’t be… possible?!” The monster bled profusely, staring in disbelief at his shattered body.
With his Emperor-level Superclass strength, he had been instantly defeated?!
Luca spoke calmly, “No need to be so surprised. I’ve killed more powerful beings than you.”
With a swift motion of his hand, Luca summoned more water droplets in the air, which shot toward the motionless monsters standing frozen in place.
In an instant, the entire cargo hold was filled with screams of agony, the floor awash with blood!
At the same time, kill notifications began appearing in front of Luca.
[Ding! You have killed “Lv63 Mutated Merman (Common), gained 510,000 experience!”]
[Ding! You have killed “Lv65 Mutated Merman Leader (Rare)”, gained 1,040,000 experience!”]
[Ding! You have killed “Lv67 Mutated Merman Leader (Commander)”, gained 1,830,000 experience!”]
…
The flood of notifications continued, and Luca was deluged with experience.
In the blink of an eye, several golden beams of light appeared around him, signaling his level-up to Lv60.
[Ding! Your level has risen to Lv60, and you have gained 300 free attribute points!]
[You have gained new skills: “Magic Runes Armor (Class)”, “Magic Runes Storage (Class)”, “Mana Resonance (Advanced)”, …]
…
At this moment, Sophia finally realized what had just happened. She looked at Luca in astonishment and said, “Your strength…”
Although she knew Luca was incredibly strong, she hadn’t expected him to wipe out all these monsters so effortlessly.
Just then, soldiers outside the ship hold heard the commotion and rushed in.
Seeing the piles of bodies scattered across the floor, the soldiers—who had been prepared to fight to the death—were left dumbstruck. Some of them hadn’t even realized what had happened.
They hadn’t even made a move, and the battle was already over?
“Let’s clean this up,” Luca said, indifferent to their astonished stares. He looked at the corpse of the Elite Mutated Merman, or rather, he focused on its heart.
From within that heart, a small, round object slowly emerged, shimmering like a pearl.
[Merman Pearl: Superclass material. Using it grants +1000 to mental attributes, and it can be stacked indefinitely.]
Luca’s eyes lit up as he read the description. He had been wondering how to obtain a large amount of transcendent material to boost his mental attributes. To his surprise, the monsters had handed it to him on a silver platter!
He picked up the Merman Pearl and immediately ordered the soldiers, “Check the other monsters for anything similar.”
The soldiers quickly obeyed, scrambling to search through the remains. Soon, a pile of pearls, varying in size, appeared before Luca. There were over a hundred of them, with the smallest granting an increase of 100 mental attributes.
That meant, just from this haul, he had gained several thousand points in mental attributes!
Thinking about this, even Luca, with his usual composure, couldn’t help but feel a surge of excitement. If more monsters like this kept appearing, it wouldn’t be impossible to elevate his attributes to the Divine Realm!