The Deep One’s head exploded when hit by Hwae-Sa’s arm, which was thicker than it.
The giant flying fish separated from its owner and glided above the railing before diving into the sea, and the knight was thrown and left on the deck.
Hwae-Sa stepped on the Deep One’s head and crushed it.
“I destroy everything!”
At those words, more giant flying fish knights flew over The Humiliation of Pirates. But this time, Hwae-Sa didn’t get a chance to attack.
“They’re coming.”
Vasen Lak Orazen was also holding a spear. Even when a giant flying fish charged toward him with its mouth open, he remained steadfast.
‘That’s only meant to scare me. While the teeth of the fish is a threat, the real danger comes from the trident that follows.’
Vasen did not move, and the giant flying fish was directly pierced by Vasen’s spear at a 45 degree angle.
Crack!
The moment the wooden spear broke under the giant flying fish’s weight, Vasen took a step back and saw the fish fall onto the deck. Then the Deep One knight on top also fell. The knight had a surprised look on their face.
“Hmph.”
With a snort, Vasen unsheathed his sword and charged at the knight. It didn’t even take more than one slash for him to cut off the Deep One’s head.
Vasen then shouted to the soldiers, “Don’t be greedy! There’s no need to move! If they avoid you, let them rush into the next spearhead!”
Just as Vasen commanded, the soldiers remained still and blocked the attacks of the knights riding on giant flying fish.
General Ian Tata repeated Vasen’s command and thought to himself, ‘Of course. When you think about it, even what seems like a new form of attack is nothing but a variation of an existing tactic. They’re riding on something stronger than them and using that strength to attack, so they’re actually no different than regular cavalry.’
Ian thought that they could actually be easier to face than cavalry on land. Using spears was a basic counter for cavalry, but Cockatoos often avoided spearheads as they were thin and had thick feathers, and the intense pressure from horses shaking the earth often caused infantry squares to break formation.
‘But when these knights are gliding low enough in the air, we can pierce and kill the giant flying fish before their tridents reach us. And unlike cavalry on land, the Deep Ones thrown off aren’t protected by other cavalry, but fall into our square helplessly instead.’
As Black Scale’s military ships effectively fought back against the giant flying fish knights, the other military ships belatedly followed suit.
Vasen looked around the battlefield.
‘But among the ships that were attacked first, the ones that suffered severe damage are busy fighting against the pirates who have climbed onto their ships. And there’s no way the pirates will stop fighting now.’
It was just as Vasen expected. Pirate ships began to appear from Doltan Island.
“It’s pirates! About 120 ships!”
If the situation hadn’t derailed to this point, Vasen would’ve thought it would be worth fighting the pirates even though their number was great and it could lead to a battle on board. But right now, the military ships in the front were already struggling with the giant flying fish knights and the Deep Ones from the sea.
‘There are also ships that can’t move. If we leave them be, there’s a danger that the other ships will get tangled up with them.’
If that happened, pirates would attack from between the ships, and it would be difficult for Black Scale, which had suffered relatively less damage, to target the pirates; the current cannons weren’t the most accurate weapon.
‘There’s no other choice.’
At the watchkeeper’s shout, Vasen said to Theone Itimo, “Captain, we should go forward.”
“I thought you would say that,” replied Theone.
“We need to go around the military ships of the allied navies and take the lead.”
“Only us?”
“It took a little time, but we succeeded in chasing away the giant flying fish knights, and while there is a fight on board their ships, individual Deep One pirates aren’t that threatening. Over time, the allied navies will recover their combat capabilities.”
“…So you’re saying that it’ll just be us until then.”
Vasen shrugged.
“What else can I say?”
Black Scale’s military ships began their advance.
As expected, Vasen saw the allied navies putting their ships against each other to fight the Deep Ones on board and chase them away.
‘It might take a little longer than I expected.’
When The Humiliation of Pirates was passing one of the navy ships, Whalebone, a big shadow jumped down from on top of Whalebone’s mast. The Garuda had his wings spread wide and landed softly, which seemed at odds with his size. It was Mazdari.
Noting that the soldiers had gotten nervous, Vasen raised his hand to hold them back.
“What is it, Garuda?”
Mazdari didn’t answer the question right away and instead said something irrelevant.
“That’s unexpected.”
“What do you mean?”
Mazdari smirked.
“Those one hundred and more pirate ships will clash with the allied navies first. It would be easier for Black Scale to destroy the pirate ships if you fired at them in the meantime.”
“Are you suggesting that we attack our allies?”
“Allies? Is that what you really think? Black Scale and the other countries should be enemies, no?”
Vasen couldn’t really deny that.
Mazadari continued to say, “And above all, you would be able to destroy the pirate ships as well as?the allied navies doing that. You even have the perfect justification.”
Vasen grinned and replied, “It sounds like you were hoping for me to do that.”
“Were you afraid of my power?”
“No, I would have made the same choice even if you had no power. While we are enemies, a fight is breaking out. I’m not dealing with the next fight when we haven’t even won the current one, Garuda.”
“Hm.”
“Also, there’s no guarantee that the 120 pirate ships over there are all there is to them. It’s common sense to conserve your troops—if the troops aren’t considered expendable, that is.”
Mazdari seemed rather dissatisfied, but it also seemed like he couldn’t come up with a counter argument.
Vasen then continued to say, “Anyway, you should get on the other ship if you wanna go back. You’re quite an important figure, so I’ll give you the chance to return.”
“No, there’s no need for that. Because you’ll need me.”
“We’ll need you? Why is that?”
The Garuda pointed at the pirate ship at the very front.
“Because a dangerous man is coming.”
Vasen turned to where Mazdari was pointing at. That something was now visible to Vasen as well.
“That’s…”
***
Leading the pirate fleet was the biggest pirate ship. A ship that big would usually be slower, but the particular ship was actually way faster than the other ones.
Yaboon, who was standing at the front of the ship, yelled, “Charge! Destroy their ships!”
It wasn’t another pirate that Yaboon was yelling at. He was yelling at a large Sea Serpent tied to the front of the ship and pulling it. There was a saying that while Drakes were the most superior on land, Sea Serpents were the equivalent in water due to their sheer size. The Sea Serpent was about forty meters long, and its head was big enough for it to swallow a few people at once. With no limbs, it looked like a giant water snake, but in addition to its enormous size, the spikes along its spine and the rough scales covering its body made it clear that it was an existence on a different level. And the Sea Serpent chained to the pirate ship didn’t even seem like an ordinary one.
-Once I kill them… I’ll kill you too!
At the Sea Serpent’s threat, Yaboon growled with his teeth showing.
“Try it if you will! Do you think something like you can go against Deep Light?”
The Sea Serpent rolled its eyes back and glared at Yaboon, but that was all it did.
Meanwhile, a number of gods were standing above the sea where the battle was taking place. However, they were now keeping their distance from each other so that they wouldn’t be able to hear each other talk, and Eldar was the only one next to Sung-Woon.
Sung-Woon looked at the Sea Serpent.
[Ancient Shining Tail Sea Serpent]
Sung-Woon then mumbled, “It’s a Fiend.” .𝒎
“A Fiend?” Eldar mumbled back. “So did the Deep Ones tame…a Fiend?”
Sung-Woon was also surprised.
“I guess so. How did they do that?”
Abominations and Fiends were generally enemies to defeat. Particularly intelligent individuals were able to talk, and if civilization had progressed to a greater level, a Fiend could decide to play things safe, and there would thus be the possibility for negotiation. In that case, a Fiend could end up becoming the guardian of a particular village or a city, thus benefiting a player.
‘But after listening to the conversation just now, it doesn’t seem to be a voluntary deal.’
Sung-Woon thought to himself.
‘Does it perhaps have to do with Domains?’
As he thought so, he checked the Domain he had obtained after killing another evil god, Jeol Woo-Bi.
~
[Domain: Corpse]
~
It wasn’t a Small Area, but a Domain.
‘It’s not a Species Domain or a Large Domain, but Domain. So that means it must be a Unique Domain…’
There were 32 Major Small Areas that players could obtain at the beginning, and 32 Minor Small Areas that players could obtain through things like Fiends or ancient ruins, so altogether there were 64 Small Areas. The characteristic of these Small Areas was that they included technology or knowledge that could naturally be discovered in the process of developing nature and civilization. As a result, there were a set of Small Areas players would often acquire over time.
‘There wouldn’t be a player who doesn’t have Small Area: Livestock or Small Area: Crops by now. Of course, there would be differences in levels depending on when each player acquired the particular Small Area.’
And Species Domains were also commonly shared among players. After obtaining the first and second species, a player could continue to obtain other species.
‘Humans and Elves are popular species, so there’s probably a lot of players with Domain: Humans, and Domain: Elves.’
Excluding the Large Domains that weren’t possible to obtain yet, there was a category called Unique Domains. These Unique Domains were generated randomly throughout the game, and even the numbers of them varied. Most importantly, it wasn’t possible for multiple players to obtain the same Unique Domain. Only one per game.
‘It’s known that there are certain conditions to be fulfilled before one can obtain a Unique Domain, but it’s not something you can get just because you want to.’
In addition to the levels of the Small Areas and Species Domains a player possessed, their Unique Domain was what determined their identity. Therefore, Sung-Woon was happy when he obtained a Unique Domain after killing the evil god. In particular, Domain: Corpse was a Unique Domain that he had never seen before. There was a high chance that it was something newly introduced to this game, just like the Vampires, Werewolves, and Deep Ones.
‘But it was trash.’
On second thought, it only made sense for the particular Unique Domain to be useless. Corpses were corpses. Dead bodies weren’t able to move, and they would only rot.
In fact, Jeol Woo-Bi never had the chance to use the power of the Domain, and the mystery was only solved now. Sung-Woon had checked what Domain: Corpse would be capable of, but judged that there wasn’t anything immediately useful to him. That had been one hundred years ago.
‘All living things die, so the level of the Domain continues to rise. Even so, it’s still useless.’
However, things could be different now.
‘Jeol Woo-Bi had a Unique Domain. Then there’s a high chance that Sha-Cha also has a Unique Domain.’
Sung-Woon looked down at Yaboon and the Sea Serpent with interest.
‘And what if that Unique Domain has the power to control Fiends?’
Updated from 𝑖𝘦.𝒸𝘰𝘮