I Became an Evolving Deep-Sea Creature Chapter 125

Chapter 125. The Black Ship

The sea-serpent–headed humanoid was large enough to be clearly visible even from afar, and up close, it looked even bigger.

Its body was over three ters tall, and behind it stood rows of demi-beasts of comparable size.

Every one of them held vicious weapons—giant hamrs, axes, and the like—looking ready to charge at any mont, while letting out incomprehensible, monstrous roars.

“F-fuck, what is that?”

“M-monsters?”

On the other hand, the humans aboard this ship seed a little frightened, but—

“The first bastard who cos across dies first!”

Boatswain Muhari was shouting at the top of his lungs, veins bulging.

At least so of the sailors didn’t look afraid. With cutlasses in hand, they looked ready to carve the enemies apart.

Because the black ship was faster than the Strellock, it caught up in an instant.

However, there seed to be a reason it could approach despite being hit by so many cannonballs.

Yul was watching as the countless cannonballs embedded in that ship were being ‘absorbed’ into its outer hull.

‘So it’s not just ordinary wood, but sothing else?’

Since Lucian had said he would handle it, Yul stayed back to observe for now.

“Khahaha! The ships are alongside! Lay the planks!!! Throw the chains! Hook them on!”

“Now, smash them!”

Besides the sea-serpent–headed humanoid, there were also monsters with giant eel heads, and turtle-n with square faces and two horns protruding from their shells.

They were fish-n. Unlike rmaids, whose lower bodies beco sea creatures, these were monsters whose upper bodies were transford into sea creatures.

As they tried to board, Lucian stepped forward. He had already equipped his Rune Fra suit in the captain’s cabin and co outside.

「Circuit Cannon」 activated.

Zzzzzzzing.

The Gatling-like magic-bullet launcher mounted on his right arm spun and spat fire, scattering dozens of magic rounds.

The fish-man who had leapt in bravely were riddled with magic fire midair and shattered to pieces.

Thud, thud, squelch.

Chunks of torn flesh fell straight onto the deck.

“What are you idiots doing? Fire!”

First Mate Corman shouted at the sailors who were staring stupidly at the unreal scene.

He raised the flintlock musket he was holding and took aid shots at the charging enemies.

The sailors followed suit, pulling the triggers of their pistols, and when they ran out of bullets, they drew their cutlasses and stabbed at the sea monsters closing in.

“Kraaaagh!”

So of the sea monsters fell straight onto the deck.

The monsters flying straight in toward the deck were torn apart by magic fire or musket shots.

Far away, when a silhouette hidden in the fog raised its hand, the fish-n stopped their charge.

Instead, they changed direction and jumped straight into the sea.

So couldn’t keep up with the ship’s speed and fell behind, but a lucky few managed to grab onto the side of the Strellock.

They began climbing up the ship’s hull.

“Captain! They’re coming separately!”

“Corman! Take the gunn and deal with the ones clinging to the hull! And tell the gunnery officer to close the gun ports on the gun deck! At this distance, firing is useless, and they might crawl inside!”

After shouting that, Lucian moved in personally. From the end of his left arm, a glowing sword surged upward.

「Radiant Blade」 activated.

“I-iis that aura?”

“Doesn’t matter! Push them back!”

A fish-man wearing a seashell on its head said so as it approached Lucian.

“Heh heh. Even if you’re a knight who uses aura, it’s useless against this body—”

Lucian drove the blade of his left arm straight into its belly.

“Useless, you said.”

But the monster’s torso was no longer human. Its entire body was made of massive tentacles, like a sea anemone.

From the split gap, the tentacles clamped tightly onto the blade.

“This isn’t aura.”

As Lucian said that, he increased the magic output of the blade on his left arm.

He lifted the shell-headed fish-man’s torso straight up into the air.

It was an absurd strength. Impossible for the original Lucian, but not impossible while wearing a Rune Fra.

“Y- you bastard!”

“Burn!”

In an instant, trendous heat surged upward, and the shell-headed fish-man’s torso began to roast black.

After kicking the charred fish-man off the blade of light, Lucian leapt directly onto the enemy ship.

Then he began sweeping the surroundings indiscriminately with sword and gun.

“Charge! Kill the fish-n!”

Though the fish-n looked, at a glance, utterly impossible to fight, once Lucian pushed forward alone, they couldn’t withstand him and were driven back.

Brave sailors rushed in through the gaps and attacked the fish-n.

But they couldn’t win.

They were overwhelmingly weaker in terms of physical strength.

One sailor boldly stabbed his sword into a muscular fish-man, only to be punched and knocked to the deck.

As a fish-man raised its axe to finish him, Yul extended his hand and stopped the creature’s movent.

‘Close combat with fish-n is too much, unless it’s just Lucian alone.’

Thinking the sa, First Mate Corman shouted.

“Retreat! Retreat! Captain! We can’t push through!”

However, Lucian wasn’t in a position to listen to Corman.

As he cut down fish-n while rampaging through the enemy ranks, he finally saw the captain of the enemy ship standing before him.

“Who are you? For what reason did you attack our ship!”

“Well.”

There stood a man in a black uniform, whom he had never seen before. His face resembled that of a kind scholar, but his clothes, his presence, made it certain that he was the captain of this ship.

If so, there was no way he was kind, nor a scholar.

With a black-gloved hand, he drew a weapon from between his cloak.

“That’s a more interesting suit of armor than I expected. What is it? An ancient relic?”

The weapon he drew was a long whip. But its form was exceedingly unique—like a whip made by bundling segnted, jointed carapace plates together.

Without answering the question, Lucian stomped on the deck. In a single step, he closed the distance to the enemy’s face and swung the glowing sword.

At a range shorter than the whip, the man grabbed the whip with both hands, spread it horizontally, and blocked the descending strike.

A heavy impact. Lucian couldn’t understand how soone with arms that thin could evenly block a Rune Fra’s blow.

But this man was clearly a skilled mage.

“I’ve hunted quite a bit around here, but I’ve never seen soone as strong as you.”

Several exchanges of sword strikes followed, yet the ship’s captain blocked them again and again.

Then Lucian was struck from the side and sent flying into the air.

A large warrior with the head of a sea lion had swung a massive harpoon like a weapon.

There was no pain. Thanks to the Rune Fra’s shock dispersion, the blow hadn’t penetrated the armor.

While flying through the air, Lucian took in the surroundings.

Though Lucian had boldly pushed forward at the front, they were being pushed back again. Direct combat with fish-n was dangerous.

Only now grasping the situation, Lucian stopped attacking the Black Priest and retreated to his own ship.

As air pumps vented beneath his Rune Fra boots and lifted him upward, he jumped several ters in an instant, leaping cleanly over the fish-n’s heads.

The Black Priest couldn’t help but marvel at the sight—sothing even a master acrobat couldn’t accomplish.

“Remarkable! To escape like that even while surrounded.”

As Lucian landed on the planks connecting the two ships, the once-quiet waves began to howl.

The waves truly howled, forming a gigantic mouth atop them.

From the black, abyssal throat of the wave—part hole, part human mouth—sothing squird and burst forth.

A gigantic, writhing sea worm, long enough to reach the uppermost deck, leapt upward as if defying gravity.

Just as it was about to swallow Lucian along with the thin planks, Yul waved his hand.

Clenching tightly, he controlled the seawater and sealed the mouth of the wave.

“How interesting……. So there’s even soone aboard who can control the waves?”

Lucian quickly returned to the ship, nodded gratefully to Yul, and adjusted the equipnt on his back.

The backpack-like device automatically transford into a massive long rifle.

「Magic Bullet Marksman」 activated.

A beam of light fired from the rifle—over two ters long—pierced the ship, passed through the enemies, and accurately skewered the Black Priest’s heart in the gap within the fog.

An astonishingly precise hit. Having identified the enemy at close range through the Great Balance’s 「Perception」 formula, Lucian was able to strike the target even from this distance.

“……!?”

Hissssss. Fwoooooosh!

As parts of the Rune Fra opened, steam burst out, and the heat trapped inside vented away.

「Cooling engaged. Remaining magic output below 20%. Rest and recharge recomnded.」

Lucian glared at the fallen Black Priest as he confird the warning he had set.

With his heart pierced, he should soon—

“Huh?”

“A hole in my chest. It’s been a few years.”

He was still fine. The Black Priest curled his lips upward while looking at his hollow chest.

“We retreat.”

Apparently having no intention to fight further, he withdrew his ship and began to flee.

“That thing just now looked like it was still alive.”

“What in the world…….”

Thinking it would leave trouble behind if he let it go, Yul moved first.

Using the Sea-Sync Demon Eye, he aid at the massive black ship disappearing into the fog.

Lowering the waves nearby would allow him to interfere with the sea through the mouth of the wave.

But what if he struck down with a massive wave from afar to sweep away the black ship?

An enormous wave surged from the west and slamd into the black ship.

However, the black ship had vanished without a trace.

“Did we get them?”

“No. We lost them.”

Like a mirage, it ‘disappeared’ into the fog.

Whatever it did, it vanished into that gap.

* * *

Far beyond several hundred nautical miles, the fog split open, and from within it the black ship burst forth.

The vessel, which had been half-subrged in the sea, soon pushed aside the waves and erged together with the fog.

“Cough, cough.”

The Black Priest, Zer Hyde, let out a rough cough. What ca out of his mouth was not blood, but black seawater.

Wiping the seawater he spat out with his sleeve, he muttered,

“I was just looking for a sacrifice, and my heart gets blown away. That’s a terrible loss.”

To begin with, the enemy captain wasn’t even a mage. It seed he handled machinery through sothing akin to magic, but that was all.

He had been watching because the opponent’s abilities were far too interesting, only to be struck by an unexpected blow.

He had never imagined that a bullet would pursue him across such a distance. That magical armor must still be hiding secrets even Zer Hyde did not yet know.

“And there was also soone aboard who could control the waves……. That ship is dangerous. There’s more hidden there than ets the eye.”

He checked his chest as it squird, filling with various sea creatures inside.

Soon, that would turn back into flesh and regenerate once more.

“For now, I should have a separate investigation done on that ship.”

The Blind once again vanished into the fog.