"Gua gua! (Shred them! Sink the ship!)"
The fishman leader brandished a staff polished from deep-sea coral, letting out a sharp, piercing war roar.
As the most powerful naga tribe near the Sorrowful Coast, they hadn't seen such "plump" prey in a long time.
A large ship that looked brand new and magnificent.
On the ship were several tender-skinned two-legged sheep emitting an enticing life aura.
This was simply a gluttonous feast bestowed by the sea god!
"Charge!"
"For the tribe!"
"For dinner!"
Thousands of hideous fishmen, waving rusty harpoons and bone knives made of shark teeth, swarmed toward the Black Pearl from all directions like mad dogs.
Some tried to climb the gunwales, while others dove underwater, attempting to gouge through the hull with their sharp claws.
For a moment, waves surged, and murderous intent filled the air.
"A bunch of uncivilized savages."
At the bow, Elizabeth looked at the misshapen, even slightly malnourished fishmen, a hint of disdain flashing in her red eyes.
"They don't even understand the basic etiquette of 'washing hands before a meal.'"
She was just about to take action, using blood magic to "disinfect" this patch of sea.
"Wait."
Victor stopped her.
"There's no need for our Chief Anesthesiologist to handle such a minor scene."
He turned around and shouted lazily toward the cabin.
"Nidhogg."
"It's time for work."
"Roar... (Got it, Master.)"
A thunderous dragon roar filled with impatience came from deep within the cabin.
Immediately after.
Rumble—
The entire Black Pearl shook violently, as if some gargantuan creature was awakening.
On the deck, a massive hatch composed of countless white bones and chains slowly opened.
A head...
A giant dragon head, mostly decayed but still radiating a world-ending dread, sluggishly poked out from the dark cabin.
It was the corrupted dragon Victor had recruited to guard the house... Nidhogg.
It had clearly been awakened by the commotion just now and was in a very bad mood.
Its massive, lava-like dragon eyes were filled with morning crankiness.
It let out a yawn.
A dragon's breath mixed with sulfur and the scent of death gushed out like a hurricane.
"Roar... (Who is it? So early in the morning... driving this dragon crazy...)"
...
The sea surface, which had been filled with shouts and killing intent, fell into a deathly silence the moment Nidhogg's massive head appeared.
All the charging fishmen froze in place as if a paralysis spell had been cast on them.
Their bulging, dead-fish eyes were now wider than copper bells, instantly becoming bloodshot. Their mouths hung open, but no sound came out.
A dragon...
It's a dragon?!
And it's... the legendary one that even the sea god would take a detour to avoid...
An undead dragon?!
"Gua... gua... (What... what is that thing?)"
The coral staff in the fishman leader's hand fell into the water with a splash.
It felt like its bladder was losing control.
As the local tyrant of this sea area, it naturally recognized dragons. But the most powerful dragon it had ever seen was merely a dozen-meter-long wyvern. And the thing before it...
Just its head alone was larger than their entire tribe's altar!
The terrifying dragon pressure radiating from it, originating from the very top of the hierarchy of life, made its soul tremble!
This wasn't an invasion!
This was suicide!
They hadn't robbed a merchant ship; they had clearly kicked an iron plate forged from divine metal and covered in poisonous spikes!
Nidhogg clearly had no interest in wasting words on these small fry. The morning crankiness of being awakened made it only want to... clear the area.
Its giant dragon eyes swept across the dense crowd of fishmen on the sea, its gaze like looking at a swarm of annoying flies.
Then, it took a deep breath.
"Roar... (Everyone... beat it...)"
It originally intended to use a dragon roar to scare these little things away. But it forgot.
Last night, Victor had fed it a newly developed "appetizer" (which was actually a laxative). So, it inhaled a bit too deeply.
"A... choo—!!!"
A world-shaking sneeze replaced the dragon roar.
Along with this sneeze.
A stream...
A stream of dragon breath, not too thick, about the width of a water bucket and somewhat black in color, erupted from its decayed mouth.
Pfft—
That dragon breath didn't have any world-destroying momentum; it merely drifted lightly onto the sea surface in front of the Black Pearl.
Sizzle————!!!!
In the next second, an unimaginably horrific sight occurred.
With the landing point of the dragon breath as the center, the seawater within a thousand-meter radius boiled instantly!
It was a true boil! The sea turned into bubbling white foam, surging frantically like boiling oil. Scorching steam shot into the sky, even forming a small mushroom cloud.
The air was instantly filled with a... extremely enticing...
Aroma of seafood?
The hundreds of fishmen charging at the front didn't even have time to scream. The moment their bodies touched the boiling water, they turned red at a visible speed.
Then, with eyes rolled back and bellies up, they floated on the surface.
Cooked. They were completely cooked.
Even their scales fell off on their own, revealing the tender, white fish meat inside that emitted an enticing fragrance.
"..."
The entire world fell into a deathly silence again.
On the Black Pearl, Victor, Elizabeth, and Alice all stared dumbfounded at the "seafood soup" before them.
"I... I didn't mean to."
Nidhogg shrank its neck back a bit guiltily. It hadn't expected the power of its sneeze to be this great.
"No."
Victor snapped back to his senses, looking at the "spoils of war" floating all over the sea, his eyes bursting with unprecedented brilliance.
He walked quickly to Nidhogg and excitedly patted its decayed dragon head.
"Well done! Nidhogg!"
"How is this a mistake? This is clearly a stroke of genius!"
"This is simply the most efficient, most environmentally friendly, and most sustainable fishing method!"
He turned around and waved his hand grandly at the beast girl behind him, who was already drooling.
"Mia!"
"Don't just stand there! Quick!"
"Jump in and gather the fish!"
"Remember to get a lot! Tonight we're having... an all-fish feast!"
"Owoo! (Yes, Director!)"
Mia cheered and jumped into the steaming seafood soup like a cannonball with a splash, starting to frantically toss those scalded fishmen onto the ship.
What was originally an invasion filled with slaughter and blood had been turned into a joyful and fragrant seafood buffet by a dragon's sneeze.
In the distance, the rest of the fishman tribe saw this scene and were scared out of their wits. They no longer cared about looting or dinner, diving into the deep sea while crying for their parents, wishing they had more legs to escape this place.
It was too terrifying. Those living on that ship weren't human at all.
They were a group of walking natural disasters!
...
"Burp..."
Half an hour later, when Mia climbed back onto the ship from the sea with a round belly, satisfied, the deck of the Black Pearl was already piled with small mountains of cooked fish.
"Alright, alright, that's enough to eat. Any more and the ship will sink."
Victor looked at these "ingredients" delivered for free, smiling so much he couldn't close his mouth.
He was just about to have the skeleton security guards drag these fishman corpses to the cold storage as future food reserves for the clinic when suddenly...
"Commander!"
Helena's cold electronic voice rang out again, her tone carrying a hint of gravity.
"Radar has detected... a super-giant energy reaction directly below!"
"Something... is coming up!"
As soon as she finished speaking.
"Glug... glug glug..."
The sea surface, which had just returned to calm, suddenly began to churn with massive bubbles. A giant whirlpool with a diameter exceeding a hundred meters quickly formed, centered on the Black Pearl.
A powerful suction force pulled at them, causing the entire ship to shake violently.
"Hold on! Everyone hold on tight!"
Victor's expression changed, and he immediately gave the order.
Next, under everyone's horrified gaze, an indescribable giant shadow, comparable in size to a small island and covered in countless eyes and suckers, slowly surfaced from the center of that bottomless whirlpool.
Rate on N.U.
