Chapter 355: Chapter 355

The Windward Strait is located at the junction between the Kingdom of Castilia, Iris, and Hightins. The colonial territories of the three countries are arranged in a triangular pattern in clockwise order. In particular, St. Nicholas Point in the northwestern corner of Iris, and Cape May in the southeastern corner of Castilia, are like a pair of canine teeth, pinching the Windward Strait between them. At its narrowest, it is only a mere eighty kilometers.

The place struck by the Blood Madness this time was St. Nicholas City in Iris.

"Fire! Fire! Our reinforcements are about to arrive!"

The hunting fleet of Iris was slightly inferior to Byron’s. Under the command of Governor Magnyra on the flagship, the Lady Lily of the Valley, three Wonder Battleships trapped an Octopus Warship in the narrow bay. They immediately dumped a huge amount of Dragon Dung Potion into the sea. Roughly forming a line, the four warships launched a salvo, pouring ample firepower onto the opponent.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!...

Under the silver curtain of rain, as artillery fire flashed, shattered shells, tattered wooden planks, and bright blue blood scattered into the sea.

That Octopus Warship, relying on its tentacles for movement rather than sails, performed no Qiangfeng tactical maneuvers. Instead, it turned its hull, presenting its bow—the smallest cross-section—to the Iris fleet positioned upwind. Enduring their volleys, it launched a countercharge, simultaneously firing its Coral Disease-infected Barnacle Cannonballs at the fleet.

The falling rain enhanced the power of the Coral Disease. Normally, such a ’biological attack’ would terrify sailors; even a Third Order Transcendent accidentally infected would have no cure. But now, things were very different. When the tiny barnacle larvae from the disintegrated cannonballs landed on the sailors, they were killed by the preemptively administered vaccine the instant they began to parasitize the skin, falling to the ground like a dusting of grayish powder. It caused no harm to the crew.

Seeing the vaccine’s exceptional performance in combat, Governor Magnyra breathed a sigh of relief. This deal with Byron was indeed a bargain. Without the immunization potion, engaging an Octopus Warship would always mean risking heavy casualties. Even if we could defeat the enemy, our own military strength would suffer greatly. If we desperately obtained the exemption in the end, only for the colony to become a hedgehog stripped of its spines, that would truly be a ridiculous outcome.

It was also quite the coincidence. Magnyra led her fleet on a patrol around the island and ’happened’ to encounter this Octopus Warship attacking their harbor as they passed Cape St. Nicholas. Many Coral People had already landed. The Octopus Warship was shelling the city, spreading Coral Disease with the aid of the heavy rain. Magnyra immediately took action without hesitation, blocking it there, and then notified Byron at the first opportunity. This wasn’t because she was magnanimous, prepared to let her nephew claim the kill and the exemption rights for the Octopus Warship. It was because this Octopus Warship was not Castilia’s May Wind. Although it looked quite similar on the outside, its overall form was that of a slender adventure ship, covered in barnacles. But one only had to look at the name engraved on its stern gallery to know this was clearly the Grand Duchy of Curland’s Wonder Battleship, the Sea Spider! It had simply contracted the Coral Disease.

Idiots! They probably got involved while privately combating the Blood Madness disaster and carelessly got themselves caught up. Those small countries lost their Wonder Battleships and didn’t even report it to us—they deserve to die! Could the fighting power of ordinary civilian ships ever compare to theirs? Since a Curland Sea Spider has appeared here, who knows how many other countries have been recklessly exploring the Dream Realm and needlessly losing lives in the process.

After the two countries reached a cooperation agreement, Magnyra shared Byron’s intelligence. Her understanding of the Octopus Warship’s capabilities far exceeded anyone else’s.

One, ’Coral Parasitism’: It carries an entire nearshore ecosystem of barnacles. These can parasitize not only humans but also ships, turning them into its own Guardsmen and Escort Ships. Each of its eight tentacles can differentiate and control an octopus Escort Ship. Together with the May Wind itself, they form a formidable monster fleet. In the rain, all their abilities are enhanced, especially the spread of Coral Disease, which is no longer restricted by range.

Two, ’Bloodsucking Restoration’: The May Wind can repair itself by sucking the blood and flesh of Escort Ships or other creatures. It can even achieve targeted evolution to become increasingly stronger.

Three, ’Underwater Navigation’: The Octopus Warship can sail at 16 knots (29 kilometers per hour) on the surface. Underwater, it navigates at 10 knots (18 kilometers per hour), regardless of weather conditions.

Four, ’Misty Dream Realm’: When the barnacles grow to their limit, they can unwittingly pull people into the common Dream Realm of marine life. Deep within the Dream Realm is a connection to the New Continent, hiding a residence of an Old God that can easily corrupt even a Tier 4 Hero. Balboa most likely encountered and saw up close the true form of the Old God hiding there, which is why he was contaminated to this state.

And the most powerful nominal ability of that Tier 4 Hero Adventurer, ’Infinite Evolution’: Not only does it possess abnormal regenerative capabilities, but you can never be sure. If you fail to kill it once, you can never predict what surprising form it will evolve into the next time it appears.

Upon understanding the full picture of her opponent, Magnyra immediately realized that this entity’s danger level was not something they, being Third Order, could control. Especially the second point mentioned by the Cardinal Archbishop—finding the ’dark hand’ in the Dream Realm—appeared relatively simple but was, in fact, far more dangerous than destroying the Octopus Warship. Anyone who dared to investigate deep within the Dream Realm would surely meet a gruesome end. For now, the only realistic goal was to destroy the ’tentacles’ extending from the Dream Realm—the May Wind, the sole target that could be dealt with by cannons.

However, Magnyra also knew of another non-combat route that could satisfy the contribution requirement. This was the vaccine for Coral Disease and the clearing of marine bioinvasions within the Banta’an range. As long as these potential future troubles were removed, at least one exemption should be granted. For Byron, this was a double insurance policy. If he failed to successfully hunt down the May Wind, he would offer this instead. He could easily claim it was a special supply obtained through the natives from the ’Father of Healing,’ or make an excuse involving the Great Shaman’s intervention. Moreover, by leading his people to ’devoutly convert’ to the Church, acting as a model native collaborator, he might even gain some extra benefits from the Church.

If Byron successfully completed his mission and had surplus achievements, there was a high chance he could sell the excess to his aunt. Being ranked second or third wouldn’t matter, as long as an exemption was secured. This was the main reason for Magnyra’s proactive stance. Her goal had shifted from independently resolving the Blood Madness to fully supporting Byron in slaying the May Wind and then sharing the spoils.

"Governor," the Gunner Chief hurriedly reported, "the Octopus Warship has stronger sinking resistance than a regular sailboat. We cannot sink it before boarding."

The appearance of a hostile Wonder Octopus Warship had already cast a slight shadow on Magnyra’s mind. Now, seeking a quick resolution, she decisively ordered:

"Then let’s board! Marines, form up and prepare to engage the Coral People! All captains, follow my charge! According to reliable intelligence, our allies dissected an octopus Escort Ship—on what they called a ’dissection table,’ which was actually a kitchen chopping board. It has only one heart, located below the gun deck. One direct hit to the heart, and it’s certain death! The number of Escort Ships from the Heroic Guards is unknown. We must fight quickly and eliminate it as fast as possible!"

The next moment, the Sea Spider crashed into the Iris fleet’s formation with a loud bang. Hundreds of Coral People swarmed out of the cabin, fearlessly throwing themselves at the sailors on the deck. At the same time, eight incredibly thick tentacles at its stern whipped around, desperately damaging the rigging of the various warships. Magnyra unleashed a ’sonic bomb’ from her mouth, blasting a bloody path on the ship’s hull, and led the other three Third Order Transcendents in a raid on the lower hold.

And just as they were locked in a desperate melee, fighting to a standstill.

Outside the bay, in an area unaffected by the Dragon Dung Potion, one, two... a total of four Octopus Warships surged from the seabed.

"Damn it, it’s an ambush!"

The returning May Wind had clearly learned its lesson from being focused last time. It adopted close-quarters boarding tactics, unafraid of concentrated fire even if the enemy had reinforcements. The ’hostages’ would only be blasted to pieces before it was. Even this ’Big Octopus’ mimicked tactics Byron had used, setting one warship as bait and encircling the Iris fleet from the opposite direction. As an Infinite Evolver, even without rational thought, purely fighting on instinct, the same trick couldn’t be used on it a second time!

At this moment, the May Wind and its Escort fleet faced the Iris fleet—five against four. Numbers alone already gave them the upper hand. Moreover, Magnyra recognized the identities of those three Escort Ships:

"The Determination from the Andorran Duchy, the Sword Shield Guardian from the Hessen Duchy, and the Blue Elf from the Mecklenburg Duchy. All Wonder Battleships! You useless transport captains, aiding the enemy instead of fighting... You all deserve to die!"

Meanwhile, keenly sensing the number of ships in this monster fleet, Magnyra’s heart tightened once more. Its maximum is nine ships, and only five have been replenished so far. It isn’t back to its full strength yet. Are they planning to take down our four Wonder Battleships to complete their monster fleet?!

And just as this fleet of Wonder Battleships majestically advanced toward them, Jacqueline also arrived above the battlefield via shadow jumping. With a pair of wide, black dragon wings spread, she hovered in the air. She had intended to find Magnyra to complain. But from her high vantage point, she was the first to see the May Wind—the supposed prey—cunningly launching a counter-ambush on them, the hunters. Her face turned pale with shock.

But remembering the support behind her, she steeled her resolve somewhat. She was secretly relieved that their two nations had formed an offensive and defensive alliance in advance; otherwise, the Iris hunting team, having carelessly fallen into this trap, would have been in grave danger. Although she deeply doubted her cousin’s reliability when it came to money and firmly believed his so-called ’financial insurance’ was definitely not secure. He’d call others an Old Deng, but when it came to money, he was the biggest Old Deng of them all. But at least when it came to fighting (or rather, exterminating), he was exceptionally reliable. The saying went, ’The seas are fraught with thousands mighty, Captain Byron crosses paths with half,’ yet now he had hardly any overt enemies. Instead, everyone praised him, the Sea Hunter, as loyal, reliable, kind, and benevolent—that was clear evidence! Especially when a ’pure and innocent beauty’ like her encountered flashy young punks gesturing wildly, calling for backup on the spot was definitely effective.

Thus, using the internal network of The King’s Right Hand, she immediately activated the pre-set killer move from the Golden Law. Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹·𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑒·𝗇𝗲𝘁

The ’Calling for Parents’ technique!

Opening her mouth, she screamed at the top of her lungs:

This was her method of pinpointing her location after reverting to being a ’girl’.