Goblin Heavy Dependence

Chapter 469 The Underwater Hunting Grounds of The Hague

Since arriving at Suckerfish Bay, Xia Nan has consistently avoided fighting in the water.

This is certainly not a problem, because his highly mobile combat style, which combines various combat skills, is indeed not suited to the underwater environment. The viscous water currents will greatly affect his speed and explosive power.

Out of caution and responsibility for his own safety, even when sailing on the high seas and facing underwater enemies, he mostly used the ship's long-range weapons to attack from the deck.

But just like those jokes on the internet in my previous life about "humans being less powerful than geese," if you really think that adult humans are being chased all over the place by domestic white geese flapping their wings because their actual combat power is inferior to their opponents, then you are very wrong.

Often, human fear and avoidance of conflict stem from a desire to avoid injury—even just a minor scrape or not wanting to get their clothes dirty.

When the necessity of fighting outweighs everything, whether it's the survival instinct of hunger or the burning anger after being provoked, even without using the intelligent tools that humans have placed at the top of the natural world's pyramid, it wouldn't take much more effort to twist the neck of a white goose than to unscrew a bottle cap with just the bare hands.

The same applies to Xia Nan.

His resistance to fighting in water does not mean he is incapable of fighting in water.

Unlike before, the place where it is now is not a vast, uninhabited sea with no end in sight, but right next to the dock, with land just a few dozen meters away.

There are no towering, surging waves like mountains, nor do you need to worry about several sucker tentacles thicker than a human body suddenly emerging from the abyss beneath your feet. In fact, given the width of the Twin Valleys, even slightly larger giant monsters cannot squeeze in.

They even had a rough estimate of the enemy's number thanks to their aerial advantage.

Given this premise, the Blade of Vengeance is facing imminent danger from being besieged by murlocs.

As the only member of the team besides Alton who could barely meet the suspension conditions after Hein's transformation by controlling his body's gravity through [Gravity Control], Xia Nan jumped off the cliff upon hearing the signal and rushed to the scene with the Druid.

However, after briefly analyzing the situation on the field from the air, he made a decisive decision.

Let go, and you'll fall.

It was for this reason that the twin warriors and the crew on deck finally saw the black meteor in the shape of a wolf's head, which had been circulating on the ship in recent days and was suspected of having some special connection with Hein.

"Hiss—"

The deep, high-pitched wolf howl, mixed with the whistling sound of tearing through the air, grew clearer and clearer in the air as it approached, accompanied by a sharp, piercing sound that accelerated from low to high frequencies.

At that moment, it was as if the field had been muted.

Even breathing seemed to stop at that moment, with the strange cries of the sava fish-men and the angry roars of the sailors and crew...

Pairs of eyes were fixed on the dark figure with its swaying mane and long, trailing tail, rapidly descending.

"boom!"

Water splashed.

The meteor fell straight into the sea.

The powerful impact of the waves crashed against the deck of the Blade of Vengeance, causing the people on the deck to rise and fall slightly.

"This……"

Renn opened his mouth, then subconsciously glanced up at the short-tailed albatross circling above the ship, unsure of what to do to support his teammate who had come down from the sky to provide assistance.

Do I have to go into the water too?
Isn't that too dangerous?
Where is Xia Nan? Why is he so quiet? Has he encountered some danger?
what should I do?
This mature middle-aged man thought about many things in an instant.

And just as he gritted his teeth, preparing to risk jumping off the deck and into the sea to support his teammates.

The sudden surge of water from beneath the surface, and the wolf howl, though slightly muffled yet more profound due to the isolation created by the sea, interrupted his thoughts.

Unlike their initial collaboration on Hare Island, Xia Nan flexibly adjusted his combat strategy in the face of the vastly different battle environment.

As he fell, he changed his landing point from the deck to the sea surface. Knowing that his physical abilities were sufficient to withstand the impact of falling with the seawater, he not only did not slow down, but also used [Fang Hunt] and [Gravity Control] to increase his falling speed as much as possible.

The exaggerated potential energy surrounding it didn't even require any deliberate movement; it simply tore a hapless fishman who was swimming nearby into a bloody mess.

puff-

From the air to underwater.

The originally clear sound seemed to be shrouded in a layer of fog, becoming blurry and distant.

The water pounded against my eardrums, and all I could hear was the splashing sound of the water and the muffled hissing of the surrounding shahua fish people.

whereabouts,

whereabouts.

The increased impact speed in the air allowed Xia Nan to fall straight to the seabed, even though he had to contend with the resistance of the seawater, thanks to the inertia generated by [Fang Hunt].

The leather boots, soaked in seawater, lightly touched the soft sand.

He suddenly opened his slightly closed eyelids, his dark eyes gazing upwards at the sea.

Xia Nan had never fought underwater before.

I have to admit, it was quite a wonderful experience.

Visually, although it is close to the land dock and the depth is average, the towering cliffs on both sides block most of the sunlight, making the underwater visibility very poor, similar to the evening when the sun is about to set completely.

While not exactly silent, the sound still blocked out 70% of the noise from the land; the icy seawater enveloped the entire body, making even the simplest actions like raising an arm or taking a step require more effort than on land.

Even when his five senses were restricted, his keen perception, far surpassing that of other professionals of the same level, quietly came into play.

For Xia Nan, based solely on what he saw, the fish-men swimming in the surrounding seawater were perhaps just blurry, fleeting shadows.

However, when combined with the roars emitted by the other party and the subtle water flow that followed, his extremely keen senses allowed him to pinpoint the exact location of these water rats.

Xia Nan hovered quietly on the seabed. The fishmen who were originally attacking the Blade of Vengeance were gradually approaching from all directions due to the attraction of their prey that had fallen into the water.

Thanks to his professional-level physical abilities, he can hold his breath underwater for far longer than the human limit in his previous life, but he needs to reduce it slightly to account for excessive energy expenditure during combat.

Despite the changes in his surroundings, he had no intention of altering his fighting style.

Because at this moment, as he stood on the seabed and looked at the dark and open sea around him, Xia Nan suddenly realized that, to some extent, fighting in the water... for him, might not be a huge weakening that would make his combat power drop several levels.

In some ways, his agile fighting style is even better suited to the water.

Xia Nan didn't know the origin of the [Meteor Blade Hunter] profession he was employed in, but judging from its name alone, he could infer that it should be a highly offensive and flexible profession that uses outer space as its combat environment and utilizes gravity for highly mobile combat.

Combat in water also simulates the weightless environment of outer space to some extent.

Perhaps Xia Nan needs to expend more stamina to use combat skills, and his speed and explosive power while moving are slightly reduced due to the resistance of the water flow.

However, the scope for his actions on the battlefield was unprecedentedly expanded compared to on land.

The [Fang Gari], which could only move forward, backward, left, and right on land, suddenly gained a vertical "z-axis" underwater!
"Buzz..." The dark seawater surrounding him trembled violently, and the ink-black energy surged and spread amidst the deep, muffled wolf howl.

The thick leather boots, which were floating on the surface of the seabed, suddenly stomped down under the force of gravity.

Make sure your feet are firmly planted.

Bend your knees and exert force.

"boom!!!"

Like a bomb in the water, sand and gravel exploded, carrying countless tiny bubbles, while the white water surged and swirled.

Named "The Hague," a black winter wolf from the misty forest, is making the ocean his hunting ground for the first time.

The seawater was torn apart.

The spiral-shaped bubbles burst and multiply under the force, squeezing the seawater on both sides into two transparent walls, turning the calm water flow into thin, white streaks.

The exaggerated burst of speed resulting from the combined effect of combat skills and physical strength allowed Xia Nan to briefly create a vacuum passage in the water.

One end is connected to flying sand and gravel, the seabed where it set off;
At the other end, only a headless merman corpse remained, riddled with holes by sharp, piercing energy.

The fluorescent blue blood, like the materialized fear spreading around it under the influence of [Night Mother's Gaze], was slowly diffusing in the seawater.

Xia Nan could hear the terrified screams of the Shahua fish-men, as well as the trembling roars of those who had barely passed the Fear Proficiency check, their bravado masking their inner cowardice.

This sense of déjà vu made him feel for a moment as if he had returned to those familiar goblin lairs.

After leaving the port, the twisted desires that had been suppressed in my heart for a long time began to grow quietly in the depths of my heart like weeds.

Then the howling of wolves rang out once again.

……

Everyone on deck saw the dark meteor fall into the sea.

Thanks to the spread of Xia Nan's deeds on Hare Island, everyone on the Blade of Vengeance knew clearly that the figure who had suddenly appeared on the battlefield in a way they had never encountered before was not an enemy, but a friendly force that had come back to provide support.

However, they did not understand their teammate's fighting style, nor did they know whether falling into the water was the other party's intention.

After all, given the carrying capacity of Hein's transformed short-tailed albatross form, it would be virtually impossible for her to steadily carry such a fully armed adult human male adventurer through the air.

It's normal to have some deviation when choosing the landing point.

If the other party originally chose to land at the dock or on the deck, but accidentally landed in the sea, should they provide assistance?

The situation on the field can change in an instant, and the sudden silence of a teammate who fell into the sea inevitably raises many questions.

But just a second later, a long, mournful wolf howl suddenly erupted from the seabed and then rang out continuously at an extremely high frequency, shattering all worries and anxieties.

Ryan and Gordon stood on the deck.

With the seawater obscuring their view, they couldn't see what was happening beneath the surface.

What the people on the ship could see was that the once calm sea suddenly began to rise intermittently in an extremely unnatural way, with the sound of water bursting and wolf howls coming from under the sea.

A dark shadow, deeper than the seawater, could be vaguely seen, like some kind of ferocious aquatic monster moving at incredible speed, disappearing in the undulating waves.

They circled the Blade of Vengeance again and again.

The spreading blood of the fish-men dyed the nearby seawater a fluorescent blue, and heads with wide-open fish eyes, mixed with gruesome bits of flesh and limbs, floated to the surface with bubbles.

It was as if there was a meat grinder underwater, buzzing and whistling as it shredded all the visible Sawa fishmen into pieces of mangled flesh.

Unbeknownst to them, the crew members who had been struggling to deal with the fishmen's attacks on the deck found that their stress had quietly decreased.

No more Sawa fishmen could jump onto the deck to fight the sailors... or rather, any water rats that dared to approach the Blade of Vengeance had been torn to pieces by the black wolf that roamed the deep waters, their flesh floating to the surface.

Even the "clattering" sound that the fishmen used to make when they used their harpoons to strike the bottom of the boat covered with vines and seaweed had disappeared without a trace.

No one knows what is happening in the sea, but what is now in front of everyone tells them the truth.

This encounter with the Shahua fishmen is quickly coming to an end amidst the howls of wolves.

"Buzz."

The sound of magical particles swirling overhead came from above.

As the core spellcaster of the team, Druid Hein, who had chosen to hover above the ship to provide aerial advantage for everyone due to the shortage of teammates and lack of protective power, has now chosen to transform back into human form.

Holding her staff, she landed on the deck.

A pair of bright eyes stared at the sea, and the expression on her face looked extremely strange.

The situation was urgent, and she didn't have time to communicate the detailed battle plan with Xia Nan.

He simply followed the other party's orders, taking the only team member he was capable of carrying while flying, besides the halfling, and jumped directly down from the hole in the rock wall to rush back and provide support.

She had assumed that the other party would, like when she faced the spiral sharks in the storm a few days ago, land on the deck and use long-range weapons to relieve the pressure on the ship.

But to my surprise... the other party's ideas seemed much more radical than mine.

"He... he should be alright, right?"

As the wolf howls in the sea gradually faded away, Renn stepped forward and asked with some concern.

"I think so." Hein nodded uncertainly, her expression hesitant.

As he walked to the ship's side, he was thinking of using his exceptional perception abilities as a druid to search for Xia Nan's movements.

Suddenly, a bursting sound of water came from below.

"boom!"

A dark figure suddenly burst out of the water, its body enveloped in the rapidly dissipating residual energy.

It soared high into the air, and when it reached its highest point, it seemed to be submerged in water again, its descent speed suddenly decreasing, and finally it slowly landed on the deck.

His black hair was wet, and his clothes were soaked with seawater.

But at this moment, Xia Nan's expression was even more relaxed than that of the guests who came out of the "Coral Courtyard".

He casually wiped the seawater dripping from his forehead and looked at the people on the deck:
"How are things? Are there any casualties?"

(End of this chapter)