Chapter 652 - 544: A Startling Dream at the Cape

Chapter 652: Chapter 544: A Startling Dream at the Cape

He roared and tried to raise his Shield, but his arm was only halfway up...

PFFT!

The Short Spike shot precisely through the gap at the Shield’s edge, piercing the side of his neck and sending out a spray of blood.

The burly man’s eyes flew wide open. His massive body crashed to the ground like a toppling mountain, leaving only a gurgling, rasping sound in his throat.

"Ambush! Focus fire on him!"

Cyrus was the first to recover from the shock. He roared hoarsely, swung his Magic Staff, and a Strong Acid Arrow he had been preparing shot toward Roland with a corrosive hiss.

But Roland, as if he had eyes in the back of his head, spun with an uncanny footwork just as he struck the man down. He dodged the acidic green Arrow by a hair’s breadth, his Short Spike sweeping around in a strange arc.

Two crisp CLINKs rang out as he parried a pair of Longswords from the side. With a flick of his wrist, the blade’s light flashed upward in reverse. A swordsman cried out, clutching his wrist as he stumbled back. His Longsword fell to the ground with a CLANG.

His movements were without flourish—concise, efficient, and lethal. Every move and strike sliced precisely into the gaps of his attackers’ coordinated assault, like a master butcher dissecting an ox.

The members of the Shadow of Ashes were well-trained and quickly formed a battle line to surround him, but Roland’s speed and Power completely crushed them.

At times, he slipped through the gaps between blades like a fish. Every flash of his Short Spike drew blood.

At others, he would clash head-on, charging into their formation. A seemingly casual punch or kick carried the force to shatter stone tablets, sending the Heavy Armor Warriors who tried to block him staggering back, their lifeblood in turmoil.

Nightmare followed close behind Roland, no longer attacking directly, but its spectral, fiery eyes swept coldly over the surroundings.

An invisible Spiritual Suppression spread like a cold tide, causing every enemy who tried to approach to feel their heart palpitate and their limbs weaken. Their reactions slowed, greatly disrupting the rhythm of their coordinated attack.

At the same time, Holland and Ellis launched their harassment with perfect timing.

"Hahaha! You grey-cloaked grandsons, look over here!"

Holland’s wild laughter exploded from behind a huge pile of rotten shipwrecks on the flank of the battlefield.

He didn’t charge directly into the fray. Instead, like the most cunning of hunters, he used the terrain to constantly change his position.

A precisely thrown Short Spear whistled through the air, pinning an archer to a reef just as he was aiming at Roland, preparing to fire a sneak Arrow.

Several heavy ship planks, hurled with immense strength, whistled toward the back line of the Shadow of Ashes’ formation. This forced two Mages and a Priest to hastily dodge, instantly disrupting their Casting rhythm.

Ellis, on the other hand, was more stealthy and deadly.

He hid behind a tall, weathered rock pillar, the tips of his fingers shimmering with a faint light.

Just as Cyrus was trying to channel an area-of-effect control spell, three incandescent white Magic Missiles flew silently toward him in a triangular formation. He was forced to interrupt his chant and raise a small Shield to block them.

Immediately after, a slick of grease appeared without warning between Cyrus and several of his melee fighters. Two Warriors who were rushing to protect their captain slipped and fell clumsily, instantly leaving their defensive positions.

The pressure on Roland lessened instantly.

A cold glint flashed in his eyes. Seizing the opening that had appeared in that instant, he suddenly accelerated, forcibly breaking through the pincer attack of two Shadow of Ashes members and thrusting his Short Spike straight at Cyrus.

"Arrogant!"

Cyrus was both shocked and enraged. He hadn’t expected his opponent to be this powerful, nor had he anticipated that his two skulking companions would provide such precise and effective interference.

With the Short Spike about to strike, he slammed his Magic Staff heavily onto the ground. A shockwave of Shadow Energy erupted violently from him as the epicenter.

"Shadow Nova!"

However, Roland’s forward momentum didn’t slow; it increased. Facing the expanding Shadow Energy, the Short Spike in his right hand flared with a deep violet light as he thrust forward without any sign of retreat.

POP!

The seemingly turbulent Shadow Nova was pierced straight through by the deep violet glint of the blade, which was concentrated to a single point and contained a strange, spell-breaking Trait.

Roland’s figure followed the channel he had forcibly opened, instantly passing through the range of the Energy explosion. The Short Spike, its momentum unbroken, continued straight for Cyrus’s chest!

Cyrus’s face went pale with terror. In his haste, he could only manage to bring his Magic Staff across his chest to block.

CLANG!

The resounding clash of metal on metal! The Short Spike slammed violently against the Void Core fragment on the Magic Staff.

Cyrus felt an irresistible, immense Power travel up the Magic Staff. The webbing between his thumb and forefinger split open, and his chest felt as if it had been struck by a sledgehammer. He was thrown backward like a kite with a broken string, spitting a stream of blood.

The Magic Staff, inlaid with the precious fragment, also flew from his grasp. It spun through the air in an arc before landing with a THUD, sticking diagonally into the damp, black sand in the distance.

However, the Magic Energy of the Shadow Nova, which had been forcibly broken and deflected by the strange violet light on Roland’s Short Spike, had not completely dissipated.

Having lost its controlling core, the berserk mass of Shadow Energy burst forth chaotically like a punctured waterskin. A small portion shot toward the sky and vanished, while the larger, more concentrated torrent of Shadow Energy streaked diagonally toward the edge of the battlefield like an out-of-control black javelin...

BOOM!

It struck, dead-on, the greyish-white rock foundation that connected Shipwreck Bay and Screaming Cape—a stretch of rock submerged in seawater and covered in slippery seaweed and barnacles.

There was no great explosion, but a pitch-black, bottomless hole several feet in diameter instantly appeared on the surface of the rock that had been hit.

The rock at the edge of the hole looked as if it had been corroded by the strongest acid, or perhaps brutally "dug out" by an invisible force, leaving behind a smooth and bizarre molten state.

Wisps of black gas rose from it, making a HISSING sound as they touched the seawater and emitting a pungent, strange smell like a mixture of sulfur and ozone.

Then...

VMMMMM!

First came a hum so deep it was almost impossible to catch with the ears, yet it made everyone’s soul tremble. It emanated from deep beneath their feet.

Immediately after...

RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!

The entire landmass, along with the adjacent sea, began to shake with incredible violence and without any warning.

It was as if the entire continental shelf sleeping beneath their feet was being violently shaken and lifted by an invisible giant hand.

Centered on the rock foundation struck by the Shadow Energy, terrifying shockwaves spread madly in all directions like a furious tide.

The black sand on the tidal flats jumped and sprayed as if it were boiling.

Massive reefs groaned as they cracked and tumbled.

The sea was suddenly thrown upward by a tremendous force from below, forming a turbid wall of water dozens of feet high, which then crashed down violently, sweeping everything near the coast into a chaotic maelstrom of foam and rapids.

The battlefield was instantly torn apart by this cataclysm, a force as mighty as heaven and earth.

Everyone, from the members of the Shadow of Ashes to the remaining Adventurers, was thrown off balance, unable to stand. Their terrified screams and shouts were drowned out by the deafening roar and the sound of the tsunami.

Even Roland had to steady his stance, subconsciously plunging his Short Spike into the ground to anchor himself, his eyes filled with shock and doubt.

But an even more soul-shattering scene followed this terrifying earthquake.

Under the stunned gazes of everyone present, the majestic, greyish-white Screaming Cape stood like an immutable natural wonder.

Its massive body, pockmarked with wind-eroded holes and constantly battered by the waves, began... amid a world-shaking tremor that sounded like a roar of agony from the world itself...

...to slowly rise.

It was not an illusion, nor was it a visual trick caused by the waves.

The rock formation, massive enough to be a coastal landmark, was clearly separating from the seabed at its submerged base, churning up monstrous waves and turbid silt.

Countless tons of seawater were displaced, forming terrifying whirlpools and torrents.

The seaweed, shells, and coral that had covered its surface for ages flaked off like dandruff, revealing a stranger, darker texture beneath—something like a mix of metal and rock.

And then, it began to...

move.

It was accompanied by a deep rumble so profound it made one’s chest resonate and teeth ache.

The entire Screaming Cape, like a primeval behemoth painfully roused from an ageless slumber, moved toward the Deep Sea, away from the coast. Slowly, but unstoppably...

...it began to shift its impossibly massive body.

’This was no cape at all! It was clearly... a creature of unimaginable size that had been slumbering by the coast for countless ages, its back disguised as a mountain of rock and reef... a colossal, turtle-like beast.’

And what Cyrus’s out-of-control Shadow Energy had struck was likely a sensitive spot on the edge of the behemoth’s shell, directly infuriating its slumbering consciousness.

"The... the cape is moving?"

"A turtle... It’s a giant turtle! A Legendary Sea Beast!"

"Lord Cyrus! We’ve angered the ’Reef-Backed Dragon Turtle’! Run!"