Chapter 657 - 547: Slaughter! [Cooperation/Synergy]

Chapter 657: Chapter 547: Slaughter! [Cooperation/Synergy]

After the Natural Covenant was forged, a temporary calm fell over the rock platform. All that could be heard was the distant, quieting sound of waves lapping the shore and the occasional muffled groan or clatter of rolling objects from the ruins in the bay below.

Roland didn’t get up right away. He took advantage of the quiet moment to send the questions that had been weighing on his mind to Black Wind through their increasingly clear and stable mental link.

’Black Wind, what in the world happened after I left? How did you end up like this? And...’

’Have you seen anyone else? Like Avril, the Elf Maiden, or Galvis, Bronson, Duraga... or any other faces you might remember?’

Black Wind lay still, the light in its eyes of ghostly fire flickering and swirling, revealing the stirrings of memory.

However, the reply that came through the link was inherently vague and fragmented.

After all, before its dramatic transformation, it had only been a clever but mundane horse, not an Extraordinary being.

’Happened... what...’

Black Wind’s thoughts came in fits and starts, as if it were struggling to piece together faded snapshots of memory.

’I remember... a very bright light... everywhere. I was in a big, strange ’house’? No, a ship? A big, flying ship, hard like a snail’s shell.’

’Then... so much pain... and so cold... like I’d fallen into the deepest, darkest ice water. But there were also lots of... tiny, glowing stars hitting me. As for the others...’

Black Wind struggled to recall.

’There were so many sounds, so loud... then light, and falling. After that, for a very, very long time, there was only Darkness, pinpricks of light, and... a call. A call from somewhere very deep...’

’I followed it, and slowly... I became what I am now. When I woke up again, I was here by the sea. My head was filled with... thoughts that don’t belong to a horse. And Power. I never saw any familiar faces again.’

Though its account was brief and hazy, the outline it sketched was enough to shake Roland to his core.

Black Wind’s transformation was, as he’d suspected, directly related to their journey through Space-Time. It also seemed to have connected it to some Otherworld source tied to Shadow and starlight.

As for the whereabouts of Avril and the others, that remained a mystery.

Just as Roland was processing this information and trying to piece together more clues, Holland’s voice broke the platform’s quiet.

"Hey! Boss! And... uh, Black Wind."

Holland was clearly still getting used to calling a Nightmare by such a name.

"Looks like the lease on our ’observation deck’ is about to expire."

He stood at the platform’s edge, pointing down at the sea, which was gradually calming but still murky and turbulent.

"The ’landlords’ down below... don’t seem too happy to have uninvited guests."

At his words, Roland immediately got up, walked to the edge of the platform, and looked where Holland was pointing.

In the murky, receding foam below, near the wreckage-strewn shallows and exposed black reefs of Shipwreck Bay, a dense crowd of grotesque figures had appeared.

They had humanoid silhouettes, but their skin was a dark green or grayish-blue, covered in slimy scales or rough hides.

Their heads were massive, with eyes like those of a bloated, dead fish. Their mouths gaped open, revealing rows of jagged, sharp teeth.

They clutched crude Fish Spears and Short Spears made of bone or polished coral. Some carried tattered fishing nets or strange, clanking trinkets made of strung-together shells and conches.

Fishmen.

And not just a scattered few.

As far as the eye could see, there were at least several dozen of the surging, grayish-green figures, with more crawling out from the deeper water and reef caves.

They communicated with one another in hoarse, grating gurgles—a sound like a cross between a frog’s croak and a bursting bubble.

Their bulging eyes stared up in unison at the high rock platform, filled with unconcealed greed, hostility, and the eager anticipation of any "prey" or "flotsam" that might have appeared after the recent cataclysm.

They were clearly different from the common Fishmen he had encountered in the "future," who had relied mostly on numbers, surprise attacks, and crude equipment.

The Fishmen before him were, on the whole, more robust and sturdy. In the fading light, their Scale Armor had the dull sheen of wet iron and was clearly thicker.

Though their weapons were still primitive, the tips of their Bone Spears were more finely honed, the barbs on the coral Fish Spears were dangerously curved, and a few chieftains could even be seen wielding heavy weapons that looked to be crudely fashioned from the jawbones of some large Sea Beast or lashed-together scraps of metal.

As they gathered and moved, though still raucous, they showed a hint of crude discipline.

Urged on by chieftains marked with streaks of white, they were splitting into several groups.

Some began attempting to climb the rugged base of the cliff face, while others fanned out to the sides, seemingly trying to cut off any possible descent routes from the platform.

What gleamed in their bulging eyes was not just greed, but also the cruel patience of a predator.

’Stronger, more organized, slightly better equipped... They even have the kind of ferocity that’s been honed on the battlefield.’

Roland calmly assessed them, but there wasn’t the slightest hint of panic in his eyes.

To officially attain the High Tier Profession of Ranger, aside from needing to raise his Life Perception ability to Level Three through regular use, there was only one final, specific requirement.

Work together with a recognized "animal partner" to kill one hundred creatures with clear hostile intent.