The Final Boss Has Returned
Chapter 45
“What?”
Antaios furrowed his brow.
Flames!
There were almost none who used flames in the sea.
In this place, which was literally underwater, fire-attribute attacks had their damage halved.
So what on earth were those flames that shot up now?
Antaios was bewildered, but Rexas’s face, watching the same scene from inside his helm, contorted viciously.
‘Ignis!’
Rexas!
He knew.
There was only one user who could raise such an inferno in the depths of the sea, no less!
The fact that it was none other than Ignis, the Flame King!
‘He was here?’
JDG!
To think they, the lackeys of Jeil E&M, would be here!
The very moment he felt something was subtly off.
Something like black silhouettes began swarming from above.
“Fishmen! It’s the fishmen!”
“The fishmen are coming down from above!”
“E-everyone, don’t panic! Counterattack calmly!”
A horde of fishmen with black scales!
Riding sharks, they charged at the mermaid army, cutting through the current at high speed.
“Those are the Shark Tooth Tribe! How are they here?”
Antaios clenched his teeth as he watched.
What shocked him wasn’t just the fishmen’s surprise attack.
The Shark Tooth Tribe!
He was shocked that the Shark Tooth Tribe—one of the eight fishman tribes, undersea nomads who tamed and rode marine monsters, and simultaneously one of the premier warrior tribes among the fishmen—was present here.
The eight fishman tribes did not easily combine their strength.
It was known that only one person could force them: the Fishman King.
But Prince Nereus had not yet been recognized as qualified for the throne, and thus it was normal for Aqua Haven to house none of the other tribes, only the Golden Scale Tribe.
But the Shark Tooth Tribe!
Yet the Shark Tooth Tribe’s assault was only the beginning.
“General! Fishmen are attacking from the rear!”
“The Steel Shell Tribe has appeared!”
“There are fishmen of the Black Seaweed Tribe too!”
The eight fishman tribes!
Their armies simultaneously sprang their ambush and fell upon the mermaid army’s camp all at once.
Fishmen riding the current down from above like the Shark Tooth Tribe; fishmen attacking from the rear; and fishmen who had been hiding in Aqua Haven leaping out!
From the mermaids’ perspective, it was truly no different from being surrounded on all sides!
The mermaid army, which had been advancing proudly toward Aqua Haven, fell into chaos in an instant from the fishman armies pouring in from every direction.
A situation where all the armies of the eight fishman tribes launched a simultaneous surprise attack!
No one could possibly know why they had joined forces.
The Demon God’s Contractor!
A vague speculation arose that he, who had come from the surface, had somehow orchestrated this.
But that was not what mattered now.
The fishmen!
What mattered was that they seemed to have aimed for this situation and laid a trap.
Having received the report, Antaios gnashed his teeth and shouted.
“Scylla! Turn your head! Kill those fishmen!”
The moment Scylla’s head tried to turn at Antaios’s command.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
As JDG’s main tank unleashed a taunt skill while sending out sword qi, the aggro shifted back toward JDG.
That’s right.
Ignis hadn’t come alone.
For the Scylla raid, he had brought the entire elite raid squad composed of JDG’s high rankers, including the sub-master.
[Krraaaaaaa!!]
Scylla, whose aggro was drawn again by the taunt skill, shrieked and launched a sonic attack toward JDG’s raid team, but the high rankers of JDG’s raid skillfully blocked or evaded Scylla’s attacks.
JDG!
That name, as a member of the Ten Great Guilds, wasn’t won by child’s play, so the JDG raid members naturally evaded Scylla’s attacks even underwater while dealing damage.
Their raid, where the three elements of tanking, dealing, and healing meshed together like the teeth of gears in an artistic display, drew admiration effortlessly!
It was movement befitting JDG’s elite raid team, who had studied and run nothing but dungeons and raids to the point of nausea, but to the mermaid side, including Antaios and Rexas, the sight was nothing short of a nightmare.
‘How, how can this be!’
Rexas was appalled.
His operation had clearly been perfect.
Drakan’s quest hadn’t even properly progressed yet, and he hadn’t given any time for information to leak before charging in with the mermaids to kill Drakan.
Just by seeing the mermaid army advancing toward the deep sea and Scylla’s imposing figure, Rexas had been confident.
Drakan! He had believed he would clearly see that bastard’s end with his own two eyes.
But the scene unfolding now was the exact opposite.
Fishman army attacks pouring from every direction!
JDG’s Scylla raid unfolding against the backdrop of an empty Aqua Haven!
Watching the mermaid army flustered by the unexpected ambush, unable to properly resist and scrambling in confusion, Rexas clenched his teeth and raised his weapon.
And he realized.
That this trap had undoubtedly been laid by that exceptionally cunning bastard!
Whether this had been his intention from the start, when he had laid the trap, or if information had leaked from their side.
Rexas trembled all over anew.
Drakan.
Because the dirty schemes and sordid, petty plots he had shown during the World Revolution came flooding back.
‘As expected, he’s no pushover.’
Rexas muttered inwardly like this, then shook his head to scatter stray thoughts and gripped his main weapon, his sword.
In any case, they had already fallen into the trap; there was no path of retreat.
Realistically speaking, there were no items that allowed escape during combat.
Such items weren’t even sold in the point shop, which was filled with all sorts of convenience items.
Therefore, only one path remained for Rexas and the Infinite Yujin Church members!
Only attack.
‘Since it’s come to this, even if I die, I must kill him!’
Rexas’s eyes blazed.
Yujin—for his sake, Rexas could gladly sacrifice his in-game lives.
Anyway, the outcome of the war between mermaids and fishmen was not such an important matter to Rexas and the Infinite Yujin Church executives.
Even if the mermaids lost, if they could kill Drakan, that in itself was victory.
Even if all of them lost their lives here, if they could drag Drakan into the abyss of character deletion together… that too was their victory.
Thus, the situation had not become unfavorable in the slightest.
If they cut off Drakan’s head, the operation would be a success regardless, and that meant victory for him.
A smile crept onto Rexas’s lips as his thoughts reached that point.
“Attack! I said attack! Don’t panic, attack!!”
Listening to Antaios’s desperate-sounding commands ringing in his ears, Rexas kicked off the ground, gripped his spear tightly, and advanced, cutting through the current.
Behind him followed members of the Infinite Yujin Church, wearing face-covering helms just like Rexas.
Their goal was only one!
Drakan!
To find and kill him.
* * *
“Uwaaaaack!”
“Die! You mermaid bastards!”
[Kyaaaaaaah!]
Watching the battlefield where weapons clashed and shrieks and screams echoed, I held a smile.
The sight of a battlefield was the same whether on the seabed or on land.
As I had expected, Rexas, the eastern branch manager of the Infinite Yujin Church, together with Grand General Antaios of the fishmen, had led the main force of the fishman army and attacked toward Aqua Haven, exactly as I intended.
From what I heard from my ‘informant,’ they had read the scene of my meeting with Nereus through the Earth’s Memory, then stored it in a crystal orb and shown it to Antaios; I realized once again just how tremendous a grudge they held against me.
They say you live long if you get cursed a lot; at this point, I figured I might be immortal.
In any case, they had misjudged the situation through the information I had leaked, led their army, and charged into Aqua Haven, falling beautifully into the trap I had laid.
And the result of that was exactly what was happening now.
[Kyaaaaoooh!]
The Shark Tooth Tribe, mounted atop numerous marine monsters including sharks and electric rays, churned the battlefield and bit into the mermaids.
From the rear followed warriors of the crustacean fishman tribe known as the Steel Shell Tribe, so named for their steel-like shells, with appearances as if crabs and humans were mixed together; they massacred the mermaids with pincers akin to deadly weapons.
In addition, countless fishmen of the eight fishman tribes—of all shapes and forms—swarmed in to fight the mermaids.
I watched the sight leisurely, wielding the Iron-Blood Executor to cut down the mermaids rushing at me.
“Wild Blade.”
As I spoke the skill trigger word, the dark red aura condensed in the Iron-Blood Executor exploded, sweeping away two mermaids targeting me, who screamed as they were engulfed.
[Your level has increased.]
Listening to the dry notification sound, I squeezed in among the fishmen in the middle of the battlefield and collected experience, gold, and items.
Just as I smiled with satisfaction at the pleasant notifications pouring in like that—
“Draakaaaaaan!”
From afar, a voice calling me was heard.
I turned my head, and there were over ten humans swimming at high speed, approaching me with flashing blades.
They were none other than my ‘friends’ from the Infinite Yujin Church.
‘How do they not deviate from my expectations by even an inch!’
Like the Monkey King on the Buddha’s palm, they couldn’t escape my expectations by even an inch and were rushing at me recklessly to kill me.
I looked at the Infinite Yujin Church bastards, who wore face-covering helms thinking themselves clever, and laughed.
“Die!”
“Chain Lightning!”
“Wind Arrow!”
“Warrior’s Strike!”
As I burst into laughter, the user at the front roared furiously, and simultaneously, my Infinite Yujin Church friends fired skills targeting me.
Watching the colorful skills flying like arrows, I smiled leisurely, caressed the ring on my hand, and muttered lowly.
“Summon Kraken.”