The Final Boss Has Returned
Chapter 57
Merfolk endlessly climbing the coastal cliffs atop the Kraken's legs!
But the forces Drakan had prepared were not limited to that.
"Hahahahahaha!"
The man in the back seat of the Wyvern Rider, his muscular upper body fully exposed—Pants Warrior—laughed.
He was not the only one.
The elite selected from among the volunteers, as well as all the streamers participating in this event, flew toward the cliffs on the backs of wyverns, and soon began landing atop the cliffs one by one.
"The feeling of flying through the sky is always unique."
And among them was the main sponsor of this event, who could be called its de facto supreme authority—a beauty with short, dark blue hair, Sin Hayeon.
"Is everyone gathered?"
And of course, Drakan was there too—the host and protagonist of this event, as well as Sin Hayeon's companion.
Drakan swept his gaze across the top of the cliffs.
Even now, the Merfolk were endlessly climbing up the cliffs atop the Kraken's legs.
Drakan turned his eyes away from that sight and looked to the opposite side.
In the distance, the form of a small stone fortress was visible.
According to the intelligence obtained, that fortress, bearing the name 'Blade of the Tidal Wave,' was used as the Pirate King's dwelling. Furthermore, it was equipped with various defensive installations including defensive magic circles and fortress cannons.
It couldn't be compared to a proper fortress or citadel on land, but since it bore the semblance of a fortress, he had heard it possessed a certain degree of defensive capability.
'But right now, it's an empty shell.'
To prevent the landing, the Pirate King had established defensive positions at the harbor and concentrated his main forces there.
Strategically speaking, this was an extremely rational and reasonable choice. Because across this damned rocky island, the only area where a landing was possible through normal means was the harbor!
Moreover, that harbor had been built on a small white sand beach created between the cliffs, making it virtually a natural stronghold.
If you blocked the narrow pass, you could stop more than enough enemies, so it was only natural for anyone with a brain to concentrate their forces there.
That was right.
That would have been the case, had Drakan not mobilized the Kraken and wyverns to land on the cliffs.
The fortress entered Drakan's field of vision.
The Pirate King.
He was in there.
To advance beyond the realm of a promising prospect to one higher still.
The prey he absolutely had to capture to step up from being a chess piece to a chess player was right before him.
Heh.
Drakan smiled.
"The assembly is complete, Apostle-nim."
A Merfolk approached Drakan and spoke.
Behind that Merfolk, countless Merfolk troops were waiting.
"This side has finished mustering as well, Lord Drakan."
Ignis, who was beside the Merfolk, spoke up next, and behind Ignis the streamers were waiting.
Drakan looked at them, closed his eyes and opened them, then soon pointed at the fortress and gave a brief command.
"Begin the attack."
At Drakan's command, the army began to move.
* * *
Central Island.
The mother port of the Pirate Alliance, which had gained the simple name Golden Harbor due to the overflowing gold!
Block, the captain of the Black Shark Pirate Crew and the fourth-ranked powerhouse of the Pirate Alliance, known as the 'Black Shark's Fang,' who had been put in charge of the harbor's landing defense.
He gazed at the enemy fleet bobbing beyond the horizon through his spyglass and muttered.
"Do those bastards even intend to land?"
Golden Harbor was the sole passage leading to the Blade of the Tidal Wave fortress where the Pirate King resided, as well as the one and only entrance where one could set foot on this island.
In other words, it meant the enemy had no choice but to charge their troops here, whether they liked it or not.
But the enemy fleet was only keeping them in check, not even attempting to land.
Block pressed his eye to the spyglass once more and stared at the enemy fleet.
'Judging by their considerable strength, that idiot Cortes may have failed to carry out his mission properly.'
The military strength of the enemy fleet visible within the spyglass was considerable.
Furthermore, there was still no word whatsoever from Cortes, who had set sail leading a full seventy percent of the Pirate Alliance fleet with utter confidence!
Of course, this was because the wyvern squadron and Merfolk unit of the aircraft carrier battle group led by Drakan had thoroughly annihilated Cortes's fleet through aerial and underwater diversionary tactics.
Thanks to that, the Pirate Alliance's main camp hadn't been properly informed of the naval battle's outcome in the eastern sea, and merely vaguely assumed that Cortes's fleet had been defeated when Drakan's fleet appeared.
Of course, the lighthouses cum watchtowers built on the three rocky islets had all been smashed by the wyvern squadron, and the pirates assigned to monitor the distant seas from there had all died.
And though word of that had reached Block's ears, he had merely beaten the subordinate pirate who made that nonsensical report half to death.
Wyverns?!
There's a limit to how much nonsense one should spew!
Unless they built a mobile wyvern base on this isolated island floating in the vast ocean, operating wyverns—with their short cruising range—was nearly impossible.
They must have seen things, or perhaps mistaken cannon fire burning down the watchtowers.
Block thought as such and took his eye from the spyglass.
'It seems the legends of the Merfolk and the Kraken were all true after all.'
The legends of the Merfolk and the Kraken!
A legend that any pirate—no, any sailor—would have heard at least once. The legend that none could stand against the Merfolk upon the sea seemed to have been true.
If not, there was no explaining the crushing defeat of Cortes, of whom not even a whisper had been heard.
'Are they trying to tire us out? I wish they'd just hurry up and land already.'
The very moment Block was thinking this, facing the sea breeze blowing inland from the harbor—
"Captain Block!"
A voice calling out to him was heard from behind.
"What is it?"
When Block turned his head, a pirate who had come as a messenger shouted, gasping for breath.
"The headquarters—the enemy has invaded the headquarters. It's Drakan! He's here! The headquarters' forces alone are insufficient to stop the enemy army! You must send reinforcements immediately!"
"What?"
Block's expression twisted at those words.
The enemy had invaded the headquarters! What kind of nonsensical talk was this!
The enemy fleet hadn't even attempted to land yet, so how on earth had the enemy army reached the fortress?!
Had they climbed those treacherous coastal cliffs or something?
"Are you messing with me right now?"
Following the report of wyverns appearing, now an attack on headquarters too!
The very moment irritation was welling up in Block from hearing such absurd nonsense once again—
"L-look at this!"
The messenger pulled a paper from his bosom and held it out to Block; upon checking its contents, Block's face hardened stiffly.
The written order the messenger had produced!
It bore the Pirate King's handwritten signature, and in the Pirate King's own handwriting was written an order to send reinforcements to the fortress immediately, as the enemy army was attacking the Blade of the Tidal Wave fortress.
"What the hell—!"
Block was aghast.
He was currently blocking the only entrance where landing was possible, so where on earth had the enemy force infiltrated?
Had they found some legendary large-scale gate magic spell? Or if not that, had they really climbed the cliffs en masse?
So many thoughts flashed through Block's mind at this utterly surreal situation, but soon he shook his head.
True to one who had lived on battlefields his whole life as a vicious pirate, Block quickly made his judgment.
What mattered now was not how the enemy had infiltrated this island. The enemy had already landed on the island and was unleashing an offensive on the Blade of the Tidal Wave fortress, the empty main camp.
Block instinctively realized.
That the enemy fleet bobbing beyond the horizon had been a deceptive ruse to hide the landing operation.
That the enemy's main force had already landed.
Now that he knew the enemy fleet was a ruse, there was no need to maintain these large forces in the defensive position.
Block folded the order and tucked it into his bosom, and soon the Pirate Alliance forces defending the positions headed for the main fortress, leaving behind only the bare minimum number of troops.
* * *
Aircraft Carrier Steel Wing.
On its flight deck, Isaac—a user who served as JDG's vice-master and main tank, and who had taken overall command of the remaining forces excluding the detached unit that had climbed the cliffs—was surveying the enemy camp with a spyglass.
"The enemy forces are withdrawing, just as Lord Drakan predicted."
"The Apostle-nim's predictions are always correct."
Answering Isaac's words was Nereus, the red-crowned Merfolk standing beside him.
"Now that all their troops have withdrawn, it is time to proceed with the landing operation. Let us advance according to plan."
"Understood."
Nereus smiled and shook the spear he held in his hand.
"Wrath of the Sea."
The moment a low voice spilled from Nereus's lips—
Ooom!
A faint vibration rang out from the Ten-Thousand-Year Coral Crown upon Nereus's head.
Oooooom!
The vibration originating from the crown grew large enough to shake the entire ship, and soon the sea, which had been tranquil without so much as a breath of wind, began to surge.
The Merfolk King. Ruler of the eight Merfolk tribes, and king of all things in the sea!
That title was not merely an ornamental one.
Blessed by the patronage of the Sea Demon King and acknowledged by the Kraken, the Merfolk King—though there was a penalty wherein the reuse cooldown time increased depending on the scale and power—possessed the authority to freely command the sea.
And now, that authority—the Wrath of the Sea—finally revealed its majesty against the Pirate Archipelago.
Shhhhhhhaaaack—!
Enormous waves, house-sized—no, even larger than buildings—instantly engulfed Golden Harbor, where only minimal forces remained.
"W-waves! A tidal wave! A tidal wave!"
"Kuaaack!"
Among the few remaining pirate troops, those in the lowlands failed to evade the tidal wave in time and were swept away, and the defensive positions the pirates had firmly built were swept into chaos by the tidal wave.
But the pirates' misfortune did not end there.
"Wh-what is that?!"
"Merfolk! Merfolk have appeared!"
Merfolk!
They had ridden the tidal wave and landed effortlessly upon land.
"Kill the humans! It is the command of the Apostle-nim and the King!"
"Die! Humans!"
The Merfolk who had successfully landed amidst the tidal wave all drew their weapons at once. And they began attacking the pirates who had been unable to restore their formations disrupted by the tidal wave, and soon a chaotic melee between Merfolk and pirates unfolded along the coast.
But the pirates' true misfortune was only beginning.
Shhhhaaaack!
While the melee unfolded along the coast, Drakan's carrier battle group, which had cut through the waters and approached near the harbor, finally commenced the true landing operation.
"Prepare the landing boats. We will now carry out the landing operation."
At Isaac's single word, landing boats carrying numerous users descended from the ships belonging to the carrier battle group and began making their way toward the coast.
"We've finally begun the full-scale landing on the Pirate Archipelago, folks. Please hit those subs, likes, and donations!"
"You pirate bastards. Time to wipe your seed from the East for good!"
"When this is all over, I'm taking a proof shot and posting it on social media!"
"Never again war! Never again war!"
"To think I'm standing on the same battlefield as Pants Warrior-nim!"
Whether it was a shared resolve to eliminate the Pirate Alliance, a desire to gain attention by posting on SNS, greed to increase subscriber counts on Arde Live, a simple desire to enjoy war as great content, or if not that, fan devotion wanting to fight alongside a favorite ranker!
Countless users gazed at Golden Harbor, each burning with their own desires.
And the pirates who should have been stopping such a large-scale user landing were swept up in battle with the Merfolk vanguard and unable to mount any significant counterattack.
Boom! Crack-boom!
Moreover, due to the support fire flying toward the harbor from Drakan's distant ships, the pirates were truly unable to come to their senses.
"Uwaack! Artillery fire!"
"Save me! Please save me!"
At the very moment the pirates' morale was completely crumbling from the artillery fire and the Merfolk's attacks.
"The Pirate Archipelago!"
"Let's kill those pirate scum!"
Starting with the first landing boat reaching the coast, countless users began pouring onto the white sand beach.
The Pirate Alliance!
It was the moment the flare signaling their fall was fired.