Ch.236236. Shark Bite (3)

After being impaled through the side by a trident that flew unexpectedly from amidst the foam, and if that wasn’t enough, being hurled and embedded into the underside of the junk ship.

‘….Cough!’

Grum regained consciousness as he felt the spear lodged in his side being pulled out. Despite coughing up a handful of blood, he struggled to restore his trembling body.

[■■■···· ■■■■!]

The spell he cast was evil sea magic originating from the Sea Witch. Using this magic that steals and absorbs life force from marine creatures, Grum absorbed the life force of the orcs aboard this slowly sinking junk ship.

The energy possessed by a high-tier body is by no means trivial, and consequently, the life force required to repair it when damaged is enormous.

To put it bluntly, the HP digits are on different scales, so ordinary healing methods simply wouldn’t suffice.

‘Nngh….’

Thanks to completely absorbing the life force of all the orcs on the junk ship, Grum barely managed to somewhat recover from his wounds. He then climbed up to the deck with a grimace at his still creaking body condition….

‘….Huh?’

As Grum stood on the deck of the sinking junk ship filled with orc corpses decomposing into green powder, his eyes witnessed everything he had built up until now collapsing in an instant.

A massive bird soaring through the sky—though somewhat unstable, it was undoubtedly radiating high-tier energy—was moving back and forth between the ground and ships, sinking the junk ships of the Sharkbite Clan.

-Krrrrrumble!!

Lightning from the sky pierced through ships, thunder blasted vessels away, and warriors carried by the bird boarded the ships to slaughter the orcs.

No matter how proficient orcs were in close combat, and even though the Sharkbite Clan orcs were specialists in naval melee warfare, what could they possibly do when mid-tier enemies swarmed onto ships already swept by electrical currents?

“These bastards…!”

Unable to contain his burning rage at the current situation, he began channeling magical power to use this junk ship to sink the enemies beyond, when….

….suddenly, he realized he had forgotten about the one who had embedded him into the ship and hastily jumped off.

And indeed, this proved to be an excellent decision.

-Kwagagagagagagagagang!!!

Right after, he felt a water pillar rising from the sea swallowing the sinking junk ship.

As Grum entered the sea and began breathing through gills instead of lungs, his eyes caught sight of a being with the same magical power as before, surprisingly.

With a pair of bull-like horns protruding from both sides of its head, and parts of its body transformed into a sea dragon form reminiscent of a sea drake…. how should one even describe that?

Anyway, regardless of what it was, Grum was certain of one thing—that being was an enemy threatening them. Moving his newly grown pincer arm, he chanted an evil witch’s spell against that high-tier being.

[■■ ■ ■■■!!]

“Terror of the Deep,” a spell that summons the vanguard of the outer god “Sea Witch,” grotesquely distorted spawns from the realm of the Sea Witch, immediately took effect.

A giant squid with tentacles glistening in horrific colors, a terrible beast that seemed like a repulsive mix of fish and frog, humanoid races resembling hybrids of primates and fish, and shark-wolves with webbed feet and fins.

The cursed offspring of the Sea Witch, known in other worlds as the “Lord of Watery Abyss” or “The Sleeper of ■■■■■,” appeared with sinister colors and moved to target his enemy.

Of course—mere servants of a degraded outer god were no match for the guardian of the sea.

-Kwagagagagagagak!!!

The moment the trident made of blue crystal was swung with all might, the surrounding currents responded to its movement, forming liquid blades that ground the outer god’s servants to pieces.

The liquid blades, rotating like chainsaw teeth, roughly tore their flesh apart, and the high-speed, high-pressure water current that rushed into their tattered bodies completely shredded those flesh pieces.

In an instant, fluid like blood flowing from the bodies of the outer god’s servants contaminated and colored the seawater, and the souls of those whose physical forms were destroyed returned to the Sea Witch.

Although they were merely meat shields summoned to buy time, Grum gritted his teeth upon seeing how pathetically they were torn apart and tried to turn the situation around—

-Wooooooooong!!!

….or at least, he should have tried.

※ ※ ※

Grom, Grom Sharkbite couldn’t understand.

‘….Where is this?’

Suddenly, a barren and desolate wasteland filled his vision, then that scenery reversed and transformed into…. a shadow, a dim shadow world.

As if all light sources had been completely removed from this world. As if all light had completely perished from this world.

In this world where only shadows existed, contradictorily, despite the absence of light to illuminate one’s vision, there was no hindrance to seeing ahead.

Particularly, on the ground, dozens of mounds formed from something that was neither soil nor dust, and in the sky, something round that emitted no light was positioned with something flowing down from it.

Moreover, there were rivers of something like black liquid flowing somewhere, as well as shadow-like buildings scattered throughout.

Anyone could see that some mystical phenomenon was clearly involved, so Grom Sharkbite immediately considered this space to be an artificial otherworld formed by a high-tier magic user.

And such artificial otherworlds were the worst enemies for outer god worshippers like Grum.

‘….Damn it.’

While an ordinary magic user might simply form their own otherworld to counter this, those like Grum who became high-tier through external intervention rather than their own power cannot form otherworlds.

Forming an otherworld requires a personal mental image to serve as its core, but for Grum, who hadn’t built up a mental image solid enough to serve as the axis of an otherworld, it was merely a hindrance.

Moreover, Grum’s magic was largely divided into orc shaman subspecies druid magic and outer god worshipper magic, neither of which functioned well in such special otherworlds.

Subspecies druid magic compensates for lack of proficiency through exploitation of the natural environment, making it weak in otherworlds, and in such otherworlds, the connection to the outer god’s dimension is reduced, preventing outer god magic from exerting its full power.

As a result, Grum tensed up, vigilantly scanning his surroundings for any potential attacks when….

‘….Hmm?’

Suddenly, Grum noticed something strange about the material composing the ground here.

At first, he mainly thought it might be grass or similar soft soil due to its soft, squishy texture, but as time passed, he began to feel something off.

This softness was fundamentally not something that could come from soil.

If one were to compare, it felt more like the softness of meat or flesh, which gave Grum a creepy feeling. He reached down toward his feet and—

[—Squeak!]

“Damn!”

Startled to find that what he had grabbed was none other than a shadow rat, Grum threw it away…. but suddenly realized the true nature of the texture he felt on the ground, sending chills down his spine.

And right after that.

-Kugugugugugugugugung!!!

Everything he thought was scenery—tens of millions, hundreds of millions, billions… perhaps even more—all of it, the entire otherworld space, collapsed targeting only Grum.

Rats, rats, rats. All he could see were swarms of rats.

The ground he stood on, the dark sky above, the rivers, the holes, the buildings, everything—literally everything in the otherworld—rushed toward him in this maddening situation, and Grum desperately resisted.

“Get away!”

-Kwaaaang!!

He swung his arm, releasing a shockwave that crushed hundreds of rats, and launched slashes from his pincer arm to cut through more of them.

Since they only had the durability of ordinary rats, each attack swept away hundreds of rats, but… there were far more rats than that.

Surrounding himself with magical power and trying to protect himself with tough shark skin and scales was of no use.

The teeth of the shadow rat collective easily penetrated even the toughest flesh, and no matter how many he killed, they kept coming like endless waves.

Up, down, left, right. Rats rushing from all directions and angles were gradually eating away at him.

The corpses of dead shadow rats collapsed and returned to nothingness, so he couldn’t even use magic that utilized corpses as sacrifices.

Even if he released magical power to grind all nearby rats, twice that number would surge forward in just a few seconds.

Literally infinite. The endless feast of rats continued until….

-Shuk!

Grum, tattered by the swarm of rats gnawing at his entire body, finally stopped moving as a blue trident pierced through his brain and heart.