Volume 3: Global Vanguard & The Advanced Pinnacle
Chapter 282
Blood-Stained Tide Floods the Eastern Coastline
The sky above the eastern coastline collapsed like a tattered canvas soaked in black ink.
Gales shrieked through the fractures of the reinforced concrete and alloy dikes, carrying with them a sea breeze devoid of the ocean’s familiar salinity, instead thick with the foul stench of decomposing corpses mixed with suffocating sulfur. Atop the sixty-meter observation deck of Coastal Defense Outpost No. 9, the air-raid siren spun frantically, unleashing a string of eardrum-shattering screeches. The successive, intermittent, and then roaring wails signaled the highest level of disaster: the Black-Red Blood Tide.
“The water level is rising by another four meters! No, six meters! The barometric pressure has plummeted to the bottom!”
A young liaison soldier slipped and fell on the water-slicked metal floor, his helmet flying far away, revealing a deathly pale face drained of all color. His trembling hands tightly gripped the magic console, where the monitoring crystal stones flickered with a mad red light before cracking into tiny pieces.
Colonel Chen Yong, commander of the Yunhai Bay sector coastal defense line, stood frozen in front of the magic-proof bulletproof glass. His jaws were clenched so tightly that blood trickled from the corners of his mouth. Beneath his feet, one of the most heavily fortified steel fortresses in the eastern region trembled with every single heartbeat of the earth.
In the distant horizon, where the sea level should have been a calm, flat expanse, a colossal liquid wall towering over thirty meters high now stood upright.
That was not blue seawater. It was a greasy, dark crimson hue, thick as congealed blood mixed with tarry sludge. This ferocious, turbulent wave surged forward at a terrifying speed, swallowing outlying islands, sweeping across artificial coral reefs, and carrying away all coastal positioning magic buoy systems. Even more terrifyingly, atop those raging waves, streaks of blinding white foam rose into dense, murky blue-gray mists.
“The Blood Tide... it has mana-corrosive toxicity!” Chen Yong growled through the army-wide broadcast intercom, his voice hoarse yet vibrating with authority: “All frontline combat units, activate the Grade-3 Greenwood Barrier and Heavy Rock Rampart! Absolutely do not let the seawater breach the trenches!”
Yet no sooner had his command fallen than the crimson wall of waves slammed directly into the frontline sea dikes stretching hundreds of kilometers.
“BOOM! CRASH, CRASH, CRASH!”
The impact sounded as if tens of thousands of heavy armored vehicles had simultaneously crashed into a mountain cliff. The gigantic waves vaulted over the towering embankment, smashing straight into the initial defensive barrier formed by thousands of Tier-6 magic stones linked together.
“HISSSS...!”
A hair-raising, piercing hiss rose. The pale blue light of the barrier, the moment it touched the blood-red seawater, corroded in mottled patches like thin paper meeting hot coals. The dark-toxic slime within the Blood Tide gnawed at the magical linkage nodes at a speed visible to the naked eye. The brilliant magic patterns engraved on the dike surface cracked, and the protective enamel exploded with a popping sound, shooting out thousands of deep violet sparks before extinguishing in the blink of an eye.
“This is bad! The first-tier defensive array has shattered!”
“No. 4 mana transmission conduit has been smashed apart by the tide! The magic circuit is severed!”
Chaotic shouts from radio communication channels rang throughout the command headquarters. Before Chen Yong could even issue orders to divert backup energy sources, the ground beneath the fortress shook violently.
From within the crimson waves that had just washed over the dikes, mud and saltwater began to bubble turbulently.
And then, the true nightmare crawled up from the deep sea.
Thousands upon thousands of pitch-black, razor-sharp dorsal fins shaped like metal saw blades split the tidal current, charging straight inland. These were Giant-Toothed Sharks—one of the most ferocious coastal demon beasts, possessing bodies ranging from six to ten meters in length, their entire bodies encased in thick, horny scales capable of hydrodynamic sliding and basic elemental magic resistance. Their snouts flattened, revealing three tiers of jagged, elongated fangs interlocked together, emitting a clattering grind that chilled souls to the bone.
Accompanying this ferocious shark horde was a swarm of writhing Serpent-Fish Demons. Their bodies were long and serpentine like giant pythons, yet they grew four sharp limbs that firmly anchored into the ground, their belly scales secreting a deep purple mucus that allowed them to move smoothly on land at terrifying speeds. The gills on both sides of the Serpent-Fish Demons twitched incessantly, discharging electric arcs of brilliant purple that slashed across the wind and rain; wherever they swept, fortifications exploded and bricks turned to dust.
“ROAR...!”
A alpha Giant-Toothed Shark over fifteen meters long leaped out of the waist-deep tidal water, its colossal tail whipping fiercely against the No. 12 frontline watchtower. Half-meter-thick reinforced concrete shattered like dry biscuits. Two military mages on the tower plummeted straight down into the horde of monsters whose maws were agape, waiting below.
“Ah, ah, ah!”
The tragic scream barely escaped their throats before being crushed into a crisp snapping of bones. Bright red blood splashed onto the deep crimson tidal waters, stimulating the bloodlust instinct of all ten thousand sea demons. Their bloodshot eyes flashed madly, their tails beating the mud ever more violently as they hurled themselves with all their might into the trenches and frontline outposts where military mages were garrisoned.
“Fire system! All Fire-system mages, open fire for me!”
In the eastern communication trench of the stronghold, Platoon Leader Xu Gang—a robust lieutenant colonel with a long scar slashed across his forehead—roared fiercely. Waving his right hand fiercely, the fiery Fire-system star constellation instantly braided into a fan shape before his chest:
“Fiery Fist: Nine Dragons!”
Nine billowing pillars of fire roared forward, tearing through the crimson rain curtain, and slamming head-on into three advancing Giant-Toothed Sharks. The scorching thousand-degree flames vaporized the surrounding seawater into blinding white steam, scorching the horny scales of the monsters as a suffocating smell of burnt flesh filled the air. The three sharks roared and writhed, crashing to the ground in the trench, but not three seconds later, dozens of others trampled over the corpses of their kind, crazily leaping through the sea of fire.
The Blood Tide seawater rising in their wake carried toxicity that extinguished the flames with unnatural speed. The sparks that merely touched the greasy water emitted a faint hissing sound before going completely dead.
“Dammit! This seawater suppresses magical flames!” Xu Gang cursed, the mana within his nebula suffering a massive depletion.
Beside him, dozens of Lightning-system mages exerted their utmost to connect star tracks:
“Stilling Lightning: Wild Dance!”
Bolts of azure lightning descended straight from the dark cloud layer onto the tidal waters surrounding the fortification. The electrical charge spread intensely across the water’s surface, causing hundreds of Serpent-Fish Demons to twitch violently, their deep purple skin scorched black. Yet, the corrosive poison of the Blood Tide acted like a bizarrely insulating cushion, neutralizing nearly half of the Lightning magic’s destructive power. The demon beasts were paralyzed for only a fraction of a second before struggling back up, their cloudy eyes flashing with fishy red veins, crawling forward to bite and slash even more fiercely.
“Crack!”
The protective electric-net barrier in front of the communication trench was smashed to pieces by a pack of Giant-Toothed Sharks hurling their bodies against it. The heavy steel cables as thick as a grown man’s bicep snapped, whipping through the air shrilly. The monsters swarmed straight into the trench.
“Hold the line! Earth system, erect barriers! Wind system, blow away the toxic vapor!” Xu Gang roared as he drew his profound-iron magic-slashing artifact, cleaving the head of a Serpent-Fish Demon clean off as it opened its maw to spit venomous fluid at a young mage. The monster’s purple blood splattered all over his chest armor, hissing as it corroded the precious metal.
Yet Xu Gang’s roar was quickly drowned out by the endless roaring sea of monsters.
The coastal battlefield at this moment was no different from a colossal meat grinder.
The tide rose higher by the moment, submerging the defensive fortifications. The frontier military mages had to fight with muddy water up to their waists. The corrosive toxins in the seawater soaked through their magical military uniforms, making their skin burn and go numb. More critically, the mana within the soldiers’ bodies was depleting at three times the normal rate due to having to constantly resist the dark magnetic field blanketing the battlefield.
“Deputy Squad Leader Li has fallen!”
“Squad 4 is surrounded at Gun Nest No. 6, they... they were swallowed alive!”
“Where is the reinforcement? Why is there no long-range magic artillery support?!”
Panicky, agonizing cries rang out ceaselessly from the headset transceivers. With every passing second, a frontier soldier’s lifeline vanished on the command radar screen. The young soldiers who had just yesterday sat together eating hot noodles by the embankment watching the sunset were now buried deep beneath the foul-smelling muddy water, their bodies mutilated beneath the sharp teeth of the aquatic beast horde.
A young Ice-system mage, his mana completely exhausted, collapsed onto the muddy water. Before him, three Giant-Toothed Sharks thrashed their tails as they charged, their sharp saw-toothed jaws reflecting the gray lightning in the sky. He tremblingly touched the final energy-storage ring on his right index finger. That was a frontier-grade mutual-destruction magic stone.
“You beasts... die together with me!”
He roared with a heart-rending cry. The magic stone burst into a colossal sphere of frost, freezing everything within a twenty-meter radius into a grim, ruined ice sculpture, crushing the three giant monsters alongside the young soldier’s own flesh and blood.
Yet that shattered block of ice was nothing compared to the tens of thousands of demon beasts continuing to surge in from the deep sea along the waves of blood.
Inside the Coastal Forward Command Headquarters, the air was so suffocating it felt on the verge of exploding.
Tobacco smoke mingled heavily with the scorching ozone smell from overloaded machinery. The three-dimensional holographic display simulating the entire three-hundred-kilometer coastline lit up in a continuous strip of blazing red—the color of total collapse.
“Reporting to the Brigadier General, the Southern Bank defense sector has completely lost communication!” An operations officer reported with a trembling voice: “The frontline embankment has been torn apart at twelve points. Sea demons have poured five kilometers deep inland, currently approaching the mana substation and Evacuation Residential District No. 3!”
In the supreme command chair, Brigadier General Du Qiang—responsible for coordinating operations across the entire eastern coastal defense line—had an ashen complexion. The hand holding his coffee cup trembled so badly that the liquid sloshed all over the tactical map.
“Retreat... Quick, issue the order for all frontline forces to retreat!” Du Qiang abruptly stood up, his shrill voice revealing extreme panic: “The wave-blocking dikes can no longer be held! This Blood Tide is not a normal natural disaster grade; this is a Grand Legion-scale invasion! We must preserve our forces and fall back to the Second Defense Perimeter thirty kilometers from the coastline!”
“Brigadier General! Have you lost your mind?!”
An iron-clad voice rang out like a thunderbolt. Colonel Chen Yong strode straight into the command room from the door, covered in dried blood and fragments of lightning armor. His bloodshot eyes glared straight up at the superior commanding officer:
“If we fall back to the Second Perimeter right now, what will happen to the Beacon Peak Eye Lighthouse deep-sea positioning radar station?! That radar station is guiding three hundred thousand civilians evacuating from the island counties and low-lying areas inland! Abandoning the radar station, the entire fleet of refugee ships at sea will turn into easy prey for the Giant-Toothed Shark horde!”
“Chen Yong! You are speaking to your superior!” Du Qiang slammed the table, roaring to mask the fear gripping his heart: “There are millions of demon beasts out there! We only have three frontier regiments, and more than half our mana is depleted. What’s the point of holding the radar station?! Do you want every officer and soldier here to be buried alongside that mud?!”
“That is the lives of three hundred thousand compatriots!” Chen Yong stepped forward, killing intent rolling off him overwhelmingly: “We are soldiers! The mission of the coastal defense line is to block the enemy at the gateway, buying time for the rear! Reinforcements from the Capital and the Magic Association are on the way; we just need to hold out for two more hours...”
“Two hours?! Stop daydreaming!” Du Qiang cut him off, his voice full of bitterness and cowardice: “Look out the window! In twenty minutes, this stronghold will also be plunged to the bottom of the sea!”
No sooner had Du Qiang spoken than a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering explosion erupted from the direction of the open sea.
“BOOM, BOOM, BOOM...!”
That sound resembled no ordinary thunderclap or magic artillery blast. It was a low, heavy, rumbling growl emanating from thousands of meters deep at the bottom of the oceanic trench, transmitting through the thick seawater and slamming directly into the chest of everyone present in the base.
All the magical lighting systems in the command headquarters flickered wildly before bursting into fragments of glass. Energy crystals cracked en masse.
Chen Yong and Du Qiang simultaneously turned their heads in astonishment to look out toward the open sea through the shattered window frame.
Beneath the dense rainstorm and jagged purple lightning tearing the sky apart, the deep crimson seawater suddenly split apart into two towering, vertical chasms. From within a colossal whirlpool miles wide, a massive shadow resembling a majestic mountain slowly rose.
That was neither a Commander-grade demon beast nor a Lord-grade one.
The terrifying coercive aura radiating from that shadow warped the surrounding space, causing the seawater to boil furiously and evaporate into towering pillars of toxic vapor. Its two eyes were as red as twin blood-moons suspended amidst the storm clouds, coldly gazing down at the crumbling defensive embankment below.
A Monarch-grade Demon!
The true overlord of the deep sea had personally appeared!
The entire eastern coastal defense line, in that very moment, plunged into a deathly silence. Thousands of frontier soldiers soaking in blood and mud gazed up at the towering phantom, their throats choked, their breathing seemingly entirely stripped away.
An ultimate massacre was about to descend. And the fate of millions of living souls in the coastal region hung by a rotting thread amidst the boundless storm.