One ship after another caught fire;

But there were more and more ships on the sea, because the sailors and soldiers aboard the larger vessels were lowering even more small boats to escape.

The entire sea was filled with burning ships, choking black smoke, countless little boats scattered across the waves, and men who had fallen overboard, clutching planks as they struggled to stay alive.

Anliexi paid no attention to the enemy soldiers in the water or those fleeing in small boats;

After all, they couldn’t possibly make it back to shore with nothing but oars and little boats.

Anliexi focused most of his efforts on pursuing the Imperial fleet’s main force;

The process was like peeling an orange. The Kingdom’s army cleared and set fire to the small boats on the outside, layer by layer, until only the “flesh” in the middle remained;

At that moment, the enemy flagship looked far more tempting to Anliexi than any real fruit.

Just then, a Kingdom soldier let out a scream of agony;

An archer stood on high ground when a trident-like weapon suddenly plunged into his back and thrust out through his chest.

Blood kept spilling from the archer’s mouth. He struggled to turn his head and see what had happened, but was flung aside like a rag.

A towering figure stepped out from behind him;

It had a humanoid build, immensely broad and powerful, with every one of its abdominal muscles clearly defined;

Its head was that of a shark. Most striking were its gaping jaws and rows of sharp teeth.

They had dorsal fins, trailing tails, and webbing on their hands and feet;

Their weapons were tridents fashioned from polished rock. They looked like a fusion of human and shark, but their eyes gleamed with both savagery and intelligence.

Sharkmen!

These weren’t sea beasts. They were true members of the Sea Folk—the Sharkmen of the Sea Clan!

“Why have the Sea Folk become our enemies?”

The Kingdom soldier facing death couldn’t understand. But before long, Anliexi would figure it out.

It wasn’t strange at all.

Inran had forged marital alliances with the Sea Folk more than once throughout history;

And even setting aside the distant past, wasn’t the late father of the current Empress a member of the Sea Folk?

Yexiyun had Sea Folk blood. It wasn’t hard to understand why she’d called on some of her kin to fight on her side in this crucial war.

Anliexi saw the Sharkman at the front wave a hand. One after another, black, glassy pearls fell onto the battlefield;

The black pearls pulsed with a strange energy, rippling out layers of water that spread smoothly into “doors” resembling waterfalls.

At that, Anliexi tossed aside his command flag, tightened his grip on his rapier with a sharp motion, and slashed down vertically;

The next instant, a fierce whirlwind of wind swept across the nearest water curtain. Like a stone dropped into water, it sent up a spray—but left the curtain unharmed.

In only a moment, the rippling water curtains already showed the reflections of several Sharkmen, and faint roars could be heard from within.

Water-curtain pearls!

They say that deep in the sea lives a strange kind of jade clam. Slow-moving, it learned the magic of “moving through water curtains”;

In certain places, they can create water-curtain portals that allow long-distance travel;

It’s similar to the mages’ “teleportation” on land, only with more limitations.

But the strangest thing is that they can produce magic pearls inside their bodies, copying this innate spell into them.

They’re completely natural, single-use magical tools, and are considered incredibly precious treasures both at sea and on land;

And now, the Sharkmen were throwing them down by the handful. This was clearly an ambush they’d planned well in advance.

Anliexi had it right. The Sea Folk’s surprise attack was part of a plot devised by the Knight Commander.

Although the mages were the Imperial army’s greatest asset, the Knight Commander had prepared all kinds of battle strategies before the war to make sure he won.

Given the situation, unleashing the hidden forces of the Sea Folk was the last strategy the Knight Commander himself could use.

He’d deliberately sacrificed some soldiers earlier, exposing an obvious weakness in the Imperial fleet. His goal was to lure the Kingdom’s army into committing all its forces, so the Sharkmen could catch them off guard later.

By now, Anliexi had given up on gathering his squad together;

The water-curtain pearls had landed far apart, and the portals they formed had scattered the Kingdom’s soldiers;

What’s more, danger seemed to come from everywhere in his awareness, closing in from all sides without leaving even the tiniest gap.

In a situation like this, whether they could escape really came down to each person’s luck!

At the same time, the water curtains rippled open into wide “doors,” and powerful Sharkmen charged through them;

Over two meters tall, with burly bodies, they advanced in tight formation, moving as if they were a single entity;

Their bloodthirsty gazes were fixed, almost without exception, on the Kingdom’s soldiers.

This was a savage army of professional killers!

As soon as they appeared, the Sharkmen split into squads and surrounded the nearest Kingdom soldiers.

Fortunately, those soldiers were all veterans of countless battles;

The moment they realized something was wrong, they grabbed their weapons and broke through the encirclement, scattering to fight on their own;

As for Anliexi, he glared and charged straight toward the first Sharkman to appear.

After only a few strides, Anliexi was already in front of his target.

He saw one of his subordinates lying on the ground, eyes still open and clouded with death, as if pleading with him.

Though he was used to seeing death, Anliexi still felt anger rise within him;

When he looked at the Sharkman ahead, his eyes blazed with murderous intent.

That subordinate’s precise shots had supported the squad when they needed it most;

He’d stood watch at night, making sure the squad spotted the enemy first;

And when they hunted down the vampire fish, he’d saved Anliexi’s life with an arrow.

On the battlefield, people died all the time;

Anyone who survived did so through their own strength, but they also depended on their comrades;

Every time they lured the enemy, charged, or surrounded them, they were effectively placing their lives in their comrades’ hands.

They trusted Anliexi. That made him proud, but it was also a burden.

He wanted to bring everyone home safely. He wanted them all to survive. But that was impossible;

War always claimed lives, especially in a brutal battle like this.

And even so, the truth remained:

His close comrade was dead!

Anliexi knew no one would blame him, but he still felt he owed the dead an answer.

The journey along the River Styx was always lonely. Someone had to keep the dead company!

Anliexi’s muscles tightened, then suddenly swelled;

The great tendons in his body snapped back like bowstrings, launching him more than five meters into the air;

He pushed off lightly from the deck and sprang several meters higher, drifting as easily as a leaf.

After pushing off the air several times in succession, he was already above the Sharkman’s head.

Anliexi stomped hard in midair, then drove himself diagonally downward with tremendous force;

He raised his rapier in his right hand and brought it down, sending a huge crescent-shaped blade of compressed air hurtling out nearly ten meters.

Only when he got closer did he realize that the first Sharkman to appear was far taller and stronger than the others;

Over three meters tall, it was like a giant. Its black-and-white skin was covered in a strange layer of keratin, traced with clear, flowing patterns like water;

A scar ran across its right brow, but didn’t reach its eye. Even so, it gave the Sharkman an unmatched air of ferocity.

Since appearing, it had done nothing but ambush soldiers and scatter water-curtain pearls before standing high above them, looking down;

It was like a proud king surveying his own territory;

And as Anliexi attacked, one corner of its mouth curled slightly.

On an ordinary person, that would’ve been a mocking smile, as if sneering at someone who didn’t know their own limits.

The Sharkman held its trident in one hand and swung the butt across with brute force, using the weapon like a club without a second thought;

The trident stirred up a howling wind, its pressure nearly enough to leave Anliexi breathless;

Then the Sharkman crashed into him with the force of a mountain bearing down.

Boom!

After a thunderclap of a collision, the blade of compressed air was smashed apart;

Anliexi felt an immense force surge from his opponent, sending him flying uncontrollably away;

As he spun through the air, his body left several afterimages, and he slashed forward again;

A thin blade of compressed air spread from the tip of his sword. It was barely perceptible, yet incomparably sharp.

The attack was sudden, swift, and bizarre. By the time the Sharkman sensed the danger, it was already too late;

The instant the smile froze on the target’s face, Anliexi let out a fierce shout, held his rapier horizontally, and thrust it forward!

The movement seemed slow. To anyone watching, every motion was perfectly clear;

Yet as those clear movements unfolded, the air spread across the sea in ring after ring of ripples, as if it had been struck and hurled into the ocean;

Resistance pressed outward in waves, and Anliexi felt himself slowing down considerably;

But he still didn’t give up. He raised his rapier and brought it down for a third slash!

Rumble!

With a second thunderous crash, white air whipped up dust like a hurricane, blocking their vision;

Anliexi’s body was flung high into the air, like a tree caught in a tornado, and hurled backward.

More than ten meters away, he slammed into a ship’s mast. Only after the impact had drained away did he finally come to a stop.

At that moment, Anliexi looked far worse than before.

His armor was shattered, blood ran from the corner of his mouth, his body hunched over, and all color had drained from his face;

His right hand, the one gripping the rapier, shook like a sieve. Wave after wave of pain made him grit his teeth.

A short while later, the dust began to settle, and the Sharkman’s figure slowly emerged.