Free Web NovelChapter 107: The Trench-Lord
Concussive shockwaves ripped the air right as the ocean swallowed them whole.
Saltwater burned his eyes immediately.
Kane kept Seraphine’s head tucked securely beneath his broad chin, using his own muscular torso as a physical shield against the underwater shrapnel.
Sinking pine and burning debris twisted through the chaotic white foam directly above their heads.
’A paladin wearing thirty pounds of wet silver plate can hold her breath for maybe forty seconds before her lungs turn into useless sponges,’ Kane analysed instantly, kicking his legs to fight the downward suction.
’I have to cheat the surface tension.’
[Skill Combined: Minor Vigour + Conqueror’s Surge]
[Immediate Effect: Hydro-dynamic resistance negated by 25%]
Driving his boots against the sinking hull of the ruined Menual vessel, Kane launched upward with bone-snapping power.
Swoosh.
They breached the surface amidst a blinding shower of grey sea spray.
"Catch the hemp!" Kane roared over the crashing swells.
Hauling Seraphine upward by her wet breastplate, he threw her right over the trailing scramble-netting of Commander Kaelia’s passing black galleon before dragging his own soaked frame up behind her.
Collapsing onto the black cedar deckboards, Seraphine coughed up a harsh lungful of pink seawater.
She didn’t roll away to find her footing.
Her pale fingers stayed hooked desperately into his ruined, open shirt, anchoring her shivering frame directly to his living warmth.
"You took your sweet time jumping," she wheezed against his bare collarbone, her silver eyes dilated and wild.
"Wanted to make sure the fire caught," Kane rumbled back, his palm sliding down her wet spine to press her flush against his chest.
Even soaked in freezing brine, the aggressive heat between them refused to die.
"You owe me a new dress."
"Take standard imperial pay out of my royal treasury," she whispered, her lips brushing his wet skin as she fought to regulate her breathing.
Rapid footsteps slapped across the slick cedar.
Brak skidded to a halt near the mainmast, his beard smeared with grease and fresh soot. No victory salutes were offered.
"Chief," Brak grunted, his voice raw.
"Two of our secondary cutters got caught in the bottleneck spray before their Abyssal varnish fully hardened. They went down fast. We lost eight Bloodfang boys and twenty Milfheim rowers."
Kane didn’t scream at the grey clouds.
Releasing Seraphine’s waist, he sat back on a salt-crusted crate and stared down at his calloused palms.
’Eight of my own,’ he processed, a grounded bitterness settling deep behind his ribs. ƒrēewebnovel.com
’Men who survived the northern fighting pits just to drown in salt because I misjudged Morvak’s scale.’
’Fuck.’
The Iron Duke is going to pay for those eighteen with every single drop of fluid in his body.
Thora stepped into his periphery, dropping an unshakeable hand dead onto his bare shoulder.
Her grip tightened, offering silent solidarity.
"We pour their ale into the gravel tonight, Kane," Thora rumbled steadily, meeting his cold stare.
"Right now, Queen Sylva has forty-eight hours left to breathe. Morvak’s ironclads don’t pause for funerals."
"She’s right," Kaelia noted, unrolling a regional parchment sea chart across a dry barrel.
The red-haired commander pointed a gloved finger toward the open ocean.
"The deep-water pivot is three hundred miles Northwest. Even catching the fastest trade gales, these galleons will take seventy-two hours to make the crossing. The Elven capital will be rubble by Hour forty-eight."
"Then we stop relying on the wind," Kane growled, rising to his feet.
Unbuckling the leather harness across his chest, he drew Mjoldr free.
The cold crimson axe was forged in the primordial ocean trenches.
A beast heart can do wonders in a place filled with creatures.
[Armament Lore Unlocked: Mjoldr’s Birthright]
[Resonance Target: Primordial Trench-Stalker]
[Requirement: 500 HP (Blood Lure) + Absolute Dominance Aura]
Stepping past the red-haired commander, Kane walked out to the very tip of the blackened prow.
The ocean spray lashed against his thighs.
Drawing his secondary dagger, he pressed the razor edge straight across his own left forearm.
"Kane, what are you doing?" Seraphine breathed, pushing herself up from the floorboards.
"Paying the toll," Kane answered.
Slicing the flesh open, he let a continuous, hot stream of his conqueror’s blood spill over the wood, dropping straight down into the churning grey surf below.
Blood sinking into the grey swells acted like an ancient summons.
Beneath the blackened prow, the ocean abruptly stopped rocking.
Saltwater bulged upward into a smooth dome before a colossal, eyeless Abyssal Sea-Serpent breached the surface.
Its battle-scarred head was wider than a grand manor house.
Rows of translucent teeth steamed in the stinging coastal air, dripping brine as the beast reared back to snap the wooden command ship into splinters.
’Ugly bastard, aren’t you?’ Kane thought, feeling the fierce spray lash against his bare chest.
’Time to see if the old legends actually hold.’
Ignoring the frantic shouts of the Milfheim rowers behind him, Kane refused to take a single step backwards.
[Skill Activated: Berserker Rage LvMax]
[Aura Output: Uncompromising Dominance]
Flaring his crimson aura to its maximum limit, Kane strode out onto the slippery wooden bowsprit.
He swung Mjoldr in a precise arc, slamming the flat of the ancient blade directly against the monster’s wet snout.
CRACK.
"You belong to the Western Reaches today," Kane rumbled low. His raw, commanding register vibrated straight through the leviathan’s plated skull, leaving zero room for negotiation.
"Take the primary towing hauser in your jaws. Run."
Grey water churned as the leviathan froze.
For a tense second, the eyeless predator weighed the blood-soaked gladiator standing on its nose.
Then, the monster let out a sub-audible, clicking shriek of complete submission.
Snapping its enormous jaws shut over the linked iron towing chains, the beast dove straight forward into the freezing surf.
[Tether Established: Abyssal Slipstream active]
[Fleet velocity increased by 320%]
[Time to target: 22 Hours.]
"Grab something!" Seraphine yelled to the crew, catching Kane’s waist just as the forty-ship armada lurched forward at a terrifying speed.
’Look at that,’ Kane smirked internally, wrapping his arm around her waist to stabilise them inside the dizzying ocean slipstream.
’We might actually make it to dinner.’
