Chapter 97: Provocation
On the other hand, not far away from the marching army of the Black Vale Territory knights...
A creature slithered slowly, forth from the broken ridge like something dredged from a forgotten abyss, it’s following them.
It towered over most of the already grotesque spawns that surrounded the Black Vale army’s path, but unlike them, it didn’t snarl or groan.
It walked with a slow grace, as if it were underwater. Its skin shimmered, deep navy-blue, coated in salt and brine, glinting under the overcast sun.
Frilled fins curled from its shoulders and back, moving like the delicate folds of deep-sea coral. Its arms were long and muscled, tipped with talons too refined to be savage.
Razor-sharp, yet elegant.
Along its ribs, gills pulsed open and closed, breathing in something unnatural from the surrounding air.
Its face was long and angular, shaped like an eel’s snout but far more intelligent.
Its eyes—two abyssal pearls—gleamed with cold amusement as they glanced toward the withered, cloaked man hunched beside it, leaning on a crooked cane made of stitched bone and blackened iron.
The man coughed, long and wheezy. .
He wore rags and smelled of blood and burned sage, his teeth yellow and missing in places.