CHAPTER 285: CHAPTER 283: ON THE VERGE OF ERUPTION!

"Look! The tide is going out, so many fish!"

Someone in the crowd along the beach suddenly shouted, instantly interrupting the young man’s thoughts.

He looked up to see the tide rapidly retreating, the beach instantly becoming vast, with countless sea fish, starfish, seashells, crabs... all left behind by the receding sea, lively and jumping, scattered everywhere.

Whoosh—

"Charge! Quick, grab them!"

The tourists who were playing by the sea rolled up their sleeves and rushed to the beach eagerly.

Even many gentlemen in obviously high-end formal wear joined them. The fish might not be worth much money, but just like fishing, they enjoyed the process of catching and the joy of harvest.

"Quickly! Cork, there’s another one, right behind you."

"Mary, look what I caught? A big lobster, it’s amazing! We’ll make cheese-baked lobster for lunch."

"..."

The beach instantly turned into a celebration of the sea, everyone indulging in the ’feast’ generously bestowed by the ocean.

They didn’t notice that the seabirds originally hovering in the nearby sky suddenly flew into a panic and then flapped their wings and flew inland.

The domesticated animals in the city also made frantic cries and broke free to run out.

"Today’s low tide seems to be much earlier, doesn’t it?"

A middle-aged City Guard captain on duty by the shore pulled out a brass pocket watch from his pocket and looked at the time with confusion.

Today’s low tide was at least an hour earlier than yesterday, and it was unprecedentedly extensive; even the rocky base of the lighthouse was completely exposed.

"Strange!"

Having lived in Nisk for so long, the captain had never seen such a situation before.

Suddenly.

A legend he had heard from a retired old sailor popped into his mind, and all the strange signs before him fit perfectly with that legend....

While straining his eyes to hope he was wrong, he couldn’t help but speak in a voice almost breaking, "Don’t go! Come back quickly! A tsunami is coming!"

However, his warning came too late, a white line on the horizon appeared like thousands of galloping white horses, approaching with a whistle in the blink of an eye.

Except for a small number of experienced sailors by the shore who had begun to retreat early, most tourists were immersed in the joy of harvest and had already ventured deep into the exposed beach, unaware that the catastrophic disaster was already upon them.

Rumble—

Until the overwhelming roaring sound echoed in their ears, those picking up seafood with their heads down suddenly realized that the massive shadow cast by the water wall blocking out the sun had completely shrouded them.

Without giving them any time to react, the water wall crashed down heavily.

"No—!!!"

Rich and poor, parents and children, brothers and sisters... along with everyone’s dreams and futures, were shattered in an instant!

Moreover, besides its speed, another characteristic of a tsunami is that its energy does not diminish at all during transmission.

What might have been just a few meters high in the open sea can become tens of meters high as it reaches the shallow coastal area due to the shortening of its wavelength, forming a ’water wall’ containing tremendous energy.

At this time, even though a ’tsunami’ created by hundreds of Sea Monsters together couldn’t match the natural world’s true natural disaster, when they reached the shore, they rose from the initial 1 meter to a terrifying 30 meters!

Accompanied by a thunderous roar.

The 30-meter high wave crashing upon the shore swallowed everything on the beach with an overwhelming force, including the nearby commercial port.

Splash—

Then, without pausing, it crossed the coastline, entering Water City Nisk, swiftly attacking the entire city. Bridges collapsed, houses were destroyed, and residents only had time to let out screams before they completely disappeared into the giant wave.

Keep in mind, as a city almost half built on water, none of the city’s tallest buildings even reached thirty meters!

However, there was one exception.

The only place near the coast that could survive the tsunami was the Sanctuary "Saint Mark’s Church," blessed by the "Queen and Goddess of Navigation." The priests within and the civilians who happened to take shelter there were spared in this moment of disaster.

Among them were the former First Mate Fisher of the "Fish Spear," who had nowhere else to turn and had been staying for free there for a long time, along with the infamous gambler Pipps.

"God! Is this Divine Punishment?"

The young First Mate, now looking much more weathered, gazed at the giant wave whistling by and felt as though something else was filling the emptiness left by the destruction of everything by the Great White Whale.

While others bowed down before the Goddess’s Holy Statue in gratitude for divine mercy, he murmured to himself, "If humans possessed such power, wouldn’t they be free from pain?"

Meanwhile.

In the face of such an overwhelming natural disaster, the military port built on the cape hill certainly couldn’t be spared. The two cruisers docked in the port collided head-on with the surging wall of water. Then, all the facilities and buildings in the port were completely swept away by the raging waves.

If today happened to be the "Storm Horn’s" turn for shore leave or if it had arrived half a day earlier, it would never have escaped such a disastrous fate!

Although the port was destroyed, the fortress built on the hillside stubbornly persisted through the tsunami.

The more than one thousand garrison troops stationed in it should be grateful that the craftsmen did not cut corners when building the fortress.

The stone fortress, with a total height exceeding thirty-six meters, withstood the baptism of the tsunami. Especially the first layer, with a solid fort slope structure reaching up to twenty meters high, greatly mitigated the impact of the tsunami.

Clang! Clang! Clang!....

Amidst the continuous alarm bells, the figure of Major General Koverdale, not particularly tall, stood like a reef that had withstood the winds and rains by the seaside for thousands of years.

He stood at the top of the fortress, his cloak flapping fiercely in the cold wind that accompanied the tsunami.

The successive three waves of giant waves had already ended, and the seawater was slowly receding from the sides of the fortress, but the heart of the major general now, having braved the storms and as tough as steel, couldn’t help but tremble.

The keen sight of the Great Knight allowed him to take in the full devastation of "Nisk" after the tsunami; the low-lying terrain and crisscrossing waterways provided an excellent condition for the power of the tsunami to unleash.

After the three giant wave assaults, sixty percent of the entire Water City had turned into an underwater city.

The casualties within were countless.

Bodies lay in heaps, an unspeakable tragedy...

But the disaster at the mouth of the "Leiden River" was only just beginning.

Roar——

Hiss——

The deafening roar of the Giant Beasts threw the survivors who barely made it through back into despair. Those were the five large species left intentionally by Hawkins to seize the river mouth and ensure the escape route!

In fact, when the first wave of the tsunami hit, the mouth of the "Leiden River" between the north and south cape was the center of the disaster.

Major General Koverdale personally watched as over a hundred giant Sea Monsters, riding the surging waves, flowed inland from here, moving upstream along the broad Leiden River.

Even the pirate king’s distinctly featured ship, following the Sea Monsters and taking advantage of the rapidly rising river water levels, boldly made its way into the inland river!

But as Aiven predicted, even if the major general was a Tier 3 Great Knight, and even if the fortress housed more than a thousand standing troops, what could be done to stop a tsunami?

Major General Koverdale finally understood, much like Aiven, why the Pirate King was not even a little concerned about exposing their plan in advance.

Because he held absolute "momentum"!

In such circumstances, without a Tier 4, everything under the tsunami is as flimsy as clay.

He could only send out a warning as quickly as possible, notifying the cities along the line behind of Hawkins’s attack.

Especially "Golden Lion City" and "Brandenburg," he not only sent warnings but also relayed critical information via Seagulls.

Flap, flap——

Watching the Communication Seagulls rise into the sky.

He could only hope the winding waterways of the "Leiden River" would gradually dissipate the tsunami’s surging momentum, and once the waters receded, leave these Sea Monsters, seemingly launching a "suicidal" charge, trapped in the shallow riverbed.

Indeed, they are the "masters" of the sea, but the land has never been their hunting ground! This type of attack would necessarily make the Sea Monster army pay a painful price too!

However, whether things would unfold as he hoped, the major general did not know.

He only knew that for the sake of those who perished in the great tsunami, he too had to hold the fortress, completely block the river mouth, leaving the returning Sea Monsters and the mad Pirate King with no way back!

"Transmit to the ’Storm Horn’ and ’Royal Guardian’ for immediate return assistance!"

According to the navigation plan, unless there were unexpected events, at this moment the "Storm Horn" should be closing in on the port, and the "Royal Guardian" had just departed following another route, and both should not be too far from the military port.

As for other warships, even if they returned, they would be of no use.

He did not notice.

Flap, flap——

Before the garrison released the Seagulls, two shadows had already shot into the sky from the high ground near the river mouth, darting upstream of the ravine.

Evidently, the tsunami invasion brought not only warning signs but also signals of unknown forces in action...

However, even if Major General Koverdale had noticed, he had no energy to meddle further, for the battle belonging to the "fortress" was about to begin!

Pat... pat...

Hiss! Hiss!...