The wizard in charge of temporary command didn’t tell everyone the reason why all the mermaids suddenly mutated and died, but no one was curious right now—everyone just wanted to deal with this giant monster first.

Immediately, the flying wizards around began attacking the massive mermaid aberrant according to previous drills.

Only Saul and Stuart frowned, not acting rashly.

Saul even instinctively stepped back several meters.

“Puff! Puff!”

“Hiss—”

Various magical effects bloomed on the mermaid aberrant, making sounds of arrows piercing flesh.

But strangely, the various magical effects that should have manifested didn’t appear. It really was just like purely physical attacks.

“Mermaid flesh is extremely numbed to pollution, and likewise, their reaction to magical power is the same.” Saul understood the principle in an instant.

Stuart beside him nodded, “Before, mermaids still had life. Now they don’t.”

Completely mutated creatures were like having started an irreversible chemical reaction—even death couldn’t interrupt this reaction process.

And the mutation reaction process mostly didn’t require conscious control from the living being.

Just like the black tide monsters Saul had helped fight in recent days. Those monsters’ behavior of charging toward land was just instinctive reactions of their bodies being carried by the black tide, with cells throughout their bodies having only the consciousness to fight and destroy.

More and more flesh and blood emerged from the sea surface, as if a giant stood between heaven and earth. But this giant had no eyes, only a bloated, roughly humanoid outline.

The wizards’ battle continued, but because Saul and Stuart hadn’t yet acted, the other wizards’ attacks seemed to have no effect other than adding several hundred holes to the mermaid monstrosity.

Some wizards with more powerful magical elemental attributes didn’t even create wounds as large as those from more physically-oriented attacks.

But regardless of wound size, the mermaid aberrant seemed completely unaffected, its volume continuing to grow rapidly.

Someone couldn’t help but leave the battlefield and come to Saul and the Black Flame Emperor, “My lord, this mutant has low energy, but ordinary magical attacks cannot eliminate it.”

The other’s meaning was clear—they had come for assistance.

Saul didn’t speak. With Royer absent and Frim maintaining the defense formations of the entire southeastern coast, the highest command authority naturally fell to Stuart as the “fourth-rank wizard.”

Stuart wasn’t in a hurry to make a decision, nor did his face show any expression changes that could be read.

“The mutated mermaid flesh is nearly immune to magical attacks that lack sufficient energy. To break its shell, we need to breakthrough the critical point in one strike.” ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novelFirｅ.net

Saul noticed that Stuart seemed to glance at his palm.

“You all retreat to shore.” he said quietly.

The wizard seeking aid showed joy in his eyes. Although not unexpected, the Black Flame Emperor’s willingness to act so readily was still exciting.

Saul also followed everyone in retreating from the sea surface, returning to the original cliff, quietly watching the Red Sea with only one person remaining.

Unlike others’ anticipation of watching a fourth-rank wizard act, Saul frowned slightly, thinking: “Stuart isn’t a fourth-rank wizard, but since he proposed acting at this time, he must have the ability to deploy fourth-rank wizard methods. This should be a trump card the Black Flame Emperor left for Stuart before having him disguise himself. But if he has a trump card bestowed by a fourth-rank wizard, how could Stuart die?” ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ novel※fire.net

Saul felt he seemed to be missing something.

The mermaid aberrant monster kept rising, already approaching Stuart’s height.

Flesh and blood sludge from the seawater continued adhering to its body.

Although its body was riddled with holes, its exterior kept thickening, and organs resembling a head gradually formed at the top of the flesh.

This mermaid aberration was still gradually taking shape!

No one knew what abilities it would possess once fully formed.

The best approach was to interrupt it before everything happened.

Vast and mighty magical power suddenly rose from the sea surface, accompanied by scorching hot wind.

The formation restraining the air seemed to lose its original effect at this moment. Saul’s wizard robe flapped loudly in the wind.

Under the blazing wind’s blast, Saul’s skin gradually changed from normal color to gray. This was his body spontaneously resisting radiation from the powerful magic at sea!

“Definitely fourth-rank magic.” Although Saul was blown until his skin ached and his eyes turned red, he still forced himself not to turn away, squinting and seizing this rare opportunity to observe the magical power changes of fourth-rank magic.

“Emperor Elo should specialize in fire attributes, but on the sea, fire elements would be suppressed by dense water elements. So he’s changing form to create physically damaging wind?”

Fourth-rank wizards naturally weren’t confined to elements they specialized in during lower ranks—they could control different magical powers according to environmental needs at any time.

Several figures were rapidly approaching from the distance.

Those should be third-rank wizards responsible for other areas.

They must have heard about the mermaid aberrant and rushed over after the black tide retreated.

If their support wasn’t needed, they came to watch the excitement.

So these newly arrived wizards happened to see Stuart slash downward with one palm, and the violent wind that had been expanding in all directions instantly retreated as if time had reversed.

The oncoming wind instantly changed direction. Many wizards who couldn’t react in time fell to the ground.

Saul also had to step forward to support his body.

He still stared intently at Stuart’s hand.

It seemed like a layer of deep blue flame wrapped around his hand, yet also seemed like nothing was there—just heat distorting the air.

The violent wind drawn back followed the direction of his palm’s slash, transforming into an unstoppable charging giant blade that struck toward the monster composed of flesh and blood sludge on the sea surface.

In the blink of an eye, the wind blade fiercely pierced into that massive flesh, tearing it open with sounds of cutting frozen meat, mixed with hissing sounds like air leaking.

Stuart’s vertical palm slash actually split the hundred-meter-tall giant monster from head to sea surface in one strike.

Under the fourth-rank wizard’s powerful magic, the mermaid aberrant seemed to have no resistance whatsoever and was about to be cleaved in half.

However, the air-leaking sounds kept echoing in Saul’s ears.

“Air leaking? There’s gas inside the mermaid aberrant? Is it gas produced from the mutation?”

Saul muttered to himself. He had never seen any mutation that produced gas.

But…

Saul’s eyes suddenly widened. He remembered something and loudly warned Stuart, who was preparing to expand his victory, “Be careful! Inside the mermaid there’s…”

His words couldn’t finish.

The split mermaid aberrant suddenly exploded like a punctured balloon with a “bang!”

The explosion carried the mermaid aberrant’s flesh and blood sludge, breaking them into tiny fragments that were sent skyward, then fell in all directions like a bloody storm!

Even the wizards separated by the coastal defense formation could feel that tremendous impact.

The originally glowing coastal defense formation suddenly flickered, its light suddenly dimming considerably!

Within that exploded flesh and blood sludge was the massive black tide pollution that had been devoured by the mermaids!

That was the pollution devoured by the long-oppressed mermaid race, and also the only resistance that the foolish, suffering, yet weak modified mermaids could make!

“Stuart…”

After the “flesh and blood rain” finished falling, Saul looked toward the sea, but where was Stuart’s shadow?

(End of Chapter)

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