paranoianovel Chapter 364 - 306: The Crawling Iron Coffin Princess
Chapter 364 - 306: The Crawling Iron Coffin Princess
Chapter 364: Chapter 306: The Crawling Iron Coffin Princess
The Black Coffin, possessing its own ship spirit and classifiable as a large Undead Creature, immediately retaliated against the octopus Warship.
OOOOH...
A bone-chilling, ghostly wind descended upon the battlefield, making the nearby Man-Eating Pomfrets somewhat uncomfortable and causing them to instinctively put some distance between themselves and the commotion.
That twisted human face immediately flew out from the ghastly green Whale Oil Lanterns. At the same time, from each plank of the ship, every rope, and every wine barrel, countless screaming Dead Souls swarmed out, burrowing into the body of the ship spirit.
It inflated like a balloon, and within a few breaths, transformed into a fifteen-meter-long female ghoul crawling on the ground. She wore tattered, blood-stained white robes and a Crown of Thorns upon her head.
This was the Guardian Spirit cultivated by the "Coffin Bearer"—the Crawling Iron Coffin Princess!
Her joints seemed as though they had been thoroughly broken and smashed by someone in her previous life, as she crawled across the deck in an extremely twisted manner.
Like a Centipede, her numerous slender limbs could easily penetrate both the Black Coffin and the octopus’s tentacles, which were as hard as steel.
SSSST! SSSSHT!...
An ear-piercing sound, like fingernails scraping on glass, was incessant.
Even her sharp claws occasionally scooped chunks of flesh from the octopus Warship.
It was fortunate that it was octopus blood. If human blood had spilled into the sea, the Man-Eating Pomfrets would likely have erupted into a frenzy, jumping into the octagonal cage of a battlefield to join the chaos.
Meanwhile, a horde of white skeletal sailors from the Ghost Ship surged like a tide towards the Golden Deer.
Some built planks between the two ships, some used grappling hooks, and others simply swung over from the masts, clutching a rope.
"Wings of Death, Deck Cleaners, fire!"
The 140 elite Marines of the Wings of Death, having already donned their Azkek’s Cursed Coins, were lined up neatly on the deck.
Seeing the skeletal sailors boarding, they immediately followed Honest Eight Fingers’ command, raised their Deck Cleaners, and opened fire with a thunderous roar.
BANG! BANG! BANG!...
The dense barrage of hot pellets transformed into a relentless metallic storm, like a sparking iron hammer, instantly halting the tide of skeletons.
Especially those in the front row; their dry bones were torn apart by the metallic storm. Shattered bone fragments flew wildly through the air, many plunging straight into the Sea of Origin Matter, where a single wave made them utterly vanish without a trace.
This was the only shot the Wings of Death had the opportunity to fire before they were embroiled in close combat with the skeletal sailors the next moment.
"Kill—!"
Bayonets were useless against skeletons, so they immediately switched to the exquisite Fischer Slash Swords produced by the Torrent Fortress Armory. Their gleaming blades formed a dam, staunchly blocking the skeleton flood.
But while these Undead could hold back the skeletons, they couldn’t stop the Tier 4 Hero.
BOOM!
Gladiator Smith took a running leap from the Ghost Ship and then jumped fiercely, crashing towards Byron on the aft deck like a cannonball.
Under the control of the Storm Elves, all Carronades within firing angle on the ship opened fire as he soared through the air.
However, the shots were blocked by a brightly glowing Miracle shield in the Gladiator’s hand, which seemed to absorb even the kinetic energy of the projectiles, causing them to drop lifelessly to the ground.
Byron’s Guardsmen attempted to advance and counter him but were knocked away on the spot, their bones CRACKLED and mostly broke apart.
If not for Byron’s quick reflexes in summoning a fierce wind to roll his subordinates back, they would have all fallen into the sea.
Even with the protection of the Cursed Coins, death would have been certain.
"Tanya and I will take the lead; everyone else, support," Byron instructed.
Byron, Violet, Jacqueline, Beret Tanya, and "Hawkeye" James—the five Third Order Transcendents—rushed Gladiator Smith together.
According to fighting styles and weapons used, gladiators were usually divided into three types: Murmillo Fighters, Thraex Fighters, and Retiarii.
Smith was clearly a Murmillo Fighter, holding a square shield in his left hand and a heavy decapitating blade in his right.
He was enveloped in rolling blood flames that transformed into visible waves of air, with countless shadows of Beasts, Sea Monsters, and Transcendents trailing behind him.
With every opponent a Gladiator defeated, he forcibly seized the "Emotional Body" from the second layer of their soul, growing stronger and more ferocious.
The more victories he accumulated, the stronger he became.
Byron downed a cup of Blood Brew mixed with Third Order Blood of Transformation, significantly enhancing his Power. Alongside Beret Tanya, the Storm Knight, he attacked from both flanks.
The latter, wielding a Bastard Sword in both hands in a Roof-raising Style, wrapped in storm and rain and using "Water’s Breath," delivered a powerful, downward Old Man’s Slash.
Byron, with his sword tip pointing backward and the blade close to his right leg in a True Iron Gate Starting Style, swung an upward strike as quick as Lightning, unleashing a wheel chop.
One slash from above, the other from below, both cutting through the air like two brilliant fans, faintly blue with Divine Light, resembling the spread tail feathers of a peacock.
Their swords aimed straight for their opponent’s head.
This was the Secret Sword Technique reserved only for Storm Knights—Peacock Feather!
The Storm Sword Technique, which prioritized speed above all else, was fast, but the reflexes of the Tier 4 Hero, Gladiator Smith, were equally quick.
His Beast Intuition, already pushed to its limits, allowed his body to react preemptively the moment the two Storm Knights even conceived the notion to act.
Strike first; raise the shield above the head.
CLANG! Amidst the sparks, he brutally withstood the Old Man’s Slash.
The beheading blade lifted, its strong section near the guard forcefully blocking Byron’s wheel chop.
Byron’s skin turned red, his hands clasping the Bastard Sword tightly as he pressed down. Leveraging the blade like a fulcrum during the moment Smith reflexively pushed back, Byron executed a move.
"Stealth Crossing!" White Frost transformed into a fish, gliding agilely past the opponent’s beheading blade, and suddenly... Thrust!
Thankfully, Smith’s neck, capable of rotating 180 degrees, was flexible enough to twist aside abruptly, as if collapsing, at the last possible moment.
Still, the sword wind carried by White Frost slashed open half of his face, the flesh peeled back, hideously gruesome.
"Damn vermin!"
Perhaps not expecting Byron’s swordsmanship to be this advanced, Smith flew into an instant rage.
The crimson aura on his body exploded like a Bomb, blasting both Byron and Beret Tanya away.
Behind him, Violet, wielding the twin guns "Black and White Keys," seamlessly connected her "Mourning Sonata" with Jacqueline’s "Shadow Serpent Breath · Volley of Thousands."
The crimson aura also wrapped up the Beast phantoms, quickly re-coiling and layering over Smith.
After a hundred layers, it formed magical armor adorned with Beast heads and claws: the Armor of a Hundred Beasts.
He managed to forcefully block the two girls’ attacks.
At that moment, Hawkeye James, who had concealed his presence and remained unnoticed by the Gladiator, quietly slipped behind him.
This time, James didn’t use his Sleeve Sword, nor his Battle Axe. Instead, embodying the assassin’s maxim, "Nothing is permanently true, and no technique should be shackled," he fully exercised his subjective initiative.
He used the power of Fantasia Armory to manifest a Miracle-level item... a harpoon gun!
Driven by gunpowder and typically mounted only on whaling ships, it was known as the "Whale Killer."
The original Miracle was named the Whirlwind Jet Armstrong Gyro Cannon, truly an unparalleled breaching weapon!
He aimed at the Gladiator’s rear and pulled the trigger at close range.
BOOM!
Amid a massive burst of flame, a conical gunhead carrying a spiral airflow spun rapidly, cutting through the Storm to slam hard against the armor on Smith’s backside.
The Gladiator was instantly launched into the air.
Smith didn’t forget to swing back with his sword, nearly disemboweling James and slicing him in two.
But the Gladiator was still unharmed.
Although many of the Beast heads on his armor were shattered and dozens of layers were pierced, his stockpile supplies from the Ghost Ship, the Black Coffin, immediately replenished him.
It was unclear whether all those Dead Souls truly were his hunting trophies, or merely "passengers" on the Ghost Ship who had thoughtlessly used themselves as fare.
The Crawling Iron Coffin Princess, engaged in combat with the octopus tentacles, was the same; no matter her losses, Dead Soul after Dead Soul continued to replenish her Guardian Spirit form.
Without an overwhelmingly powerful attack capable of delivering a killing blow, they could be worn down to death through attrition.
Seeing that their collaborative strikes hadn’t breached the enemy’s defenses, Byron’s expression turned stern.
We must deal with the Dead Souls’ reservoir, the Black Coffin, and the Crawling Iron Coffin Princess. Otherwise, this battle will never end.
Yet their most powerful weapon, the Sure-Hit Spear, Gungnir, only had the strength for a single strike, and there were three formidable enemies: Smith, the Black Coffin (and its Guardian Spirit), and the May Wind.
Using it on any one of them would merely benefit the others.
Just as Byron was indecisive, he leveraged his Weather Intuition and suddenly saw a streak of white Lightning from the Material World flash through a fine World Rift nearby.
His eyes suddenly brightened.
He seemed to hear a woman’s voice saying, "The glory of heavenly might, directed by the sword."
He immediately shouted to Violet, "I have a plan, Violet! Give me a coil of copper wire! The longer, the better!"