Red Dragon Monster Hunter Template.

So when the giant ship reappeared, the Shahua fishmen swarmed in from all sides like sharks smelling blood.

As is well known, fish have the highest reproductive capacity among chordates.

Sunfish can lay hundreds of millions of eggs at a time, while sturgeon can lay millions. Even ordinary fish lay an average of more than ten thousand eggs at a time.

The Shahua fish-people, as a type of fish-people, have inherited this fine tradition well. Although they cannot be compared with real fish, they are far superior to ordinary creatures.

They are like goblins in the water, and the only thing limiting their numbers is food and themselves.

Each time a Shahua fishman dies, there is one more food source and one less competitor, allowing the young fish to grow better.

Therefore, the Shahua fishmen rarely fear death, are extremely ferocious, and dare to attack all creatures within their territory.

As countless blue-green fish heads emerged from the water, riding on the speeding shark, they were about to use their old tricks to climb the huge iron boat with grappling hooks when they discovered a group of heads just as ugly as their own emerging from the edge of the boat.

The goblin, infected by the curse of the mad dragon, let out an excited shout, a maniacal smile on his lips, and threw the bomb he was carrying.

Inside the thin sheet of iron is a mixture of sulfur, flint, and nitrifying mushrooms; even the slightest impact can trigger a violent explosion.

This is why they often die at their own hands, and even now, large areas of charred remains can be seen on the deck of this giant ship.

The heavy iron ball plunged into the water with a muffled thud, and the friction of the saltpeter ignited the gunpowder, sending out bursts of orange-red flames.

An explosion underwater is far more powerful than one in air.

Because air can be compressed, most of its energy is absorbed by the deformation of the air, while water is almost incompressible, and all of its energy is transmitted to the surroundings in the form of shock waves.

Then you can see clusters of orange-red flames blooming underwater, accompanied by a muffled sound, sending up water splashes more than ten meters high.

The sea surface within a radius of hundreds of meters was shaking in unison at this moment, and strong shock waves continued to spread in all directions. Due to the collision and compression of each other, they produced a violent "echo".

The Shahua fish-men, who had just surfaced, felt a terrifying impact coming from all directions, frantically ravaging their bodies and internal organs.

While the tough keratinous scales on its body surface can withstand the tearing of shock waves, the fragile internal organs, brain, and air cavities inside cannot, and are violently torn apart.

Strands of blood seeped from his seven orifices, and he died instantly without uttering a sound.

Even the sharks beneath them were no exception, slowly sinking to the seabed with their white bellies up.

Even if some of the larger, stronger sharks are only temporarily unconscious, their unique ram-breathing system means they can never stop breathing for the rest of their lives.

Once they stop swimming, they will suffocate directly because the water doesn't pass through their gills.

In a short time, almost all the Sawa fishmen around the giant ship were wiped out, and even their corpses were retrieved onto the ship.

This is a rare seafood found on land; you absolutely must try it.

Only a few Shahua fish-men who were further away managed to escape the impact of the explosion, but they dared not go any further and swung their tails to dive underwater.

…………

Beneath the lightless depths of the western Sword Sea, in the dark abyss more than four thousand meters west of the Purple Rock Islands, lies the Cave City, the largest and most sinister royal city of the Shahua fish-people civilization in the northern seas.

This giant natural cavern, surrounded by the endless deep sea, stretches for two miles, with its dome hanging more than two hundred meters high, isolating it from all sunlight and day and night. Only the fluorescent corals and eerie green luminous fungi growing on the cave walls spread out as a frozen, eternal false starry sea.

A cold, soft light swept across the entire void, coating everything in the city with a deathly, bluish-green glow.

The entire giant cavern is completely submerged in seawater, with layers of water flowing into the deep ocean currents. Undercurrents surge along the cracks in the rock walls, transforming into a perpetual salty waterfall.

The city unfolds in a ring along the terrain of the giant cave, with each layer building upon the previous one. On the high cliff face to the west of the cave, the magnificent palace, carved from a seashell and gilded with gold, stands tall.

Mother-of-pearl and dark gold patterns are inlaid on the cold, hard rock of the deep sea. The ferocious totem of the shark god Sercoura is carved all over the palace wall. The twenty-foot-high throne of giant shark teeth stands silently in the center of the hall, which is the power core of the entire kingdom.

Nine independent coral fortresses stand scattered throughout the noble district in the north of the city, each with its own training grounds and slave pens.

In contrast, in the southeast, a giant enclosure houses deep-sea behemoths, where the tails of sharks and the tentacles of giant octopuses constantly churn the water.

The southeastern working-class district, which occupies most of the city, is a dense cluster of caves and shell huts, resembling a honeycomb.

Several lucky Shahua fish-men who managed to escape swam through the streets and alleys toward the temple.

Chapter 357 Dragon Turtle

Ashestoka sat on his underwater throne, his giant claws tearing at the flesh and blood offered by his men, which he then tossed into his shark-like maw to chew. His dark yellow pupils swirled with icy coldness as he watched the kneeling figures below.

As the king of the Saka fishmen in the entire Sword Sea, it has a towering height of nearly three meters, and its body is covered with scales as hard as black iron, with only its belly gleaming with a bright silver light.

Three golden bony protrusions extend from the top of its head to the back of its head, and even the edges of its fins are shimmering with dazzling gold.

As a naturally born four-armed saka fish-man noble with only a 1/216 chance of being born, its life can be described as "extraordinary"—its father was the former leader and its mother was a high priestess.

In its youth, it personally killed its three half-brothers, tore off their heads, and established its unique right of succession in front of the temple of the great shark god.

After fully inheriting the leadership, it unified all the surrounding Sakawa fishman settlements, expanded the cave city, and personally created a kingdom belonging to the Sakawa fishman.

Even within the entire Sword Sea, they are a formidable force that cannot be underestimated. Almost any ship sailing in this sea area will be plundered by them.

While powerful spellcasters could easily wipe out large numbers of the Shahua fishmen, the underwater world was not their home ground. It was virtually impossible to penetrate thousands of meters into the ocean trenches and completely exterminate them.

With their terrifying reproductive capacity, even if hundreds or thousands of Sawa fishmen are lost at once, the entire group can quickly replenish itself in a short period of time, like cockroaches that can never be eradicated, constantly harassing ships at sea.

Moreover, spellcasters' time is always precious, and they cannot travel with the ship every time.

Some of the merchant caravans that traveled to and fro at sea did so out of necessity, while others did so for convenience, leaving behind some worthless goods to appease these sea predators.

Over time, the ambitions of the entire Shahua fish-man race expanded rapidly, and Aishistoka was no longer satisfied with underwater dominance, and began to repeatedly expand its power towards the coast.

Now, a new maritime merchant fleet dares to challenge its authority, which is absolutely intolerable.

Do you really think you can deal with the powerful Sawa fishmen with just some underwater bombs? That's wishful thinking!

Aisilstok swallowed the flesh and blood in his mouth and let out a gurgling roar that sounded like viscous liquid rolling in his throat.

The sound waves traveled far along the water, and immediately guards wielding spears rushed forward and dragged the kneeling Shahua fishman away.

Immediately afterwards, several priests, dressed in dark blue seaweed fiber robes and carrying coral staffs and shark tooth daggers, swam out of the temple and blew the horns hanging at their waists.

Suddenly, a commotion erupted in the southeastern enclosure. Giant sharks seemed to be startled and fled quickly, while giant octopuses hurriedly hid in the crevices of the rocks.

A reef in the deep trench suddenly began to shake, and large pieces of coral gradually peeled away, revealing a huge back shell covered with clusters of thorns.

With its thick limbs and ferocious head protruding from under its shell, it was a giant dragon turtle nearly 20 meters long.

The intense hunger brought on by its long slumber caused it to rush out the moment it woke up.

A shark that couldn't escape was bitten, and the giant hydraulic clamp used only a little force to cut the seven or eight-meter-long shark in two.

Blood spread like mist in the deep water until the dragon turtle was completely full, at which point two Shahua fish-man priests swam up to negotiate with it.

Strictly speaking, the dragon turtle, like the rattlesnake, is classified as a true dragon by some beings.

They have a complete growth process and possess breath weapons, but because of their intelligence and appearance, they are not recognized by the orthodox dragons and are considered to be inferior pseudo-dragons.

This dragon turtle is a secret weapon kept in the cave city. The Shahua fish people provide it with food, protection when it sleeps, and a certain amount of treasure.

The dragon turtle helps the Shahua fishmen sink ships and kill powerful enemies, which can be considered a different kind of symbiotic relationship.

…………

The trembling waves continued to travel between the priest and the dragon turtle, and soon they reached an agreement, leading their large force to rise towards the sea once more.

Upon seeing the shadow cast by the giant ship on the water, the enormous dragon turtle immediately retracted its head into its shell, and vigorously stirred the water with its limbs and tail, crashing into it like a cannonball in the water.

The giant dragon turtle, which is 20 meters long and weighs over 100 tons, has an unimaginable impact force from a high-speed collision.

Even the more resilient Swallow Stone skin, which is even tougher than Vajra, inevitably twisted and deformed at this moment, and the thick Jungyun wood dented inward, leaving a huge dent.

The powerful impact caused the entire giant ship to shake violently, and some sailors and goblins on the deck lost their footing and were thrown overboard.

Then a huge shadow rose from the water, like a large reef, and suddenly opened its mouth and sucked in a whirlpool, instantly drawing all the members who had fallen into the water in.

This was originally a method used by dragon turtles to hunt schools of fish in the sea, and it was always effective against those agile prey.

However, this time it encountered trouble; not everything could be eaten directly.

Ordinary sailors were fine, but the goblins were carrying a lot of explosives. When they were squeezed by its huge mouth, they exploded with a bang.

Clusters of orange-red flames burst forth in the water, instantly injuring the dragon turtle that had just surfaced. Blood gushed from its mouth, but this only fueled its ferocity, causing it to open its mouth and spew out a cloud of white mist.

This was no harmless water vapor, but high-temperature steam with a temperature of over 100 degrees Celsius. Rolling heat waves swept over and enveloped the entire giant ship in the blink of an eye.

Some of the newly recruited sailors immediately let out painful cries, their exposed skin turning red and blistering, and with each breath, even their internal organs were burned.

The goblins infected by the curse of the mad dragon only felt a damp warmth and retaliated with their crude barrels and bombs. Some even jumped down in a frenzy.

The mere high-temperature steam is nothing compared to the red dragon's heat; it's not even worthy of a hot bath, so how could it possibly harm the great dragon lord's subordinate?

Violent roars and explosions continued to ring out, and no one knew exactly how many explosives these guys were carrying.

Even the bodies of these goblins are rich in sulfur and nitrifying bacteria, making them, in a sense, living bombs.

This relentless and fearless bombardment was almost unbearable even for the tough-skinned dragon turtle. After all, underwater shockwaves are not as easy to withstand as those on land; they are virtually everywhere.

Ordinary shohua merfolk didn't dare to approach, while the shohua merfolk priests, whose bodies were shrouded in water ripples, retaliated with spells like water arrows, only to be met with concentrated fire from the goblins.

They also tried to sink the ship from below, but found that the giant ship was exceptionally tough. Although it was dented and battered, it never broke.

The two sides remained deadlocked for some time until they had to retreat due to excessive personnel losses.

Chapter 358 Completion and Creation

Thor no longer cared about the battles at sea, letting his creatures fight to their hearts' content.

Since ships can be repaired and troops can be replenished, these are ultimately trivial matters to him. Perhaps, with external pressure, he can even cultivate a group of subordinates skilled in water-based abilities.

After all, the infection of the Mad Dragon Curse is not entirely random; it is also affected to some extent by the host's own aptitude and the external environment.

Once the new ships are launched, he plans to send all the idle and evil creatures in his territory overseas to give these energetic fellows something to do.

Meanwhile, Thor was lying cross-legged in the magnificent Crimson Palace, holding a strangely shaped, strip-like object in his claws.

It was a sailfish that was over two meters long, its body taut and covered with a layer of frost, giving the impression that it could be wielded as a weapon.

And that is indeed the case, because its name is Frozen Fish Greatsword, something Thor obtained while scavenging junk today.

He did remember that there was indeed such a weapon in a game he played in his previous life, and its attributes were quite good.

So after he got his hands on it, he immediately took it out and tried it out. He found that it could easily shatter rocks without being damaged itself, and it even carried a chilling, frosty power.

Its power even surpasses that of many low- to mid-level magical weapons, yet its true form is ultimately nothing more than a specially processed sailfish.

Even if it's frozen solid, the material itself is the key factor that determines everything.

Thor suddenly realized that he had been focusing solely on the powerful monsters and had perhaps overlooked the bizarre and diverse creatures in the Monster Hunter world.

For example, the powerful Gas Frog Elite Four; the Puppet Spider that can shoot silk stronger than steel wire; the Healing Snail and the Regenerating Honeybee with healing abilities; and the Wirebug, which is no bigger than a fist but can propel a hunter into flight.

Not to mention that the Insect Glaive, which is the core of this profession—hunting insects—to some extent falls into the category of environmental creatures.

Moreover, they are extremely cheap to obtain, costing only 10 essence points per draw, which is a drop in the ocean for Thor at present.

He glanced at the long string of numbers after his Essence Balance, then immediately focused his mind, deciding to do a 100-pull first.

After all, 1000 points of essence aren't even enough for his daily food expenses.

Hundreds of orbs of light flashed by like stars, and blue subtitles flowed down like a waterfall before my eyes.

One by one, familiar or unfamiliar names appeared before Thor's eyes, then transformed into streams of light and merged into his body.

The life levels of these environmental creatures were undoubtedly far too low compared to Thor, so much so that he didn't feel that he had gained any special abilities.

However, a strange sense of fulfillment inexplicably rose from the bottom of my heart, as if all aspects of my physical condition had been improved to some extent.

Legend has it that the first creator god sprinkled his own blood on the earth, from which all things came into being.

If we unify all things, can we return to that original existence?

Thor thought it was unlikely, but it would undoubtedly be a great complement to his own existence, making him the so-called perfect dragon.

By spreading the characteristics of these creatures using the Mad Dragon Curse, thousands of new creatures can be created.

Those two old guys, Tiamat and Bahamut, only created a mere 10 kinds of true dragons, yet they dare to call themselves good and evil dragon gods.

If he could recreate all the creatures in the Monster Hunter world in this world, what title would he be given?

Creator of life? Heavenly Father? Or the primordial dragon?