An Understated Dominance by Marina Vittori

Chapter 2639

Matthias’ fleet had just entered the mist-shrouded depths of the Eastern Sea, where lead-gray clouds pressed low over the horizon. Even the salty sea breeze carried a metallic, rusty tang.

Standing on the main deck of the Surgebreaker, he rolled a small white stone between his fingers while scanning the fog – swallowed horizon.

The three escort ships sent to scout the route had been out of contact for half an hour, leaving the supposedly safe channel marked on their charts silent and still at the bottom of a deep well.

“Your Highness, something’s off with the current,” the elderly helmsman beside him said. He suddenly gripped the compass as its bronze needle spun violently and frost formed along its edges.

“This fog… It’s alive.”

Before he could finish speaking, a sharp cracking sound erupted from the west.

A massive waterspout burst through the thick fog, revealing the wreckage of half a ship twisting and flipping through the rolling waves. Lanterns on the deck flickered twice like dying fireflies before the dark green water swallowed them whole.

“That’s Patrol Three!” the lookout shouted, his voice trembling with panic. ” It’s gone under!”

Matthias clenched the white stone so tight the edges dug into his palm. Just as he was about to order a closer inspection, the fog on the east side ripped apart. It revealed the upturned hull of another guard ship with a gaping hole nearly ten feet wide running along its side.

wooden planks at the edges had been twisted like rope under immense force while seawater rushed in with a bubbling,

in

across the deck as bluish-gray shadows flashed through the dense mist, moving fast as

the cracking of splintering

was slowly rising, as if some black mountain range was emerging from

sword toward the fog. His dark battle robe whipped in the wind, revealing

flares streaked skyward before exploding in brilliant light that instantly

ship fragments floated on the surface, each piece showing clean, precise cuts as if severed by a giant blade. Even more horrifying were the floating corpses where soldiers’ armor and flesh had been severed at

pointed at the rising sea surface with

a hulking mass covered in

Every stroke sent waves nearly ten feet high while the hooked tips glowed

out of the fog with a

Through the flying wood chips, the crew could see it was a shell-covered giant claw with

serrations sharper than sword blades slowly opened and closed while fragments of broken armor still hung between

“It’s… It’s a Brineclaw!”