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.

edges had been twisted like rope under immense force while seawater rushed

something in the

across the deck as bluish-gray shadows flashed through the

as well as the cracking of splintering wood mixed with soldiers’ wails,

around the vanishing wreckage. The sea surface was slowly rising, as

sword toward the fog. His dark battle robe whipped

brilliant light that instantly pierced the

giant blade. Even more horrifying were the floating corpses where soldiers’ armor and flesh

the rising sea surface with a

the gray-green shape finally revealed its outline. It was a hulking mass covered in countless knobby growths, each the size of a fist and glinting

beneath the creature. Every stroke sent waves nearly ten feet high while the hooked tips glowed with an eerie blue

shadow whipped out of the fog with a piercing rush

hull planking. Through the flying wood chips, the

closed while fragments of broken armor still

“It’s… It’s a Brineclaw!”