Azure Serpent's leader, Farrox eyed the Quinte with a fierce glint in his eyes.

Looking through the eyes of his serpent his vision was much sharper than an ordinary human, as a tamer and water mage he had many unique abilities at his disposal. 

“Seems that sneaky Gravenport fucker wasn’t lying,” Farrox murmured as he already felt the presence of a powerful being in the ship. 

It could only be the druid, Magical Beasts like the River Serpent was sensitive to rivals and he felt the aura of something foreign, the scent of a strong magical beast but mixed with something else.

Though it seemed the Sea Serpent was provoking those on board with the way it forked its tongue at the ship whilst glaring at those inboard, it was merely getting a grasp on the Druid's appearance in the vessel by the scent in the air. 

“And that means the guarantee that a High Elf brat being onboard this ship is likely true.” Farrow said with a smirk.

A powerful Druid appearing on such a ship already indicated something important was onboard, Druids were reclusive and independent, rarely transporting on ships like this unless absolutely necessary, they would prefer travelling among nature taking the longer route on land to their destination than boarding a boat like this, allowing them to visit the small communities on their way at the villages to carry out charitable deeds.

And judging by the scent of the Druid himself his form was a large land animal, a strong one judging by the scent but not suited to battling a predator like a River Serpent in their own turf. 

Farrox knew a Druid with a beast form such as this one would not risk themselves like this easily, it would go against the instincts of their beast to find themselves in an unnatural environment, and a dominant land predator would feel uncomfortable in deep waters such as this. 

It would only mean he is likely protecting something far weaker than him making him even more confident the High Elf child was onboard this ship like the Gravenports informed him. 

“Truly surprising, those Elves don’t let their ‘pure-bloods’ out their sight usually, I’d get nobility for this!” He said with a big grin.

Foreign human Kingdoms who although not as strong as the unified Empire were previously much stronger than the individual Kingdoms in these lands, he would be rewarded handsomely bringing such a rare commodity to the right people. 

“Now men, remember the target is on the ship! We want to disable the vessel, not destroy, hammer those barriers until we take them down! Then we’ll board and loot those nobles dry, anyone who get their hands on the long-eared brat will get triple the compensation of this raid!” Farrox ordered sharply to the cheers of his men.

After continuing to bark orders to his men the ships started to form a blockade surrounding the Quinte giving them no means of retreat.

Farrox found himself immersing himself into the vision of his serpent, Ethir who continued to fork his tongue ‘tasting’ the scent of the Druid with greed. 

Magical Beasts were predatory, usually to advance in the wild the best nourishment came from rival Magical Beasts who boasted a similar strength and bloodline.

The River Serpent, Ethir had been at the peak of the ninth tier in the first realm for a long time, it had taken a tonne of resources provided by the River Bandits over the years to reach its limit, it was only one step away from becoming a true Monarch Magical Beast but the barrier between crossing realms was formidable, even more so for Magical Beasts who did not boast a top tier bloodline.

However, it was close to the bloodline limit of a River Serpent and would need something tremendous to push its rank further.

Therefore, the Druid who held the unmistakable scent of a bloodline superior to the River Serpents made its eyes glimmer in delight, on land the River Serpent may fear such a beast but it had lorded over the local magical beasts here as the top of the food chain for a long time, it was unafraid of a land creature of a similar tier in its territory.

At that time it felt the presence of its master in its mind, “Ethir, let’s draw that Druid out… looks like you’ll be getting a good meal after this one…”

Its master words sent a burst of excitement through its body as it felt its fangs itch at the thought of sinking them into the scrumptious rich flesh of the Magical Beast that made its sensitive tongue quiver in delight. 

‘It’s MINE, it’s all MINE!’ The serpents thoughts were all on its meal as it started to burst through the water at an astonishing pace that seemed to surprise its enemy whose cannons lit up at the sight of movement. 

‘Too SLOW! Slow humans, weak, only make nice meal.’ The chaotic thoughts of the serpent made the tamer mind reel as he found himself once again overseeing the commencing naval battle that was about to begin.

“Really hope the dumb brute gets smarter once it advances…” Farrox sighed as the simple serpent thoughts most of the time wandered only to its next meal and sleeping. 

It already required a lot of effort and coaxing to bring it to this point after all the River Serpent was known for its bloodlust despite being a cunning predator and highly intelligent in its own way. 

The serpent was a master at its way of hunting, ambushing and was cunning when it came down to taking down opposing enemies with cleverly disguised traps but it often did not know when to hold back its greed when it came to eating, resulting in it usually provoking humans early in its development resulting in its extermination before it could grow strong enough.

The fire power of the Quinte impressed him, but the serpent was right about one thing, it was simply too slow for the beast, they failed to hit it even once as the serpent navigated through the water with ease and swiftness. 

Yet this was not the ships only means of defence. Soon enough sailors emerged at the side of the ship with weapons resembling matchlocks. 

The emergence of newly developed weapons such as guns and cannons allowed even ordinary people like the sailors to launch offensive attacks towards enemies that required cultivators. 

However, there was a limit to the emergence of technology it had its weak-points and was not yet strong enough to cause any major damage to a magical beast at the level of the River Serpent but it can still annoy and irritate it. 

The River Serpent shrieked in annoyance at it felt the bullets bounce off it scales. 

Although it was fast with its size it could not evade all of the many small projectiles shot from the ship towards its large body. 

Nonetheless this was all it was to the serpent, a minor annoyance, the projectiles were small and hard to avoid but were unable to penetrate its scales. 

Ethir was already close to the ship, knowing its master orders was to lure out the tasty meal it had to first weaken the shell around the ship like it had done many times before. 

However, the Quinte was not counting on the bullets being able to damage the serpent on the first place it was only to distract it from the real weapons, large cross-bow like weapons lowered down to fire at the serpent. The bolts adorned was glittered with inscriptions showing its expense. 

Additionally the Mages who were aboard already began preparing their own spells, Earth and Water mages were present on the ship and Earth mages spells held great piercing power against opponents of any class.

They were ideal against large magical beasts like the River Serpent who possessed thick flesh and tough scales. 

Ethir bloodthirsty eyes never stopped focusing on the ship though as the moment the weapons directed at it in preparation, a chorus of cannons were set off in the distance as a barrage of cannon balls struck against the barrier of the Quinte, which caused it to flicker as the ship shook gently from the impact. 

This did not stop them from targeting the serpent though as a barrage of Earth spells, forming spears of condensed earth and bolts were fired at the Serpent who was already preparing its own attack.

To the surprise of those on the Quinte despite being able too, the Serpent chose not to avoid the torrent of attacks towards it, instead continuing to carry out its own, the cunning eyes of the serpent soon lit up as a glowing barrier suddenly appeared around it.

The synergy between the tamer and magical beast allowed for it to learn and cast spells through the tamer himself, and with its abundance of Qi that was more plentiful than any mage of its tier the serpent was able to project a water barrier strong enough to ward off any of the harmful attacks, which allowed it to send its huge tail crashing towards the ship whipping it with such ferocity it shook the ship far harder than the barrage of cannon balls that just hit it. 

For the first time the crew members of the Quinte seemed to lose their previous calm as a hint of fear emerged in their eyes.

They knew the barrier could not sustain much abuse from the serpent at all despite its strength that was fully capable of defending against the attacks of the bandits ships. 

The serpent growing arrogant decided to stick its head out as it declared its intentions to its meal still hidden on the ship. 

“HSSS. WHERE ARE YOU? I’M HUNGRY… ARE YOU AFRAID?” Ethir pronounced slowly as its yellow eyes scanned the ship for its prey. 

The Quinte was already preparing new weapons to launch at the serpent however it was at this time the serpent finally caught the source of the delectable scent.

“MMM. SO TINY… BUT THAT SMELL IS… SO…TASTY, I WILL SWALLOW YOU WHOLE MAN THING.” The snake eyed the lone figure staring directly at it.

The small humanoid gave off an intimidating aura that made the serpent pause but it was so small and looked minuscule to the serpent that it almost thought it ridiculous to think such an insignificant ant could harm it. 

At that moment the small humanoid said, “As you wish, though I think it would be better first if we fought more up to your size.”

The serpent felt confused for a moment noticing a large space seemed to be opened up leaving the old man a lone figure facing the serpent.

It seemed to be a complete mismatch on paper with the serpent towering over the old man, but the serpent knew from its honed senses the small thing was not as weak as it appeared to be.

Soon enough the serpent eyed the old man changing miraculously before it eyes until it saw the threatening thing that made it felt both fear and excitement. 

A large beast now stood before it directly facing the serpent, its very presence and weight seemed to cause the ship to shake for a moment before regaining its steadiness.

It took a large amount of the deck to even fit the beast and its large head directly stared at the serpent as it let off a loud roar in challenge directly at it. 

“FINALLY… FINALLY A CHALLENGE.” The serpent screeched as it pounced crazily towards its rival before hitting the barrier that still protected the ship for a short while before it started cracking from the pressure, soon enough another barrage of cannon balls hit the ships barrier that seemed to finally finish it off as the barrier could no longer withstand being attacked from all sides.

The ship continued letting off cannon shots towards the opposing ships, some of them were hit clean and clearly damaged by the firepower of the Quinte but it did not stop the siege of the bandits. 

Mages from the Quinte fired spell after spell, some towards the serpent buts its abundance in Qi and presence of a Mage tamer allowed it to remove its biggest weak point, its defence allowing it to tank the bolts from the inferior beings in cultivation.

However, as the Serpent moved towards the opposing beast it soon found its head being hit by a large force as a large paw seemed to swipe directly at its large head causing its head to shake in befuddlement.

The large beast roared in provocation to the serpent who hissed back in rage.

“YOU WILL PAY… I WILL DEVOUR YOU AND ASCEND.” Ethir shrieked as it pounced towards its target, it was going to get its prey in the water and it was going to finish it.

It could already taste it. Victory will belong to it.