After drifting across the sea for two days, they could finally see the harbor of Bilgewater in the distance.
Sitting at the bow beneath the bright moon, Levi found his thoughts wandering.
A voice inside his heart had been calling to him constantly.
Levi could feel a summons coming from Ionia, and right now, all he wanted was to go there and find out what was waiting for him.
Thanks to the Waters of Life, Lucian’s injuries had mostly healed.
He planned to rest in Bilgewater before setting out once again to seek revenge against Thresh.
As far as Lucian was concerned, his only purpose in life now was to kill Thresh, even though he knew his chances of winning were slim.
Boom!
“Lucian, what’s happening?”
The boat suddenly rocked violently.
Levi immediately sat upright and struggled to steady himself.
He could feel something beneath them.
Thinking about all the stories he’d heard about Bilgewater, Levi’s face darkened.
These waters were notorious for swallowing people whole.
“Probably a sea monster. We need to move, now.”
Lucian’s expression turned grim as he immediately pushed the boat faster.
The sea had been unusually calm over the past two days, and Lucian had even remarked on how fortunate they’d been.
Running into a sea monster this close to shore proved their luck wasn’t nearly as good as he’d thought.
The previously calm surface suddenly began surging violently.
Their boat rocked from side to side as an enormous creature emerged from beneath the waves.
Its skin was a dark bluish green, and its body resembled a gigantic worm.
Rows upon rows of densely packed teeth filled its enormous mouth.
Its massive form blocked out the moonlight overhead.
Levi felt his scalp go numb just looking at it.
“Soul-Devouring Sea-Worm!”
“Baron!”
Lucian and Levi shouted almost simultaneously.
The gigantic sea monster before them looked remarkably similar to Baron Nashor from the game, though there were some noticeable differences.
Levi guessed that this creature was simply a native sea monster, while Baron Nashor was probably a Soul-Devouring Sea-Worm that had been corrupted by the Void.
The Soul-Devouring Sea-Worm unleashed a deafening roar.
A foul stench washed over them along with an almost suffocating sense of pressure.
In the game, plenty of champions could potentially solo Baron, but seeing a creature enormous enough to blot out the moon in reality was something else entirely.
“A sea monster this large shouldn’t normally appear this close to shore.”
Lucian gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on his relic pistols.
The Soul-Devouring Sea-Worm’s cavernous maw lunged toward their boat.
Seeing what was coming, Levi and Lucian immediately jumped overboard.
The tremendous impact smashed their boat to pieces, while the resulting wave hurled them far across the water.
Taking advantage of the momentum, Levi and Lucian immediately began swimming toward the distant harbor.
Fighting a sea monster in the middle of the ocean was definitely not a smart idea.
Splat!
A glob of green slime shot from the Soul-Devouring Sea-Worm’s mouth, heading straight toward Levi’s head.
A pale yellow protective barrier instantly surrounded him.
The green slime rapidly ate away at the shield, corroding it until it had become almost completely transparent before finally losing its strength.
Levi’s heart trembled.
If that attack had struck him directly, his relatively fragile body might have been reduced to bare bones in seconds.
And that had only been an ordinary attack.
Levi could barely imagine how terrifying this monster truly was.
“I’ll hold it back. You get out of here.”
Lucian raised his pistols and aimed them at the Soul-Devouring Sea-Worm, his voice deadly serious.
“Stop trying to play the hero! Grab my clothes. You haven’t even rescued your wife yet. You really want to die here?”
Levi shouted as a faint blue glow surrounded his body.
Lucian gritted his teeth, grabbed Levi’s clothes with one hand, and aimed one of his pistols at the Soul-Devouring Sea-Worm’s head with the other.
A dense barrage of bullets poured into the monster’s enormous body.
With Ghost enhancing his speed, Levi forced his way through the resistance of the waves and rapidly opened the distance between them and the creature.
Under the relentless fire of The Culling, numerous scorched wounds appeared across the Soul-Devouring Sea-Worm’s body.
But none of them caused any fatal damage.
Instead, the attack completely enraged it.
The monster immediately submerged beneath the sea and charged after them.
Levi felt the enormous current churning behind him.
The Soul-Devouring Sea-Worm suddenly erupted from the water once again, its gigantic maw snapping directly toward Levi and Lucian.
Levi pushed himself with every ounce of strength he had, but he still couldn’t widen the gap.
Suddenly, a massive searchlight illuminated their position.
A long horn sounded from the harbor.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Cannons roared.
Shells exploded across the Soul-Devouring Sea-Worm’s body, engulfing it in smoke and flame.
The monster let out a miserable roar.
Levi and Lucian immediately seized the opportunity to flee.
The Soul-Devouring Sea-Worm’s enormous body had become an obvious target.
After several more rounds of bombardment, it finally couldn’t endure any longer and dove beneath the sea.
Levi and Lucian breathed enormous sighs of relief and quickly swam toward shore.
By the time they finally dragged themselves onto the beach, both were completely exhausted.
They leaned against one of the enormous horns along the shoreline and gasped for air.
Then they looked at each other and smiled, both overwhelmed by the joy of surviving yet another brush with death.
Bilgewater’s coastal defenses included countless enormous horns.
The people of the port called them Serpent Callers.
When sounded, the horns could disturb the waves in a way that concealed Bilgewater’s location from sea monsters.
The enormous horn beside them finally fell silent.
Several figures appeared from atop the structure.
“You two are pretty lucky. Not many people could survive being that close to a Soul-Devouring Sea-Worm’s mouth.”
Levi looked toward the voice.
A voluptuous, striking woman descended toward them, her fiery red hair spilling over her shoulders and framing a pair of beautiful green eyes.
Her enormous breasts looked almost disproportionate to her impossibly slender waist, while that same narrow waist only made the tempting sweep of her wide hips stand out even more.
A pair of pistols hung at her sides.
Levi recognized her immediately.
Miss Fortune.
Sarah Fortune.
“Thanks. If you hadn’t shown up when you did, we’d probably be dead.”
Levi nodded, pulled off his soaked shirt, and twisted it hard.
Seawater poured onto the ground.
The cold ocean wind made him shiver, so he quickly slipped the wrung-out shirt back on.
“I’d suggest the two of you get moving. There’s a reason we’re out here this late at night. Something nasty is coming.”
Sarah pursed her lips and took a drag from the cigar in her hand.
She exhaled a cloud of white smoke while studying the two thoroughly soaked men with mild interest.
“What are you fighting?” Levi asked curiously.
Before Sarah could answer, Lucian’s expression turned cold.
“The wraiths are coming. I can feel them.”
“Not bad. You know your stuff.”
Sarah had already noticed the pair from the shore.
In the pitch-black night, the brilliant sacred light from Lucian’s weapons had been impossible to miss.
“You two seem capable enough. Got the nerve to stick around?”
“We’ll definitely come back, just not right now.”
Levi moved his stiff, freezing limbs.
The wraiths could wait.
If he didn’t find somewhere warm soon, he might freeze to death before they ever arrived.
Lucian clearly wasn’t happy about leaving, but Levi dragged him away anyway.
“Ahh…”
A mouthful of rum sent warmth spreading through Levi’s entire body.
His clothes had dried by the fire, and putting them back on felt infinitely more comfortable.
The tavern, normally bustling with activity, was unusually deserted tonight.
But today was a special day, and plenty of people had decided that preserving their lives was more important than spending the evening drinking here.
“The Harrowing?”
“That’s right. Tonight is the Harrowing. The Black Mist and the undead from the Shadow Isles will reach Bilgewater.”
The tavern keeper calmly polished the glasses behind the counter as though he were discussing nothing particularly important.
Lucian’s hand instinctively moved toward the relic pistols at his waist.