Chapter 305 |
“Lady Narassus, it's up to you now!” Josh’s gaze swept over the various operation leaders before finally settling on the Naga Tidecaller.
“As you command, Master! I will do everything I can to find those undersea people and persuade them!” Narassus, with the body of a woman and the tail of a fish, respectfully bowed to Josh.
As beings that evolved from high elves, every female Naga was almost always a powerful mage, so language barriers were non-existent for them. A touch of arcane wisdom was enough to solve communication problems.
Diplomacy before force—Josh was not an unreasonable man.
Although it was basically confirmed that the Talokan had killed an IMF squad, they were American intelligence agents and not Ouroboros members. Thus, Josh bore no personal grudge against the Talokan—he hadn’t even interacted with them before.
Therefore, Josh decided to send Narassus and her people, along with a few other oceanic tribes, to dive underwater and find the Talokan first, and attempt negotiation.
As long as the Talokan were willing to accept the discovery and exploitation of vibranium peacefully, Josh had no issue with adding another marine faction under his command.
If they refused—then Josh wouldn’t hold back.
And so, as a secret hatch at the bottom of the massive freighter opened, countless prepared sea creatures, under Lady Narassus’ command, began to dive toward the ocean floor.
It was... blub blub blub!
Yes, that's right—murlocs, one of the infamous newbie killers from Azeroth.
Among the various marine species Josh purchased from Abbendis, murlocs made up the largest number due to their abundance, low combat capability, and low intelligence.
Despite their many flaws, they were undeniably useful as underwater scouts.
And there was no need to worry about them disobeying.
Ten thousand years ago, when the high elves sank into the sea and transformed into Nagas, they began using magic to enslave these lower beings. Thus, the Naga had highly developed methods for controlling murlocs.
In addition to these sea creatures, the vast waters of the Bermuda region now held many dolphins and giant squids outfitted with artificial devices—two types of marine biological weapons painstakingly developed by the Austrian military.
Under Lady Narassus' command, it didn’t take long for the sea creatures to discover traces of the Talokan.
More precisely, the Talokans showed themselves.
With such a large number of strange marine creatures appearing, humans above the surface didn’t notice, but the Talokans weren’t deaf or blind. The entire Bermuda Sea was riddled with their sentinels, so they naturally became aware.
Unsure of the origins of these newly arrived, clearly oceanic-civilization-type beings, the Talokans refrained from attacking outright. Instead, they sent a patrol unit to try and capture a few murlocs for interrogation.
What they didn’t know was that every murloc bore a magical imprint from its Naga master.
So the moment the murlocs were captured, their Naga masters knew and immediately informed Lady Narassus via magical communication.
Following Narassus’ orders, a group of Nagas and other sea tribes quickly surrounded the Talokan patrol that had just captured the murlocs.
“You must be the Talokans! I am Narassus, Naga Tidecaller! I demand to meet your leader!” Using magic, Narassus quickly learned their language and began communicating with the Talokan.
The Talokans wore Aztec-style attire and looked no different from typical Native Americans.
Hearing Narassus speak their language so fluently surprised them greatly, and seeing the vibranium gear worn by the nearby Nagas and sea giants left them momentarily at a loss.
Josh had spared no expense for this operation, using some of his dwindling vibranium reserves to forge equipment for the Nagas.
Even though the Naga under his command had now formed an army, in the past year, their total number only reached about five hundred—four hundred males and just over a hundred females. Due to Queen Azshara’s legacy, females held absolute leadership in Naga society and were far more adept at magic, making them especially valuable.
Josh did not want to risk losing too many of these precious spellcasters.
“Honorable lady, since you wish to see our leader, please allow me to use this to make contact!” One of the Talokan, though reluctant, understood that a wise man doesn’t fight a losing battle. Narassus’ forces outnumbered theirs by several times, and without knowing their enemy’s combat capabilities, they dared not act rashly. So he took out a conch from his chest, respectfully saluted Narassus, and spoke.
“Of course, go ahead.” Narassus wasn’t worried and nodded in agreement.
The Talokan man then blew the conch.
Underwater, a normal human wouldn’t hear the sound it produced, but the Nagas and other marine creatures clearly sensed the long, resonant wave emanating from it, traveling far into the distance.
In just over ten minutes, Lady Narassus and the others felt a powerful underwater current rapidly approaching, causing unease among the outer ring of murlocs.
The newcomer was strong but not strong enough to intimidate Lady Narassus.
With a simple wave of her staff, the surrounding currents formed a powerful vortex that neutralized the impact of the incoming force.
As a high priestess of the Naga, the title of “Tidecaller” was well-earned.
“Who are you people? Why are you capturing my kin?” At last, with the arrival of the current, a tall, muscular Talokan male appeared nearby, watching Lady Narassus with both caution and curiosity.
Just as Narassus had sensed his approach, he had also felt the power of her water magic from afar and dared not be careless.
His curiosity stemmed from Narassus’ appearance—it resembled legends of mermaids or sea witches too closely.
“I am Narassus. And how should I address you, sir?” Narassus asked, studying the new Talokan with a touch of curiosity.
This newcomer looked somewhat different from the previous Talokan—he had pointed ears like an elf and small wings growing from the backs of his feet.
If Lady Narassus were more familiar with Earth mythology, she might have recognized these small wings as resembling those on Hermes’ shoes from Greek legend.
“I am Kukulkan, though my enemies all call me Namor!” he declared proudly. (PS: The Talokan and Namor storylines in these chapters aren’t original alterations by the author—the new Black Panther 2 film presents them this way.)
“Hello, Lord Kukulkan. So you are the supreme leader of Talokan?” Lady Narassus asked.
“That’s right, I am! Madam, I don’t know why you’ve come here or why you’re capturing my people, but I must inform you: your actions are a severe violation of our territory. If you release my people and leave now, I will overlook this. Otherwise…” Namor raised his spear, and behind him appeared a massive army… well, not that massive—just over five thousand troops and some high-tech underwater vehicles.
Due to the deep-sea environment, the force only looked large.
“Oh? So you intend to flaunt your numerical advantage?” Lady Narassus chuckled softly and waved her staff, sending out a ripple of invisible energy.
Namor quickly realized that his army was now surrounded by a vast array of marine creatures.
Densely packed murlocs, bizarre-looking lobster men, massive sea giants…
And equally advanced dolphins, along with terrifying sea monsters in the distance—giant squids.
There were also strange beings made of flowing water—these were summoned water elementals, conjured by the Naga mages and the ship’s spellcasters.
Though this world had no native elemental beings, Kirin Tor mages, after studying Kamar-Taj’s magic, developed a new form of elemental summoning magic capable of calling water elementals.
These summoned elementals lacked the sentience of Azeroth's native elementals and were essentially magical puppets but they were more than sufficient for combat support and didn’t consume much mana.
Especially in the ocean, the Nagas could summon them in large numbers.
For example, the hundred-plus female Naga mages under Lady Narassus had summoned over a thousand water elementals.
"What exactly do you want to do?" Seeing the huge army surrounding him that outnumbered him several times over, even though Namor was very confident in his own and Talokan Legion’s combat strength, he was somewhat unsettled.
"Actually, you’ve already guessed, haven’t you? My master has discovered a large number of these in your territory. If you hand them over, then both you and I will benefit, and my master can provide you with protection…Of course, we can also establish trade—we will buy supplies from you. But if that’s the case, then the protection relationship would no longer exist!" Lady Narassus pointed to the vibranium battle armor she wore, which only covered key areas of her body.
"So you really came because of vibranium…Heh, when Wakanda was attacked by the whole world, I noticed that there was a special force secretly pushing things behind the scenes. If I’m not mistaken, it’s you guys, right?" Hearing Narassus’ words, Namor sneered.
Although Talokan had always been unknown to the outside world, and even Wakanda—which also possessed vibranium—did not know of Talokan existence, Talokan had a fairly good understanding of the outside world and knew about Wakanda’s situation.
They were also shocked by how quickly Wakanda was destroyed by the joint forces of many countries.
During the investigation of Wakanda’s destruction, it was discovered that apart from several major rogue military groups, there was also a secret force playing a major role.
But since he had few informants in the human world, he was completely at a loss regarding this secret force.
It was also from that time onward that he became increasingly vigilant of surface humans, strictly forbidding any Talokan person from exposing themselves, so that Talokan would not be discovered by this mysterious force.
Not long ago, some American agents apparently discovered traces of Talokans' existence. Namor immediately took action and killed that group of agents.
But it now seemed there had been a slip-up.
Namor absolutely did not believe that the mysterious sea people appearing now had nothing to do with that secret force.
Namor was no inexperienced youngster. He was already born when Talokan migrated from land to sea, which was in the early 16th century.
That meant Namor was already over four hundred years old—ordinary Talokan and humans had no difference in lifespan, but Namor was an exception.
Although his exact lifespan was unknown, judging by his current physical condition, he was still in his youth. So while not immortal, living over a thousand years was definitely possible. Thus, in Talokan, he was not only considered a king but also one of their spiritual beliefs.
His name Kukulkan alone spoke volumes—this was the name of the feathered serpent god from Mesoamerican civilization.
Not only was he fast in swimming, but the small wings on his feet gave him the ability to fly, like Hermes.
Therefore, during Namor’s long life, he had already traveled most corners of the ocean and land, seeing various species.
Hence, he could swear that previously on Earth, there definitely did not exist the strange sea races before him—Naga, fishmen, sea giants, lobster-men, etc.
"You are very clever, Kukulkan. But many times, knowing too much isn’t a good thing. If before you still had the option of trade, now you and your people have only two choices: submit or perish!" Hearing Namor link them to Wakanda, Lady Narassus’ eyes turned cold, and her staff emitted brilliant light.
"...I choose submission! But I want to meet your master first!" Faced with Namor’s threat, Namor bowed his head pretending to think, but a cold gleam flashed in his eyes, then he looked up and said.
Hearing Namor’s answer, the Talokan people behind him were quite surprised and unwilling, but intimidated by Namor’s authority, they dared not speak further.
"Good, but you must come alone!" Lady Narassus was silent for a moment, then agreed.
"Naturally!" Namor nodded.
So Narassus immediately turned and swam toward the sea surface with Namor.
However, Namor did not notice the sneer that flashed across Narassus’ face as she turned.
Their speed was fast, and in less than a minute, they reached the surface where the cargo ship was docked.
Narassus flashed and leapt from the sea onto the deck, startling Namor again. After reacting, he flew up and landed on the deck.
In the center of the deck was a table.
At that moment, Josh was sitting by the table, leisurely enjoying the cheek meat of a bluefin tuna he had just caught—of course, the fact that several dolphins had forced the tuna to bite the hook was a detail no outsider needed to know.
"Master, this is Namor!" Narassus, swaying her snake tail, "swam" over to Josh’s side respectfully.
Josh waved his hand, and she stepped aside.
"Ah, King of the Sea, Namor! I’ve long heard your great name!" After a while, Josh slowly put down his utensils and looked at Namor.
"Nice to meet you too…now die!" Seeing this, Namor also stepped forward respectfully, then suddenly sprang up, spear in hand, thrusting straight at Josh.
At that moment, the tip of his spear was less than ten centimeters from Josh’s eye!