Chapter 1058: Sea Beast Battle, Conflict of Values

In Xia Duo's perception, that giant octopus clearly held the upper hand in the battle; not only had its many tentacles firmly bound the large whale, but they were also deeply embedded into the whale's body.

Furthermore, the vassals it commanded—a massive swarm of fish-men that nearly filled this stretch of sea—had also nearly wiped out all the Water Elementals summoned by the large whale!

Of course, the large whale was not so easily finished; it carried the octopus wrapped around its body, leaping from the sea surface repeatedly and crashing down heavily, attempting to shake the octopus off its body in this manner.

Every time it crashed, it splashed waves dozens of meters high, and in such intense collisions, countless fish-men were crushed into pulp, rendering this stretch of sea like a quagmire of flesh and blood.

However, the large whale was ultimately at a disadvantage, and no amount of struggling was anything more than adding some amusement for the octopus.

Many fish-men had even climbed onto the large whale's body and, waving short spears made of unknown material in their hands, began to attack the large whale.

Although such attacks were almost negligible compared to the large whale's massive size, even ants could bite an elephant to death if there were enough of them, not to mention these fish-men who were controlled by the octopus and very likely possessed Wisdom!

Seeing this, Xia Duo knew that the fate of this large whale might be coming to an end, and he did not intend to intervene in the struggle between the two giant beasts, as long as this octopus did not come to provoke him.

Currently, the Yuanfang had already begun to slow down and had adjusted its course; it did not continue sailing north, but instead turned directly west, attempting to hug the Strait Mountains before sailing north to avoid the sea beast battle zone on the original route.

Captain Bill was an experienced old captain; for him, such sudden maritime incidents, while rarely encountered, were not enough to make him lose his composure.

Encountering sea beast attacks while sailing at sea was basically an unprovoked disaster; it either happened at night, or it was during the day when the lookout was slacking off.

Under normal circumstances, as long as one avoided them in time, sea beasts would not chase after or rush to attack humans; after all, compared to the massive bodies of sea beasts, the meat on humans was truly too little and was not the best food for sea beasts.

And likewise, these sea beasts were not the best hunting targets for humans; having the natural geographical advantage of the ocean and their massive bodies destined these sea beasts to be difficult to achieve effective results against, even if a Spellcaster took action.

It was thankless and exhausting.

Therefore, except for a very small number of people who would track and hunt giant sea beasts for certain reasons, ordinary people might not even have the thought of touching them.

Xia Duo was just such a person now; he maintained his Detection Field while continuing to observe the battle in that stretch of sea, which was still raging but whose outcome was likely already destined.

At the same time, he urged Captain Bill to increase the ship's speed as much as possible without alerting the sea beasts there, the sooner they were away from this sea area, the better.

"Sure enough, no matter which world it is, the true masters of the ocean are ultimately not humans!"

On Earth, even though humans had embarked on the path of conquering the stars and the sea, they still knew very little about the ocean on their own planet, let alone conquering it.

And in this Magic world, humans knew even less about the ocean; even in the Elf Kingdom, the ocean meant the unknown, meant mystery, and meant danger.

"Xia Duo, how is the situation?"

"Don't worry, the battle over there hasn't ceased, we have enough time to get away!"

"I hope so!"

Niya murmured this, her body subconsciously leaning toward Xia Duo.

Looking at the increasingly deep sea surface in the distance, a sense of crisis inexplicably arose in Niya's heart; she wanted to use Xia Duo's words to comfort herself, but found that this sense of crisis could not be shaken off, lingering in her heart the whole time.

After thinking for a moment, she grabbed Xia Duo's arm and whispered a persuasion: "Xia Duo, I think it is necessary to be prepared to abandon this ship."

"Abandon this ship?" Xia Duo looked back at Niya, seeing her eyes clear, not at all like someone who would say words of abandonment.

For some reason, a flash of alarm crossed Xia Duo's heart; this alarm came too strongly, so much so that the Detection Field he had maintained since discovering the anomaly in the sea until now collapsed because of it.

Tracing his Subconscious, he discovered that half of this alarm came from some baseless sense of crisis, while the other half came from Niya.

She was, after all, a local Spellcaster of Netheril, perhaps having received education on protecting the populace since childhood, but the nearly 60 crew members on this Yuanfang were not her people, merely temporarily hired.

Therefore, Niya easily made the decision to abandon the ship.

This created a strong conflict with Xia Duo's consistent values; even if they were temporary subordinates, they were still subordinates, and even at the last moment, as long as it was possible, one should try to provide protection.

Even when facing a stranger, he would provide goodwill as much as possible without endangering himself.

Sometimes, Xia Duo could not clearly say whether this stemmed from the moral remnants of his home on Earth, or from the harmless persona he deliberately played at the beginning of his transmigration.

But as far as the present was concerned, he did not reject this—let's call it morality for now.

"When poor, attend to one's own virtue; when prosperous, benefit the world," perhaps this was a traditional trait that people from his home had long since deeply ingrained in their blood.

Regarding Niya's choice, Xia Duo knew that this was mainly determined by the current general environment; being able to protect one's own people was actually already a remarkable morality.

In fact, many lords in Netheril could not do this; they had forgotten the earliest meaning of the status of a lord.

"Niya, until the last moment, I will not abandon this ship; even if I have to abandon this ship, I will give the crew a chance to escape."

"Xia Duo, you—" A flash of anxiety crossed Niya's eyes, and she hurried to dissuade him, but was interrupted by Xia Duo.

"Don't be nervous; no matter when, I will always consider our own safety first. While Movement and teleportation at sea carry no small risk, it is still better than being swallowed by sea beasts, don't you think?"

Hearing that Xia Duo only thought about teleporting the crew away rather than fighting the sea beasts, Niya finally breathed a sigh of relief; if Xia Duo were to fight the sea beasts for these transients, she would rather kill these crew members first.

"I only have you as a relative now; I don't want you to take risks."

"Rest assured, I won't take risks."

Xia Duo had no interest in fighting sea beasts; if he killed that giant octopus, was he supposed to have a barbecue? But if he wanted to have a barbecue, there were so many fresh, tender little octopuses in the sea he could catch, so why go to the trouble of catching that kind of giant octopus!

Not to mention, even if he wanted to catch it, he might not necessarily be able to!