Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

The situation was starting to become dire, as the ship was now dead in the water. Whether the merfolk had entirely disabled the vessel, making it incapable of operating any longer. Or had simply used their overwhelming strength to stall it in place. Zane honestly didn't know.

But one thing was certain: they were stuck in the water, surrounded by countless Merfolk. With a small ship to protect themselves in. Something which Zane had no doubt could be torn apart by the Merfolk who were climbing onto the deck with ravenous gazes.

The fight was between Zane, Gwen, and Evilyn, while they held control of the deck, cutting the Merfolk whelps who recklessly jumped onto the deck in an attempt to drag the beings on board into the water where they could more easily be ripped apart during a feeding frenzy.

And as Zane cut these merfolk to pieces with his two sickles, he saw something in the distance. It was a giant tail which appeared from the surface of the water. So large that it dwarfed the fishing boat entirely. And that was just the tail.

The tail itself appeared long and scaled, but it was also finned. It was unlike anything Zane had seen before. And when it whipped against the surface of the water, a giant wave appeared in its wake. Startling the merfolk as they fled back beneath the water's surface. Perhaps in order to escape from this massive beast.

Zane did not even see a name of the monster, or a corresponding level. But the moment he saw the tail he figured he was as good as dead if they could not escape to the shore. And because of this, Zane ordered Beatrix to see if she could get the engine started.

"Get us the hell out of here!'

Beatrix glared at Zane as she fiddled with the ship's keys until finally it started up. Propelling the boat forward once again. Luckily for them, it appeared that the massive sea monster had no interest in them, as its tail surfaced once more, but this time much further out than it had been previously. It was obviously headed further out towards the ocean.

Because of this Zane, Gwen, Evilyn, Beatrix, and all the others collectively sighed in relief. Whatever that monster was, it had scared the Merfolk away. Who did not appear to be giving chase? Whatever that thing was, Zane suspected it was at least twice the size of a blue whale. Meaning that even a corvette class warship would be smaller than it.

And it was because of this that Zane had no thoughts of finding out just what kind of monstrosity had scared away the merfolk. Instead, he insisted on reaching the other side of the shore as fast as they could. It did not matter if they crashed into the beach, which was nowhere near civilization. The first sight of land was their destination!

Luckily for Zane and the others, there was no sign of other sea monsters pursuing them for the rest of their journey. And when they finally landed on the shore, Zane could not help but bend Gwen over his knee and spank her repeatedly all while cursing her out for the way she mocked him before.

"Who doesn't have any balls now? Huh, bitch! I don't ever want to hear you taunt me like that again! Because this is what fucking happens!"

Gwen did not seem the least bit in pain, no matter how much power Zane forced in his slap. Instead, her face flushed red as she tried to hide her embarrassment, among other potential feelings she might be experiencing. That is until Zane finally put her down.

Where the Horde King was forced to admit she was sorry while averting her gaze from Zane entirely.

"I'm sorry big brother… I won't taunt you like that again…"

Despite the fact that they had damn near died, or perhaps because of it, Gwen had made this promise. Even if she didn't feel particularly aggrieved by her "punishment." As for the group, and their goals. They had now landed on the safety of the shore. And after that particular experience, none of them wanted to go back into the sea, or god forbid the ocean that waited beyond.

Because of this, they were quick to head west. They had landed somewhere in between Shanghai and Beijing. Since they had been warned about Ophelia residing in Shanghai. They decided to go northwest to find the ruined capital of China.

After all, with such a populated area, perhaps they could hide beneath the radar, and in doing so gain some much needed experience and resources by killing the local undead population. After all, although Zane was now somewhere around level 65. His companions and horde both needed to catch up to his level. Not only did he need to add more undead to his horde, and level them up.

But he also needed to ensure that all of his companions reached Tier II. As well as properly equip them all for battle. Because of this, a large city, which hopefully had a human population would be the most ideal place to lie low for the time being.

Especially since everyone was still looking for Zane in North America. And it was with this in mind that they headed for the city of Beijing. Hoping that there was still a lot of human being living in the city. Who they could hide amongst.

As for the local Horde King in charge of the metropolitan area. Neither Zane nor the Horde Kings beneath his control knew if they had gone off to fight Balthazar's war. Or remained behind like Ophelia had. Either way, they knew that further south in Shanghai Ophelia was indeed within the city.

Thus, they would take their chances in Beijing. After all, the unknown was sometimes better than the known. Especially when you knew certain death awaited in the other direction. And after the brief journey across the Yellow Sea, any ideas they may have had of sailing east to North America were now gone. There was no conceivable reality where they would dare attempt such a thing.