...
Deep in the White Forest, Carlos had cleared a space between several massive oak trees.
He cracked open a silver canister and poured out the pale blue liquid inside.
The stuff flowed like liquid crystal, carrying the fresh scent of ocean spray that made you want to take a deep breath and grin like an idiot.
Soon enough, a sky-blue mystical array shimmered into existence across the clearing.
This was the Tidal Sublimation Arcane Array—a piece of genius craftsmanship that players had cooked up specifically for these poor, cursed Whale Scale Hunters.
The whole point was bringing back their human bodies without turning them into weaklings.
Hell, they'd even figured out ways to make them stronger than before. These special units had been absolute game-changers back during the Sea Fury campaigns.
Carlos glanced over at Timira.
"Step into the center."
Timira got to her feet, half-hopeful, half-skeptical. She had no clue what Carlos was up to.
Could some fancy doodles on the ground really give her back her human body?
To be honest, Timira wasn't buying it.
After she dutifully planted herself at the ritual's heart, Carlos laid down the law:
"Listen up—no matter what crazy stuff starts happening, keep your mouth shut and don't budge from that spot.
Trust me on this. If I wanted you dead, I sure as hell wouldn't waste this much time and effort."
The only reason Carlos was bothering with all this song and dance was because he genuinely felt bad for these doomed women.
Well, that and he had his own skin in the game.
The special units you could cook up from Whale Scale Hunters might not hold a candle to Black Knights of the same level, but they were still solid fighters.
If he could transform all hundred-something Whale Scale Hunters holed up in Whale Fort, patch up their curse, and drag them back to the First Dark Mist Layer, it'd go a long way toward fixing his manpower shortage.
That was half the reason he'd hauled ass all the way to Saint Marr Island.
"Got it."
The guy had a point—if he wanted to pull something, that monster of his could squash her like a bug without breaking a sweat.
Timira figured she might as well roll with it and see what happened.
...
Carlos waved his hand, and Timira's jaw hit the floor as monster corpses came raining down, filling up the sacrifice spots around the array.
These nasty things were the fuel the sublimation array needed to work its magic.
Then he sent out a pulse of Psionic Energy while starting to chant under his breath:
"&&&&*&"
The monster corpses melted away one by one, transforming into raw energy, and the Tidal Sublimation Arcane Array blazed to life.
Right then, Carlos pulled out a sky-blue crystal.
Blue light danced across its surface, gorgeous as hell under the sunlight.
A Tidal Crystal—this baby had incredible containment properties and could keep the whale magic inside Whale Scale Hunters from going haywire. It was the key ingredient for the whole ritual.
He chucked the Tidal Crystal and the rest of his materials into the sublimation array, then started muttering:
"&&&&##"
BOOM!
The materials dissolved, and waves of Psionic Energy like ocean swells came surging up, rolling and crashing...
At the ritual's center, Timira felt weird energies flowing into her—and damn, it felt good.
Like floating in warm ocean water with a gentle breeze on her face.
Before she knew it, all her worries just melted away. Her eyes drifted shut, and she sank into the deepest sleep she'd had in years...
Outside the array, Carlos kept up his whispered chanting, mysterious sublimation words echoing through the trees...
"&&&&&##**"
As the final note rang out, the tidal waves peaked and suddenly scattered, leaving nothing but floating specks of blue light.
When the light faded, a sleeping woman lay at the ritual's center.
Her whole body was wrapped in strange blue scale armor, each piece etched with mystical wave patterns that seemed to shift like real tides.
Her face was hidden behind a shell-style mask, with a sky-blue crystal embedded right in her forehead. Inside the crystal, the ghostly outline of a whale flickered in and out of sight.
But what really caught your eye was the bizarre blue "hammer" she gripped in both hands.
The hammer head was huge—damn near half as tall as she was. A wicked-looking mouth jutted from the top of the hammer, twitching slightly like it was alive.
The woman's eyelids fluttered as she slowly came around.
She looked completely out of it—just felt amazing all over.
The second she woke up, the Tidal Crystal on her forehead pulsed once, then all that scale armor vanished, transforming into a flowing sky-blue dress dotted with points of light. The mask shifted back into a delicate shell headpiece.
The whale hammer in her hands shrank down, its handle disappeared, and the thing hopped right up onto the shell on her head, settling there like a blue pearl—absolutely stunning.
"Not too shabby at all."
Carlos nodded in appreciation.
Whoever had dreamed up this array was a certified genius with a serious eye for beauty.
They'd actually managed to turn the special unit's armor and weapons into perfectly placed accessories—talk about thinking outside the box.
No wonder these units had been crazy popular with players according to the records, ranked way higher than other fighters of similar strength.
"What the hell is this..."
Timira snapped back to reality and stared down at her hands—perfectly normal human hands.
She ran her fingers all over her body in a daze. Her skin was smooth and soft—all that hideous, scaly mess had completely vanished.
"Is this for real..."
A tear of pure joy rolled down her cheek. She'd actually become a normal person again!
"Real as it gets."
Carlos walked over and took a look at Timira's stats.
[Timira - Whale Scale Commander]
[A special being created by fusing a Whale Scale Hunter with Tidal Crystals and other rare materials.]
[Health: 400 (Constitution x50)]
[Strength: 20]
[Constitution: 8]
[Speed: 2]
[Skills: Tidal Affinity, Sea-Shaking Hammer Strike, Whale's Roar]
[Tidal Affinity: When in ocean environments, dramatically improves recovery speed and enhances all attributes.]
[Whale's Roar: Unleashes whale calls that can shake souls and possess mysterious power to command lesser sea creatures.]
[Sea-Shaking Hammer Strike: Channels all whale magic power, resonates with ocean tidal forces, supercharges the whale hammer to unleash devastating attacks far beyond normal strength!]
"Straight up sublimated to a Whale Scale Commander at high-tier level. You'd expect nothing less from the current Sequence 0."
The Tidal pathway worked like this—depending on how strong the original Whale Scale Hunter was, from weakest to strongest you could create:
Whale Scale Hammer Guard (Non-tier), Whale Scale Elite Hammer Guard (Low-tier), Whale Scale Warrior (Mid-tier), Whale Scale Commander (High-tier)
After checking out those attributes and skills, this was clearly a special unit built for kicking ass on the water.
But even on dry land, she could dish out some serious hurt with her raw power alone. Latest content published on novel{f}ire.net
...
...
Timira stood by the lake, completely obsessed with her reflection, cupping her face in her hands and grinning like a lovesick fool, couldn't help muttering:
"So gorgeous... I'm actually pretty..."
Carlos threw up his hands.
"Timira, you've been staring at yourself all damn afternoon. Give it a rest already.
I need to pick your brain about some stuff."
Hearing Carlos speak up, Timira slowly dragged herself away from her reflection, eyes twinkling like stars.