The sun had long since clawed its way into the heavens. What began as a morning siege had stretched into afternoon, the golden light cutting sharp angles across broken docks and reefs torn apart by fury. Pearlbay was half-submerged now, its once-proud barricades reduced to driftwood and skeletons of timber that jutted out of the flood like bones.
And still, Thal'ryx roared.
Its cry was not of triumph anymore. It was not the victorious howl of a sea tyrant that had crushed armies and swallowed fleets. No what echoed across Pearlbay now was something primal, raw, and unyielding: a challenge. A refusal to die quietly.
The sea bent beneath that roar. Crimson-tinged waves lashed outward like living whips, tearing stone from seawalls and capsizing wrecked fishing boats. One sweep of the leviathan's tail shattered what remained of the southern pier; debris exploded outward, chunks of timber hurled into the air like flaming meteors.
