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!'
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.