Chapter 231: 7. Hunting the Sea Ghost
“Boom!”
The weather on the second day was no longer clear like the previous days. The originally blue sky above the sea was now obscured by several layers of stacked gray clouds, and the sea surface, less illuminated, lacked a bit of transparent blue while gaining more of a profound black.
The wind and waves ahead began to rise. The Ironclad Iceberg Queen collided with the undulating waves, splashing up high white water.
In the distance, just beneath the surface, the vortex breathing in the sea ghost grew smaller, signaling that its inhalation process was coming to an end; it would soon be moving back to the depths of the sea.
At the same time, this meant that the crew on the Iceberg Queen was about to begin their hunt.
At this moment, Fisher, standing by the deck railing, was relatively calm. According to Captain Paz’s past experiences, she said that hunting sea ghosts was actually not very risky; even a larger civilian hunting ship could give it a try, let alone the Iceberg Queen, a warship of the Sardinia Kingdom, which was more than capable of handling it.
So now he leaned against the railing, pondering a question that had arisen the previous afternoon: why was there a [Loyalty -1] among the rewards received from the societal research progress of the Cangniao Tribe?
After thinking for a while, he came to two hypotheses.
The first possibility was that Emhart had relayed incorrect legends about the Cangniao Tribe to Fisher.
Historically, the real Cangniao Tribe was not a loyal race; on the contrary, they were a tribe full of rebelliousness.
They were not loyal to the Phoenix Race or their other masters. The two tribes that stayed in Sardinia and returned to the snowy mountains had their own plans, and it was even possible that their disappearance was related to them.
Of course, there was a second possibility, which was related to the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans.
Remember when studying Raphael on the Southern Continent, Fisher had once received an enhancement in reproductive ability, vastly boosting his reproductive rank and desire.
However, on closer thought, one would realize that for the Dragon Race, which had a Suitable Tail Partner mechanism, this enhancement in reproductive capacity was specific to Suitable Tail Partners, while Fisher’s enhancement applied to all opposite sexes.
In other words, the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans granted Fisher a wider enhancement attribute than what the Dragon Race offered, simply because they had the characteristic of [Strong Reproductive Ability].
In other words, the enhancements provided by the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans were all still within the category of [Rewards], and this enhancement from the Cangniao Tribe was no exception.
Thus, was it possible that the Cangniao Tribe indeed possessed the characteristic of [Loyalty], but due to the dark humor of the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans, it believed that reducing Fisher’s Loyalty attribute could help him better study other subhuman races, thus reducing that trait from him as a reward?
For Fisher, who was well aware of the nature of the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans, this line of thought made a lot of sense. After all, his prejudice against the Supplement Handbook was just as deep-rooted as Emhart’s prejudice against him.
“Quick! Quick! Hold on to your things!”
At this moment, the Iceberg Queen was bustling with activity. The crew returned to their respective posts, and every hunting weapon and cannon was checked to ensure no mistakes.
“Ha, this guy is already exhausted! Caroline, prepare the Steam Javelin!”
Paz stood at the bow, holding her telescope, carefully observing the breathing orifice on the marine beast. She clearly saw the muscles of the sea ghost had already become rigid; even the cries it emitted had become weak, the once turbine-like loud noise gradually shrinking to a sorrowful sound resembling that of a dolphin.
Fisher’s thoughts were interrupted by the bustling sounds of the crew. He turned to look at the bow where the gigantic spear, originally meant for ice-breaking, was suddenly erupting with torrents of boiling steam.
With the gears of the steam machinery behind the spear beginning to spin rapidly, amidst countless sparks, the giant spear relaxed slightly forward like a drawn longbow.
“Ziii!”
This giant spear at the bow was the most iconic feature of the Sardinia warships. Since their vessels needed to meet the navigational demands of the northern ocean ice seas, they equipped the bow with a sharp giant spear for ice-breaking.
For warships, the function of this ice-breaking spear was further expanded, also serving as a close-combat weapon at sea.
When enemy vessels approached, they would launch the sharp spear, whose tip was modified to a barbed structure, connected to a sturdy steel cable leading back to the ship’s central body.
Once it hit an enemy ship, it could instantly pierce through the iron skin of the enemy while maximizing the prevention of the opponent’s escape, drawing both ships closer.
This was because, although the Sardinia warships had thick hulls, their cannons were relatively outdated; if they were too far apart, they would easily miss, so this combat method was adopted to maximize the hit rate of the warship’s cannons while facilitating the valiant soldiers to engage in boarding combat.
Now, the Iceberg Queen was preparing to use this giant spear to hunt the giant sea beast, the sea ghost.
“Zzzz!”
“Woo…”
The steam javelin at the bow became increasingly agitated, and the crew on the deck scattered, afraid that the scalding steam would harm them.
As the intense sound of steam echoed over the sea, the sea ghost seemed to sense something, and in the next moment, it let out a gentle hiss, with the spirals on its back shrinking gradually as its body began to sink.
It was getting ready to escape from the surface.
But evidently, the Iceberg Queen would not give it this opportunity.
“All hands! Grip your weapons and railings, prepare to hunt!”
Standing by the deck, Paz put down her telescope and shouted orders to everyone on deck.
At this time, many crew members were in the cabin below the deck; they were responsible for steering the ship and operating the warship’s guns and other weapons, while the remaining crew held their firearms and blades ready on the deck.
With Paz’s command, the roar of steam at the bow reached its peak, and the giant spear gently rotated, aimed at the sea ghost that had just begun to sink.
“Boom!”
In the next second, wrapped in steam, the spear shot out violently, and the massive recoil lifted the entire ship a short distance upward.
All crew members clutched the railings tightly; Fisher held on with one hand, but due to the movement of the sea ghost, the surrounding choppy waves easily splashed over the railing, crashing down violently onto the deck.
“Bang!”
Old Jack and the three Mouse Daughters were in the cabin below, and Isabel was there helping out, while the remaining crew were battle-hardened sailors under Captain Alagina. Even though the ship began to tilt, they calmly held onto the railings, focused intently on their prey ahead.
“Swish!”
In the next moment, that thunderously swift giant spear rapidly pierced into the sea ghost’s body, but due to its thick skin, the spear did not pass through completely, stopping within its muscles.
Simultaneously, the spear’s tip expanded into a hooked shape as it entered its body.
The steel hooks expanded and firmly gripped the muscle beneath the sea ghost’s hard skin, fixing it inside like a fishing hook.
“Aw!”
In pain, the sea ghost instinctively began to sink towards the bottom, and the entire ship suddenly dipped a small distance amidst the deafening roar of the waves, but it was just a small distance.
Even a fully robust sea ghost could not sink a warship of the Iceberg Queen’s tonnage, let alone now when it had already endured several days of physical exhaustion and was in a weakened state.
The sea ghost howled angrily beneath the water, and instead of dragging the Iceberg Queen down, it was itself pulled back up to the surface.
At the same time, its resistance only further widened the wound on its back, causing a large amount of blood to flow into the ocean, making it seem as though the Iceberg Queen was sailing through a sea of blood.
Captain Alagina was in the captain’s chamber directing the crew steering the ship. Under her command, the Iceberg Queen did not slow down but continued to maintain full power, only slightly slower than the fleeing sea ghost.
This is akin to fishing: once the spear is inserted, the Iceberg Queen needs to maintain a slightly slower speed rather than coming to a complete stop.
Because if there is too great a speed difference, it can lead to intense resistance, which increases the risk of capsizing. Thus, following it at a neither fast nor slow pace consumes its stamina; sooner or later, it would succumb to exhaustion and excessive blood loss.
The Northern people are well aware of hunting at sea, after all, the ancestors of the Sardinia Kingdom could hunt great sea ghosts with wind-powered wooden boats even before steam ships existed.
“Fire!”
The hunting process proceeded smoothly; the power released by the steam industry demonstrated its ease in dealing with such marine giant beasts.
Fisher leaned against the railing, feeling there was no need to help; instead, it was as if he had come to observe, just wanting to see the spectacular hunting scene up close.
“Bang!”
Surrounding crew members leaned against the railing with their firearms, laughing as they fired at the sea ghost, the dense bullets hitting the water and splashing up like raindrops.
“Boom!”
The ship’s heavy artillery was also ready at this moment. With a deafening bang, both the surface of the sea and the back of the sea ghost were blown open, ejecting a mixture of blood and seawater.
Another painful hit drove the sea ghost into a frenzy, but no matter what, it could not escape from the ice-breaking spear lodged in its muscles.
The design of the ice-breaking spear on the Iceberg Queen was ingenious; before penetrating the enemy’s interior, its barbs were fully retracted, thereby reducing the area of force to ensure it could penetrate the enemy’s body.
Only afterward would it activate the barbs, using the enemy’s hard skin to secure the spear in place and ensure it wouldn’t come loose.
With such a mechanism, the sea ghost acted like a moving target, allowing the Iceberg Queen to unleash a relentless assault.
Furthermore, the artillery mounted on the Iceberg Queen was also quite different from those on other Northern ships.
The artillery it carried was not locally produced, but rather stolen from the ships of Shivali, and Fisher had learned of this matter a long time ago while chatting with a tobacco merchant on the ship returning to Nali. The artillery from Shivali was recognized as the most powerful among several countries.
The sea ghost ahead suddenly suffered a full barrage; already weakened and losing blood, it seemed on the verge of dying right there.
“Aw.”
In the next moment, it lost the energy to dive and, after a sharp wail, uncontrollably floated to the water’s surface, exposing large areas of its skin stained with blood.
“Got it! Got it!”
Upon seeing this, Paz, who raised her telescope to check the results on the deck, immediately cheered, with her wet chubby face shaking excitedly.
The enormous sea ghost had completely floated to the surface, fully motionless. Its muscles twitched irregularly, but due to excessive blood loss, the color of its outer skin seemed to have faded to a pale hue.
If one turned back at this moment, they would find that the vast sea surface looked as though it had been streaked with a crimson brushstroke.
The speed of the Iceberg Queen’s engine slowed down, and amidst the cheers of the entire crew, it slowly approached the floating corpse of the sea ghost.
“Wait, let me see if it’s really dead, hand me the gun.”
Paz jumped down from the bow to Fisher’s side, where it was closest to the sea ghost below.
Worried that the monster might have a sudden resurrection, she needed to confirm that it was truly dead.
She took the gun handed to her by a nearby crew member, aimed at the sea ghost’s body, and fired. Watching a new wound appear without any movement from it, she ultimately confirmed that this fellow was completely lifeless.
“Dead! Dead! Hurry, go down and pull out the spearhead. We’ll take the valuable parts and leave the rest here!”
While the ice-breaking spear of the Northern ships was very useful, it also had a drawback: many times, retrieving it required the crew to manually pull it back; pulling it back solely with the steam engine was ineffective as it often got stuck.
There were only a few valuable items on the sea ghost’s body, so there was no need to drag the entire corpse away. After all, no one had ever tasted its meat, and no one ate what was presumably inedible, and Paz wasn’t sure about that either.
“Yay!”
“Charge!”
After hearing Paz’s orders, the cheering crew members began to tie ropes around themselves and prepare to board the ship; many of them simply leaped straight into the water from the deck, swimming toward the enormous corpse below.
“Oh, it’s so cruel. Fortunately, one rarely encounters a sea ghost in a decade or more; otherwise, these rough North people would have exterminated them long ago.”
Emhart floated beside the observing Fisher, watching the crew swimming to the sea ghost and commented.
Fisher did not respond; after seeing the sea ghost was dead, he pulled back his gaze, ready to leave and not watch them divide the spoils anymore.
But at that moment, for some reason, Fisher suddenly felt the hairs on his body stand up. A strange intuition surged up, making him feel as if some danger was approaching.
He instinctively turned around but found that no one had noticed anything unusual, so he moved to the edge of the ship, watching the crew that had reached the sea ghost’s body shout, “One, two, three, pull the spear.”
Could it be that he misjudged?
Fisher leaned against the railing, scrutinizing the waters below. But just a second later, amidst the blood-stained surface, a massive shadow slowly emerged, as if something was rapidly approaching from the depths.
[Today I’m feeling unwell; for now, this is only a single chapter of 4000 words, just using stored drafts to cover.
Sorry, sorry.
I kindly request votes, tips, and support, as it means a lot to me!
Thank you very much for your support!
(End of this chapter)]
