Instinctive Berserk
Gu Ding hadn't expected the Starry Sky Giant Beast to be so intelligent. His original plan was to completely suppress the Starry Sky Giant Beast with artillery fire, forcing it to retreat. But judging from the current situation, the giant seemed to have no intention of backing down at all.
This isn't surprising, really. Any mature Starry Sky Giant Beast is a dominant force in the Universe Sea. They have virtually no natural enemies and are rarely hunted. If it weren't for their low reproductive rate, Starry Sky Giant Beast would probably be the true protagonists of the Universe Sea. Because of this, they are fearless.
The Crimson Blood Beast knew perfectly well who had attacked it. While the attack had injured it, it wasn't life-threatening, so it chose to continue the pursuit. In the Universe Sea, it had fought other Starry Sky Giant Beast of far greater numbers, and each time the injuries were far more severe. Therefore, it wasn't afraid of this level of attack, and it wasn't enough to make it retreat.
Gu Ding roughly guessed the Crimson Blood Beast's intentions, but the Titan Cannon was already the most powerful weapon on the Titan Warship. However, Starry Sky Giant Beast is, after all, Starry Sky Giant Beast; its physical strength and defense even surpassed most Peak-rank God, limiting the damage the Titan Cannon could inflict. Gu Ding could only choose to bombard it continuously, accumulating wounds on the Crimson Blood Beast, hoping that quantitative change would lead to qualitative change and force the Crimson Blood Beast to retreat. But the Crimson Blood Beast found an opportunity to repair itself during a gap in the Titan Cannon's attack, which was not good news for Gu Ding and his companions.
"Want to repair it?! Bombard it with a cannon and interrupt it!" Gu Ding gave the order again.
"A single cannon shot isn't enough to harm him, are you sure?" Sea Emperor couldn't help but ask.
"We don't need to harm him, just interrupt his repair process." Gu Ding knew that he had a limited number of Source Energy Crystal. If he could, he would certainly prefer to bombard that behemoth with all twenty-seven giant cannons, but resources were limited, so he had to conserve some.
Following Gu Ding's instructions, Sea Emperor mobilized only one giant cannon and fired again.
The Crimson Blood Beast, undergoing self-repair, was once again struck by artillery fire. The repair process was immediately interrupted. This caused it to roar repeatedly; it knew its objective had been seen through, and quiet repair was no longer an option. It also knew that if it remained in the midst of the bombardment, it would continue to be harassed and have its repair interrupted. It immediately made a decision. "I must catch up with the enemy as quickly as possible. Devour those humans!"
As the Crimson Blood Beast charged out of the sea of fire once more, the twenty-seven giant cannons bombarded it again.
The Crimson Blood Beast, as if possessed, disregarded its own injuries and charged madly toward the location of Gu Ding and the others.
While continuously bombarding the ship, Sea Emperor controlled the spaceship to escape at maximum speed.
Although the Crimson Blood Beast was fast, each bombardment slowed it down for several minutes, allowing the Titan Battleship to increase its distance. Therefore, the distance between the two ships didn't close much. However, the expressions on the faces of those aboard the Titan Battleship didn't improve.
"This Starry Sky Giant Beast is too troublesome. It has already bombarded us more than fifty times, and we have used up most of our Source Energy Crystal, but it still doesn't intend to give up." Liliath frowned, also eager to find other solutions.
"The Titan Cannon is still a bit too weak..." Bigge sighed.
"At this rate, it'll catch up with us sooner or later and swallow us whole." Fa Te was even more pessimistic. "I'm only sixteen, and I'm not even married yet..."
Even Gu Ding frowned slightly. Judging from the current situation, the number of Source Energy Crystal was ultimately insufficient. However, he still decided to take a gamble. "Fa Te, give me all the remaining Source Energy Crystal!"
Without a Fa Te handed the remaining seven hundred Source Energy Crystal to Gu Ding.
"Take out all three hundred of them from your spaceship!" Gu Ding continued.
Fa Te nodded and released the spaceship into the void. Sea Emperor also brought the Titan Battleship to a stop. Fa Te opened the hatch; after all, he was only a demigod and couldn't fly, so Gu Ding had Robert was most familiar with the spaceship's structure, climb inside.
Fa Te's spaceship was a replica of a four-star Titan Warship. After Robert entered the spaceship, he quickly found the energy compartment and took out the remaining three hundred Source Energy Crystal.
Sea Emperor suddenly noticed an Energy Gathering Mirror on the top of the spaceship. "Robert, do you think we can modify the Energy Gathering Mirror on his spaceship and put it on ours?"
As Sea Emperor spoke, he projected the image of a mirror-like object on the top of the spaceship into Robert's eyes.
"Energy Gathering Mirror comparable to a five-star grade, very good, can be modified. Use it to focus the energy of our Titan Cannon!" Robert gave a definite reply after only one glance.
The Sea Emperor immediately told Gu Ding about the idea.
"Fa Te, can we take the Energy Gathering Mirror off your spaceship and borrow it?" Gu Ding asked without any hesitation.
"Take whatever you can use," Fate said. In the past, Fa Te definitely wouldn't have agreed, because he had the spaceship modified by a master designer. But now that he was about to lose his life, he could only let Gu Ding do whatever they wanted.
After obtaining Fa Te's consent, Robert climbed to the top of the spaceship, removed the Energy Gathering Mirror with a diameter of more than ten meters, carried it to the top of the Titan Battleship, and immediately began to modify it.
In just a few minutes, the modification was completed, Robert returned to the cabin, and Fa Te retrieved his own spaceship.
"You want to use the Energy Gathering Mirror to focus the energy on the Titan Cannon?" Fa Te couldn't help but ask.
"Yes," Robert nodded, "The Energy Gathering Mirror on your spaceship is of a very high grade. It can focus energy at least five times on the Titan Cannon, or even more. If it can focus energy ten times or more, even if it can't kill that Starry Sky Giant Beast, it will be enough to severely damage it."
Energy Gathering Mirror is a special optical weapon auxiliary device that can concentrate the energy of multiple optical weapons together and then fire it, thus multiplying the weapon's power. The Titan Cannon is a powerful optical weapon, and it can be enhanced using Energy Gathering Mirror. Moreover, the Energy Gathering Mirror installed on the Fa Te spaceship is of a high grade.
Previously, when Gu Ding and his group attacked, all twenty-seven giant cannons bombarded simultaneously. The attack was dispersed, and while the power was enhanced by the stacking, it was by no means a doubling effect. However, using the Energy Gathering Mirror, two layers of energy focus could double the power of the cannon fire, five layers could increase it fivefold, and ten layers could increase it tenfold. This completely qualitatively changed the attack power, which is why Robert said that more than ten layers of energy focus would be enough to severely damage that Starry Sky Giant Beast.
"Let me adjust this first. I'll preheat the Energy Gathering Mirror with two layers of energy focusing before slowly increasing its power!" Sea Emperor knew that the Energy Gathering Mirror needed to be preheated gradually. The Titan Cannon itself was already very powerful, and directly activating five layers of energy focusing could potentially damage the Energy Gathering Mirror. That would be counterproductive. It's like pouring boiling water into a cold glass in the dead of winter; the glass might shatter due to the temperature difference, but preheating it beforehand would prevent this—it's the same principle.
Meanwhile, the Titan emerged from the flames. This time, it wasn't immediately attacked, which surprised it. It wondered if its prey had run out of energy before being subjected to another fierce barrage. This time, though a single bombardment, its power was far greater than before, even comparable to the simultaneous bombardment of over twenty cannon shots, catching it somewhat off guard.
After three consecutive double-heating cycles, Sea Emperor finally activated its triple-energy-gathering mode.
The three Titan Cannon simultaneously blasted at the Energy Gathering Mirror, and then through the Energy Gathering Mirror, an even more powerful beam of light shot out, striking the Crimson Blood Beast once more.
The attack intensified, making the Crimson Blood Beast uneasy. This strike had already caused some damage to its body. If the power had been any stronger, it wouldn't have been just a simple flesh wound.
But soon, its nightmare began. After three triple energy charges, Sea Emperor charged four times, and the power of the Titan Cannon increased once again.
This bombardment directly caused a huge wound on the Crimson Blood Beast, causing it to bleed profusely.
Gu Ding and the others were secretly excited, and at this moment, they finally saw the dawn of victory.
After three more consecutive bombardments, Sea Emperor finally activated the energy focusing mirror to level five. This should be about the maximum power that the Energy Gathering Mirror can withstand. If it is increased any further, it is very likely to damage the Energy Gathering Mirror.
When the five-fold energy-concentrated cannon fire struck the Crimson Blood Beast, it opened its mouth and let out a miserable howl. This bombardment had indeed caused it considerable damage, as it already had many wounds on its body, and its stamina was severely depleted, its defenses were weakened, making it suffer excruciating pain from the bombardment.
Gu Ding and his group ignored all of that. Their objective was simple: to stop the enemy's pursuit. As long as the Big Guy didn't turn back, they wouldn't cease their bombardment. So, after the first five-fold energy gathering, the second shot quickly rang out, followed by the third, the fourth...
But the Crimson Blood Beast suddenly fell silent amidst the gunfire, its body no longer tumbling...
"We won?" Liliath asked in surprise, looking at the screen where only the firelight was burning quietly, the original rolling motion completely gone.
"This level of attack is not enough to kill it." Gu Ding shook his head, a vague sense of unease creeping into his heart. He felt that the Crimson Blood Beast seemed to be brewing something.
"Damn it, it's Instinctive Berserk!" The Sea Emperor quickly noticed the anomaly. "Crimson Blood Beast have a special ability: when their main consciousness enters a sealed state, their subconscious will surface, entering Instinctive Berserk state, where their Combat Strength and defense will increase dozens of times. However, normally, they only enter this state when they are on the verge of death, but this Crimson Blood Beast deliberately sealed its main consciousness, forcing itself into this Instinctive Berserk state."
Just as Sea Emperor finished explaining, the Crimson Blood Beast suddenly burst out of the artillery fire in the projected image, its tail fin rapidly vibrating. Its flight speed was more than twenty times faster than before, rapidly approaching the direction where Gu Ding's spaceship was located... (To be continued...)