The Hunt

But his expression told Lu Yuan that it wasn't just a storm.

A hint of wariness appeared on that usually fearless face—an instinctive reaction to a threat.

The ship tilted violently again, and items inside the cabin rattled.

Lu Yuan forced himself to turn his head and look at the sea through the porthole.

Beneath those surging black waves...

There is a shadow.

A huge shadow.

Not just one, but many.

They roam the seabed, appearing and disappearing, each one as large as the Abyssal Hunter, appearing and disappearing between the waves.

[Environmental Perception: Extremely high Contamination levels in the sea area, unusually active Deep Sea organisms, and multiple large biological signals detected, approaching...]

The storm has fully arrived.

Giant waves crashed against the hull, producing a dull roar. Each impact caused the entire ship to tremble violently, as if it were about to be torn to pieces at any moment.

The Abyssal Hunter rocked violently in the waves, its tilt increasing in angle. Boxes inside the cabin slid off their anchor points, slamming against the bulkheads with dull thuds.

The Born stood in front of the helm, his mechanical arm gripping the helm tightly. Gear whirred at high speed, steam spewing from his joints. His legs seemed nailed to the deck, remaining motionless no matter how fierce the wind and waves raged.

Another Born stood behind him, ready to take his place at any moment.

The Ascension Society's creations have no concept of fatigue, but even machines have their limits. In a storm of this intensity, any mistake could be fatal.

The rain poured down.

Large raindrops pounded on the deck, making a dense, pattering sound.

Lightning tore through the sky.

The blinding white light illuminated the darkness, turning it deathly pale, and the entire world became crystal clear in that instant.

Alice stood in the captain's cabin, looking out through the rain-blurred glass.

With each flash of lightning, she could see the churning sea.

And beneath the surface of the sea... those enormous, barely visible silhouettes.

They are closer now.

"That thing is getting closer!"

The voice of the Born came from the sound transmission tube, carrying the hoarseness characteristic of machinery.

Alice's gaze suddenly sharpened.

She saw it clearly.

The dark shadows hidden beneath the sea surface are fish.

No, it can't be called a fish.

Those things were enormous, each one as long as half the Abyssal Hunter.

Its body was an eerie Deep Blue, as if it had been dyed with "Deep Blue" Ore, and its scales gleamed with a cold light in the lightning.

Their eyes had no pupils, only a murky blue, and their mouths were full of jagged, sharp teeth.

They flocked to the Abyssal Hunter from all directions.

"They're attacking! Request permission to fire!" the Born's voice rang out again.

Alice acted decisively, rushing towards the sound transmission pipe:

"All guns, fire immediately!"

The Abyssal Hunter's hull began to tremble.

Not only the bow, but also the armor plates on both sides of the hull slowly separated, revealing rows of black cannon barrels that gleamed with a cold metallic luster in the wind and rain.

The Ascension Society's warships were never just for transport.

Ed and Leonard rushed to the gun emplacement to prepare for repairs.

"Fire!"

Boom!

The first volley of shells roared out and landed in the sea, creating a huge column of water.

The explosion erupted underwater, the shockwave knocking back the first few fish, causing Deep Blue blood to gush out, but it was quickly dispersed.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

More artillery fire poured down.

The cannons fired alternately, the orange-red flashes illuminating half the sea in the wind and rain.

Each salvo could drive away the Mutated Fish on the seabed, and some were even hit directly, with Flesh flying everywhere and limbs scattering.

But there were too many of them, and they were too big.

A single salvo of artillery fire was barely enough to kill them, let alone drive them away. Before the cannons could fire another salvo, several Mutated Fish had already rushed to the side of the ship.

They leaped out of the water, their massive bodies tracing an arc in the air before crashing heavily into the ship.

"Bang!"

The whole ship began to rock.

Alice gripped the bulkhead and looked through the glass at the Mutated Fish's mouth biting into the ship's hull, its sharp teeth leaving deep scratches on the armor and making a piercing metallic scraping sound.

More Mutated Fish out of the water.

They pounced on the Abyssal Hunter like madmen, ramming into it with their bodies and tearing at it with their sharp teeth.

The cannons began to be destroyed. These Mutated Fish had clearly gained intelligence; they were not only attacking the hull but also constantly destroying the extended cannon barrels.

The ship shook violently under the continuous impact, and the sound of things collapsing could be heard from inside the cabin.

"More than half of the artillery has been destroyed!" The Born's voice carried a hint of anxiety.

The Abyssal Hunter is in grave danger.

Alice gritted her teeth; she had no other options at the moment.

The situation is critical.

Just then...

An even stronger bolt of lightning tore through the sky.

That lightning bolt was brighter than any before, its white light engulfing the entire sea.

Alice saw it.

Philip saw it.

Everyone on the ship who was watching the sea saw it.

In that instant of white light, a huge outline emerged from beneath the sea.

It was larger than any shadow I had ever seen before.

It was thousands or even tens of thousands of times larger than those Mutated Fish.

It resembles a sleeping mountain range, stretching across the seabed, its black body extending to the horizon, with no end in sight.

Countless tentacles extended from that outline, each thicker than the Abyssal Hunter, swaying and rising slowly in the water.

The captain's cabin fell into dead silence.

The next moment, waves surged and tentacles rose from the seabed.

Slow, silent, unstoppable.

They pierced through the surging sea, through the dense rain, through the storm's barrier, and soared into the clouds.

When the first tentacle surfaced, Alice felt her heart skip a beat.

The surface of the tentacles was covered with a dense array of suckers.

There is an eye in each suction cup.

The eyes were jet black, without pupils, only a bottomless darkness.

As the tentacles stood still, all the eyes opened simultaneously.

It was watching over the tiny boat.

Alice gripped the warhammer tightly, but she knew it was useless.

In the face of such a being, warhammers and tree branches are no different.

However, the tentacles did not attack the Abyssal Hunter.

It swept across the Mutated Fish.

It was just a single swing.

It was done lightly, like swatting away mosquitoes.

Dozens of Mutated Fish were smashed into a pulp, their blue blood exploding on the sea surface like an unfolding turquoise flower.

The school of fish scattered instantly.

As if sensing some higher being, the fear etched deep in their instincts made them forget everything. They stopped attacking the Abyssal Hunter and instead fled frantically in all directions.

But they can't escape.

More tentacles rose up.

Two, three, five, ten...

The entire sea area began to be filled with tentacles, which drew deadly arcs on the surface of the water as they chased after the fleeing Mutated Fish.

Those monsters that were once unstoppable were as fragile as paper toys in front of the tentacles, each swing taking away dozens of lives.

The sea was stained blue with blood.

Severed limbs and tails floated on the waves, caught in whirlpools, and tossed about again.