Seven Seastone Torpedoes Lock Down the Fleet

"All ships, reduce sail and spread out!"

Qi Hai's order spread through the fleet over the shared channel.

All fifteen ships adjusted their headings at once.

The three medical ships held the center line, watching the merchant ships pull apart to either side while the Dawnbringer continued pressing forward through the waves.

Mia knelt at the bow as seven marker pins landed on the chart one after another.

"The first is due north, six hundred meters away. The second and third are circling the reef from the west. The remaining four haven't accelerated yet. They're identifying the ships' sound signatures."

Beneath the surface, a long, slender shadow sliced through the dark current.

A Seastone ram was embedded in the torpedo's head, while its rear propeller spun at high speed.

Folded metal nets were pressed against both sides of its body. Once it exploded, fragments mixed with Seastone would blanket the surrounding sea.

Qi Hai studied the model diagram Thorne had left behind.

"We can't let it get close. The explosion is only the first layer. If the shattered nets land on the ship, you'll lose your strength from even touching them."

Su Hang grabbed an ordinary heavy crossbow.

"Get the buoy lines ready."

The sailors fastened cables to the crossbow bolts.

The arrowheads carried no gunpowder. They were tied only to wooden buoys filled with scrap iron, which would create continuous vibrations after entering the water.

Mia suddenly raised her hand.

"The first one changed course! It's coming for the Dawnbringer!"

"Distance?"

"Four hundred meters, and it's still accelerating!"

Su Hang raised the crossbow and fired.

The bolt skimmed across the surface and struck the first buoy.

The cable pulled taut as the Dawnbringer dragged the buoy sideways, the scrap iron inside continuously battering the wooden walls.

The thumping quickly carried underwater.

The torpedo's trajectory veered accordingly.

Qi Hai stared at the bubbles.

"It hasn't completely turned away."

Mia grabbed the winch.

"The buoy's too light. Its sound signature doesn't resemble a ship. Add weight, and give it a plank that can catch the waves!"

Qi Hai kicked an empty barrel into the sea. The rope looped around the barrel and clipped it to the buoy.

A wave slammed into the barrel.

Boom!

The heavy impact traveled down the rope and across the water.

The first torpedo immediately abandoned the Dawnbringer and accelerated toward the barrel.

Mia shouted.

"Detonation range is fifty meters! Release the line!"

The cable unhooked.

The barrel surged forward with the waves, and the torpedo struck it from below.

The explosion tore open the sea!

The shattered Seastone net blasted outward, hundreds of black metal chunks pinning down the waves.

The buoy and barrel were pulverized on the spot, and the nearby seawater sank into a strange depression.

No one aboard cheered.

Mia had already pulled up the second marker pin.

"Two from the west activated at once, less than thirty meters apart!"

Su Hang fired two more crossbow bolts.

Qi Hai gave the order.

"Deploy decoy ship shadows two and three! Don't beat the barrels at the same time. Left first, then right, three breaths apart!"

Two empty barrels were shoved into the sea.

The first was tied to a short mast and a torn sail. The second hung with a soaked anchor chain, their wave-driven vibrations light and heavy respectively.

The first torpedo pursued the torn sail.

But the other only veered halfway before locking onto the Dawnbringer again.

Mia watched the line of waves.

"They'll exchange their assessments! Once the first confirms the target is fake, it'll pass the identification signal to the torpedo behind it!"

Qi Hai immediately cut the torn sail from the first barrel.

"Make the decoy change. Don't give them repeated sound signatures!"

Without the torn sail, the barrel's impact frequency abruptly changed.

The two torpedoes crossed underwater as they turned. One latched onto the sound of the anchor chain, while the other pursued the rolling barrel.

Boom! Boom!

Two columns of water rose in succession.

The shattered nets spread two hundred meters away, sealing off half the western route.

Panicked voices came from the merchant ships.

"The way ahead is full of Seastone fragments! We can't get through!"

Qi Hai pressed a hand to the Den Den Mushi.

"Keep your distance! The broken nets will sink. Whoever fights for the route will be the first to hit a torpedo!"

Mia swiftly calculated the tide.

"Four remain. The northern debris nets will sink below the ships' bottoms in fifty breaths. The fleet will pass through the north one by one, two hundred meters apart."

A merchant captain asked urgently.

"What about the Dawnbringer?"

"We'll stay on the outer side and draw away the remaining torpedoes."

"You'll have all four locked onto you at once!"

Su Hang tightened the third buoy line.

"Then don't block the way here."

The fourth and fifth torpedoes accelerated at the same time.

Yet Mia did not immediately order the barrels deployed.

She watched the wave height until a side wave slammed into the reef wall, then abruptly brought down the red flag.

"Now!"

Two empty barrels dropped into the water from opposite sides.

The side wave rolled the barrels around, and broken planks constantly slapped the surface.

Drawn by the sound, the two torpedoes cut toward the reef wall at once.

Qi Hai gripped the detonation line.

"Not close enough yet."

Mia watched the two trails of bubbles converge on the same reef shadow.

"Wait one more breath."

The ropes suddenly tightened, and the two barrels collided head-on.

"Pull!"

The two torpedoes turned at the same time.

Rumble!

The first struck a submerged reef ahead of time, and the blast knocked the second off course.

The out-of-control torpedo skimmed along the reef wall for dozens of meters before finally crashing into the shattered Seastone net.

The fifth explosion made the Dawnbringer's deck shudder.

Qi Hai looked over the sea.

"Four lured into exploding, one hit a reef. Two remain."

"No."

Mia pointed behind and to the right of the Dawnbringer.

"All three have locked onto us."

Three straight trails of bubbles broke through the waves, no longer drawn in by empty barrels.

They had recorded the complete sound signatures of the Dawnbringer's mainmast, keel, and rudder. Ordinary decoys had completely failed.

Su Hang gauged the distance.

"Can we dodge by listing the hull?"

"The torpedoes draw four feet of water. The Dawnbringer's unloaded bottom sits at two and a half feet, but we're carrying protective materials. Its deepest point is close to five feet."

Mia quickly turned the dial.

"List fifteen degrees to the left, and the right side of the hull can rise to three feet. Two will pass along the right side, but the other may still hit the rudder."

Qi Hai was already issuing orders.

"Move all cargo on the right to port! Reef the left sails tight, raise the right sails full! Crew, grab the safety lines! No one stands by the cargo hold!"

Su Hang extended both arms, wrapping them around the mainmast and the reef pillar to port.

His rubber arms rapidly stretched.

Qi Hai looked at him.

"The mainmast can only take this once."

"Once is enough."

"What about your right shoulder?"

"It won't break."

The three torpedoes closed to within two hundred meters.

Mia fixed her gaze on the wave crests.

"Don't pull yet. If the ship lists too early, the torpedoes will adjust their depth."

One hundred fifty meters.

One hundred meters.

Fine bubbles were already visible along both sides of the Dawnbringer.

Mia suddenly grabbed the mainmast.

"Get ready!"

"There'll be half a breath of trough after the big wave. That's when!"

The crest lifted the bow, then forced the entire ship downward.

"Pull!"

Su Hang's arms suddenly tightened.

The mainmast bent to port, and the Dawnbringer's starboard side violently lifted from the water.

The heavy cargo in the hold slammed into the left wall at the same time, listing the ship so sharply that its mast nearly touched the waves.

The first torpedo streaked past beneath the right side of the hull.

The second followed close behind. Its Seastone ram scraped off a large swath of paint, but did not trigger its warhead.

Boom! Boom!

The two torpedoes shot out past the Dawnbringer's port side and exploded in succession among the distant reefs.

The mainmast let out a piercing crack.

Qi Hai slashed through the line anchoring Su Hang's arm to the reef pillar.

Using the rebound, the Dawnbringer crashed back onto the sea, planks across the deck splitting apart one after another.

Su Hang planted his feet firmly, blood already seeping from his right shoulder wound.

"Where's the last one?"

Mia did not answer.

She stared at the chart, and her expression changed sharply.

The final trail of bubbles circled around the Dawnbringer's stern. It neither attacked the main rudder nor pursued the keel as it returned to the water.

It had changed its identification signal.

Its target was the second medical ship behind them.

That ship had no cannons. Its hold carried all of Brand's fever medicine, and medical workers still waiting to be transferred stood on its deck.

To avoid the shattered net, it was sailing tight against the northern reef wall, with no room to turn at all.

Qi Hai grabbed the Den Den Mushi.

"Medical Ship Two, dump the cargo and turn immediately!"

An urgent reply came from the other end.

"There's reef to the right and shattered Seastone net to the left! If the torpedo hits the stern, the medicine hold will explode!"

Su Hang raised the heavy crossbow.

Too far.

The buoy would be useless.

The Dawnbringer's mainmast had already cracked. Chasing after it by force would only snap the sails first.

The black Den Den Mushi suddenly connected by itself.

Brand's voice came from the other end.

"The torpedo identification code isn't in my hands. A government agent controls the last one. He'd been waiting for you to save the ship from the very beginning."

Su Hang stared at the white trail of waves closing in on the medical ship.

"Disable the identification code."

"I can't."

"Then tell me where the control ship is."

A strange, icy voice replaced the previous one on the Den Den Mushi.

"If you want to save that ship, then fully unleash Nika's power and show me."