Drawing attention

Engels's plan was simple. The mutation of Jaeger's entire body had produced five tentacles in total: four from his limbs and one from his torso. Only his head still retained its human appearance.

That head was undoubtedly his fatal weakness. If they could find an opportunity to attack it, they would most likely be able to kill Jaeger.

So everyone needed to keep all five tentacles firmly occupied, giving Engels the perfect angle to shoot Jaeger in the head.

After all, ranged attacks were far safer than close combat.

None of them wanted to risk being strangled by five tentacles to attack Jaeger's head, Dunn included.

But recalling how Jaeger had pulled out the arrow earlier without a drop of blood flowing from his palm, Dunn doubted the plan's chances of success.

The other captains, however, decisively agreed to the plan as though clutching at a lifeline, and Engels, who had proposed it, was nominally Dunn's subordinate.

So Dunn could hardly raise any objections at that point.

There were five groups in total, just enough for each to handle one tentacle.

Once they had confirmed the plan, the captains immediately rallied their scattered, fleeing subordinates, and each group picked a target and got to work.

Dunn led Green and two pirate underlings near one of the rampaging tentacles. Watching it thrash wildly through the air, Dunn held his chin and slowly considered how to keep its attention.

Just then, the tentacle suddenly stopped waving. The eyes covering it abruptly swiveled in unison to look at Dunn and the others.

Dunn was startled. Before he could work out what the tentacle was doing, it moved.

The motionless tentacle suddenly lashed down at Dunn and the others.

"Watch out! Move!"

Everyone hurriedly scattered, dodging it.

The force generated by the tentacle's rapid swing blasted past like a volcanic eruption, plowing a deep furrow through the ground.

The sight shocked Dunn and the others.

"The captain took a blow like that head-on earlier!"

"That's our captain for you."

The two pirate underlings could not help swallowing hard.

"What's going on? Why did it suddenly target us? Was it an accident, or..."

Dunn and Green exchanged a glance.

Then, before either could say anything, the tentacle swung at them again. Dunn could clearly feel that it was targeting them now.

After dodging again, Dunn glanced toward the other four tentacles. Although the other four captains had already approached them, those tentacles had not taken the initiative to attack.

Why? Doubt rose in Dunn's mind.

"Captain, look out!"

The shout pulled Dunn from his thoughts, and he saw the tentacle swinging at him with tremendous force.

Dunn instinctively sidestepped a few paces, moving beyond the tentacle's reach.

Bam!

There was a dull boom. Although the tentacle had not touched Dunn, he was sent flying again as though struck by an invisible mass of air.

He flew straight back more than ten meters before crashing to the ground.

Damn it, I actually forgot about that. Dunn could not help feeling annoyed.

Once an attribute exceeded 20 points, it granted supernatural talents, just as Dunn's supernatural stamina had granted him supernatural toughness and supernatural recovery.

Once the strength attribute exceeded 20 points, it likewise granted two supernatural talents: Impact and force dissipation.

The effect of the Impact talent was to add an impact to every attack its possessor made, effectively increasing their attack range.

The effect of the force dissipation talent was to eliminate the recoil from its possessor's attacks.

It was Impact that had sent Dunn flying, and he had only remembered it while being thrown back. The force of Impact gradually weakened the farther it traveled from the body.

Fortunately, Dunn had been some distance from the tentacle, so he had only suffered minor surface injuries this time.

But the commotion of Dunn being sent flying also drew the other captains' attention to his situation.

Hawkins said, "As expected of someone born extraordinary. He really does move fast."

Astor said, "Heh, looks like I'll have to step things up too."

Astor's gaze roamed over the tentacle before him, finally settling on the eyes densely covering it.

Grant: "..."

Having approached the tentacle, Grant discovered that the whispers had grown stronger again. He had no attention to spare for anything else.

Feishman called, "Hey, Captain Dunn, how did you get that tentacle's attention?"

Hearing Feishman's question, Dunn replied helplessly, "I don't know either. The damn thing just suddenly targeted me."

Seeing that it had returned to its previous state after knocking him away, rather than continuing to attack Green and the other two, Dunn now understood that, for some unknown reason, the tentacle had singled him out.

Hearing Dunn's reply, Feishman sighed helplessly. "All right."

No one thought Dunn was lying. After all, none of them were fools, and they all knew that honest cooperation was their best option under the circumstances.

"Roar!!"

Just then, a shrill roar suddenly came from the tentacle near Astor. Everyone turned toward the sound and saw Astor scrambling desperately in every direction beneath the tentacle's frenzied lashes. One of the eyes on that tentacle had closed, and purple liquid was gushing from it.

At the sight, everyone immediately gained an idea of how to draw the tentacles' attention and began following his example.

Only Dunn watched the roaring tentacle with a grave expression. It was the tentacle that had roared, not Jaeger's human head. Neither Jaeger's head nor the other four tentacles had changed at all, as though they had no connection to that tentacle.

A shadow crept over Dunn's heart, and he grew even less confident in Engels's plan.

"Roar!!"

"Roar!!"

"Roar!!"

Three roars rang out in succession as the other captains quickly injured the eyes on their tentacles as well. Even with a supernatural attribute of 20 points, inherently fragile areas like the eyes still lacked such powerful defenses.

In an instant, the tentacles went all out. No longer frolicking as before, they launched ferocious attacks on those responsible.

Seeing this, Dunn could only helplessly step forward to draw his tentacle's attention. After all, no egg remained intact when the nest was overturned.

It was not as though Dunn had never considered abandoning these pirates and fleeing, but he still did not know Jaeger's exact condition. If Jaeger killed all the pirates and burst out of the ruins in a frenzy, the situation would be even more dangerous than it was now.

After all, out on the vast ocean, Jaeger, who was now no different from a sea monster, would pose an even deadlier threat to Dunn.

Even among sea monsters, tentacled ones were among the most dangerous.