Chapter 853: Chapter 460: Attack on the Golden Feather Flower Religious Authority Country (2)
"Do you see it... is the sea turning red?" His voice was somewhat tense, instinctively lowered, yet it still betrayed his unease.
At first, it was only the edges that turned red, as if something was slowly stirring it open.
Then that red color quickly deepened, becoming murky and thick, with the waves reflecting a dim shine.
A fishy-sweet smell began to mix in the air.
On the supply ship at the rear, a new sailor, Billy, gulped: "This smell... something’s wrong, isn’t it?"
Beside him, a weathered old sailor spat, reaching out to press the brim of his hat down: "What are you panicking for."
The old sailor squinted his eyes, watching the white flocculent objects gradually floating up on the sea surface, his tone somehow confident.
"Remember, lad. If something really happened, we’d have been ordered to turn back by now. The fleet still sailing forward means this thing..."
The old sailor grinned, showing his smoke-stained yellow teeth: "Can’t stop steel."
Almost as soon as he finished speaking, two abnormal feedback signals appeared.
A deep and urgent alarm sounded along the pipes, echoing repeatedly within the ship’s hull.
The white floating objects were no longer scattered.
They began to slowly gather, their outlines becoming clearer.
Transparent umbrella-shaped bodies stretched out underwater, each the size of a millstone, with highly acidic tissue enclosed beneath the membrane.
The tentacles dragged in the water, extending over tens of meters, like flexible yet deadly rigging, instinctively seeking targets to entangle.
It was a fusion of thorns and jellyfish, moving sluggishly yet densely enough to cause anxiety, like a closing minefield.
Even though Billy wasn’t at the rear of the battlefield, the sheer number of monsters made his legs cramp.
......
In the armored bridge of the battleship Fernando, General Commander Arwin stood calmly at the command seat, the area ahead almost completely occupied by monsters.
"Maintain course." His voice spread through the ship via speaking tubes, "No need to evade."
The bridge fell silent for a brief moment before the order was fully executed.
The spray pipes on both sides of the battleship were simultaneously activated.
The metal valves opened with a low echo, and a large amount of alchemical fuel was atomized under high pressure, spreading along the outside of the hull, then ignited.
"Whoosh—"
Flames ignited along the spray paths, with two hundred-meter-long fire walls rising simultaneously on both sides of the three warships.
Orange flames rolled against the steel hull, illuminating the surrounding sea.
The thorn jellyfish reacted instantly to the flame’s contact.
The transparent umbrellas quickly contracted, the internal acid lost stability, then exploded and evaporated.
The tentacles curled and carbonized in the high heat, breaking off before they could entangle.
The three steel giants maintained their original speed, sailing straight through the flames.
The firewalls gradually extinguished behind the ships, leaving a charred pathway on the sea, the dark red water roiling without any living creatures surfacing again.
The mist ahead began to thin.
The view broadened again, revealing an unnatural outline slowly appearing on the horizon.
It was a white forest.
Hundreds of bio-ships lay quietly on the sea, not arranged neatly, yet possessing an unsettling sense of order.
Their hulls were not wooden but composed of a ghastly white, bone-like structure, covered in layers of eerie thorns, like faintly pulsing blood vessels.
Their sails were not made of cloth but vast white membranes spread out, resembling bat wings, pulled by thick, dark red thorns, fixed as masts onto the hulls.
There were no sailors bustling on the decks, replaced by rows of immobile figures.
Golden Feather Guardians, their lower bodies fused with the deck, bones intertwining with the boards, boundaries indistinct.
Their upper bodies retained a human shape, yet pale and rigid, like deliberately placed sculptures.
The roots extending from their feet directly pierced into the mothership, drawing nutrients and receiving commands.
As a white bone ship slowly adjusted its course, the rest of the fleet almost simultaneously reacted.
Hundreds of bio-ships turned in unison, moving so uniformly they seemed less like independent entities, more like extensions of some shared consciousness.
They began to accelerate, like a swarm of piranhas smelling blood, heading straight along the shortest path.
The destroyer at the forefront of the Red Tide fired its secondary guns first.
Shells tore through the air, accurately hitting the bow of a white bone ship.
The explosion tore apart the bone structure, fragments flying in all directions.
Yet the ship did not slow down.
The fractured part started to wriggle, and dark red thorns grew rapidly from the bone seams, pulling the shattered structure like sutures.
Within seconds, the hull was reassembled, its form twisted but sufficient to continue sailing.
The white bone ship rejoined the formation, as if nothing had happened.
Behind the binoculars, Louis watched the entire process calmly.
"Good regeneration speed." He put down the binoculars, his expression unchanged, "Tell Arwin to resolve it quickly."
......
A Red Tide Knight rushed through the bridge, kneeling on one knee: "Commander Arwin, a message from Lord Louis."
Arwin’s gaze returned from the sea.
The knight continued: "The lord says no need for probing, resolve it quickly, time is not on our side."
Arwin nodded, asking no more, lifting his hand from the armrest.
"Full rudder to port." The order was swiftly transmitted through the speaking tubes, "Speed, two knots."
The steering gear emitted a low, stable meshing sound, and the three battleships almost simultaneously began to turn.
