Thankfully, it hadn't actually eaten her but was only holding her in its mouth. He wondered if Blackbeard had something to do with this scheme but couldn't be sure. After all, his attention had been on Clara who was unable to defend herself against its long-range attacks.
The soldiers who saw their commander being abducted right in front of them couldn't take it any more and began to spray fire everywhere in hopes of tying down the sea dragon long enough for Zach to save their commander.
However, the sea dragon had already fulfilled its scheme and was not going to stick around for the soldiers to succeed.
It swung its tail in a sweeping motion which sent several soldiers flying as it turned around and dived into the ocean.
Blackbeard had already been in secret communication with the dragon and knew its plan. Just when the dragon was about to make its escape after executing its scheme, he latched himself onto the giant body of the sea dragon by grabbing on to its thin beard.
The sea dragon didn't stop once it was in water. Instead, it ventured into the depths of the ocean while carrying Diana in its mouth and Blackbeard on its back. The color of the ocean around it slowly began to lose its azure shade and turned darker and the pressure that Blackbeard had to face began to increase as well. If not for his water magic, he might have died due to the carelessness of the sea dragon.
Blackbeard couldn't even curse the sea dragon out loud because it had suffered a loss due to him. he was worried that the sea dragon might leave him at the bottom of the ocean if he dared to point out its fault.
While Blackbeard was reveling in the joy and excitement of survival, Zach began to be more and more worried about Diana. He blamed himself for not being able to decipher the sea dragon's intentions a little earlier. Otherwise, Diana would have been safe.
But what was done was already done. There was nothing he could do to change it back. Therefore, he vowed to do whatever he could to change the final outcome. He vowed to bring her back as soon as possible and overloaded his brain to come up with a possible solution.
Then something clicked in his mind which immediately reduced the amount of frustration in his heart. He remembered that Diana was still wearing her earpiece when she was taken by the sea Dragon. Maybe the system could be used to track her location.
Just as the thought came to his mind, the system notification sounded, and a map of this world opened up. The map was huge this time because the enemies he was looking for this time had escaped into open waters, greatly increasing the search radius.
Moreover, the speed with which the blip was moving on the map was so high that Zach was shocked at the capability of the sea dragon. Since Diana was in its mouth, it could only mean that the speed of the sea dragon in water was equivalent to the movement of the green blip on the map. It was far greater than he imagined.
Although the dragon was not very strong, and Zach at least had the ability to drive it away with the current strength of his family, its speed left him so far back in the dust that he dared not try to follow it even with all the technology at his disposal. It was just too damn fast in the water. Even speedboats from his past world couldn't compare to it in this respect.
Still, the system set his mind at ease, knowing that he, at the very least, knew where the sea dragon was taking Diana.
Zach kept following the green blip on the map that indicated Diana's current location in order to determine the intentions of the sea dragon. If its final destination turned out to be too far away, it would take Zach a considerable time to reach that place considering the limitations of marine transport. Anything could happen to Diana in the meantime.
Zach was worried that something might happen to Diana if he was too late in getting her back.
Blackbeard was a pirate who had lost everything, and his mental state would be far from normal even for a pirate. He was capable of anything and could harm Diana as an act of vengeance.
Since Zach couldn't make a plan or move out with his forces until he could confirm Diana's location, he decided to regroup the soldiers who had been scattered around Greenland for the duration of the battle.
A temporary but trustworthy commander was chosen from among the soldiers in place of Diana to keep the discipline of the somewhat impulsive soldiers who wanted to set out to save Diana without any plan.
Although their motive was good, their logic was flawed. If they set out without a plan or strategy, they would only put themselves at risk and might even jeopardize the safety of their commander. Zach didn't illustrate the logic to them but instructed the temporary commander to relay his orders to all the soldiers.
"No one is allowed to move out of the island for the time being. Whatever you need will be provided to you here by the Windsor family."
Zach established a total lockdown on the island so that no lingering or stranded pirate would be able to make his escape.
"Anyone suspicious on the island during this time, I want you to immediately get rid of them. Keep an eye on everyone else on the island. I don't want any pirate or anyone else for that matter pretending to be one of us. Initiate thorough screening for everyone; including yourself. Have the respective team leaders identify their own and give me a count within the hour. I want to know if there were any losses during this battle and if there were...I want to see their bodies. Mobilize everyone and give me a report without any omission no matter how small it might be in your opinion."
The commander understood the gravity of the orders from the solemn expression on Zach's face. Therefore he, didn't hesitate to nod his head in acknowledgement and swiftly left to execute each one of them.
Zach was only taking precautions against any enemy infiltrations. While he was thinking of methods to save Diana, he couldn't be focused on the internal affairs. This was a critical time since Diana the usual commander wasn't available. Otherwise, Zach wouldn't have bothered to give so many orders to the temporary commander.
Under Zach's orders, the temporary commander strengthened the patrols around the island. The soldiers were divided into three shifts and each of them was required to patrol for at least 8 hours a day and weren't allowed to leave their posts until the next shift came over to relieve them of their duty.
The atmosphere on the island was tense. This was the first time since the long journey to Byzantium city that the Smith family had such a tense and gloomy atmosphere.
While everyone got busy executing his orders, Zach didn't have the time to supervise their actions like he did in the past. He still needed to come up with a rescue plan for Diana. He needed to finalize the number and the people who would be taking part in the rescue operation and he needed to figure out the people he would have to leave behind on the island in order to keep other potential enemies from taking advantage of his absence.
There were many factors he needed to take into account but that didn't deter him at all. He began to sort down the things one by one without faltering all the while keeping an eye on the location of the sea dragon being shown by the system.
…
While chaos had taken Greenland by surprise, two men were particularly excited as they cackled all by themselves as if something good had happened and they couldn't control their happiness from spilling out.
These two were none other than Hogan and Nelson Hunter who were currently waiting for Blackbeard's victorious arrival at a nearby port. Hogan was in high spirits because the greatest obstacle in their hostile takeover of the Windsor family was about to be destroyed at the hands of the pirate captain they had hired.
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