Dragon Raja 5; Chapter 252: For Your Majesty (67)

Dragon Raja 5

The Leviathan vanished completely from the sonar screen. The sudden disappearance of such a massive target was bizarre. It seemed as if, at the moment the jammer torpedo detonated, it had adopted the same strategy as the Nautilus, entering a silent, deep-sea lurch. This was a standard hunting tactic. Perhaps it was lurking in the nearby waters, just as slow and cautious as they were. With its active sonar disabled, even the shockwaves were minimal, allowing it to avoid detection.

The sea was like a thick layer of fog, and the two sides were two assassins groping in the fog. Sometimes the fog was too heavy and the assassins’ hands and feet were too light, so when they suddenly meet, they may not even be able to draw their swords.

Another possibility was that the Leviathan is already dead, severely injured when it charged the Nautilus, and even the jammer’s power was enough to kill it. Its massive body slowly sank to the bottom of the sea, becoming part of an underwater mountain range, which might also avoid sonar detection.

The depth had already exceeded the limit stated in the navigation manual. A strange, heart-wrenching sound echoed within the submarine: the hull twisting and deforming. At such depths, the hull would be subjected to immense pressure. In fact, the entire submarine would shrink under the weight of the seawater, and deformation was inevitable. The captain and the sailors remained calm. However, Mai Jude, who had little sailing experience, was a little wary. Caesar waved her off, suggesting it was not a cause for concern.

He closed his eyes, concentrated his mind, and the domain of “Kamaitachi” expanded to its limit.

He himself could be considered a sonar. While not as extensive as the Nautilus’s, his accuracy was still exceptional. The fluttering “kama-weasels” carried the entire ship’s sound, their metal hull an excellent conductor of sound. The hum of the steam turbines, the sound of the Nautilus gulping down seawater, the thud of the current sweeping across the hull… Caesar suddenly opened his eyes, a look of terror on his face.

He hadn’t intended to compare the Kamaitachi’s sonar system with the Nautilus’s powerful system; he simply wanted to understand what sounds would be heard in the stillness of the deep ocean. But he actually heard an incredible sound. It seemed like… the submarine’s heartbeat!

Inside this submarine, a massive heart beat slowly and heavily. Caesar was stunned when he first heard it, thinking he’d misheard, mistaking the sound of some device for a heartbeat. But listening more carefully, he realized it was indeed a heartbeat. The massive, powerful heart pumped tons of blood with each beat, like a slowly beating war drum, boom-boom-boom. A human-made nuclear submarine actually used a biological heart for its energy? While there had been previous cases like the Lenin, where the entire ship was eroded by the ancient dragon’s flesh and blood when its cocoon hatched, could the British Royal Navy really be so sinister?

The captain noticed Caesar’s strange expression and turned his cold gaze towards him.

Caesar slowly took two steps back and stared into the captain’s eyes. “There’s a huge heartbeat on our ship.”

He was wary of the captain, or even the sailors in the command cabin, suddenly rising up and attacking them, and he had already hinted to Jude Mai with his eyes. Perhaps this ship wasn’t sent by Pompey at all, and Pompey’s flirting with the woman before him had nothing to do with her current position. Pompey flirted with women purely for the sake of flirting, his motives pure and simple, regardless of the other party’s position. They had stepped into a steel trap, an Astute-class attack submarine with a beating heart.

The captain frowned slightly. “The heart of the Nautilus is a Rolls-Royce pressurized water reactor. It shouldn’t have a heartbeat.”

She paused, her expression suddenly changing. “If you do hear a loud heartbeat, then something is sailing close to us.”

Caesar shuddered quietly. It was certainly possible, but how close would that thing have to be for Caesar to mistake it for the submarine’s heartbeat? No wonder they hadn’t found the Leviathan. If the Leviathan swam close to them, the sonar system would confuse its shock waves with those of the Nautilus, effectively hiding it in the sonar blind spot. But could that giant creature really have such intelligence? If it truly understood submarines so well, it must have graduated from the Royal Naval Academy. And given its enormous size, such a maneuver was almost unimaginable.

“Release the underwater camera and high-light it!” the captain ordered.

At this depth, the periscope could no longer be extended; instead, deep-sea robots were deployed. Spotlights on the Nautilus’s surface illuminated a small area of ​​the surrounding sea. Simultaneously, the deep-sea robots, trailing cables from the Nautilus’s surface, acted like the Nautilus’s eyes, peering in different directions. This was, of course, a risky move; only volcanoes could produce this level of light in the deep sea. It was like navigating the darkness with a fire burning in the air. But if the Leviathan was already swimming alongside them, the danger seemed negligible.

Images taken from different directions were displayed on the huge screen wall in front of the captain. Almost at the same time, Caesar heard the sound of scales rubbing against the surface of the submarine. The thing was startled by the strong light emitted by the submarine and subconsciously tightened its body to wrap the Nautilus tighter.

“Oh my God.” Everyone whispered in their hearts.

It wasn’t a Leviathan, but a massive Hydra, a mythical nine-headed water serpent. A Hydra had once boarded the Yamal, but was ultimately slain by Indra of Abbas. Judging by its size, the Hydra was likely a descendant, or perhaps an immature juvenile. The massive Hydra tightly wrapped around the Nautilus, like a giant octopus enveloping its prey. However, it hadn’t launched a true attack, and it was unknown how far it had swum, wrapped around the Nautilus. Its neck, over ten meters long, swam in the water as it slowly approached the deep-sea robot, locking eyes with it. Its eyes seemed to burn like giant golden candles.

“What is that…what is that thing?” A sailor finally broke the rule of silence and said what was in everyone’s mind.

“A giant prehistoric creature, a genetically mutated creature, no matter what it is, if it dares to launch an attack, it is the enemy of the Royal Navy!” said the captain coldly.

Her calmness gave courage to everyone on board. Yes, they were the Royal Navy, they were the Nautilus, they were carrying swordfish torpedoes in their magazines, and their encounter with prehistoric creatures was probably the prehistoric creatures’ misfortune.

“We have no weapons against it,” the captain whispered in Caesar’s ear. “A swordfish torpedo can destroy it, but it will also destroy us.”

“Will interference mines work on it?” Caesar asked.

“It just happened to entangle the launch port of the jammer mine.”     

This massive creature, nearly a hundred meters long, coiled itself around the Nautilus. Despite its impressive length, it was still slender and far less heavy than the Nautilus. Thus, it clung to the ship like a fish clinging to a shark or a turtle, effortlessly traversing the ocean. But, as luck would have it, it had sealed the launch port for the jammer mine.

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