“The third watertight compartment is flooding!” This time it was the chief engineer shouting, “Someone’s injured!”
“It’s the Dragon King! He’s attacking from below the ship!”
The third muffled sound followed, and the ship began to tilt.
“The second watertight compartment is flooding! The fuel line is leaking!”
“There’s a fire in the aft compartment! Put it out! Quickly!”
Zero and Caesar exchanged glances. The Maniach had six watertight compartments in total, and now two were already leaking. If two more flooded, the ship would lose buoyancy and sink.
“Start the engines and accelerate!” Caesar roared. “Being stationary makes us a target!”
The Maniach’s engines roared, moving in a large zigzag pattern across the river surface, with a sharp waterline pursuing them from behind.
“Full left rudder!” Caesar ordered.
The first officer at the helm desperately turned the wheel to the left, and the Maniach traced a large arc in the water.
“Engage afterburners! Full right rudder!” Caesar ordered again.
The first officer turned the wheel to the right with all his strength, causing the ship to tilt. It was a perfect turn, but at that instant, another muffled sound came from the lower hold—another watertight compartment had been breached.
“The engine is overheating!” the chief engineer shouted in frustration from the blistering lower hold.
“Ignore it! Engage afterburners!” Caesar yelled.
He knew there could be no delay—not even for a second. Others couldn’t see it, not even the sonar, but his Kamaitachi knew—the dangerous shadow underwater was pursuing the Maniach at a speed of 50 knots. He wasn’t sure how long this evasive maneuvering could hold out, but the opponent’s surprise attack had been completely unexpected, so much so that the sonar hadn’t detected the Dragon King approaching from beneath.
“How could it not show up on sonar?” He suddenly realized something was wrong.
“Check the sonar!” he shouted at the second officer, Gunayar.
Gunayar initiated a sonar self-check. Barely ten seconds later, his face went pale. “We… we have no sonar! The self-check program shows the sonar transmitter was dismantled!”
“How could that be?” Third Officer Pacino’s eyes widened. “We checked it before setting sail! And who would dismantle the sonar?”
“I know,” Zero said softly, pointing out the porthole.
Everyone looked in that direction, and they were all stunned. A completely iron-gray, naked man was passing by outside the porthole, looking straight ahead, expressionless, giving off an eerie feeling. As he passed the forward cabin, he casually threw something inside. Gunayar immediately recognized it.
“The sonar transmitter!” It was the missing sonar transmitter.
The iron-gray man started to run, his whole body radiating a flame-like glow. He took a perfect dive off the bow into the water.
“That is…” Caesar took a deep breath. “The Dragon King, Norton!”
Looking from the bow, the bright figure was swimming in the river, getting farther and farther away from the Maniach.
“Binoculars,” Caesar held out his hand.
Someone immediately handed him a pair of binoculars, and Caesar adjusted the focus, capturing the figure in his sights.
“What’s he doing?” Pacino asked.
“I don’t know, but I’ll find out soon…” Caesar said, his body trembling slightly.
In the view through the binoculars, a massive figure surfaced. Its entire body was covered in black scales, which suddenly expanded as it let out a long cry into the sky. Without needing binoculars, everyone could see the dragon-shaped creature stretching above the water, like an ancient totem carved into rock.
The bright figure swam toward the giant dragon. The dragon bent its long neck, and the man grabbed the iron mask on the dragon’s head. He was lifted from the water, making a graceful arc as he mounted the dragon’s neck.
“Thank you for your hard work, Samson. It’s been so many years,” he gently stroked the iron mask of the dragon, his voice calm. The Dragon Servitor, Samson, responded with a deep, low cry.
Then, the Dragon King looked at the distant ship, smiling silently.
Caesar saw the Dragon King’s smile through the binoculars. He knew it was intended for him, and somehow, that smile was chilling to the bone.
The Dragon King slowly removed the iron mask from the Dragon Servitor, raising his hands high, flames of scorching heat flowing between them. Suddenly, he thrust his hands into the Dragon Servitor’s skull. The dragon’s body trembled violently but remained steadfast, letting out a dying whimper as it slowly closed its golden eyes. Its wings spread open, maintaining balance as it floated on the water.
“Is this… a mutiny?” People aboard the Maniach watched the scene in shock and fear.
The Dragon King’s flaming hands were burning away the giant dragon’s brain. The dragon endured the pain, motionless, until it finally died, still holding its posture.
The Dragon King stood up and took a step forward into the empty skull of the Dragon Servitor. He raised his arms towards the sky, and intense light flowed from his entire body into the dragon’s body. A pillar of fire shot into the sky, and in his hoarse roar, the dragon’s body shuddered violently. Its massive eyes blinked, and in the extinguished pupils, a tiny flame of gold flickered like a solitary lamp.
The Dragon King’s roar grew louder, and the golden flame flared, quickly igniting the dragon’s eyes. The dragon opened its wings again, its scales all expanding, producing a screeching sound like metal grinding against metal.
The massive heart, which had stopped beating, now pounded like a war drum.
The dragon’s body unfurled once more, poised to soar.
Dragon King Norton, after a thousand years of silence, once again reigned over the world as a king.
“They… have merged!” Caesar said in a low voice.
“Truly a sad sacrifice,” said Sakatoku Mai, standing two kilometers away on a small island in the river, dressed in black combat attire as she lowered her binoculars.
She opened a large silver case and carefully assembled its black metal components into a jet-black sniper rifle. Mai then opened a smaller silver case, inside which lay a cylindrical quartz tube holding a dark red bullet. The bullet looked like a roughly polished crystal, with a blood-like glow flowing within.
Mai cautiously loaded the bullet into the magazine, then dialed a number. “Everything is proceeding according to plan. I’m ready.”
“Has Norton appeared?”
“Yes, but he didn’t hatch. Instead, he occupied the body of the Dragon Servitor, Samson.”
“Direct fusion saves time, but it requires sacrificing a powerful kin. The people at Cassell College have a limited understanding of the dragons; it seems they don’t know about this fusion.”
“It makes me feel sick, like a parasite,” Mai commented.
“Samson would be willing. Dragon Servants are willing to do anything for their ruler, and revenge is among their favorite things,” the woman on the other end said. “Repeat the order: Lu Mingfei must survive, regardless of whether the Bronze and Fire King Norton lives or dies.”
“Understood.” Mai hung up the phone, raised her binoculars, and looked toward the Maniach in the dense fog, smiling. “Caesar, hang in there for a while longer. I’m really looking forward to seeing what you can do!”