He pulled the trigger, and a cold blue beam shot into the water—the result of the tracer bullet heating up from air friction. The gunshot sounded like thunder, the recoil so powerful it could topple a strong man. The advancing water line suddenly slowed, a whirlpool forming on the surface. Mance fired continuously, ten large-caliber bullets entering the water. Before the light from the first tracer had even faded, the next had already been fired, with several beams of cold light simultaneously lingering in the dark air, exuding a grim beauty. Mance watched as it twisted left and right underwater, seemingly trying to evade, then removed his cigar and laughed hoarsely.
“Selma, more bullets!” he shouted.
He wanted to see the creature’s corpse float up from the water, so he could clearly see what had dared to take his student just a few meters from him.
Selma rushed out of the cabin with a freshly loaded magazine, just in time to see the Maritime Bureau’s helicopter hovering in mid-air. Clearly, they had also noticed that something was chasing the Maniakh, and directed their spotlight onto the whirlpool left by the creature. At the center of the whirlpool, a mass of bubbles emerged, an impossibly large dark shadow flickering in and out of sight. For a moment, Selma thought she was seeing things. The shadow broke through the surface of the water, ascending straight into the sky with unparalleled power. In that instant, lightning tore the sky, and the dark figure rose like a fierce dragon. Selma’s legs went weak, and she collapsed onto the deck. She knew from countless theoretical lessons that this species existed in the world, but had never once seen them with her own eyes. It was a divine sight—a dragon breaking through water to soar to the heavens. The storm and raging winds all seemed to be there to herald this great moment.
Mance reached out and grabbed the magazine from Selma’s hand, loaded it into the gun and fired into the air. At this moment, the thing had already risen to the speed of a helicopter. It was exhausted, but its long tail rolled up and wrapped around the landing gear of the heavy helicopter. It was not small, but compared to a heavy helicopter like the “Super Stallion” that could carry 15 tons of cargo, it was not big. Mance’s bullets hit its body, sparking sparks.
“It looks like it’s enraged…” Mance whispered.
The thing took advantage of the landing gear and leaped up again. Another flash of lightning crossed the sky. In the lightning, the thing stretched out like a long dragon. After a slight pause, it twisted like a long whip and hit the helicopter’s rotor hard. Iron fragments flew everywhere. The helicopter lost its balance and circled towards the water. Several black figures opened the hatch and jumped into the water. The helicopter collided violently with the water, splashing nearly 50 meters high. Ten seconds later, flames rushed into the night sky and the helicopter exploded underwater.
“It… it took down a heavy helicopter? How can it jump twenty meters out of the water?” Selma was stunned.
“We should refer to it as ‘him.’ It’s an intelligent being,” Mance said. “If this continues, we’ll be its next meal.”
The ominous waterline surfaced again, chasing after the Maniakh.
“Are we tasty… for it to be chasing us like this?” Selma asked.
“What it really cares about… is that brass cylinder,”
Mance shouted to the forward cabin. “Hunting is just an extra snack” Mance said coldly.
Mans opened the hatch and yelled inside, “We don’t have sniper rifles. Those things are super big. What other weapons and equipment do we have?”
“There are only depth charges!” The first mate roared in response. He was at the helm, and the engine at full power made the Maniakh like a mad swordfish. Hot sweat broke out on the first mate’s forehead, and all his energy was focused on those complicated instrument panels.
“We are now disguised as a tugboat. In order to avoid trouble during the inspection by the navigation authorities, all weapons and equipment have been removed. We only have 10 miniature underwater bombs,” the second mate who was monitoring the sonar had time to explain, “besides that, we don’t even have a mountain cannon.”
“We didn’t expect a fight! Prepare to release the underwater bombs!” Mance shouted.
Mance turned around and continued to shoot those bullets with cold blue light into the water. These bullets made of alchemical materials were exactly the opposite of “Frigga bullets”. When they came into contact with blood in the body, they exploded immediately, and the deadly toxins would attack the heart along with the blood. But this thing was definitely not ordinary. Bullets might not be able to enter its body. Even if a few bullets were shot in, the toxins would only make it furious. But Mance didn’t mind offending him. Either he killed this thing, or it would kill all of them. The speed of this thing was getting faster and faster. If it wasn’t still trying to dodge Mance’s bullets, it would have caught up.
“Z-shaped!” the second mate shouted.
The steering wheel turned rapidly in the hands of the first mate, and the Moniach splashed nearly ten-meter-high waves, drawing a “Z” shape on the water surface with a large angle of zigzag. At the same time, the second mate opened the underwater hatch at the stern of the ship, and ten underwater bombs were released continuously. Because of the “Z”-shaped route, they formed three rows, three in the front row, four in the middle, and three in the back row, with a spacing of about ten meters between each other. The micro engines of the underwater bombs started, which kept them at a depth of five to ten meters underwater, while slowly approaching the extremely close thing. From the second mate’s sonar monitor, the underwater bombs formed an arc about 30 meters wide, waiting for the thing like a trap for catching animals.
“Beautiful!” the second officer said.
The bomb positions were perfect. The creature would either have to slow down to go around them, giving the Maniakh time to escape, or it would come within seven meters of the bombs. Although the bombs were miniature, they were products of the Equipment Department—those madmen designed them hoping just one could pierce the armor of a Los Angeles-class aircraft carrier.
The magazine with smoke fell at Mans’ feet. Mans threw down his sniper rifle and ran back to the cabin. Mance shoved the second officer aside, lying on the console. The bright dots on the sonar screen drew closer and closer to the huge shape that vaguely resembled a fish.
“Extreme proximity, fifty meters!” the second officer shouted. “It’s coming straight at us, not slowing down!”
“Good! Blow it up!” Mance said.
The speed of that thing was close to the speed of the Maniakh, also about 50 knots. Those underwater bombs were suspended in the water, like fireflies floating in the air. In this case, the distance of 50 meters only took two or three seconds to disappear, just a sudden braking distance. Imagine a running car on an icy road in the middle of the night. Can it be stopped? Obviously not, and the friction of water is not much higher than that of ice. Mance was ecstatic and clenched his fists with the pleasure of imminent revenge.
“It… it stopped!” the second officer’s face turned pale.
Just as they pricked up their ears and waited for the thunderous explosions, the huge thing on the sonar display stopped at the floating underwater bombs. It was not like braking, there was no sliding, but it was completely still with a “whoosh”, and the relative speed became zero. The second mate’s head was buzzing, and he was doing a terrible arithmetic problem. Assuming that thing is the same as a 15-meter-long sperm whale, it weighs about 50 tons, which is equivalent to 20 Bentley cars tied together. Its speed is 100 kilometers per hour. What force can stop 20 Bentley cars tied together instantly?
“Detonate them directly?” The second officer looked up at Mance.
“Would that work?”
“Before we worry if it’ll work, look at the screen…” an intern said cautiously.
Five of the ten bright dots had already disappeared, while the creature swam around the remaining bombs, like a small whale curiously playing with jellyfish. The second officer was completely dumbfounded, turning to look at another monitor that displayed that five of the underwater bombs had lost their electrical signals.
“Only three left…” Mance whispered. In just a moment, two more spots of light disappeared.
“Impossible! The bomb didn’t explode, didn’t float up, and didn’t sink. It just disappeared!” The second mate pulled his hair hard. He was a Russian, a staunch materialist who didn’t believe in supernatural powers. He also held an absolute scientific attitude towards dragons. At this moment, he couldn’t make a judgment. He couldn’t say that the bomb suddenly entered another dimension, right?
The last bright dot disappeared before the second officer could detonate it.
Mance raised his head. “I guess… your bombs got eaten.”
“E… eaten?” The second officer felt an overwhelming sense of helplessness. “Would it taste good?” he asked a nonsensical question.
Mance knew that it was meaningless to discuss the eating habits of dragons with his colleague and comrade-in-arms at this moment. He thought quickly and his speech became confused. “Apparently its body can block electromagnetic waves… so the signal of the bomb disappeared… the question of whether it tastes good or not… maybe it also wants a dish of soy sauce… It is chasing us with ten bombs now… the engine won’t last long with afterburner on…” His thoughts were like a tangled mess. He had to find a way to save everyone, but they had no weapons available.
“Captain…” Selma’s voice trembled, pointing towards the stern.
Mance rushed out of the cabin again, holding the railing to steady himself, and looking in the direction of Selma’s finger, what was chasing them behind was no longer a thin line of water, but a dark back floating on the water surface, and it was vaguely visible that each part of the spine was as rugged as a reef, and the long tail was swinging at high speed, but it did not bring up any water splashes, and a huge mouth was half submerged in the water, and the ferocious upper jaw was exposed above the water. The shape was unclear, and only two withered yellow hooked teeth could be seen. The distance between the two sides was about one kilometer, which was barely enough for the light to illuminate.
“So it really is a vertebrate,” Mance whispered.
“Reptiles are vertebrates, of course,” Selma said, surprised.