Extraordinary Voyage - Chapter 28

Chapter 28: A Fierce Battle

“Artillery Captain, throw the alchemical bombs again!” Gull reacted more quickly than Alvin and realised that the sea monster was still below the ship at the first sign of trouble.

“Bombardiers, prep—”

Before the Artillery Captain could finish his order, the ship’s hull shook violently.

Without waiting for the reaction of the sailors on the ship, the seawater churned violently and countless sticky, dark blue tentacles had already climbed up to the deck on both sides. A strong, fishy smell spread out with the tentacles, making people want to vomit.

Like tentacles of monsters in the deep abyss, it seemed like it was going to drag the whole ship to the bottom of the sea. In the monster disaster movies of Alvin’s previous life, if the crew did not scream and scurry around in panic, the production team would not be able to justify burning all of their budget on the movie.

But the audience was really not getting their money’s worth here.

“Stay calm and stay in your posts!”

Except for the newcomers who had just boarded the ship, no one panicked. The veterans, though a little nervous, kept the newcomers in check, keeping everyone firmly at their posts while waiting for orders from the officers.

Squeak… Squeak…

In a short period of time, the sea monster and the battleship had become embroiled in battle. It tightened its tentacles to anchor itself firmly to the Silver Wing.

At this point, the sea monster could no longer be dealt with by using alchemical bombs, or else the only result would be a bang, and the ship and the sea monster would be blown up into the sky together.

“Sailing Master, lead your charging team to chop off the tentacles and prevent them from wreaking havoc!”

Gull knew that small species of sea monsters did not have the Extraordinary power to drag the Silver Wing, a Class 5 battleship, to the bottom of the sea. All they needed to worry about was it destroying the sails and rudder, thereby incapacitating the ship.

If it fell into such a situation, it would be at the mercy of the sea monster, and even an official knight would end up in trouble.

In the face of the tidal wave of tentacles surging onto the deck, the time for the sailors to engage in a real skirmish had finally come. Although this was a more favorable way of fighting to take advantage of their personnel, the power of the sea monster was clearly not something that ordinary sailors could fight against.

“Sea monster, scram back to the bottom of the sea!”

“Ah!!!”

“Go to hell!”

The battle had just begun, but in a few breaths’ time, several sailors were not careful and were dragged into the water by the tentacles. Afterwards, the color of blood floated up and it was clear that they had died.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The soldiers kept firing their muskets, but they only made it retract its tentacles in pain slightly. Moreover, the lead bullets did not work very well against a creature whose body was covered in slime and whose skin was tough.

Luckily.

The alchemical bombs dropped earlier were not completely ineffective, and many of the tentacles that had climbed up were damaged. Even one of the two thickest tentacles were broken, so the body, which had not been seen yet, should at least be slightly damaged.

Looking at the difficult battle situation on the deck, Alvin was slightly relieved. Although the battle between the cannons and the sea monster was thrilling, he could only watch from the side, unable to contribute at all.

To be honest, the feeling that he could not influence the battle at all and could only go with the flow was very bad!

So when Gull told him to attack freely, Alvin rushed forward. The longsword in his hand was like a silver bolt of lightning, and he fought with a tentacle that was about as thick as an adult’s waist.

Until now, he had not seen what the sea monster’s body looked like. But even though the tentacle he was fighting was already about as thick as an adult’s waist, it could only be considered moderate among the dozens of tentacles that had climbed up.

After a few moves, Alvin realized that the sea monster’s IQ was not very high. The tentacles only wanted to drag down the sailors who were attacking it continuously, and did not actively destroy the sails.

Moreover, the tentacles were reacting based on the creature’s instincts and flailing and swiping aimlessly. They were far less dangerous compared to brawls with humans.

Even though its strength was far greater than that of an apprentice knight or even an official knight, Alvin felt that it was still within the range of what he could handle. He looked for an opportunity to find its roots on the edge of the deck without caring about how the tip of the tentacle waved and snapped.

Hrrng—! Chop—!!!

Holding his sword above his head with both hands, he used the “jump chop”, which was the most powerful move of the Military Sword Technique, to chop that tentacle in half.

Taking advantage of the moment the tentacle stiffened in pain, he quickly leapt up and used another jump chop to chop the tentacle off completely.

Ssss—

Blue blood gushed out, spilling over a large area of the deck.

At the same time, Alvin saw a team of ten men cooperating with each other to chop off a smaller tentacle, at the cost of losing a companion.

The soldiers had come to the realization that if they could cut off each and every one of the sea monster’s tentacles, even if they could not kill the creature itself, it would be powerless to fight back.

Only by restoring the Silver Wing’s navigational ability could the ship regain the initiative.

So everyone on the ship was giving it their all!

After severing one tentacle, Alvin quickly ran toward another tentacle without caring about the fetid blood on his body and freed a few of the struggling ordinary crew members to allow them to join the assault team.

Chop—

Chop—

One by one, the tentacles were chopped off by knives and axes, but the number of casualties among the crew slowly increased as their stamina was depleted.

Only now did Alvin realize how true the saying “sea monsters are the true rulers of the seas” was. Even a half-crippled small species sea monster would cause numerous casualties to a crew before it could be defeated, not to mention the legendary large and giant species.

At this rate, although the navy soldiers could fight the sea monsters off, the losses they would have to suffer would not be small. As previous crew members of Class 4 battleships, Alvin believed that his predecessors, who had sailed the high seas before, would not be defeated so easily.

The situation had become somewhat critical, and as he dealt with the frenzied tentacles, Alvin scanned the ship, looking for the person who was most likely to change the situation now.

“There!”

A tall, majestic figure stood at the top of the bow. The ship undulated with the waves, but only he remained still, as though roots had grown under his feet.

The moment Alvin looked over, Gull seemed to discover something.

“Attention all crew, fight the sea monster’s tentacles and prevent it from escaping!”

After shouting his command, Gull raised a barbed, pure-steel javelin high in his hand.

“Hrrgh!! Physical Liberation – Fifty percent!!!”

Like a volcano that had been deeply suppressed for tens of millions of years suddenly erupting, a fierce and violent aura suddenly burst out from Gull’s body, causing people to tremble. If they did not see Gull’s back with their own eyes, they would’ve thought that a flood beast from ancient times had suddenly descended on the ship.

Gull’s right arm, which held the javelin aloft, swelled like it was inflatable, and the muscles under his skin expanded, becoming thicker than an adult’s thigh in the blink of an eye. They became a cold and hard bronze color.

“Go!”

Whoosh!

The javelin turned into a bolt of lightning and shot into the water, but miraculously, there was no splash.

In the blink of an eye, it seemed as if nothing happened, but it also seemed like everything had already ended…

But Alvin knew that that throw definitely must have accomplished something.

Because the moment the javelin entered the water, the tentacles on the deck, which were still raging, stiffened and then slid limply into the water, as though they were drained of all their strength.

The Silver Wing was freed. Driven by the sails, it clattered back to life.

“Victory!”

“Ahhhh! Long live the Captain!”

“The sea monster is finished! Hahahaha!”

In the next moment, countless cheers flooded the entire battleship.

Standing on the bow of the ship, Gull did not move. His right arm had returned to its original form, and he held another pure steel javelin in his hand. He continued staring at the sea surface with his sharp eyes and did not relax at all.

It was not until a few minutes later, when a huge shadow drifted slowly to the surface and sank with the waves, that Gull breathed a sigh of relief and called for his first mate, Perry, to take the men to dispose of the sea monster’s body.

Alvin saw all of that.

Uncle Gull did not make a move at first, but observed the battle between the sailors and the tentacles. Through the reaction speed of the tentacles, he used his experience to determine the hidden location of the sea monster’s body, and finally unleashed his power to deliver a heaven-shaking fatal blow, which sealed the victory!

While secretly cheering, he was also amazed at the power of a strong knight at the peak of his power.

After embarking on the path of the knight, apart from Grandpa Leo, who was already seriously injured, this was the first time he had seen the full power of a knight at the peak of his power.

He was like a hero from ancient mythology, powerful and mysterious, with the greatness to turn the tide. Because of that, Alvin yearned more and more for the power of the knight stage in his heart.

“Such power, soon…!”