Chapter 100.2: Capturing the Sea Monster
People kept flying back to the ships, bringing out long objects that were a full three meters in length and unmistakably specially made “nails.”
The Blue Sea people rapidly flapped their four-winged wings, keeping pace with the sea monster’s limbs wrapped in chains in front of them.
These “nails” were shaped much like spears, except that their ends had been fitted with round “nail caps” made of steel. The bodies of the “nails” were covered with densely packed, tiny barbs pointing forward, ensuring that they could smoothly pierce into the sea monster’s flesh when driven forward.
But if they tried to move backward, those barbs, pointing forward and downward and hooking upward, would act like rows of sharp teeth, preventing the “nails” from being pulled back out.
“Haah!!!”
—BOOM!!
Another crash of thunder rang out. In the flash of lightning, the Blue Sea people divided themselves into pairs.
One person held the “nail” in place while the other raised a heavy sledgehammer.
The sledgehammer came down.
CLANG—
—“RUMBLE!!!”
The giant sea monster, which had always been thought incapable of making a sound, let out a low-frequency roar of agony. Its tentacles contracted as it began repeatedly attacking the Blue Sea people wrapped around it.
The Blue Sea people dodged its attacks while waiting for an opening, then rushed in and brought their hammers down.
—CLANG!
—CLANG!!
For a moment, even the wind and rain couldn’t completely drown out the sound of the hammers striking the “nails.”
Pan Tuan dodged an incoming tentacle, then dove down from above and slammed her hammer hard against the nail in front of her.
Once, twice, again and again!!
At every link of the heavy, sturdy chains wrapped around the giant sea monster’s various limbs, two Blue Sea people were diligently working away.
The hardworking Blue Sea masters, diligent and unafraid of wind, rain, or attacks, worked the night shift just like they were building houses during a massive construction boom, hammering away at the giant sea monster piece by piece and “building” a “house” on its body.
—“RUMBLE!!!”
—“RUMBLE!!!”
With excruciating pain coming from every part of its body, the giant sea monster finally began to consider retreating.
It twisted its massive body, intending to sink beneath the surface of the sea.
With the flashes of lightning illuminating the scene, the crews of the Sun and the Inkshadow vaguely saw the monster’s movements.
They immediately burst into tears of joy.
“Wonderful!!!”
“They beat the sea monster!!”
“We survived!!!”
The crews of the two ships, struggling to maintain their balance as they embraced one another in celebration, kept celebrating until they gradually realized that something seemed a little off.
Wait… why did these heavenly reinforcements look like they had no intention of letting the giant sea monster leave?
The hardworking Blue Sea masters were indeed pulling with all their might.
“It’s trying to escape!!!”
“Quick, quick, quick!!”
“Pull tight!!!!”
“Put your backs into it!!! Heave! Ho!! Heave-ho!!!!”
“If you’ve got guts, stop running!!!”
Once Old Eighth had a prey within reach, there was absolutely no way they were going to let it get away.
They still didn’t know whether this sea monster was edible, or whether it had a crystal in its head.
But it was so enormous that even if it had no crystal and couldn’t be eaten, they were sure they could find some use for it.
Take those sickle-like tentacles, for example. They were both sharp and long enough that, once brought back to Blue Sea, they could probably be turned into who-knew-how-many weapons.
Then there were all those eyes that looked as though the creature had cataracts. There seemed to be at least a thousand of them.
Those eyes even had eyelashes, and those eyelashes were incredibly thick and sturdy, each one a full meter long. They could probably be woven into something, too.
And then there were those teeth.
And that tail covered in sturdy scales.
No matter what, they absolutely could not let this sea monster escape today!
Some of the Blue Sea residents flew through the air, pulling hard on the chains wrapped around the sea monster’s tentacles and hauling them upward.
Even though the Blue Sea residents were immensely strong, there was no way they could completely pull such an enormous sea monster on their own.
So the ends of the chains that had already been secured with spikes were gathered up by groups of Blue Sea residents and quickly carried to a ship.
This ship had special hooks designed to hold the chains.
Cheng Qisheng couldn’t help but marvel.
When it came to combat, Old Eighth’s rate of evolution was truly astonishing.
Look at this. How long had it even been? They had already developed specialized equipment for capturing giant sea monsters.
It was just like when they had fought the Skywing Dragon. Back then, Old Eighth had also mass-produced lassos specifically designed to trap Skywing Dragons.
And now, they had developed “lassos” specifically for restraining giant sea monsters.
—Another chain covered in “nails,” along with the tentacle it was attached to, was carried to the other side.
Then another.
In the end, roughly sixteen chains were divided between the two sides, eight on each side, and hooked onto the hooks of eight ships.
The eight ships adjusted their positions, then increased their power and began sailing forward in directions completely opposite to one another.
—“RUMBLE!!!”
If this scene were happening to a human, it would be roughly equivalent to someone spreading both arms wide while having their two arms pulled in completely opposite directions.
In that situation, regardless of whether it hurt, one thing was certain: there was absolutely no way that person could crouch down.
The giant sea monster was in the same predicament.
Its sixteen sickle-like tentacles had been completely pulled apart by sixteen powerful Blue Sea ships, making it impossible for the monster to sink beneath the surface again.
It tried to forcibly pull its tentacles back, but there were still some “ants” busily working around it, attaching chains to its remaining tentacles.
All it could do was resist the ships’ pulling force while freeing up its remaining tentacles to deal with these little nuisances crawling all over it.
The sea monster’s sickle-like tentacles were covered in dense, fine spikes. If one of them managed to land a hit, it would surely be enough to make the attackers back off.
But the humans clinging to the giant sea monster, faced with the sudden increase in the frequency of its attacks, not only weren’t frightened into retreating—they became even more excited.
“Woohoo!!!”
“It’s getting desperate!!”
“Can’t hit me, can you?! Hehe! Dodge!!”
Pan Tuan had been injured, after all, so she wasn’t as fast at dodging as the others. So she had a sudden idea. Grabbing onto the spikes beneath one of the nails, she simply hung herself from the giant sea monster’s body.
Then she aimed at the white pupil staring straight at her above and drove her nail down with all her strength.
—“RUMBLE!!!”
The sea monster let out another agonized cry and tried to roll over, but it was firmly pinned between the sixteen ships.
Pan Tuan’s eyes lit up.
She had attacked other parts of the sea monster’s body before, but its skin was tough and extremely slippery. Small daggers or ordinary swords could hardly pierce through it completely.
But although piercing its eye still required considerable force, the nail sank in remarkably smoothly.
It reminded Pan Tuan of the satisfying ease with which she used to hack through zombie heads back on Velvet Star.
“Our God!!!”
“Stab it in the eyes! Its eyes are a weak point!!!”
The wind and rain were so violent that even sound was swallowed up by the storm. Pan Tuan’s voice couldn’t travel very far.
But the great Creator God of Blue Sea, who was enjoying a late-night snack, received the message loud and clear.
This was how Blue Sea’s battles worked.
If they failed to discover any weaknesses in an enemy, they could keep fighting at high intensity and wear the enemy down bit by bit until they completely drained its health bar.
But once they discovered a weakness, the battle would often end with astonishing speed.
Cheng Qisheng relayed Pan Tuan’s discovery to every Blue Sea person present.
For a moment, many Blue Sea residents whose ships didn’t have iron hooks and therefore couldn’t participate in restraining the giant sea monster began steering their vessels toward it.
—Whoosh!!!
They had no wings, but they had grappling hooks.
One grappling hook after another was launched from the ships below. Some latched precisely onto the sea monster’s eyes. After testing the tension and confirming that it would hold, the Blue Sea residents gripped the ropes tightly and swung directly across through the torrential rain.
“Woohoo!!!!”
One Blue Sea resident after another went smack and landed flat against the giant sea monster’s body.
The moment they “landed,” they immediately raised their heads and assumed a standard wall-climbing position. They gripped the rope tightly, leaned their bodies backward, planted their feet firmly, and climbed upward step by step like spiders.
In truth, these residents could have simply stayed at this altitude and continued fighting.
But the Blue Sea people had excellent combat etiquette.
They had to make room for the residents behind them, after all.
—Snap!!
One resident’s “rope” was accidentally severed by the giant sea monster. As he fell, he remained completely calm and fired another grappling hook, catching onto another eye and successfully swinging himself over.
The whole thing felt like rock climbing.
And Blue Sea people really loved rock climbing.
When they were little, they liked pretending to rock-climb on the ceiling, crawling all over the place.
When they grew up, they pretended to rock-climb on giant sea monsters, crawling all over them.
Compared with the Blue Sea residents, who were having a wonderful time as though they had returned to their childhood, the giant sea monster being climbed all over was having a much less pleasant experience.
It could feel pain coming from every part of its body. It could feel itself being attacked, but there were simply too many places.
It had already desperately lashed out with all of its tentacles, yet all that accomplished was exposing those flailing tentacles to the humans, who promptly hammered “nails” into them.
“Woohoo!!!”
Pan Tuan lifted her head from the “eye,” her entire head splattered with green blood and a gas mask covering her face.
The outside of the sea monster was too slippery.
Maybe attacking it from the inside would work?
Like Pan Tuan, quite a few people had come to the same conclusion. Some had already strapped on oxygen tanks (why on earth would they bring oxygen tanks to a fight?), intending to crawl all the way inside through the wound in one of the giant sea monster’s eyes.
Naturally, to keep himself from getting lost, this Blue Sea resident had tied a rope around himself. The other end of the rope was attached to the “spike” embedded in the monster’s other eye.
He was even holding a chainsaw.
—Bzzzzzz!
The chainsaw let out an excited buzz.
They were close enough to one another that, just as the man was about to climb inside, he noticed Pan Tuan watching him. He immediately cheerfully raised the chainsaw and wiggled his body.
His muffled voice came through:
“Do I look like I’m cave diving? Hahahahaha! I’ve always wanted to go cave diving!”
Pan Tuan: “……”
She had to admit, he really did.
Every time she thought she had finally become Blue Sea enough, a true Blue Sea resident would teach her:
Haha, Blue Sea people can never be outdone.
The “diver” used his chainsaw to cut himself a path and crawled inside.
—“RUMBLE!!!”
Judging by the sea monster’s volume, the chainsaw was indeed hurting it.
Pan Tuan clung tightly to the sea monster’s eye. She tried to take flight, only to feel the weakness in her back muscles again.
Tss!
Her back was injured. She couldn’t fly anymore.
“Hey!!!”
Pan Tuan randomly grabbed a young man who was happily climbing upward.
“Do you want some wings?”
The young man was overjoyed. “Yes, yes, yes!”
Pan Tuan turned around and lightly removed the wings from her back.
The young man had already clasped his hands behind his back. With a quick rrrip, he tore open the back of his clothes, took the wings, and pressed them against his own back.
Pan Tuan said, “My name is Pan Tuan. My resident ID number is… When the battle’s over, bring them back to the Luoshan.”
“Okay, okay! Thank you, thank you! My name is Yu Jingzhi. My resident ID number is… I’m on the Gangan Gan. As soon as the battle’s over, I’ll return them to you.”
After their brief handoff, the young man with the wings shot into the sky and joined the others in hammering in the “spikes.”
Blue Sea’s most popular combat course at the moment was “Simulated Flight.” Clearly, this young man had taken the course before. Although he’d never actually owned a pair of flying wings, he wasn’t awkward in the slightest once he took flight. His movements were incredibly smooth.
While marveling at the Blue Sea people’s astonishing ability to learn, Pan Tuan began stabbing out the sea monster’s eyes one after another, then moved on to the next.
Today, the giant sea monster might very well learn the first idiom of its monster life:
Attacked from both front and rear.
—“RUMBLE!!!”
Its screams were coming more and more frequently, while its resistance grew weaker and weaker.
Of its more than one hundred sickle-like tentacles, at least ninety had been driven through with spikes and wrapped in chains, which were then pulled apart by Blue Sea ships.
With so many tentacles gone, the remaining ones naturally had far less offensive power.
One after another.
Until, finally, even its massive tail was pulled far away by a large ship.
The giant sea monster was pinned in the center of the sea like a specimen.
After more than six hours of hard work, the busy Blue Sea masters could finally stop and enjoy a grand feast.
They drew their weapons and charged at the giant sea monster that could no longer escape.
The sky was already bright.
Yet Blue Sea ships continued arriving, joining the battle one after another.
“Quick!! Faster!! If we’re late, we won’t even get to beat up a single sea-monster tentacle!”
“We can’t! We’re already going as fast as we can!!”
A Blue Sea ship sped across the surface of the sea. After sailing throughout the entire night, it finally arrived at the battlefield indicated by Our God.
The Blue Sea residents aboard were overjoyed and immediately plunged into the battle.
The pirates who had followed them all night, unable to see the sea-monster barrier, were equally delighted and charged straight in after them.
“Hahahahaha! They’ve slowed down!!”
The pirates aboard the pirate ship celebrated loudly. This fat sheep had really known how to run. At last, they had waited until their prey could no longer keep going.
Then they passed through the sea-monster barrier and saw at least three thousand ships densely scattered across the area.
And in the distance stood a giant sea monster hundreds of meters tall, “locked” in the center of the sea as the tireless Blue Sea people methodically carved it up.
