Chapter 348: The Fountain of Youth (5)
When Grant and the others reached the lakeshore, Everly had already spotted the green lake through gaps in the trees.
She found a concealed vantage point from which she could clearly see the lakeshore, then stood there with the chameleon skull clenched between her teeth, observing how Grant’s group planned to deal with the situation.
This was where the advantage of having a large group became apparent.
Two mercenaries removed heavy packages from their backs and opened them. From inside, they each took out a black Hypalon inflatable boat and a matching outboard motor.
They were well-trained and efficient, quickly unfolding the inflatable boat on an open patch of ground by the lake. Using the accompanying foot pump, they inflated it fully, then secured the outboard motor to the stern.
Once inflated, the boat was about five meters long and two meters wide, with a maximum capacity of twelve people.
With those specifications, transporting twenty-seven people would originally have required three trips. But after the various casualties along the way, fewer than twenty people remained in the group, so two trips would be enough.
Seeing that they had an inflatable boat, Everly furrowed her brow slightly.
She could swim and was quite good in the water. Moreover, the poem had never mentioned that crossing the jungle and a lake would be necessary after arriving on the island, so she hadn’t brought anything for crossing water. She couldn’t have carried such equipment anyway. A boat like Grant’s weighed a full twenty-five kilograms when folded and packed, and carrying one would severely hinder mobility. It was simply too much for anyone traveling alone rather than as part of a team.
If Grant and the others successfully crossed the lake in their inflatable boat, Everly might very well be left behind.
Unless she could sneak aboard while no one was paying attention and hitch a ride with them.
However, whether the inflatable boat would encounter any danger on the lake remained unknown, so Everly decided to wait and see what happened first.
Grant was clearly thinking along the same lines as Everly.
Once the inflatable boat was fully inflated, he didn’t hurry to board. Instead, he had several mercenaries who were good swimmers take the lead and make a test crossing.
The mercenaries had also spotted the giant fish swimming leisurely through the lake. They were extremely reluctant when Grant asked them to be the ones to test the waters.
At a time like this, the mercenary leader stepped forward. He first negotiated terms with Grant, then went over to speak with his men.
Apparently, Grant had offered quite a generous reward. This time, several mercenaries volunteered, boarding the inflatable boat with broad smiles.
Since this was only a test run, just five people boarded.
They pushed the inflatable boat into the lake, climbed aboard one by one, and started the outboard motor. The engine roared to life, and the boat quickly cut through the rippling water and algae, speeding toward the pudding-shaped mountain ahead.
It was the first time in many years that the fish in the lake had heard the sound of a motor. Wherever the inflatable boat passed, enormous black shadows beneath the green water scattered in alarm, their tails whipping through the water as they fled in all directions.
The inflatable boat continued smoothly all the way to the middle of the lake, moving as though it were in an empty wilderness, without suffering the slightest attack.
The mercenaries on shore had just begun to relax when a sharp bird cry suddenly rang out overhead.
“Skreee!”
Immediately afterward, a familiar giant bird flapped its enormous wings and emerged from the cliff face on the side of the pudding-shaped mountain. It locked onto the inflatable boat floating on the water and hurtled toward it in a vicious dive.
“Watch out! We’re under attack!”
“Open fire!”
Both the people on shore and those aboard the boat were already on alert. The moment they noticed the approaching danger, the men in the boat immediately ducked down, using the boat’s seats as cover. They then raised their guns in unison and opened fire at the giant bird alongside the men on shore.
“Rat-a-tat-tat!”
The giant bird was enormous. If only one or two people had been shooting at it, the bullets might not have done much damage. Unfortunately for it, it was facing a barrage of gunfire from more than a dozen people.
“Skreee!”
A hail of bullets struck its body. The giant bird let out a shrill cry of pain as its body was instantly riddled with bullet holes.
A huge amount of blood gushed from the wounds. When the giant bird flapped its wings, the blood was scattered like raindrops, pouring down in a steady shower and staining both the green lake water and the mercenaries below a vivid red.
The giant bird, overcome with pain, abruptly slowed its dive. It pulled itself upward, attempting to escape.
But the mercenaries obviously weren’t about to give it a chance. They seized the moment while the giant bird was adjusting its direction and continued unleashing a furious barrage at its head and wings.
“Rat-a-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!”
Amid the chaos, some of the bullets struck the giant bird directly in the eye socket, blowing apart its eyeball.
Its upward momentum abruptly stalled. The giant bird opened its serrated beak and let out a heartrending screech. Like a kite with its string cut, it plunged into the lake with a heavy splash, sending a huge spray of water into the air.
Birds are relatively lightweight, and their bones are generally hollow. As a result, the giant bird didn’t sink after falling into the water. Instead, it floated on the surface like a filthy, blood-soaked rag, its wings spread out and its head lolling to one side as its body twitched in agony.
Crimson blood slowly spread through the lake water in wispy trails. Drawn by the scent of blood, countless black shadows converged from all directions beneath the surface, scrambling to feast on the giant bird’s flesh.
Everly saw a shrimp nearly two meters long—or at least, probably a shrimp. Its head certainly looked like one. Two segmented appendages lined with backward-pointing hooks and sharp spines clamped onto the giant bird’s wing. With a violent tug, it ripped off a huge chunk of flesh, skin and bone together, then stuffed it into its bowl-shaped mouthpart, which resembled a whirlpool.
Beside the giant shrimp were several fish with pointed snouts. They looked like hybrids of dolphins and fish, with long, pincer-like mouths lined with two rows of razor-sharp teeth. A single bite was enough to make the giant bird’s neck snap apart in several places with a sharp crack, sending torrents of blood gushing into the water.
But they were quickly driven away by a five-meter-plus-long fish with fleshy fins.
Its head was shaped like the front of a truck, and its body was covered in thick bony armor, making it virtually impervious to bites from other fish. When it gathered enough momentum and charged, it was like a runaway tank, effortlessly smashing aside the smaller fish, including the sharp-snouted ones.
“Crack, splash, splash…”
Countless bizarre and ferocious aquatic creatures gathered around the giant bird’s corpse, fighting and scrambling over the remains. Severed limbs and scales flew through the water, mixing with blood and chunks of flesh. Before long, the enormous bird had been completely devoured, leaving nothing but a skeleton that sank into the depths.
Naturally, the creatures, whose appetites were still far from satisfied, soon turned their attention to the inflatable boat nearby.
The boat was currently speeding toward the cave as fast as it could.
The moment they had seen the giant shrimp, the people aboard had already realized that something was wrong and had immediately pushed the boat to its maximum speed.
But they were fast.
The monsters in the lake were faster.
The first casualty was the mercenary operating the motor at the stern. A giant crocodile whipped its long tail and leaped out of the water, opening its enormous jaws as wide as they would go and snapping down on him.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye. The mercenary didn’t even have time to scream before he disappeared beneath the emerald-green water.
By the time the others realized what had happened, the stern of the inflatable boat was empty. A huge cloud of blood rose from the water beside them, the final trace that mercenary would leave behind in this world.
“Quick! There’s something in the water! Shoot into the water!”
“Can’t you go any faster?”
“We can’t! We’re already at top speed…”
The people aboard the inflatable boat panicked for a moment. Following the warnings from those on shore, they pulled out their guns and blindly unleashed a furious barrage into the water on both sides of the boat. Some even pulled out grenades, yanked the pins, and casually tossed them into the lake.
Boom!
An explosion erupted, sending water mixed with chunks of flesh flying everywhere and splattering the people aboard the boat from head to toe.
As luck would have it, the grenade seemed to have been swallowed by a fish that mistook it for food. After the explosion, the bloated carcass of a fish floated to the surface. Seeing this, the fish pursuing the inflatable boat immediately swarmed toward it and began fighting over the floating corpse.
The inflatable boat took advantage of the distraction and sped another considerable distance forward.
With only a little over ten meters left before they could reach the pudding-shaped mountain, the water directly ahead of the boat suddenly began bubbling violently.
Then, more than a dozen thick, powerful tentacles burst out of the lake.
They spread out like a giant net, wrapping tightly around the moving inflatable boat. With brute, overwhelming strength, they began dragging the boat—and everyone aboard it—down into the water.
Everly was positioned on higher ground. Through her binoculars, she could see that beneath the dark water, at the ends of those tentacles, lurked a monster resembling an octopus.
Most of its body was concealed inside a long, slender, conical spiral shell measuring a good seven or eight meters in length. Only a pair of enormous, lightbulb-sized eyes and more than a dozen tentacles were exposed. The tentacles spread out like enormous streamers, blotting out the sky, while its mouth gaped open like a bottomless black abyss, waiting to be filled with flesh.
The sight was so horrifying it could easily give someone nightmares.
“F**K! It’s going to swallow us alive—blow it up! Blow it up!”
The people aboard the inflatable boat tried using machetes and pistols against the monster, but neither had the slightest effect. As the boat and its passengers were dragged toward the water, the mercenaries aboard were driven to desperation, and the ferocity buried deep within them finally erupted.
A series of furious, desperate roars rang out.
Then, amid the chaos, someone pulled the pins from several grenades.
BOOM! BOOM!
After several deafening explosions, one of the octopus monster’s eyes, along with several of its tentacles, was blown apart, spraying blood and flesh in all directions.
The tremendous pain made the monster release its grip. Two mercenaries who had survived the explosions seized the opportunity, frantically thrashing their arms and legs as they desperately swam toward the pudding-shaped mountain.
The inflatable boat had been damaged in the explosions, while their remaining companions had died in the blast. The people on shore were too far away for their bullets to reach the monster.
Now, the only things the two men could rely on were their own arms and legs, already battered and covered in wounds from the explosions.
Faster. Faster…
Now was their chance. The octopus monster had just been badly wounded, and the other creatures were frantically fighting over its flesh. This was their last—and best—opportunity.
Swim. Just keep swimming.
If they could make it only a little farther, they would escape these underwater nightmares and reach the cave in the mountainside.
Once they got there, not only would they be safe, they would also receive a hefty reward.
So much money. Enough to pay off all those countless debts. Enough to get their bedridden mother the best medical treatment. Enough to send their children to school. Enough to put a relieved smile on their exhausted wife’s face.
As long as they finished this job, they would…
But in the end, the mercenaries never reached the shore they had dreamed of.
Just before they reached their destination, a terrifying whirlpool nearly three meters in diameter suddenly appeared in the water.
At the edge of the whirlpool were two enormous jaws, their upper and lower bones shaped like guillotine blades. Like the gates of hell descending upon the world, the moment they opened, they created a massive depression in the surface of the lake.
The mercenaries in the water were helplessly sucked into the whirlpool and plunged inside.
The next second, the jaws snapped shut.
With one crisp CRACK!, blood splashed through the water, and the last survivor was torn apart and swallowed by the monstrous fish.