thefictionvixens 12 Wide-Area Silence and Attacking Black Sails [2-in-1]
12 Wide-Area Silence and Attacking Black Sails [2-in-1]
Her long, silvery-white eyelashes trembled slightly, like frozen frost.
On the airship deck, Wendell, who had been sleeping soundly in the co-pilot's seat of the Blue Dragonfly, slowly opened his eyes.
Consciousness rises as if from the deep sea, carrying with it the usual heaviness and a sense of bewilderment, a hazy memory, or even a loss of memories.
She couldn't remember her dreams during her deep sleep, only vaguely sensing a trace of Ishtar's lingering, inexplicable anger.
Through the glass window of the blue dragonfly, thick, murky steam filled the entire cave.
The mushrooms in the cave were completely burned, and the hallucinogenic gas dissipated.
Beneath their feet, Cameron's hunting airship, previously covered in moss, had been cleaned and repaired. Under Roya's control, it slowly took off and flew through the cave.
Luo Ya stood on the deck, waving his arms and legs excitedly, like a child.
The long worm in the difference engine unexpectedly became Roya's all-purpose tool.
She subconsciously moved her right hand.
A slight discomfort, roughly stitched up, came from the arm encased in the iron armor.
The shattered dragon scale valve was actually sewn back together by Roya!
She suddenly realized that each time she fell into a coma, she left behind a considerable mess.
However, whenever she opened her eyes, Roya always had everything in perfect order.
Only Roya could pull her back from the brink of losing control, preventing Ishtar from gradually eroding her remaining willpower.
Now she is old and frail, and has no energy left to care about everything.
Roja, who seems to have a connection with machines and always maintains his rationality, is the ideal teammate.
He clearly seems like a boy who yearns for the world and craves emotional connection...
boom!
The hatch opened on its own.
Wendell moved nimbly and leaped onto the deck of the gondola.
"How long did I sleep?"
Her voice was a little hoarse, with a languid quality from just waking up.
At this moment, Roya's mind was entirely on the airship, not on the woman, and he casually replied:
"It took more than seven hours, a little longer than last time."
Wendell unconsciously licked his chapped lips.
The inexplicable swelling has disappeared...
But for some reason, there were still scabs of blood on my lips.
Isn't it a dream?
She tilted her head slightly to look at Luo Ya, her nostrils flaring as she caught a whiff of a familiar scent.
"...Your scent?"
There was no questioning in her tone, only inexplicable worry.
If Roya were to make any inappropriate advances toward her while she is asleep, he could easily be bewitched by Ishtar, causing her to lose control and kill everyone there.
But now, everything is normal.
Roya waved his hand to control the suspended airship, which moved slowly forward through the cave. He didn't even bother with Wendell and simply nodded:
"That's right, I kissed you. Remember to take responsibility for me."
Wendell's silver eyebrows furrowed slightly.
This is impossible!
"Did you use a hose or something?"
Roya tilted his head and looked at Wendell.
"I have a mouth, okay? This time you're just passively fulfilling your promise, don't let it happen again... Also, the other person in the dream might be going through menopause, and has a bad temper, you need to change that."
A barely perceptible shock flashed across the depths of his pupils, which were like molten gold, quickly turning into remorse.
Wendell then realized the immense danger her loss of control had posed to Roya, and she lowered her eyes slightly.
"I'm sorry to have put you in danger... I'm not a reliable teammate, you need to wake up to that soon."
Luo Ya also felt that he needed to awaken quickly!
Airship hunters are more dangerous than he imagined.
Fortunately, he had Wendell, a high-level superhuman, as a teammate; otherwise, he would never have risked becoming a hunter.
If Wendell can get along well with the other personality in his dreams, he can become more reliable.
"Don't apologize, Wendell. Whitewashing will only make you weaker."
……
evening.
The sunlight filtering through the clouds dimmed, taking on a hazy yellow hue.
The revolutionary army squad's shuttle airship has finally returned!
On the deck of the gondola were four large barrels made of some kind of tough animal hide and vines, each filled with hundreds of basketball-sized, swollen, soft vesicles.
Roya climbed onto the deck and inspected it carefully.
This is the venom sac inside the abdomen of the multiwinged mother beetle.
The opening of the vesicle was tightly sealed by the strong, wire-like arthropod legs of the centipede.
The quantity was less than Roya had expected.
However, Roya saw Giles's clothes burned by the corrosive liquid and the red, swollen, and ulcerated skin on his arms.
Given Colonel Rogge's nearly collapsed body and still upright spine, it was difficult to criticize them further.
"Thank you for your hard work... May I take three of the buckets?"
Upon hearing this, Colonel Rogge let out a cold snort, tinged with pain and disdain.
"Only the weak need this kind of thing; you can take it all."
Luo Ya was not annoyed at all; on the contrary, he accepted it gladly.
"I like the term 'weak'."
Without hesitation, he carried all four heavy barrels of corrosive liquid to the deck of Cameron's airship, which was still inside the cave.
And carefully secure it to the corner of the deck.
During the process, a few drops were accidentally leaked, which somehow pierced through three layers of wooden planks from top to bottom.
Instead of panicking, Roya became excited!
"It seems... ordinary steel and wood are no match for the corrosive liquid of the mother insect."
Out of curiosity.
It's also a test.
Roya's thoughts, like invisible fingertips, precisely manipulated the remains of a horsehair worm, extending it extremely slowly into the cyst.
There was no violent reaction as expected.
There was no hissing sound of surface dissolution.
There wasn't even the slightest change in luster.
The iron wire simply immersed itself quietly in the corrosive liquid, like a metal wire immersed in clear water, with only a few viscous dark green bubbles on the surface, while its internal structure remained completely still.
"Unexpectedly, the exoskeleton of a Tier 1 horsehair worm can withstand a Tier 3 multi-winged queen... Could this be an arms race among the Zerg? If so, these iron wires have become even more useful!"
Suppressing his excitement, Luo Ya immediately took control of the half-human excavator and dug the opening to a safe size.
Cameron's airship, like a giant whale just awakened, glided out of the dark cave very slowly, with the caution of a newborn calf.
Finally, it was completely freed from the constraints of the mountain.
Like a giant bird breaking free from its cocoon, it was bathed for the first time in the dim, yellowish light of dusk, hovering in the air filled with a thick fog of purple spores.
For the first time, Roya smelled the scent of freedom.
But it might smell musty.
He piloted the Blue Dragonfly armor and, with the assistance of the Wendell steam armor, carried the heavy excavator onto the deck.
They also collected a large number of purple mushrooms that emitted a faint glow on the mountain, to keep for future use, so that they could extract the pigment to compensate for the pigment defects in the micro differential machine.
Luo Ya stood on the mountaintop, looking around at the desolate land.
What is desolate to humans is a fertile land full of life to the Burning Spirits.
"It's time to leave!"
Two airships with very different styles took off one after the other.
The steam boiler engine began to roar louder, its deep rumble echoing through the valley, startling the flying creatures that inhabited the strange bacteria.
The Revolutionary Army's shuttle airship has sharp lines, like a black sword drawn from its sheath, hovering a hundred meters away, exuding the coldness and efficiency of standard military equipment.
Roya's Cameron Whale-style airship, like a weathered but robust blue-gray whale, floats steadily with the ruggedness and practicality characteristic of hunters.
The huge buoyancy capsule swayed slightly in the wind.
On the deck of the shuttle airship, Colonel Rogge, his spine taut as if it might crumble at any moment, lit a cigar and shouted to Roya on the opposite deck:
"A man's first airship has a very important name. What do you plan to name it?"
Luo Ya inexplicably recalled the Liaoning, the first aircraft carrier of his motherland in his previous life. After translating it from Chinese to Chinese, a name was born—
"Wide Area Silence".
Colonel Rogge gave a hoarse laugh.
Despite the blood and exhaustion covering his face, his eyes were unusually sharp, piercing through the dim light as he looked at Roya.
A vast silence... He saw Roya's longing to hide this sky.
"Believe me, you cannot remain silent... This sky will be set ablaze for you."
That's going too far...
Roya felt that the colonel wanted him to pull off a big heist, until he was driven to desperation by the high bounty, so that the revolutionary army could rightfully take him in.
"I hope the colonel will be more sober next time we meet."
Colonel Rogge, though his face showed remorse, kept his battered and bloodied spine straight.
"My extraordinary ability is the fusion of flesh and machine. This is because I have loved machines since I was a child. I even sleep with a machine in my arms. I even use my blood to power the machine when I lack fodder. Any machine in my hands can exert extra combat power beyond its own."
Extraordinary abilities are never acquired out of thin air, but rather are the result of the deepening and expansion of one's own talents and obsessions, until one breaks free from the cocoon and transforms into a butterfly.
"Our next meeting should be on the Silver Dragon Route. I look forward to seeing you emerge from your cocoon, Roya."
This was the second time Roya had heard of the Silver Dragon Route.
As for the awakening of extraordinary abilities...
Luo Ya shrugged. He had no obsession with it and wasn't sure if his cheat ability could be considered a talent.
"I do hope that I can awaken some other talent."
Before the words were finished—
On the lookout tower of the shuttle airship, Eamon abruptly raised the long brass telescope in his hand and hurriedly adjusted the focus.
His gaze was fixed on a rapidly enlarging black dot on the western horizon.
Suddenly, a look of horror appeared on his face, and he said:
"Damn it, that's the Ranger, the Black Sail of the First Mechanized Regiment of Mevin County!"
The silhouette of the black-sailed airship, like an ominous cloud, was rapidly tearing through the dim twilight.
On the deck of the Wide Area Silence.
Roya also raised his rusty long telescope, feeling he had seen this black sail somewhere before.
"Who are they here to arrest?"
"Whoever runs the slowest gets caught! See you on the Silver Dragon Route!"
Colonel Rogge turned and ordered Allison to launch the airships, which then took off first, splitting up with the Wide-Range Silent.
A deafening roar!
The shuttle airship soared into the sky and disappeared into the clouds.
.
Roya stood at the edge of the watchtower, lost in thought.
The mountain wind whipped up the hem of my dark brown clothes, making them flutter loudly.
His deep gaze was fixed on the familiar black sail on the horizon, as calm as the eye of a storm, without the slightest ripple.
Wendell silently gripped the hilt of his sword with his right hand.
The cold, metallic scraping sound was interrupted by Roya's calm voice as the sword was drawn halfway out.
"If you continue to draw your sword, you will be more dangerous to me than Black Sail."
Wendell's movements suddenly froze, and he tilted his head.
"How about we switch guns? My marksmanship allows me to shoot around corners, and I'm 100% accurate."
Why are you showing off now!
Luo Ya remained silent.
To him, Wendell was a forbidden sword that could injure the enemy a thousand while also injuring himself eight hundred times; it was incomparably sharp, yet difficult to wield.
She can be so powerful that she can cleave a triangular rainbow whale in two strokes and severely injure Colonel Rogge in two moves, yet she is also so weak that she is frightened by cloud vortex seaweed and has her demonic soul stirred by horsehair worms.
Every time she wields this forbidden sword, it is accompanied by unpredictable backlash.
For Roya, it can only be used to save his life in life-or-death situations, and cannot be used as a regular means.
He stood in front of the watchtower, staring intently at the dark shadows on the horizon.
His sharp gaze, like the most precise rangefinder, rapidly calculated the ever-shrinking distance between the two behemoths.
"Just running away. I'm best at flying."
Wendell suddenly turned his head and asked:
Have you ever flown an airship?
"no."
"Airships are not ornithopters. Even deep in the seaweed-covered clouds, it would be difficult for them to escape from the Black Sail, which is faster, has more firepower, and is more maneuverable."
"At worst, I'll be captured by the Black Sail and forced into serving as a volunteer soldier."
Luo Ya shrugged, making sure that Black Sail wasn't chasing the shuttle airship but was heading this way, before turning around and going down the stairs to the lowest level of the cockpit.
On the pressure gauge dial, the pointer representing steam pressure trembled at the edge of the red warning zone.
The exhaust pipes of the Wide-Area Silent Ship have only just been repaired and cannot support the catapult flight mode achieved through steam detonation.
He grabbed the heavy brass control lever and pushed it forward to its limit!
A deep, muffled roar, like a giant beast struggling in its death throes, came from deep within the boiler, then suddenly rose, transforming into a deafening roar of steam.
The Wide Area Silent Ship raised its head and plunged into the vast clouds.
The clouds swirled and greedily swallowed the bluish-gray silhouette of the ship, leaving only the lingering roar of the engine echoing between the empty mountain clouds.
……
Black Sail, Ranger.
This sailing airship, bearing the crossed gear insignia of the First Mechanized Regiment of Mevan County and constructed of blackened spruce wood with lines as menacing as a giant shark, is the enforcer of this airspace.
With a three-stage boiler, sixteen furnaces connected in parallel, and a uniquely designed black sail for added power, it boasts a powerful engine!
Its duties are cold and harsh: to forcibly recruit key talents urgently needed by the Blue Nest Kingdom, to hunt down deserters who have fled the surface, and to ruthlessly sweep away all illegal activities by airship hunters within the territory of Mewon County.
On the deck, in front of the watchtower, two scouts in dark uniforms held their breath, locking onto two airships with different outlines in front of them through binoculars.
One of them was a slender military shuttle airship.
The other one is the classic Cameron Whale-style hunting ship.
"Major, target spotted!"
"A converted military airship and a Cameron Whale-class hunting vessel have been spotted ahead!"
The voices of the two scouts, transmitted through the sound tubes, accompanied by the rustling sound of metal scraping, instantly reached the captain's cabin below.
The captain's cabin was filled with the thick smoke of expensive cigars.
Major Poeltl was a tall, thin, one-eyed man in a crisp military uniform, always with a cigarette in his hand and wearing a red eye patch.
He slowly exhaled a thick puff of cigar smoke, his remaining right eye sharp as a hawk's, staring intently through the porthole at the blue-gray figure that was speeding away in the distance.
"You mean the Cameron Whale-class hunting ship?"
He suddenly remembered the hunting ship that had been damaged and gone missing by the Ranger in nearby airspace a year and a half ago—
It's a Cameron!
Combined with subsequent secret messages from the capital...
All the fragments of clues pieced together in an instant!
Poeltl's right pupil suddenly contracted.
They are the revolutionary army!
"Lock on Cameron's hunting ship, full speed ahead!"
With a deafening roar, the Ranger launched itself and soared into the clouds.
After briefly losing track of the ship due to dense fog and cloud cover, the Ranger quickly closed the distance using its speed advantage and finally locked onto the faintly visible ship ahead.
The Ranger's massive black hull pierced through the clouds, tearing through the swirling seaweed that blocked its path.
Like the shadow cast by death, carrying an oppressive force far exceeding the tentacles in the fog, it relentlessly enveloped the Wide Silence.
The black sail was getting faster and faster, and the distance was getting closer and closer!
So close that you could clearly see the steam trail ahead and the turbulent eddies created by the propeller at the stern...
Until a super-long iron wire, so thin it was almost imperceptible, taut as a string, and soaked in dark green insect sap, lay across the most vulnerable section of the black sail's gantry!
It's like a string on a musical instrument covered with rests.