thefictionvixens 6. Arrowfin Fish, Mountain Whale, and Mysterious Tentacles [2-in-1]
6. Arrowfin Fish, Mountain Whale, and Mysterious Tentacles [2-in-1]
The next morning.
Blue Mist Town, Central Square.
A red sun disappeared beneath the sea of clouds, painting the eastern horizon with a hazy, pale white.
The Blue Dragonfly, with its steam-powered armor suspended from its belly, appeared like a blue phantom, piercing the morning mist and hovering low over the square.
In the driver's seat, Roya, dressed in a sharp dark brown flight suit, took off his goggles and looked at the square shrouded in morning mist.
A small, elongated airship had been waiting for some time.
The three people on the gondola waved to Roya and Wendell.
Although the airship has been repainted and fitted with a davit, making it look like a battle-damaged hunting ship.
Luo Ya recognized him at a glance—
This is a shuttle-type warship belonging to the Blue Nest Autonomous Territory!
"It seems this mission is not simple."
The shuttle airship's engine is an eight-furnace parallel two-stage steam boiler, which provides particularly strong power.
The buoy is 48 meters long but only 5 meters wide, and the gondola is also longer and narrower than the hunter airship of the same size.
This extremely streamlined and exaggerated design gives it amazing speed, making it designed for surprise attacks and support.
However, its firepower, range, and load capacity are average, so theoretically it is not very suitable for adventure and hunting.
Fortunately, the aircraft has a sturdy defense system and is equipped with an external humanoid armor and a flapping-wing aircraft. The armor and aircraft materials, as well as the firepower configuration, are superior to those of the Blue Dragonfly and the Steam Armor.
Roya liked it very much.
He even inexplicably hoped that these people would frame him...
Upon boarding the battle-damaged shuttle airship, Roya didn't expose the three, but instead extended a friendly hand along with Wendell:
"My name is Roya, and this is my partner Wendell. I hope this journey to the surface will be a pleasant and successful one, and that everyone will return safely."
Giles and his two companions shook hands in turn and introduced themselves once again.
"Louis Giles, it's an honor!"
Giles was tall and slender with bright, dark eyes, but his bird's nest-like curly hair somewhat detracted from his good looks.
Beside him, the slightly chubby Eamon, with a thick beard and a flamboyant round face, ignored Roya but was drawn to Wendell, his gaze always involuntarily drifting towards her.
It is evident that round faces and full beards can also indicate normal sexual orientation.
"Call me Eamon, I'm a scout... Miss Wendell, don't worry, our ship is known for its speed."
Wendell only drank tea and didn't say anything.
The way they drink tea is exactly the same as how they drink alcohol.
Another girl named Allison stared intently at Roya, her face beaming with a bright, youthful smile.
"My name is Allison, and I'm an apprentice mechanic. I had just come out of the clothing store when Mr. Roya's unmanned armor defeated the Tyrannosaurus Armor... If you hadn't become a hunter, you would definitely be a soldier with a strong sense of justice."
Did you just happen to witness the Blue Dragonfly knocking down the Tyrannosaurus Rex armor?
What a coincidence...
Luo Ya frowned slightly.
He suspected that the brainless villain Tyrannosaurus Rex Armor was likely there to test Blue Dragonfly.
He glanced at the short girl without making a sound.
She's not exactly a stunning beauty, and her figure is rather ordinary, but her smile is very infectious.
Luo Ya actually hoped that these people had ulterior motives, so that his sunken ship could be upgraded into a military shuttle airship.
Glancing at the calluses on the girl's hands, which were slightly clenched and trying to hide them, Luo Ya couldn't help but look at her in a different light.
Although he was from an academic background, he still put in a lot of hard work.
"Go for it, Miss Allison!"
Encouraged by Roya, Allison smiled slightly, turned and crawled into the cockpit located below the deck.
She skillfully checked all the instruments, confirmed that the phlogiston reserves were sufficient, and then pulled the lever to ignite the furnace.
Boom—
The boiler started up slowly, emitting a muffled roar.
The airship jolted violently, took off, and sped off in a southeast direction.
Above the clouds.
The shuttle airship maintained a speed visible to the naked eye.
The sputtering sound of steam bursting forth was so distinct that, to Luo Ya, it sounded quite similar to the deep roar of an internal combustion engine.
Below the hull, the surging airflow cleaved a long white wave across the sea of clouds.
The cloud algae were stirred and rolled up by the air currents, disturbing the tiny burning spirits that lived within them.
Luo Ya closed his eyes and felt the whistling of the wind and steam.
This was actually his first time boarding a hunting airship!
It is much faster than civilian airships, and even close to the speed of ornithopters.
If an ornithopter flies at top speed, the fuel it carries will not last for an hour.
Airships, however, can launch continuous raids for dozens of days at a slightly slower speed.
Ornithopters are to airships what fighter jets were to aircraft carriers in the past.
If there had been an airship, Roya wouldn't have needed to sew the two pieces of whale carcass together and take them away...
The thought of soon owning his own airship filled Roya with excitement.
Before long, Luo Ya suddenly sensed a slight disturbance in the clouds below and slowly opened his eyes.
One after another, emerald green swordfin fish shot out from the churning clouds like arrows released from a bow, soaring into the blue sky!
The school of arrowfish chased the airship's trail rapidly, greedily inhaling the phlogiston steam.
Swordfish has delicious flesh and is rich in phytoestrogens, making it a favorite ingredient for hunters.
However, it is difficult to catch swordfin fish individually. In addition, they are slender, small and incredibly fast. The cost of airship fuel consumed to catch them often far exceeds the value of the fish meat itself.
Even more troublesome is that some crazy swordfin fish will even crawl directly into the airship's exhaust port and damage the boiler, just so that their companions can inhale more unburned phlogiston steam.
The shuttle airship had to increase the steam furnace pressure and consume more phlogiston to prevent this from happening.
The Arrowfin Fish was thus included in the appendix of the "Cloud Sea Burning Spirit Compendium" as one of the 100 least worthwhile Burning Spirits to hunt.
This made Roya realize that hunting is far more than just adventure, exploration, passion, and dreams... it is also a game of cost and benefit that requires careful calculation.
East.
The sun finally broke free from the sea of clouds and rose slowly.
Directly in front of the shuttle airship, a majestic cloud mountain suddenly appeared, towering hundreds of meters above the cloud plane.
Bathed in the glow of the rising sun, the mountains rise in layers, creating a magnificent sight.
On the windproof deck of the shuttle-type airship with its faceted glass canopy.
Wendell, who was holding a ram's horn teapot and about to lower his head to drink tea, suddenly frowned and looked up at the majestic cloud-covered mountains in front of him.
Roya had been secretly observing Wendell's micro-expressions.
After all, she can see the information carried by the wind...
It's equivalent to gaining divine consciousness!
Roya chose to trust Wendell's intuition.
He immediately blew a sharp whistle, commanding the Blue Dragonfly to enter emergency evacuation and standby mode.
Seeing Roya's strange behavior, Eamon immediately raised his binoculars and looked at the churning clouds and mountains ahead.
A moment later, noticing something was wrong, he suddenly shouted towards the driver's seat—
"Pull up! Allison, pump up the price now!"
Giles tried his best to remain calm and murmured:
There seems to be something in the clouds...
Isn't that obvious?
Luo Ya could almost see the shadowy, colossal creature amidst the towering clouds with his own eyes!
The airship immediately raised its bow and climbed rapidly.
at the same time--
boom!
The steam cannons on the airship's belly were instantly activated, detonating the already pressurized steam packs.
The powerful thrust, like a catapult, propelled the entire airship upwards into the higher clouds.
Luo Ya held onto the railing tightly, almost getting knocked over.
Looking down—
Caught off guard, the relentless school of arrowfish rushed into the cloud-shrouded mountains, only to be instantly swallowed by the enormous, cave-like maw that suddenly opened in the clouds.
The giant mouth closed.
Yunshan collapsed as a result.
The towering waves and huge whirlpools slowly parted.
Only a few swordfin fish remained circling the whirlpool, seemingly searching for traces of their companions.
The shuttle airship regained its stable attitude.
"call……"
On deck, Amon wiped the cold sweat from his brow and explained to Roya and Wendell with lingering fear:
"This is a mountain whale that feeds on arrowfish. It is the largest whale in the shallow waters of the cloud sea, with the largest reaching over 300 meters in length. Although it is not aggressive towards humans, it often accidentally injures airships when ambushing schools of arrowfish."
In Roya's view, Eamon seemed to be reciting the text descriptions from "The Illustrated Compendium of the Cloud Sea and the Burning Spirit".
So he deliberately asked him:
"Is this Mr. Eamon's first time encountering a mountain whale?"
Eamon's forehead had long since dried up, but he kept wiping it.
"I'm not a hunter. Civilian airships fly very high and won't get close to the sea of clouds... This time, we have to thank Miss Wendell."
Wendell relaxed his brows and lowered his head to take a sip of red tea.
They didn't say anything.
Luo Ya sighed softly.
He finally understood.
The hunters and militiamen around him all seemed to be greenhorns.
This complete greenhorn was actually the most experienced of them all.
Clearly, this was also his first time seeing a mountain whale...
To be precise, we only saw the shadow of the whale, not its true form.
Based solely on the vortex caused by the disturbance of the mountain whale's aura, its entry level is no less than the third rank!
"This is an old, fourth-order mountain whale. I can kill it, but it would be difficult to capture it alive."
Wendell said so.
It's actually a fourth-tier burning beast?
Luo Ya suddenly remembered that after Wendell killed the third-tier Triangular Rainbow Whale, he vomited blood and slept for half a day before recovering.
Moreover, the value of the crystal from the mountain whale is far lower than that of the crystal from the triangular baleen whale of the same class.
"Never mind, we have more important tasks."
Still shaken, Giles and Eamon didn't hear the conversation between the two, otherwise they would have been in for another terrifying moment.
Above the sea of clouds, the wind howls like the tide.
Although high-altitude flight is relatively safe, the temperature is extremely low, the air is thin, and there is little wind.
For an airship, which maintains lift by the density difference between the inside and outside of the buoyancy capsule, it would consume several times more phlogiston.
Soon, the shuttle airship descended and continued to fly close to the sea of clouds, maintaining a balance between safety and economy.
Giles approached Roya and asked him curiously:
Have you joined the Hunter Association?
"Not yet, that's the goal."
"Mr. Roya seems to have some concerns about his safety. Have you purchased commercial insurance within Blue Nest?"
Roya was taken aback and turned to stare at Giles.
What, you're an insurance salesman?
"no."
Giles gazed at the sea of clouds, his eyes calm.
"That would be best. Insurance companies within the dominion always try to find ways to refuse coverage."
If someone has purchased accident insurance, the person who should receive the premiums is more likely to have an accident.
The empire's major insurance companies weren't much better off.
Hunters might only receive fairer insurance if they join the Hunter Association.
Perhaps, in this dangerous world, true insurance simply doesn't exist.
If you have a clear conscience, the Holy Spirit will protect you.
Luo Ya thought to himself, "If you weren't wearing an expensive military vest with an airbag underneath, I would have actually believed you."
The truth is, Roya did not have insurance.
He was covered by insurance.
It was bought by an insurance company named Wendell.
Wendell... was his insurance.
That's how they got on the pirate ship.
But his ship hasn't arrived yet.
Luo Ya's gaze was calm, and he spoke meaningfully.
"As a hunter, all I want is an airship, just like a pigeon that just wants to go to the dock and get some fries."
Giles smiled and patted Roya on the shoulder:
"There will be airships, and there will be fries."
……
Half a day passed by with the whooshing and roaring steam.
From the brass transducer in the deck watchtower came Alison's slightly nervous voice:
"We have entered the airspace above the Hillis Mountains. Be on high alert."
Holding a military-grade compass, the pointer trembled laboriously in the fog before finally pointing to a definite location.
He then gestured to Giles:
"Arrived at the target location."
Luo Ya glanced around and confirmed that this was indeed Baiyun District.
However, the thickness of the cloud layer far exceeds that of ordinary white cloud areas.
Giles immediately gave the order to the sound transmission brass tube:
"Ready to enter the clouds!"
The shuttle airship then shut down the central boiler.
Using the stored high-pressure steam bladders, the hull was controlled, and the boat slowly sank into the vast sea of clouds.
As the airship disappeared into the sea of clouds, visibility in front of Roya dropped sharply.
The pristine white clouds gradually turned into thick fog, enveloping the airship in a vast, deathly white silence.
This was Roya's first time traveling deep into the clouds by airship.
Silence reigned in the mist.
My sense of direction is gradually disappearing.
Warm, humid, and viscous fog, carrying immense air pressure, rushed towards us.
Luo Ya felt as if a heavy, wet cloth was tightly covering his chest, making each breath extremely difficult.
This is completely different from the feeling of flying a flapping-wing aircraft quickly through the clouds.
As the airship continued its descent, the shadow of claustrophobia crept into his mind, making him feel as if he were suffocating.
Just then, a hand wearing an iron glove but unusually warm firmly supported his shoulder.
"How are you?"
Wendell's aloof voice pierced through the thick fog, yet carried a hint of warmth and reliability.
Luo Ya tried to remain calm, but his voice was dry and strained.
"That's not good. Can you hold me like this forever?"
Wendell remained silent, his right hand resting on Roya's shoulder as he quietly sipped his tea.
call……
Luo Ya breathed a sigh of relief.
If Wendell hadn't been standing next to him, he would have already crawled into the blue dragonfly.
Amon, wearing a military-style vest with airbags that come with basic defogging capabilities, appeared more relaxed than Roya.
"7,200 meters above sea level, almost there!"
He reported loudly, breaking the oppressive silence on the deck.
The airship continued its slow descent through the thick fog, its hull swaying slightly as if floating above an unknown abyss.
Everyone held their breath, their nerves stretched to the limit.
Only the low hum of steam remained on the deck.
In a daze, Luo Ya saw thick, long black shadows waving and swaying deep in the clouds.
At the same time, he felt a slight, clear throbbing from the iron hand on his shoulder.
He felt a chill run down his spine.
That shouldn't be the case... Wendell usually frowns when faced with real danger.
What does it mean when your body feels palpitations?
Is it excitement?
Roya turned to look at Wendell, and gently comforted him in the same way Wendell had comforted him earlier, speaking softly:
"How are you?"
Wendell was pale, and the ram's horn teapot fell to the ground.
She did not speak.
His golden eyes were as dark as if shrouded in mist, staring at the shadows deep within the mist.
puff!
A thick, dark green tentacle covered with suckers, like a demonic claw reaching out from the abyss of hell, was flung out of the thick fog without warning and tightly wrapped around the airship's buoyancy bag!
Then, the second one, the third one...
More tentacles followed, wriggling and coiling around him like living creatures.
The airship began to rock violently, its hull emitting a sickening metallic groan.
It turned out to be a large-scale psychological attack!
Luo Ya felt a chill run down his spine and his head buzzing.
He immediately activated the mechanical connection, channeling his consciousness into the ship's interior, which greatly alleviated the mental attacks from the tentacles.
Giles and Eamon froze, their faces drained of color, shock and fear freezing in their pupils.
Wendell showed no fear, yet remained silent, his body trembling slightly, his right hand gripping Roya's shoulder tightly...
Until, Roya blew a whistle.
[The Blue Dragonfly armor located at the rear of the deck receives voice-activated signals and executes the differential machine's preset command: Slay the Burning Spirit.]
The armor activated instantly.
He leaped into the air and sped away!
The steam blade folded under his right arm popped out instantly, like a blue lightning bolt, slashing rapidly above the deck.
The blade flashed with a chilling light, and steam billowed as it passed.
One by one, the sticky, severed tentacles were cut off and fell onto the deck with a thud.
The severed limbs continued to wriggle, and the green sap oozing from the cracks evaporated rapidly, emitting a strong fishy smell.
In the blink of an eye, only thin green skin remained of each severed limb.
Roya remained calm, patting Wendell's cold shoulder armor with his backhand, the bright morning sun rising on his smiling face.
"This is cloud vortex kelp; everyone who's tried it says it's delicious."