Shrouded Seascape

Charles was greeted by a grotesque mix of brain matter, pus, and blood that spilled out onto the cabin floor, along with what looked like fireflies made out of pure darkness.

The "fireflies" squirmed before disappearing into thin air.

Without its pilots, the plane entered a nosedive, and everything inside the plane flew upward. Charles watched as the disgusting liquid flew past him. His gaze then landed on another figure in a spacesuit.

Charles' sharp claws tore apart the other figure's visor, and a repulsive odor assaulted Charles' nostrils as an explosion of blood, brain matter, and pus filled the air before him, along with another batch of "fireflies" from earlier. The spacesuit didn't have a human being inside it but was housing a lifeform made out of liquid.

Just then, Charles noticed that the island down below was getting bigger in his eyes. The plane was about to crash. However, Charles wasn't worried at all. With a will on his end, his figure vanished from inside the plane and reappeared outside.

Meanwhile, a screeching noise pervaded the air as the streamlined fighter jet crashed into the meteorite-looking floating island. It was a catastrophic collision with mechanical parts scattering everywhere, but the plane didn't burst into flames.

Right as Charles was about to make his next move, he felt a sudden itchiness in his throat, followed by a strong urge to vomit. A sudden, intense pain struck him in the abdomen as if his stomach was going through a seizure.

Charles' expression immediately became solemn. A section of his stomach had already been removed, and he couldn't afford to have another section of his stomach necrotized and removed.

Charles knew that he couldn't use that relic again unless it was absolutely necessary to do so.

Charles decided to set aside those thoughts for now, as he didn't have the luxury of time to ponder over many things at the moment.

Just then, a screeching noise filled the air, prompting Charles to look up and find that more fighter jets had appeared.

Charles flapped his wings and flew above the Narwhale to look around vigilantly.

The entire expedition team had no choice but to go into a passive stance in the face of the Foundation's powerful modern weaponry. To make matters worse, the Foundation had sent six fighter jets this time rather than just one.

The fighter jets attacked, sending a hail of explosive shells toward the airships.

Unfortunately, one of the airships was hit, and the resulting explosion was so powerful that it made the fur on Charles' face curl slightly in response.

Charles knew that they had to counterattack. They couldn't just take hits from their enemies. Their enemies were extremely fast, but Charles had to destroy them somehow, or they would be stranded on this island if their airships ended up getting destroyed.

Charles landed on the Narwhale's smokestack, standing firmly in place.

His figure rapidly morphed into normal as he exclaimed, "You with the hat! Slow them down a bit! A brief pause is enough!"

As long as Charles could see them, he had a way to make them stop.

The captain with the tall top hat looked like he wanted to say something, but he seemed hesitant to say it. In the end, he nodded at Charles and put his hand back on the door knob of the small brass door embedded in the center of his hat.

A creaking noise echoed as the brass door opened, and a passing fighter jet slowed down immediately afterward.

Charles stared intently at the fighter jet and opened his hands. Invisible tentacles instantly wrapped around the fighter jet; the tentacles emitting a bright white sheen whipped at the jet, focusing on its wings and empennage.

The fighter jet had slowed down for only a second, but it was destroyed before it could even return to its original speed. Wrapped in invisible tentacles, it wobbled and plummeted toward the endless abyss down below.

Charles dealt with another fighter jet in the same manner until the enemies wisened up. They no longer dared to approach the meteorite island; they chose to hide in the darkness and bombard the airships with their missiles.

"Everyone off the ship!! They're attacking the airships!" Charles roared.

Everyone frantically escaped amidst the bombardment. At this rate, not a single airship would remain. The intermittent explosions told everyone that the enemies were moving incessantly, making sure that they'd never get tracked in the darkness.

Dipp gnashed his sharp teeth and stomped forward. His figure rapidly dispersed into a thick blue mist.

"Captain, I'll handle them!" Dipp exclaimed, and the blue mist thinned out gradually until it became a massive net that drifted slowly toward the unassuming fighter jets.

Of course, Charles wasn't going to let Dipp face several modern fighter jets by himself. He flew over to the captain wearing a top hat and swooped up the latter with his talons before flying in Dipp's direction.

Those capable of flight among the expedition party hurried over to support as well.

With two down, there were only four fighter jets remaining, and Charles decided to employ encirclement tactics.

The enemies were extremely fast, but the expedition party with powerful relics had a higher firepower than the fighter jets, even if they were in the air.

Soon, explosions pervaded the darkness, illuminating it.

An intense battle ensued, with both sides sparing the other no quarter.

"Bleck!" Grace's expression was ugly as she vomited the food she had eaten in the morning. A corpse missing half its head was on the floor not too far away from her, and the corpse had flown toward her from out of nowhere.

Grace was finally witnessing the harsh reality of the surface world exploration. The smell of gunpowder, whale oil, and the disgusting smell of burning flesh pervaded the air. It was the scent of a battlefield, and the scene before Grace gave her the shock of her life.

When there was nothing left in her stomach to vomit, Grace instinctively sought out her only support on the ship, Linda. However, Linda was the ship's doctor, so she was at her busiest at the moment. She had no time to spare for Grace.

"Sniff…! I want to go home..." Grace cried as she hugged her staff. She was hiding in a corner and sobbing by herself.

After a while, she looked up and saw Lily directing her mice to move the deck cannons as swiftly as possible while the remaining crew members were maneuvering the Narwhale away from the battlefield.

The sight made Grace feel ashamed of her own cowardice.

"Stand up, Grace. You can do it. I'm not useless," Grace said to herself. She mustered the courage to rush over to Linda's side, who was already soaked in blood.

Grace was about to assist Linda when she saw everyone returning from the darkness outside.

Charles put down the captain that he had been carrying with his talons. He smiled while staring at the captain's black top hat. "Nice relic. Where did you get it?"

However, the captain wearing a black top hat stood in a daze, ignoring Charles. His crew eventually came to carry their captain away, and Charles learned from them that their captain's current condition was all because of the relic's side effect.

The relic could slow down others, but he had to sacrifice his own speed in exchange. A short delay in one's movement was manageable, but the fact that the side effect could sometimes be permanent was terrifying.

Charles landed on the Narwhale's deck, and the survivors gathered on the deck.

The majority of the casualties had died from the bombardment of the fighter jets, and an airship had even plummeted to the abyss down below when its gas bags were destroyed by the bombardment. There were only two airships remaining, and the Narwhale was one of the two.

A casualty report was soon made, and almost thirty explorers had perished from the attack. The report included the casualties of the Narwhale. Thirty wasn't a large number, but their deaths were unnecessary.

Charles knew that there was a chance that the negotiations would break down and that they would be attacked. However, he didn't expect the Foundation to attack them as soon as they had refused to accept their condition.

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