The black sun hangs high

Chapter 327 Encirclement

Whether elves and dwarves, humans or goblins.

Individuals who have accepted Vaan's inherent beliefs and grown up within this system will find it difficult to remain calm when faced with such an existence.

Although they had received a warning from Hugh earlier, the verbal description was nothing like the bizarre scene they actually witnessed. Before seeing the true face of that shadow, no one could have imagined that such a strange thing could exist beneath the familiar sea.

People realized that the dark shape could not possibly be a sea reef.

Because reefs don't suddenly "grow" out from under the sea surface.

It couldn't possibly be a whale, because no whale in Vaan has so many strange eyes growing on its back. Even rare magical creatures and legendary sea monsters would never have such a repulsive feature.

However, this terrifying discovery was only the beginning.

Hugh could feel his metal disc spinning faster and faster, though the rate of increase was very slow, it was enough to prove that danger was slowly approaching.

"Check the surrounding sea surface! Check the surrounding sea surface immediately! Use spotlights!"

The sailor officer on the Windless remained relatively calm. Despite witnessing an extremely bizarre scene, he quickly recovered from his shock. As the order was successfully relayed, several thin beams of light shone from the Windless toward the distant sea.

These special crystal spotlights are actually quite old; they are remnants of the previous naval era. In an era when large-scale detection equipment could not be mounted on warships, people often had to use this primitive method to search for targets at night.

Currently, with all sorts of esoteric rituals being severely disrupted, this tool has become people's most important reliance.

Hughes never put down the binoculars.

He stared intently at the first target to appear. The strange shadow, several meters tall, floated slowly in the light. It seemed to be swimming, but its speed was obviously no match for the moving ships. Perhaps to hide itself, or perhaps to avoid the ships' path, the strange "reef" suddenly sank into the sea a minute after it appeared.

As it descended, Hughes saw some tentacled shadows writhe and fling out from all around it, the unique, mesmerizing light and shadow of the "Color of Life" rising into the air with the splashing water.

During this process, Hugh, who was on the Windless, clearly felt a tremor in the air. The Karljun's Touch, which resided in Hugh's spiritual world, also reacted to this invisible tremor. It began to twist and turn in its own grooves, and its form changed from the original tentacles to the armor and keratinous appearance it had in battle.

Clearly, at this moment, the Touch of Calron felt a distinct threat.

At the same time, all the ships in the fleet adopted a similar strategy in response to this situation, and a dozen beams of light of varying thicknesses swept across the sea surface.

These crystal spotlights, operated by both mage apprentices and sailors, could easily project light onto the distant, dark sea, and as they searched, more and more bizarre and strange shadows gradually appeared in everyone's view.

One, two, three...

"It looks like we're surrounded... Damn it, what are these things?"

"The direction of the Silver Shield has also been discovered, and they have already sent out warning signals."

The officer glanced at the magical light and shadow drifting into the sky in the distance: "I guess they've already started targeting the sea."

"Oh no no no... are you planning to just kill them outright?"

Upon hearing the officer's words, the Leger scholar, who had been extremely enthusiastic about these unknown magical creatures, was somewhat displeased. He looked over nervously and said, "If I may be frank, gentlemen, I know they may cause us a great deal of trouble, but at the same time, this is an important opportunity for us to capture physical samples to advance our subsequent research."

The officers and soldiers on the Windless ignored this claim; they were soldiers, not researchers, and such questions were never on their radar.

In their view, what they should really be thinking about now is how to use the existing conditions to resolve any dangers that may threaten the fleet as quickly as possible.

Hughes reached out and pressed down on Leger. He shook his head and said, "I understand your thoughts, but now is definitely not the time to do these things."

“But Mr. Hugh, samples are important, but live samples are even more important! You are a mage, you should know very well what I’m talking about, right?”

Hugh stared at Leger's ugly face for two seconds, then said in a deep voice, "It's precisely because I understand what you're saying that you haven't been thrown into solitary confinement... I will certainly try to get the sample you want, but definitely not now."

As he spoke, Hugh gave Leger a couple of heavy pats on the shoulder: "I guess you really hate some people in Merlinler and the Central Army. In that case, don't do anything like them at a time like this. Take our enemies seriously and don't underestimate the threat they might pose."

As if to confirm Hugh's words, just seconds after he finished speaking, a mage apprentice rushed into the cabin and shouted out the latest discovery to everyone.

"Those colors, those colors on the sea surface, are shrinking inward! The ship's communication devices have completely malfunctioned; the detection device is experiencing a magical overload. To prevent damage to the device and a magical explosion, we are preparing to deactivate it!"

The officer frowned slightly: "Once it's deactivated, we won't be able to detect the attackers trying to approach the ship from underwater. Are we going to have to engage in boarding action with those monsters?"

Upon hearing this, the person in charge of the Legal Committee shook his head: "If the ritual causes a magical explosion, the damage could be great or small. We cannot take that risk... Let's take emergency precautions. Our reserves of magic crystals are plentiful enough to last for a long time."

The two sides have different concerns, but both are very reasonable.

Under these bizarre circumstances, the permanent protective ritual embedded within the hull at the very beginning of the ship's construction became the most crucial line of defense. This protective ritual, integrated seamlessly with the hull itself, was stable enough to withstand little interference or damage. As long as a sufficient supply of magical crystals could be provided, it could continuously inflict magical damage on any foreign objects approaching the hull.

As an old-fashioned cruise ship, the Windless also had this permanent ritual installed from the beginning of its construction—in special circumstances, it was the most effective way to repel enemies who approached and boarded the ship.

Soon, all the passengers on the Windless Ship felt a slight tremor, and then they saw a large number of intricate magical runes appear from the various structures within the ship's hull.

In just over ten seconds, these magical patterns that gave people a strong sense of security completely covered the hull of the Windless Ship. A large amount of stable magic began to spread outward and began to exert a continuous impact on everything around the ship.

Unlike the Windless, the two armored ships and the other three small escort gunboats responsible for defense did not adopt this defensive measure.

The commanders on these warships are all calm and proud soldiers. Their common sense and experience, ingrained in their blood, allow them to immediately mobilize the weapons installed on the ships.

In an instant, guided by various crystal spotlights, the small naval guns found their targets.

Amidst the strange colors of the rapidly shrinking sea surface, numerous bizarre and enormous "reefs" emerged, directly exposing themselves to the light of the crystal spotlights, with oddly shaped tentacles waving from their sides.

They seemed completely unafraid of the bright lights, much less of the naval guns that had already been aimed.

Hugh and the other accompanying mages arrived on the deck of the Windless. After previous preparations, all the unnecessary facilities here had been completely removed, and several small crystal cannons had been set up near the edge of the deck.

In addition, Hugh also saw many new firearms based on the Karvan heavy machine gun of the Kingdom of Votel. They looked much bulkier than the heavy machine guns Hugh remembered, and even had huge metal bases for fixing the weapons.

On the ammunition boxes placed nearby, Hughes saw very obvious magic crystal markings. Clearly, these heavy behemoths were not the "heavy machine guns" he had imagined, but some kind of terrifying weapon that combined high-powered crystal bullets.

Through the light of the Windless's emergency protective ritual, Hugh saw that the shadows on the distant sea had gathered, like predators swarming near a school of fish, and were approaching the ship as the "color of life" light and shadow contracted.

Faced with such an obvious intention, the sailors on the armed ships naturally would not sit idly by and wait to be killed. Soon, bright red warning lights flew into the sky, followed by a series of deafening sounds.

The instant the cannon fired, the mist of the Mirror Messenger rushed into Hugh's eyes. With the help of his magical vision, Hugh saw several deadly magical paths unfolding in the night, tearing apart the calm magical environment on the sea surface under the sudden impact.

The first to fire were two small escort gunboats located at the edge of the fleet. Their cannons were of the standard type, and the power of a single shell was similar to that of a standard crystal cannon on land, making them excellent at triggering magical explosions.

Their target was two "reefs" that were completely clustered together and indistinguishable from each other.

Guided by the magic of the accompanying mage, the gunners accurately hit their targets.

Hugh saw that the "reefs" that were originally light-colored in the magical vision were shattered in the violent magical explosion. All kinds of strange chunks of flesh were thrown into the air in the violent impact, and all kinds of unrecognizable tissues and structures flew around wildly.

The "reefs" that were approaching the fleet stopped abruptly.

In Hugh's vision, the "colors of life" that were constantly approaching suddenly stopped moving.

It seemed that both the "colors of life" scattered in the seawater, imbued with special will, and the "reefs" that had already grown to enormous size and were trying to approach the fleet, were all shaken by the violent magical explosion at that moment.

Hugh saw that the light and shadow representing the power of the "community" began to fluctuate violently. The form and pattern of this fluctuation seemed strangely familiar to Hugh—similar situations would occur when discussions and meetings were held within the Fate Roots clan.

"It seems they never expected to suffer such a blow in the face of the current Vaan civilization... Could this be considered good news?"

Hughes observed and pondered as he went.

Meanwhile, the soldiers who were also observing the sea cheered loudly. In their view, as long as these monsters were made of flesh and blood and could be killed with weapons, they were not worth being afraid of at all.

The commanders and gunners on armored ships and frigates clearly thought the same way.

Soon, magical signals signaling continued attack floated up, and an even more intense barrage erupted. This time, the two armored ships, Silver Shield and another, also joined the attack.

As the giant magic crystal cannons, specifically designed to target enemy ships, roared, a huge gap appeared in the "Color of Life" encirclement that had already surrounded the fleet.

The successive attacks seemed to have dealt an extremely serious blow to these scheming "communities." The "reefs" that were originally clustered together began to sink rapidly into the water or disperse. In the process, their true physical structure was finally exposed.

Hughes was surprised to discover that these protruding "reefs" were actually just fleshy growths on the bodies of giant fish.

Just like the parrotfish mentioned earlier, these large fish, controlled and assimilated by the will of the "community" and the "color of life," are endowed with an extremely exaggerated vitality.

Their already enormous bodies became extremely exaggerated under the guidance of this external force, and on their backs, fleshy growths covered with numerous writhing tentacles appeared.

This is a manifestation of "community will," and also an important means they used to conquer targets in the distant past.

Now, faced with this unfamiliar and unexpected resistance, the "community's" will manipulates its body to quickly dive below the surface of the sea.

(End of this chapter)