Chapter 65
The storm at sea always arrived quickly. With nothing to block the view and the carrier being very high, one could see a mass of pitch-black clouds looming over the distant sky. The waves churned and the rain poured down, sometimes accompanied by lightning and thunder.
Such a scene was quite terrifying to those who seldom went to sea, and the dense clouds advanced rapidly. The gusty wind hit first, followed by a few raindrops, and then the thick clouds were close enough to engulf everything.
Abiseth had already run off. The water there wasn’t deep enough for him, and he’d be really unlucky if he got struck by lightning.
Xia Yi’s arm was tightly grasped by Siren. Although there was no extra movement, the atmosphere was very tense, and no one spoke.
After a while, the rain poured down, and the waves started hitting the carrier’s hull with natural force. Although the storm was intense, it wasn’t very large. The shaking felt on the deck was less than the jolts of a bus ride. Some seawater splashed onto the deck.
Water rolled down his face and neck. The world in front of Xia Yi quickly became a blur. The continuous sound of the rain in his ears gradually seemed very distant.
He swayed and fell backward.
Seeing this, Siren caught him. Luckily, he wasn’t feverish, just exhausted and unconscious.
The rain fell so heavily that shallow water soon gathered on the deck, less than a centimeter deep, as the rainwater flowed off the sides into the sea, where the waves were still more powerful.
This was advantageous for Siren. Bringing his slender legs together, his pale silver tail splashed water as he moved with difficulty in the direction where Xia Yi had been heading.
A bolt of lightning struck, and the deafening thunder made Xia Yi move slightly and cough violently.
Siren, thinking he was uncomfortable, stopped and held him in his arms, not wanting to carry him on his back, fearing it might make him feel worse.
The aircraft carrier’s command tower and the F22 fighter jets both had lightning protection. If Xia Yi had been awake, he would have known there was no danger.
But Siren didn’t know this. He wanted to leap into the sea with Xia Yi in her arms but worried he wouldn’t agree.
This short distance took Siren at least twenty minutes. Mermaids knew a bit about the structure of ships because sunken ships were their playgrounds. Whether in legend or fact, mermaids loved to sit on the masts of sunken ships, gazing at the sea, waiting for passing ships, or more accurately, waiting for storms.
In the intense storm, the clouds with lightning and thunder also carried chaotic infrasound waves.
Apart from sea monsters, all jellyfish and merfolk can hear this sound. However, after receiving this infrasound, jellyfishes will retract their bodies and sink to avoid the harsh weather, while merfolk will chase food during the storm.
Looking worriedly at the dark clouds, the siren knew that the storm would continue for a long time, and its intensity was great. In the past, this would have been the weather he loved, as it meant that smaller vessels on the sea would eventually be overturned by the storm…
But Xia Yi’s situation was not good. Apart from underwater, the only place he could avoid being soaked by rain was in the human cabins.
However, when the siren finally reached the ladder to the lower deck, he froze.
Merfolk only need to swim in sunken ships; they wouldn’t even think of climbing a ladder.
Moreover, to prevent seawater from rushing in, there was a sturdy door leading from the cabin to the deck. Now, due to a system malfunction, the door was half open, but there were still several steps to cross.
Suddenly, the entire aircraft carrier trembled, and the fierce wind, accompanied by heavy rain, became even stronger. The waves heavily struck the hull, which had no harm to the steel construction of the carrier but could be different for the rocks.
Those rocks that had been wedged under the carrier after it was knocked off course, when hit by continuous waves for the second time, one small piece broke loose. The carrier’s weight was very large, and as a result, it tilted slightly, then the combined force of buoyancy and the waves caused it to completely break free from the rocks.
Caught off guard, the siren was thrown forward, but with limited height, he couldn’t adjust his position when landing, so he could only use the momentum to flip his tail and bounce back.
Holding Xia Yi tightly, the siren’s back hit the half-open door—so hard that as he slid down, he managed to maintain a position underneath and landed on the floor below the rotating staircase, during which his elbow and fishtail hit the stairs more than ten times.
The hardness was enough to break the thin fins supported by the protruding bones. There were also many scales missing from his fishtail.
The second impact on his back, especially with Xia Yi’s weight added, caused the siren’s body to convulse, and it took him a while to slowly catch his breath, with bright red blood flowing from the corner of his lips.
When fighting in the sea, there is buoyancy, so even large sharks are very agile.
However, for creatures coming from the deep sea, they must first get used to the terrifying pressure. When sperm whales and giant squids fight to the death in the depths of the ocean, each blow is as bone-shattering as it gets. But because they are accustomed to the deep sea, their bone density and viscera are protected by a layer of water-filled membranes to buffer the impact.
So, this injury wasn’t much for the siren.
If it were Xia Yi, he probably would have died.
Six hours later, when the storm subsided, the American soldiers on the island crawled out from behind the rocks. They wouldn’t be foolish enough to stand under a lightning storm.
After waiting for the rain to stop, they were preparing to come up with a backup plan when they looked out to sea—where’s the aircraft carrier?
Equally puzzled were the octopus, who had just returned after eating their fill and drinking their fill.
Not seeing the bottom of the ship in the water and then looking above the sea level, and staring at the distant island.
“Where’s the ship?”
Abiseth felt he had been deceived again, waving his tentacles angrily and swimming forward. Its size was too large, especially heading straight for the island, which frightened the American soldiers, who all shouted and hit the ground.
As they lay on the wet beach, they suddenly realized something was wrong. Without obstacles, weren’t they just asking for trouble?
Quickly crawling back behind the rocks, everyone stared in horror at the increasingly massive octopus, its mountain-like head, and its terrifying tentacles covered in suction cups. If it swept like this toward the island, it would probably sweep everything, including coconut trees and rocks, into the sea.
Just as one person was terrified to the point of collapse, everyone noticed the terrifying big eyes of the octopus staring at them!
Before the scream could come, the giant octopus had already maintained its speed and brushed past the island, swimming away.
The gaze just now seemed disdainful.
These people?
Not even worth bothering about.
Or maybe, “Don’t think too highly of yourselves. Who would want to eat you?”
Of course, the correct interpretation might be, “They’re humans, not worth eating.”
[Siren—Xia Yi—]
This time, all the sea monsters remained silent, maintaining their sleeping or eating gestures, waiting for the continuation of the story.
However, there was unexpectedly no continuation!
Was Abiseth fooled again?
The sea monsters speculated with malicious intent, gloating.
The poor octopus continued to call out several times, but there was no response. The other sea monsters didn’t answer it either, which made Abiseth panic inexplicably.
[Something’s wrong, the siren and Xia Yi are missing! Gone with that ship!]
The emperor fish almost choked on the flounder it was eating, its long body rolling in the deep sea, bumping into several strange anglerfish. After barely recovering, it joined all the sea monsters in a unanimous roar:
[Volcus?]
[No, not me…]
The weak sound waves from the Atlantic Bermuda were full of grievances.
[Abiseth isn’t with me, the siren hasn’t come to see me in a long time, and as for Xia Yi, I haven’t even seen what it is, really, it’s not me!]
[Xia Yi is a merfolk!]
[No, he’s human!]
The tuna raised the issue.
[Huh?]
[Enough, don’t listen to that stupid squid, it doesn’t know anything. Humans and merfolk look very similar!]
[No, there’s a big difference between humans and merfolk. Merfolk have fishtails!]
Volcus earnestly joined the discussion.
Global roaming was in full swing, very noisy. The sea monsters didn’t wait for each other to finish speaking before they chimed in. It wasn’t like making a phone call; it was more like chatting in a Q group. You say your part, I say mine.
Whatever infrasound needs to be conveyed, it’s said without reservation. If you don’t understand, you can go back and think, and the frequent occurrence is each saying their own part, then suddenly splitting up, with no rhyme or reason, saying one thing to one and another to the next.
In short, it was a disaster-like flood of information, uh, no, a brain flood ==
Xia Yi let out a vague groan in his throat, rubbing his painfully throbbing forehead. He still wasn’t fully awake.
The emperor crab spoke first, “I’m with Eurybia in Antarctica.”
“The Arctic,” the sea nettle mumbled.
“The area above the Challenger Deep,” the king oarfish scorned the jellyfish and the crab.
Even if the distance meant nothing; did depth not count?
From there to the surface, it was over ten thousand meters.
“Bermuda, you know I can’t move,” said another, indicating that it was an entire hemisphere away.
The only one relatively close, the sea turtle Taumas, wandering in the Indian Ocean, sighed and said slowly, “I’m old and swim slowly.”
Abiseth felt stranded, with air trapped in his abdomen, unable to swallow or spit it out, as if a blue whale had slapped him head-on, leaving him dizzy and wanting to vomit blood.
“I’m going to bite you all to death!!”
Xia Yi wanted to laugh; this was indeed amusing.
He opened his eyes and found himself lying on Siren’s chest. His scalp tingled, and he hurriedly tried to get up. Siren moved slightly, not trying to hold Xia Yi back, just lying there quietly.
Xia Yi stumbled to the nearest door and pushed it open. It was an ordinary cabin.
The carrier was enormous, with ten decks. The officers and soldiers lived below, and important machinery was also below. This was just a duty room. A coat hung on the nearby coat rack, and a cup lay overturned on the table; everything else was gone.
Xia Yi had to retreat. He found Siren’s motionless posture odd.
After hesitating, he walked over.
Siren had his eyes closed, with pale silver eyelashes gently fluttering with his breath. His skin was pearly, almost blending with the dim light. But as Xia Yi prepared to walk away, he suddenly noticed the fin on Siren’s arm.
The supporting bone spurs of the thin fin were all broken, and some scattered scales nearby glowed faintly.
“Siren?”
The merman opened his eyes, and his purple pupils showed no pain, only gazing at Xia Yi.
Xia Yi glanced at the stairs above and saw several scales and torn fin fragments scattered on the steps. Remembering that he was on the deck before fainting and suddenly being below, he was shocked.
He bent down to pick up Siren, but the merman extended a hand to stop him.
Such impacts didn’t seriously harm Siren, but the issue was that he couldn’t move. He had at least two dislocated bones, making it risky to move carelessly.
Xia Yi noticed that Siren’s lower body was still a fish tail, although even if it were legs, the previously seen ankle structure didn’t seem capable of supporting him to stand.
So how had Siren moved from the deck to the stairs?
It was quite a distance, at least as Xia Yi had felt when walking was difficult.
Siren sensed Xia Yi’s worry and was about to speak when a chaotic infrasound wave emerged again:
“Abiseth, don’t be nervous. If Siren and Xia Yi… uh, I mean, if they mate and neither wins, don’t they both die?”
Taumas slowly chewed on seaweed.
“That makes sense…”
“Yeah, that’s the point!”
“What should we do then? No more Siren?”
“Right, without Siren, who will we listen to? Just to be clear, Ke Tuo, you absolutely can’t!”
“Why?”
The clamor was rising again, and the giant octopus couldn’t bear it anymore, its infrasound waves roaring with emotion:
[Enough! Even if Xia Yi is dead! But what about my ship?! Where’s my ship?!]
Sleepyblue’s corner:
This chapter is dedicated to Willow! Thank you very much 🥹
