26: Chapter 26 Three destroyers, out of ammunition

Nightfall completely consumed the last bit of afterglow.

The Donghai City coastline was illuminated like daylight by hundreds of military searchlights, cold white light cutting through the black seawater and reflecting sinister scales on the wave crests.

Military helicopters hovered over the front-line Command Center, the airflow from the rotors making the tents flap violently.

Section Chief Han Zheng jumped off the cabin, his feet landing on the temporarily laid steel plates—cold and hard.

A captain ran over and saluted.

"Report! The three-kilometer coastal area has been cleared, and all residents have been evacuated to the rear safety zone! The sea blockade is complete, and the three destroyers are in position at the designated coordinates!"

Section Chief Han Zheng nodded and strode into the Command Center.

Inside the Command Center, over thirty people were crowded in front of the screen wall, their breathing suppressed to the lowest level.

Dense sonar, radar, infrared thermal imaging, and energy monitors were all scrolling data steadily.

Everything was normal.

Too normal.

Section Chief Han Zheng tapped his fingers rhythmically against his trouser seams—a subconscious action he only performed when extremely nervous.

Wang Hao followed behind him, looking at the pitch-black sea on the screen.

The image of the Shadow Erosion Beast crawling out of the ground crack in the factory a week ago rolled in his mind, sending chills down his spine.

"If... it really comes," Wang Hao's voice was somewhat dry, "can the soldiers on the ships hold it off?"

Section Chief Han Zheng didn't answer.

Because he didn't know either.

In human history, there had never been an operation plan to fight a mythological creature with destroyers.

A communications soldier suddenly turned his head.

"Section Chief Han, the Coast Guard reported that a fishing boat had an engine failure during the perimeter clearance, and the tugboat failed to arrive before the blockade. The boat is currently drifting at the edge of the control zone, attempting repairs."

Section Chief Han Zheng frowned.

"How many people are on the boat?"

"Four. The captain and three tourists."

"Where is the nearest rescue boat?"

The communications soldier glanced at the screen, his voice lowering by half a degree, "Thirty-seven nautical miles. Given the current sea conditions, forty minutes."

Section Chief Han Zheng stared at the lonely green dot on the screen.

Forty minutes.

The time window predicted by the bronze piece was at least two hours away.

There was still time.

"Notify the rescue boat to proceed at full speed and get the people out."

At the same time, outside Donghai City, on the roof of an abandoned seaside hotel.

The sea wind howled, making it hard to stand.

Su Chen let go of Liu Yuyan's wrist, and she stumbled a step before steadying herself.

Just a moment ago, she felt the world spinning.

When she opened her eyes again, she had appeared directly on the roof of the twelfth floor from the ground.

The warmth of his grip still lingered on her wrist, but Liu Yuyan's attention was completely captured by the scene before her.

The entire coastline was cut into distinct blocks of light and shadow by military lights.

The silhouettes of the three gray warships were like silent steel beasts on the sea, and the red taillights of armed helicopters drew cold arcs overhead.

"Chairman, the national authorities... have fully intervened."

Liu Yuyan's voice was very low, tinged with shock, "Do we still need to take action?"

Su Chen stood at the edge of the roof, the hem of his black trench coat lifted and dropped by the sea wind.

His gaze behind the mask swept across the entire defense line: destroyers, armed helicopters, and shore-based long-range fire points.

The layout was fine, and the firepower density was fine.

If the opponent were an enemy special forces unit, this formation would be enough to grind them into dust.

But the opponent was not.

Su Chen knew in his heart that the audience for this play had finally arrived.

The military, Section Chief Han Zheng, Wang Hao... and the "first member" beside him who was about to witness extraordinary power.

The stage was set, the lights were in place; now, all that was missing was the "protagonist" crawling up from the seabed.

"No rush."

Su Chen's voice was half-blown away by the sea wind, but it clearly reached Liu Yuyan's ears, "Since the authorities want to try, let them try first."

Liu Yuyan nodded and did not ask further.

She remembered the murals in the stone corridor of the Torch Base, those nameless heroes who followed one after another.

Kindling never stood at the front easily; it only descended as the last hope in desperate moments when civilization had exhausted all means and still could not save itself.

This was the way of Kindling.

11:07 PM.

Nearly an hour earlier than the time predicted by the bronze piece.

The sea surface began to surge without warning.

It wasn't waves; it was a pulsation with a dull rhythm surging up from the deep seabed, like an incomparably huge heart waking up ten thousand meters underwater.

Every beat caused the sea surface to bulge into a gentle giant mound.

The sky changed.

It wasn't dark clouds covering the moon.

It was the color changing. From deep indigo, it transitioned rapidly to an eerie dark purple, and finally, it turned into a sickening, turbid blood color.

It was as if someone had poured a whole bucket of congealed livestock blood above the firmament.

The alarm of the energy monitor instantly tore through everyone's eardrums!

All screens turned red simultaneously, and the speed at which the values soared turned the operator's face into a sheet of crimson!

Section Chief Han Zheng pressed his hand firmly onto the communicator, his voice deepening due to extreme muscle tension, "All units, Level 1 combat readiness!"

He turned his head to look at the communications soldier, "The fishing boat! Has the rescue boat arrived?"

The communications soldier's lips trembled, "Still... twelve nautical miles away."

It was too late.

Before the words fell, the sea—split open.

The first tentacle pierced out of the spray!

It was over three meters in diameter, its surface covered with dark green slimy scales.

A pale blue fluorescent mucus oozed from the gaps in the scales, dripping onto the sea surface, making a "hissing" corrosive sound.

The end of the tentacle was not a suction cup, but a ring-shaped mouthpart made of bony spikes.

Each spike was as long as an adult's forearm, gleaming with a cold, ghostly white light under the searchlights.

Immediately after, the second, third, fourth...

A full eight tentacles broke through the water from different positions on the sea surface simultaneously, slowly unfolding under the blood-colored sky, like a flower of death blooming after crawling out of the abyss.

On the roof of the abandoned hotel, Su Chen's eyes narrowed behind his mask.

A line of text popped up in the corner of his vision from the system panel— "E-level Weird Entity · Abyssal Tide Beast. Marine subspecies. Its size and combat power far exceed land-type E-levels, but the core energy level still belongs to the E-tier. Weakness: The core brain mass behind the vertical pupil in the center of the head."

The fishing boat with the engine failure was currently drifting less than two kilometers from where the strange beast surfaced.

Shen Nian's scream tore through her throat.

The sound was shredded by the sea wind, yet it pierced like a needle into the ears of everyone in the Command Center.

Section Chief Han Zheng's eyes were bloodshot as he roared two words, "Fire!"

"Boom—!"

The destroyer's main gun roared first.

The muzzle flash of the 130mm naval gun bloomed into a huge orange-white spark in the night.

The high-explosive armor-piercing shell whistled out at three times the speed of sound, accurately hitting the nearest tentacle.

Explosion!

Firelight and shattered scales shot into the sky.

The tentacle was blown off by a third, and the cross-section sprayed a waterfall of dark blue liquid, burning a hissing, smoking corrosive circle on the sea surface.

"It's effective! The attack is effective!"

In the Command Center, a young staff officer couldn't help but shout, his voice filled with the ecstasy of surviving a disaster.

Heavy machine guns, rapid-fire cannons, ship-borne anti-ship missiles! All firepower channels were opened simultaneously!

Countless lines of fire wove into a net of death, covering the surging sea surface head-on.

Tentacle after tentacle was broken and torn, dark blue body fluid splattered all over the destroyer's deck and turrets, corroding the thick steel plates into pits.

Everyone in the Command Center was energized—human weapons worked!

Steel and gunpowder could kill this damn thing!

Then, the regeneration began.

All the broken ends of the tentacles sprouted pink granulation, wriggling, expanding, and differentiating at a speed visible to the naked eye, wrapping themselves in tough dark green scales again.

From being blown off to fully recovering, it took less than forty seconds.

The cheers in the Command Center stopped abruptly, as if someone had been strangled.

Section Chief Han Zheng's knuckles lost their color due to the force.

"Keep firing!"

His voice was flat, but the staff officer behind him saw the veins bulging on the back of his neck, "Firepower cannot stop!"

The tentacles broke and grew, grew and broke.

The intense firepower suppression could only force it into a cycle of "break-regenerate," but the warships were consuming real money and ammunition, while the opponent... seemed to consume nothing.

Just then, the head rose.

From the center surrounded by the eight tentacles, from beneath the surging sea, a flat, round, huge head slowly surfaced.

It was over fifteen meters in diameter.

There were no eyes—at least not where eyes would be in human cognition.

The surface of the head was covered with the same dark green scales as the tentacles, but in the very center of the "forehead," there was a closed vertical crack several meters long.

Under everyone's gaze, the crack slowly opened.

Inside was an eye.

A huge, dark red vertical pupil.

Deep within the pupil, it was as if magma were flowing, as if a ball of eternal karmic fire were burning.

The eye swept across the sea, across the three destroyers facing the enemy, and across the brightly lit coastline.

Everyone it "saw," from the data clerks in front of the screens to the soldiers on the decks, felt something simultaneously.

It wasn't fear.

It was more primitive and profound than fear.

It was the instinctive reaction engraved in the deepest part of genes, spanning hundreds of thousands of years of evolutionary history, when herbivores were locked onto by top predators.

Legs went weak.

Breathing stopped.

In the Command Center, a young operator's legs gave way, and he slid directly from his chair to the floor.

The fishing boat was like a leaf in the giant waves, ready to fall apart at any moment.

Captain Zhao held the steering wheel tightly, his arm muscles bulging to the limit, and his finger joints creaking from excessive force.

He had been cursing when the engine stalled in the afternoon, saying it would be fine once the tugboat arrived.

Now, he couldn't curse anything.

Zhou Yu protected Shen Nian tightly in the corner of the cabin, using his own body as a meat shield.

Every time a giant wave hit, his back took a hard blow, and his bones felt like they were about to shatter.

The naval destroyers tried to approach for rescue, but the beast's tentacles swept wildly between the warships and the fishing boat, each time raising a wall of water several meters high, forcibly cutting off the path.

Can't get through!

Section Chief Han Zheng watched the faint green dot representing the fishing boat on the screen in the Command Center.

"Firepower suppression on the tentacles! Open a channel for the rescue boat!"

"Report—ammunition consumption has exceeded sixty percent! At the current rate of fire, main gun ammunition will be completely exhausted in fifteen minutes!"

"Then use fifteen minutes to get the people out!"

Wang Hao stood in the corner of the Command Center.

He looked at the huge vertical pupil on the screen, and his chest began to burn again.

It was exactly the same as it was at home a week ago.

But he was just a Didi driver.

Wang Hao's fists were clenched until they bled.

Last time, someone fell from the ceiling.

What about this time?

The countdown to the exhaustion of ammunition ticked mercilessly in the corner of the screen.

Fifteen minutes felt as long as a century.

The last 130mm shell roared out, the muzzle emitting white smoke, and the barrel scorching red in the night.

In the Command Center, no one spoke.

Over thirty people—standing, sitting, slumped on the floor—the data stream was still scrolling on the screen, but no one was looking at the data anymore.

Everyone was looking at the same scene.

On the blood-colored sea, the beast's eight tentacles stretched out intact, even thicker than before.

The huge vertical pupil slowly rotated and finally locked onto the fishing boat bobbing in the waves.

The tentacles moved.

It wasn't the tentative sweeping from before.

It was a violent ejection after rapid contraction, like eight long whips lashed out from hell, simultaneously whipping toward a doomed leaf!

On the fishing boat, the desperate screams of the four people were instantly torn apart by the sea wind.