stonecrandall 048 The Lament of Steel
048 The Lament of Steel
"Straight down! One hundred meters deep! It has stopped!" On the deck, Ye Sheng suddenly looked up.
"What is it going to do?" Selma asked instinctively.
"It's charging up! Speed of 60 knots, rising vertically, target is the middle of the keel!" Ye Sheng knelt on the deck, reporting the dragon servant's movements.
"There's no way to avoid it, it's coming straight for the center line!" Grayson desperately pushed the turret flat. Faced with a vertical attack coming from directly below, any surface maneuvering was futile.
"It's not time to give up yet, don't surrender!" Mans patted Grayson on the shoulder, then rushed to the maintenance access road at the edge of the deck and jumped down, sliding down the narrow iron ladder to the engine room at the bottom of the ship.
He rushed into the bottom watertight compartment, knelt on the steel plate, and braced himself with his hands on the ground. The underwater movements transmitted vibrations through the steel, and he could almost feel the pressure from underwater as the giant object rose to the surface.
"We still have to rely on the veterans." Mans' eyes lit up, and ancient dragon script echoed in the cramped cabin. Just before the impact, a repulsive field with a diameter of three meters pierced through the steel plate and burst open at the bottom of the Moniah!
Word of Power: A Dustless Land!
"boom!!"
Mans's Dustless Land absorbed some of the kinetic energy, preventing the dragon skeleton from breaking on the spot, but the aftershocks of this force still traveled along the steel frame, sending Mans flying.
A muffled, thunderous vibration emanated from the point of impact, traveling from the keel all the way to the top of the mast. Every rivet trembled, every weld was put to the test. Then, under the pressure of the river water, the steel plates surrounding the bottom compartments twisted and deformed like aluminum cans.
Slowly, the armor plate below the waterline on the port side suddenly cracked inward, and the surrounding rivets broke off one after another under the enormous stress, shooting wildly like bullets in the narrow cabin.
The high-pressure river water instantly tore open a half-meter-long crack, rushing in and crashing into Professor Mans, who had just stood up, slamming him heavily against the cabin wall.
Manston immediately bled from all seven orifices and fainted.
As the river water poured in, the boat began to tilt to the left amidst violent rocking.
"Leaking in the lower deck! All crew, save the ship!"
"Damage control team! Isolate cabins one and two!" Chief Engineer Kumagai Kinao brandished his hydraulic shears and plunged into the waist-deep water.
"Get him out first!" The sailors lined up and took turns carrying the unconscious Professor Mans out of the cabin before rushing toward the heavy watertight door.
"Watertight door to compartment number one is closed!"
"The manual crank handle in cabin number two is jammed!"
"Use the lever to press it down!"
Inside the bridge, the hands of the engine clock swung wildly.
The helmsman could feel the resistance coming from the steering wheel; it was the incoming river water resisting the ship's turning. The ship's tilt gauge had already crossed the red line.
"Tilting 15 degrees to the left! The servo is sluggish! The right propeller is about to leave the water and spin freely!" the helmsman shouted.
Inside the bridge, Grayson gripped the tilted control panel and decisively ordered, "Hard port! Actively fill the empty ballast tanks three and four on the starboard side with water! Quickly!"
The valves at the bottom opened with a snap, and river water rushed into the starboard side. With a violent metallic groan, the Moniach forcibly stopped listing and painstakingly regained its balance.
Before they could even catch their breath, the walls of the flooded chamber began to groan as the water pressure slowly increased, and the high-strength steel plates creaked and crumpled.
"Get up the support!" Chief Engineer Kumagai roared from the oily water deep in his thighs.
The sailors carried the supporting timbers and adjustable steel pillars into the lower deck, placing one end of these supports against the supporting ribs and the other end against the deformed and dented steel plates. Kumagai Kinao swung his sledgehammer, hammering wooden wedges into the gaps one after another, using wood to bear the pressure instead of steel.
On deck, Aki stumbled towards the weapon rack, quickly adjusting the fuses of two miniature alchemical torpedoes to hydrostatic detonation. Following Ye Sheng's instructions, she and Second Officer Gunayar worked together to roll the weapon, modified by the Kassel College Equipment Department, directly into the churning river, silently praying that it would fulfill Minister Akadura's promise.
This is a specially modified version by the Equipment Department. At Mans's strong request, the researchers in the Equipment Department abandoned the pursuit of explosive power and instead used amalgam and infrasound vibrations to damage dragons.
A few dozen seconds later, the alchemical torpedo exploded underwater, producing a slight tremor. The dragon servant, preparing for its second attack, was violently tumbled in the shockwave. The infrasonic vibrations and amalgam toxins caused its internal organs to experience intense tearing pain, forcing it to flick its tail fin and dive back into the abyss to create distance.
The medical bay door was suddenly opened, and Pacino, the third officer, rushed in and threw two life jackets on the ground.
"The lower deck is breached, Professor Mance is seriously injured, put on your life jackets!" Pacino gasped. "The life raft on starboard is ready to be jettisoned, follow me immediately!"
"No." Zero's gaze remained fixed on the IV drip bottle.
"What are you doing? The ship is sinking!" Pacino yelled.
"His high-concentration glucose and repair fluid will take another twenty minutes to finish dripping." Zero's voice was as cold as the Siberian ice field. "If we remove the needle now, the lactic acid in his muscles cannot be metabolized, and his ATP reserves will definitely not be enough to support him in continuing to fight."
"Close the door and go repair the ship," Zero commanded.
"Whatever!" The third mate turned and rushed out, slamming the hatch shut behind him.
As soon as the door closed, Zero stood up immediately. She rummaged through her medical kit and pulled out a bag of super-concentrated devil's nutrient solution specially made by the Equipment Department, handing it to Lu Mingfei: "Drink it."
"I don't want to drink anything from the Equipment Department." Lu Mingfei looked at the strange, multicolored liquid and kept leaning back.
"Open your mouth!" Zero forcibly pinched Lu Mingfei's chin and squeezed the nutrient solution into Lu Mingfei's mouth.
Lu Mingfei was like a useless dog that had been stuffed with dried fish, tears and snot streaming down his face. The thick liquid had a strange smell like cockroaches, making him gag.
However, the equipment from the equipment department was indeed incredibly effective. After drinking the nutrient solution, Lu Mingfei felt a warm sensation in his stomach, which then gradually warmed his body, making him feel much more comfortable. Before he could even catch his breath, he saw Ling roll up his sleeves, walk up to him, and begin to flex his fingers.
"What are you going to do now?" Lu Mingfei immediately sensed something was wrong.
"To help you recover quickly." After saying that, Zero placed both hands directly on Lu Mingfei's thigh muscles and pushed them stiffly along the muscle groups and arteries.
The purpose of this pressure is to forcefully push aside the lactic acid and metabolic waste accumulated deep in the muscles, allowing oxygen-rich blood to flow in.
"Holy crap...it hurts!" Lu Mingfei burst into tears on the spot. The force that his hands, which looked like those of a doll, unleashed was comparable to that of pliers.
"Bear with it."
The intense pain and extreme exhaustion blurred Lu Mingfei's vision. In his daze, the girl's platinum hair was flashed by the red lights, revealing a familiar pale blue hue.
He heard the sound of high-pressure river water being injected into the insertion plug; felt the torrential rain bombarding the ship's armor layers like a barrage of bullets; and smelled the familiar odor of LCL solution filling the compartment.