Chapter 386 – The End of the Battle

Chapter 386 – The End of the Battle
A shadow shrouded in darkness, a battleship seemingly pieced together from smoke, fog, and various debris, was traveling alongside the White Oak, charging towards the approaching Haiyan in the distance – its resemblance to the White Oak could be vaguely discerned in the fog-shrouded silhouette of the ship.

It wasn’t quite the same as he remembered, but Lawrence recognized it at first sight – even if it looked battered, twisted, and grotesque now, it still touched his memory as it did every time he saw it in a dream.

It was the Black Oak, and there she was, sailing with the White Oak just as he remembered the last time they had sailed together out of the harbor.

The old captain’s dismay and rumination were interrupted by the sudden sound of a loud whistle, which came from the phantom ship, as if to remind Lawrence that this was no time to be lost in thought.

Whistling shells fell from the sky, the barrage from the Petrel was unrelenting, and Lawrence jerked his head back to see a ball of fire crashing into the bow of the White Oak.

The flames rose up in the air, and in an instant were assimilated and absorbed by the burning green flames of the ship, and part of the bow was torn into pieces, the hot metal scattering in all directions – however, in the next second, those broken structures began to recover as if turning back the clock, and were restored to their original state as the green flames rose up.

Lawrence felt something “drain” from him, as if strength and life were being cut from his “perception”, but that drain was soon replenished by the spiritual flames that blazed in all directions, and then the White Oak’s bow and side self-defense guns hissed and hissed. Immediately afterward, the White Oak’s bow and side guns hissed, and the shells, like furious spirits, rushed out of their chambers with chilling whistles, cutting the air with streams of pale green light.

Almost at the same instant, the “Black Oak” next to it also started to attack – along with the roar of the guns, the rising black fog erupted with flashes of light one after another, and one after another, an illusory shell like a shadow rushed out of the fog and crashed into the direction of the enemy ship in the distance.

Lawrence’s hands gripped the steering wheel, feeling the ship under his feet in a powerful tremor in the gunfire, he felt his perception is spreading further, even along the flying shells, along the surrounding surging sea water, diffuse to the whole sea, and at the edge of his perception, “sea oats” is like a bonfire in the night, emitting a strong to a little blinding light. Exudes a strong to somewhat blinding …… presence.

Not long ago, it was a desperate opponent for the White Oak, but now Lawrence only felt that the prey was so delicious …… delicious.

A few moments later, the white oak ship to send out return fire finally for the first time in the sea oats on the first real, accompanied by huge explosions and flames, that strange warship is like what is invisible giant bite hard to gnaw like a piece of air was “gouged out”, in the devoured huge wounds, can be seen inside the ship bizarre twisted structure. structure.

The attack was effective, but it was not enough.

“Full speed,” said Lawrence, gripping the wheel, his eyes fixed on the still-approaching hostile ship, already knowing what he had to do – or, rather, what the White Oak needed at the moment, “we need to replenish. ”

First Officer Gus’s voice rang out from the bridge, “Aye, full speed!”

The steam core hissed further, and the already high-speed White Oak further increased its speed to the limit, and began to pounce on the distant Petrel like a swift falcon – the Black Oak still accompanying it like a reflection, always maintaining the same speed, the same course.

The distant Haiyan didn’t show the slightest sign of changing course or slowing down to avoid it, the ship that had launched a blind attack from the moment it appeared was like a runaway beast with no sense of reason, even after the White Oak had undergone a great change and the battle situation had turned unfavorable for itself, it was still carrying out faithfully what it had set out to do from the very beginning: to attack the enemy.

The two ships, one wrapped in green flames, the other covered with a weird structure of twisted darkness, simultaneously launched a full-speed charge towards each other – the ear-piercing and horrifying sirens almost tore through the sky, the two ships more and more intensive gunfire roar shook the entire ocean, the distance between them grew closer and closer, and the shells that were blasting at each other almost fell on the hulls of each other, and the two ships were in a state of panic. The shells that were fired against each other fell almost as hard as they could on each other’s hulls, and great explosions tore through the hulls of the ships, splashing hot, burning debris into the sea and the sky!

And on the bridge of the White Oak, Lawrence just stared dead ahead, everyone stared in the same direction as he did, the minds of all the sailors seemed to be clutched tightly by something, and suddenly there was no fear, no hesitation on the part of every living being on board this ship, only a feverish anticipation of the impending, doomed collision – Then, at last, the two ships touched.

Like a loose snowball pressed against the outside wall of a hot furnace, the bow of the Sea Swallows plunged straight into the blazing spiritual flames surrounding the White Oak, and with a piercing noise and a roar that sounded like millions of people shouting in unison, the seemingly solid steel hull melted away inch by inch in the green flames, and as the “collision” continued, the Sea Swallows Started from beginning to end disappeared in the depths of the wall of fire, this scene looks …… as if the whole was swallowed up in general.

Until the last turret on the stern of the Haiyan was swallowed up by the flames of the spirit body, the fierce bombardment between the two ships did not stop for a moment.

Then, everything finally ended.

The White Oak’s self-defense guns at various places finally stopped hissing, and after the enemy disappeared, the roar of the steam core gradually subsided, and those rising spirit body flames at various places on the ship also slowly gathered, becoming gentle from their offensive-filled stance at the beginning, and began to burn quietly against the ship’s hull.

Lawrence was a little dazed for a moment, his hands having left the helm wheel at some point, and he raised his head, looking around the bridge.

One by one, the sailors turned their heads to gaze at him, each one of them assuming a ghost-like posture as the spirits haunted them, and inside a pair of empty eyes, it seemed as if there was no longer any reason or humanity belonging to human beings. Lawrence blinked, but just a second before the muddle in his mind was about to completely consume him, a figure suddenly appeared in the corner of his eye.

It was a young man who appeared out of thin air, striding across the rising spiritual flames around him, he was wearing the deep blue robes of a priest of the Church of the Deep, and the holy emblem on his chest was releasing blazing fire like it was on fire, and he walked over in large strides, grabbing the burning holy emblem at his chest with one hand, and fiercely pressed it to death on Lawrence’s chest.

A burning heat spread out from his chest, Lawrence felt his faltering mind suddenly stabilized, humanity and reason returned to his soul at the same time.

Along with the captain’s wakefulness, the sailors on board also woke up one by one, people looked at each other, as if they had not recalled the end of the battle just now until then, recalling the scene of the White Oak and the Sea Petrel’s final encounter and “collision”, some people let out a cry of alarm in fear, some people subconsciously examined their own bodies, and some people raised their heads and dropped their eyes to the ship’s bottom, and some people looked up. Some people raised their heads and set their eyes on the young clergyman who suddenly appeared on the bridge of the ship.

Lawrence frowned and looked at the young man in front of him for a long time before finally speaking hesitantly, “Priest …… Jensen?”

“It’s me, thank goodness you can finally see me,” the young priest accompanying the ship breathed heavily, as if he had just climbed up from the sea, his robes were soaked to the skin, and there was a stream of water running down his hair and neck as he spoke, “Thank you, Storm Lord, for your shelter! –I have been yelling at your side for days.”

Lawrence, however, still felt as if his mind was a bit off, and it took him several seconds before he gradually recalled another violation of the past few days- the

There was supposed to be a chaplain on board with the ship, just as there was supposed to be a sun in the sky, and yet he had not seen the young chaplain at all during this past time.

Reverend Jensen had disappeared from everyone’s sight, and even from everyone’s memory – so much so that the common sense that there should be a chaplain on board had been forgotten.

Lawrence had noticed the disappearance of the sun, but only now did he realize that Pastor Jensen had disappeared as well.

“What happened to ……?”

As if in a dream, the old captain slowly turned his head and asked in a low voice.

“I don’t know, for the past few days it was as if I was split into two dimensions with you guys,” the drenched young priest shook his head with a bitter smile, “I could see you guys, but none of you could see me, it was as if I had become an ‘outsider’ on the ship ‘, until just now …… when the entire ship ‘changed’ in the flames, I felt this barrier become loosened, and at the same time I also noticed that your mental state was not right, so I thought of using the holy emblem to stabilize your sanity! –Hooray, this last step finally caught up ……”

As Lawrence listened to the priest’s narration, his mind was filled with chaotic thoughts and conjectures one after another, and it was only when he heard the other party mention the words “incorrect mental state” that a belated fear finally appeared in his heart.

He recalled the strange state of himself and the other crew members during the last few minutes of the battle with the Sea Petrel, and a cold sweat seemed to be seeping out of his back.

However, he did not have a cold sweat – he was still wrapped in the Spirit Body Flame, and this apparitional body showed no signs of recovery at all.

Lawrence lowered his head and looked at his arm, which still showed an illusory spirit body state, and already had quite a few guesses in his mind.

“The ‘favor’ from the Lost Country ship? ……” this old captain shook his head bitterly, for a moment actually did not know whether to call this a blessing or a curse, the “Bearing the gaze of Duncan Abnomar sure doesn’t seem to be an easy task, but at least we survived …… if this is truly the state of the living ……”

With that, he slowly raised his head again, his eyes looking through the porthole not far from the sea next to him.

The ship, shrouded in fog and shadows, remained still, like a shadow of the White Oak.

(End of chapter)