Chapter 52: The Song of the Fog and Shadow
Draenor sat on the deck against the mast, fiddling with the various parts of the shotgun.
What a strange gun, unlike a normal long-pole flintlock pistol, this gun has a total of three barrels.
"There's a weird lever on the grip besides the trigger, it's not like a safe, what the hell is this thing for?"
Draenor tried to figure out how to use the part.
"What are you busy with? Yo, this gun looks good! Vickyli took advantage of Draenor's lack of attention and snatched the shotgun.
"'In H?ffa facere', it's still made in the Hefa factory! Where did you get that? β
"The owner of the bar, he gave it to me as a token of appreciation, do you know how to use it?"
It seemed that Vekily was familiar with such a firearm, and Draenor hurried to ask her for advice.
"I've used it when hunting before, and this is a good helper for hunting wild boars!"
Vicky said as she took out an angular yellowish crystal from her backpack, crushed it on the deck with the butt, and then pinched a pinch of powder and poured it into the metal box at the rear end of the barrel.
She closed the box, twisted a valve-like metal device on the side, and pulled the lever that had bothered Draenor to one end, only to see a few traces of steam slowly rising from around the box.
"Bullets, stones, whatever, give me some!" Vikiriko held out a hand and shouted at Draenor.
Panicking, not knowing what was going to happen next, he pulled a raised steel spike from the deck and handed it to Viklico.
She slipped the steel nail into one of the barrels and twisted the valve on the side again.
"Step back a bit!" Vikiriko shouted at Draenor, aiming her gun at a round metal shield standing on the deck, she pulled the trigger, and a dazzling burst of flame erupted from the muzzle.
"Boom!!"
Vikily was knocked to one end of the deck by the powerful recoil, and Draenor rushed to help her up, only to see that the shield had been pierced by a hole the size of a bull's eye with a powerful blast.
"This guy isn't very strong...... Vicilico slowly stood up with her waist on her back, and tossed the spear to Draenor.
He took the gun, only to see that the magazine was still radiating hot waves.
"This is a three-barreled firearm driven by grooved wheeled crystals, good guy, this is the first time to use such a powerful firecracker."
She reached out and felt the hole in her shield that had been pierced, and then turned back to introduce Draenor to the powerful shotgun.
"Look, the end of the valve on the right now, engraved with a red mark, points to the power slot above?"
Draenor looked where Vickyly was pointing, and there was indeed a red mark on one end of the valve wheel, pointing to the groove with the Roman number "3" engraved on it.
"This is the power take-off valve, the higher the number that the red mark points to, the more destructive it is, this gun has four gears, I don't know how fierce this guy has to be when it points to the '4' position."
Vickyrico was still terrified by the force of the impact that had hit her.
"Although this gun is also driven by urine, it is different from your spear and sword, which uses a bullet made of crystal gunpowder and a bullet head, this bullet has a complex structure and is relatively expensive, of course, the handling is not to say.
"But a firearm like yours with separate gunpowder and bullets is relatively not so easy to handle, and it should still be very good if it is used as a short-range self-defense weapon."
Vickily patted the barrel of Draenor's gun as she spoke, walked to the bow of the boat, and peered into the distance against the towering relief horns.
"Is it my delusion or something, autumn is not over yet, why is it already foggy and snowing?" Vickily said, looking at the sky.
Draenor reacted, he felt something fall down his neck by the collar from just now, and the thing was so cold that it gave him goosebumps.
He stretched out his palm, and a six-pointed star-shaped crystal fell to his fingertips, melting into water droplets the moment it touched his body temperature.
"Really, it's snowing?" Draenor felt a little surprised, it was still Mid-Autumn Festival, and the south should be hotter in comparison, but now it was snowing.
"It's weird, even if it snows, it's a little too early."
Vikily had a sense of foreboding, as if she saw an eerie shadow floating over the distant land.
"Mr. Delano ......"
Jeanne looked uncomfortable, and she slowly walked out of the cabin and staggered along the deck to Draenor's side, who quickly turned and held her.
"Mr. Delanor, I feel a little dizzy, as if there is some strange noise."
Draenor didn't understand what Jeanne was talking about, he calmed down and took a closer look at his surroundings, and sure enough, there seemed to be some woman singing quietly around the Tequila in the thick fog.
"Vicky, can you hear me?" Sensing that something was wrong, Draenor quickly turned around and drew his sword from the box.
"What?" Vikily Ke was alert, her ears pricked up, and she faintly heard a shrill cry.
As the ship approached the mainland, the voice became clearer and clearer, it was not the chirping of some strange creature, but the singing voice of a woman!
As the song grew louder and louder, there seemed to be some creature flying like a bird in the fog around the sailboat, and the shadow of the broken became more and more diffuse in the sky directly above the sailboat.
"Strange, how can a woman's singing come from the sky for no reason?" Vicili pulled out the binoculars and pulled them to the longest, looking through the lenses to see the floating shadows.
The twisted shadows wagged their tails in the air like snakes, and they had strange leather wings, like giant worms flying in the air.
The shadows are getting clearer, and Vickily feels that something is wrongβthe monsters are swooping down on the ship!
"Get down!" Viklily threw down Draenor and opened the door of the cabin at hand, shouting at Jeanne:
"We have been attacked, Jeanne! Hide in the cabin! β
Before everyone could take a step, the strange shapes had already broken through the fog and attacked the sailboat.
Draenor quickly rolled over, picked up the metal shards on the side of the boat, stuffed them into the barrel, and pulled the trigger on the oncoming shadow.
"Boom!!"
The force of the impact caused Draenor to feel his arm jerk, and the monster was struck by the flames that burst from the muzzle of the gun, and instantly shattered.
Unable to take Jeanne under the cabin, Vikily pulled out the crimson spear from behind her back and aimed it at the monster hovering above the mast.
"Thorn Bird!" She shouted, and the spear glowed with terrifying blood, and Vikiriko clenched the fiery spear in her hand, turned and leaped to her feet, flipping and throwing the spear into the air.
"Whoosh!!"
I saw a crimson pillar of light rise in the sky, and the monsters were pierced through their bodies, screaming and falling downward.
The spear also fell, piercing deep into the deck, and everyone was immediately bathed in a bloody rain.
The blow clearly weakened the monsters' arrogance, and they gradually retreated into the fog.
But it wasn't long before more shrill roars rang out from all over the fog, chilling like the screeching of metal scraping against a blunt object.
"Jeanne, what are you doing! Hurry up and hide in the cabin! Viclily shouted at Jeanne in a commanding tone.
But Jeanne stood firmly in place, and tied the gauze around her face a little tighter.
"Miss Vicky, while it's true that I can't see my surroundings for a while, in many cases, hearing is far more trustworthy than sight!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a monster sprang out of the fog behind Jeanne, opened its huge round mouth and rushed towards it with a wild roar.
Jeanne crouched down, stretched out her right foot and stepped on the deck, turned around and drew the dagger, cutting off the worm's head in one fell swoop.
"Don't forget, no matter how I say it, I'm also a qualified hunter, for me, there is only hunting, not passivity!"
Jeanne's words made Vicliric feel indescribably reliable, and she turned and drew her spear from the deck. The three of them formed a circle and stood back to back.
"Jeanne! Can you determine the direction of the next attack? Vekily shouted.
"My three o'clock direction, directly ahead of Mr. Delaenor!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a worm screamed and flew towards Draenor.
"Damn monsters, shut up for me!" Draenor shouted, raising his sharp sword and splitting the swooping beast in two.
"Next is my six o'clock direction, Miss Vicki's left-hand side!"
Vicilli stabbed at Jeanne's instructions towards the shadow on her left, and the monster screamed and was stabbed in the heart with a spear.
Everyone worked together to slay the monsters that kept coming from the thick fog.
Suddenly, a fat shadow rose on the surface of the sea, and a huge worm pierced through the fog and swooped down towards the deck.
The monster was different from other worms, it had long slender arms, and its sharp claws swung through the air.
"Damn it, Draenor! I need a hand! Vekirico dodged to the side, and the fat worm burst through the deck and tumbled under the cabin.
Draenor chased after him, only to see a black mass of flesh struggling at the bottom of the cabin.
"It's in the cabin! Damn, don't let that shit get close to supplies! Vikily shouted as she pointed to the crack in the deck.
Draenor and Jeanne drew their weapons and rushed into the rift, and the monster sensed their movements, spat out the dry bones in their mouths, and struck Draenor with its claws outstretched.
Jeanne reached out and pushed Draenor aside, then quickly crouched down, the dagger slashing a semicircular light in the air, slicing the monster's arm to the ground.
Blood splattered from the severed limb onto Draenor's body, the pungent stench paining him.
The worm struggled to raise its head, its breath of blood directing its attention entirely to Draenor.
It shook its massive leather wings and opened its jaws around its sharp teeth in an eerie cry like a song, swinging its slender claws to pierce Draenor's torso.
"That's the end of the singing session, this is your reward!"
Draenor flickered to the side, kicked the ground and lunged straight away, sting his sword firmly into the monster's chest, then straightened up and pulled the hilt upward.
The monster's body was cut in half, its remaining arm lost its strength, its head twitched and let out a final scream, and finally collapsed in the cabin.
At the same time, Vikiriko is constantly wielding her spear, slashing the oncoming monsters on the deck.
Pools of blood soaked the deck of the Tequila, and the monsters seemed to smell the blood emanating from the cabin of the leader, and suddenly flew in the air like headless flies in a panic, disappearing into the depths of the thick fog.
"Whew, whew...... What a disgusting thing! β
Draenor retracted his blade and stared at the monster's twisted body.
It looks like a woman with a snake tail and leather wings, but above the neck is a plump head like a worm.
The monster had no structure resembling an eye, and could only barely make out two grooves that resembled ears next to the round, toothy, round mouth of a meat grinder.
"It's the 'Siren Worm', a monster that lives on the coast in southern mythology. On foggy days, they always rely on their songs to attract passing ships, and then fly into them to devour their victims.
"The more people on board, the more they will be numerous, what a hell of a thing, this unappetizing thing hasn't been extinct yet!" Vikiriko walked into the cabin and said to the two of them.
He frowned, staring at the shattered, cold corpse of the monster, and his ears still seemed to echo with a moving voice that did not match his appearance at all.
"We may not feel it obviously, but for the average Canaanite, this kind of singing is very seductive, it gives people the illusion that the snowflakes before it should be the ghost ......of the song," she continued.
Draenor noticed the worm's previous move, and it seemed to have calculated in advance that Vikli would dodge.
"But there are only three of us, how do we attract so many monsters?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he had a rough answer in his mind, most of the worms were not focused on them, but on the cabin behind them.
"Probably because of the dry bones left in the cabin, the 'Siren Worm' is never a picky eater." Vikiriko said, pointing to the bones at her feet.
Although the "Tequila" was a medium-sized warship, it seemed that it had not had a lot of crew members, and according to the dry bones in the cabin, there were at least twenty or thirty people.
"Gross! All in all, let's take care of this filth first! β
She seemed to be about to vomit after another look at the monster, and quickly turned her head and left the cabin.
Draenor did as Viklico had instructed to drag the monster's corpse to the deck.
"This kind of monster is really a once-in-a-century occurrence, and we can be considered a jackpot winner today. Deraenor, take control of the rudder, Jeanne and I will go down to the cabin to see what we can do for a simple dinner, and we need to 'celebrate' this sunny day today. β
With that, Viklily led Jeanne back to the cabin.
Draenor took a deep breath and threw his arms vigorously into the sea.