Deep Sea Embers

Chapter 207 “The Encounter Has Begun”

The encounter began with the first round of shelling being thrown by the Sea Mist, which roared over the sea like a thunderclap as the shells whizzed across the air, only to miss and stir up columns of water in the chaotic volley.

Like the first, the second round all missed as well, and it wasn’t until the third round of shelling that the Sea Mist finally swiped at the Vanished’s side.

As the monstrous ghost flames burned blazingly between the seams and mast of the Vanished, Duncan tightly gripped the steering wheel as the ghost ship slid across the sea like a flaming mountain. Nothing could hinder his vessel, not the waves and most certainly not the columns of water that blew up from the cannonballs. But then, the corner of his eyes caught sight of a black shadow swiftly blasting over at the rear deck.

It was an iron shell from the Sea Mist. After multiple misses in a row, the steel battleship finally calibrated its guns, and a cannonball whizzed impartially toward the second half of the Vanished. This time, it’s truly unavoidable since slamming the rudder wheel to avoid enemy fire doesn’t exist in reality. Even the Vanished must follow the most basic of physical laws when sailing in the real world… Probably.

The ship was about to be hit!

But the next moment, Duncan suddenly felt his vision growing extremely sharp. He could even capture the complete trajectory of the shell when it fell slightly off base, see the twisted heat wave around the cannonball, know the airflow pushed back by the shock wave, and see the red-hot grooves of the iron ball – the cannonball was answering his stare.

At the last second of hitting the Vanished, the surface of the shell from the Sea Mist suddenly rose up with a faint green flame, as if it was instantly infected and assimilated by the ghost fire around the Vanished. Then, it quietly turned into a green meteor and gently fell into the sea of fire encompassing the Vanished in a slow and strange arc.

The shell landed on the deck of the Vanished and caused the ship to shake, but that’s all. The Vanished didn’t sustain any damage.

“A beautiful catch!” The voice of Goathead suddenly sounded from his mind, making Duncan come back to his senses, “Captain, how did you do it?!”“

“…… Subconsciously, I didn’t think much about it,” Duncan replied casually. Immediately afterward, more howling whizzes zoomed across the sky and came straight in for a second round.

He instantly tensed his nerves and controlled the massive hull of the Vanished to slightly adjust its course to avoid the incoming black objects. In the next second, one green “meteor” after another appeared overhead over the ship.

But Duncan’s capture was not without limits. As the distance between the Vanished and the Sea Mist closed, the latter’s shelling became more accurate and ferocious. Worst of all, the many secondary artilleries the foe carried finally reached the effective range as well and began barraging the Vanished. This finally caused Duncan to lose sight, allowing several shots to pass his defenses.

The first part of taking damage was the side of the front hull, pierced by a black ball through the plank and tearing a hole that splintered off shrapnel into the air. However, the pieces didn’t fall into the ocean as expected; instead, they were suspended in the air, synchronizing with the Vanished’s speed as it continued to move.

This was an extremely bizarre scene as if the hull structures shattered in reality are still one with the Vanished in some higher dimension!

This instantly reminded Duncan of the bottom of the ship and the broken but still fully functional bulkhead soaked in subspace.

In the next second, he saw the debris slowly returning to its original state like a clock had rewinded itself.

Duncan finally retracted his gaze from the side of the ship.

It was the first time he’d seen the Vanished damaged and the first time he’d seen the ship recover after being injured – the ship could heal itself so quickly! And that ” healing ” process looks like it had directly returned to the state of prior damage?!

He finally understood why an extremely advanced, heavily armed steel warship like the Sea Mist could not defeat a century-old ghost ship.

Subspace has completely transformed the Vanished, leaving the entire ship in a weird structural state… It simply cannot be defeated by ordinary firepower in the real dimension!

“Captain, the Vanished is the best ship in the world, right?” Goathead’s voice sounded in his head again, this time with a sense of pride.

“…… It’s as you say, indeed.”

“So what’s next course of action?”

Duncan raised his head slightly and stared at the Sea Mist: “… Give the kid a beating lesson, of course.”

……

“Captain! That ship sped up!” First Mate Aiden’s voice sounded on the bridge nervously, “Something is not right… Our attack is much less effective than the hasty confrontation half a century ago! More than half of the artillery shells have inexplicably disappeared into the fire of the Vanished!”

“I can see that,” Tyrian stood upright on the bridge, staring fixedly at the ghost ship accelerating towards this side and beginning to adjust its course slightly.

“He’s become even stronger than the last encounter we had…” With a gloomy face, his hands unconsciously gripped the guardrail.

“So are we still fighting?” The first mate asked loudly, “From the way things look, it may not be easy to expel the ghost ship back to subspace like before! And I think your father must be very angry right now… The speed of that ship now is simply XXXX fast!”

Tyrian went darkly quiet for the next few seconds before speaking in a deep, low voice: “… Keep fighting.”

As he uttered these words, his eyes were still fixated on the upper deck of the giant burning ship.

He knew that’s where the helm wheel was located and that his father would always stand there in those distant and yellowed memories.

Is he still there? Was he looking at the Sea Mist?

Large clouds of smoke rose from the sea then, followed by a faint roar in the ear.

“The Vanished has fired!” Some undead sailors exclaimed.

Tyrian still stood firmly in the captain’s spot like an iceberg standing in the cold sea, but then he frowned.

The Vanished did not fully adjust to the appropriate angle before shooting its weapons; instead, it cut into a slightly inclined arc and shelled along the way toward the Sea Mist.

This meant that only about a quarter of the ship’s side guns would be functional.

Is it just symbolically fighting back? He has no intention to fight with the Sea Mist to the end?

This is not my father’s style, nor is it consistent with the experience of the encounter half a century ago. In that battle, the Vanished and the Sea Mist fought to the bitter end until both ships were so badly damaged that any ordinary vessel would’ve sunk.

Indeed, the Vanished reached the limit of its repair ability and had to temporarily retreat to subspace after that battle, while the Sea Mist had to be towed back by its escorts for a three-year-long repair.

But the current situation does not allow Tyrian to continue thinking.

The Vanished’s return fire has arrived, and every shelling shot from the ghost ship after it came into effective range was chillingly accurate.

More than a dozen blazing green fireballs streaked over the sea and smashed onto the steel battleship’s hull. In an instant, explosive roars and ghost fire rose from the impact one after the other.

Layers of light floated around the Sea Mist, and the ship’s church and various holy relics spontaneously activated to resist the spread of pollution caused by the flame. Unfortunately, a large number of terrifying holes still appeared on the hull of the steel battleship in an instant – the burning cast iron cannonballs were like fire hitting the snow. Everything it touched, whether steel or wood, melted away and was swallowed away in a flash.

Under such circumstances, no amount of armor would matter when the enemy’s attack completely disregards the principles of matter. The flames didn’t care about the protective barrier, nor did they care about material substance. All it cared about was what it could devour and erase. Before long, large chunks of the Sea Mist were gone instead of merely taking a few hits. If not for the unsinkable characteristic of the undead ship, it would’ve also long sunk by now.

However, unsinkable doesn’t mean unstoppable. The Sea Mist had lost its power to fight back and continue moving forward.

Tyrian’s eyes widened.

Wrong…… It’s different. It’s completely different from the last time!

He didn’t know this ship! This wasn’t the ship he remembered!

And in the midst of his dismay, he noticed that the Vanished had suddenly stopped shelling.

The ghost ship inflated all its sails, engulfing the huge waves of the entire sea, and sped up to the limit as it rushed past the Sea Mist.

“…… Full turn on the left rudder! Move! Move!” First Mate Aiden suddenly roared, sending the already frantic helmsman to turn the wheel with all his undeadly might. Sadly, the efforts failed because they were now on a collision course with the ghost ship!

“The rudder has failed!” The helmsman shouted in horror, “It’s turning on its own!” We are taking the initiative to meet the other ship!”

As the helmsman said, the Sea Mist was actively meeting the ghost ship.

Tyrian had already sensed the movement. First, he had heard the abnormal hissing from the machine under his feet, ratting and rumbling with a hair-raising tune. Then came the standing down of the guns and cannons on his own ship, which had obviously never occurred half a century ago.

The worst possible nightmare had become true – the Sea Mist recognized its flagship!