novelraw Chapter 5 : Chapter 5
Chapter 5 : Chapter 5
Chapter 5: The Bride
The hull around the boarding hall’s cabin door, already riddled with cracks from the bear-like creature’s earlier assaults, teetered on the brink of collapse.
This time, with just one charge, the creature shattered the door and surrounding hull, creating a two-meter-high gaping hole. Fortunately, the barricade of cabinets and tables held it back for a moment.
Seizing the opportunity, I hurled all the explosives Cai Yutong had made toward the breach.
Who cared about the consequences now?
“Boom!”
“Rumble!”
…
The explosives erupted with tremendous force, momentarily forcing the bear-like creature back.
The cabinets and tables blocking the door caught fire in the explosion.
The boarding hall’s windows shattered, and howling winds and snow surged in, fueling the flames.
The blast’s shockwave sent the security team members, Cai Yutong, and the short student, who had retreated to the dining hall behind, flying. Some collapsed, unconscious.
I, too, was thrown back, slamming into a wall, pain searing through my bones as if my body were falling apart.
Waves of fire rolled toward me, scorching and intense.
Before I could stand, I saw the bear-like creature’s massive form crash through the barricade, emerging from the flames. It tore off the arm of a security team member who had thrown acid, blood spraying everywhere.
The team member screamed in agony, firing his stun gun at the creature’s abdomen.
It had no effect.
Instead, it enraged the creature further. It opened its gaping maw and bit off the team member’s head in one snap. Like eating a candy bar, it took a second bite, crushing and swallowing his entire chest.
Then, it let out a earth-shaking roar.
The sound left my ears bleeding, my head dizzy.
At the same time, I saw the creature toss aside the half-body of the team member. Its eyes turned blood-red, its burning fur making it look like a demon, glaring at me with fury.
Its mountain-like bulk, blood-red eyes, and razor-sharp teeth smeared with flesh and blood… anyone in such a hopeless situation would tremble and collapse in fear.
Human strength was too insignificant before such a beast.
Our eyes met for a fleeting moment.
A shiver ran through me. I gritted my teeth, sprang up with agility, and bolted toward the stairs.
A normal person fleeing would retreat to the dining hall, using the security team, Cai Yutong, and the short student as shields. They wouldn’t need to outrun the creature—just outrun the others.
I wouldn’t stoop to such selfish cowardice.
Besides, I had a plan.
I believed the bear-like creature wasn’t without weaknesses, and I wasn’t without the means to fight back.
Its massive size was its weakness.
On the research vessel, the narrow passages restricted its movement. The stairs and lower cabins were even tighter, offering a chance to strike back.
In the dining hall, the others heard the sounds fading into the distance, their despair easing slightly.
The short student, hiding in a corner, trembled with both relief and worry: “Little Brother Li has lured the bear-like creature away!”
Cai Yutong climbed from the rubble, still ringing in her ears, her hair disheveled. She glared at the security team: “You’re holding weapons and hiding here? Why aren’t you helping him?”
The team members exchanged glances, speechless.
They were elites, but none had faced true life-or-death situations. When death loomed, how could anyone not feel fear?
The creature could shatter alloy hulls—what use was charging in?
They’d be reduced to blood and pulp in a single blow.
Xie Jin, refusing to admit weakness, said grimly, “We were planning an ambush in the dining hall, but Li Weiyi led it elsewhere, disrupting our plan.”
…
“Bang! Bang! Bang…”
The bear-like creature’s strength exceeded my expectations. Despite the ship’s many obstacles and narrow passages, they were like paper before it.
With one crash, doors and walls shattered.
I held the sword in one hand, grabbed the stair railing with the other, and leaped to the next cabin level, moving as nimbly as an ape.
The next moment.
“Boom!”
The creature tore through the entire stairwell, landing in the lower cabin, denting the floor with its weight.
It growled low, searching around.
Hidden atop a pile of machinery, I held the sword, holding my breath, and noticed blood dripping from the creature. The earlier rifle shots had clearly injured it significantly.
This was good news!
The Yellow Dragon Sword, though sharp, was a cold weapon and might not pierce the creature’s hide or bones. But its massive eyes were surely vulnerable.
The gap in strength and speed was vast—I’d have only one chance.
Just as I prepared to strike, the creature suddenly looked up, spotting me, and swung its paw first.
It was the scent.
A bear’s sense of smell is two thousand times stronger than a human’s.
This creature’s was likely even keener.
It had locked onto my position through scent long ago.
Its paw, large as a fan, carried crushing force. Even a glancing blow would tear off a chunk of my flesh.
I had identified three weaknesses: its size restricting movement, its eyes, and its intelligence, which hadn’t evolved to human levels.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t have fixated on the boarding hall’s door instead of seeking other entries.
Targeting this third weakness, I had positioned myself near the ship’s pump equipment.
Only by leveraging mechanical power and humanity’s superior intelligence could I hope to match this creature.
As its paw swung, I propelled myself sideways with both legs.
“Bang!”
The massive paw smashed the pump’s pipes.
High-pressure seawater shot out, striking the creature’s head.
As I landed, I scrambled forward on all fours, and in the moment the creature recoiled from the water, its sight and smell impaired, I thrust the sword with precision.
The sword flashed like a yellow dragon, swift as lightning.
“Pfft!”
The creature’s right eye was pierced, blood gushing like arrows.
A roar of pain, rage, and fury echoed through the ship, shaking the walls.
Having landed the hit, I immediately retreated.
But my speed was no match for the creature’s.
In its fury, it flailed its claws wildly, one grazing my left arm.
With a rip, my left sleeve tore open, a deep, bone-exposing gash appearing on my upper arm, blood pouring out.
My racing body lost balance, the force sending me tumbling to the floor, sliding toward the stairs. The left side of my body burned with pain, nearly numb.
Compared to the creature’s terrifying strength, humans were like straw, snapping with a single bend.
I leaned against the wall, crouching, gritting my teeth against the pain. Using torn strips from my left shoulder’s clothing, I hastily bound the wound to stem the bleeding.
I picked up the Yellow Dragon Sword from the floor.
After howling in agony, the creature charged at me, intent on tearing me to shreds.
I knew escape was impossible—my speed couldn’t match its. So, gripping the sword with one hand, I stood, my gaze sharp as the blade, resolute and cold.
Beast or demon, it couldn’t shake my resolve to fight to the death.
With a roar, I swung the sword with all my strength.
“Splash—”
The blood from my left arm’s wound, spilled on the floor, began to steam, transforming the dim cabin passage into a pale red world of blood mist.
The floor, walls, and pipes began to corrode and mold inch by inch.
Behind me, in the hazy blood mist, a slender figure in an ancient, ornate red wedding dress appeared out of nowhere, tall with a graceful neck and a jade belt at her waist.
The wedding dress was elaborate and luxurious, embroidered with gold and silver threads depicting dragons and phoenixes, with lotus patterns at the cuffs and hem, the skirt spreading like phoenix wings.
But a red silk veil, weighted with copper coins at its corners, covered her face, hiding her ethereal beauty.
The figure was blurry, both real and illusory, beautiful yet chillingly eerie.
How did she appear?
Why had the surroundings turned ghostly and sinister?
This spectral bride seemed both formed from my blood and like an eternal companion, a newlywed wife following me, unseen by others. As I swung my sword, her delicate hand rose gracefully, mirroring my strike.
“Pfft!”
I had prepared to die under the creature’s claws, but this sword strike sent it flying back several meters.
In midair, blood sprayed like a fountain.
A horrific, meter-long gash appeared across the creature’s neck and abdomen.
As if all my strength had been drained, I staggered back, leaning against the wall to stay upright. I stared in shock at the creature, which crashed to the ground…
This was too unreal!
“With my mortal strength, how could I send it flying with one strike? What just happened?” I gasped, my left arm’s wound bleeding heavily again, my vision darkening.
The blood mist, decay, ghostly realm, and the veiled bride had vanished, as if they had never existed.
“Roar… Growl…”
The creature struggled to its feet, its roars no longer as fierce, now trembling and hoarse.
As it approached me again, its steps were slower, filled with caution.
“Junior Brother!”
On the verge of fainting from blood loss and searing pain, I heard my senior brother’s furious voice.
Then came the roar of gunfire.
“Bang!”
“Bang!”
…
Zhao Meng was truly enraged, his eyes bloodshot, gripping a shotgun with both hands, firing relentlessly. The creature howled in pain, retreating into the darkness.
“Let’s go, up to the deck.”
Zhao Meng reloaded while pulling me along, retreating.
We fled, one after the other, to the fourth level where the deck was.
The shotgun was powerful, but the creature was clearly no ordinary being, its defense and vitality defying scientific understanding, still growling low in the distance.
We reached the boarding hall, where the creature had earlier smashed a massive hole in the door.
Howling winds poured in, cutting like knives across our faces.
It was too cold!
Compared to earlier, when sunlight warmed the deck, this was another world.
The blood and soaked clothes on my left shoulder’s wound nearly froze into crystals.
Zhao Meng carried a military-green satchel on his chest, bulging with something important. His fierce, resolute eyes held a farewell as he looked at me: “Senior Brother may not be able to look after you anymore. Take care of yourself.”
Without looking back, Zhao Meng rushed out of the boarding hall.
He dashed across the deck, climbed over the railing, and leaped off the ship.
From start to finish, except for his farewell to me, he showed no hesitation.
“Senior Brother…”
I chased him onto the deck.
Outside, the wind howled like wailing ghosts, nearly blowing me off my feet.
I didn’t know why Zhao Meng was doing this, but I knew if I didn’t follow, this might be our last meeting.
Seeing his figure receding across the ice, my heart sank. I leaped over the railing, dropping several meters to the hard ice below.
Hearing the thud of something heavy landing behind him, Zhao Meng, dozens of meters away, stopped abruptly, turned, and ran back.
He roared, “Why did you follow me?”
“After Master died, you’re my only family! If we die, we die together. If we live, we live together,” I said.
Zhao Meng’s eyes welled with tears, and he let out a helpless, anguished cry to the heavens.
…
“Roar!”
The bear-like creature’s growl came from the ship’s deck above.
It leaped down, landing with a thud near us, advancing step by step.
In the dim light, its teeth gleamed white and sharp, one eye glowing red, the other bleeding profusely. Blood from the meter-long gash across its neck and abdomen stained the ice red.
It wasn’t immortal—it was gravely wounded—but its single eye fixed on the satchel at Zhao Meng’s chest.
“Fine! If we die, we brothers die together. If we live, we live together.”
Zhao Meng raised the shotgun, his expression fiercer than the creature’s.
I gripped the Yellow Dragon Sword, my gaze as sharp as the blade, like a drawn bow, ready to strike.
Suddenly.
A baby’s cry rose from the sea, low but resounding across the Arctic, making glaciers and snow ridges tremble.
It was both a wail and a laugh.
More precisely, it wasn’t one voice but many, coming from different directions, eerie and bone-chilling.
The bear-like creature showed fear, trembling as it stared behind us, crouching low, its earlier ferocity gone.
Zhao Meng and I slowly turned.
There.
A house-sized infant head hovered in the air, its black hair draped loosely. When it laughed, its mouth split to its ears.
Its dark red tongue stretched meters long.
The neck connected to the head extended like a pillar into the icy sea.
“Bang!”
The next moment, a second infant head appeared, crashing through the ship’s deck, rising to the tenth level, as if vying with the sky.
“Crack!”
A third infant head broke through the ice ten meters away behind us, emitting a low wail.
The fourth, the fifth…
All nine of the Nine Infants’ house-sized heads emerged from the sea, hovering menacingly, their presence terrifying. Their long, scaly necks, like tentacles, wrapped around the ship, squeezing it until it deformed and broke.
The massive body hidden in the water tilted the fracturing ship.
Screams, cries, and wails, along with the sound of heavy objects tumbling, echoed from the ship.
Before this, I hadn’t known of the Nine Infants. Seeing this, I felt as if I’d fallen into a chaotic demon-filled world, my heart gripped by unprecedented shock.
As the Nine Infants’ nine pairs of bone-green eyes locked onto me, fear filled my heart. Zhao Meng muttered bitterly, “Trying to take the Buddha’s relic to divert the danger was a pipe dream from the start. We shouldn’t have hoped for luck.”
All nine heads of the Nine Infants laughed eerily, lunging toward Zhao Meng like pythons.
“Splash!”
Whether it was my blood soaking the Tao Ancestor Tai Chi Fish or some other reason, the Chan Sect’s leader token around my neck suddenly burst with dazzling green light.
The light, like a radiant Arctic aurora, shot into the sky, filling the heavens and earth.
The Nine Infants, attacking Zhao Meng, let out sharp screeches, repelled by the green light from the Tao Ancestor Tai Chi Fish.
At the same time.
The satchel on Zhao Meng’s chest shook violently, catching fire.
Inside, the gold and silver coffins holding the Buddha’s relic shattered, and a red light shot toward the Tao Ancestor Tai Chi Fish around my neck.
…
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