Chapter 28 : Anomalies and Monsters
Chapter 28 : Anomalies and Monsters
Anomalies and Monsters
The moment that strange mist enveloped the cruise ship, Qin Ling gripped Chu Tianxing's hand tightly and said, "Don't be scared, Tianxing. I'm right here with you."
Her voice had a slight tremor, but her tone was extremely firm.
Chu Tianxing felt both touched and helpless. "Actually, I'm not scared at all—"
He had barely spoken when the mist swept over them. Blue light flashed, and everyone on the ship found themselves blind, unable to see anything.
Immediately following this, the smoothly sailing cruise ship jolted violently. Along with that violent shake, everyone on board felt a distinct sensation of sinking and weightlessness as if they were on a roller coaster.
Even though everyone on the ship knew martial arts and most had decent external martial arts training even if they hadn't developed internal energy, the sudden jolt sent a lot of people sprawling.
Screams and cries of pain filled the deck.
Thankfully, that sinking and weightless feeling didn't last long.
Right after, that bizarre mist that had enveloped the ship and robbed everyone of their sight abruptly vanished into thin air.
Once the weird mist cleared, Chu Tianxing and the others on deck could see again.
Everyone rushed to look over the ship's railings.
All around them was still the endless ocean, still blue sky and white clouds overhead. At first glance, it seemed as if nothing had changed at all.
But then the ship's PA system crackled to life. The captain's voice came through with an edge of tension and urgency.
"All students must leave the deck immediately and gather in the main dining hall. I repeat, all students must leave the deck immediately and gather in the main dining hall..."
After what had just happened with that freaky mist, even a bunch of rowdy teenagers knew when to shut up and listen.
Chu Tianxing, Qin Ling, and all the other students on deck started heading off to assemble as ordered.
But Chu Tianxing had barely taken a few steps when he heard a dull thud behind him.
Without even turning around, his natural Intuition talent kicked in; it was like having eyes in the back of his head. He jerked his head to the side.
The instant he moved, a gust of wind tore through the air, whooshing right past his ear. At the same time, his peripheral vision caught what had tried to stab him in the back.
It was a trident.
After dodging that backstab attempt, Chu Tianxing was about to counter with his Divine Dragon Swings Tail when Qin Ling who was beside him slammed her palm into his shoulder to shove him out of the way.
At the same time, she let out a furious shout, twisted her waist, and spun around. Her skirt flared out like a blooming white flower, while her long, pale right leg swept out. It was less a kick and more like a battleaxe swinging through the air as it carried the roar of thunder.
BANG!
Qin Ling's leg connected hard with the sneak attacker.
The crisp crack of breaking bones and an agonized wail rang out simultaneously, followed by a massive crash.
Chu Tianxing, now safely out of the way, finally got a good look at what had attacked him.
"What the hell is that thing?"
When he got a clear look at what had tried to ambush him, Chu Tianxing's eye couldn't help but twitch.
It was actually a monster with the head of a fish and the body of a man.
Its torso was humanoid, but completely naked except for a layer of black fish scales covering its skin.
The thing wasn't even five and a half feet tall, but it was broad-shouldered with a muscular build and massive limbs. Its upper arms were as thick as a normal person's thighs.
It had no neck, just a weird fish head sitting directly on its shoulders.
The fish head had no nose, only two nostrils. Above the nostrils was a pair of round, crimson fish eyes.
A row of fin-like bone spikes stuck up from the top of its head, giving it a mohawk look.
Its gaping fish mouth was full of sharp fangs, and right now, streams of fresh blood were gushing out like a fountain from that gaping maw.
The monster looked exactly like the Murloc from a certain game Chu Tianxing had once played.
But this one seemed way more muscular and vicious than any game version. Qin Ling's kick had caved in its chest, sunken in its entire ribcage.
It was slumped against the slightly bent ship railing, coughing up a mouthful of blood as it sat. Those round, blood-red eyes were still locked onto Qin Ling with the hungry gaze of a predator craving slaughter and fresh meat.
"Wh-what is this thing?"
Even though she'd taken out the monster with one kick, Qin Ling had only ever fought in tournament matches. She'd never been in a real life-or-death battle, let alone killed anything before.
At this moment, seeing the dying monster spitting up blood while glaring at her with savage eyes made her scalp crawl and a chill run down her spine despite being the survivor.
The other students on deck had also spotted the monster and immediately started crying out in alarm.
Chu Tianxing recovered from his shock pretty quickly and was about to go comfort Qin Ling when he heard a series of heavy thumping sounds.
Following the noise, he saw more of those same "murlocs" climbing over the ship's railings onto the deck. They were armed with all sorts of crude weapons. Some have rusty tridents, some with spears, others with swords and knives, and even bone javelins. They made horrible screeching sounds as they charged at the students like hungry wolves.
The moment he looked at their cruel and greedy eyes, it’s as if Chu Tianxing could almost understand their inhuman cries.
Meat, so much fresh and tender meat!
When the fishmen launched their surprise attack, most of the students on deck were so frightened by the sudden turn of events that they just froze up, seemingly forgetting all their martial arts training.
Chu Tianxing was not surprised by this, nor did he think that these classmates who knew martial arts were all useless because of it.
After all, the great General Qi Jiguang once said, "Of the ten parts of martial skill you possess in daily practice, if you can use five parts on the battlefield, you can achieve success. If you can use eight parts, you will be invincible in this world. No one has ever been able to use all ten parts of their training while staying calm and flexible in real combat."
What General Qi meant was that real combat and training are completely different things.
If you can pull off even half of your moves when your life is on the line, you're already a "great success."
And that was his standard for professional soldiers.
Since even professional warriors whose job was killing and fighting were ony expected to use half of their training in battle to be considered successful, what could you expect from a bunch of high school kids who'd never seen a real fight in their lives?
They are just high school graduates who had grown up in an era of peace and had never experienced a life-or-death battle. It’s normal for them to tremble in fear and panic when their first real battle is a life-or-death one and that’s against vicious inhuman monsters.
Anyone who grew up in a peaceful and stable environment with no experience in real combat, yet could remain calm and composed and fight effectively in all directions, was either a genius or a psychopath.
Even a martial arts prodigy like Qin Ling, who'd just killed a fishman in a burst of anger, fell into panic and fear once she got a good look at the thing.
As for Chu Tianxing...
During his prior encounter with Feng Yufei, though his retreat was embarrassing, at the critical juncture where his life hung in the balance, he had regained his composure and face it with a cold head.
On the contrary, his fear of death from that encounter allowed him to use the little skill he possessed at the time to its fullest potential.
He still felt the lingering fear afterward, but he did not let that weigh on him.
And right now, he wasn't panicking at all. Instead, he calmly observed the monster, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses.
Looks like I really am a once-in-a-history genius who can perform at full capacity in the heat of battle!
Right now, the fishmen were about to charge into the crowd, but most of the students still hadn't snapped out of their shock. Only a few top-ranked fighters like Gao Yuan and Chen Musheng had managed to overcome their fear enough to prepare for battle.
Chu Tianxing took a quiet breath.
Time to show them what real skill looks like!
He pulled some embroidery needles from his pocket and was about to use his Rain of Petals to blind the eyes of the fishmen in the lead when suddenly, an explosive shout rang out across the deck.
BOOM!
The roar was like thunder crashing down, shaking the entire deck.
Those fishmen that had been about to pounce into the crowd for a feeding frenzy suddenly stumbled and collapsed as if they'd been struck by lightning.
Many students were also affected by that thunderous roar, swaying around like they had seasickness.
The moment that roar faded, a massive figure charged onto the deck. In his left hand was a riot shield, and in his right was a battle axe. With a series of shield bashes, axe chops, kicks, and shoulder checks, he finished off four fishmen in the space of a few breaths.
Behind that imposing figure came six more people, forming two three-man teams. Each person carried a shield in one hand and a blade in the other. They fought with close coordination, and wherever they went, blades flashed and blood sprayed like rain. One by one, the monsters fell at their feet, either beheaded or with their chests torn open.
The ship's security team had entered the battle.
That opening roar that had knocked down over a dozen fishmen came from the security captain, who wielded the shield and battle axe. He'd achieved the pinnacle of the Inner Force Realm by opening all Twelve Principal Meridians and the Eight Extraordinary Meridians. If he were equated to a character in the original Condor Heroes before Chu Tianxing expanded the power ceiling, he would be the equivalent of a quasi-Five Great level expert like Qiu Qianren.
By the way, a high-level expert like this wouldn't normally be serving as security captain on some small ship with just a few dozen passengers if it wasn't for the fact that the young mistress of this cruise ship was also on board,
He should've been stationed to protect much larger vessels with hundreds or thousands of passengers.
The six people following the security captain were all military veterans.
Though their cultivation was far below the captain's level, and they might not have had real life-or-death combat experience, they were still properly trained soldiers who'd at least been through realistic combat drills.
Now that they were prepared, they immediately went on a killing spree, slaughtering the fishmen and temporarily keeping them away from the students.
But this didn't mean the situation was looking good.
Even though the security team was holding off the monsters with superior equipment and martial arts skills, the sheer number of fishmen was beyond imagination. The security team had barely cut down a few when even more fishmen came climbing over the railings onto the deck.
With the embroidery needles held in his palm, Chu Tianxing took a few steps to the side of the ship, quickly leaned over to look down, and his eyes immediately twitched.
The sea surface below was churning like boiling water with countless fishmen swimming back and forth underwater like a school of sardines.
Seeing this, Chu Tianxing immediately understood that today's situation wasn't going to end well. He quickly made his way back to Qin Ling and grabbed her hand.
"There are way too many fishmen. Even though our security team is strong, the numbers are just too overwhelming. There's no way they can actually beat back all these things. We need to get everyone to retreat into the ship's interior and hold defensive positions while we wait for rescue!"
These words finally snapped Qin Ling back to her senses.
She nodded firmly and helped Chu Tianxing navigate through the bloody battlefield to the center of the deck. One by one, they helped up the students who'd been knocked senseless by the security captain's thunderous roar, then led them toward the ship's interior.
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