Wang Kaiyu was covered all over in small mutated squids. Every single one of them wriggled, trying to drill into his mecha. Pulling a few off only meant more would quickly swarm up to replace them.
Xu Mo used a short dagger to pierce the squids' buccal masses, which were their weak points. The stabbed squids quickly went limp and died shortly after, but his movements simply couldn't keep up with the speed at which the mutated squids were climbing up.
"This is so annoying!!"
Lucas couldn't hold back anymore. He made his mecha ascend higher and fired into an empty space.
However, because the mutated beasts were stuck all over their bodies and the ship's deck this time, firing only killed a few squids that happened to be blocking the gun muzzles. The rest ended up crawling up the barrels, causing the guns to jam and fail to retract.
"Captain, what do we do?"
Ye Yingxuan felt completely overwhelmed.
She not only had to deal with the mutated beasts on the ship but also needed to clear the squids jamming the propellers beneath the boat. At the same time, she had to calibrate the ship's direction to get them out of there. Her spiritual energy was really stretched too thin...
"Don't use thermal weapons! Too much commotion might attract even more danger!"
The spiritual energy of a single one of these creatures was very weak, and combined with the fact that there was never a shortage of small organisms beneath the sea surface, she hadn't noticed them at first.
It wasn't until they swarmed up the deck in droves... but by then, it was too late. The group had to enter their mechas as quickly as possible, which led to their current miserable situation.
"Pfft!"
Under Ye Yingxuan's spiritual energy attacks, the mutated squids began to spray ink. Lucas's external camera was hit head-on. His vision instantly went pitch black, forcing him to hurriedly activate the lens's self-cleaning mode.
"Should we transform?"
Wang Kaiyu switched to the shortest short sword among his weapons, struggling to deal with the mutated beasts on his mecha.
At this moment, they could still see a steady stream of squids climbing up, some even launching themselves directly from the railings onto their mechas! The small boat was drawing more water...
"Transform and blow up the ship? And then we continue our journey hovering in the air? That consumes way too much energy!"
Lucas replied quickly this time. Hovering for a few hours or half a day might be fine, but relying entirely on mechas to fly? They weren't aircraft, after all!
"Just how many of these squids are there!?"
Xu Mo was also growing impatient. How long would it take to kill them one by one? Before they could finish, their ship would be sunk by the sheer weight!
Ye Yingxuan focused and used her spiritual energy to scrape off the last squid jamming the propeller. The ship finally started moving again.
She then piloted her mecha to land on the deck, stepping on the slippery squid corpses to walk to the cabin door.
"My scan was right. Forty-five degrees to starboard, there's land three nautical miles away!"
Hearing this news, the three team members finally breathed a sigh of relief!
Having land made things much easier. They could definitely perform better on the ground than on the water, and they wouldn't have to worry about damaging the ship.
"I'm steering the ship over there. Everyone, keep clearing out the star beasts and hold on a little longer!"
Wang Kaiyu lowered his altitude slightly and gritted his teeth, trying to sweep the mutated beasts off the deck and into the water, but with little success.
Lucas, on the other hand, had to first clear away the cuttlefish blocking his gun barrels and sticking to his mecha's joints, otherwise he would hardly be able to move!
Xu Mo, with a dark expression, continued stabbing the squids' buccal masses. He also had to carefully control the amount of time his mecha spent on the ship's deck, afraid of capsizing the small boat.
The three of them would occasionally look in the direction their captain had mentioned.
The sky was basically dark by now, but with the captain's words, everyone held onto hope and persevered.
Sir Huang stood at the bow of the ship and put away his observation scope.
"The second squad is fighting a swarm of mutated cuttlefish. The situation isn't looking good. We need to keep our distance. Sister Zebra, how are things underwater?"
Underwater, Wang Tianwei looked through her observation scope and saw her younger brother enthusiastically doing a tap dance in mid-air.
"Currently, there are no mutated cuttlefish swarms near our ship."
Jian Jingyu chuckled foolishly as he looked at the other team's heavily submerged ship. As long as they weren't the only unlucky ones, it was fine!
"What do you say, Sir Huang? Should we head over and just eliminate them directly?"
The three teammates were eager to try, just waiting for Sir Huang to give the order.
"Emm, it looks really dangerous over there right now."
"Huh?"
Zhang Lyra turned her head in confusion. What did that mean? They were just going to let them off? That didn't fit Sir Huang's personality at all.
"Then we..."
"Don't face them head-on. They probably want to head to the land three nautical miles away. Let's speed up and bypass them from the front.
By the time they get there, they should be just about done clearing the beasts."
Jian Jingyu finally felt reassured.
"Hehe, that's more like it~"
Huang Yan continued speaking in the team communication channel,
"Sister Zebra, you'll be the one to explain things to your brother."
After all, the kid was still young, and being schemed against by his own biological sister this time might leave some psychological trauma, which wouldn't be good.
Wang Tianwei's voice came through the speaker,
"It's time to let him experience the sinister nature of society, mwahaha!"
Inside the two aircraft in the sky, the safety instructors had already connected their comms.
"Kirin is coming over to mess with you guys."
"Kirin? Where? How come I didn't spot them?"
The safety instructor from the First Military Academy turned on the radar for another scan. The results showed no signs of any personnel, ships, or mechas approaching within a ten-nautical-mile radius.
However, the rescue aircraft was detected...
"Ah, they took stealth measures. How's the situation on your end? Can the First Military Academy hold out until they get there?"
Although it was a bit unkind to think this way, everyone still wanted to see the two teams clash on the sea.
"Stealth measures... Is it Wang Tianwei again?"
The safety instructor, who had been keeping a close eye on the second squad's combat situation, curled his lips helplessly.
"Looks like things are dicey on our end, huh? From what I can see, they haven't noticed anyone nearby yet... They're all too busy clearing out the mutated beasts."
"Hahaha, remember to get the 'Little Bees' rolling later!"
The viewers tuning into the live stream also adjusted their sitting postures.
"The Wang siblings are going to face off head-to-head!? The battle of the century, absolutely cannot be missed!"
"First Military Academy versus Kirin, I've finally waited for this day!"
"The First Military Academy is right in the middle of a crisis. Isn't Kirin being a bit ruthless?"
"Is the person above me okay? It's a competition, and you're talking about being ruthless? If you had a chance like this, wouldn't you take it?"
"I want to see Wang Kaiyu get taken down by Sister Zebra! Hahahaha."
"Wang Kaiyu is a heavy mecha pilot. To take him down, it'll have to be Zhang Lyra, right?"
"Who do you guys guess CEO Wang of Yida supports?"
Cheng Yin exchanged a glance with her husband.
"Who do you support?"
"...Both our son and daughter are our own flesh and blood, alright?"
Cheng Yin raised her eyebrows slightly, and Wang Yi chuckled hehe twice.
"Of course, it's also been a while since I taught that boy Kaiyu a lesson... Tianwei is a girl, so she needs the victory more~"
"Pfft, and Kaiyu doesn't need it?"
"Isn't he still young? Besides, it's a good thing for boys to suffer some setbacks when they're young. Tianwei is different..."
"How is she different?"
Wang Yi stroked his chin.
"Tianwei seems to prefer the feeling of successfully showing off."
"...Stay away from our daughter from now on."
"No! Honey, I..."
