"Gargoyle?" Austin asked doubtfully.
"There are legendary monsters that appear near the Gargoyle Atoll. I always thought they were legends. I didn't expect them to really exist." Oliver explained while loading the rifle. "They are similar to vampires. People who are bitten Will turn into stone."
"They are faster. Legend has it that they can withstand sword slashes and bows and arrows, but times have changed. This one is much more powerful than those things."
Austin listened carefully while loading his revolver with bullets.
"There are 7 in the first round. We are expected to engage the enemy in one minute and thirty seconds. Load the rifle, pay attention to self-protection, and aim before shooting!" Ma Fei slid down from the observation deck along the mast, took a rifle, and ran over excitedly bow.
Oliver took a step forward and pulled him behind him. He put one foot on the railing and took aim with his gun.
"Listen to my instructions, Mafi and Mond are in one group, Carapone and Bordeaux are in the second group, Hilde and Paradela are in the third group, Ance and Levis are in the fourth group, Henry is in the fifth group, from left to Claim the targets one by one on the right, and leave the last two to me and the captain!"
The crew members responded in unison, each selected a bunker and began to take aim. Austin also focused on the one he was assigned, and followed its movement with his eyes.
"After 20 seconds of visual inspection, we will engage the enemy. Listen to my command, three! Two! One! Release!"
After that, Oliver pulled the trigger without hesitation, and a bullet came out of the barrel and accurately hit the gargoyle's head. Before Austin could see what it looked like, the guy's head exploded.
Almost at the same time, Austin also pulled the trigger and shot through the target's neck. The guy struggled and fell to the deck, and then broke into large and small rocks on the ground.
[Hey, that's a good fight. Why don't you let me out to play? I feel like I'm going to grow hair now. ]
Austin didn't reply, but Doug did make sense. The main ability of danger perception was on his side, and he was indeed more suitable for fighting.
The first wave of six gargoyles were all shot down, two of them fell onto the deck, and the rest fell into the sea.
"Quickly reload, the second wave is 8. We expect to meet the enemy in 40 seconds. The grouping will remain unchanged except for Maffei and Mond. The remaining two will be given to you two." Oliver commanded methodically while reloading. , whenever this happens, Austin can only be obedient and learn while listening.
The second wave of gargoyles seemed to be smarter. They suddenly changed their formation when they approached the battleship. Two of them escaped from the shots and pounced on Oliver who was standing at the bow of the ship.
The first mate did not panic. He held the rifle with both hands and aimed the butt at one of them. Austin fired his revolver continuously and killed the other one on the deck with four bullets.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Austin spared some energy to "read" the twisted text that appeared in his mind.
"Gargoyle, a unique sea monster near the Gargoyle Atoll. It is transformed into a cursed sailor. After being bitten by a gargoyle, he will be subject to the same curse. It is extremely fast, but its defense and endurance are weak. Its weakness is The fangs can be cut off with a sword. Note that these guys have a certain amount of intelligence."
"——Does certain intelligence mean like a sunfish?"
Austin shouted: "Be careful, these guys are very cunning, and their weakness is their fangs!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a gargoyle suddenly emerged from the waves on the right side of the ship and slammed down Henry who was reloading.
"Be careful-" Austin drew out his scimitar and threw it in Henry's direction. The blade drew a series of sparks on the gargoyle's body, successfully attracting its attention.
Taking this opportunity, Henry, who was pressed on the deck, turned his hands and wrists down, and the two black holes directly hit the gargoyle's head.
Before he could fire, another one suddenly jumped out from the waves, its sharp wings smashed the barrel next to the railing, and hit Henry hard on the head.
If this guy hadn't had an iron head, I would have seen the tofu brain now.
Austin tensed up and subconsciously jumped forward. The next second, a huge stone hit the place where he was standing before. It shattered into pieces and turned into more than a dozen gray stone spiders of various sizes.
"Doug!"
"Come on bro!"
All this happened within a few seconds. Several crew members around him had no time to react before they were thrown to the ground by the palm-sized spider.
Doug fired his revolver continuously and fired all six bullets, shattering several spiders that were about to pounce. Then he rolled to avoid the gargoyle's attack, picked up the saber next to him and inserted it into its throat.
At this time, the third wave of gargoyles had flown to the bow of the ship. Oliver held a flintlock gun in each hand and shot down the two nearest ones. Then he also drew out his saber and started fighting hand to hand.
There was chaos on the deck.
"Overlimit mode, start!" Henry shouted, the two horizontal bars representing eyes on his face suddenly turned red, two streams of steam spurted out through his clothes on his back, the dark barrel flames flashed, and two flew up The gargoyles on the deck were blown to pieces.
He bent his legs slightly to accumulate strength, and only heard a "Peng" sound, and two red lights appeared above the deck. The sharp blades popped out of the barrels of his hands, scattering a fine spot of light under the reflection of the sunlight.
"Everyone! All must die!"
Like a meteorite, Henry hit the battle group heavily. The crew members who were fighting in hand-to-hand gave up the battle immediately after hearing the sound and quickly left the battlefield.
The sword made two crosses in an instant, and the four gargoyles on the deck instantly exploded into several pieces of rubble. Henry in the middle made a handsome knife-shuttering poss.
Doug hung on the mast by holding the rope with one hand, and was dumbfounded as he watched Dr. Henry killing everyone. "Hey, man, it seems like there's nothing wrong with me."
[Don't be distracted, be careful of other enemies. ]
However, Henry didn't seem to last long. After putting away the knife, he fell to the deck in a daze. Austin was so frightened that he jumped down and dragged him into the cabin.
Thanks to Oliver's instructions at the beginning, the August Lion temporarily stayed away from the island chain. After taking care of the remaining two or three, no fourth wave of gargoyles appeared.
After killing the last spider with one shot, Doug wiped his face and shouted: "Take inventory of the personnel and quickly check the damage to the battleship to see if there is a sea monster invasion!"
Kicking the gravel off the side of the ship into the sea, Oliver walked quickly towards Doug.
His face was very ugly. After this encounter, the August Lion had lost two people. These were the team members he brought up himself. They were good comrades and brothers who would feel sorry for them even if they were even slightly injured.
"What's going on?" Oliver didn't get angry at Doug, but was a little annoyed. "At our speed, we're still a day and a half away from the Gargoyle Atoll."
"You're doing this, I'm not good at it, I'll take a break first." Doug called in his mind.
Austin sheathed the knife, frowned, looked around, and said solemnly: "It is probably affected by something. After the inspection, I will inform everyone to go to the captain's room for a meeting."
After that, he took the lead and walked towards the captain's cabin. He had some ideas that he needed to confirm with Mariano.
After closing the door, Austin put the voyage diary into his pocket and asked in his mind: "Mariannu, how long have we been out on this trip?"
"Less than half a day, probably about five hours." Mariano's tone was very calm.
Austin nodded, turned around, took out a book from the bookshelf, and started reading it quickly.
""Ghost Ship"? What are you looking at this for?"
"It is mentioned in the voyage diary that Benjamin and the others met the accordion player Kaka near the Gargoyle Atoll. I suspect that the situation we are encountering now is related to him."
"Do you mean that he disrupts our perception of time and space?" Mariano quickly realized what he meant, but quickly denied the speculation, "He does have the ability to create hallucinations, but the scope of his influence is It’s not that big and effective, and it can’t be that effective, and it can’t interfere with all of us’ perception of time and space.”
"But Benjamin was mentioned in the voyage diary. When my father met him, he felt that he had signed a contract with a certain existence, and maybe his abilities were enhanced. You should know this, right?"
Mariano was silent for a moment. This was not too long for her, but it was really a small thing. After all, the accordion player Kaka did not make things too difficult for them at the time, so she didn't pay too much attention.
"It is indeed possible to say so."
"Found it." Austin pointed to a line in the book and read, "After meeting the accordion player Kaka, the crew's concept of time changed slightly. In their consciousness, one hour is no longer sixty. The minutes seemed longer."
"This book was published in the last two years. It records the latest information about the ghost ship. When the author met Kaka, he should have signed a contract with the mysterious existence."
"If he wants to affect us, he shouldn't be too far away from us. I'll go look for him, but you should be careful."
"Well, you should be careful and try not to cause conflicts."
At this time, first mate Oliver and others just knocked on the door. Austin spread the book on the table and then opened the door.
"It's so strange. Where do these monsters come from?" As soon as he entered the door, Martin hammered the wall hard and cursed.
"Calm down first. The captain must have had something in mind when he called us here." Oliver patted Martin on the shoulder and looked at Austin, "right?"
Ma Fei also nodded and looked here together.
"I suspect that our concepts of time and space are distorted." Austin got straight to the point and directly stated his guess. "The route is indeed correct, but we set off for more than half a day, and we are now arriving at the Gargoyle Atoll."
"But you can always feel the change between day and night." Ma Fei couldn't figure it out. "According to the plan, if we really arrive at Gargoyle Atoll, we should have experienced one night."
"Illusion." Oliver rubbed the scar on his neck, "If it is a powerful enough mythical species, it can be done. After all, among the few of us, only the captain is the one favored by the gods, and the others are ordinary people."
"Actually, if you want to know if this is the case, it's very simple. Just check the remaining fuel. By the way, ask Dr. Henry how long he can last in the state he was in just now."
Ma Fei nodded and ran out of the captain's room consciously.
"One more question, why are those gargoyles attacking us? We are obviously still far away. Gargoyles have a weak endurance, and with their intelligence they should not do such a thankless thing. I haven't thought about this yet. Got it." Austin looked at the first mate and asked tentatively, "Oliver, do you have any clues?"
