< We cannot ignore the possibility that our assault is in jeopardy >
< Time is ticking >
Nav’s message kickstarted the chaos that quickly engulfed the deck of the 100-meter-long cargo ship. All hands latched onto a solid surface as the ship rocked in its rapidly filling dry dock.
The colossal gates bulged as the ship rammed against it. A valve had been opened to allow the water of the subterranean river to begin pushing the ship forward.
However, the rate was far too slow to propel them past the gate.
The drydock gates functioned similarly to a spring-loaded gate, requiring the ship and the water flow to exceed a threshold before it could swing open. Furthermore, there was not enough water in the channel past the drydock for the ship to feasibly join the river.
“Estimated time for it to fill?” Frost asked the sheep-girl Captain with urgency.
“T-Two hours!”
“Not enough time, even if we take into account the time dilation. We’re better off breaking down the walls.” Frost suggested, causing the Captain to shake her head timidly, not wanting to completely shoot her suggestion down. “Why not?”
“W-We don’t have enough manpower to manipulate the axis of the ship if we release the floodgates, so to speak.” A fox-girl wearing an eyepatch spoke on behalf of the Captain.
This woman was appointed to be the Captain’s First Mate. Frost didn’t know if they knew each other, let alone how experienced they were as sailors. But considering they were the only ones confident enough to declare themselves worthy to man the ship, Frost had no choice but to believe them.
Besides, her feathers rustled when they claimed they were highly experienced.
“There aren’t enough people fit enough to help! Too many children and mages. Grr! At best we have enough on board for precise azimuth orientation, or our bearing!”
“You have me!” Frost reminded them.
The two never considered that their savior would volunteer to help. It wasn’t normal, but they didn’t complain. The urgency in Frost’s voice was all the more reason for them to not ask any questions.
“Tell me what you need, and I’ll get it done! It’s important that we leave right now!”
“Our ropes are frayed.” The red-haired fox-girl quickly explained, pointing at multiple coils of rope on either side of the ship. “It doesn’t matter since you’d have sails or a way to engage the ship’s surge in calmer waters, but here it’s completely reliant on the flow. So our only two methods of movement is the wheel and stabilizer fins to control our bearing.”
“T-The problem is that those stabilizer fins use those ropes! They’ll snap i-if we let the water loose!”
“All we need to do is replace it?” Frost asked.
“Exactly. It’s straight forward as long as you can swim.”
“I-It’s the only way. But there are two sets of stabilizer fins on each side! The first is to precisely control our bearing, and the second i-is for major maneuvers and stability! This s-ship has nothing else t-to support it, so i-if it’s possible… then you might be able to manually control them both!” The Captain did not question whether if Frost could do it or not, for she had seen the strength of the Hired Arm. “N-Not that you have to… B-But it’ll be the only way!”
Frost noticed white markings on the timber deck.
They were used as a guideline for how much a team was supposed to pull on the rope as directed by the First Mate. Except the problem was that they were written in a language Frost couldn’t understand, and she was not familiar with these nautical terms, nor bearings.
“I’ll fix it immediately. Just tell me what to do.” Frost quickly leaped from the boat and dove into the water.
As the Captain said, there were two sets of stabilizer fins that needed to have their ropes replaced. Out of everything wrong and outdated with the ship, everything including the stabilizer fins and its chassis were built to withstand the ruthless nature of the sea.
All save for rope, which was surprisingly the most expensive part of any ship if one sought for higher quality rope. She replaced the rope with her steel strands, not understanding why or how – just merely replacing what she could find.
At the same time, she wrapped the ship with silver strings as her hands erupted with superheated steam. Before long, the ship had become a ghost ship draped with haunting bandages and webs, all for the sake of reinforcing their defenses.
Once she returned to the deck, the First Mate shouted at the top of her lungs:
“EVERYONE! BRACE YOURSELF!”
The warning was parroted around until everyone was secured in place.
“HOLD ON TO SOMETHING!”
“GET INSIDE OF THE SHIP OR YOU’LL BE THROWN OVERBOARD!”
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A few dozen remained on the deck and split themselves into two teams to the ropes at the bowside of the ship (forward/front). Meanwhile, Frost was single-handedly responsible for both ropes at the aft (stern/back).
“Secure the port (left) and starboard (right) stabilizers! Point the bow as straight as you can! Use the tunnel as our north!”
Once they were prepared, Frost took aim at the walls with De Jure and her Hired Arm. A hail of bullets rained down upon the walls as water sprayed from each wound until large fissures appeared.
Then, with a great roar, the walls gave in.
Water instantly invaded the cave system, flooding it in seconds. White foam rained over the deck as a tremendous tidal wave shoved them forward, finally breaking them free from the gates as they were carried above the channel.
The entire cave became a river, and the Sheep-girl Captain steered with all her might as the fox-girl – who acted as the Captain’s First Mate – shouted out commands to experienced crewmembers, who tugged on steel ropes to further control their descent into the Underflow. Among those who helped pull were Deiman, Autumn and Mae. The Hired Arm moved between the deck and into the ship to heal anyone she could, whilst Frost kept the Ankou’s head latched against her hip like a flask.
So long as there was contact between her and the head, then he could never die.
Frost took a coil of thick, steel rope in each hand, stabilizing the ship better than any machine or crew could ever dream to achieve.
“High heaves ahead! Brace yourselves!” The First Mate warned as the ship lifted upwards suddenly, causing many to lose their footing before the ship came crashing down.
They rushed down the cavern at a steep angle, riding the flooding waves at a breakneck pace. Frost did not use the Isolation Sphere here, thankfully.
The waves consumed everything in its path including the river as the cavern began to open. It grew to around 50 meters wide, and over a hundred meters high. Colossal chains littered the tunnel, requiring them to make immediate adjustments to avoid being split into two by them.
“Heavy sway to the portside! Miss Hero! Pull to the right! Crew – Portside 345 degrees!”
Frost greatly appreciated that she simplified her language for her.
A mechanical gauge was built in the deck simply out of gears and woodwork. It precisely showed them how much they needed to pull and slack to meet the First Mate’s commands. It was the only visual Frost relied on, because had she tried to manipulate the ship herself – then they most certainly would have already crashed.
And this was with her ability to see seconds into the future.
“Dead ahead! Set course for the next five hundred meters! Beware of small rocks abaft the port beam!”
The First Mate was able to measure distances accurately lacking any sense of depth perception. Now that Frost had a chance to look at her closely, she saw a small, faint purple glow in her eye, no doubt which allowed her to make such measurements.
There’s a lot of stuff I still don’t know about this world. I never considered that the nautical side of Elysia would be this complicated. I blame everyone who told me that the seas are too dangerous to explore.
< You do realize that there are oceans that separate the landmasses? >
I know that, but it still feels so alien to me. Eventually we’ll be out travelling on the seas if we ever wanted to reach the Expanse, huh?
< I suggest you focus on surviving this ordeal first before you start dreaming big >
< But I agree with you >
Thanks Nav~
“Beware of stalagmites on the starboard bow! Adjust sway to the port by fifteen meters! Miss Hero! That means pull on the left as much as you can until I tell you to let go!”
Frost did exactly as she said, bringing the ship laterally closer to the left to avoid a field of razor-sharp stalagmites. Due to the angle of where Frost stood, she could not make these calls for them.
But thanks to the skill of the Captain and the First Mate, her eyes were not needed at all. However, there was something Frost noticed that the others did not.
“Captain!” Frost shouted. “There’s a turn up ahead! How are we going to pass it!?”
“How steep is the turn!?” The First Mate cried.
“I can’t see where it leads it to! But it’s heading to the left!”
“That’s good enough for us! Miss Hero – Pull us to the right until we’re flush with the wall! EVERYONE ELSE – KEEP IT STEADY! Captain… this is all up to you now! We can’t slow down our speed because we’re riding the flow!”
The First Mate became uncertain all of a sudden, not knowing if it would be possible for a hundred-meter-long ship to maneuver through the sudden turn without causing the ship to split in half.
“I-It’s ok! I got this!” The sheep-girl announced. “J-Just trust me! T-Tell Miss H-Hero to slack the left!”
“Slack to the left…?” The First Mate trailed off with an air of concern.
Suddenly, her face lit up when she realized what the Captain intended to do.
“Miss Hero! Slack to the left! Pull as hard you can to the right! EVERYONE – HARD TO PORT! ALL HANDS ON THE PORT SIDE!”
“PUUUUULLLLLL YOU WEAKLINGS!” Mae roared alongside her.
Frost had no idea what was going on, but she left it all into their hands. The front side of the ship gravitated towards the center. Eventually, the ship was moving at an angle where both ends of the ship nearly touched the walls.
Then, as they reached the gradual turn in the cavern, the captain threw the wheel to the left until she could no more. She held it down with everything she had as the ship began to drift around the twisting corridor.
The ship rattled. The stabilizer fins were on the verge of failure. But they pressed on, threading the needle as they spiraled down for the next few hundred meters, maintaining the drift. Everyone within the ship was glued to the side of the wall. It felt like at any moment the ship would roll on its side.
All stalagmites and rock formations were shot down by the Hired Arm, clearing the way until they felt the salty breeze of the outside world. However, this did not make sense.
They had gone further underground. The light of day was nowhere to be found, and yet, a blinding light painted the walls ahead as they finally entered an azure expanse. A subterranean ocean so vast that Frost could not even see the end due to the misty atmosphere revealed itself.
The sheer height from ceiling to the waters was at least five hundred meters.
“Just… how fucking deep are we now…?” Frost was at a loss for words as sunlight peered through the holes above, casting rays into the heart of the Underflow.
Islands existed here, each with subterranean critters like individual terrariums. An ominous blue bioluminescent glow was emitted by the moss, vegetation and the animals that thrived in the Underflow.
The waters were crystal clear and not a single white foam could be seen, aside from the entrances where water was deposited. And yet, they moved far faster on these waters. An invisible current surged them forward at a breakneck pace.
It was beautiful.
Frost was far too engrossed by the newfound world to celebrate with the others, as the Captain was hugged and spun around by the fox-girl.
“YOU’RE ONE CRAZY SHEEP!” She cried ecstatically.
“A-Ahaha… I’m used to these maneuvers…” The sheep girl knocked on the side of her temple and stuck her tongue out. “But we should be thanking Miss Hero for her strength!”
“It’s fine. We’re not out of the clear yet.” Frost said, but still expressed her thanks for their sentiment. “Bring out the injured. We’ll quickly tend to them.”
She nodded at the Hired Arm, who saluted back in affirmation.
“And get ready to turn on the Isolation Sphere. It’ll now be full speed ahead to the Capital.”