CHAPTER 215: VARIED METHODS!

Beneath their feet, hammerhead sharks relentlessly rammed the ship’s hull.

Above their heads, thunderbirds streaked toward them. In an instant, they found themselves caught in a pincer attack.

For anyone else, this might have meant surrender.

But those gathered here were seasoned veterans, each with lightning-fast reflexes.

Having faced countless dangers big and small, their crisis responses had become muscle memory.

Almost simultaneously, they unleashed their aura, glowing like radiant orbs in the gloomy weather.

In moments of peril, the first priority was always the same: to activate their Aura!

In simpler terms, it was like entering a state of [Ten].

This served both to protect themselves and to minimize preparation time for any attacks.

"Golem! Weapons!"

"Miro, keep scanning for other threats!"

"The rest of you, arm yourselves immediately!"

As captain of the [Stonewall] mercenary unit, Muherr possessed exceptional crisis management skills.

In the blink of an eye, he’d assessed the situation and formulated countermeasures.

First, the sky—these thunderbirds’ nature was unknown, but their threat level was clearly high.

Watching his team arm themselves with Aura Weapons, Muherr shouted again.

"Start with ranged attacks from the Aura Weapons! Don’t let those birds near the ship!"

Avian creatures typically lacked strong defenses, but Muherr couldn’t be sure these thunderbirds followed that rule.

After all, they were no longer in the Six Continents’ territory.

And having just emerged from thunderclouds, formidable defenses couldn’t be ruled out.

Thus, Muherr ordered probing attacks, aiming primarily to keep the birds away from the vessel.

Under Muherr’s rapid commands, volleys of merciless flaming projectiles streaked towards the sky.

Against these thunderbirds, the Aura Weapons offered another advantage beyond range.

They didn’t require precise aiming!

The thunderbirds were massive, especially when spreading their wings mid-flight, each presenting an enormous target.

With twenty to thirty birds approaching, their collective wingspan blotted out a section of the sky.

Golem, a seasoned veteran of the battlefield, knew exactly which weapon would maximize lethality in the current situation.

So, Golem had everyone around him equip large rocket launchers—all they needed to do was fire into the sky.

Each shot could hit several Thunderbirds at once.

"Boom! Boom, boom..."

Amid the sounds of continuous firing, Muherr paid no attention to the others.

He still had to deal with the problem beneath the ship.

Muherr wasn’t just the captain of the [Stone Wall] unit—he was also the overall leader of the entire team.

In emergencies, it was usually his job to devise plans, making him the de facto strategist.

Of course, the final decision-making authority still lay with Akira and Beyond.

As long as they didn’t object, the plan could proceed.

*****

Meanwhile, Ging, Beyond, and Pariston stood side by side on the deck, each harboring different thoughts.

Ging was the most peculiar of the three, appearing utterly unfazed by the crisis at hand.

Despite facing multiple threats, he stood there casually eating an apple as if nothing were wrong.

The apple, incidentally, had been pulled from his cloth bag.

To an outsider, he might seem unreliable—someone not to be counted on.

But a closer look would reveal that Ging’s gaze was fixed on the Thunderbirds soaring through the sky.

Though his expression remained blank as he ate, his mind was already stirring with waves of curiosity.

Among the group, only Akira and Pariston understood that this wasn’t a sign of Ging being unreliable.

On the contrary, whenever Ging took out fruit to eat, it signaled a shift in his mood.

It could be interpreted as his way of preparing for battle—a quirk of the strong.

This habit often surfaced when his emotions were in flux.

It wasn’t hard to understand.

Some people rub their fingers when agitated, others bite their lips... Ging’s version was simply eating fruit.

If Ging’s mood was one of curiosity and excitement, Beyond’s was one of calm and gravity.

He never let his guard down in the face of any crisis—whether on the Dark Continent or even on the journey there.

A single lapse in vigilance would lead to only one outcome—Death!

Pariston, however, was even stranger.

He wasn’t as exhilarated as Ging, nor as solemn as Beyond.

Instead, he stood there like a detached observer, silently watching events unfold.

A cryptic smile played on his lips, leaving his true thoughts a mystery.

*****

Back to handling the underwater threat, Muherr paused briefly—this was the trickier part.

Relying solely on Usaman wouldn’t last long.

Every second spent protecting the ship consumed an enormous amount of aura.

So, they needed to deal with the fish below as quickly as possible.

Compared to the seabed, the enemies in the sky were easier to handle—they were simply more accessible targets.

The underwater foes were harder to strike. Fortunately, they had prepared for this scenario in advance.

"Lilith, inject poison into the water."

"Marione, use your ability to attack the fish below."

Muherr decided to proceed with the original contingency plan.

If it proved ineffective, they still had backup measures.

Lilith was the woman dressed entirely in pink—her hair, her clothes, everything about her was a rosy hue.

Upon receiving the order, Lilith swiftly moved to the ship’s edge, her jade-white hands instantly developing purplish-black patterns.

Her originally smooth and fair arms turned completely dark purple, as if dipped in a vat of paint, giving off an ominous premonition.

Under the influence of Lilith’s aura, the patterns seemed to come alive, writhing across her arms.

At the same time, droplets of dark purple liquid seeped out and fell into the seawater.

At first, nothing seemed unusual, but within moments, the rate at which the venom was released increased severalfold, as if sped up.

The deep blue seawater rapidly spread outward from where the venom landed, staining the surrounding area dark purple.

In an instant, the purplish-black venom had spread all around the ship, completely dyeing the water.

While the seawater merely changed color, the impact on the schools of hammerhead sharks was far more severe.

Within moments, several hammerhead sharks began rolling their eyes before losing consciousness entirely.

Then the corpses drifted away amidst the impact of their kind, with some unlucky ones even being torn apart.

This was an extremely toxic liquid!

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