Gourmet Hunter - Chapter 503 (Patreon)

Chapter 503: Mermaids?

Using their exceptional eyesight, Luo and Biscuit quickly grasped the true nature of the fleet. They exchanged a glance, both seeing the waves of astonishment in each other's eyes.

There were thirteen ships in total, with a loose formation. These were not human ships, but insect ships.

As the name suggests, these sea vessels were covered with countless wriggling insects. The coverage was so complete that it was impossible to tell if the insects were attached to the ships or if they alone formed the ship shapes.

Tonpa, unlike the two, couldn't see clearly and was excited, thinking they had encountered a human fleet.

"Should we avoid them?" Biscuit asked.

From a distance, there was no sign of any threat from the insect ships. With the damage to the Lorry, its balance greatly compromised, it wasn't suitable to recklessly approach these unknown insect ships.

Luo thought for a moment and said, "I'll go investigate. If there's any danger, I'll avoid it immediately."

With high skill and courage, Luo stepped off the railing and walked through the air towards the distant fleet.

Watching Luo walking swiftly in the air, Biscuit couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

As long as one mastered the Emission category, this could be achieved, but she couldn't do it as smoothly and freely as Luo.

Luo soon approached the fleet and saw the insect ships up close.

Various soft-bodied creatures, in pale red, clustered and wriggled together in jar shapes, flat shapes, stripe shapes, and star shapes...

The variety was extensive, and the density was astonishing.

Luo hovered in mid-air, observing the insect ships from above.

Just then, a jar-shaped insect swelled up and sprayed gray liquid at him.

Luo's eyes narrowed, deftly dodging the spray, raising his hand to control a stream of gray liquid from a distance, and retreated to a safe distance.

The gray liquid stopped a few centimeters in front of his palm and began to change rapidly, transforming from liquid to solid as if it were liquid cement.

"Oh?"

Luo chuckled in surprise.

He had been worried about finding material to repair the Lorry, but here it was, delivered to him.

He retreated, maintaining his distance, while the insect ships, seemingly highly aggressive, pursued him, with various soft-bodied creatures on the ships continually spraying different colored liquids at him.

Gray, pale red, dark green, light blue...

The colorful sprays in the air were all dodged by Luo.

"Not much of a threat."

Luo glanced back at the Lorry.

Among the many sprays, only the gray liquid solidified and was hard enough.

Thinking of this, Luo dodged the sprays while collecting the gray liquid with his domain, using it as repair material for the ship.

In no time, Luo had gathered a considerable amount of material, then instantly distanced himself and returned to the Lorry, placing the large gray ball on the deck.

Biscuit understood Luo's actions immediately.

Tonpa, still in shock, now saw the true nature of the insect ships and lamented the bizarre encounters that had overturned his understanding.

"They're coming."

Biscuit, seeing the insect fleet speeding up, reminded.

Luo looked over and said, "They seem to hold a grudge. Have Black Cat control the ship to avoid them for now. I'll go deal with them."

Without waiting for a reply, Luo flew back into the air, heading towards the insect fleet.

Biscuit glanced at the still-shocked Tonpa and hurried to the captain's room to relay Luo's orders to Black Cat.

Meanwhile, Luo hovered above the nearest insect ship, raising his hands to form an Aura Slash, aiming it at the ship's belly.

As soon as the Aura Slash left Luo's hands, the insect ship reacted violently, as if highly sensitive to Nen, with the whole ship shaking.

However, the Aura Slash was swift, directly slicing through the middle of the insect ship, cutting it in half.

To Luo's surprise, the ship, split in two, revealed a decayed structure but did not sink.

"Is it a swarm of insects attached to a ship?"

Seeing the ship not sinking and still sailing, Luo frowned.

The countless sea insects seemed to use a human shipwreck as a nest, clinging to it but not relying on it, instead supporting it.

From this, their motive was incomprehensible, and Luo's plan to destroy the ships in one strike was foiled.

Although sinking thirteen insect ships wasn't too difficult, his Nen, which had just recovered, would be depleted again.

While Luo pondered his next move, the insect fleet suddenly emitted an ear-piercing screech.

Luo's brain was suddenly struck with pain, his open aura nodes involuntarily opening and closing. The Nen flowing around him flickered, making it impossible to maintain a steady output. He staggered, falling towards the sea like a crashing plane.

Not far away, Biscuit and Tonpa's faces changed. They also heard the screech, feeling extremely uncomfortable, but possibly due to the distance, they didn't react as strongly as Luo.

The screech came suddenly and caused significant impact.

Caught off guard, Luo remained calm.

He tore a piece of cloth from his clothes, using it as earplugs.

The screech diminished, the pain persisted, but his aura nodes were no longer out of control.

Luo steadied himself, kicked the sea surface, and with a burst of Nen, blasted the water away, rising into the air.

Looking down, he saw many fish with white bellies floating on the surface. Soft-bodied tentacles as thick as baby arms emerged from under the insect ships, pulling the fish back.

At that moment, Luo realized he had greatly underestimated the strangeness of the insect ships. The long-range sprays were likely just probing attacks.

As he thought this, a new situation unfolded.

He watched as the insect ship, cut in half, slowly reattached, as if some soft-bodied insects acted as adhesive.

Meanwhile, unidentified creatures, somewhat human-like, emerged from the ship's worm-filled cabin.

These creatures were human-sized, with writhing soft-bodied worms covering their heads like Medusa's snakes, colorful shell-like objects stuck to their faces, white eyes without pupils, no noses, but with mouths.

Their upper bodies were bare, with two high protrusions, colorful shells stuck to their sides, and their lower bodies were purely sea anemones made up of countless soft tentacles.

They were neither human nor not, moving from the cabin with wriggling sea anemone bodies, opening their mouths to reveal rows of sharp teeth.

The screeching sound came from them.

Luo looked at these creatures, slightly astonished.

Could these be the mermaids of the dark sea?

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