Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 184 The rapidly deteriorating situation

Is there something wrong with the murloc's corpse?

Chloe blinked and looked at the fishman. It had a swollen, white body covered with a layer of fine scales. Its body was bloated, but its limbs were disproportionately thin.

"What do you mean?"

"Do you remember the details Erwin described? The murloc saw their arrows and dodged to the side, but their arrows were too fast and it was a surprise attack, so they only managed to hit him."

Chloe tilted her head, not realizing anything was wrong. Wasn't it normal to avoid danger?

"But merfolk live in the sea. I even asked the banshees, and they said there are no bows and arrows in the sea."

Chloe's eyes slowly widened. "Are you saying they've already interacted with humans?"

"Yes. The design and structure of a bow and arrow make it difficult to associate it with a long-range weapon when you first see it. The murloc must have seen this thing somewhere. Pirates generally don't use bows and arrows. They are difficult to preserve at sea and are generally only found on land."

Hughes unfolded a sea chart.

"The Empire has never had any information about contact with the merfolk. The White Crow Principality's seaport in the north is also under the Empire's control. The fact that they have come into contact with bows and arrows indicates that the merfolk have at least engaged in serious battles on land. If we exclude the Empire..."

Chloe's eyes followed Hughes' finger as it moved slowly across the map, finally landing on the lower right corner.

"The Martha Islands, also known as Gem Bay, have many large islands there, and bows and arrows are also used. Perhaps the connection between the merfolk and pirates is deeper than we thought."

"You mean they might be in league with the pirates?"

"That's one explanation, but why would the pirates attack us? We can provide them with valuable explosives production capacity. If the pirate king had any sense, he wouldn't attack us."

Zeus frowned. This was the biggest question now. What happened to the pirates? Why did they disappear without a sound?
Although Castel is remote, there are occasionally passing ships on the Storm Ocean, but recently all of them have disappeared.

It was as if the entire Castel was moved to another world, isolated from everything in the outside world.

"Anyway, let's dissect that body and see what we can find. Do you know how to do an autopsy?"

Chloe nodded: "I am a nun after all, and I know a little about medicine. Leave it to me."

Xius looked into her orange-red eyes and nodded.

What happened next was beyond everyone's expectations.

A lot of murlocs appeared on the beach one after another. Three patrol teams encountered murlocs in a row. The first two were lone murlocs, while the third one was a whole team of murlocs, more than a dozen in total.

After the patrols raised the alarm, the Banshee quickly arrived at the scene, but someone was still injured.

The soldiers were equipped with half-body armor, which provided good protection without affecting mobility. The one who injured him was a member of the murloc squad. The two sides encountered each other suddenly, and both sides were stunned for a moment before fighting immediately began.

There were twice as many murlocs as humans, and their bodies were larger than humans, but they were not fast. The patrol team withdrew after a brief exchange of blows, and even had time to rescue their injured comrades.

The injured soldier was named Zorro. Zeus went to visit him in person. His ribs were pierced by the fishman's trident. The half-armor helped him block most of the damage, but a big cut was still left in the gap between the iron sheets.

Fortunately, the wound is not deep and should be fine after a period of recuperation.

The news quickly spread throughout the island. The banshees were transferred there urgently and did not have time to hide their bodies. Many islanders saw them.

This exposure was somewhat unexpected. Zeus did not have time to arrange people to do publicity and public opinion building in advance, but unexpectedly, the islanders seemed to accept the banshees very quickly.

The island was not big, and many people knew the injured Zorro. Zorro's life was saved by the banshees, and this matter was soon spread by his friends and neighbors to the whole island.

The banshees are responsible for rescuing the patrol team when they encounter trouble. Knowing this, people became more grateful to the banshees, as they never knew when they would be in danger and need the banshees' help.

Therefore, although Zeus did not assign special personnel to promote the development of public opinion, the islanders still recognized the existence of the banshee. There were even many fanatical believers of the banshee who believed that the banshee was Caster's savior and actively publicized the banshee's past deeds.

This was somewhat beyond Zeus's expectations, but he soon did not have enough time to worry about it. There were not only mermen on the beach, but some people also witnessed sea urchin monsters surfacing.

Although it was just a glimpse from afar, it sounded the alarm for Zeus. The construction of the fortress on the island had not even started. If the sea urchin monster really came up and rampaged, it would be difficult to stop it.

"There is no time to hesitate. We may have to give up the outer beaches and focus on protecting the core area of the island." Hughes paced quickly and said to Alexei beside him.

Alexei's face looked very bad. When they gathered together to discuss yesterday, they had not expected that the situation would deteriorate so quickly. Now it seemed that a full-scale war was just around the corner, but the construction of the first batch of bunkers had just begun.

"How long will it take to complete?"

"If we let the engineering team do the work, it will take at least five days. Any shorter time won't even allow the cement to dry. If the Banshee can assist, we should be able to shorten the time further." Alexei said after thinking for a while.

Cement needs time to solidify, but turning fossils into mud takes almost no time. If the banshees can finish the foundation of the bottom layer and their engineering team is responsible for the construction of the upper part, the time spent waiting for the cement to solidify can be reduced.

Upon hearing this, Xiu Si opened a mind link: "Oona, now you know the current situation, what's the progress of the construction on your side?"

"My Lord, the construction of the central furnace is complete. If we abandon the outer beaches, then our construction is almost complete."

The Banshees originally had a lot of work to do, but it was mainly concentrated on the Webway project. In the original plan, all the outer fortifications had to be interconnected. If the beach was abandoned, most of the Webway construction could be stopped, and they could now mobilize manpower to support the ground.

"Then you should come up and cooperate with the engineering team. We must complete the first batch of fortifications as soon as possible."

"Ah, are we, are we going to appear directly on the ground?" Una's voice became obviously nervous.

(End of this chapter)