Qianyuan: My crew comes from the world of anime.

However... please end this battle as soon as possible, because our situation is not optimistic either.

"..."

From the end of this message, one could hear faint cries, the crackling of flames, and a chaotic shouting.

No one has time to waste.

Levi turned on the radio and shouted, "I'll use tracer rounds to guide you. Follow the direction I fire and corner that beast!"

Tower: [Understood.]

Chapter 87 Sailing

The tracer rounds fired by the Nautilus's repeating guns became the only target of the automatic turret.

As the tracer rounds gradually shrank and even turned into a ball of light smaller than a firefly, the automatic turrets on Red Star Station opened fire.

boom--!

The deafening roar of artillery fire came from the gun emplacement. The 155mm howitzer emitted a deep and solemn sound. The shells traveled relatively slowly underwater, but their power was astonishing upon impact.

A huge orange flame shone underwater, and shrapnel scattered in all directions embedded itself in the 'Scarlet Queen's' body. The high-energy explosives exploded violently in an instant, creating a visible crater at the point of impact.

The people at Red Star Station could not observe this phenomenon, but the Nautilus could.

"?~!"

Levi whistled in a roguish way: "It's making me want to get a new weapon too."

Of course, she was just saying that.

It is important to know that underwater, the larger the caliber of a cannon, the greater the resistance when the projectile is launched.

In order to increase the range of the shell, a larger amount of explosive charge is necessary.

The Nautilus simply couldn't handle such a massive amount of explosives, not to mention the need to consider the submarine's balance... those super-large gun emplacements could only be installed at existing sites.

"..."

But at this moment, Levi didn't care about that—she treated the Red Star Station's artillery emplacements as if they were her own.

"Great, let's try again!"

She connected the fired tracer bullets into a guide line, and the automatic turret only needed to align the muzzle with the end of the line.

Another dull blast landed, this time the high-energy explosives detonated precisely on the Scarlet Queen's belly, and it was not in good condition to be hit head-on.

With the support of the station's firepower, the Nautilus successfully forced it into a pincer movement.

Behind it were rocks, and to its left was the depths of the ocean—if it wanted to escape this pincer movement as quickly as possible, it had to rush toward one of them.

"..."

This is not an option at all; the Scarlet Queen will naturally charge towards the Nautilus, which has weaker firepower.

But this is exactly the result they wanted:

"Perfect timing!"

With a roar, Levi released the safety on the [Anti-Ship Missile Stinger].

"..."

Luo Tianming just heard the sound of the missile silo cover being opened, so it seems that Levi and the others have already moved on to the final part of the operation.

We need to speed things up on our end too...

Luo Tianming walked through knee-deep water—the most troublesome part of a submarine should it be infiltrated: sometimes you have to face sudden attacks from hostile creatures in a flooded environment with the risk of electrical leakage.

Especially when they have an advantage in water.

wow~

The shotgun was immediately aimed at the spot where the water was splashing.

Snap—Bang!

The explosive grenade released billowing water vapor, completely pulverizing the creature lurking underwater.

Splash splash~

Two more splashes of water were heard, and Luo Tianming frowned: 'Would so many algae invade at once?'

He felt something was off.

So this time he didn't fire again but ran quickly, and there happened to be a gangway in front of him.

"...!"

Luo Tianming easily jumped up, carrying the shotgun on his back and quickly climbing to the next level using both hands and feet.

The algae climbers only have one pair of climbing appendages, so their agility in the air is naturally not as good as Luo Tianming's.

They let out two helpless roars from below, then circled around the ladder and left.

"..."

This struck Luo Tianming as incredible, since there is usually only one factor that would cause algae to give up attacking humans.

That is 'cannibalism'

"!"

Luo Tianming suddenly looked in the direction the algae had crawled away:

He slowly jumped down the gangway, made sure those guys hadn't come back... and then quietly followed them.

Luo Tianming followed the water trail all the way to the vicinity of the left ballast tank.

If he remembered correctly, this should be the place where he was first 'hit'...

When he looked inside through the ballast tank door, Luo Tianming was shocked.

Several... at least eight algae crawlers were circling inside, making sounds as they gnawed on the corpse.

"...!"

No wonder there were always so many algae crawling around inside, no matter how many Levi and he cleaned them out.

While the monsters were enjoying their meal, Luo Tianming carefully observed them:

The algae crawling, which was feeding on the corpses, didn't notice him at all. There was a large hole in the side of the ballast tank... But when he saw the corpses that the algae crawling were eating, he was stunned.

That was a giant, skinless, algae-covered arm... the offspring of the 'Scarlet Queen'!

When it crashed into the submarine, it stretched its arm into the ballast tank, but Luo Tianming twisted it off while maneuvering the submarine.

The remaining arm became bait, constantly attracting algae to crawl in; the algae were so focused on feeding that they didn't even react to the sound of Luo Tianming cocking his shotgun behind him.

The body of that giant offspring must contain some kind of pheromone obtained from the Empress... No wonder the Empress has so many 'honor guards'; they were all attracted by the pheromones emitted after the mutation.

The Scarlet Queen uses this method to prey on her own kind.

"..."

Having figured this out, Luo Tianming immediately pulled the trigger on his explosive shotgun.

boom--!

The shotgun shells shattered all the algae crawlers in the ballast tank into a pile of mud. Still not satisfied, Luo Tianming shot his offspring's arm again and then sealed off the corridor near the ballast tank.

He pressed the communicator and said, "Gentlemen, I have resolved the internal issues."

At the same time that Luo Tianming sent the message, a fierce battle broke out on the bridge.

Every single Stinger anti-ship missile launched by Levi struck the Scarlet Queen with pinpoint accuracy.

Just like last time, the missile penetrated its body and then detonated!

The spectacular explosion, like a fireworks display, inflicted almost fatal damage on it once again.

At that moment, no one noticed that a tiny, almost invisible shell was fired at the Scarlet Queen, bearing a biohazard warning symbol specially made by Takemi Tae.

The hollow shell shattered immediately after penetrating the body... The original toxins entered the bloodstream and quietly altered the nerve structures that had been contaminated.

"..."

"It should have hit, right? It would be too much if it missed at such close range," Levi said uncertainly.

Wu Jianmiao nodded and said, "It's a success! Look—!"

She pointed to a small patch on the Queen's right chest, a sign that the toxin was beginning to take effect.

However, they didn't have much time left to be stunned.

The Scarlet Queen continued to repair her wounds at a visible speed, but when her repair speed couldn't keep up, she suddenly opened her blood-red maw... and a strange scarlet substance began to flow out.

Then, the nearby algae and crawling mothers seemed to have caught a whiff of something and began swimming frantically toward the Queen.

He then began to 'sacrifice' his own body to help the Queen recover from her injuries.

This scene completely terrified Revy and Takemi Tae, who were watching from the bridge.

Revy: "Does it have to be this shameless?!"

"It's normal for the BOSS to enter 'phase two'."

"?!"

Upon hearing the voice that suddenly rang in their ears, Levi and Takemi both turned around to look at Luo Tianming, who had appeared on the bridge.

"captain!!"

"...Alo, what do we do with this thing?" Levi pointed at the Empress on the screen, who was rapidly recovering.

"Or we could just let it go."

Luo Tianming shook his head: "No."

Revy: "But...we've already done nothing, haven't we? That thing will recover soon."

Luo Tianming calmly pointed at the Scarlet Queen and said, "No, didn't you notice that the faster it recovers, the faster that patch grows?"

After he said that, everyone re-observed and discovered:

It started as a patch only a few meters in size, but now it has gradually spread to the right chest area.

Luo Tianming said to Wu Jianmiao, "Your medicine can greatly suppress its self-healing ability, right?"

Takemi: "...That's right, but it's because its own nerves are competing with its body for nutrients to fatten itself up, thereby reducing its self-healing ability."

"But if this external nutrition is continuously supplied, it can probably survive for a long time even after it escapes."

“Then there’s no problem,” Luo Tianming confirmed. “We just need to inflict one more fatal blow on it, and we’ll be guaranteed victory!”

"And coincidentally, such 'weapons' still exist on our ship."

"?"

……

Strangely, this time Her Majesty felt that no matter how much she ate, she would never feel full. Her stomach, which would normally be full long ago, now felt like a bottomless pit.

In addition, a strange sensation came from its right chest.

"...?"

It was a throbbing sensation as if another heart had appeared in its chest... It tried to control its heartbeat, but it couldn't control it at all; it was as if its own body had betrayed it.

Of course, it has no time to deal with that side right now.

Because—that iron-hulled vessel is already charging towards being itself!

Levi cowered under the weapons control panel in fear, while Takemi Takagi resigned herself to her fate, strapped into her seatbelt. Even Lucy in the engine room looked dumbfounded.

With a wicked grin, Luo Tianming pushed the rudder all the way to the bottom, and the Nautilus burst into its maximum speed...

"Your idea... is for us to commit suicide by crashing into it?!" Revey roared furiously.

"..."

Luo Tianming was currently immersed in a state of madness: "Of course not."

"Everyone! Prepare for impact!"

"three,"

"two,"