Chapter 44 Sparring

Under the deafening roar of the large gongs, the Jhen Mohran, currently executing a high-speed sharp turn, shuddered violently. Its center of gravity shifted, causing it to lose its balance. It rolled over several times across the sandy expanse before barely managing to recover its normal swimming posture.

When a human runs and falls, tumbling a few times on the ground generally results in no serious harm. However, the astonishing size and weight of the Jhen Mohran made it entirely different; the damage inflicted upon it by this tumbling fall was by no means less than the impact of the earlier mega barrel bombs.

The towering rock-armor along its spine had shattered and crumbled even further. This battered and bruised appearance sparked bursts of cheers from the people aboard the Dragon-Hunts Ship and the surrounding small sandships.

"Guildmaster! Shall we issue the boarding order?" a hunter asked excitedly, lowering his massive hammer.

"Hold on for now!"

The fleet leader did not let down his guard simply because the Jhen Mohran had fallen. He knew that having suffered such a heavy blow, the beast's fury would only burn hotter.

If they rashly initiated a boarding maneuver now, the hunters would find themselves facing the direct wrath of this super-giant Elder Dragon. They had to let it vent its fury for a while; only after it grew fatigued and calmed down would they assess the situation.

Furthermore, during the previous high-speed swim and the tumbling fall, the vast majority of the bolt-arrows that had been firmly fixed to the Jhen Mohran's body had fallen off. To successfully board the creature, they needed to create more footholds.

"Cannons and ballistas, fire! At the same time, instruct the sandships to launch as many bolt-arrows as possible. Don't worry about attacking its wounds; creating footholds is the key!" the fleet leader shouted, issuing his commands.

Receiving the signal, the sandships closed in, surrounding the Jhen Mohran and continuously operating their ballistas to fire bolt-arrows.

"Let's get a bit closer! That way, the bolts can sink in deeper!"

"You got it!"

A pair of rather reckless hunter and helmsman partners maneuvered their small sandship to within thirty meters of the Jhen Mohran's flank.

This position was, in truth, barely considered safe, as the Jhen Mohran's pectoral fins were relatively short and could not yet reach them.

However, to their utter surprise, the seemingly battered Jhen Mohran still retained a remarkably ample amount of stamina.

Noticing enemies approaching within range, the furious Jhen Mohran whipped its body around. Its gigantic tail—capable of propelling its multi-ton massive physique through the sea of sand—swept horizontally across.

From the perspective of those two individuals, it looked less like a tail and more like a collapsing city wall rushing toward them.

It was already too late for them to increase the distance, and the surrounding ships had no way to rescue them. They could only watch helplessly as their vessel was smashed to smithereens by the Jhen Mohran's colossal tail.

Amidst the billowing dust and sand, traces of blood could faintly be seen staining that giant tail.

The small sandships surrounding the Jhen Mohran hurriedly widened their distance, terrified of becoming the next victims.

As for Arthur and his companions, they broke out in a cold sweat. Just moments earlier, the three of them had been planning to follow along and close in as well...

The battle had progressed to this point, and while the Jhen Mohran had constantly been on the losing end, that did not mean this behemoth was easy to deal with.

Should the fleet leader make a single tactical error, the entire sandship fleet could be instantly devastated. Yet the reason the fleet leader could make correct decisions time and time again was built upon the hard-earned experience summarized from the sacrifices of countless predecessors.

An Elder Dragon was, after all, an Elder Dragon. Carelessness could cost them their lives at any moment.

Having heightened their vigilance, the small sandships scattered outward, keeping a distance of over fifty meters. At this range, the bolts fired by the ballistas could still maintain a remarkably respectable penetrating power, while eliminating any concern of being struck by the Jhen Mohran's swinging tusks and tail.

Consequently, the Jhen Mohran changed its strategy. With a shudder of its massive torso, five or six clusters of sand and rock were ejected from the breathing vents on its back high into the air, before descending and raining down haphazardly upon the surrounding fleet.

The frequency of this attack was extremely high; almost every few seconds, a barrage of sand-clusters would fall.

Such attacks meant little to the dreadnought Jhen Mohran-maru, but they were more than enough to capsize the lightweight small sandships.

The pilots no longer had the luxury of searching for ideal attack angles. With their nerves taut to the breaking point, they had to manipulate their sails and rudders while keeping a sharp eye on the sky, terrified of being struck by a falling cluster of sand.

Yet mistakes were bound to happen. After several waves of attacks, an unlucky sandship abruptly veered to dodge a sand-cluster, but before it could right its hull, it was struck square-on by another mass of earth and sand.

The bow of the ship was instantly shattered, and the entire vessel flipped forward.

Two other sandships, overly focused on evading the falling debris, clipped one another and capsized together. Fortunately, the hull damage was not severe, and after making adjustments, they were able to return to the combat.

Realizing that this counterattack method was effective, the Jhen Mohran further accelerated the speed of its sand-spitting attacks, throwing the fleet into utter chaos.

Aboard the Dragon-Hunts Ship, the fleet leader watched this unfold with a darkened expression. He desperately wanted to order the sandships to fall back and minimize casualties, but the tasks of creating footholds and draining the Jhen Mohran's stamina were absolute necessities.

After a brief moment of reflection, he issued a new command: "Order all ships to adopt Formation Four: sail clockwise around the Jhen Mohran while maintaining distance from one another to avoid chaotic collisions.

"Cannons, aim for the head and fire at full speed! Try to goad the Jhen Mohran into moving again to further deplete its stamina!"

Under the fleet leader's direction, the fleet of small sandships finally regained its order. Volley after volley of bolt-arrows embedded themselves once more into the Jhen Mohran's body, establishing new footholds.

During this process, sandships were occasionally overturned by falling sand-clusters. From the outbreak of the battle until now, the number of small sandships had dwindled by nearly a third.

Seeing that the quantity of bolt-arrows stuck in the Jhen Mohran was now sufficient, the fleet leader immediately ordered the small sandships to withdraw. Meanwhile, the Dragon-Hunts Ship—which had spent a long time acting as a mobile artillery platform in the distance—accelerated once again, moving alongside the Jhen Mohran to travel abreast of it.

True to expectation, the Jhen Mohran's attention shifted away from the scattering small sandships and locked onto this "ringleader" beside it.

It let out a low roar as it closed in on the Dragon-Hunts Ship, preparing to crush this adversary through sheer ramming force.

The more colossal a monster's physique, the simpler and more direct its methods of attack tended to be. Its terrifying weight of over ten thousand tons was its most formidable weapon.

Seeing this, the fleet leader decisively instructed the helmsman to widen the distance slightly—not by too much, but keeping it at that delicate margin where the Jhen Mohran felt that with just a little more effort it could make impact, yet always falling just a fraction short.

The two entities traveling side by side began to circle one another in the boundless sea of sand, resembling a deadly dance.

The cannons kept firing incessantly while the Dragon-Hunts Ship maintained its high speed. If the Jhen Mohran wanted to ram it, it had to endure the ongoing attacks while expending immense stamina just to sustain its high velocity.

After several failed attempts, the Jhen Mohran gave up, the blazing fire of rage in its heart largely worn away by the ordeal.

It was tired.

The Jhen Mohran began to decelerate, abandoning the pursuit of an opponent it could never quite catch.

Thus, the Jhen Mohran-maru also began to slow down, maintaining its parallel alignment while ceasing fire, clinging to the Jhen Mohran's flank like a harmless plaster.

The two simply traveled side by side at a leisurely, unhurried pace.

Suddenly, the Jhen Mohran jerked its head, attempting to strike the Dragon-Hunts Ship with its massive tusks, only to be nimbly evaded by the perpetually vigilant vessel.

After several repetitions of this, the Jhen Mohran finally ceased its attacks altogether, swimming slowly through the sand sea to recover its stamina.

Observing this, the fleet leader had the ballistas reloaded with binding restraint-ammo and fired. Ropes locked the Dragon-Hunts Ship and the Jhen Mohran together. The beast wobbled its body slightly but showed no further reaction.

This brought a sense of relief to the fleet leader. "The grinding phase is nearly complete. Prepare for the second boarding operation. If all goes smoothly, we will repel it in this single wave."

The signal was relayed via the blare of horns. The small sandships scattered across the perimeter converged once more, and the Dragon-Hunts Ship tightened its ropes, slowly drawing closer to the Jhen Mohran.

The boarding operation proceeded in an orderly fashion. Hunters traversed the binding ropes to reach the Jhen Mohran's body, scaling rapidly upward by clinging to the embedded bolt-arrows.

Perhaps due to the experience gained from their previous attempt, Orong's ascent was considerably faster this time around.

He intended to return and hack away at his previous target—the secretory gland—as there were still plenty of mineral deposits left clinging to it that had not been knocked loose.

Yet, upon reaching the Jhen Mohran's back, he discovered that the secretory gland, along with a massive slab of back-armor, had entirely vanished, blown away by barrel bombs or ripped off during the earlier tumble.

This discovery left him momentarily bewildered. Just as he was contemplating whether he should seek out another secretory gland to continue "mining,"

The Jhen Mohran, which had appeared calm and stable just a second prior, abruptly twisted its neck and clamped its massive jaws down upon the bow of the Dragon-Hunts Ship.