Chapter 45 Critical Moment

With a swing of the Jhen Mohran's massive neck, the dragon-ship, whose bow was locked firmly within the creature's jaws, was lifted almost entirely off the sand.

Caught completely off guard, several crew members tumbled overboard, and one exceptionally unlucky soul fell directly into the beast's gaping maw, leaving his fate grimly uncertain.

Realizing that he had been tricked by the Jhen Mohran, the fleet captain displayed a agility that belied his advanced age. In two or three swift bounds, he crossed the severely tilted deck and reached the activation mechanism of the dragonator.

Snatching up the striking mallet with one hand, he forcefully triggered the device.

At the bow, the fully loaded dragonator, propelled by high-pressure steam, spun at blinding speed as it thrust forward, driving straight into the upper jaw of the Jhen Mohran.

Even though the Jhen Mohran routinely devoured minerals from the sea of sand and its mouth was lined with tough, hardened hide, it was impossible to withstand the mechanical might of the dragonator.

Amidst a splatter of blood, the piercing dragonator forcefully pried open the creature's clamped jaws, shoving the dragon-ship out of the Jhen Mohran's mouth and sending it crashing back down onto the sand.

Stung by the excruciating pain, the Jhen Mohran roared frantically and twisted its massive body violently. Many of the sand-ships connected to it by the ropes of binding restraints were overturned in the ensuing chaos.

Furthermore, numerous hunters tethered to their respective sand-ships by safety lines were jerked off the dragon's back by the waist ropes and hurled into the sea of sand.

Oran was no exception, but just before he was dragged off the dragon's spine by his safety line, he managed to draw his dagger in time and sever the rope. At the very last moment, he reached out and grabbed hold of a firmly embedded balista bolt, finally managing to secure himself temporarily on the dragon's back.

The Jhen Mohran's struggle continued unabated. Oran had to lower his body, gripping the arrow shaft for dear life, with not a second to spare to check on the others.

After a full half-minute, the Jhen Mohran, having suffered devastating injuries inside its mouth, finally quieted down slightly.

Oran was able to steady himself against the protruding rock armor before him and cautiously stand up.

He looked around. The number of hunters still remaining on the Jhen Mohran's back could be counted on one hand, and the group included Sair.

Sair spotted him as well, but before they could exchange signals to confirm each other's status, a hunter stationed near the dragon's head shouted at the top of his lungs, "Look!"

Oran and Sair hastily turned their heads, following the direction of the hunter's outstretched finger.

During the sudden ambush earlier, the bow of the Jhen Mohran-maru had suffered severe damage, and the thrusting dragonator could not even be retracted, remaining stuck at an awkward angle.

To make matters worse, the balance pole on one side had snapped, causing the entire vessel to list heavily to the side on the ground. It was impossible to right it in the short term, let alone get it moving again.

The Jhen Mohran evidently noticed this as well.

It ceased its swimming motion, pulled its body—half-buried in the sand sea—up onto the surface, and crept step by step toward the overturned dragon-ship.

The hunters' faces turned pale. A dragon-ship stripped of its mobility was nothing in front of an ultra-giant Elder Dragon; the beast only needed to march straight ahead to crush the vessel that had been passed down for generations.

"Do you still have any bombs?!" Oran shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Bombs! Right, the bombs!" The hammer user who had previously been in charge of ringing the giant bronze gong snapped to attention.

He looked around left and right, but unfortunately, amid the violent shaking moments earlier, very few hunters had managed to react in time and stay on the Jhen Mohran's back. Naturally, the massive barrel bombs that had been painstakingly hauled onto the dragon's back had long since rolled off.

"There should still be some on the sand-ship! Have them send them over, it's our only way!" Oran shouted loudly, then turned to yell at the few remaining mobile sand-ships nearby.

One of the sand-ships still carrying bombs accelerated toward them at full throttle, abandoning any regard for safe distances.

A insect glaive user on the dragon's back immediately commanded his kinsect to extract essences from the Jhen Mohran's wound, boosting his own physical abilities before leaping directly off the dragon's back.

He rolled upon landing and, without pausing his stride, sprinted toward the approaching sand-ship.

Sair drew his blade. "We'll go buy some time!"

"Right!" The exceptionally skilled hammer user joined him, rushing toward the head of the Jhen Mohran in hopes of diverting its attention and halting its advance by attacking the wounds on its head.

With things having progressed to this point, Oran was certainly not foolish enough to be thinking about mining.

Now that the dragon-ship was incapacitated, anti-dragon bombs were their only means of inflicting effective damage on the Jhen Mohran, and they would likely only get one chance—it could not be wasted.

Therefore, the placement location of the bombs was crucial.

He sprinted all the way from the Jhen Mohran's lower back up to the back of its head, finally discovering the largest and deepest wound near the neck.

Even if he jumped entirely inside, the wound was deep enough that his head wouldn't even show—it was the ideal spot to plant a bomb. However, to actually shove the entire bomb inside, the space still seemed slightly lacking.

He had to find a way to widen the wound further!

With that thought, he cast his round shield aside on the ground, and drew from his waist the skinning knife, which was roughly the same size as the secondary blade of his dual swords.

Striking the two blades together to trigger his demon mode, he leaped directly into the wound.

Demon Flurry Rush!

Executing a flurry in such a cramped space was terribly awkward, but he swung his dual blades with every ounce of his strength. The splashing blood and torn flesh dyed him almost entirely red.

The insect glaive user, having retrieved the bomb, finally scrambled back onto the dragon's back. Sweeping his gaze across the area, he quickly spotted the "bleeding" wound. With no time to catch his breath, he hoisted the gigantic bomb into his arms and hurried toward the spot.

The hammer user and Sair, fighting at full strength atop the Jhen Mohran's crown, were finally starting to see some results.

The Jhen Mohran paused its advance, shook its head, and its body contracted with a shudder. Several clumps of sand and earth expelled from the ventilation vents on its back cascaded downward toward the head.

Sair sidestepped to dodge a clump of sand, while the hammer user's response was far more aggressive—he swung his heavy hammer directly, shattering an incoming mass of sand into dust.

Before they could even catch their breath, more sand clumps rained down.

"I'll hold the line here, go cover them as they plant the bomb!" the hammer user roared at the top of his lungs. "Don't let these sand clumps detonate the bomb prematurely!"

"Understood!"

Sair immediately sprinted toward the Jhen Mohran's neck.

Seeing Oran drenched in blood and flurrying wildly inside the wound, Sair froze for half a second before quickly realizing the purpose behind the other man's actions.

After a quick visual estimation, judging that the wound was now large enough to accommodate an anti-dragon bomb, he shouted, "It's big enough! I'll detonate it! Fall back immediately!"

The insect glaive user nodded, running back to the hammer user to signal the retreat.

Oran, who had been unleashing a continuous Demon Flurry Rush inside the wound, couldn't stop immediately until Sair wedged his shield against him to halt his momentum.

Sair grabbed his clothes and helped him pull himself out of the wound.

Working together, the two men shoved the anti-dragon bomb completely into the wound. After disarming the safety mechanism, Sair quickly pulled the fuse and prepared to retreat.

A shadow suddenly loomed overhead.

"Watch out!" Oran yelled in warning.

Sair raised his head, noticing a massive clump of sand plunging directly toward them.

A disarmed bomb was extremely sensitive; even a small pebble could set it off, let alone a massive avalanche of sand falling from the sky.

The bomb would detonate prematurely, and they had already run out of time to clear the blast radius. Without a second thought, Sair lunged forward, grabbed Oran, and leaped off the dragon's back while simultaneously spinning around to brace his shield.

The next second, the scorching blast wave swallowed them whole.