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墨書 Inktalez
I waved the flashlight in front of Jack's eyes and asked, "How do we flip it? If there's a rock under our feet, that’s no problem. The three of us can flip this boat like it's nothing. Just tell me where to push; I can't just step on the water to flip it."
Jack was breathing heavily and only replied with two words, "Watch me."
Then, taking a deep breath, Jack grabbed the wooden planks at the bottom of the boat, tensed his core, and lifted his body off the pavement. His flexibility was impressive as he placed his feet on either side of the boat's edge, flipping over like a large shrimp. With his back facing up, he arched his body against the bottom of the boat, pushing with his feet against one side while gripping the other side with his hands.
Jack's body was taut, his back pressed firmly against the boat's bottom. Watching him in that position sparked a realization in my mind. I had never seen such a method of self-rescue from a capsized boat, but I felt it might actually work.
At the moment his spine touched the bottom of the boat, Jack cursed loudly, "Damn."
My flashlight continued to illuminate Jack, revealing the reason for his curse. His wet clothes were steaming upon contact with the scorching boat bottom. The heat generated by the burning vessel had made the underside blistering hot; it wouldn't be long before it burned through. We had to get out of there before the flames reached us.
The temperature at the bottom of the boat seemed bearable for now. Jack's face was dark purple and contorted with effort, yet he showed no signs of retreating. I saw him push harder with his core, straining upward with his upper body while pushing down with his feet. Suddenly, his feet sank into the water below while the side he was gripping pulled away from the pavement, creating a gap more than a foot high.
Flames burst into our cramped space, illuminating not just us but also a large area of pavement outside. In that fleeting moment, Fatty, Tang Yumo, and I instinctively reached out to grab any part of the boat we could hold onto and pulled it back as it tilted slightly.
With a loud bang, the flames vanished instantly, plunging our space back into darkness. Darker than this cramped space was our collective anxiety.
Jack struggled to create a gap in the boat’s hull but could only see the light streaming in from outside due to his angle. He couldn't see anything else but could observe our synchronized movements and expressions filled with despair.
Jack jumped into the water; perhaps the icy cold helped cool down his scorched back, bringing a look of relief to his face.
"What’s wrong?"
In that moment, Jack's rationality and calmness shone through. If this had been Fatty in charge, he would have been furious after enduring such heat and pain to lift the boat while we pulled it down without explaining why. It would have been strange if he hadn’t vented his frustration at all.
The One-Eyed Beast Flashlight in my hand remained on. The light was dim in this enclosed space. In such an environment, even a little light could ease a person's mind. Under the flashlight's beam, Jack had already put away his joyful expression, replaced by seriousness and unease. I thought it was my expression that made him anxious, as he looked at me, his words questioning me.
"There's a big guy outside. The pavement is being stirred up by it. And those piranhas—they seem agitated. We need to get the hell out of here, this fire..."
I pointed above.
"It will provide us with temporary protection. Head towards the shore; the water isn't safe."
"What is it?"
"God knows."
"It's Heimanluo. We've entered its territory. It senses something unusual and has expanded its search for intruders. It will eliminate all invaders without mercy—including us."
Tang Yumo's face turned pale again, and I found her words equally colorless.
"Heimanluo? No way! We've fought it before; it doesn't look like this."
I couldn't believe that what we had just seen was Heimanluo.
The moment Jack opened a gap in the boat, we saw a massive creature on the pavement near the Piranha School. Although the white phosphorus fireworks had all fallen into the Underground River and the light had vanished, countless Giant Bats and Piranhas floated on the surface of the Underground River like torches, ignited by the white phosphorus residue, emitting white, red, and purple flames.
Around our boat, while there were no corpses of Piranhas or Giant Bats, debris floated everywhere. Of course, not just around our boat; within sight of the Underground River, fragments of wood drifted on the pavement. Our capsized boat became an accomplice, providing a surface for the falling white phosphorus fireworks to cling to.
These water-soaked wood fragments were also ignited by the white phosphorus residue, igniting dark red flames while releasing thick black smoke. Perhaps it was this black smoke that hindered the giant from attacking us or even prevented it from noticing us. But its size was too great to ignore.
It was a monstrous creature resembling a prehistoric crocodile, its massive body floating on the pavement like a mountain. The protrusions on its back were orderly and exuded a sense of primal power. Along its spine were three fin-like structures running from head to tail, feeling sharp and hard—much larger than the protrusions on any alligator I had seen before. It resembled the dorsal protrusions of a Spinosaurus from fossil reconstruction images but wasn't as tall or exaggerated.
With each powerful slap of its enormous tail against the pavement, it sent up water columns over ten meters high, while countless Piranha and Giant Bat corpses—along with many more living, frenzied Piranhas—were sent flying into the air like droplets before this giant beast.
We did not see its front, so we had no idea what its ferocious head looked like. But in a fleeting moment, I caught a glimpse of it devouring a Piranha. In that brief vision, all I saw was a massive mouth capable of swallowing our boat and several triangular teeth the size of cannonballs, glinting red with either blood or fire.
"The last time you came, it became smarter. Heimanluo has the ability to learn; it will continuously grow and develop the most advantageous forms for survival and attack."
Jack, Fatty, and I exchanged incredulous looks, our eyes conveying disbelief.
Jack couldn't grasp Tang Yumo's words because he hadn't seen the giant beast in the water. Fatty, on the other hand, had not witnessed Heimanluo's attack method during their last encounter. When it chased him in the water from a distance, he lacked a close-up understanding of that creature.
As for me, I had seen both forms and attack methods clearly on two occasions, making it even harder to believe Tang Yumo's claims.
"That thing can transform like a Transformer? Can it turn into a Buffalo Hovercraft?"
Fatty said with a teasing tone, echoing my sentiments: this was utterly ridiculous.
(To Be Continued...)
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