Chapter 44: The Tugging

Under the shock of the great gong's noise, the Fengshan Dragon, which had been turning at full speed, shuddered all over, its center of gravity shifted and it lost its balance, tumbling several rolls across the sand before barely regaining its normal swimming posture.

When humans sprint and fall, rolling a few times on the ground, it generally won't cause much harm, but the Fengshan Dragon is different with its astonishing size and weight—the damage from this tumble was no lighter than those Anti-Dragon Bombs from before.

The towering Rock Armor on its back was shattered yet again in great chunks, and its wretched appearance drew bursts of cheers from the people on the Dragon-Hunting Ship and the surrounding small Sand Ships.

"Ship Group Leader! Should we issue the Celong order?" the Hunter asked excitedly, setting down his Great Hammer.

"Don't rush yet!"

The Ship Group Leader did not let his guard down just because the Fengshan Dragon had fallen—he knew that after suffering such a great loss, the Fengshan Dragon's fury would burn even fiercer.

If they rashly launched the Celong now, the Hunters would have to face this super-giant Ancient Dragon's wrath head-on; they had to first let it vent for a while, tire itself out, and calm down before seeing.

Moreover, during the earlier high-speed swimming and tumbling, most of the bolts that had been firmly fixed into the Fengshan Dragon's body had already come loose; to pull off the Celong smoothly, more anchor points had to be created.

"Cannons, Bed Ballistas, fire! At the same time, notify the Sand Ships to fire as many bolts as possible—don't think about hitting the wounds, creating anchor points is the key!" the Ship Group Leader shouted out the order.

The Sand Ships that received the signal drew closer, circled around the Fengshan Dragon, and continuously triggered their Bed Ballistas, firing bolts.

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

"Aye aye!"

A pair of somewhat overeager Hunter and boatman partners steered their small Sand Ship to within thirty meters of the Fengshan Dragon's flank.

This spot could still barely be considered safe—after all, the Fengshan Dragon's flipper limbs were short and still couldn't reach them.

But what they hadn't expected was that the seemingly wretched Fengshan Dragon actually still had quite ample stamina in reserve.

Noticing enemies approaching its body, the furious Fengshan Dragon whipped its body, and that massive tail capable of propelling its ten-thousand-ton bulk through the Sand Sea came sweeping across.

From the perspective of those two men, it didn't look like a tail at all, but like a city wall pushing sideways toward them.

By the time they thought to pull away, it was already too late; the surrounding ships had no way to rescue them, and they could only watch helplessly as their ship was smashed to pieces by the Fengshan Dragon's giant tail.

Through the rising sand dust, the bloodstains smeared on that giant tail could still faintly be seen.

The small Sand Ships circling around the Fengshan Dragon all hurriedly pulled to a greater distance, afraid of becoming the next pair of victims.

Asa and the others broke out in a cold sweat—moments ago the three of them had been planning to follow along and close in too......

Up to now in the battle, the Fengshan Dragon had been taking losses, but that didn't mean this big fellow was easy to deal with.

If the Ship Group Leader made even one command error, the entire Sand Ship Fleet could suffer heavy damage in an instant; and the reason the Ship Group Leader could make the right call again and again was built on the experience summed up from countless predecessors' sacrifices.

An Ancient Dragon is, after all, an Ancient Dragon—one moment of carelessness and one could lose one's life at any time.

The small Sand Ships, now with heightened vigilance, all pulled their distance out past fifty meters; at this range, the bolts fired by the Bed Ballistas could still guarantee considerable penetrating power, while there was no need to worry about being struck by the Fengshan Dragon's swinging giant tusks or tail.

So the Fengshan Dragon changed tactics—its massive body shuddered, and five or six clumps of sand and stone shot up into the high sky from the air vents on its back, then fell, scattering and crashing down toward the surrounding fleet.

The frequency of this kind of attack was very high—almost every few seconds another batch of Sand Clusters would come raining down.

The Sand Cluster attacks were nothing to the Dragon-Hunting Ship Fengshan Maru, but they were more than enough to capsize the small Sand Ships that pursued lightness.

The pilots couldn't care less about finding a good attack angle anymore—each one was strung tight with nerves, steering the Sail and rudder with one eye while keeping the other fixed on the sky, terrified of being hit by a falling Sand Cluster.

But mistakes would inevitably occur; after several waves of attacks, one unlucky Sand Ship had just barely dodged a Sand Cluster with a sharp turn and, before it could right itself, was struck squarely by another clump of sand.

The bow was smashed to pieces in an instant, and the entire ship flipped forward.

Two more Sand Ships, busy dodging Sand Clusters, ended up scraping into each other and capsizing together—fortunately the hull damage wasn't too severe, and with some adjustment they could still return to the fight.

Realizing this counterattack method was effective, the Fengshan Dragon further sped up the rate at which it spat out Sand Clusters, and the fleet fell into chaos.

The Ship Group Leader watching all this from the Dragon-Hunting Ship had a dark expression; he was minded to pull the Sand Ships back to reduce casualties, but the steps of creating anchor points and wearing down the Fengshan Dragon's stamina were necessary.

After a brief moment of thought, he issued a new order: "Order all ships to adopt Formation Four, sail clockwise around the Fengshan Dragon, and at the same time spread out from each other to avoid chaotic collisions.

Cannons aim at the head, fire at full speed—try to lure the Fengshan Dragon into swimming again and further drain its stamina!"

Under the Ship Group Leader's command, the fleet of small Sand Ships finally restored order, and bolt after bolt sank once more into the Fengshan Dragon's body, forming new anchor points.

During this process, Sand Ships were still being capsized by falling Sand Clusters from time to time; from the start of the battle to now, the number of small Sand Ships had already decreased by nearly a third.

Seeing that the number of bolts embedded in the Fengshan Dragon's body was about enough, the Ship Group Leader immediately ordered the small Sand Ships to retreat; the Dragon-Hunting Ship, which had long been acting as a mobile gun platform in the distance, accelerated once more, moving up beside the Fengshan Dragon and sailing parallel to it.

Sure enough, the Fengshan Dragon's attention shifted away from those small Sand Ships scattering in retreat and onto the "leader" beside it.

It growled low and moved toward the Dragon-Hunting Ship, preparing to crush this opponent by ramming.

The larger the Monster, the simpler and more direct its attack methods tend to be—its terrifying weight of over ten thousand tons was its most powerful weapon.

Seeing this, the Ship Group Leader decisively directed the helmsman to pull a little distance away; this distance couldn't be too far either—it had to maintain that subtle degree where the Fengshan Dragon felt that just a little more effort would let it ram the ship, but it always fell just short.

The two, sailing side by side, were like dancing as they circled around in the vast Sand Sea.

The Cannons kept firing without pause, and the Dragon-Hunting Ship itself maintained high speed; if the Fengshan Dragon wanted to ram it, it had to take the attacks while spending stamina to keep up its own high speed.

After several failed attempts, the Fengshan Dragon gave up, and the raging fury in its heart was worn down to almost nothing in the process.

It was tired.

The Fengshan Dragon began to slow down, no longer chasing that opponent it could never catch.

So the Fengshan Maru also began to slow down, still maintaining the parallel course, and at the same time stopped firing, sticking to the Fengshan Dragon's side like a harmless plaster.

The two continued on side by side at an unhurried pace.

Suddenly, the Fengshan Dragon swung its head, trying to strike the Dragon-Hunting Ship with its giant tusks, but the Dragon-Hunting Ship, which had been keeping its guard up the whole time, nimbly dodged.

After a few such back-and-forths, the Fengshan Dragon finally stopped attacking altogether, slowly swimming through the Sand Sea to recover its stamina.

Seeing this, the Ship Group Leader had the Bed Ballistas switch to loading Binding Bombs and fired them out, using the ropes to lock the Dragon-Hunting Ship and the Fengshan Dragon together; the Fengshan Dragon's body swayed slightly, with no further reaction.

This put the Ship Group Leader's mind at ease: "It's been ground down enough—prepare the second Celong; if all goes well, we'll drive it back in this one wave."

The signal was carried out by the sound of horns; the small Sand Ships scattered around gathered back together, and the Dragon-Hunting Ship also tightened the ropes, slowly drawing closer to the Fengshan Dragon.

The Celong Operation proceeded in an orderly fashion; the Hunters followed the Binding Bomb ropes onto the Fengshan Dragon's body, climbed along those bolts, and scrambled upward at top speed.

Perhaps because of the experience from the previous time, Aolang's speed in this Celong was considerably faster than before.

He planned to keep chopping at that Secretory Gland from before—there were still quite a few ores on it that hadn't been knocked off.

But when he reached the Fengshan Dragon's back, he discovered that the Secretory Gland, along with a large chunk of back armor, had disappeared entirely; he couldn't tell whether it had been blasted away by the Explosive Bomb or torn off during the earlier tumble.

This left him briefly at a loss; just as he was considering whether he should find another Secretory Gland and continue "mining"—

The Peak Mountain Dragon, which had seemed calm and still a moment ago, suddenly twisted its neck and bit down on the bow of the Dragon-Hunting Ship.