Cave Refuge

But the tornadoes that were supposed to engulf Test Subject No. 1 simply stayed put, neither repelling each other nor merging.

Once the veracity of the intelligence from the front lines was confirmed, the minds of everyone present felt as if they were about to explode.

If they didn't take advantage of these weak phenomena to eliminate them, once they reached their full form, destroying them would cost far more than just a small sum.

As for taking cover, none of those present considered this option, as the Water Base was not like those smaller, more agile boats that could navigate through seemingly dangerous areas with their captains' skilled piloting.

Given the Water Base's massive size and tonnage, to be honest, it could virtually ignore regular storms and waves.

However, although they felt the Water Base's defensive power was strong, and the appearance of the Dragon Siphon could pose some threat to them, they believed it would still be quite easy for the robust Water Base to withstand this natural disaster.

But the vast majority of those present believed in the saying that "a prudent rabbit has three burrows," so their families would arrange for some boats to drift near the base, which would be the capital for a potential revival of each family's fortunes.

There was nothing wrong with such an arrangement under normal circumstances, because these boats were not far from the Water Base, so there were no safety issues.

But when the natural disaster targeted all floating boats, they didn't need to think twice to realize that their backup supply boats would unlikely remain intact through the ordeal.

As for bringing those supply boats back and moving the stored supplies back to the Water Base, let's not even mention how crowded the docks would be with people trying to return when the disaster struck.

This unwritten rule, although known to all, absolutely could not be made public, because some things don't weigh much off the scale but can be extremely heavy once measured.

Of course, some of the more important items stored on those boats could still be brought back, but other materials would sadly have to be abandoned.

As the waterborne tornadoes gradually took shape, Dong Tianyu decided not to stay on the surface any longer, and after retrieving the Wave Rider, he directly returned to his Cave.

Back in his Cave, Dong Tianyu was completely at ease, having not played role-playing games with Canary for a long time. This time, he had the opportunity to spend time with her to shoot a blockbuster film.

Compared to Dong Tianyu, who was relaxed in his Cave, others in the outside world were about to face the test of this natural disaster.

Apart from the Water Base, some super-large ships, and those ships that truly had no fuel to move, the vast majority of the vessels chose to flee the tornado's range, hoping to outlast the disaster this way.

In theory, fleeing was actually the best strategy against tornadoes. Before a disaster, any ships at sea encountering a Dragon Siphon would be relatively safe as long as they didn't approach out of curiosity and controlled their distance from the phenomenon.

But they had forgotten that this was different from before the disaster struck. Before, although the Dragon Siphon was a terrifying phenomenon, its occurrence was rare, and there had never been two occurring simultaneously within Oceania's waters in recorded history.

So, as long as lookouts did their job without slacking, navigating ships could easily spot not only phenomena like the Dragon Siphon that connected the sky and sea but even forming storms and seek shelter well in advance.

Now, however, it was different from before the disaster. It wasn't just the tornado around their own vessels; other ships had them too, and even some water surfaces without ships had scattered, smaller tornadoes emerging.

With these tornadoes growing in size, there wasn't much space left for the boats to avoid them, and most of the tornadoes didn't stay put, which greatly increased the difficulty of successfully finding shelter.

The first to succumb should have been the survivors on the small boats, but they were not foolish. Upon realizing their boats couldn't escape the Dragon Siphon's influence, they jumped into the water and decisively began to dive.

Some smart people went directly to the bottom of the ocean, searching for those dark green ghost ships that roamed the deep waters.

If in the past they would have avoided those mysterious ships at all costs, now these vessels had become their life-saving straw at this critical moment.

The passengers of the medium-sized vessels were not much different from the crew of the small boats; facing the approaching natural disaster, even with their engines at full power, they could not escape the pull of the Dragon Siphon.

Thus, the majority of the smart people, upon seeing their vessels gradually being drawn toward the Dragon Siphon, decisively abandoned ship and jumped into the water.

Those who believed that the ship's body would protect them were sent spinning into the sky by the high-speed rotating column of water, along with their vessels.

The ultimate fate of these people needs little explanation; if they had any chance of survival from a high fall into the water, that chance became nearly nonexistent as they were first spun around at high speed, then smashed heavily onto the surface of the water along with their ships.

The large vessels, faced with the ferocious Dragon Siphon and aware of the fate of the smaller crafts, decided to take a gamble; the captains chose to directly attack the approaching vortex with cannon fire.

As everyone is likely aware of how a waterspout forms, the commands issued by the captains, under normal circumstances, should indeed be able to destroy an already formed natural disaster, provided they have sufficient firepower.

Although they had learned from the Imperial Court's announcements that destroying a small waterspout would result in the appearance of more small waterspouts in the vicinity.

However, when giving the commands, their minds were still very clear.

Because for them, only a fully formed Dragon Siphon could harm their ships; the numerous small, yet unformed waterspouts, no matter their quantity, could not cause any damage to their vessels.

After all, unlike other natural disasters, small waterspouts are initially all wind, and no matter how strong, they cannot cause any substantial damage to the hull.

It was for this reason that, if they could avoid it, they would certainly choose to leave the dangerous area immediately, but now that waterspouts had appeared all around them, it meant that there were no real safe zones nearby.

Therefore, even though they knew that destroying the Dragon Siphon in front of them might lead to more small waterspouts, they had to choose the lesser of two evils.

After all, although there might be issues after they destroyed the Dragon Siphon, if they did not destroy it, they might not have a future at all.

To ensure that no mistakes were made, the captain added one more Cloud Bomb to the firing plan that had originally calculated three would suffice.

In this situation, tactical incrementation had no effect; there was only success or failure.

As the four Cloud Bombs reached their intended detonation locations, the violent explosions tore the waterspout, which seemed to reach the heavens, in half.

The shock wave from the intense explosion disrupted the convective air forming the waterspout, causing the high-speed rotating water column to stop instantly before collapsing.

Seeing the waterspout collapse in an instant, everyone aboard the large ship breathed a sigh of relief, but at that moment, the captain's spirit remained tense as he used the telescope to observe the surroundings.

He wanted to see if new tornadoes would appear around their ship after the Dragon Siphon collapsed.