Cave Refuge

As Zachary was stealthily tracking the submerged submarine with his Sword Control from the sky, he had thought he would need to wait for a long while before the submarine would surface.

But to Zachary's surprise, Divine Sense suddenly detected spatial fluctuations far away, a sensation similar to the space portals previously witnessed at the Magic Capital Base.

Just as Zachary was hesitating whether to explore the site of the spatial fluctuations or continue following the underwater submarine,

he noticed that the hidden submarine had suddenly changed course, as if it too had detected the spatial fluctuations, and headed towards the location of the disturbance.

Before even getting close, Zachary, floating in the sky, saw a space portal slowly expanding on the water's surface.

As the portal continued to grow, no Otherworldly Creatures came through it to this side.

Even after a long time, when the initially stable portal was about to collapse and shrink, he still did not see any Otherworldly Creatures arrive.

Thus, just as Zachary thought he had waited in vain without any results, suddenly a warship rapidly passed through the space portal, appearing over the waters of Blue Star.

Looking at the warship that had just appeared through the portal, Zachary had a better understanding of the specific origins of that brand-new warship he had encountered earlier.

Perhaps due to the presence of a counterpart with the same origin, the submarine that had been hiding underwater began to quietly surface.

Just when Zachary thought that the submarine was surfacing because it had detected its comrades,

he saw the warship on the water's surface suddenly tilt violently to one side, as if it had been struck by a fierce attack.

What Zachary hadn't anticipated was that the warship, which was tilting and about to capsize, instantly righted itself like a Weeble toy at the last moment.

As Zachary was still puzzled about the source of the underwater attack, he suddenly remembered the submarine which had been hiding underwater and had not revealed itself. Through probing with Divine Sense, Zachary confirmed that the attacker of the warship on the surface was indeed the hidden submarine; the two were not comrades from the same faction as Zachary had initially speculated.

Just as Zachary was speculating about the relationship between the two warships, wondering if it was similar to the opposing factions of Transformers on Cybertron,

the hiding submarine did not use distant firepower to attack again but directly rammed its bow into the side of the other's hull, apparently intending to capsize it.

Zachary was internally commenting, as disappointingly, despite their appearance as two modernized warships, their method of combat was akin to childish brawling.

If using an anthropomorphic analogy, it would be like two warriors clad in high-tech battle armor, wielding laser weapons, choosing instead to wield their laser guns as clubs and battling at close range.

But just when Zachary was criticizing their method of combat, the actions that followed from the successful ambush submarine once again defied his expectations.

After the submarine overthrew the recently emerged warship on the surface, the body of the submerged vessel suddenly transformed into a pool of liquid metal that completely engulfed the other warship.

Zachary, standing on his Sword Control in the air, could not believe that the entire battle would unfold with one unexpected turn after another.

Who would have thought that a battle between two warships, after just three exchanges, would display three distinct methods of combat.

The first two methods of combat did not show any peculiarities, but the last one, turning oneself into liquid metal to envelop the enemy, reminded Zachary of the liquid metal robots from Terminator.

It was only then, after witnessing this scene, that Zachary understood why, even after he had thrown explosives at the deck buildings, causing great damage, the vessel remained as unresponsive as an empty ship.

The battle between the two warships did not last as long as Zachary had estimated; in less than an hour, the warship completely enveloped by the liquid metal was either devoured or assimilated by the liquid metal of the attacking submarine.

In the end, when time had run out, what looked like an oval-shaped pool of liquid metal began to shrink inwards. When the liquid metal, originally shaped like a rugby ball, appeared to be absorbed by the interior warship and ultimately vanished, only one larger, brand-new warship was left floating on the sea.

Zachary, who had witnessed the entire process, was at a loss for words for a moment, never expecting that two seemingly similar warships could actually engage in such internecine combat.

Just as Zachary was considering how to deal with the warship on the surface, from the depths below, dozens of colossal tentacles stretched out, swiftly binding the massive warship and immediately dragged the previously floating vessel underwater.

Even though the entire vessel had been firmly ensnared by those sudden tentacles, the subdued warship immediately began to counterattack.