Plague Doctor

Under the starless sky, intense blankets of fire swept across the foggy sea surface. The rocket launchers turned the sea into a blazing hell but these measures only managed to hold the fish monster away from the research ships. The stalemate had been going on for half an hour already. The enemy's spell could hide their true location but once they breached through the frontline, their existence would be exposed. But the thing that worried the headquarters and command central was the enemy did not appear to be planning a frontal breach. The ships' had lost signal of their radars so it meant that they had no idea what kind of forces were gathering underwater. In other words, the armada's weakness was blatantly exposed.

Other than the sea monsters covered in scale, they did not spot any other figure on the ghost ships. A few minutes ago, the dreaming team returned with the good news that the Problematic Team had succeeded in their mission. That brought rejuvenation to everyone's spirit. However, it did little to chase away the darkness. The cornered cultists might retreat or worse, strike back with everything they had.

The sea fog blurred everything. The guards on the deck paid close attention to their surroundings. The ghost ships flickered in and out of view. None of the ships were big but they were as vicious as banshees. Some of the guards heard the sound of heavy objects falling into water. It sounded like the fish monsters submerging themselves underwater. The guard tried to look over the deck but they saw nothing but the waves…

Even the Spell Department members were confused. The enemy could be hiding anywhere underwater. Initially the Spell Department only sent the Problematic Team over to San Hai City but as the situation grew more severe, batches of reinforcement arrived. There was an elite team on the research ships now. They were led by Xue Ba and its notable members included Wu Siyu and Cai Zixuan. They were all dressed in airtight protective gear.

"I can taste…" On the main deck, as Wu Siyu glanced into the inky water, a stimulant sizzled her tongue. "Blood, there's blood in the water." She looked around and saw the opaline necklace that hung around Cai Zixuan's neck glow red. "Beware of mental corruption!" The rest of the team glanced at each other. Not everyone was adorned with the rationality assessment stone but those who did had theirs glowing red.

"Command central, we're under a large scale mental corruption attack!" Xue Ba reported immediately. Once he did so, a chilling wind picked up and the team was assaulted by illusions. This inflicted the whole armada. No one was spared. The Spell Department members, the guards, the ship crew, the researchers all bent over from an intensifying headache. A strange sound, like the gushing of sea or wailing of an unknown sea creature echoed in their ears.

Command central made preparation against a large scale mental attack but not a large scale mental corruption. To make things worse, this corruption affected even the Spell Department members who had received plenty of training. If they did not do anything soon, all the normal crewmates would be drawn into a maddening hallucination. The air froze at the headquarters. Elder Tong was pacing frantically. The Phecda leader now knew that the establishment of the Spell Department and Ancient Seal Department had come too late, they were lagging too far behind in the field of occultism compared to the cultists…

Suddenly, a wildly invigorating news came from the lab on the ship, "The new strain of the bacteria has deteriorated! The limbs on the surface of the cells, they, they… there's no words, but to say that they've exploded! And the speed of the bacterial infection has greatly slowed down!"

Instantly the dark clouds that brewed over the command central were blown away. This was undeniably the result of the Problematic Team destroying the supernatural power source of this bacteria. Under the microscope, the bacteria suddenly imploded and returned to a normal microorganism. It should be the same for the bacteria in the air and inside the patients' bodies. Its transmission power and lethality underwent a steep drop, all signs pointing towards the possibility of curbing this epidemic. Now that the bacteria's size returned to more than 0.3 mm, a normal N95 would be able to filter it out. If the bacteria regained its requirement of an aerate as a medium to spread, then its dissemination would greatly decrease. The fatality timer of 20 hours would now be prolonged to more than 1 week, it meant that the government would have enough time to come up with the vaccine. If that was the case, this would no longer be a national emergency level of danger.

"Listen up!" Elder Tong ordered the team at the frontline, "The threat of the bacteria has been eliminated by Ah Jun and his group. Grab the seedling and prepare to retreat!" The research ships did not move because there was dimensional distortion around the sea. Furthermore, with the dysfunctional radars and the fog, they would be sailing in the dark. If they were not careful, they would end up sunken ships themselves. On the other hand, staying anchored would only make them sitting ducks.

Drug No. 1 was split into 3 parts, one was taken by Gu Jun, another sent to the ships and the last preserved at the headquarters. With the latest update, it meant that the experimental drug was no longer that important, for the pharmacist could rely on normal drugs to deal with the weakened bacteria. Instead what was important on the ship was the Lai Hwa Tree seedling. Once the order was received, the researchers uploaded their data online while the ships covered fire as the armada retreated to shore. The important personnel were ferried away on helicopters. If necessary, the whole armada would be taken down by a missile.

"Prepare to retreat!" inside the command central of the mothership, Zhang Jingmin resisted the headache as he ordered his weakened crew. 'Isn't it a bit too late for that now?' There was chaos on deck. Both cannons and bullets were useless. Most of the guards had crumbled to the ground, groaning from headache. To make things worse, the sea monsters, which had disappeared earlier, now suddenly leaped up from underwater. Thump, thump, thump, their webbed feet landed loudly on the deck, the sound stomped at the crewmates' hearts…

A dolphin could jump at most 9 metres out of the water, but this kind of mutated creature could leap more than 10 metres out of the water, was it due to the physical mutation or a spell assistance?

The bulging eyes of the fish monsters glowed murderously. With webbed feet, they bounded around to avoid the gunfire. They landed on the guards, grabbed them up and flung them into the sea. The guards were unable to stay afloat due to the weight of the protective gears. They swiftly sunk into the bottomless depth. Those who remained on the ships were affected by a heavy mental wave. These monsters were too powerful… They moved so fast and delivered punishment without mercy!

Under heavy fire, some of the monsters were struck back but there were too many of them. The spell members tried to summon nightgaunts to attack the fish monsters while others drew Ancient Seal to hit at them but their mental power was soon drained and their mental corruption rate was hiking dangerously. They gritted their teeth to stabilize their mind but they could not hold on any longer.

Wu Siyu stared at the blood around her and mumbled numbly, "They are both standing species of fish but penguins are so much cuter…"

"Dirty-minded Yu, you need to brush up on your biological knowledge, penguins are not a species of fish…" A voice rang out. She frowned. She was familiar with this voice but it should not have appeared here. Was she hallucinating? "Penguins are mammals!"

The voice came from behind her. When Wu Siyu turned around, she saw a large shadow standing behind her.