Mermaid Reef

The Elizabeth's first mate lay panting in the store room.

His face was covered with blood, and he was terrified.

He was accompanied by two other survivors.

The hour that just passed was the worst nightmare the three of them had ever experienced in their lives.

At that time, the crew and passengers were excitedly waiting for the rescue. When they saw the figures of "lifeguards on horseback patrolling the island" appeared in the thick fog, the atmosphere was so intense that they took off their hats and shouted desperately.

The other party also obviously noticed the movement here, stayed for a few seconds, and then came straight here.

The first mate was the first to realize that something was wrong.

"Since when are there so many horses on Sable Island?"

The island is indeed very big, but the lifeguard station only has three permanent staff, so there is no need to raise too many horses.

Looking at the overly slender "knights" on the "horsebacks" and the strange appearance of the "horses" running, even thinking with their toes, the first officer knew that this was not suitable for the number of lifeguards.

"They are not lifeguards!"

Those "knights" rushed out of the thick fog, and their figures were clearly displayed in front of people's eyes.

People were horrified to find that they were a group of 10-foot-tall (3-meter) giant birds with a huge, hard and terrifying beak with a sharp and sharp hook attached to it, just like eagles.

Bright red eyes, prominent twisted muscles beneath russet feathers.

It is precisely because their bodies are so strong that they are mistaken for horses.

The so-called knight on horseback was actually the erect neck of the giant bird, which created this terrible misunderstanding through the cover of the thick fog.

Due to the strange and hideous appearance of these giant birds, no one will mistake them for ostriches in zoos or circuses, even those who have never seen ostriches.

Someone collapsed and cried on the spot, fleeing into the cabin.

Someone hurriedly shouted: "Calm down, there are quicksands around, they can't get through."

Yup!

The quicksand that had been cursed just now immediately became a defensive barrier.

But this layer of barrier is weaker than the fog. More than a dozen giant birds have already stepped on the beach, and it seems that they are not affected at all.

Then they rushed to the ship, and even if one wanted to deceive oneself, one could not say that there was no quicksand where the birds stood.

Before the attacker boarded the boat, the terrified people caused a large number of casualties because they pushed and trampled each other.

People kept falling off the ship.

Someone grabbed the railing next to the hull, hung in mid-air and struggled, and suddenly "flyed".

A giant bird plunged its hooked beak into his back, then ran back with its prey, re-entering the mist.

The shrill screams spread far away.

The first officer watched those giant birds flapping their wings easily, jumping several meters high, using their sharp claws and beaks together, and easily climbed onto the Elizabeth.

What followed was a massacre on deck.

Most of the passengers lost consciousness at the first moment. They could not move their bodies and felt only fear.

Because of the distance, the rest of Xinxin escaped into the cabin in time, and found a hiding place on the boat like Cindy.

But those giant birds didn't stay outside to "enjoy" their prey. They followed into the Elizabeth and picked out the prey one by one according to the smell.

After these cruel monsters took a mouthful of fresh meat, they couldn't help looking at the living people who could jump and move.

Some people pushed their companions to the feet of the monsters, thinking that they could escape by doing so. As a result, the giant birds stopped biting after the prey died, and continued to chase them.

The mate had no memory of how he had escaped into the store room behind the kitchen.

"...Are we the only ones left on board?"

"No, there were sporadic sounds of wooden warehouses just now, mixed with the screams, and there were people!"

Despair spread in my heart.

All three were injured, the worst of which was a fractured right arm.

A piece of flesh was missing from the first mate's shoulder, and he felt his forehead was hot, and bright red liquid oozes from the wound again.

"I can't do it anymore," the first mate said to himself.

At this time, the storage room door was suddenly opened.

People were frightened and raised their weapons in unison.

"Wait, only humans can break doorknobs."

"That won't work either, we can't open the door."

The door of the dispute room was knocked lightly again.

"anyone there?"

It was a young woman's voice, urgent but not alarmed.

"There is something in the storage room that can make an explosion. If you don't use it, can you give it to me?"

Survivors: "..."

***

Ten minutes earlier, Cindy had revived her unconscious grandmother.

The giant bird corpse that blocked the gap in the wall bought her enough buffer time.

She heard the intense sound of wooden barns.

Cindy had no idea how many people died on the boat, and how many people were lucky enough to hide like her.

"We need to find a way."

This is a sinking ship, and the best hiding places won't last long, because the quicksand will force people out of the cabin.

Mrs. Fenier had been silent since she was rescued by Cindy. At this moment, she suddenly touched the wooden warehouse.

Cindy reacted quickly, and pressed Mrs. Fenier's arm.

"……grandmother."

Cindy begged in a low voice.

Two arms, one young and healthy, the other with loose skin and age spots on the back of the hand.

"I want to go easy, Cindy. It hurts to be swallowed by quicksand, and I don't want to be eaten by that monster," Mrs. Fennier insisted.

"No, you don't think so, you just worry about dragging me down."

Cindy thinks that her grandmother is not a suicidal character at all. If she gave her the wooden barn, Mrs. Fennel would rush to the giant bird with a weapon to buy her time to escape.

"It's quicksand outside, I can't run out." Cindy persuaded in a low voice.

Mrs. Fenier said forcefully: "We all heard the sound of the wooden cabin. There are other people alive on board. You should be with them."

Cindy pressed Mrs. Fenier's hand, and continued to insist: "You don't need to do this, just stay here, let me take my weapon and go out to find a way. I can hear the voices of those monsters, grandma, you Trust me."

Five minutes later, Cindy left the cabin.

The cabin corridor was filled with thick blood and stench.

Cindy stepped on an unknown puddle of flesh and blood at the door, almost slipped and fell, and stretched out her hand to hold on to the wall, which was sticky again.

Cindy didn't wipe her hands. There was hardly a clean place to step down in this corridor.

The paw prints of giant birds, dragged bloodstains, broken corpses...

Cindy stared down the hallway, listening warily to her surroundings as she hopped over obstacles on the ground, an ability she developed at the age of four on the wreckage of the bombed streets.

Relying on her keen hearing, Cindy managed to avoid the giant birds that were hunting and sneaked into the kitchen.

Then it was found that the door of the storage room was locked and someone was inside.

"... I want flour, cocoa powder, sugar, and candles."

Cindy knocked on the door, then walked to a blind spot where the people inside could not open the wooden cabin for the first time, and urged, "The ship is still sinking, and it will not be long before the quicksand covers the deck. No matter where we hide, we will After the ship is completely swallowed by quicksand, it will be a grave."

Even the storage room is not completely sealed, quicksand will penetrate everywhere, and will soon fill every corner of the cabin, and there is indeed only a dead end.

And so the door opened.

***

Fifteen nautical miles away.

A group of dense fog moving at high speed suddenly stopped, silently watching the larger and denser fog area ahead.

"is it here?"

Jason asked Gemil to confirm.

Gamir closed his eyes and replied: "Well, I heard the singing played by the rock palace. The quicksand will flow in from the pores of the palace with the ebb and flow of the sea tide, playing beautiful music... Of course, the sound is monotonous. A little, but with the shipwrecks surrounding the island and the wailing of the undead, it's fitting."

Jason had to interrupt the mermaid's reflections on the death opera.

"No, there seems to be an unusual aura here, which is not the same as what I found last time when I passed by and checked." Jason struggled to describe, "It used to be like a peaceful tomb where the undead shut up fell asleep, and now they are awake."

"Ok?"

Gemil was about to speak when suddenly there was an explosion sound from the other side of the island.

Such a distance, humans can't hear it, except for evil gods.

Gemil frowned, the dissonant sound was like adding noise to the music.

Then there were three explosions in a row.

Jason: "..."

Something must have happened.

Jason reminded Gemil: "Wait a minute, I'll change the boat."

The new collection is complete, it will sink when it hits quicksand, and it can only be changed to the oldest Spanish ghost ship.

Because the "keel" is Jensen himself, the evil god will not be swallowed by quicksand, so Jensen has nothing to fear.

The dark and decaying ghost ship plunged into the thick fog.

Its speed was not slow at all, and it approached Sable Island very quickly.

The vision of the evil god will not be affected by the dense fog, and they saw the scene of fighting.

More than a dozen mutated giant birds surrounded a ship stuck in quicksand.

They neighed and hesitated.

"Strange, why didn't they get on the boat? They were bombed just now?" Jason asked.

Then the decisive battle began.

The survivors on the ship seemed to be very accurate in their Mu Cang methods. The huge bird was a natural target because of its huge body.

If it weren't for the power of mutation that made them extremely strong, many giant birds would not be able to get up after being shot.

They are enraged.

Some people died tragically one after another, and the rest lost their minds, attacking monsters frantically, and the situation gradually became chaotic.

The human advantage keeps shrinking.

"boom."

A piece of minced meat was thrown out.

The giant bird suddenly turned its head and looked there.

An old British woman held a kitchen knife, cut off a part that looked like a giant bird's carcass, and continued to throw it out.

The giant birds rushed over frantically.

"Crack, crack, crack!"

Seven or eight survivors cooperated subconsciously to open the wooden warehouse, wounding three giant birds and killing two.

The giant birds are not irrational creatures, and they're starting to back off.

"Go on, see? The corpses of these monsters can float on the quicksand! We can be saved by stepping on their corpses!" a man shouted at the top of his lungs.

Jason and Gemil ignored him, and Qiqi looked at a woman hiding beside him.

She hit two wooden warehouses every once in a while, and every shot would hit the eye, and every time the giant bird flapped its wings to attack, she could narrowly avoid it.

There is only one reason why the evil god is attracted to ants, brightness.

Jason has seen ones that glow constantly, and ones that flicker on and off, but this kind of whole body is light and shallow, and the light is mainly concentrated on the head, like wearing a bubble helmet... I have never seen it!

Jason remembered the divers he had seen in Jamaica.

"This...is really the house of Thoth, the God of Wisdom? Can it attract investigators with the trait of wisdom?"

"No, it's a voice. She can hear some mysterious voices."

Gemil dug out the taxonomy of ants from his memory and explained it to Jason.

If there is only hearing and not enough willpower to protect the brain, this human being would have gone crazy long ago.