Haidu: Top of the Tower

Chapter 10 First Half and Second Half
On the morning of the duel, the sky was clear and clear, and gold fragments shone in the dark blue waves.Under the bright hot sun, the teak deck, the metal railings, the flags on the mast... everything was so clear and sharp that it made Milady flustered.

At 59:[-] in the morning, the second deck was full of people.

Since boarding the ship, it was the first time for Milady to see the crew of the Night Castle so packed together: they huddled behind the fence, whispered, and stretched their necks; in the center with the best view, there was a captain Lu Ran Zhou—he had moved a chair earlier, and his arms were limply resting on the railing, which looked exactly the same as the one hung on it.

The conversations, worries, excitement, rustling, alcohol smell of people on the second deck... mixed with the salty and humid sea breeze, it is hard to tell what can make people burn in the bottom of their hearts.Milady's palms were hot and itchy, making her unable to sit still and stand upright. Even the strong man who was as tall as a hill on the opposite side seemed to have lost some color and threat.

Surrounding them in a semi-circle on the deck are all kinds of organs, large and small.After deducting the unsuitable mechanisms, the mechanism engineers on the ship piled up the rest on the deck early in the morning.

"It's eleven o'clock!" Someone shouted.

Lu Ranzhou clapped his hands on the second deck.

"Okay, the next three to ten minutes is the time for you to choose the mechanism. According to the rules agreed by both parties, the ship owner, that is, my old man, generously provided 10 mechanisms. You can only choose from this range, and each person has a maximum of five. Guess the punch, whoever wins will come first."

As soon as the captain finished speaking, Dao Mingke strode up to Milady with a gloomy face, and stopped only two or three steps away.

"one,"

He stared at Milady with a flat grin on his face.

"two,"

As Dao Mingke spoke, he swung his arms high.

"three!"

At the same time Milady heard the sound of his hand, he also slammed down a heavy and fast fist, which hit her face directly, and the strong wind blew away the broken hair on her forehead—there was a sudden sound on the second deck. Gasp.

"Scared me, I thought he was going to hit someone..." someone said.

Milady lowered her eyes and looked at the fist that stopped in front of her nose at the last moment.

As he got closer, he felt Dao Mingke's power even more: his fists were the size of a sea bowl, his joints were thick and wide, and his muscles were plump and swollen. He might knock anyone who dared to challenge him unconscious with a single punch.

But there was not even a trace of panic on Milady's face.

"Oh, I lost." As she said, she withdrew Bi Scissors' right hand.

Dao Mingke stared at her, half surprised, half annoyed, and withdrew his fist.

"It's over," when a crew member commented, his voice was wrapped in the sea breeze and sent down. "She was originally at an absolute disadvantage, and choosing an agency can be said to be her only chance to win, but in the end she was won by Dao Mingke..."

"It's not the only chance, is it?" Some people seem to be unconvinced.

"Why not? You count..." The last half of the sentence was blown away by the sea breeze.

When Dao Minke turned and walked away, it seemed that even the air around him loosened suddenly, as if he breathed a sigh of relief because he didn't have to be squeezed by him anymore.

He wandered around in the mechanism and laughed "ha". "The mechanism engineer on our ship is so stingy? How come there are only a few of them?"

25 organs is not a small number.

In particular, mercenaries at sea are generally used to using their own force mechanisms, and the ship does not have many, let alone those self-propelled, human-shaped and other advanced large-scale combined mechanisms on land; Milady is very clear, It is actually very difficult for the mechanism engineers on board to collect 25 units for them to choose.

How difficult is it?
Of the 25 organs, only four are weapons.

The remaining organs are of various types and purposes: some are responsible for lifting, some are for pumping sea water, some are for cleaning, some are for illuminating lights, and there is one that seems to be steaming bread in the kitchen... In addition to lifting them Except for getting up and hitting people on the head, they really can't be called harmful.

Even Dao Mingke saw a path to absolute victory at this moment.

"Take them all away," a friend of Dao Mingke shouted from the upper deck, "There are only four in total, let's take them all, and don't keep one for her! Without the military mechanism, what can she do? "

"It's not fair," someone said.

"It's agreed that one person will get five sets, but there is no stipulation on which one to take. How is it unfair?" The friend immediately retorted, "This is agreed by both of them! If she wins the boxing game, can she not use all four force mechanisms?" Take it? I don't believe it."

Dao Mingke didn't speak.He turned his back to Milady, thought for a while in silence, walked to a box-like mechanism, opened the lid, and took off a pair of gloves.

Someone on the second deck whistled.

"It's ruthless enough, so there shouldn't be any real accidents." The crew member said just now, "That's not an ordinary glove. Did you see a pipe behind the box? Normally, the pipe goes into the sea, and the mechanism uses hydraulic power to produce it." Take out the current, and then charge it into the lightning gloves... They must have been fully charged beforehand."

"So powerful? It seems that Milady must never let him get close."

"You can't run away even if you are far away," the crew member who was in charge of explaining himself snorted and said, "Is the sky far away from you? Does the lightning strike the same way? At most, it is far away, and the aiming head is lowered a little." That's all."

Milady turned a deaf ear to the discussion, her eyes only followed Dao Minke, and anyone who saw it would feel that she was in extreme tension.

Dao Mingke quickly chose the next one, bent down and picked up a barrel-like metal mechanism from the ground.

Unlike the cannon barrel, it does not have an ejection pipe, but only a long and heavy sharp steel fork in the front section. Look, the power of its launch is probably extremely strong.

This mechanism does not need to be introduced, anyone who makes a living at sea knows it.

"What's the matter with the mechanism engineer on our ship," the volunteer guide muttered, "even the whale chain guns are taken out..."

Let alone a mere little girl on the deck, even if Milady is a whale under the sea, she still cannot escape the two combat levels chosen by Dao Mingke.To everyone's surprise, after choosing two weapons, Dao Mingke backed away with his things.

"It's your turn," he said, lifting his chin.

Milady was taken aback. "How many more?"

"Two pieces for one person, you don't have to complain if you're a ghost."

In all fairness, the two military mechanisms he left for Milady are not bad, and they are quite powerful if they are used well.

However, the problem is that when they cannot be assembled on a large mechanism, Milady can barely lift them up with all her strength; because it is too heavy, she can't even walk steadily and stumbles After two steps, he had to put it down again, causing the upper deck to burst into laughter.

"How do you fight?" Dao Mingke said impatiently. "The lightning gloves weigh more than ten kilograms. Even if I exchange them for you, how many seconds can you hold your arms up?"

Milady frowned sadly.Time passed by, but she couldn't even pick up the mechanism, she looked around for a while, and then turned back; after waiting for more than ten minutes, Dao Mingke finally couldn't help saying: "If you can't beat it, admit defeat, don't grind!" Waste of time!"

"Who said you can't fight?" Milady twisted her head, and she was really angry. "I'm going to teach you today who you can't mess with."

As soon as she finished speaking, she didn't think about it at all, and reached out to pick up a half-moon-shaped board; in one breath, she grabbed several pieces one after another, making Dao Mingke sneer.

"Do you think the more traps the better? Let me tell you, get one or two, and then you can focus on making the most of them. You've got so many, let alone using them, and you're in a hurry just to figure out which is which. .”

Milady ignored him, but almost lost control of one of the traps, which provoked a burst of laughter from Dao Mingke's friend.

Taking advantage of the time before the start of the duel, the two inspected and tested the mechanisms in their hands.

Just now, Milady moved quickly, and the people on the second deck didn't see what she took. Now she tried, which immediately caused a commotion mixed with yelling and laughter-some people shouted in amused and worried Said: "Captain, let her re-election, she took a mopping machine!"

In the cabin of a sea ship with a closed space, it is easier to breed insects and germs, so cleaning is naturally very important; the small bucket-like remote control decontamination mechanism is round and fat, with four round brushes under its stomach. Just now Milady tried it. A piece of soapy water spewed out from the center of the round brush, and the brush head buzzed and circled as it walked and wiped, but it wiped the area around her feet wet and shiny.

Lu Ranzhou waved his hand, not paying attention. "I put away all the things, let's just leave it at that, hey, everyone has their own life."

"This is really going to fail," said the voluntary commentator on the head. "If Milady is smart, she should admit defeat now. She doesn't even have a force mechanism in her hand, and even if she does, she can beat Dao Minke." Not to mention, even if he stood still and let her beat him, how could she knock Dao Mingke off the boat? Can she lift a man weighing more than 200 kilograms and throw it over the railing?"

That is definitely not possible.

Milady looked at the mopping machine and simply kicked it away, causing another burst of laughter.She didn't seem to have heard the persuasion of "Quickly admit defeat, don't be ashamed" and "Don't make fun of your life" on the second deck, and checked the other three mechanisms.

The half-moon-shaped board is an "airflow skateboard". As the name suggests, after putting your feet into the toe covers on the board, you can glide in the air. It is especially suitable for when the sea is windy, and it is very convenient to detect sea areas.

Another hollow muff-like mechanism is a tool for maintenance and repair on the ship. It can melt, weld, and repair many kinds of materials. She slipped it behind her waist.The third mechanism looked funny, a leather ring seemed to be inlaid with two compound eyes of flies, and a straw protruded from the middle, she simply put it around her neck, like wearing an ugly necklace.

No matter how ridiculous the equipment was, Milady didn't change her mind.

At eleven-thirty someone rang a bell.

At the same time when the crisp bell rang through the sea breeze, Milady didn't dare to delay, kicked off the airflow skateboard hurriedly, and leaped into the air——because of improper strength, she rolled a few times, and even got her head kicked for half a second hanging in the air.

However, she barely escaped the gust of punching wind rushing in front of her.

According to the duel rules, the two cannot have physical contact, and only Dao Mingke's mechanism and the attacks from the mechanism can touch Milady; then when he put on the lightning gloves, he swung Milady's fist, and naturally It's an organ attack.

The most shocking thing may not be the weight of his punches.

Milady has always been proud of her own speed, but she didn't expect that Dao Mingke's full-strength burst would be so fast. Even with such a heavy mechanism, he still rushed over in the blink of an eye; his legs seemed to have their own With a force of more than a thousand catties, it hit the deck heavily and quickly, providing him with the power of a cannonball.

Although she dodged in time, the onlookers were sweating: this time it was just a probing attack, and Milady was prepared to dodge it. What about the next time Dao Minke caught him by surprise?

"It hides as fast as a mouse." Dao Minke stared at Milady who was staggering in mid-air, took two steps back, and said, "You think I can't help you if you are in the air? Try this."

Only halfway through his words, the whale chain cannon was lifted up and aimed at Milady in the sky.

Dao Mingke stared at her closely with a steel fork with a bowl-sized mouth, and slowly smiled.

As long as the trigger is pulled, God knows how hard it will penetrate the air, as well as her breastbone?

Milady broke out in a cold sweat.

Ever since she got on the air skateboard, she discovered—presumably Dao Minke also discovered that—although the speed of the board is not slow, it sometimes needs to ride the air current, and sometimes needs to step through the long wind, whether it is to borrow force from the air, or Wrestling with the air, the board will inevitably need time to swing and adjust.

In the eyes of humans, these gaps can pass in the blink of an eye; but under the power and speed of the whale piercing chain gun, Milady knew that she couldn't dodge it at all.

How to do?
On the right arm of Dao Minke holding the whale chain gun, the muscles suddenly bulged slightly.

As soon as she realized that the muscle was bulging, Milady suddenly flipped in the air and jumped far away towards the sea outside the railing.

Almost at the same time, the air pierced through the mourning pierced into each pair of ears.Even the person with the best eyesight could only see a phantom clearly. Amidst the exclamation of everyone, the spear tip instantly penetrated Milady - where she was just now.

As for herself, she fell squarely to the sea.

The speed of the airflow skateboard was far inferior to that of the whale chain gun, so Milady immediately closed the skateboard as soon as she jumped out.

She tried her best to pull out the distance just now, so when the steel fork that shot quickly was on the way, she was already pulled towards the sea surface by gravity; what's more, she deliberately turned upwards, which forced the whale chain gun to form an upward firing angle , which means that as long as she can fall half body distance before the whale chain gun hits her, she is safe.

However, the whale chain cannon is too fast.Even though she had made so many preparations in advance, the steel fork narrowly brushed past her head, and she even thought she heard the sound of her hair being snapped.

"She fell into the sea?" someone shouted, "Why didn't you hear the sound of falling into the water?"

"No," a person with sharp eyes and a good angle shouted, "She opened the skateboard again before falling into the water!"

At this moment, Milady was gliding a few inches above the waves, close to the Nightcastle, trying to maintain maximum speed so as not to be thrown off by the Nightcastle.

This series of movements of jumping, turning off the skateboard, falling into the sea, and then urgently floating before touching the water can be called neat and quick, and even she couldn't believe it herself. The wind will blow her out to sea.

On the front deck, Dao Minke missed a single hit and retracted the whale chain gun.When the steel fork that fell into the sea broke through the water again, Milady jumped up several times, finally grabbed the side rail of the ship, and fell back on the side deck of the ship half climbing and half overturning.

The side deck of the Night Castle is like a walkway; at this moment, Milady has the cabin on her left and the sea on her right, but a tall and strong figure is blocked in front of her.

When Milady panted and raised her head, she happened to see Dao Minke raised an arm towards her, and the fist wrapped in lightning gloves was aimed at her from a distance; Do not take off.

At the critical moment, she rolled on the ground, barely rolled out from the gap in the railing, was wrapped in the weightlessness again, and fell to the surface of the sea; It existed on the edge of her consciousness—even Milady couldn't help closing her eyes at this moment, and her mind was empty for a moment in panic.

But only for a moment.

Before falling into the water, Milady immediately turned up again and jumped into the air again; before Dao Mingke could react, she leaped several times in a row and rushed to the deck from mid-air, which aroused everyone's applause. ll.

"I was scared to death," someone was more excited than Milady, "I thought I was going to die with such a huge thunderstorm!"

...how long has it been?

Why is the sun still so good, everything is still clear and bright?
Milady narrowly escaped death twice, as if a fire was burning in her heart that could dry out the blood, and her breath was full of anxiety.

Now she has completely fallen into a situation where she can only be beaten, unable to approach, unable to fight back, and even has to risk her life when evading, a mistake in her hair may cause her to die at sea.Seeing Dao Mingke striding back again, she jumped out of the bow in a hurry, grabbed the railing temporarily, and hid under the bow.

"What's the matter? Isn't it the noble lady of the Wave Concerto family?" Dao Mingke's voice sounded from the deck, "How long can you hide?"

Why didn't Milady know?She was so anxious that her heart almost shrank, staring at the undulating sea with white waves rolling under her feet, she couldn't think about it for a moment, she could only wait blankly.

She finally got the whiteness she wanted before Dao Mingke's next attack.

The whiteness ahead is not the waves.

Hearing Dao Mingke's footsteps approaching, Milady's heart was agitated, she let go of her hand hastily, and turned back onto the deck from the other side.When Dao Mingke turned around and came back in a leisurely manner, she quickly untied the skateboard under her feet, and ran away with the board in a hurry, which made Dao Mingke annoyed and laughed hard: "No more flying? Get ready to go into the sea!"

When he let go of his footsteps and rushed towards Milady, the accident finally began.

Milady has long heard that the sea is unpredictable, and sometimes the world can be changed in a moment—but she didn't really feel this sentence until today.

The Night Castle was still sailing through the waves in the sun just now, but it seemed that it had accidentally stepped into a magic realm, and was entangled by the rapidly thickening gray-white mist in the blink of an eye, walking through the thick fog that could not be torn apart by hand.

It was the first time in her life that she saw such a thick and dense fog, and she seemed to have difficulty breathing; when she lowered her head, her feet were faintly visible, as if she was about to leave her.

"What's going on?" Dao Mingke shouted angrily, "Why is there such a heavy fog all of a sudden?"

...it's just foggy.

Milady suppressed her rapid and heavy breathing, and slowly retreated to the railing as silently as possible.Thick fog surrounded everything around, and no one could see anyone, even people on the second deck shouted: "I can only see your shoulder!" "The fog is too thick, where are they?"

The volunteer docent spoke again.

"That's right, I almost forgot... On our voyage route, there is a section of the sea that is covered with thick fog all year round. What a coincidence, during the duel, the ship sailed into the sea of ​​thick fog."

This is not a coincidence.

At the sailing speed of the Night Castle, it will enter this sea of ​​dense fog before twelve noon today, and drive in the dense fog for at least 10 minutes--at least three people on board know about this matter: the navigator, Mi Laidi, I'm afraid there is also Lu Ranzhou who laughed yesterday when he heard about the duel time.

Milady pulled the weird organ on her neck to her face, and the two "fly compound eyes" just covered her eyes.

It was never really a fair duel.

Before entering the fog, it was Dao Mingke who chased her one-sidedly; after entering the fog, it was her turn to teach Dao Mingke a lesson.

(End of this chapter)