48 Hours a Day

Chapter 908: Changes And Weapons

The fear of death diluted Nellie’s joy of her wall carving discovery.

She did not stay in the same place for too long. After snapping photos she wanted of the wall carving, she continued to swim forward. However, the wall carving’s story did not end there. Although Nellie was focussing on finding a way out, she glanced at the wall carvings from time to time. Unless she kept her vision completely dead ahead, she’d inadvertently catch a glimpse of those carvings.

The dive computer showed that she had arrived at a depth of 35 meters. This place was also nearly ten meters deeper than the place they were previously at, meaning that the water pressure had also increased considerably. Nellie had also almost depleted all the oxygen in her tank.

At the same time, the content of the wall carvings had turned from romantic to gloomy. The multitude of grown-up children had now returned to the sea, where they were gathered at a place. After that, they chose to follow one of the two leaders. One of them looked like the monster that Zhang Heng spotted earlier, but it was larger in size. The second leader was a giant snake with nine heads.

Speaking of Hydra, after the famous villain organization in the Marvel universe, the second most famous Hydra had to be the monster in Greek mythology. Later, it was reflected in the wall carvings. Under the leadership of the huge monster mermaid and the Hydra, the creatures caused a lot of trouble and held many disgusting rituals. They went as far as to use fishes and some sort of gold to earn the opportunity to reproduce with them.

These monsters paid most of their attention to the reproduction of their offspring. They had no idea why they could not reproduce among themselves; hence they had to deceive humans to get what they wanted. Sometimes, they would pretend to be pirates, attack coastal towns, and kidnap their residents.

Nellie felt a little disgusted after looking at the wall carvings. She no longer felt that their actions were romantic. What really frightened her, however, were the following carvings: the mermaids prayed and summoned something to disorient the pearl divers, then lured them to their lair for copulation.

When she saw that, Nellie felt a chill sent up her spine. She started to be lost in panic, paralyzing fear hitting her like a massive tide. Although the wall carvings had no color, Nellie knew what the mermaid had summoned.

It was the red tide.

In other words, she was now experiencing the same phenomenon the pearl divers had experienced, just like what the carvings depicted. Even though Nellie knew she needed to stay calm when encountering danger underwater and that she had been telling other divers the same thing, remaining calm at this moment seemed almost impossible. Her hands couldn’t help but tremble as they held the flashlight.

Compared to dying here, it was undoubtedly more terrifying to be forced to reproduce with those monsters. Nellie did even want to go forward anymore. Still, there was only 60 bar of oxygen remaining in her cylinder. As a professional diver, Nellie knew that every second she delayed would reduce her chances of returning to the shore alive. Despite all that, she could not get herself to start moving.

The thing in front of her had been waiting for her for a long time. When the monster flashed the flashlight at Nellie again, fear completely overtook her mind. With her reflexes taking over, she automatically turned around and fled before she even knew it.

But the monster could clearly see that Nellie was attempting to make a run for it. A black shadow began to swim towards Nellie from the end of the tunnel, much faster than her speed. As the creature gracefully moved its flippers, the water around it would be automatically dispersed. Although it had come up behind Nellie, it did not immediately attack her.

Instead, it kicked the water and passed Nellie. It then turned its head around and gave Nellie a creepy smile, almost causing the poor girl to suffer a cardiac arrest.

When Nellie saw what the creature looked like, she almost screamed out loud. She then saw an arm stretching out from the rock next to the monster. It grabbed the monster’s by the fin on its back and smashed its head against the rock. The massive impact stunned the ugly monster completely, especially after its head was smashed on the rock. The grim smile on its face was frozen in place.

Due to water resistance, it didn’t suffer any serious injuries. Instead, the attack only served to provoke its bloodthirst. Attempting to free itself, it kicked the rock with its legs and swung its claws behind it to attack its assailant. Zhang Heng, however, clearly moved faster. Seeing the monster in a confused state, he quickly jumped on its back.

After that, he grabbed a sharp stone with his hand and stabbed the monster’s eye, blinding one of its eyes immediately. And before the monster could react, Zhang Heng swiftly stabbed another eye. This final stab blinded the monster completely; the intense pain it experienced caused it to roll around. It started flailing wildly on its back, causing the two to hit the rock wall.

Nellie was completely astounded by the sight before her eyes. She recognized that the person who saved her was Zhang Heng, but she did not know how he appeared here. Zhang Heng appearing here was even more surprising than seeing the monster. Nellie didn’t sense anyone following her, not to mention the fact that Zhang Heng had tried to dissuade her from going after the beam.

Nellie also knew that it wasn’t the time to dwell on such questions. Now, although Zhang Heng had blinded the monster as soon as he showed up, he got into some trouble after that.

If Zhang Heng, who had just obtained Lv.3 assassin skill, had fought this monster on land, he would’ve trounced it. However, he was now fighting with it underwater and weaponless at that. His every move was tremendously slow compared to on land, and spontaneously grabbing weapons around him to damage a monster covered in scales and thick skin would prove more than daunting.

Fortunately, Nellie, who was beside him, had also noticed this problem. So, she immediately tossed her diving knife to Zhang Heng. The knife Nellie carried wasn’t meant to be used for underwater fighting but to deal with tangled seaweed, nets, or ropes. Little did she expect that it would come in handy in such a critical situation.

Zhang Heng decided he wouldn’t dismount the monster’s back because it wasn’t currently in a frenzied state. If he came down from its back right now, there was a high probability the monster would injure him. So, while distracting the struggling monster beneath him, leading it to the wall, he caught the knife thrown by Nellie.

Before the monster could hit the stone wall again, Zhang Heng stabbed its heart with the knife.

The razor-sharp stainless steel blade proved more lethal than the stones, piercing the monster’s skin with relative ease. The monster then struggled for a while before spurts of its blood dyed the surrounding waters red.

Soon, the monster gradually struggled less, and in the end, stopped moving completely.