Chapter 903: The Battle of the Three Whales Against Lu Bu
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The male whale suddenly rushed towards Zhang Zian’s assault boat as if it went berserk. Zhang Zian was completely stunned.
Why?
Zhang Zian didn’t come over on a whim. He had read up on information about the habits of whales before he came, but the situation in front of him left him dumbfounded. They were a few hundreds of meters apart. Zhang Zian did not know how he had provoked the whale.
Was it because he patted the young minke whale?
I heard that some animals will abandon their children once they smell the scent of human beings on them, but this can’t be the case now, right? The young minke whale isn’t the child of the male whale, and a whale’s vision isn’t good enough to see across a few hundred meters.
How did it see Zian pat the minke whale?
Also, Sihwa’s singing seemed to have taken effect earlier. Why did the male whale start to attack again? Was there a time limit on the effects of the singing?
The surprise and doubt had only flashed in his mind for a moment; he didn’t have the time to be surprised. The male whale was charging towards him at full force, and that time it was definitely not a warning attack. Once it rammed into the assault boat, both Zhang Zian and his boat would be smashed into pieces.
The electric motor had a large turning radius. He might be caught up before he completed the turn. So, Zian picked up the paddle that was next to him and paddled with all his might on one side of the boat, turning the assault boat around to face the coast, then he started the motor.
The propeller stirred up white splashes of water, and the bow of the assault boat was raised high as it headed for the coast at full speed.
Zian kept looking back behind him. The male whale was much faster than him, and it had already traveled halfway in just the blink of an eye.
Strangely, the young minke whale did not show any signs of blocking or intervening. It just seemed lost while the female whale was in a panic. She used her head to nudge her own child, as if she was urging her child to run away.
When the assault boat was some distance away, Zhang Zian suddenly realized that something was wrong. The target of the male whale did not seem to be him; its charging route pointed to another direction. It was on the other side of the position the assault boat was before.
What’s going on? Did the male whale see a whaling ship? Was that why it was behaving like it was being confronted by a formidable enemy?
But it couldn’t be possible… How could there be a whaling ship on China’s coastline?
Zhang Zian was confused, but when he saw that he wasn’t in danger, he reduced the power of the motor slightly and looked over in that direction. However, there was nothing unusual there––at least nothing on the surface of the sea.
Just as he was in a daze, a towering water pillar broke through the waves, shooting up to about ten meters high from the surface of the water. It was just like a fountain!
The surging water pillar was thick, and there was even a faint whistle, the unique sound of the airflow passing through the small hole at high speed.
When the water pillar rose to the highest point, it returned to the sea like a heavy downpour.
A sea breeze blew, and tiny water droplets splashed onto Zian’s face, but he didn’t wipe them off. Instead, he stared straight in that direction.
At first, Zian thought that he was looking at a submarine surfacing out from the sea; he even guessed whether the United States imperialist submarine was attempting to invade China’s territorial waters and that he was witnessing the beginning of the Third World War… But after he looked closely at it, it wasn’t any kind of submarine––it was a giant whale!
The whale was an adult whale and it was really big––most likely one of the largest types of whales. The waves produced when it rose out to the surface of the water could even make the assault boat, which was over a hundred meters away, bob up and down as if it was trembling in fear.
Zian immediately recognized that the whale was definitely the giant whale he saw from the shore before!
The male whale swam up to the mother and son and turned sharply to the side, blocking right in front of them, as it tried to protect them with its own body.
But the difference in their sizes was just too giant!
The male whale was about eight meters long, but the giant whale was at least three times longer, and even ten times heavier!
In front of the giant whale, the three minke whales were no different from newborn babies. As for Zhang Zian’s assault boat… it was probably the same as an eggshell.
Zhang Zian now understood that the three minke whales must have noticed the approaching giant whale, which explained their earlier behavior.
It was no wonder they were so terrified. The huge whale was almost an indomitable existence in the sea, and except for humans, even the Great White Shark and Killer Whale were not its match.
When Zhang Zian saw its humongous tail fins briefly rise out of the water, he was more because parasites, known as barnacles, were attached to its large caudal fins.
The barnacle was a crustacean that liked to attach themselves on marine creatures such as whales, and sometimes they would even attach themselves to the bottom of a ship. Their weak bodies were hidden in their hard, calcareous shells, exposing only their thoracic limbs to prey on nearby planktons.
If whale lice were bad parasitic tenants with only harm and no benefit to their host, then the barnacles were still somewhat useful.
The strong whale tail was already like a metal bat––it was very powerful. After the hard barnacles attached themselves to the tail, it was now a dreadful mace, and if it was used against other creatures, it would definitely split their skin and tear their flesh.
With the strength of the whale, one whip of its tail could stun a medium-sized whale. Now, if it were to use it on a person… that person would die before feeling any pain.
If one judged it by its chubby appearance and felt that it wouldn’t be able to swim fast, it was definitely a big mistake. The whale swam faster than most of the surface ships that humans had. Under its thick layer of fat were incomparably strong muscles, and when it utilized its caudal fins, they were almost like the propeller of a warship.
In front of the giant beast, Zhang Zian was too lazy to escape. If it wanted to chase after him, he would be caught up in an instant. On the other hand, if it didn’t want to chase after him, there was no need to escape.
Zian did not forget the purpose of his visit, which was to see if the whale was injured or sick.
Another reason that he did not escape was because he had an ace up his sleeve—Sihwa’s singing.
Zian had misunderstood earlier––Sihwa’s singing did not fail, and the target of the male whale’s hostility was not him, but instead the giant whale that was approaching quickly.
Since it did not fail, what was the point of him escaping? All he had to do was to let the giant whale know that he’s not a bad person.
Coming to that conclusion, Zhang Zian slightly regained his calmness.
After the giant whale emerged from the water, it did not take any excessive actions. It just continued to swim at a low speed on the surface of the sea, but its cruising route had intentionally or unintentionally blocked the escape path of the three minke whales, making them unable to swim towards the deep sea.
In the face of a guy who was bigger and faster than itself, the three minke whales were completely helpless.
The male whale was obviously enraged. Even if the other whale was much bigger than itself, how could it be afraid of death in front of its crush?
It let out a long and low-pitched cry, tearing through the waters as it rushed over to the giant whale. In the eyes of a bystander like Zhang Zian, its action was just courting its own defeat––just as how Don Quixote tried to challenge the windmill.
Zian quickly sank the underwater speaker into the water again and began to play Sihwa’s song, hoping to stop the meaningless battle between them.