'Whoosh! Whoosh!'
Strong winds suddenly swept across the sea. The once-calm air became turbulent as wind and thunder surged together, racing over the ocean and stirring layer after layer of waves.
'Rumble!'
Dark clouds swallowed the sky. Lightning flashed back and forth, making the world alternately brighten and shatter into white light.
The 'Logan' began rocking violently from side to side as the sea grew increasingly rough, forcing the crew to grab onto the nearest railings to keep their balance.
"Is it about to happen? This weather is terrifying!" Chaporos shouted.
Rogen remained seated cross-legged at the bow, staring into the sea below. His body seemed rooted to the deck, swaying in perfect sync with the ship.
Beneath the water, streams of bubbles erupted one after another, spreading upward like a burning fuse and multiplying exponentially as they rose.
'Splash!'
Rain suddenly poured from the storm clouds above, crashing onto the sea and sending ripples racing across the surface. Then Rogen's eyes narrowed.
"Jason! Hard to starboard! Forward thirty meters! Hurry!" His voice was sharp with urgency.
Jason didn't hesitate for a second. He rushed to the helm and spun the wheel all the way over.
'Creak...'
The 'Logan' groaned as it surged through the storm. In only ten seconds, it had crossed thirty meters and reached the position Rogen had indicated.
'Glub... Glub...'
Only then did everyone notice that countless bubbles were rapidly bursting up from the exact spot where they had been moments earlier. It looked as though some violent reaction was taking place beneath the sea.
The rolling storm clouds, the howling wind, the roaring lightning, everything combined to create an overwhelming pressure that made it difficult to breathe. After reaching the new position, the 'Logan' came to a stop, rising and falling with the waves.
Five nautical miles away, Cricket clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white. Sweat covered his forehead as he watched, his heart ready to leap out of his chest.
"You have to be careful... You have to make it... The Knock Up Stream is about to erupt!" He couldn't help worrying.
The instant the Knock Up Stream erupted, the force it released was every bit as terrifying as a volcanic eruption.
The difference was that volcanic eruptions eventually lost momentum and fell back to earth, whereas the Knock Up Stream possessed enough power to blast water ten thousand meters into the sky. The energy released in that instant was enough to destroy everything nearby.
'Rumble!'
Thunder roared overhead. The storm grew even fiercer, and rain hammered down on the 'Logan', soaking everyone's clothes. As they watched the growing patches of bubbles on the sea, they all sensed that something unbelievable was about to happen.
"Captain, what do we do now?" Trens asked.
"We wait. When the Knock Up Stream erupts, we'll use the force of the rising seawater to launch ourselves into the sky," Rogen answered calmly.
If they failed to identify the center of the eruption, both the 'Logan' and everyone aboard would be obliterated the moment the current exploded upward.
But if they stayed just outside the center and treated it like sailing on an unusual sea, there was an excellent chance the ship would ride the current all the way into the sky. After all, a ship was meant to sail on water. As long as there was water beneath it, it could keep moving.
Time slowly passed, and the bubbles spread farther and farther. Half an hour later, they covered an area nearly three hundred meters wide.
The center, however, was the most astonishing. Like an enormous fountain in the middle of a city, a column of seawater was surging straight upward, already reaching ten meters high. Within thirty meters around it, the sea had begun slowly rotating, forming a small whirlpool.
"Move closer! We're getting ready to launch!" Rogen pointed toward the center and shouted.
Jason immediately obeyed, steering the ship toward the rapidly changing waters. Since they were already close to the center, they entered the whirlpool before long. The 'Logan' creaked loudly as it began rotating with the current.
Fortunately, with the sails and steam engine working together, Jason managed to keep the ship mostly under control.
Five minutes later, the whirlpool grew even larger, its expansion becoming faster and faster. The water column at the center had risen to thirty meters high with a diameter of roughly five meters. It was a magnificent sight.
"What on earth is keeping that thing shooting into the sky? It's unbelievable!" The crew stared upward in shock.
As the whirlpool expanded, more seawater spiraled into the pillar, making it wider, taller, and even more breathtaking. Meanwhile, as the whirlpool grew, the 'Logan' was gradually carried away from the center.
"Keep us ten meters from the central water column! Jason, remember, ten meters!" Using the Rinnegan to monitor everything beneath the sea, Rogen shouted seriously. He knew the real eruption was almost here. Ten meters was the closest, and safest, distance.
"Got it!" Jason roared back, gripping the helm with both powerful hands.
"Everyone else! Grab onto something!" Rogen shouted again, and everyone immediately did as they were told.
Far away, Cricket watched all of this with his heart in his throat. As the weather worsened, he retreated another three nautical miles, observing from an even safer distance.
A few minutes later, the water column had already reached a height of one hundred meters, and its diameter had expanded to nearly ten meters. The towering pillar was so magnificent that it made everyone's heart pound.
"My God... This is unbelievable!"
Everyone was stunned. Trens and Crocodile remained relatively calm, they had both been to the New World before, but everyone else felt as though their entire worldview had been shaken.
"Hold on! It's about to erupt!" Rogen, who had been watching the sea without blinking, suddenly shouted. "Jason! Get us closer!" His rapid commands snapped everyone out of their daze.
"Got it!" Jason answered loudly.
The sails swelled under the powerful wind as the 'Logan' rushed toward the massive pillar of water.
'Rumble...'
Ten seconds later, the entire ship shook violently. Then panicked cries erupted from every direction.
"Ahhhh!"
"The ship's moving!"
"There's something underneath us!" Chaporos screamed.
Daz Bonez's face turned green, while the six Dragon-Elephant trainees were so frightened that tears streamed down their faces as they clung desperately to the mast.
Everyone could feel it: the 'Logan' wasn't simply turning left or right; it was rotating upward. Its bow slowly lifted toward the sky while its stern pointed down toward the sea.
'Buzzz...'
Everything trembled. The sails billowed, and the fierce wind whipped everyone's hair wildly around them.
"We're taking off!" Still sitting cross-legged at the bow, Rogen threw back his head and laughed.
(End Of This Chapter)
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