"These damned things, I never expected them to have such a despicable plan, even using fire and explosions for attack. It was a miscalculation. It seems that in the sea, besides sea beasts that can electrolyze oxygen, there's also a sea beast that can control hydrogen!" Tom couldn't help but curse loudly upon seeing the scene.
As the explosion occurred in the middle of the canyon, numerous cracks appeared on the glaciers on both sides, and many glaciers showed signs of melting. After all, there was a large amount of fire, and the heat released was enough to melt a lot of ice.
The worst off were those who had been attacking from a commanding position on the bridge earlier. When they discovered the bridge was cracking, they immediately tried to distance themselves from it. Now they understood that danger indeed existed, but it was too late. The violent explosion had already turned the bridge into fragments, with countless ice blocks falling into the sea. These people also fell into the sea along with the ice.
"Help! Save us, we don't want to die!" people who had fallen into the water began to cry out, hoping those on the glaciers would extend a helping hand.
But soon, they were unable to make a sound. It turned out there was a layer of colorless, transparent liquid on the sea surface. This liquid was strong acid. As soon as they fell into it, the acid corroded their bodies, leaving only bones in an instant. These bones could only slowly sink to the seabed.
"Be careful not to fall into the sea! It seems there's strong acid in the sea that can corrode human bodies. If you fall in, it's all over!" someone warned about the situation on the sea surface.
"These despicable sea beasts, I never imagined they had so many plans. It seems we can't attack from the air anymore, otherwise, fire and explosions will frequently occur!" People had already realized the situation was not right. Originally, everyone thought they could maintain an advantage in the air, but now there were two sea beasts in the sea that could produce oxygen and hydrogen. If ignition and explosion occurred, those in the air would also be in danger, so they could not act recklessly.
"What do we do next? Do we still have to use various poisons to wear them down?" someone posed this question.
"To ensure everyone's safety, we can only continue to use poisons for attack, but we don't need to directly approach the seawater now! Akusi, you can control water, so we hope you can draw seawater from a distance, allowing the esper here to synthesize poisons and then discharge them into the canyon for those sea beasts to taste!" Tom said calmly.
Now, rashly approaching the canyon, the sea beasts in the middle would be very dangerous. Therefore, they absolutely could not go down rashly, otherwise, they might not be able to come back up. The safest method was to discharge poisons from the mountains.
However, synthesizing poisons required raw materials. Fortunately, there were many elements in the sea. It could be said that whatever elements existed on Earth could be found in the sea, so people could also synthesize various poisons through seawater and then discharge them directly into the sea from above the glaciers.
"These damned sea beasts, I never thought their vitality was so tenacious. They fought so vigorously after being poisoned by Agent Orange all night!" Andorf gritted his teeth and said.
The plan that was just proposed was carried out as envisioned. Some people used their esper abilities to draw water currents to this place, and after the espers produced poisons, they discharged them into the canyon below, making the sea area below more concentrated with poison.
There were no invincible creatures in the world, because all creatures had weaknesses. Even if their vitality was extremely tenacious, they would surely fear something. Just like poisons, viruses, or bacteria, such tiny things also feared medicine, and giant sea beasts could also be killed by poisons. Now, humans decided to use this most effortless method to slowly kill the sea beasts. Once all the sea beasts were poisoned to death, the subsequent salvage would become simple.
However, the sea beasts in the seabed canyon did not choose to wait for death. When they discovered that no humans dared to approach the sea surface, they understood that the attack methods using oxygen and hydrogen might not be effective. However, they had more means.
As everyone was staring intently at the sea surface below, they suddenly noticed that the seawater seemed to become turbid. Upon closer inspection, they realized that many dark substances were emerging from the seabed. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a lot of black liquid. A careful analysis would reveal that this dark liquid must be oil.
A large number of sea beasts had dived to the seabed, so people had no idea what the sea beasts were doing underwater. They could only see a lot of sticky liquid appearing on the sea surface, and this liquid was oil.
Tom was very familiar with this substance, as his country often stole oil from all over the world before. So, he recognized it and explained, "Don't worry, this is ordinary oil. It's fine even if it sticks to you. We don't know how much oil reserves there are on the seabed. Discovering an oil field in this canyon now is not a big deal."
Once, textbooks claimed that humanity's oil resources were being depleted, and it would only take fifty to sixty years for all the oil in the world to be consumed. However, such rumors were later proven false because countless oil resources had been discovered, and the most discovered among them were in the oceans.
There were many mineral resources in the sea, and the reserves of oil and natural gas were also very rich. Whoever controlled the ocean could control endless resources, so many large countries had learned deep-sea drilling to extract these mineral resources from the sea for use.
"Are these sea beasts trying to break open the seabed oil field and burn us with oil? Isn't that too ridiculous?" someone couldn't help but laugh after seeing the sticky oil on the sea surface, because in the eyes of many, this oil was no big deal.
However, the situation on the sea surface soon changed, because fire had already fallen onto the oil. And oil, as long as it came into contact with fire, would quickly burn, even on the sea surface. In an instant, the entire canyon was covered by flames. A lot of black smoke appeared on the sea, and besides this black smoke, there was also a lot of water vapor being evaporated into the sky.
Many people on the sea were using their esper abilities to synthesize poisons and discharge them into the sea. However, as soon as they were discharged, they encountered the fierce fire and a large amount of poison was evaporated and decomposed.
"I understand. These sea beasts want to use the immense heat generated by the oil to decompose the toxins in the sea. What despicable creatures, I never thought they could have such a method!" He Qiu'an said.
There were many highly toxic substances in the world, but many of these highly toxic substances were not heat-resistant. As long as they encountered high temperatures, they would either burn and decompose, or undergo chemical changes that altered their toxicity. Many poisons would become less toxic.
Perhaps because there were sea beasts that could continuously electrolyze oxygen in the sea, the oxygen concentration here was always very abundant. Although the burning of oil was not complete, it was very fierce. Flames two to three meters high were constantly rising on the sea surface, looking like a sea of fire. Anyone who fell into it would not even have time to be dissolved by the strong acid; they would be incinerated by these fierce flames on the spot.
"What do we do now? Are we just going to watch these sea beasts use fire to isolate the battlefield? What if the surrounding ice melts then?" At this moment, many people began to feel worried. Originally, they thought that trapping the sea beasts in a narrow space was beneficial for their side, but now it seemed that the sea beasts understood the underwater situation better than humans and had come up with the method of fire attack, and in the middle of the sea.
Tom thought for a moment and said, "Let's just wait for now. Don't worry, the glaciers here are too cold to melt. Even if these flames keep burning, these glaciers won't melt. Just wait and see!"
What he said was not wrong, because although a large amount of oil was burning on the sea surface, and more oil was continuously emerging from the seabed oil field, the current flames could not melt the surrounding glaciers. Or rather, even several times more oil would not be able to melt the glaciers.
This was the Arctic Circle, and it was inside the Arctic Circle. These glaciers had stood for millions of years, perhaps even longer. And after such a long time, the glaciers had not melted, so even now, these glaciers would not be melted by flames. This was the sea beasts' method of isolating the battlefield and preparing to delay time.
Finally, people could only stand on the high glaciers, gaze at the entire battlefield, and ponder the next course of action. At this moment, they had no other means to attack the sea beasts.
However, besides this oil, there were also natural gas reserves in the sea. At this moment, countless methane gas emerged from the seabed. Once it reached the sea surface, it would immediately spray out fire columns more than 20 meters long. These fire columns, once they touched people, could instantly incinerate them. The temperature was very high, and faint blue flames could be seen.
Under the powerful flames, a lot of heat was generated. This heat, reflected by the mirrored surfaces of the glaciers on both sides, became even more concentrated, causing many ice blocks to melt. Countless streams of water converged into small streams and then flowed into the canyon, but upon reaching the sea of fire, they were immediately evaporated into the sky.
Under normal circumstances, fire attacks could not be carried out in the sea because fuel was difficult to ignite after coming into contact with water. However, oil was different. On the one hand, oil could float on water, and on the other hand, once ignited, oil was difficult to extinguish, and even water could not eliminate it.
Thus, the current situation seemed to have reached a stalemate. Humans could not attack the sea beasts, and the sea beasts could not leave the ocean. Moreover, the flames could not melt all the surrounding ice. Thus, a stalemate was formed. Both sides were waiting for a change to occur, and the change that occurred was their chance to survive.
"Taffrey, are you sure the ice mountains at both ends of the canyon are ready? Will they be melted by these flames? To be safe, you should reinforce the ice mountains at both ends so that the sea beasts' plan cannot be completed!" Tom said.
Upon hearing this instruction, Taffrey quickly nodded and said, "I will go and reinforce those ice mountains now. Although I believe these ice mountains can withstand this fire attack, I heard a proverb in China that says 'caution steers a ten-thousand-year-old ship.' So, I will try to reinforce these ice mountains again!"
After saying this, he set off without delay.
A crucial part of the plan was to control the movement trajectory of the sea beasts. Only by confining the sea beasts to one place could they truly be trapped and eliminated by taking advantage of the terrain.
And this task fell to Taffrey, as only he could use large-scale freezing to create terrain obstacles and trap the sea beasts.
"Won't these sea beasts run out of oxygen?" someone suddenly asked this question.
Unfortunately, this question was immediately answered by the people around: "Are you stupid? Didn't they say there's a sea beast that can electrolyze oxygen? So, even if all the oxygen on the sea surface is consumed, the oxygen content in the sea will continue to rise. We won't suffocate; instead, we need to be careful of oxygen poisoning. We can't take off our masks at all."
This great fire burned from morning until night. Although the daytime was only four to five hours, such intense flames were still astonishing.
Everyone watched as the fire in the canyon continued to spread. Many glaciers on both sides had melted by more than ten meters, but this was nothing compared to the vast and boundless ice sheets. After all, ten meters of ice was not a big deal. It would only take a rain or snow, and the ice here would immediately return to its original thickness.
However, Andorf suddenly felt something was wrong, so he frowned and said, "There's something wrong with the seabed. Everyone be careful."
"What exactly is wrong that you're referring to? Can you be more specific?" Tom did not dare to underestimate the person beside him. He was also a figure of importance and would not speak nonsense at this time, so he must have something unexpected to say.
"Everyone be careful, because an earthquake is about to happen. I infer that it's due to the leakage of the seabed oil field, causing seawater to surge in, which has changed the underground conditions, and thus an earthquake is about to occur!" Andorf said.
"Everyone be prepared to prevent the earthquake. Don't accidentally fall into the sea. If you fall into the canyon, you won't survive!" Tom also informed everyone.
Upon hearing this reminder, people moved away from the edge of the canyon and walked to the center of the glacier, constantly being careful of the ground beneath their feet. If they saw something amiss, they would dodge.
Ten minutes later, the earthquake indeed occurred. Everyone felt the glacier beneath their feet shaking violently at the same time. Perhaps due to the large amplitude of shaking, large and small cracks appeared on the glacier. The cracks were more than ten meters wide, and if one fell in, they would definitely get stuck in the middle, making it difficult to climb out.
The scale of this earthquake was not particularly large, feeling like a magnitude six earthquake. Moreover, it seemed to be very far from the sea surface, so the earthquake did not cause any casualties. Not a single person on the glacier was missing.
But then, observers from afar sent back a report: "Bad news! At the funnel-shaped entrance of the canyon, an iceberg has cracked. A hundred-meter-long opening has appeared, and a large amount of seawater is pouring in through here!"