The ships under the pirate Abubakar, though modified with high-horsepower engines, were still aging vessels. As they sailed, thick black smoke billowed from the numerous chimneys of the pirate fleet.
Soon, their ships entered the waters where Ling Tian had set up his formation.
However, at this moment, Abubakar noticed something was amiss. The distance between their ships and the vessel ahead seemed to be increasing!
"What's going on? How fast is that ship ahead? Why can't we catch up!"
"Commander, according to the ship's radar, their speed is currently 35 knots, not much faster than before. The problem lies with us; our speed has dropped..."
"Why? Why is this happening?"
Abubakar couldn't understand. At first, he thought it might be due to some of his older ships, which had been operating at high speeds for a prolonged period, leading to a decrease in engine efficiency. But now, it seemed different. Almost all his ships had slowed down. More terrifyingly, even though their engines were running at full throttle, their ships felt like they were just treading water!
Abubakar immediately summoned his most experienced crew members to discuss the problem.
"Commander, I believe the issue is with the ocean currents. Look at the water flow; it's clearly problematic. The seawater is aggressively pushing us to the left, and we need considerable power just to maintain our direction..."
"Why is that? Don't you have the hydrological information for this area?" Abubakar questioned his subordinates with great dissatisfaction.
"Commander, of course, we have the hydrological information, but the problem is, it never mentioned any issues with the currents here. In fact, the water flow in this channel is usually very calm..."
Just then, a lookout on the Abubakar cried out in despair.
"Look quickly, what is that!"
Everyone's attention was drawn by his shout. They quickly looked in the direction he pointed. Less than a kilometer away, a massive whirlpool had appeared on the water's surface. This whirlpool was nearly a hundred meters in diameter, and even more terrifyingly, the surrounding seawater was beginning to rotate around it at a visibly high speed!
Now, Abubakar and his crew finally understood why the water was being deflected to one side; it was clearly being influenced by this whirlpool!
"Quick, adjust course, and disengage at full speed!" Abubakar ordered the fleet. However, at this moment, the entire pirate crew had descended into chaos.
Each ship varied in size and power, and the skill of their helmsmen differed. Crucially, these men had never encountered a giant whirlpool at sea! Most ships desperately tried to move in the opposite direction of the current, attempting to break free from the whirlpool's grasp with their engines. In the process, several pirate ships collided in their panic, lost power, and then watched helplessly as they were dragged into the sea by the immense vortex.
Other pirate ships, after their desperate efforts, found their engines unable to bear the strain, losing power or experiencing severe degradation. Ultimately, they too were dragged into the sea by the whirlpool!
Abubakar's heart was breaking. These were his trusted men, whom he had invested heavily in training. With them gone, even with a bounty of a billion US dollars, it wouldn't be easy to rebuild such a formidable force!
Fortunately, the helmsman of the Abubakar was an experienced old captain. He ordered his crew to proceed at full speed, but unlike the others, he directed the ship to move in the same direction as the current. This allowed the Abubakar to rapidly increase its speed. Their ship sailed at high speed along the edge of the massive whirlpool, and when their speed reached a terrifying 50 knots, the helmsman quickly changed direction, using the water's acceleration to break free from the whirlpool's entanglement and crash onto the rocky shore outside the shipping lane!
At this point, Ling Tian's ship had sailed twenty kilometers away. Through the real-time feed from the drones overhead, everyone watched the massive whirlpool with their jaws dropped.
"My heavens, what a terrifying whirlpool! Those pirates are all finished..."
"I can't imagine what would have happened if our ship had entered that whirlpool..."
Aurora asked curiously, "Captain Svensson, if our ship had accidentally entered that whirlpool, could we have broken free?"
Captain Svensson shook his head. "If it were in the outer regions of the whirlpool and we reacted in time, there might have been a chance. But if we were within its grasp, even if we could double our speed, we likely wouldn't escape. This is simply miraculous. I've been a captain at sea for over thirty years and have never witnessed such a fearsome whirlpool. How was this created?"
"Heh, a mere trifle. This is a formation from my homeland, China. I used my magic to artificially create this massive underwater whirlpool. This was my gift to those pirates!"
"What happens to the ships that were dragged into the whirlpool?" Aurora asked Ling Tian curiously.
"Heh, it's simple. Those ships will be sucked to the seabed by the whirlpool, and during this process, their ships will collide and be crushed by the immense water pressure! However, judging by the time, the formation's energy is almost depleted, and the whirlpool has served its historical purpose..."
As Ling Tian spoke, the drones transmitted images of the incident area. The massive underwater whirlpool began to slow down its rotation, and finally, with the cessation of energy supply, the whirlpool disappeared. However, in its place were the wreckage of ships floating on the sea surface. Through the drone's video, they had watched a ship being swallowed by the whirlpool, and now it was being spat out, its hull battered and broken, with no survivors!
"Look, there's one that got away!" a crew member exclaimed, pointing at the large screen. Under the operation of another crew member, a video surveillance feed was replayed, showing a warship grounded among the rocks near the area where the incident had occurred!
"There's someone skilled on that ship. Their response measures were very appropriate; otherwise, those people would be dead by now," Captain Svensson remarked from the side.