What are the essentials of sailing in a tornado? Such a profound question is tantamount to a bible for an astrologer apprentice who has no sailing experience and has only been on the Cherry Ferry ferry twice. But Danny Stewart obviously He is a person who likes to talk to relieve stress. While running back and forth pulling the cable to turn the sail, he shouted to Jonah: "The shaking will be very severe in a moment. Please hold on to fixed objects and stay away from sliding things, my friend." ……goods,"
Jonah looked down at the three thick ropes tied to his body and sighed helplessly.
"What is appearing now is the first tornado air mass. According to the size of the tornado clouds in the sky, there may be fifteen to twenty tornadoes this time." Danny ran past Jonah, "Now we What you need to do is to draw a semi-arc route close to the outermost circle of the tornado. A tornado is an upward spiral wind column. The wind speed in the outermost circle may reach 80 to 140 knots. It can be controlled in a short time. Our speed increased to an astonishing degree,"
Jonah stared at the huge sand pillar that made a deafening sound and rolled up endless yellow sand into the clouds. Black moisture clouds evaporated from the top of the drought tornado. The arc flashed like a thunderstorm brewing. He lowered his head in awe. The voice said: "Is this just one of them? What will happen if you get involved..."
Danny ran past him again, "If you get sucked in, imagine being wrapped in thousands of flying knives, with 100,000 tons of yellow sand hanging above your head... But you got to the point, cargo friend." , the most critical thing about sailing in a drought tornado is to use the outer wind to accelerate without being sucked into the sand pillar by the strong spiral wind. This requires extremely superb control skills and extremely strong nerves. My father was still alive at that time. At that time, he was one of the only two captains in the entire endless sand sea who dared to challenge the desert tornado,"
"Who is the other one?" asked Jonah.
"Landon Schmidt, the previous owner of the Schmidt family's Goddess Light, and dad's archrival," the man from the Stewart family stood under the mast, holding the cable in his hand and gritting his teeth.
"Now, he is also dead," the astrologer's apprentice couldn't help but ask.
"Why should I hate a dead man?" Danny gave him a strange look. "Not only is he not dead, he is also alive and well. Ever since his father was buried in the sea of sand, he has given the 'Light of the Goddess' to his only son. I went to the Tocharian Empire to be at ease,"
Jonah wondered: "Then why do you hate him?"
The elder brother took a deep breath to suppress his anger: "Because it was this old guy who confused the son of Emperor Isaiah Bayink, stayed and flew with the prince, and forced the emperor to recognize the legalization of same-sex marriage, which led to his The bastard son who inherited his father’s legacy is chasing after me all day long,”
The image of the rough and dissolute sand bandit in the astrologer's apprentice's mind was shattered, replaced by a handsome black-haired man holding a young man in his arms. The old man had a strong chest, white skin and bright red lips... He coughed twice and shook his head. , get the not-so-good imagination out of your head.
At this time, the three-masted sailboat slowly dragged by the chirping sand-eating insects was already close to the outside of the first tornado. The wind force increased significantly. The strong wind carried the yellow sand and blew it from the side like a solid body. Jonah's profile seemed to be the same as that of a tornado. The walls collided so hard that they almost broke their cervical vertebrae.
"It's cut in, all the sails are 30 degrees straight, and prepare for the impact," Hannah wrapped her scarf around her mouth and nose, and firmly held the wheel rudder with both hands.
"Understood, the schooner is adjusted," Danny jumped between the cables at an astonishing speed. The skill of his movements impressed Jonah. The astrologer's apprentice didn't know how many sailors it would take to sail a huge three-masted sailboat, but this ship There were only two siblings on the big ship, and the elder brother took on all the rigging work alone. Apparently, he got the true inheritance from his legendary father, the "Superintendent of the Lunatic Asylum."
"Boom,"
The "Bactrian Wind" trembled violently, and the floor tilted at an angle of thirty degrees. The huge impact made the hard teak hull creak and rub. Buckets, ropes, cargo and food flew up from the deck surface. Jonah He was not thrown out due to the restraints of the rope, but his internal organs were displaced due to inertia. Blood rushed to his head, there was a buzzing in his ears, his field of vision suddenly turned white, and he could not see anything clearly.
Through the floor, you can feel the shaking of the sand-eating worm's body. Although the chirping cannot make a sound, it is obviously using all its strength to fight against the tornado. His eyesight gradually recovers. Jonah, who is dizzy, finds that everything around him has turned khaki. The sand filled every inch of space, making the hull of the ship rattle like dense bullets.
Above his head, all the sails were swollen high, full of hurricane winds. Suddenly, the astrologer's apprentice felt an overwhelmed rattling sound coming from behind. It was the main mast that was gradually bending due to the strong wind.
"Hannah, the horizontal sail is too stressed, and the mainmast is still very fragile after being repaired. We can't support it for long. When will we break away?" Danny's voice seemed very weak amidst the roaring tornadoes. He was passing through a The pulley block tried its best to balance the force of the main mast, and the leather-gloved palms were bruised and torn due to the violent friction of the cables.
"The second tornado has just appeared. It will take some time to reach the predetermined angle. Now the countdown is 50 seconds, 49, 48..." Hannah Stewart held the wheel tightly and stood at the bow of the ship, like a red reed swaying in the strong wind. .
"Is there anything I can do to help..." As soon as Jonah opened his mouth, the omnipresent grains of sand filled his mouth.
Danny gritted his teeth: "Hannah will be unhappy if I ask Cargo to help... I can't control that much. The power of the tornado is stronger than imagined. If only Dad's seven sailors were still there... Okay," he grabbed the rope with his right hand, pulled out a dagger from under his robe with his left hand and threw it over, "please untie it yourself, friend,"
Just at this moment of relaxation, the sail rope was ripped away for several yards, and the main mast was visibly bent into a bow shape. The copper nails used for reinforcement on the mast kept falling apart, and wood chips were flying on the deck. Jonah looked down. Holding the dagger inserted by his feet, he shouted: "Can't you throw it accurately? How can I reach it? Are you cutting the rope with your feet?"
"Figure it out yourself," Danny said through gritted teeth as he wrapped the rope around his waist two or three times, put his feet against the anchor chain pier.
The astrologer apprentice could only close his eyes and think of ways to mobilize the power of the stars. The yellow sand that covered the sky could not block the interstellar lines from passing through the underworld. The familiar star "Bear" No. 30 in the first house and the seventh star The "Small Boat" of the star No. 7 gives the world the energy of light and heat. What Jonah lacks is a star array to absorb and emit energy.
Unable to move, the only things that could move were his fingertips. In desperation, Jonah tried to use his nails to carve the outline of the "Scorching Ray" star array on the surface of the mast behind his back. The scrawled star array appeared shallowly on the wood. Jonah injected With a tiny bit of energy, the star array immediately collapsed as soon as it started to operate, exploding into a cloud of small sparks. Fortunately, this brief moment was enough for him to send out a very thin scorching ray, which hit the rope on his body and burned the big knot. It broke, and the three strands of the rope came loose. The astrologer's apprentice broke free, covered his face with his sleeves to identify the direction, and then stumbled towards Danny, who was struggling to support himself.
"29, 28, 27..." Hannah was still counting down. The "Bactrian Wind" was accelerated by the rapid tornado. It swallowed a large amount of sand and spewed out a torrent of yellow sand behind it. Jonah After taking over a cable from Danny's hand, I accidentally discovered that the steering rudder of the three-masted sailboat was a baffle hanging on the tail of the Chicha that could swing left and right. When the rudder rotated, the baffle changed the tail jet of the sand-eating worm in proportion. direction of flow.
"Hold on." With one more person to share the burden, the man from the Stewart family looked much more relaxed. He motioned to Jonah to wrap the cable around his upper arm to reduce the friction between his fingers and the rough rope. He only held on for a few seconds before the astrologer's apprentice He was staggered by the huge pulling force of the main mast, and felt severe pain in his palms and arms.
Staring at the crumbling mast, Danny shouted loudly: "We can't hold on anymore, we must break away immediately, we are still far short of the predetermined angle,"
"No, it's 15 degrees. It will take 20 seconds," my sister insisted. "If we leave now, we will go straight to the center of the second tornado. It's 1,600 yards away. If you don't have time to change direction, you must persist." 20 seconds, 19, 18..."
Suddenly there was a bursting sound from the main mast, and a copper ring in the middle of the mast was stretched open, deformed and fell down. It was blown by the wind and rolled on the deck. The angle of the mast's bend became more obvious, and the main sail's rigging changed its position. It began to get entangled with the cables of the front and rear masts. Even without any knowledge of navigation, Jonah knew that this was definitely not a good sign.
Danny looked up with a pale face, gritted his teeth, and said as if he had made a major decision, "Goods... no, friend, you hold on for five seconds, that's all I can do."
"What are you going to do...ah," the second half of the astrologer's apprentice's sentence turned into a scream, and the strength of the rope suddenly increased. If the Stewart man hadn't kicked up the steel anchor chain with his feet and entangled his feet, Jonah was probably pulled into the air by the force of the full sail.
Danny quickly ran to the side of the ship, untied two knots, and waved to lift an oilcloth. The tarpaulin was immediately swept away by the hurricane and disappeared into the earth-yellow tornado. What was revealed was a large, dark body. Weapon, Danny shook the handle to aim the cannon at the center of the tornado, pulled out the blockage in the stubby muzzle, and pressed a button on the back of the gun.
The familiar sound of steam erupting sounded, "Give it a go," Danny Stewart roared heartbrokenly with red eyes, "50 silver coins, go for it,"
The large steam puppet machine spewed out a cloud of white mist with a "boom" sound. The heavy projectiles were ejected by the powerful machine spring, spinning and falling towards the center of the storm. "12, 11..." The three people on the three-masted sailing ship stared at each other. As the dark cannonball was swept up by the strong whirlwind, it instantly disappeared in the high sky with rolling thunderclouds.