Chapter 288: The next step
Daubutim tried to remain calm, slowly opening and closing his hands.
Tension will not result in a good ending. His father's cold words echoed through his head.
Forcing himself to calm down, he took a deep breath and continued to observe The Concerto as it dodged the enormous tentacled beast.
Seven minutes in, he thought, as a tiny portion of him continued counting.
"We need to figure out how to make more of those ships," Basil said, standing beside him.
Daubutim looked at him, raising an eyebrow, causing the warden of Portal Keep to shrug.
"Imagine if one or two of those had come and attacked us. Look at the difference between those two ships Irwin brought and the best we had before: Xi'kroak's ship. One of those ships would have decimated our entire navy of creaky old merchant vessels," Basil said.
Daubutim glanced at The Zura'ix and agreed with Basil. The only reason the ship was keeping out of reach of the tentacled monster was because its crew was incredibly well-practiced and knew their ship. Even then, they kept threading the eye of the needle, and he wondered how long they could keep this up.
"That big one could go and help," Basil grunted, sounding annoyed as he glared to the side. "He's just staying back here."
Daubutim took a quick glance at the massive whales that were going for another loop around the harbor. The lead one, easily twice as large as the others, was heavily scarred and larger than all of the ships present. A single large, badly-healed wound around its main dorsal fin looked like it could have been made by one of the Oculithar's tentacles. The Chaos Whales around it looked smoother, with fewer wounds, and the calves in their center were dark with pale blue streaks. All of them had a large eye with three smaller ones above it on each side of their head.
Daubutim refocused on the ships.
"I think all of the others are young, even those larger ones. The big one might be too afraid to act because it would mean leaving the young ones alone," he said.