As soon as the sail unfurled slightly, the gale immediately pushed it completely open from the rear, causing the cable behind to move as well.
A Shield of Lufu member beside the helm was caught off guard and was thrown out, but luckily landed heavily into a net made of rigging in front, preventing him from tumbling into the dust storm outside.
The man survived, looking utterly shaken, knowing full well that falling from such a height would mean nothing but becoming a pancake. While death in Eteliria isn't a big deal for an Invoker, dying like this is terrifying to even think about.
Luo Hao didn't turn his head: "Don't worry about him, continue. He'll climb down himself, everyone else learn from this, be careful."
What the crew evidently needed at this moment was such a pillar of strength. The portly man from the military rushed directly towards the next helm, with others closely following.
Once the first sail rose, the ship shuddered slightly, showing no sign of steering, while the sail violently shook, producing ominous creaking sounds. Little Fatty frequently looked in that direction, worried that the excessive wind might snap the secondary sail. His worries were reasonable; the shaking frequency of the sail increased rapidly, indicating it could get ripped off the ship if they didn't quickly hoist the other sails.
But only Luo Hao remained unperturbed, his expression steady as ever, rushing to the second helm and giving it a hard push. As others arrived one after another, the sail let out another loud sound and snapped open forcefully.
With the second sail unfurled, Dawood showed a faint sign of steering, albeit almost indiscernible. They looked ahead, but after this brief delay, the Airship had drawn closer to the looming shadow, and now they could see the mountain's outline through the dust storm, with an overwhelming sense of pressure bearing down.
The furthest distance wouldn't exceed one chain, which in Eteliria is much longer than on Earth, about seven hundred meters. At Dawood's current speed, taking a few breaths might be too short, but it wouldn't exceed half a minute.
Luo Hao withdrew his gaze and sprinted towards the third helm wordlessly.
"We're at most a mile away!"
Little Fatty's voice and hands trembled.
The third sail rose, Dawood started turning noticeably, but the Speed was still slow, ZXC squinted at the bow—the horizontal mast jutting out had not yet moved out of the shadow's range.
"Three hundred meters left!"
Little Fatty kept looking back.
Luo Hao glared coldly at him, snapping: "Shut up!"
Little Fatty jolted, looking at the others and found them similarly unimpressed, hastily clamming up. Without this pressure monster, everyone felt significantly more relaxed, and soon, the fourth and then the fifth sails were raised.
At this point, the Airship conspicuously traced an arc, still under Rock Mountain's shadow, with jagged rocks whizzing by. Had the Airship failed to steer from the get-go, it would have collided by now.
Less than one hundred and fifty meters left—
The sixth sail unfurled.
Everyone's nerves tightened as they dashed to the next helm, not an easy task, with everyone's arms and legs weakening from overexertion. On level ground, it might be manageable, but with the six sails up, the violent tremors in the wind now swayed Dawood side to side, knocking some crew off balance.
With mutual support, they barely made it to the seventh helm, albeit slower than before.
The dividing line of Rock Mountain's edge loomed ahead; raising the seventh sail was out of the question now, collision imminent. Luo Hao turned and yelled: "Hold on tight!"
He wasn't sure whether his efforts would really succeed; the previous attempts were mere throws of the dice, with everyone's outcome uncertain.
Fifty meters.
Ten meters.
The mountain approached precipitously, the steep walls almost upon them, as Dawood sped so fast everyone hardly saw what happened before a jarring tremor hit the ship's side. They seemed to hear a loud noise, but were tossed out before discerning it. Luo Hao managed to clutch onto a cable tied to upper winds, flying sideways and slamming onto the deck.
Quickly looking up— the Airship was noticeably slanted, but the tilt didn't worsen, appearing to revert to level flight. He realized they succeeded, Dawood had struck Rock Mountain, but only grazed it, avoiding a direct hit.
Otherwise, they would have been pulverized.
Without time to check on others or worry where his shield flew—probably overboard with no fatal incident amid the storm—the first opportunity, he rushed to the ship's edge and checked the vessel's condition.