From a distance, the sea surface looked as though it were boiling, rising and falling endlessly.
That terrifying vortex dragged everything around it inward, then, under some unknown force, surged toward the heavens. The dread of nature was displayed to its fullest at this moment. A water column with a diameter of over a thousand meters burst skyward, scattering even the clouds at the horizon in an instant.
If the disturbance was already this violent upon reaching the surface, then one could easily imagine the sheer chaos beneath the sea, deep within the Adrian Sea Trench!
It was a true cataclysm, where the violent trembling of seawater alone could tear steel apart and annihilate all living beings.
"So what is this supposed to be? A man-made Knock Up Stream?!"
Chaton steadied himself with one hand on the railing, staring at the terrifying column of water ahead, genuine horror written all over his face.
A sea current that shot straight into the sky like this, if he happened to be at the center of it, he'd probably be pulverized instantly.
Suddenly, a shadow appeared in the sky, falling rapidly.
Chaton focused his eyes, then screamed in the next second, "Careful! Sea King–type creatures are falling down!"
He knew Pluton had shields, but watching Sea King–class monsters the size of small mountains plummet from the sky, that oppressive momentum still made him scream involuntarily.
Boom!!
A blue-green Sea King with the head of an elephant slammed straight into Pluton's shield, the impact deafening.
Fortunately, what Chaton feared didn't happen. Not only did the shield remain perfectly intact, but under the sheer force of the fall, the massive Sea King smashed itself apart, its brain matter splattering, and even an eyeball flying out onto the deck.
"So it really was hiding down there!"
Momousagi showed no reaction to the grotesque sight, her eyes narrowing instead.
This Sea King was clearly not a native species of the Adrian Sea Trench. Sea Kings also followed basic biological laws, if it were a native of the pitch-black deep sea, its eye structure wouldn't be this familiar. These eyes were obviously adapted for surface environments.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
At that moment, the Den Den Mushi nearby let out a series of urgent cries.
Its warning meant that some lifeform was rapidly approaching the surface, and its position was...
"Behind us!"
The soldiers aboard Pluton reacted even faster than Momousagi. They remembered only one thing: obey orders. As the alarm sounded, the ship's powerful cannons were already trained on the indicated direction.
Bang!
Hua… La… La!
A gigantic shellfish-like creature burst through the sea and surfaced. The familiar palace perched on its back made Aokiji narrow his eyes.
"The Sea King!"
"Lower the shields, fire!"
Momousagi shouted her command, her voice cutting through the noise.
At this moment, the bottom of the trench was surely in utter upheaval, undergoing a massive extinction event. The creature that had surfaced was the one controlling the Sea King hordes.
This hermit-crab-like Sea King glared with blood-red eyes. Its carapace was covered in fresh cracks, and a faint smell of cooked seafood drifted over the deck.
Facing the Pluton warship, far larger than itself, it let out an enraged roar and raised its claws to smash down.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
But the Pluton forces were well prepared. The instant the shields were lowered, three heavy cannons fired in rapid succession.
Almost immediately, its head, abdomen, and claw were struck by cannon fire. Flames and shattered shell fragments flew everywhere.
"Roar!"
The raised claw slammed back down uselessly. The hermit-crab Sea King cried out in pain and collapsed backward limply.
"Artillery crews, free fire! Don't let a single one escape!"
Momousagi stood heroically on the deck, issuing commands. On this ship, her words were absolute law.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Another triple volley slammed into the hermit-crab Sea King. This time, its sturdy shell offered no protection at all, the cracks from before were too large. The cannonballs drilled straight into the flesh and detonated.
"The Poseidon isn't on the surface, everyone stay alert!"
Aokiji calmly observed the chaotic battlefield. Seeing no sign of the actual power user, the mysterious woman controlling the Sea Kings, even as the monstrous target was completely engulfed in cannon fire, he immediately shouted the warning.
Boom!
The moment his words fell, Pluton suddenly shook violently. Large numbers of soldiers were thrown to the deck, bloodied and injured.
"What was that?"
Aokiji froze his feet to the deck with ice and turned to ask, concern etched on his face.
Given Pluton's sheer tonnage, even Sea Kings shouldn't have been able to shake it so easily.
"It's Bonbori! A gigantic anglerfish!"
Chaton leaned over the railing and looked down. When he spotted that dazzling golden light, he sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.
Among the known records, there were only a handful of super–large-scale Sea King–class creatures. The adult Sea King that had appeared at the edge of the Calm Belt during the previous battle counted as one, and now, the anglerfish beneath them counted as another.
Each of them was a heaven-draping colossus, larger than entire islands!
Boom!
As the words fell, two "mountains" rose on either side of Pluton's hull… But on closer inspection, they weren't mountains at all, they were the anglerfish's grotesquely enormous upper and lower jaws opening wide as they surfaced.
"So it's dragged out another super–large-scale Sea King?"
Momousagi sneered, dismissing the threat. "Too bad it's stupid!"
Ignoring the massive jaws rapidly closing in on Pluton, she shouted an order that was pure strategy:
"Drop the depth charges, blow it to pieces!"
Bonbori's mouth might be huge, but it couldn't swallow Pluton, which stretched seventeen thousand meters in length. At most, it could clamp down on the ship and drag it into the ocean. But since it was attacking from below, its throat was directly aligned with Pluton's underbelly.
You don't even touch an old tiger's backside, let alone Pluton's belly.
Upon receiving the order, the armor plates along Pluton's underside swiftly opened, and pitch-black depth charges were hurled outward one after another.
Boom! Boom boom!
The depth charges detonated on contact. The mountain-like upper jaw loomed right before them. Chaton could even smell the foul, fishy stench wafting from it.
However, as the explosions spread, those looming "peaks" weakly closed. Bonbori let out a horrifying, thunderous scream and began to fall backward.
It might not have been killed outright, but its stomach and mouth were definitely pulverized.
Yet there was no joy on Aokiji's face.
Silently scanning the battlefield, he saw that it wasn't just Pluton under attack. Vast numbers of Sea King–class creatures were surging up from the ocean like a fleeing herd of beasts, crashing into the Marine lines.
But even amidst such chaos, he still couldn't spot the Sea King herself.
"Something's not right, Vice Admiral Momousagi," Aokiji said gravely. "The Poseidon still hasn't appeared!"
"Maybe she already died at the bottom of the sea," Chaton joked dryly, attempting to lighten the mood. "She's not as tough as those Sea King types."
If Poseidon was that easy to kill, Pluton would've completed its mission last time. They wouldn't have had to wait until today.
"Rowen said she must be brewing some grand conspiracy… but after suffering a loss once, how exactly is she planning to deal with Pluton?"
Aokiji muttered to himself, deep in thought.
The Poseidon definitely had a scheme, but in the face of Pluton's cannon fire, the Sea King hordes were completely suppressed. What trump card could she possibly have to turn the tables?
Even this mission, forcing the Poseidon to leave the Adrian Sea Trench, was only dared because they held the absolute advantage and could easily bully the "fish."
Shua!
At that moment, a figure landed silently on the deck. Momousagi instinctively moved to attack, but a flash of blinding sunlight caught her eyes, and she immediately stopped.
There was only one person she knew with such a blindingly shiny bald head.
"Just as Soryu (Azure Dragon)-sama predicted, she didn't show herself."
Bald Zero landed on the deck, his tone heavy.
Rowen had predicted this?
Aokiji felt a jolt of shock, then shook his head.
No, not predicted…
Deduced.
"Vice Admiral Momousagi, Soryu (Azure Dragon)-sama orders: if the Poseidon does not appear, immediately gather your forces and withdraw from the Adrian Sea!"
"Why?"
She was willing to obey Rowen's command, but she needed a reason for abandoning the hunt.
"Because," Bald Zero grinned, about to unleash a sneer at her lack of foresight, "you've been played, Momousagi."
Before he could finish mocking her, his expression suddenly changed as he looked into the distance.
BOOM… RUMBLE!
A deep, muffled tremor thundered through the heavens, pounding into everyone's chest like a giant, inexorable drum. They all looked up and couldn't help but gasp in shared, dawning horror.
"So that's it… this is Adrian, after all,"
Aokiji gave a bitter smile and shook his head, finally understanding why Rowen had been so certain of this outcome.
This was the Adrian Sea.
And the Adrian Sea possessed a natural disaster that made everyone blanch at the mere mention of it, a disaster far beyond the power of a mere Knock Up Stream.
The Adrian… Sea Howl!
(End of Chapter)
This novel is finished, and I have posted all the advanced chapters on my Patreon https://www.patreon.com/darkshadow6395