Then again if a hoard were easy to find, would it still be called a treasure?
Captain John tilted his head back toward the dragon circling above. "Ares, do you have a way to punch through that field of waterspouts?"
Under Tengetsu Ares's control the ship had halted, hovering on flame clouds but that was only a stopgap. The waterspouts were moving, closing fast, and the wind was ramping up. At their current pace, the first of them would be on top of the ship in minutes.
Ares's gaze sharpened. "I'll try destroying them."
"Dragonflame!"
He bared his fangs. Wind funneled into his maw; a needle of light kindled then a torrent of searing fire roared out. It was a blast that could melt a mountainside.
A red lance split the sky
and tore a gaping wound through the middle of a towering waterspout, steam flashing off the sea where the fire struck.
Cheers rose from the deck then died at once.
The vortex drank more sea into itself, climbed back to the clouds, and reformed into a perfect column.
Wang Zhi's face darkened. "Even that won't break it?! Ares aim for the base, where it meets the sea!"
"Got it."
Ares gathered a second shot and tilted his head. The blast slammed into the seam of spinning water and ocean.
Boom.
Sea geysered skyward, rain hammering down and this time the waterspout collapsed.
Captain John's relief was instant and total. "Ares the spouts are yours!"
Shot after shot hammered the ocean's spinning eyes, snuffing column after column. It was like watching a fire dragon wage war against a sea god.
John couldn't help the thought: without Ares, there'd be no way forward in the Sea of Death.
Outside the Sea of Death.
A massive Marine battleship idled on the swells.
Sengoku frowned at the Vivre Card crawling forward in his palm. "That's the Sea of Death ahead. They say ships that enter don't make ten leagues before the whirlpools eat them. No one turns back."
"No vessel has ever crossed that field of vortices."
The Vivre Card pointed straight into the infamous maw proof the Rocks Pirates were inside.
"I've heard of it," Zephyr muttered. "Records go back eight hundred years. A permanent no-go zone of the New World. Big-name pirates who fled into it… never came back."
The ocean right before them lay placid. Beyond it, the sea boiled into a riot of whirlpools and slamming chop; waves slapped and crashed without pause, some heaving twenty meters high.
Garp snorted. "That brat Ares is in there for sure. I've been itching for a rematch. Leave the waves to me!"
He flexed a fist. "These hands crack mountains. A little spray won't stop us."
Sengoku and Zephyr ignored him.
"The breakers aren't the real threat," Sengoku said. "This is a top-spec battleship. What worries me is getting caught in a vortex. Once we're in the spin, the current will drag us down and we'll lose all control."
A whirlpool was a gigantic, spinning top; its center sat hundreds of meters below the surface and what mattered most lay underwater.
"Troublesome," Garp grumbled. His own plan was to ram straight through.
Zephyr looked to Sengoku and nodded. "We're going in. I'll take the sea. If the ship drifts, I'll shove her back on course. We won't get pulled into a whirlpool."
"Be careful," Sengoku said.
The battleship nosed into the zone. Garp shattered crashing waves with straight punches. Zephyr slipped into the water; whenever the hull slewed, he muscled it back into line.
They clawed their way forward, yard by yard.
Ares's crew cleared the waterspouts only to be hammered by hailstones the size of footballs, then a ceiling of snarling thunderheads. The Sea of Death earned its name.
Exhausted, Ares dropped from Azure Dragon form onto the deck. "Wang Zhi, how much longer to the target?"
"No idea. Ask Captain John." Wang Zhi's expression softened. "You've carried us the whole way. Eat while there's a lull no telling what hits us next."
Kai Kaido came up from below with stacked platters. He set them in front of Ares without a word. Through storm after storm, Ares had been the one keeping the ship alive.
Ares gripped handfuls and ate like a starving beast.
Captain John burst from the cabin, face alight. "We're almost there!"
He rushed to the bow and scanned the horizon through a spyglass.
"Finally!" Kaido groaned. "Haven't had a decent sleep since we came in here."
"Hold on just a little longer!" John shouted to the crew. "At this pace, two hours to the site."
Morale flickered back to life. Even with Ares shielding them, they'd still lost men to the sea.
Two hours later.
Captain John's face had gone bloodless. He stared at the empty blue and whispered, stunned, "This should be it. It has to be… So why is there nothing here?!"
Ahead lay only endless ocean. Not even the suggestion of an island.
"John, what is this?" Wang Zhi snapped. "This is your destination?"
The crew simmered, anger and dread mingling in their eyes.
John yanked the treasure map from his coat, almost frantic. "It can't be wrong it can't. The marks point right here!"
"My reading does not make mistakes!"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh, you like the story? Wow, who knew. Go ahead, drop a review and throw some power stones maybe I'll be motivated to keep going.
The story's already ahead on Patron. Go there if you want to catch up faster!
[email protected]/_theon
Change @ to "a"