No one on deck had ever heard of the Sea Demon Tribe. The pirates looked at one another and shook their heads.
"Then we wait for Captain John and Wang Zhi to get back and ask them," Silver Axe sighed. He turned to Kaido. "You fought one in the water. What do they look like?"
"Like a cross between a merfolk and a fish-man," Kaido said. "Savage like some primeval beast. The one I saw had skin as dark blue as the deep "
He sketched the creature's features and its brute strength as best he could.
Suddenly
"Hey… do you hear that?" a pirate murmured, frowning. "A voice singing. Beautiful… airy."
"Yeah," another breathed. "What a voice…"
The sound was faint at first, then clearer, lovelier so pure it seemed to wash dust from the soul.
Silver Axe's mouth curled into a lascivious grin. "A voice that bright… the kind that baptizes the heart in light. Whoever's singing has to be a peerless beauty an angel, sanctified by the heavens!"
None of them had heard anything so haunting, so sweet.
One by one, faces went slack with rapture. Then the melody shifted grace gave way to grief, a sorrow that pierced straight through the ribcage. Men who'd gutted foes without blinking now wept openly.
"What… what's happening to me? Why do I want to cry?" Kaido's features twisted with pain. In a blink, the song dragged up the worst of his childhood.
The voice seemed to call from somewhere just out of sight beckoning.
Without realizing it, men moved to stations. Lines were cast, sails trimmed. Hands steered the ship toward the sound.
Far below, John and Wang Zhi knifed through the dark and reached the place where John had fought Slardar only to find it empty.
No Sea Demon. No Tengetsu Ares.
John's brows knit. Trouble. They've shifted the fight. No telling how far by now.
Visibility at this depth was abysmal. Earlier, Slardar's angler-like lure had lit the gloom; now they were blind.
Wang Zhi grabbed John's hand and scratched words into his palm: Where's Ares?
John traced back: They've moved. Good sign Ares never retreats. If they're gone, it means he's dictating the pace.
We'll get lost down here. Return to the ship, or search with me for the treasure? Even now, the map burned behind his eyes.
Wang Zhi stroked his long beard, then wrote: I'll search with you. But watch our air. If it runs low, we surface.
John nodded, excitement pricking his skin. He tipped headfirst and dove deeper.
The further they went, the blacker it became. Shapes slipped by at the edge of sight deep-sea things. The two men moved cautiously, disturbing as little water as possible. With visibility this poor, they finally admitted defeat and angled up, planning to fetch lamps from the ship.
They broke the surface and went cold.
"Damn it! Where are they? I told them to hold position!" John roared at the empty horizon.
Wang Zhi slammed his fists into the sea, sending up sheets of spray. "That fool Silver Axe! And the crew what are they thinking, sailing off?"
The curses faded. Both men steadied themselves.
"We have to find the ship," John said, jaw tight. "Without her supplies, we don't leave these waters."
"And if Ares comes back here and we're gone?" Wang Zhi frowned. "I'll stay. You go find them."
"Fine." Rage hot in his chest, John picked a bearing and sprinted into his fastest stroke. When I find Silver Axe, I'll teach him a lesson he won't forget.
Treasure could wait. Without lights and gear, he'd find nothing in that abyss.
Deep, deep below
Ares still hunted Slardar. Even in the sea, Ares was fast; even so, the Sea Demon was faster. The gap had stretched from a few dozen meters to more than a thousand.
Slardar allowed himself a thin smile. The distance grows. Strength means nothing if you can't catch me. A little longer and you'll lose me completely.
Behind him, Ares knew it too. If this kept up, he'd never close. So he kept at his experiments Rokushiki beneath the waves.
Bam.
Bam.
Bam
His dragon tail cracked the water as he drilled Soru and Geppo mechanics fail, analyze, adjust: force, angle, load, how to turn the sea's resistance into thrust. Six Powers weren't rare in the New World, but they were the best foundation especially when reinvented to fit your body and battlefield.
He had a "cheat" of sorts in his head, a gift for seeing the flaw in flow and fixing it on the fly. Every failure was a data point. Every data point, a step toward the right answer.
BOOM!
With a thunderous report, his colossal form jolted forward tens of meters in an instant.
Ares's golden eyes lit.
He'd done it.
Soru underwater.
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