Harvest

A sudden surge of waves woke Duncan from his dream.

He snapped his eyes open. The illusions he'd seen in his half-awake state had faded into faint silhouettes. All he remembered was seeing fish swimming in the air, and how particularly delicious they seemed—but what had they looked like?

Fish… swimming in the air?

Duncan blinked, a strange sensation of reality and dream tearing and merging leaving him momentarily confused. He looked at the three fishing rods secured in their holders, seeing no sign of a bite. In the distance, the sea had begun to swell, wave after wave crashing against the hull of the Lost Homeland.

Then, the waves grew larger. Visibly larger, one stronger than the last, surging in from afar. The Lost Homeland's massive hull pitched and rolled in the wind and waves, the sound of the churning water filling his ears.

Duncan glanced up at the sky. The weather was still good, perhaps just a bit windier and choppier, but not enough for a major storm or any extreme weather.

"This might not be a good day for fishing…"

He muttered, considering whether to reel in his lines. But just then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the tip of one of his rods suddenly bend sharply!

The strong line, made for deep-sea fishing, instantly went taut. The short, thick, resilient rod seemed to have hooked something massive, its entire front half curving like a bow, accompanied by a grating creak. The rod holder, meant to secure the rod, groaned under the immense pulling force, the sound of wood rubbing against wood. All of it sent one message to Duncan:

A bite! A big one!

He immediately abandoned any thought of reeling in and resting. The passion of a fisherman burned fiercely in his chest. He took two steps to the rod that had gotten a bite, grabbing it with one hand to prevent it from slipping off the holder, and with the other, he began to adjust the tension on the line, bit by bit.

"I knew it! There's no way I'd come up empty!"

Duncan excitedly muttered to himself, beginning to wrestle with the leviathan at the other end of the line. It was a tough fight. Whatever was at the end of the line clearly had no intention of giving up easily. A tremendous force was pulling on the rod, and even with Duncan's strength and the support of the rod holder, the stalemate felt precarious.

The wind and waves around the Lost Homeland grew stronger, but to Duncan, this slight rocking was nothing.

He was merely annoyed by the stubborn "prey" and worried about losing a hard-won opportunity to improve their rations.

The fishing line was stretched to its limit. The big fish was about to break free.

After an unknown amount of time in this stalemate, Duncan finally steeled himself. A cluster of eerie green flames suddenly spread outward from the hand holding the rod.

The green fire blazed, spreading like water, then quickly flowed along the rod and the fishing line. The Spirit Body Fire burned its way down the line, forming a "fire line" that plunged into the sea. The next second, a phantom outline of green flames appeared in the depths of the sea around the Lost Homeland. Illuminated and defined by the eerie green flames, a massive shadow emerged from the water.

The shadow was like an amorphous, pulsating mass of flesh, covering nearly all the sea surface within hundreds of meters of the Lost Homeland. Its edges extended into numerous shifting, regenerating dark masses, like thousands of arms writhing and waving in the ocean, churning the water around the Lost Homeland and controlling the invisible waves.

Duncan heard strange movements from the sea. While maintaining his tug-of-war with the "prey," he leaned over and peered out curiously.

He saw nothing. Only the rising and falling waves, not much different from before.

And he clearly felt the opposing force on the rod weaken slightly.

His prey was losing strength. This realization brought a bright smile to his face.

He began to reel in the line with all his might, slowly dragging his catch out of the water…

Alice was startled by the roaring and whistling sounds coming from outside the cabin. The violent shaking from below sent the cabin's furnishings clattering. She quickly grabbed a nearby railing to keep herself from falling, her face a mask of startled confusion. "What's happening?"

The Lost Homeland was shaking as if a massive storm was raging outside. A low, oppressive groan echoed from the depths of the ancient ghost ship, as if it were roaring, raging, fighting against the terror of the deep sea, against some colossal beast trying to devour it.

Everything in the cabin clattered and banged. At first, Alice thought it was just the ship shaking, but she soon realized many of the noisy objects were actually chattering in place—they were making sounds to communicate with each other, but Alice couldn't understand this language that only the Lost Homeland could comprehend.

All she knew was that something was wrong outside.

The doll decided to go to the deck. She stumbled out of the cabin, bracing herself against the walls to avoid falling as she made her way toward the deck.

After nearly tripping several times over flying ropes and careening barrels, she finally reached the end of the stairs. She pushed open the wooden door, which swayed in the wind and waves, and saw astonishingly huge waves churning on the Boundless Sea.

The sky was as black as ink, ominous dark clouds almost condensed into heavy clumps. The clouds hung low, almost touching the sea surface, while city-wall-like waves rolled and surged beneath the dark clouds, rising and falling around the Lost Homeland like a siege!

Alice had never seen anything like it. She didn't know if this was normal for the sea, but she knew she had to find the Captain.

She scanned the deck. Without much effort, she found Captain Duncan standing at the edge of the deck.

The surrounding wind and waves were a bit bothersome, but to Duncan, who was on the verge of success, they were just insignificant "disturbances." Through the feedback from the fishing line and the green fire, he could clearly feel that his prey had stopped resisting. The leviathan was being slowly pulled out of the water.

"Come on up!"

He shouted cheerfully, giving the rod one last powerful yank.

A large fish leaped out of the sea—truly large, nearly half his size.

In that brief moment, Duncan's gaze met the fish's in mid-air.

"...Quite ugly."

That was his first thought.

It was indeed an extremely ugly fish. Its dark, dingy body seemed covered in lumpy growths, with strange gray-white patterns sprawling haphazardly along its fins. At the head, he could see several bone-like structures, and a pair of hollow, milky-white eyes stared at Duncan from beneath them.

Duncan felt deeply uncomfortable. He had the unsettling feeling that the fish was looking at him with ill intent.

But the next second, he saw the fish twitch violently. Its eyes, which had been staring at him, inexplicably exploded, spewing blood.

The fish dropped heavily onto the deck, writhing and contorting as if electrocuted, and then lay still within seconds. Blood seeped from its mouth and the ruptured eye sockets, dripping onto the deck.

Duncan stared in surprise at the incredibly ugly fish rapidly losing its life at his feet. He vaguely recalled reading that most deep-sea fish were indeed ugly, and due to prolonged exposure to high pressure, their blood vessels would burst when brought to the surface, leading to rapid death—was it the same in this world?

As he stood there, momentarily stunned, a crackling sound suddenly reached him again.

Duncan curiously followed the sound and saw several smaller "odd fish" land on the deck right behind it.

They looked similar to the half-man-sized fish, but were only about half a meter long. And like the big fish—by the time Duncan noticed them, they were already bleeding profusely all over, and quickly fading.

Duncan was stunned, and it took him a while to react. "Is this like the Calabash Brothers saving their grandpa? Sending them one after another?"

Alice gripped the railing tightly, nervously watching the brutal fight unfolding not far away, a scene that would drive ordinary people mad.

She saw Captain Duncan standing at the edge of the deck, verdant flames erupting around him like a towering inferno. He stood like a giant consumed by fire, confronting the sea. Three grappling hooks extended from the deck beneath his feet, one of them blazing with terrifying flames.

She saw a massive shadow suddenly appear in the Boundless Sea, followed by a tentacle, thicker than the main mast of the Lost Homeland, emerging from the water. Countless malicious eyes opened across the tentacle's surface, and countless sharp teeth ground and chewed between the eyes, as if ready to tear the entire ship to shreds at any moment.

Alice almost cried out. She wanted to warn the Captain to dodge, wanted to rush forward to help, but before she could act, the tentacle smashed down towards the Captain.

She saw Captain Duncan look up. Beneath the roaring flames, a look of harvest joy was on the Captain's face—he stared at the countless eyes on the tentacle, and the countless eyes on the tentacle stared back at him.

The next second, all the eyes on the tentacle suddenly burst open, and hundreds of sharp teeth let out piercing, pained shrieks. Then, the tentacle snapped in mid-air—as if some colossal entity hidden beneath the sea's surface had actively severed its connection to the tentacle, discarding the severely wounded tip onto the deck.

The tentacle landed with a thud, and the foul, viscous flesh and blood that spilled from the severed end clattered onto the deck, falling at the Captain's feet.