Bang!
Another dull impact rang out, much louder than the last. The merchant ship rocked violently, and faintly mixed in with the noise came a pained shriek.
Gart listened carefully, then suddenly waved his hand.
"Starboard stern, nine o'clock!"
Before his roar had even faded, the lookout tower at the top of the mast had already swung its searchlight over.
Xia Nuo staggered when a sprinting sailor slammed into him. By the time he finally squeezed his way to the rail, the pale beam had already split open the darkness, faintly revealing the creature's outline.
Everyone couldn't help but draw in a sharp breath.
It was a gigantic creature over ten meters long, shaped like something between an eel and a sea serpent. Beneath its watery-blue fins, its body was covered in iron-gray scales that reflected a chilling gleam.
"This... what the hell is that thing?!"
A young sailor cried out in panic.
"It's a Sea King, idiot!"
"Damn it! Since when have Sea Kings been showing up along this route?!"
"Fire the cannons! Hurry up and fire! Scare the thing away!"
"No! It's pressed right against the hull! We have to pull away first!"
Amid the uproar, Xia Nuo gripped the railing and forcefully suppressed the instinctive fear and hesitation rising in his heart. He narrowed his eyes and stared below.
Having grown up in Cocoyasi Village, this was the first time he had ever seen a Sea King.
The rush of adrenaline made his vision seem much sharper at that moment.
Or perhaps the angle was just perfect. Through the pitch-black night, he could actually see the Sea King's features clearly.
Its bloodshot eyes held narrow, vertical pupils like a snake's. Its savage fangs crisscrossed and spread outward, almost reaching its neck...
The longer he looked, the more wrong it seemed. The longer he looked, the more familiar it became.
"King of the Near Sea?"
He froze, then frowned and muttered uncertainly.
As far as he remembered, the King of the Near Sea usually roamed around the Goa Kingdom, far from here. Could it have fled after being frightened away by Conqueror's Haki and immediately changed its territory?
Or perhaps it wasn't the same one, merely a member of the same species?
Bang!
Another dull boom rang across the sea. This time, many of the sailors saw clearly that the Sea King was deliberately ramming its belly into the hull.
What was it doing?
Including old Captain Gart, everyone was bewildered. If it was hunting, several people on deck would have been swallowed by now. It could even overturn the entire ship without much difficulty.
Yet this Sea King seemed to have no intention of doing that.
"Hey, look over there!"
A sharp-eyed sailor pointed at a spot and shouted, "There seems to be something inside that monster's belly!"
Bang! Bang! Bang! As everyone turned to look, the Sea King's impacts suddenly grew more frequent, one following immediately after another. The merchant ship lurched more and more violently, while the cries coming from beneath the sea became increasingly agonized. Every time it arched its back, the unnatural bulge of its stomach would briefly become visible.
The skin around the bulge was densely covered in bruises and scars. There were blunt-force injuries, scratches, and numerous swollen pustules from festering infections.
It seemed that something was lodged inside its organs, causing it unbearable pain. It kept searching for hard objects to ram and scrape itself against, trying to force the thing out.
In the end, it had covered its entire body in wounds.
Reefs, boulders, ships... Judging from the wide variety of injuries, it had probably used all of them as targets, yet none had solved the problem.
"This is really bad."
Gart's face turned ashen.
If this continued, it was only a matter of time before the ship completely cracked apart. The entire cargo and crew would inevitably sink into the sea.
The crisp snaps of cargo-box ropes breaking and the dull crashes of boxes colliding after coming loose had been echoing up from the hold for some time.
The old captain abruptly turned his head toward the pale face behind the wheel. The young helmsman was practically hanging from it just to avoid being thrown overboard, the veins on the back of his hands bulging with every turn.
"Still can't pull away?!"
As he roared, another wave of salty spray crashed onto the deck, drenching everyone from head to toe.
"We can't, Captain!"
The helmsman's neck had turned purplish-red, and desperation filled his voice. "This one's the agile type! Our ship can't match its speed. The moment we gain even a little distance, it sticks right back onto us!"
"Damn it!"
Gart spat out a mouthful of saliva mixed with blood from his gums, leaving a dark-red trail across the swaying, tilted deck.
He tossed aside his pipe, abruptly drew the saber at his waist, and gripped it tightly. When he looked at the Sea King again, a trace of crazed redness had appeared at the corners of the old man's eyes.
Fine, fine! You're really leaving us no way out. You really think I'm a pushover? Even if I can't take anyone down with me, I'll knock out a few of your teeth before I die!
Don't be fooled by how kindly and gently he treated everyone now. In his youth, he had been a veteran who fought on the battlefield to defend the kingdom, clawing his way out of heaps of corpses drenched in blood.
"Those in charge of logistics, take that boy named Xia Nuo to the safe cabin below and keep him there! Maybe there's still a chance for him to survive!"
"All other combat personnel, prepare to risk your lives with me!"
Gart forced the hoarse words through clenched teeth. "Damn it, at worst..."
"Mr. Gart."
Xia Nuo's calm voice abruptly cut off his blood-pumping battle speech.
"Hm?"
Gart instinctively turned his head, only to see the boy clenching both fists and staring at the sea with eager anticipation.
"Have the starboard cannons aim at the Sea King's belly and fire a few shots. Leave what comes after to me. I have a way to calm this thing down."
"What kind of joke are you making?!"
Gart's face darkened, and he cursed without a second thought. "Get to the safe cabin and hide! Is this the time to play the hero, brat?! Stop spouting nonsense!"
"Do you have any other way?!"
Xia Nuo suddenly turned around, his voice rising sharply. "I know what you're planning! Jump over there and throw your life away, then hack it a few times before you die just to prove you're not cowards. What good would that do?! We're already treating a dead horse as a living one, so what harm is there in letting me try?!"
"And one more thing!"
As they shouted at each other, he tore off his thick coat and shirt, revealing a powerfully built body with sharply defined lines.
His chest, filled with explosive strength, reflected the cold gleam of metal in the night. His back muscles, like those of a leopard, shifted slightly and instantly twisted into knife-carved ridges.
"There may be something my mother forgot to tell you. Sorry."
The black-haired boy looked at him in profile. His delicate, youthful features were completely at odds with his low, calm voice.
"In the whole of Cocoyasi Village, you won't find a man who can fight better than me."
"..."
Gart's eyes instantly widened.
During their brief acquaintance over the past few days, he had thought Xia Nuo was a thin, frail bean sprout. Even the Wood Sword he carried had seemed like a child's plaything, ridiculous enough to make people laugh.
Only now did he realize that it had been excessive maternal love, bundled up for the autumn and winter, that had sealed away the boy's true physique.