When Milluki's shout burst into the cockpit, Ging had already moved.
With a flick of his arm, the black sliver traced a clean arc through the air, flying out beyond the porthole.
Before the motion was even complete, the sliver had yet to touch the water.
Without warning, the sea beneath the cruise ship swelled upward in a massive arc.
It was not a wave. The entire sea had been forced upward by some power from below.
Boom—
A ring-shaped surge exploded outward from the cruise ship, smashing violently in every direction. The outermost three rows of buoys looked as though they had been swept aside by a giant hand, their warning lights going dark one after another. A dense series of snapping sounds came from underwater—the cables of the unmanned probes had been torn apart.
The two patrol ships pressing in from either side were shoved sideways dozens of meters by the tremendous force. Their hulls listed, people on deck staggered and fell, and screams mingled with alarms.
Robson had just issued the order to restrain Bai Zhu, but the armed personnel he had brought no longer spared Bai Zhu a glance. Their hands gripped their guns, yet their bodies uncontrollably turned toward the sea. Their previously tight formation scattered in an instant, and some had already seized the railings beside them, their knuckles taut.
Inside the cockpit, Robson stumbled a step and slammed into the control console. He stared fixedly at the ever-rising sea beyond the window, mouth open but unable to make a sound.
Splash!
Something indescribably enormous burst from the water.
It was gray-black all over, its surface covered in slick suckers and metallic barbs. The part exposed above the water alone already towered beyond the cruise ship's highest deck structure.
The gigantic tentacle paused in