"Up!"
Gela Jiang pinned the nose of the board with one foot and raised both hands.
Seawater twisted into a column, lifting the surfboard more than ten meters into the air. Milluki threw himself flat against it, clutching his terminal with both arms. The wind whipped his soaked coat against Ging's leg.
"Could you warn me before you do that next time?"
Ging planted his feet on the tail of the board.
"He did."
"One word counts as a warning?"
"It was enough."
Ging used the height of the rising column to jump.
Milluki looked up and barely managed to grab Ging's pant leg before the fabric slipped from his fingers. Ging flipped toward the sea, Nen wrapped around his right fist, and slammed it into the center of the shadow.
The sea caved in, then erupted in bubbles.
Dozens of Nen pillars burst from underwater, spanning nearly a hundred meters of sea. They cut the shadow into more than a dozen pieces. Water and bubbles shot into the air, and the shockwave shoved the surfboard sideways.
Gela Jiang crouched low and spread his hands. Three streams split from the middle of the water column, caught both ends of the surfboard, and forced it steady.
Milluki crawled to the edge and pointed his terminal down.
"The heat source is gone."
He switched screens.
"Sonar says there's nothing in the water. No sea beast, bones, or blood."
A Nen detection log appeared on another screen.
The readings showed only the sea's normal fluctuations.
Ging surfaced, stepped onto a stream Gela Jiang sent his way, and landed on the tail of the board. He shook out his fist. There was no blood or flesh on the back of his hand, not even a scrap.
"Did you hit it?" Gela Jiang stared at