This time, Xiao Bai set her sights on Ning Rongrong.
The six had barely entered the sea and had not yet reached the backflow channel from last time when she swept in from the outer ring to the middle, driving the entire current toward the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda. Ning Rongrong was ready. Oscar followed close at her heels with the supply bag in his arms. The colored light from her first six rings tracked that moving marker, changing angle twice underwater before it reached Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing.
"Don't lose the bag," she reminded him.
Oscar hugged the supply bag tighter. "I'm worth less than it is right now."
"Then keep up."
Tang San raised a hand beneath the seabed. Two of his Eight Spider Lances hooked into a crack in the rock, while his Blue Silver Emperor grew close against the reef, spreading along the shallow current he had mapped on their last two attempts. He could not use Blue Silver Cage, and the vines grew slowly. Ahead, the Arrowfish had already turned.
Ma Hongjun drew his Phoenix Flame into his palm, and the bubbles boiled up by the fire formed a narrow white ribbon. The shoal veered away from the heat. In the two breaths they gave him, Tang San wound his Blue Silver Emperor behind him. The tip of every vine remained within his control, ready to be pulled back at any moment. He would leave no more broken ends for the fish to get tangled in.
"On the right." Zhu Zhuqing stepped over Dai Mubai's shoulder and thrust her Hell Stab into empty water, using the pressure to send an Arrowfish charging at Ning Rongrong off its course. A thin bandage still wrapped the back of her hand where a fin had cut