The sea lay calm beneath fair skies, peace filling the space between heaven and water, as though all the tranquility in the world had gathered in this single stretch of ocean.
Suddenly, the placid seawater began to churn. Bubbles rose continuously from the depths, bursting one after another when they reached the surface.
"Splash!"
As the bubbles roiled more violently, the seawater parted to either side, throwing up layer after layer of waves. A ship abruptly burst out of the sea. Its hull was severely damaged, its mast and sails almost completely ruined. Only the pirate flag fluttering in the wind remained the most intact thing aboard the battered vessel.
"Move it, men!" cried a sleazy man with a bulbous nose and a parted hairstyle. His voice carried a faint edge of anxiety and fear. "Get moving! Don't let that thing catch us!"
In truth, the man with the parted hair did not need to give orders. The sailors aboard the pirate ship were already running frantically back and forth, preparing the ship to sail and trying to get away from this terrifyingly tranquil sea at once.
"Gurgle... gurgle!"
Just as the pirate ship had traveled only a short distance, countless bubbles rose from the sea again. They churned densely and rapidly, as though something terrible might emerge at any moment.
"We're doomed, Captain! There's no time!" a sailor shrieked.
"Boom!"
Enormous waves rolled across the surface as a massive black shadow shot up from the depths. The shadow covered such a vast area that even the huge pirate ship seemed tiny by comparison.
"Roar!"
The shadow revealed its true form: a serpentine monster with fine, soft whiskers covering both sides of its long body and six fin-like wings along its flanks. A savage gleam blazed in its eyes as