Chapter 435: From the depths, arises hatred
[Maestro~! I’m bored, how much longer till we get to Roaring Tide? I feel like we’ve been on this ship for weeks now!,] Hurricroak whined as she gave Zhen Liu a pleading look.
This made for a rather amusing sight to see given the relative size difference between a fully grown human and a shrunken down, figure-like kaijin.
Zhen Liu rolled his eyes at the childish antics, it was endearing yet somewhat annoying.
Before Zhen Liu could give the frog-like kaijin a proper answer though, Nepherage had already beaten him to the punch.
[Calm down, Hurricroak, the schedule said that we’d be in port by the day after tomorrow, in the morning no less. If waiting that long is enough to drive you nuts, you could spend that time in the Library.]
[But I don’t feel like reading, I want to fight something!,] Hurricroak grumbled, [the books said that the ocean was full of dangerous sea monsters and pirates that either want to drink your blood or steal your booty and I haven’t seen head or tails of either!]
[Not…fin…or…tail?,] Frosttusk asked
[Was that a pun?,] Razorstella added without missing a best.
[Maybe…]
“Aish…”
Zhen Liu was preparing to lecture the kaijin about their rambunctious behavior, especially when they were doing this in the privacy of his own cabin, when all of a sudden, a strange tingle in the back of his head suddenly went off as he detected a familiar type of energy.
Evidently, the kaijin immediately quieted down once they felt this exact same energy as their lord.
‘You guys sensed that, too?’
[Yes, milord.]
‘Along with that undercurrent of pure rage and hate?’
[As obvious as a sour note, maestro.]
‘Hmmm. Looks like we’re going to have some excitement on this ship after all. Kaijin, scatter. I want full eyes on the ship and a determination of what’s causing this particular type of flux.’
[As you wish, milord!]
[Time…to…fight…]
[Finally! Time to put on another performance!]
[I’ll be sure to keep the director’s eyes on me.]
[Whatever you say, ringmaster!]
Immediately after giving their confirmation of readiness, the kaijin immediately booked it out of the room through the window and various small holes in the ship’s interior.
“Well then…time for me to also get ready.”
As soon as the kaijin left, Zhen Liu himself started doing some basics stretches for a couple of moments before standing still with his eyes closed and his hands balled into fists at his hips.
Zhen Liu began to concentrate both his aether and [Chaos] into his stomach, causing the faint image of a strange looking belt-like device to form around his waist. What made this device stand out even further, was that there were two switches on either side of the main buckle.
‘I still can’t tell if this how it looks to everybody or just me…figure that out later.’
A couple minutes passed before finally, the belt finished forming and a voice made an announcement.
|MY driver, ready. Make your choice.|
As soon as Zhen Liu heard that particular voice, he decidedly pulled the lever on the left.
[Armor on.]
‘Mental note: bother Logos and Pathos about making this thing quieter…’
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Drip, drip, drip.
Flow, flow, flow.
[Mix, mix I say, mix! Allow my essence to flow into you my friends, let flow into you so that you may be…reborned!]
Far beneath the waves, beyond the reach of landbound mortals, something(someone) strange was stirring the tide to fit its whims.
Drip, drip, drip.
Flow, flow, flow.
A being that was more than a fish, less than man ,but something indescribably both and not.
Drip, drip, drip.
Flow, flow, flow.
With claw to flesh, it let the blood flow…
With force of mind, it caused the aether to churn…
And with the hatred deep within its soul…
Drip, drip, drip.
Flow, flow, flow
It will the sea to rise.
[I will not be humiliated again. I will not let myself be outnumbered again!]
As the creature made this proclamation, it spilled its strange colored blood under the water and allowed the diluted blood to linger over a bed of coral, using aether to prevent the blood from dispersing too much.
As the blood continued to float there, the coral filter fed like normal…until finally absorbing the cloud of blood.
At first, nothing happened. But then…
*Crack*
The sound of rock-like bones growing and snapping into place began to reverberate under the waves, growing louder and louder by the second.
As the cracking reached a crescendo, a cruel smile formed in the being’s lips.
[And now to drown the insulters of my honor…]
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“Shift change.”
“Oh thank gods, it is freezing up here!”
“And that’s why I packed a blanket.”
“Oh…smart.”
Despite the PS Nimona undergoing a miraculous upgrade and changing from a standard sailing galleon into a massive steamship with several ammenties designed to make certain jobs easier, certain occupations done for the sake of the ship were still incredibly miserable to perform.
Case and point, despite the rest of the ship being subtlety warmed by the flow of boiling steam throughout the pipes that criss-crossed across the whole vessel, the crow’s nest was still miserably cold at night.
Granted, it was elevated to a much higher height than before when the ship was just a normal galleon, but on the plus side, it was now installed with a rope life that made it easier to exit and enter the nest, and a communication line to the bridge for speedy reports.
Still didn’t change the fact that standing there for several hours in the dead of night, was cold as hell.
“Alright, here’s the telescope. I’m gonna go and…hold up…”
Just as the cold sailor was about to handoff his duties and equipment to his replacement for the evening, he stopped right then and there as something external grabbed his attention. This strange action didn’t escape the notice of his colleague.
“Huh? Is something the matter?”
“Do you hear that?”
“Huh? Hear what?”
“That’s what I mean…I’m not hearing anything.”
“Isn’t that a goo-wait…oh.”
As the crew became more and more familiar with the steamship’s capabilities, one of the first things that they got familiar with was the constant humming sound that came out of the engine room and the pipes connected to it.
It was mildly annoying at first, as the humming seemed to be everywhere and nowhere at once, but the crew eventually equated that humming to the sound of a heartbeat.
If they could still hear that hum, they knew that the engine was going at it’s usual pace and that the ship was still trudging along to it’s destination.
So when the two lookouts noticed that there was no humming sound and that the entire ship had gone quiet, the two of them got worried almost immediately.
The two sailors looked at each other for a brief moment before confirming that they were of the same mindset.
“I’ll handle the eyes, you handle the ears.”
“Aye.”
Immediately, the two lookouts began to focus their aether into their ears and eyes, granted, each focusing on a different part.
While they could have one of them just enhance both senses by themselves, it was less efficient to do so.
Humans can multi-task to an extent but the amount of focus they needed to do in this moment demanded at least two people.
Once their senses were fully enhanced, both went about the crow’s nest to identify the issue.
“See anything, yet?”
“No. Hear anything?”
“Not ye-wait… starboard side, now, by the railing on the lower deck.”
“On it.”
The sailor with the enhanced eyes quickly readjusted his focus and vision in the direction pointed out by the sailor with the enhanced hearing.
At first, he didn’t see anything. A small part hoped it was just the wind and the waves playing tricks on him and his friend, but as he kept his eyes focused on that particular spot, he finally noticed something.
Movement.
“What the hell?”
From the side of the ship, he could see what he had initially thought to be a piece of broken coral laying on the deck floor, a not-so unusual phenomenon given the intensity the waves can be at times, but then the coral did something weird.
It began to move.
Like a hand.
“What the fuck…”
Before his very eyes, the sailor watched as rising from the edge of the ship, climbing with limbs made of corals, a strange silhouette of a humanoid thing lift itself upon the ship with a splashing crack.
The sight of this one strange creature appearing was enough to make him nervous, the sight of several more following immediately after it was enough to send him to abject terror!
“Oh shit!!”
“What! What is it?!”
“Sound the alarm! The ship’s being boarded!”
“Oh fuck!”
Sensing the immediate danger, the sailor with the enhanced hearing immediately shouted the warning through the communication line.
What followed was a blaring alarm that woke the whole damn ship!
“What the fuck?! What’s the alert for?!”
“We’re under attack!”
“By what?!”
“By coral!”
“What?!”
