Chapter 98- Anomaly In The Deep (Part 2)
"Hm?" Kai made a small sound as he approached the edge of the boat and looked down. Much to his surprise, the water beneath them had suddenly turned into a darker, murkier color out of nowhere.
Squinting his eyes, Kai's eyes moved along the darkness, trying to discern where it starts and ends. That's when he noticed a small detail. This darkness was expanding around them in all directions at a very fast pace.
Immediately, Kai's senses alerted him and he quickly dashed back to the steering wheel and increased the speed of the boat.
"Hold on. Something is beneath the boat."
"Something?" Eva quickly grabbed into the boat when she felt it increasing its speed. Her eyes never left the sea.
As the boat moved faster and faster, the lump of darkness didn't seem to be fading or disappearing. In fact, Eva could clearly see that it was following them while still expanding at the same time.
'What the h.e.l.l is this?! Is it some kind of submarine rising to the surface? Or maybe an animal? But, it's bigger than any sea animal I have ever seen!' She thought to herself as she felt her blood run cold.
Whatever this thing beneath them was, if it kept rising this fast, it would hit the boat. Eva was about to summon a sword and launch it at this moving silhouette. However, at that moment, the boat suddenly shook violently.
"Woah!" Eva found herself swaying left and right, trying to regain her balance. The sudden impact was akin to something grabbing into the boat and shaking it violently.
A second after that, a huge object emerged from beneath the sea surface. The object was ma.s.sive, almost as big as the boat itself. It looked like a tower in length and was of a rather horrid, sc.r.a.ped red color like that of an old car.
Looking closer at it, Eva could see visible scars on the surface of this object resembling sword slashes.
'A… tentacle?' Eva could only describe this thing as so since it was the closest to a giant, squid tentacle she had ever seen.
"Hold on!" Kai, who also saw that thing, immediately steered the boat to the left, as he tried to get away from it.
However, the tentacle suddenly moved like a flash and latched into the boat, shaking it violently again. Eva found herself almost falling into the sea from the impact. The tentacle quickly surrounded the front part of the boat as it started pushing and pulling it as if it was a small toy.
"d.a.m.n it!!" Eva cursed as she quickly summoned a sword and ran toward the tentacle. She had no time to think of what or where did this thing come from. If she didn't move quickly, the boat would drown!'
Closing the distance between them, she slashed down at the long limb.
*CLING*
The sword made a loud screeching sound the moment it made contact with the skin of the tentacle as if it hit a st.u.r.dy iron rather than flesh.
"What is this thing made of?!" Eva quickly changed her approach as she summoned another sword with a pointy edge before she thrust forward.
The boat was still shaking violently while Kai was using a good amount of effort to try and pull the boat away from the abomination that was following them.
The two swords. .h.i.t the tentacle, piercing it successfully. However, the swords didn't really reach deep into the tentacle. They barely scratched the surface which still leaked disgusting orange blood.
Eva felt her limbs going numb from the hit. She sustained some damage from her own attack because of the sheer st.u.r.diness of this tentacle.
'Tsk, it hurts!' She cursed before she got ready to thrust again.
However, for better or worse, that attack seemed to work as the monster suddenly pulled the limb away from the boat before it submerged again under the water. The surface of the sea turned into an eerie orange color. The silhouette beneath the boat also vanished without any prior warnings.
"What was that…" Eva's face was colored in disbelief. She still didn't comprehend what just attacked them. She had never seen a creature like that in her life. Even the biggest animal known to humans was way smaller in comparison.
"Don't put your guard down. That thing is still under us." Kai warned Eva as he quickly moved the boat away.
However, before the two could get any further away, the darkness returned, this time with even more intensity. Then, from beneath the surface, multiple tentacles emerged at the same time. Precisely, 8 tentacles came out, varying in size and degree of ancient scars on them but they all shared an equally disgusting appearance.
"s.h.i.t!" Eva could only curse at the horrifying sight.
The tentacles swayed left and right before they dived down on the boat, trying to latch on to it and break it in half. If the first attack only left some damage on the frontal half of the boat, this one would destroy it in an instant.
Although she knew she wouldn't be able to stop all of them, Eva took a fighting stance as she was about to use her runic domain to attack all of them at the same time.
However, at that moment, a silhouette pa.s.sed beside her before jumping into the air.
"Kai!" Eva yelled his name when she saw him leap into the sea of tentacles in front of them.
The tentacles seemed to notice him too as they all moved toward the boy, all at the same time. The sight was terrifying as it made Eva's heart stop for a second.
Kai, on the other hand, had a calm face as he murmured two words.
"Atomic slash."
Immediately, the tentacles that were about to hit him suddenly exploded and disintegrated into extremely small pieces. Disgusting orange blood rained down on the sea, coating it completely in that color.
Kai then spun around and landed on the boat.
"A-Amazing…" Eva could only mutter with awe on her face.
This was the first time she saw Kai's atomic slash and she could only get shocked. Not only did he somehow cut the tentacles so unbelievably fast that her eyes were barely able to see him unsheathe the sword but he also somehow cut these extremely resilient tentacles as if they were pieces of b.u.t.ter.
She didn't even want to imagine how much strength that required.
A moment later, a loud, earth-shaking shriek shook the whole sea. The duo immediately looked down beneath them. They could see the dark silhouette beneath them shake and move as if it was suffering from h.e.l.lish pain at that moment.
Its shrieks were akin to m.u.f.fled bells ringing on the horizon. Each shriek sent a chill down their spines from how horrid it was.
"That didn't kill it. Tsk…" Kai murmured to himself as he swung his sword to the side, cleaning it from all blood in a second.
"What are we even fighting? How can a creature like this exist?" Eva asked, fully knowing that Kai also had no answer.
"We will talk about it later. We need to first get away from it. The boat is already damaged greatly. It won't ha-" Before Kai could even say anything, the boat was suddenly pierced from the middle by a tentacle.
The hit shook the duo out of their balance before they fell down to the water beneath them. At the same time, the tentacle moved left and right, snapping the boat in half.
*Splash* *Splash*
Water splashed around them as they found themselves beneath the surface of the water.