Chapter 101: Close Encounter with Sea Kings
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Day and night, the sailors, merchants, marines and pirates navigated the sea without break to get themselves to their destination, yet usually, for many of those people participating in such activity the immemorial staleness of the Sea was something that could bend the psyche of the weak.
The sensation that you had nothing better to do, being stuck inside a ship was enough to torment you, and initially, this could be said for an eccentric individual whose first months of Sea Travel could be described as a sentence in Exile, but luckily for him, he had the company of an interesting young woman, the Fairy who would always surprise him with something.
Small as she was, she was lovable and a delight even for the future members that the man might add along to satisfy his desire of not being stuck alone on some boring seafaring.
Such that from Rosande's Departure which brought many gains to Vlad, the journey toward Briss Kingdom was always filled with an activity that wouldn't bore anyone in the crew, especially Vlad who found his hands once again filled with different tasks akin to the time he was the Ruler of Wallachia.
From his research on the Devil Fruits where he started doing small observations not risking anything that would destroy those fruits, he left it at that for lack of better equipment for further analysis.
Then, the bloody seed grew a little bit since he started feeding it, but what was more important to him from all of those side jobs he was conducting, it was his eyes' health, something he wanted to keep in a slow, deteriorating state.
There was nothing of note worth taking place in the brown-dark Caravel for the duration of the journey, yet, it just so happened that on the 7th day of the trip to Briss Kingdom, the group got challenged by a being.
Before the being could even make his apparition, the seagulls who were using the brown caravel as a resting station started crying out, alerted, while Vlad and Dalyon also felt the being approaching their Caravel.
"BOY, go take the steering wheel and turn to the West!" shouted Vlad from the lower deck as he opened his laboratory door, releasing from inside some repulsing smells of death and various chemicals.
'Could it be? A Sea King?' thought the young Lunarian who was in a meditative state with flames being condensed around his back.
'I guess, I can't decline moving out and help. Especially if it is some gigantic Sea King.'
Dalyon who was inside his cabin reacted quickly by flying toward the steering wheel and doing as he was instructed, while the cries of the Sea Gulls got even louder, with the Fairy of the group already at the Crow Nest listening to each of the cries, translating for the crew.
"The kids say that something bad is swimming underneath the ship! Something Big and Murderous!" called out Titania, managing to understand something from the chaos that took over the seagulls, who experienced an existential crisis.
"I can feel it." remarked Dalyon who spun the steering wheel toward the 270 grade with some alertness.
Not long since the ship altered its initial route, from underneath the sea, the head of a large beast made its apparition like a bullet shot in the air, devouring some of the Seagulls who didn't manage to hit home from their excursion out of the Crow Nest.
The beast looked with murderous and beastly eyes at the Caravel that got away from harm away, blood and guts spilling out from its large mouth.
Eleine and Bonney stared at this large beast with big eyes not expecting that they would encounter in this journey a Sea King.
"What the fuck? Aren't we inside the South Blue? How come there is a Sea King here?" asked Eleine while running toward her room to grab her weapon.
"It's really a Sea King, like the stories I heard from grandma!" mentioned the pink-haired girl who also rushed toward her room to grab the slender sword Vlad gifted her.
While the girls were conflicted about the monstrosity that roared at them, quickening their steps to their cabin only to be slowed down when hearing a calm comment from the highest authority on the ship.
"You are scared about this much? This is just a Type B, Sea King. Nothing impressive about it when I look at its size. I've read stories about the Type S, Sea Kings, those are the rulers of the Calm Belt, while this snake-like Fish? Just a dejected being that couldn't keep up with its natural habitat."
The monster roared even louder as if it could hear Vlad's words, and feeling territorially challenged by those humans, the Sea King charged at them with only a simple thought in its primitive brain, "Slaughter".
Vlad who had a sharp look in his black eyes observed the Sea King's appearance, which was a mix of a Serpent, Crocodile and Sea Horse, which didn't look natural whatsoever, making his mind linger on something else instead of the challenge at hand.
The sharp serrated teeth of the Sea King that were akin to blades made Titania worry, even Eleine and Bonney didn't know what to expect as they returned on the main deck, holding their swords in hand.
"You know what beast? You are actually lucky that I don't have enough time to even research you. On how you are a beast of mixed animals."
With a black longsword appearing in his hand while his hair got dishevelled, Vlad jumped out of the ship to meet the Sea King and with his "Rise of Phantasma" assisting him in walking in the air, he descended with a cleaving motion that unleashed a crimson-red sword wave that cut a big piece of the monster's nose area.
The Sea King froze in place when sensing the impending doom from the attack targeting his head, such that it stopped from moving toward the Caravel, resulting in split results, him saving his life but also suffering a big wound.
Roaring while his eyes turned red, the Sea King opened his mouth and lunged in the air to devour this human daring to face him with blood gushing out from the large wound Vlad carved into the face of the monster.
Seeing what the monster wanted to do, without exerting any emotions, he kicked on the air hard toward the left, dodging the attack that might or not hurt him, but his counter was something vicious as he imbued Anathema with Armament Haki and cleaved with the blade instead of relying on long-ranged attacks.
*SHRIEK*
The monster cried in pain as a big chunk of his flesh was cleaved off by Vlad's dark blade, and if the monster didn't react in withdrawing to the sea, it wouldn't be wrong to say the black-haired man that was covered in blood would have cleaved the Sea King head.
"Primal instincts. So it's not just a rabid dog that attacks until it gets his head smashed with a stone." remarked Vlad as he was kicking the air to keep his elevation high, shifting his abyssal eyes at the disengaging Sea King.
A clear victory for Vlad, but unlike most people who might have already begun celebrating the victory against the fabled Sea Kings, the Impaler wasn't someone to abandon his prey, and with a crazed expression he allowed himself to descend toward the Sea, even propelling himself using his 'Rise of Phantasma'
Splashing in the bloody water, he noticed the waves caused by the monster's roar underwater and continuing his hunt he started swimming while pushing himself deeper using his leg kicks that sent shockwaves in the water.
Typical manoeuvre of a ballistic missile, Vlad caught up with the Sea King who, just like its animalistic instincts that made up his genes, a cornered beast, attacked with everything it got, catching Vlad with his spiked tail as he was swinging his sword. Roaring again to assert his dominance over this puny human, the monsters started grazing up and down the tail only to get a chilling sensation on its spine.
There was no cry of pain, or a withdrawal from the prey, instead of a natural reaction of stopping and retreating, it made the Sea King to stop its pathetic attempt at opening up Vlad's stomach when he noticed how the targeted area was covered into a layer of black armor.
Realizing its own doom was certain, the monster roared again, a last-ditch effort to scare off this prey that didn't react to its natural anatomy and genome, and yet … Vlad only smiled like a deranged sociopath that couldn't feel any emotions, instead took delight in the despair the Sea King started to realize on its own.
Akin to a whiplash, Vlad swung his black longsword with a cleaving motion razing off the head of the Sea King that started resurfacing to the sea level, while the heavy part of the body started descending deeper into the Sea.
In the end, the hunted because the hunter, the predator becomes prey, and the victorious would have an advantage over the defeated.
Noticing that, Vlad morphed Anathema into a harpoon that he launched with all his strength, piercing the flesh of the descending Sea King, and from there on he started swimming to the surface, shocking his crew members who for minutes were in a state of confusion.
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From the moment Vlad started his counter-attack against the Sea King and plunged into the cold sea, turbulences started appearing around the Caravel with blood bathing the once deep blue Sea. It wasn't something one could see often where the endless body of water was painted in red, but along with the shockwaves that kickstarted some large waves that clashed with the ship, everything else slowly dyed down, apart from the reddening of the water.
"Could it be? Vlad got caught by the monster? It has been about 5 minutes since he plunged down." asked the pink-haired girl, with a sombre tone that matched with the state of each girl in the crew who was worrying about their "Captain".
"Unlikely … That large quantity of blood should belong to the Sea King." commented Eleine who also started to get worried, after all Vlad was facing an abomination of the Sea, legends and myths of the waters that would spell calamity over the sailing boats.
"..."
"Fairy, say something. You are the one with spiritual connections and awakenings. Do some voodoo prediction." said Eleine noticing how Vlad had yet to ascend to the surface.
"He should be fine… Afterall, he wouldn't be risking his life over a lost fight."
"I guess, but I am still dead worried about that crazy bastard."
"... I share the same feeling."
Only Dalyon who was at the steering wheel controlling the movements of the ship to brace against the waves, he could only scoff when hearing the girl's comments and worries about Vlad's safety. He saw the fight against Vlad and the Sea King sealed from the moment the monster withdrew first to the sea, after suffering that heavy wound.
His observation proved him right when a large "object" started surfacing closer and closer to the Caravel, making out the shape of the Sea King's monstrous head left with his jaws opened.
"He did it!!" celebrated the girls from the sidelines, clapping hands with one another, before calming down when noticing up close the Sea King.
"... For sure it's an ugly ass creature."
"Right."
Their discussion about the Sea King's head was paused when from the bloody sea a human surfaced, tiny in comparison with the monstrous head that floated, dead. What shocked them more was that he was holding something tightly over his shoulder, beginning to pull with the veins of his upper body sprouting like Maggris Worms eating at his flesh.
"What the? Don't tell me something happened to him?" asked Eleine, noticing how Vlad was struggling with something she didn't know.
In fact, it was Vlad who dispelled all of their worries when he called out for someone with a cold tone.
"Dalyon, get the Caravel closer to me, and prepare to help me out with something."
The young Lunarian used his Observation Haki from his safe location, and while looking down below Vlad from the soup of blood that encased him, there was a large shadow of a 30-meter body in length that he was pulling up.
"Your ship isn't big enough to take in that Sea King."
"Just come here and help me keep it together. I intend to skin the beast right here and also section his body with the various meats."
Vlad kept it short and direct with the young Lunarian who also found himself interested in the Sea King, and after taking the ship closer to the black-haired man, anchoring it down he took off in the air, fluttering his large black wings above Vlad.
"So, what do you want?"
Vlad looked up at Dalyon and later at the Sea King's head, which remained in its open form, reminiscent of a snake who died with a last attempt at inflicting poison to his enemy.
"Take the head on the ship and be careful how you handle it. Maybe it has some poison glands, somewhere."
Getting direct directions of what he should do, worked on Dalyon who disliked when Vlad started brushing around in ambiguity, and as he flew above the Sea King head, he first inspected his target using Observation Haki.
Over Vlad's position, he started swimming, holding hundreds of tons over his shoulder, being disadvantaged even by the environment, it left a strange image for the girls who watched both monsters at work. Dalyon picked the head from the sea while covering his arms in Armament Haki in case this dead monster might have other defensive mechanisms in place, and with great satisfaction to see the dumbfounded expressions of the girls, he glanced at the Sea King head lying on the Main Deck.
"I've seen bigger ones in the past."
"You did? How big?"
"Maybe hundreds of meters, it could be even bigger because I've only seen the head part."
Titania, Bonney and Eleine approached the monstrous head, each of them with a different mental state after encountering this dead beast up close.
"You better don't place your hands in his mouth or something stupid. I'll go tend to Dracul and the remaining beast."
"Remaining? There's more?" asked Titania, who turned around, flew at the ship's railing and watched as Vlad was pulling up over his shoulder an black chain, where the shadowy figure of the remaining body of the Sea King got visible to her golden eyes.
"Are you guys crazy??"
"Certainly not." responded Dalyon to the Fairy taking off like a predatory bird, appearing above Vlad who looked at the youngster.
"What is it kid? Do you want to have a test of strength and see how heavy this cattle is?"
"I don't mind it. It will just prove to you, I am stronger than the weakling, you."
Vlad was expanding his lactic acid, feeling his hands getting slightly numb as he was pulling on the heavy dead beast, and to make sure he wouldn't lose any progress he let Dalyon get even closer to him until he passed the black chain.
"You struggled with only this much?" mocked Dalyon who was still assisted by Vlad, not releasing yet his hold on Anathema since he had to talk it out with the mysterious weapon to not act against the Lunarian.
A scoff and a release of his hold was enough to have Dalyon drop in the sea from his comfortable dryness.
"Arghh! You did that on purpose."
"A misunderstanding. You just thought that this beast was some Carp." mentioned Vlad who started to move his arms around, even his legs got put to test, watching how Dalyon wasn't accustomed to how to be pulled on the heavy beast.
His pulling was more akin to a man trying to pull on a well with water, inefficient energy-wise.
Nonetheless, he took great delight in watching the young boy struggle, it was similar to a sick predator who liked to play with his meal.
"Wait, my hands get tired so quickly, and even lose on the elevation."
Looking down at the sea, while activating his Observation Haki to see deeper, he could tell the small losses Dalyon was making.
"I can tell."
"..."
"Tch, I hate what I am about to do … but, how did you do it?"
"Pull it over your shoulder, as if you are trying to carry logs over your shoulder."
Vlad, while at times took great delight in seeing this young, arrogant child struggle and make a fool of himself, he saw an opportunity in winning the Lunarian over his side, and in simple words, practical, he explained his simple method.
It takes patience to make a teacher, the basis of understanding a student was to place yourself in his shoes, an ability that Vlad struggled a lot in his days to do because of his psychological disorders being at the boundaries of a sociopath.
"Good, you learn fast, young man. Now, let's see how much meat we can get from here before attracting another Sea King."
"I got this. I can feel my muscles hurting from holding this heavy load."
"Weren't you all about testing yourself? Hold the fish in place while I do the knife work."
Pulling the Sea King closer to the Caravel, the girls were staring from the safe distance of the main deck and the sea, and catching their attention Vlad gazed at Eleine.
"Give me your sword, Eleine."
"... You'll make it sting like fish for a long time."
"Pass it." ordered Vlad, not giving Eleine a chance at negotiating in this matter.
With a slender long blade being thrown at him, the work began for the two hunters, with Vlad beginning to remove the skin of the Sea King, reminiscent of how a hunter would do with a snake or crocodile, stripping the cadaver of some hundreds of kilograms that he brought in the ship, filling the whole Caravel with a specific scent of game meat.
"I wonder how a Sea King meat tastes like." asked Dalyon casually while watching the black-haired man knife work, noting in his head how he was butchering the beast.
"This one is a mix of Snake, Crocodile and maybe a Sea Horse, so probably is like a Snake. It would be like a chicken or rabbit. One thing is for certain, it will be akin to game meat, just look at this red meat.
My saliva is washing over it just as I carve it from the carcas."
"Just one of those rabid beasts is enough to supply a ship for months."
"They are not rabid ... Just too primal. As for the meat, we got to cure it. You better watch so you learn."
Titania who watched the two guys of the group "bounding'' couldn't help but feel relieved because she understood slightly about both of them, mostly Vlad, knowing that he had a dual personality and that he didn't stand when people acted arrogantly on him. The same was applied for Dalyon who had his own mood swings, yet one thing was certain, he didn't like being bossed around, akin to a Rebellious Prince.
What was happening on this particular day was something that Titania hoped to keep going for the entire journey. Still, it was out of her boundaries to predict how two individuals who had the qualities of a ruler would interact.
A young wolf would lower his head against the Alpha Wolf as long as the one in charge was strong enough to put him in place, it was something of a tacit, communication done on a body language level.
Nonetheless, this day was a success on multiple fronts for the group who had been challenged by a "Legendary" Sea King who to their fortune was one that could be categorized in the lower brackets of the food chain, only Type C.
Extra jobs were spread around the crew by Vlad who instructed the girls to begin curing the gigantic quantity of meat, leaving them initially in protest, except the aspiring Chef, Bonney.
"Such cruel girls, leaving out little Bonney to handle so much meat. Even the glutton of the group wouldn't be able to do much damage."
"No worries, I can handle this as long as we have plenty of salt."
"Look around you, Bonney. We are surrounded by a body full of salt."
"... I know, but it takes a long time to make salt from the Sea."
"Ohh, but we got one of the best sources of fire. In fact, he is so great, that he wouldn't even reject your request."
"Huh? You are talking about me?" called out Dalyon who was washing his clothes that got dirtied by the blood of the Sea King.
Seeing all the eyes at him, he shifted his red eyes at Bonney who had an innocent expression, then at Vlad who had a casual look.
"What's in for me?"
"You train your fire control by participating in the curing process."
"... Control you say? Little girl, when you need me, call me. Enough exposure from me, I'll be in my room."
Dalyon still had a long way to adjust to this style of living along with humans, and he assumed more of a lone wolf persona, being left mostly to himself.
Instructions being relayed to each member of the group, the "Lion King" withdraws himself to his laboratory while taking in the Sea King head with him.
Once inside his dark room and making light using his oil lamps, he opened the seal of the compartment he held Nihiloor's Seed, and while picking the blood-red seed full of various small grows on it, even a beak akin to an octopus, making it look totally alien, he arrived in front of the Sea King head he placed on the experimental table.
"Feeding time, Nihiloor. This whole fish head is yours for the taking."
A small cry, more like a shriek, got out from the sharp beak of the monstrous seed that didn't harm Vlad's hand in any shape. Then, after Vlad slowly placed the seed on the large eye of the dead Sea King, he watched with an analytical mind how the eye got devoured in a second by the small seed.
{Remember what I've told you. You will not be able to contain its size after it reaches a state.}
'This is a test to see if there is a variety in its forms of nutrition.'
{... Unnecessary.}
'For you.'
Watching closely, he stood in front of the Sea King's head that was being munched by the seed, giving an image taken out of a horror movie as if an army of maggots eating a decaying body, yet, this was the handiwork of a single being which found new ways to astound him.
'Sea Kings, bodies of slayed fools that would need to be wasted at the bottom of the sea, animals … the variety is generous.'