Chapter 414: Return
What is that? What is it trying to do? Charles wondered in his diving suit, his gaze staring intently at the green lotus leaf underneath his feet.
Gleaming with a cold light, the Dark Blade had already appeared in Charles' hand. The moment something emerged from beneath, he would strike swiftly.
One minute, two minutes, and three minutes later, but the entity beneath the lotus leaf remained elusive and motionless as though it had disappeared into thin air.
Yet, having been seasoned by countless brushes with danger, Charles' sixth sense was clearly sounding the warning bell to him that there was definitely something lurking beneath the lotus leaf.
Since his unseen adversary chose to remain still, Charles resolved to claim the initiative then. With the Dark Blade in hand, Charles cautiously approached the edge of the lotus leaf.
It took only a couple of steps before Charles reached the edge of the basketball court-sized lotus leaf. Peering over the edge, the water resembled a pool of thick, impenetrable ink; he could hardly make out anything in this lightless environment.
What's down there? Charles wondered to himself.
After a moment of hesitation, impatience got the better of Charles; he didn't want to waste a second more. Firming his resolve, he leaned over and seized the lotus leaf's edge. With a forceful tug, Charles flipped the leaf over, and his entire stance became inverted.
With a splash, his steel helmet plunged into the waters. Gazing through the helmet glass with his night vision, Charles scanned the underwater scene.
To his surprise, he could only see seaweed and a scattering of small marine life between them. There was no sign of any anticipated threat.
A small fish with a yellow-striped tail blitzed past Charles and caught his attention.
Did that fish produce the footstep sounds? Charles pondered but swiftly dismissed the notion. It was a normal threadfin bream, a common sight in the waters near Hope Island and nothing out of the ordinary.
Heaving himself up with his hands, Charles broke through the water's surface and landed on the upper side of the lotus leaf again with a heavy thud.
Just then, the sound of rapid footsteps resumed. This time, they were not coming from beneath him but directly behind him!
Without even a single second of contemplation, Charles tightened his grip on the Dark Blade and swung it backward in defense.
"Captain, it's me!"
The trail of afterimages stopped in place as the blade froze mid-trajectory. Charles spun around to find his boatswain, Dipp, and staggered back in shock.
"How did you get here? Where are the others?" Charles asked.
"I was about to ask you the same thing," Dipp replied. "I was making the rounds with Feuerbach around the perimeter when suddenly I lost sight of him and his red sharks.
"When I emerged from the waters, I realized the ship was missing and then spotted you walking toward the edge of the lotus leaf. But, Captain, why did you plunge your head into the water just now?"
Is it just Dipp and I now? Charles mused as his fingers traced the edge of the Dark Blade, and his mind raced with possible explanations of their current situation.
"Captain, what should we do next? Should we go search for them?" Dipp asked while blinking his translucent eyelids.
"Let's wait here. If they're together, it makes sense for them to come find us, given they have an advantage in numbers."
"Alright, I'll follow your lead." Dipp nodded in affirmation. With a trace of helplessness on his face, he sat down cross-legged on the lotus leaf.
Charles approached the Deep Dweller and settled down next to him before asking, "Dipp, how's your son's health now?"
The Deep Dweller's face lit up at the mention of his son. "Thank you for asking. He's much better now. He has almost fully recovered."
In an instant, white electric arcs danced across the fishman's skin. Amidst the screams of agony, "Dipp" was reduced to a charred silhouette.
Staring at the smoldering humanoid charcoal before him, a cold glint flashed across Charles' gaze.
Though I don't know what it is that is pretending to be Dipp, it has indeed followed me here.
When "Dipp" appeared earlier, Charles had not let his guard down for even a second. Known for his exuberant personality, the real Dipp would have hollered Charles from afar and would never have crept up on him from the back.
Plus, the familiar sound of footsteps hadn't slipped his mind.
Just as Charles stood up on the lotus leaf, a sharp tearing sound rang out. The charred form of "Dipp" instantly split into three vertical parts, each part burrowing through the lotus leaf like a worm, leaving a dark void in its path.
Before Charles could understand what was happening, the lotus leaf beneath him rapidly yellowed and withered. Whatever entity that was, it had made its intention clear that it wanted to plunge Charles into the waters.
"It's actually still alive?" Charles removed his large helmet and extended his invisible tentacles, thrusting them into the newly formed holes on the lotus leaf.
Letting out a low growl, lightning arcs crackled around Charles' body before traveling along his transparent tentacles down into the surrounding waters.
The surface of the water was illuminated with bursts of lightning, chasing away the oppressive darkness intermittently.
After about a dozen seconds, Charles panted albeit heavily as he looked down at the lotus leaf. It was no longer yellow but pitch black.
The water around the lotus leaf began to bubble, and steam rose from around it.
Everything returned to normal, and no other anomalies were observed.
Just as Charles settled on a new lotus leaf, a distant white glow caught his attention. He turned in its direction, and his eyes widened in surprise.
It was the searchlights from his ship, the Narwhale.
He wasn't sure if it was his lightning attacks that had attracted his crew's attention, but they had finally managed to locate him.
Four sturdy ropes were thrown from the deck, which Charles secured around himself before being hoisted up.
With a loud thud, Charles landed on the deck in his diving suit. Immediately, his crew members surrounded him and bombarded him with questions and concern.
"Captain, are you alright?"
"Fortunately, you returned! That scared us."
"Wheredid you go?"
"Alright! Shhh! Let me ask some questions first!" Charles' voice rang out, and silence descended upon the deck.
Charles pointed at a thoroughly drenched Dipp next to him and asked, "When did you notice I disappeared? I need the precise time down to the minute."
"About seven minutes after you entered the water. I found some human traces and wanted to show you, but I couldn't find you."
"Seven minutes?" Charles reiterated and quickly recalled the events that had happened. The time Dipp had mentioned was around the time he had encountered the sea otter.
He didn't know the implication of this, but he felt that something was off about that sea otter.
"How did you manage to find your way here afterward?" Charles continued asking as he took out his phone and checked the time.
"After realizing that you were missing, we tried to follow your oxygen tube, but we found nothing. Then, we spiraled out from the initial point to search for you.
"It's all thanks to Audric that we were able to find you. He turned into a bat and heard a commotion from this direction when he was doing an aerial search.
"Captain, what happened? Your current location is two to three nautical miles away from where we were initially."
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