Volume 1 - CH 78

The sky was a bright, clear blue, and not a single cloud marred its perfection. The crew of the ship was jubilant, feeling as though the gods themselves had blessed their journey.

However, unbeknownst to them, a shadow was slowly but surely growing larger and larger in the waters surrounding their vessel.

As if on cue, the air was suddenly filled with the ominous presence of a top predator – a creature that sat atop the food chain.

“Oh no!”

“We’re in danger!”

The two black-clad bodyguards finally picked up on the shift in the atmosphere and turned around, just in time to see a massive figure burst through the surface of the water with a mighty roar.

The resulting sound wave was almost tangible, sweeping across the area and threatening to rupture eardrums with its sheer force.

The waves caused by the creature’s emergence were also strong enough to nearly capsize the large sailboat.

Panic set in among the crew as screams filled the air.

In this world, sea kings have virtually no natural enemies.

Their massive size grants them almost unbeatable strength, and even a glancing blow from one of these beasts could spell disaster for a ship and all aboard.

If there isn’t a sufficiently powerful person present, coming face to face with a sea king is tantamount to a death sentence.

The sea king’s body loomed like a small mountain, blocking out the sun and causing the very earth to tremble beneath it.

This was a scene unlike any that had ever been witnessed before, one that seemed to belong in the very depths of the underworld.

Soros and the others were instantly drenched in a cold sweat, with aching pains in their brows, as if they were defenseless commoners who had stumbled upon a tiger-like beast in the wilds of the Grand Line.

The sky was shrouded, and so were their hearts, filled with despair.

“Don’t fight back, you can’t win. All we can do now is pray it’s too lazy to pay us any mind,” Soros trembled as he tried to stop the black-clad bodyguard.

The two black-clad bodyguards were immediately scared out of their wits upon hearing the words, having only acted on instinct before. Now that they were reminded, they suddenly realized their own insignificance and hung their heads low, trembling like quails.

“With this size, it shouldn’t be considered as a large sea king. It’s probably a medium-sized one, and it’s relatively “slender.” Rhodes had read about sea kings in the books of the Revolutionary Army and was familiar with their classification. They range from small to medium, large, and super large. Small sea kings are only tens of meters long, but super large ones can be over five thousand meters in length.

To put that in perspective, the average height of an island in the Grand Line is only ten thousand meters! Two super large sea kings, placed end to end, could cover the holy land of the Mariejois and flatten it with ease. However, it’s unlikely that a sea king of such enormous size would appear in such a place.

The sea king currently in front of them was about 45 meters high, with a length of over 100 meters when including the part that wasn’t visible above the surface of the sea. His size was indeed relatively slender among medium-sized sea kings.

“Based on its shape and nature, it should be a normal squid type with tentacles, relying on brute force. It’s not one of those special electric eel sea kings for example.”

After observing the sea king for a while, Rhodes let out a sigh of relief.

For a sea king of this size, if it were an electric eel type, its power would likely be much more terrifying than Enel’s Goro Goro Fruit, capable of instantly vaporizing a small area of the sea. It would be unstoppable, like a mortal trying to block a killing blow from a god.

It’s no wonder that sea kings are known as one of the three ancient weapons.

As he marveled, Rhodes suddenly leaped up, his body stepping into midair as if on a staircase, gradually ascending to the top of the sky. In the blink of an eye, he arrived at the top of the sea king’s head.

Standing in front of it, Rhodes, who was of normal human size, looked even smaller than an ant in comparison. The sea king’s single eyeball was much larger than Rhodes.

A fierce and terrifying aura, like that of a higher creature, mixed with a salty smell, rushed towards him.

But Rhodes remained expressionless, even feeling a bit stuffy from the smell.

“Feel the thunder.”

Looking at the pupil that reflected his own image like a mirror, Rhodes spoke indifferently.

Thud, thud…

The dazzling thunder roared, piercing the sky like a silver snake. This was the special ability of Rhodes, the “Thunder Dragon’s Roar.” It is a technique that could release a strong burst of thunder from the user’s body.

As the sea king let out a miserable cry, Rhodes’s body was surrounded by a golden halo, and a light dragon phantom appeared behind him, with a pair of dragon horns on his head.

It was because of the gust of wind that Soros, the black-clad bodyguard, and the others belatedly reacted and looked up.

And then they saw a scene they would never forget.

They saw a blurry figure in white clothes, holding a sword, proudly standing in the sky dozens of meters above the ground, bathed in dazzling thunder, and suddenly, it swung its sword.

“One Blade Flow: Heavenly Thunder Cut!”

There was no way to describe the sharpness of this sword!

As this sword swung out, it seemed to split heaven and earth into two parts. In the pupils of countless people, all that remained was that sword energy that converged with endless thunder, like a thunderbolt that flickered straight through the sky and earth.

This sword energy was like a withering, destructive force, easily cutting off the tentacles the sea king reached out with, and then slashing through the void and instantly cutting through the sea king’s head, which was even larger than a sailboat.

“Growl!”

The sea king let out a heart-wrenching roar.

With this strike, it had a small half o its head cut off, and then endless thunder burst out, and almost instantly enveloped most of its body.

A burst of meat aroma spread out.

The terrifying and powerful current made Soros and the others feel like they were going to be electrocuted even though they were tens or hundreds of meters away.

But the sea king was worthy of being the ruler of the sea, with an incredibly tenacious life force. Even though blood gushed out of it like a river, it did not die.

It was unknown how it managed to do so.

In the stunned gaze of Rhodes, this sea king closed its slippery eyes and, with lightning speed, plunged into the sea and completely disappeared within a few breaths.

“Dammit…”

Rhodes couldn’t help but spit out a curse. It was a very uncomfortable feeling, like being caught in the middle of trying to show off.

Fortunately, he was high up at the time, and Soros and the others were too busy dealing with the waves the sea king had raised to pay attention to this scene.

Rhodes blew a sigh of sea breeze, somewhat annoyingly. He sheathed his sword with a clang, slowly returning to the surface of the sea. He looked around and soon saw the severed tentacle.

Although it’s called a ‘severed’ tentacle, it’s still longer than the entire ship.

“Can this be eaten? Is it good? How should I eat it?”

Rhodes was a little at a loss because the tentacle was just too big and thick… it simply looked delicious.

It was even longer than the large snake that Rhodes had killed before during a mission, and the thickness was completely incomparable.

Rhodes estimated that even if he just cut off a small piece, it would still be enough for a satisfying meal.

“Hmm, I’ll ask Solomon and the others.”