The one who reacted first to the confusing situation was neither the mermaid nor the ruler's wounded son, but the warrior of the Crab Tribe.
"Lusarina, use your power now!" Ku roared.
Without hesitation, he dashed forward. His still-open wounds bled, cracks ran across his carapace, but none of that stopped him.
The sand suspended by the destruction of the seabed still formed a thick curtain that partially obscured Mandrake's and the colossus's view.
Ku would take advantage of the cover. He spun his trident and reinforced his voice with touki, making it echo in waves across the ocean.
"Don't think the Guardian can protect him from me, Mandrake!" his voice cut through the sea with authority.
"And don't you dare call yourself my leader! You're a thousand years late to earn my loyalty!"
Those words snapped Lusarina out of her brief stupor. The leader of the Superior Mermaids swam hurriedly to Jogord, who was in critical condition, barely breathing, almost too weak to keep his eyes open.
Lusarina's mana flowed through her vocal cords, and her voice streamed like a magical current through the ocean. She sang:
"Rise and fight, bleed no more."
At that instant, an ethereal ripple spread through the sea. The sound was sweet and melodious, as if the ocean itself answered the call.
Jogord's eyes, once cloudy and dim, reignited with brightness. His body tensed his muscles, and even with his wounds still open, his flesh strained every fiber to stop the hemorrhaging.
This was the innate magic of the Superior Mermaids, the Enchanted Voice.
It directly influenced the mind, forcing the brain to send absolute commands to the body along neural pathways, making the flesh transcend its limits.
Jogord was not healed, but he rose. Inexplicably, even on the brink of death, he was able to stand.
Wasting no time, Lusarina turned her attention to Ku. Her voice reverberated again, mystical, crystalline, like a hypnotic wave.
"Ku, fight beyond your limits!"
At that same moment, the crab-man's muscles exploded with vigor.
His speed increased to the point of becoming merely a blur in motion, defying the natural resistance of the water.
Meanwhile, Jogord pulled from his belt a bizarre fruit, dark in color, with a viscous peel. When he bit it, a bitter taste spread across his mouth, but his body reacted immediately.
The bleeding partially ceased and his flesh stiffened. With his thick fat, he already possessed almost unrivaled natural resistance.
And now, thanks to Lusarina's song, his very biology seemed to rebel against death.
He knew, however, that he was only postponing the inevitable.
When his body exhausted itself, there would probably be nothing left to save him. Still, he grabbed his huge harpoon and swam upward, toward the colossus.
He had no words to waste. While he could remain standing, he would use every moment to try to tear the life from the traitor of the Sea Race.
Rising closer to the surface, he finally had a full view of the monstrosity he faced.
The One-Eyed Giant, Esterópes, was like a small hill.
Standing on the vast coral formation, he looked simply out of place. His body was almost entirely above sea level.
A single yellow eye, with a vertical pupil, stared at the ocean floor. Two pointed ears accompanied by two long horns. A shaggy beard hung from his chin and hid part of his face.
His skin was gray, marked by bluish cracks, and a faint brown-yellowish sheen exuded from his hide.
Merely looking at that entity made Jogord's heart tremble.
But he still advanced, for on the titan's shoulder was the true source of his rage, Mandrake. The octopus-man wore a malicious smile.
He had a humanoid torso and a lower half composed of viscous tentacles, and he carried a trident.
Mandrake was a skilled warrior, but far from the strongest of the Sea Race. In terms of combat ability, he was outclassed by Ku and Jogord by a wide margin.
Especially the former — if it weren't for the infamous Pistol Shrimp, Ku might have been considered the greatest warrior of the ocean, even above the ruler Balord.
Ku's confidence in being able to kill Mandrake was not unfounded. He knew he could defeat him easily — if it weren't for the colossus beside him.
Seeing his enemies advance, Mandrake's smile ceased and he spoke in a serious tone, his voice echoing among the sea bubbles:
"Very well. If you don't want to put on a show, so be it. Know that I hold no grudges against you. I only want the Sea Race not to be the victim of injustices. Balord is too soft to rule the ocean in this era!"
When he finished his words, Mandrake turned to the giant, pronouncing syllables in an incomprehensible tongue.
Until that moment, Esterópes had merely observed the palace's wreckage, contemplating a destroyed anthill.
But upon hearing the voice of the small creature on his shoulder, the titan slowly turned his immense eye toward the warriors who dared to advance against him.
In those few instants, Ku had already covered the entire distance that separated them, charging across the seabed like a red arrow.
The gigantic Esterópes slowly raised his hand, observing the small insect that dared to challenge him.
Ku, however, did not lessen his momentum in the slightest. His eyes were attentive to every movement of the colossus.
And then, suddenly and terrifyingly, the giant's hand simply disappeared from Ku's view. No, it didn't disappear — it was falling on him!
At the last moment, the Crab warrior leaped to the side at full speed.
And in the next second, ignoring any resistance from the water, the giant's hand crossed the distance in the blink of an eye.
With a deafening slap, it struck the seabed as if trying to crush an irritating mosquito.
The impact was so brutal that cracks spread across the entire seabed, and a devastating shockwave exploded in multiple directions.
The entire ocean around them seemed to shudder.
The scene was incongruous. A giant of such proportions should not move with such speed and precision.
And worse, that palm had ignored the density of the water, as if it were a natural extension of its own body.
The currents churned, and the sea was hurled in violent waves that spread in all directions.
Esterópes's colossal body reached almost five hundred meters in height, making the whole scene even more absurd.
Ku had disappeared from sight. Jogord screamed in pain:
"Ku!"
Wounded and bleeding, he sped up his swim even more.
However, his wounds were preventing him from unleashing his full speed without risking dying in the process.
Mandrake, for his part, let out a mocking laugh:
"Hihihihihi! He really thought he could catch me, even with the Guardian protecting me! Even the Seven Powers of the surface would tremble with fear before such an entity! His arrogance knows no bounds!"
While spitting his arrogance, Esterópes again lifted his hand out of the water.
His gaze turned to Jogord, who swam toward him consumed by fury, and the giant took a step forward.
Mandrake watched expectantly, satisfied with the entity's protection.
But, suddenly, Esterópes's golden pupil moved.
He was staring at his own hand — the same one that had crushed the ant earlier.
Suddenly, a red blur appeared running along the giant's colossal arm.
Esterópes reacted with a speed that should be impossible for his size.
His other arm moved instantly; a snap echoed as he tried to crush the blur running along his arm.
But he did not hit it. Ku had escaped once again by a hair.
With a fierce roar, the Crab warrior finally reached the giant's shoulder; the whole scene had happened in less than a second.
In a single instant, he was already before his true target.
"Haaaaaa!"
With both hands, he brandished the trident, thrusting toward Mandrake.
The blade pierced his victim's chest, passing straight through the heart and completely destroying his torso.
The smile of victory bloomed on Ku's lips. He had succeeded.
But that smile lasted only the blink of an eye.
Ku's gaze froze when he saw another Mandrake a few meters ahead, unscathed, sweating cold at the proximity of the warrior.
The body he had just pierced fell apart, revealing itself to be a mere member of the Octopus Race. No, it was not just any member — it was a mimic doll.
The realization struck him like an icy blade: Mandrake was not an ordinary Octopus. He was a Mimic Octopus, capable of all kinds of illusory abilities.
"G-guardian!" Mandrake shouted, his voice laden with hatred and fear at the same time.
Before Ku could react, another casual movement occurred.
Esterópes's finger appeared instantly behind him and came down on him in a simple flick.
The Crab warrior was hurled away in an instant, his body twisted in pain.
Multiple bones broke, multiple organs were crushed under the brutality of the simple blow. There was no resistance.
Esterópes had not used a slap this time, so as not to risk hitting Mandrake on his shoulder.
But that flick was enough to finally bring down one of the most formidable warriors of the Sea Race.
Mandrake was sweating, still recovering from the shock of near-death.
"Damn... that bastard really almost killed me!" he growled, incredulous.
"If I hadn't been cautious and prepared a mimic doll, I'd be dead now!"
His complaints contained a mixture of hatred and fear.
Meanwhile, Jogord finally reached the colossus.
Mandrake had barely recovered from the shock provoked by Ku's desperate attack when he heard a soft, melodious, and irresistibly enchanting voice echo through the ocean:
"Jump now, Mandrake!"
Ku's surprise strike had broken his train of thought and, in the heat of the chaos, Mandrake had completely forgotten the magic ring he had prepared precisely to resist Lusarina's songs.
His body stopped obeying him.
His muscles moved on their own, like a puppet. Mandrake ran a few steps across the colossal shoulder of Esterópes and, without hesitation, leaped.
His timing was perfect.
He propelled his swim with all the power he had left, breaking the waters and shooting toward the surface.
His body emerged like a projectile, rising dozens of meters above the sea.
And Mandrake was exactly where he needed to be, falling in free fall, defenseless.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Guardian! Guardian, save meeeee!" Mandrake screamed in panic, flailing in the air like a fish out of water.
His lower tentacles whipped the wind as he brandished his trident, with no control whatsoever.
Jogord knew that was the last chance. If he failed now, while the Guardian was there, Mandrake would not die.
It was now or never.
With a roar, he swung his arm and hurled his harpoon with superhuman force.
"Uooooooooooooooooh!"
The air vibrated. The harpoon pierced the sky like a ballistic projectile.
For a moment, Mandrake's face contorted in pure terror. The end was near…
But then, a deafening sound cut through the moment.
BOOOOOOM!
A gigantic gray hand appeared out of nowhere, interposing itself between the harpoon and Mandrake.
The impact was so strong that a shockwave spread through the air.
The harpoon had pierced the colossal palm, but had not reached the traitor.
"No…!" Jogord murmured.
Before he could react, another shadow fell over him. Esterópes's other titanic hand closed around his torso, crushing him mercilessly.
"Lusarina… fleeeee!" he screamed, his voice reverberating with all his pain and fury.
In the next instant, the grip intensified.
"GHHAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"
A horrendous scream escaped Jogord as his bones broke and his muscles were compressed to their limit. Esterópes showed no emotion.
With the same casualness of someone discarding a broken object, the giant hurled the whale warrior away.
Jogord was launched like a bullet shot into the ocean, vanishing amid a whirl of water and foam.
Lusarina, who was close enough to sing, saw the whole scene.
Despair took hold of her. Wasting no time, she dove deeper and began to swim with all the strength she possessed.
Mandrake, meanwhile, still trembling from the shock of nearly dying, finally pulled himself together.
Catching his breath, he raised his voice in the same incomprehensible language, addressing Esterópes.
He told the giant to kill Lusarina as well.
The giant's golden eye slowly turned, focusing on Lusarina.
Suddenly, the ambient mana stirred.
The cyclopean eye began to glow intensely, accumulating energy on a terrifying scale.
In a few seconds, the light emanating from the eye was no longer just a simple glow: it looked like a small sun shining in the sky, about to explode.
Mandrake, protected on the colossus's neck, covered himself from the glare and smiled in triumph.
"Yes…! Yes! Nothing will stop me now! Burn, Superior Mermaid! Burn along with all who dare defy fate!"
Then the beam of destruction was born.
A monstrous Light Cannon fired from Esterópes's eye, slicing through the waters and vaporizing everything in its path. The ocean was torn by pure energy, and the heat made the water boil instantly.
Mandrake laughed, exultant.
"Hahahahahahah! Yes, yes! The next will be Rygar Adoldia! May the Beast God feel the same pain! May he understand what it is to have the whole meaning of his life ripped away!"
The vision was apocalyptic. The sea rose in columns of steam. Esterópes remained impassive, as if it were nothing more than a simple gesture.
But then… his pupil moved.
Suddenly, he fixed his gaze on an unexpected point in the air, very close to the beam's path. A small dot that hadn't been there before.
And at that point, a figure appeared.
A beast-man. Silver hair, golden eyes that watched him with authority.
On his shoulder, unconscious but alive, was Lusarina.
In his hand, held by the neck, was Ku — the crab warrior who should have been shredded, but who now seemed completely recovered.
There were no signs of injury. Not a scratch.
The man looked at the colossus and, with an ironic smile, said:
"Dude… you're pretty big and fat, huh? Ever thought about going on a diet?"
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