Looking at it made Light's entire body shiver. A few seconds passed in absolute stillness. Even his thoughts were on hiatus. He felt a primordial feeling, the feeling of fear, the feeling of inescapable death, the feeling of being hunted.
'The sea monsters… they really do exist! Did it make the ship rumble just now? But how?!'
A sudden movement from the giant sea serpent broke him out of his motionlessness and also answered his doubts.
The giant sea serpent suddenly lunged forward at the main ship. It almost instantly careened across the vast distance between itself and the main ship and bit down with its maw—maw that was big enough to swallow the ship whole.
But because of the extreme speed the main ship was moving at, the serpent missed, but not completely. Its humongous yet razor-sharp teeth bit down on the rear end of the ship and ripped off a chunk of it like it was made of butter.
This caused the main ship to rumble uncontrollably, and the rumbles travelled through the anchor rope into the pitch-black ship.
Light grimaced due to being brutally jerked out of his reverie once again. And as soon as his thoughts cleared up, he realised something.
'It's hunting. The corpses of soldiers we left on the ship. It smelled them and is now hunting them. Has it been following us all this time? Or were we just unlucky to encounter it here?'
After missing the ship by a hair, the serpent got sucked back into the centre of the whirlpool, the monster took a second to adjust itself in the swirling waters. But then quickly stabilised and started looking back at the upper layer of the whirlpool, once again tracing the revolving main ship with its demonic red eyes once again.
Looking at the horrifying scene, Light shook his head, 'No! Why does it matter anyway? If it swallows the main ship, we would get sucked in too... The goal hasn't changed. If I don't shoot the half-torn part of the anchor rope and break free from the main ship to get the hell out of here, I die.
'That's how it had originally been and hasn't changed one bit. Only now I am at the risk of being slowly digested in a humongous sea serpent's stomach rather than simply drowning…'
Gritting his teeth Light sent all unnecessary thoughts to the back of his head, and locked in to focus and shoot down the damn anchor rope.
'How the hell has that anchor rope survived so long anyway? It should have been torn apart by so much strain long ago. Whatever, I'll just have to break it apart myself.'
He traced across his pocketed vest belt and carefully took out the revolver using both hands. He struggled but somehow locked his elbows and aimed forward.
At the same time, he saw the snake lunge forward and attack the main ship once again, and it did not look like it was going to miss this time around.
It was as if time slowed down.
Light was hanging by a thin rope attached to a small pitch-black ship—the ship flying in the air and orbiting a colossal whirlpool.
There were even more distractions: the demonic sea serpent, the turbulent winds, his partner hanging for his life beside him, even his own breathing. All of it didn't exist for a moment.
The only thing Light envisioned was his gun, the target in front of him, and the setting sun exactly to his left.
And then… he pulled the trigger.
The cylinder of the revolver rotated, and a mini-explosion ensued within the gun.
Bang!
The bullet travelled through space and hit the anchor rope's side. Chunks of it erupted and scattered. A small smirk appeared on Light's face, but didn't stay there for too long.
Somehow… The anchor rope did not break.
'What? No wait… How?' Light was in disbelief, speechless at his awaiting fate. All because he had missed his target by one inch, a single inch. And because of that, the anchor rope held on.
It wouldn't have been a problem any other time, because the anchor rope was barely hanging on by quickly diminishing threads. Even if the pitch-black boat was released from its grip at the wrong time, causing it to get flown in the wrong direction, away from Ter's pirate ship. The two marines could've at least escaped with their lives.
But now, a colossal sea serpent was added to the equation. And failing this shot meant death.
Fate didn't wait for anyone after all.
Almost at the same time at which the anchor rope was shot; the sea serpent reached the main ship, and bit down on it whole without missing a beat.
It was the end…
…or so Light thought.
The next turn of events wasn't as he expected. When he failed to shoot and tear apart the anchor rope accurately, he had expected to see the colossal sea serpent bite down and swallow the main ship whole, and as it swallowed the main ship, it would also pull down the attached anchor rope and the pitch black ship, along with the two humans on it.
He thought he was snake food for today. But no, that's not what happened.
The serpent didn't miss this time and bit down on the entire main ship at once.
The only difference was that when it bit down on the main ship, its humongous, razor-sharp teeth effortlessly tore through the thick anchor rope.
Light's eyes widened as he saw the far end of the anchor rope get torn off from the main ship.
In the next instant, the anchor rope recoiled back in a whiplash, and the secondary ship was released from the grip of death.
Taking its two sailors for a ride, the pitch-black ship flew off against the sunset.
…