Small mountains of colorful coral created a breathtaking painting. Little spiral limestone towers rose, and as the ship advanced deeper into the greenish sea, they grew even larger.
The corals had been washed by the tides for an endless amount of time and grew unchecked, becoming stupidly sharp.
This place could also be called the coral maze, because navigating through it was a millimetric hell.
Talon and the old man had to take turns at the helm more than once. They had much greater spatial awareness and familiarity with the sea than the nerd.
Talon had already crossed the Northern Sea Route. A maritime path where icebreakers faced days worse than hell itself. Any mistake, and the sharp ice could tear into the hull reinforced with pure steel.
The big difference between the Northern Sea Route and the Sea of Coral Sharks, was that back then he was on a ship powered by nuclear propulsion, and now, he was facing a similar hell with a downsized wooden Spanish galleon.
Of course, there was also the cold and the indestructible ice. But Talon wasn't thinking about that many details.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
His bracelet had been furious ever since he made the terrible decision of entering this sea. An absurd amount of life was swarming between the corals and the green sea below.
The little he could differentiate was the size and approximate shape that the Scan gave him, but it was very imprecise. However, there had been a pattern of the same red marks for at least an hour around the ship.
"Captain, large obstacle ahead!" one of the twins shouted from the mast. He had perched himself up in the basket to give a better view so Talon could safely maneuver the galleon.
"Raise all sails! Stop the ship, everyone on high alert!" Talon's instincts were going crazy.
The wooden planks creaked, and Talon was reluctant to throw the anchor into the sea. If it got stuck on one of those corals, someone would have to go down there to retrieve it, and something told him he really wouldn't want to enter that sea.
Once everything stopped, Talon ran to the bow of the ship and stared at what had forced them to stop.
One of the spiral limestone towers had collapsed right in their path. If they had continued, not only would the ship run aground, the entire hull could have been destroyed.
"Do we have to get out and remove that tower? I think with ropes and some levers we could move it, but it's gonna take a while." Simon adjusted his glasses and analyzed the situation. Talon had never said anything, but it seemed like he didn't care that one of the lenses was cracked.
"Let's get moving. It's gonna take a while either way." Talon started moving, but before going down, he gave a look to the old man, and as if they were speaking telepathically, the old man nodded in confirmation.
"We'll use the corals as platforms. Don't enter that sea under any circumstance, and if you do, get out as fast as you can. Do you understand me?!" his orders left no room for argument.
"Yes, Captain!" the boys answered, and they began venturing off the ship.
The corals were damp and slippery, many algae used them for support to hang down, and some even formed curtains in the higher areas.
The young captain had to cut most of the way with his daggers, always on high alert. It was highly suspicious for something like that to fall right now. Maybe it was a coincidence, but...
They were in a sea of monsters and supernatural creatures. Talon had already begun to understand the essence of this new world. So many perfectly shaped corals and not a single creature using them as a home?
And what kind of monster would let its territory be invaded and do nothing?
When they finally reached the base of the fallen tower, it was obvious that the clean cut at its base wasn't natural. No matter what kind of natural force had caused something that thick to fall...
A straight, surgical cut was clearly artificial.
"Draw your blades... Hell is going to rain down on us any second now," Talon whispered like the devil making a devious promise.
He didn't notice, but a faint smile was spreading across his lips.
The tension built gradually, and Talon moved strategically toward the fallen tower.
Several minutes passed, and for a few seconds, the nerd and the twins thought this was some kind of cruel prank from the devil they called captain.
But soon they would be praying that it was.
Zim!
Something sliced through the air and went straight for one of the twins, but the other, a slightly chubbier clone, put his dagger right in the path.
Rhaaaaaaaa!
A half-roaring battle cry fell upon Talon's crew and soon humanoid creatures emerged from the sea covered in algae.
They had gills, fish-like heads, and wore some kind of armor made from coral. Their colors varied too, some more greenish, others more bluish. But none of them had bright colors.
"So none of you are poisonous then?" Talon mocked openly as he dodged a spear made from one of those limestone towers. It wasn't much thicker than a normal spear and had a length of about 1.5 meters.
The ex-sailor spun on his own axis and drove both of his daggers into the creature's abdomen. Right beneath the gap in its armor made of pink coral. Blood spilled from its massive catfish-like mouth.
But Talon didn't have time to enjoy his kill. Right after, two more leapt onto the young captain, and it didn't take long for him to become overwhelmed.
On the other side, on different coral several meters from the sea, the nerd and the twins weren't doing so well. Some of those fish-creatures were launching shards of coral, stupidly sharp, through improvised blowguns.
They were running all over the place, sometimes using the spiral towers as shields, other times taking advantage of the near-3D geography the giant corals provided.
Some leaders might think they were weak. Two teenagers, maybe 14 or 15 years old, and a skinny young man who had probably spent his whole life studying didn't seem like good fighters.
But that kind of thinking was pure stupidity.
Talon knew very well that anyone who had survived on islands even remotely like his own was a highly lethal tyrant in the making.
And soon, the twins' cunning became clear. Even surrounded by more than four of those twisted versions of fish with limbs, they managed to create an opening by diving between two spiral towers.
The tight space made two of the creatures stumble into each other, and they drove their daggers through the unprotected groins.
A scream was heard, and with their balance lost, the creatures fell among the coral. Soon, the greenish water turned a deep red.