Complaints aside, Frank Castle took his work seriously. He thought for a moment, then shook his head. "I didn't check that area. What about you, Ms. Hand?"
Victoria Hand had also received professional agent training and possessed excellent memory. After considering it, she shook her head as well.
Bella dove back underwater. "I'll search that area again."
Since their helper was being so proactive, the two couldn't afford to slack off. All three entered the coral zone one after another.
Coral reefs looked beautiful, but beauty often came hand in hand with danger. A seemingly harmless touch could paralyze someone for hours. If you had a companion to rescue you, fine—but without help, you were as good as dead.
None of them expected the shark to have swum into this area. During their previous search, they'd only glanced at the outer perimeter without venturing deep inside. Now, with Bella taking the lead, the three carefully began their search.
Suddenly, Victoria Hand, who was searching off to the side, waved them over. The two quickly swam toward her.
What they saw filled Bella with confusion.
The shark was bound to the ocean floor with iron chains. Various types of algae acted as camouflage, covering more than half of the shark's body. Unless you looked carefully, you really couldn't see it.
What the hell?
Bella immediately scanned their surroundings.
The shark obviously hadn't tied itself up for some underwater bondage game—it didn't have that level of intelligence. Who had bound it here?
Moving closer for a better look, they discovered the shark had been anesthetized. The chains were extremely crude and covered in rust. Two chains crossed through the shark's back before being driven separately into the seabed.
They couldn't see much more than that. The water here was over two hundred meters deep, and even with their portable light sources, visibility at this depth was extremely poor.
Victoria Hand suspected a commercial rival was behind this. That would explain a lot of things—but what use did these people have for binding a shark to the ocean floor?
When it came to dealing with sharks, her methods were rather rigid. But dealing with people? She had plenty of ways to handle that!
Since the shark hadn't escaped, she wasn't in a hurry to bring it back.
Her mind was already working on collecting evidence and leveraging it against her opponents—standard business maneuvering.
She pointed toward the surface, signaling the three of them to ascend and discuss this back on the boat.
Bella was just helping out anyway. However this situation developed—whether it turned out to be some historical mystery or a Hydra attack on S.H.I.E.L.D.—it didn't matter to her. She'd finally repaid that long-standing favor, so she had no objections. She took the lead ascending.
She swam fastest and reached the motorboat first, followed by Victoria Hand, and finally Frank Castle, who carried the most equipment and moved slightly slower.
The incident occurred when Frank Castle was ascending.
The dark ocean floor suddenly rippled. A moss-green claw with scales covering the fingers suddenly grabbed his ankle.
Enemy below!
Frank Castle's reaction speed was impressive. He drew his combat knife and stabbed downward.
But his opponent's strength far exceeded human levels, and its defense was unimaginably tough. The water resistance robbed his knife of most of its force. He only knew he'd stabbed something before being dragged downward.
"Frank!" Victoria Hand valued her security chief. Without hesitation, she dove back down to rescue him.
Bella moved even faster. Not even bothering to put on her diving mask, she plunged headfirst into the water.
Her vision worked perfectly underwater. She activated her eagle-eye vision to look.
What she saw gave her quite a shock.
A strange humanoid creature—hunched over, more than a person's height, covered in scales, with fins at its elbows—was dragging Frank Castle rapidly downward.
The two were still struggling, but a soldier king on land could barely exert any combat ability in the deep ocean. Defeat was only a matter of time.
Bella's mind filled with surprise.
What the hell is this thing? With that appearance, it definitely wasn't human.
It was like spotting someone with an unusual build on the street—no one would call that another species, just a difference in body type. But this thing in front of her was absolutely more than just a body type difference.
If you wanted to be fantastical about it, this thing looked like a murloc from World of Warcraft. If you wanted to be horrifying about it, it resembled a Deep One from Lovecraft's stories!
If it was a murloc, that would be fine—naturally harmless cannon fodder. But if it was a Deep One...
Vaguely, she sensed a familiar aura—the sea goddess Calypso!
But this aura was extremely strange, as if mixed with many chaotic consciousnesses.
Bella didn't dare use her psionic powers, worried about it contaminating her mind. She kicked her feet, approaching like a swimming fish, condensing an ice-piercing sword in her hand and thrusting fiercely at the fish-man's head.
The water flow created almost no resistance for her, yet the fish-man still managed an effective response.
It opened its basketball-sized mouth, revealing a mouthful of saw-like fangs.
It was extremely angry at Bella's attack, viewing it as surface-dweller provocation.
It ignored Bella's attack, its claws going straight for her heart in return.
Dying together with such an ugly bastard would be too stupid.
Before the fish-man attacked, Bella had been very cautious. But once it made its move, it immediately showed its hand.
This guy's physical abilities were just so-so! Aside from swimming fast, it really wasn't that impressive!
Bella had originally only used about thirty percent of her strength. After confirming that despite its fierce appearance, this thing was actually weak, she suddenly exerted full force.
With a muffled "thud," the ice piercing sword stabbed through the fish-man's neck. She pulled it out and stabbed again—two consecutive strikes—while its claw attack hadn't even formed before it stopped due to loss of vitality.
The ink-colored blood flowing from the wound was extremely viscous, forming mud-like patches in the seawater.
The fish-man suffered critical damage, but Frank Castle, whom it had been gripping, was no pushover either. Though he couldn't tell what this thing was, he still gripped his combat knife and stabbed repeatedly at the fish-man's eyes.
Whatever this thing was, you can't go wrong stabbing the eyes! This was hard-earned wisdom from his years as a soldier.
Bella stabbed one more time at the fish-man's spine. After confirming it had no mobility left, she waved at Frank Castle, signaling they should get back up quickly.
She left him the task of bringing the fish-man's corpse to the surface, her excuse being that she was a bit scared.
You didn't look scared when you were stabbing it! Frank Castle naturally wasn't good at dealing with women. He grumbled internally but still grabbed the fish-man's corpse and ascended.
Halfway up they encountered Victoria Hand coming to help. The veteran agent was shocked—what on earth did you just kill?
After considerable effort, they hauled the fish-man's corpse completely onto the motorboat. All three were somewhat bewildered—how should they handle this thing?
"Do you think this is an isolated incident, or is it some kind of... that..." Victoria Hand didn't use the term "new species," but both understood her meaning.