The octopus man ran out of the cabin as the stitches on his chest ripped. As he ran, he made as much noise as he could by hitting his arms on the walls.

“Sound the alarm, a fish-man has escaped,” a marine said to another, “what we had fish-men on board? I thought those were just stories” another marine replied.

“Get your weapons we mustn’t let him escape” yelled the commander.

“Ready, Aim, Fire!”

A volley of bullets flew at the octopus perforating him with holes. Even a half-dead fish-man was still physically more powerful than most of the marines on board this ship.

Go now, he yelled before planting his face into the deck. His breathing seized.

Reload, Aim and Fire!

Two fish-men ran to protect the escape route with their large bodies as they were penetrated with lead bullets, blood splattered everywhere.

“Stop firing, they have a hostage,” the commander said, he noticed that a marine was held as a shield as the fish-men ran portside on the ship.

“Why are you hesitating, shoot down that marine, I want those fish-men dead” a young girl walked out of the cabin. She was dressed in a thick white suit with medal-like buttons which supplied her with oxygen to save her from sharing the same air with commoners. The collar of her suit had a flower-like pattern with lace at the top of it. Her head was inside a bubble of glass with her hair styled upwards. 

“Since he has been captured, he is of no use to me anymore, kill him,” she said as she giggled, clearly, she was having fun watching all the death and blood on the ship.

The commander could feel the sweat pour down his back, if he does not obey, he will probably be the next to die. “I am so sorry boy; I am only following orders,” he said apologetically.

“I said shoot, kill them all if they can’t be my toys, they are better off dead” she laughed.

“Fisher, you escape! We would rather choose to fight to our death than be used for someone’s amusement. You have your mission so you cannot die yet, even if we escape with you our chances of making it back to the island is very little” a large fish-man covered in scars said.  He had a scar across his face, going through his right eye, leaving him blind in one eye.

There was no further comment as the other fish-men knew what was to come, they all turned around in preparation for their last stand.

Ezra was touched by what he had seen, they were all hurt, bruised, and broken yet they could still draw up strength from their conviction to send Fisher off this ship. ‘Is Fisher royalty?’ Ezra thought as he was being dragged off the ship. 

The battle did not last long, the fish-men were outnumbered almost 10 to 1, they fought bravely taking a few marines and slaves down with each of their deaths, but eventually, they were shot dead.

Ezra could feel the sadness of Fisher, he fought to hold back his tears, but he knew he had to make it off this ship. He had finally found what he set out to find, he had to make it back to the island with news of this. Ezra was not worried about being used as a shield, he was a fruit user and bullets of this type could not kill him. Even if it were bullets made of Seastone, since his power had the same effect, there was nothing to worry about.

Both Ezra and Fisher made their way to the edge of the ship. Ezra took one more look at what it meant to be a noble of the world government. The disgust in his eyes could not be hidden, as killing intent radiated from him. He was full of anger from what he had seen on this ship. It took all his self-control to not sink the ship.

Another command to fire was given to the remaining marines on the deck, Ezra and Fisher did not wait to be shot as they jumped into the stormy seas.

"Many thanks, Young Poseidon for rescuing me and my brothers from the nobles. Even though many of them died, they all fell in battle as warriors rather than someone’s pet, for this I am grateful. My name is Fisher Tiger, I come from a long line of adventurers. Every generation an adventurer from my family will venture out of Fish-man Island in search of the one spoken about in our prophecy. 

The prophecy is about a man who will create waves in the future bringing about a better world.

You are the person I have been looking for,” Fisher said. “I roamed the sea for years with the hope of finding you and when I was about to lose all hope, you came to find me.”

“How are you so sure that I am the one?” Ezra asked, this was a bit too much to take in at once, he had figured out there was a relationship between his powers and fish-man island, but he knew nothing about a prophecy. 

“There are some texts on Fish-man Island about the year 800 to 900. No one knows the full details but there was a relationship between the mermaid princess and the Poseidon of that time. The prophecy points to another Poseidon who will come in a time of unruliness in the sea, he would create waves that would bring about a better world.

The unruliness started with the great pirate age and now you the young Poseidon are at the start of your journey to bring peace to this world.” Fisher said.

“I still do not fully understand what you are talking about but right now, I need your help,” Ezra said as he continued to examine the sea surface for any clues.

“What are you  looking for?” Fisher asked.

“The previous Poseidon left a map pointing to this location. The only thing on the map was an arrow pointing downwards.” Ezra said

“There is nothing but sea around here, if you said there was a map pointing downward then we have to go dive down,” Fisher said.

They both dived deep into the ocean, at this depth sea creatures lived their lives without much worry. Octopus searching the ocean floor for food, Jellyfish wobbled and glowed, eels slipped in and out of holes and rays gliding through the water.  The deeper they went the darker it became, Fisher had no issue seeing through the darkness, Ezra had no limitations in the sea, he could see as if he was in daylight. The seafloor led into an abyss, Fisher's knowledge of the sea was above Ezra’s he could immediately see signs of this abyss being man-made.

“Let us go deeper”, Ezra said confidently. ‘Why would Poseidon go through all this length just to hide something,’ he thought to himself.

At the bottom of the abyss, they found an enormous statue unlike no other. The statue was that of a gigantic beautiful mermaid looking lovingly at a human man sitting on her tail. Ezra recognised the human as Poseidon. He stared at the mermaid and had never seen anyone so beautiful before, even the passing of time could not reduce the beauty the statue possessed.

“Princess,” Fisher said in shock.

Ezra coming out of his trance looked at the plaque at the bottom of the statue “Two sides of the same coin”.

‘What could this mean?’ Ezra thought.

Ezra decided to make it a habit of checking the back of the statues. He was not sure if Poseidon left another message or clue for him. At the back of the huge mermaid was a text written from the manipulated water. Fisher could not see the message, he only thought Ezra was admiring the back of the statue.

After memorising the text, he dispelled the skill used to write those words. The statue was too big to move from this location, he could only remove the plaque on the statue to drop it off at the Sea God temple.

Crazibrains

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