The fish was scorched from Lan Jin's lightning, but it wasn't dead yet. As soon as the blade sank into its back, it thrashed violently. Still, its body was frozen solid to the ground, only the back exposed. It had immense strength, but breaking free was impossible.
The head chef quickened his movements. With a sharp rip, he split open the flesh along its back.
The fish kept struggling.
But Chef Shan wasn't swayed. He gritted his teeth, using all his strength, cutting and tearing until he fully opened the creature's back.
Its organs spilled into view. They'd all seen fish guts before, but only from small ones. Those weren't frightening, often ignored entirely when buying fish from markets. The seller would gut them, bag them, and hand them over.
Now, staring at organs this massive, even hardened hunters felt their eyes sting. Even gutted like this, the fish still writhed on the ground. Its vitality was monstrous. After studying its insides for a long while, nobody found anything unusual. Even without expertise, they all knew the problem wasn't in the belly.
If not inside, then it had to be something on its body. Captain Zhang said, "Cut off its arms."
The group exchanged uneasy looks, their gazes flicking to Captain Zhang as they endured the stench of blood. He stayed calm. "It's already dead meat. We've seen everything else. No harm in chopping off those arms."
But these arms weren't like normal fish fins. Chef Shan hesitated, staring at them. After a moment, he turned to Captain Zhang. "Why don't you do it? Those things are creepy. They look dangerous."
Captain Zhang chuckled. "You're a grown man and you're scared of this?"
"If you're not scared, do it yourself," Chef Shan shot back.
That shut him up. Saying it was one thing; cutting it was another. Even Captain Zhang had to admit the sight was unnerving.
Lao Gao stepped forward, intrigued. "I'll do it. None of you want to, I'll handle it."
Ling Jiang rolled her eyes. "You really aren't scared of anything, are you? Those things are terrifying. Stop playing."
"I'm not playing. What's there to be afraid of? It's not like this fish can come back for revenge," Lao Gao said. He took the knife from Chef Shan and, with one decisive swing, severed the arm from the fish's body.
They expected the fish to thrash harder. Instead, the moment it lost an arm, it stopped moving. Its life snuffed out instantly.
The team froze. They'd accidentally discovered its weakness.
"There are plenty more of these," Lao Gao said. "Let's try another."
The first cut had unnerved him. But after severing several more, his nerves settled. "These things are like hearts, outside the body. Remove them and it's game over."
"Whose heart grows outside their body and looks like this?" Shen Zhiyu muttered, frowning in thought. "More like parasites."
The fish's body supported these limbs, while the limbs gave the fish the ability to move on land. In the water, the combination made them unnervingly fast.
"Enough," someone said. "The more we talk, the creepier it gets."
What mattered was that they were all dead now.
One by one, they hacked off every limb. Both fish and limbs stopped breathing completely.
Captain Zhang looked at the gutted fish. "Freeze it. Actually, freeze everything. We're heading to the base. Once we confirm it's empty, we leave immediately."
Captain Wang nodded. "Alright, let's go."
At R City Base, the place looked nothing like before.
Collapsed buildings. Rubble everywhere. Human bones scattered across the ground.
One look was enough for Captain Wang to grimace. "There's no way anyone survived here. I'll check the safe house. If nobody's there, the rest of the place is hopeless."
"I'll set up a loudspeaker at the gate," Captain Zhang said. "We'll broadcast. This place is so empty, if someone's alive, they'll come out."
After nearly two hours of searching, they found no one.
Instead of disappointment, Captain Wang felt relief. "The waters are too dangerous. Even with training and powers, we almost didn't make it back. Ordinary people wouldn't survive the trip. Better this way."
"Then let's leave."
The team regrouped and started back toward their ships. But as they passed the site where they'd slaughtered the fish, something was wrong. The fish, the severed limbs—gone.
Ling Jiang frowned. "I froze them solid. Even if three hours passed, the ice would have melted into puddles. There should be water here."
"No puddles isn't strange," Captain Zhang said. "It's hot. Sunlight could dry it up. But the fish? They couldn't move without their limbs. And they were dead."
"Unless something else was here," a teammate said warily. "Maybe a mutant creature?"
"What's scary about that?" Lao Gao snorted. "We've seen worse. As long as it's not those things with human faces from the forest, it's fine."
The rookie, who hadn't gone with them into the dense woods, looked puzzled. "There are mutants with human faces? Are they that strong?"
"Not strong. Just disgusting," Lao Gao said, shuddering at the memory. But he wasn't wrong. Anything without a human face wandering out here wasn't worth fearing.
Their real worry was the ships. They'd left them completely unguarded, afraid splitting up would weaken their defense if danger struck.
"Let's hurry back," Captain Zhang said. "We need to get out of here."
They picked up their pace, racing toward the docks.
From a distance, the ships looked fine. Nothing seemed amiss.
But once they boarded, a chill ran through the group. The fish and limbs they'd killed were lying on the deck. Above the gutted fish hovered several insect-like mutant creatures, buzzing like giant flies as they fed.
Lan Jin stared in disbelief. "How the hell did these get on the ship? Someone didn't bring them up, did they?"