One Piece : Winged Dragons of the Beast Pirates

The Golden Dragon continued to plummet into the deep sea.

The expanding bubbles irrationally canceled out a considerable amount of buoyancy, causing the large ship to no longer resist the pull of gravity, and it fell straight down.

As the depth increased, the surrounding light quickly grew dim, until soon, everything was engulfed in pitch darkness, with not even a hand visible in front of one's face.

"Mm!"

Viola instinctively hugged her arms.

The surface of the Golden Dragon still had lights on, preventing the people aboard from being completely in the dark.

But outside the ship, it was pitch black, and nothing could be seen.

An indescribable sense of dread suddenly surged from deep within the girl's heart.

The so-called fear stemmed from the unknown.

Viola couldn't stop thinking that, in this dark abyss, perhaps a gigantic monster would suddenly leap out, its mouth wide open to—

"Roar!"

From the left side of the ship, in the darkness, a massive creature suddenly emerged, swirling the ocean currents and making the entire Golden Dragon shake.

It was a gigantic sea monster with a lion-like head. Its mouth gaped open, revealing rows of sharp, menacing teeth, as it charged toward the ship's side, ready to bite.

"Ahhh!!"

Viola could no longer hold it in. She collapsed to the ground, screaming at the top of her lungs.

It's here! A monster from the deep sea!

Even Law was startled by the sudden appearance.

A sea beast?

But then...

He quickly turned his head, looking at the person sitting by the ship's edge, chatting with Yamato.

Ian looked up at the oncoming giant beast. His eyes flashed with dark lightning, and he suddenly said, "Go away."

The sea lion, over fifty meters long, instantly froze in place.

Then, visibly, its terrifying expression twisted, its fearful look clear for all to see.

Without hesitation, the giant sea monster turned and fled in a flash.

Although these sea beasts' intelligence wasn't as high as that of the Sea Kings, it was far from low. With the right method, one could communicate with them.

And this method was in the hands of the Fishmen and Merfolk.

Fishmen could tame sea beasts.

Since a Fishman army was being formed, what about creating a Fishman Sea Beast Cavalry? Would that work?

As Ian pondered.

In the back, Viola was still trembling with a pale face, shivering uncontrollably. It wasn't until several seconds later that she realized the monster had already been chased away by Ian.

She was safe now.

But...

"Waahhh!"

The girl suddenly started crying uncontrollably.

I've had enough!

Why am I here? Why do I have to go through this?

The fourteen-year-old girl finally broke down after experiencing this life-or-death crisis.

Thankfully, Black Maria was there.

The motherly figure, Black Maria, looked at Viola crying in despair and walked over with a pained expression. She hurriedly pulled the girl into her arms and gently patted her back, trying to comfort her.

"Alright, it's okay now, Viola. The monster has been chased away by Ian. We are safe."

"Waahhh!"

Viola cried even louder.

However, she didn't reject Maria's embrace.

Ian didn't turn around. He only listened to the wailing from behind and calmly said,

"Maria, instead of comforting her, I think Viola might need you to change her skirt."

Black Maria froze.

Viola, who had been crying hysterically, froze as well. She couldn't even cry anymore.

It was then that she realized her skirt was sticking to her body and felt a little warm.

"Ahhh!!"

The humiliation was too much, and she completely forgot her fear.

It turned out, after all, that social death was even more painful than death itself.

Law couldn't hold back a laugh.

Ian sure knows how to comfort people; see, she stopped crying right away, didn't she?

Viola quickly followed Black Maria into the cabin. Before they entered, she couldn't help but glare at Ian's back, her eyes filled with anger.

This bastard is so annoying!

But then, she remembered how Ian had yelled earlier, scaring the monster away in one blow.

As Maria said, this guy really does give a sense of reassurance.

Ian had no idea that the little princess had gradually started showing symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome, and he didn't have the time to notice.

Ever since they entered the deep-sea area, Ian had been maintaining his Observation Haki, staying constantly alert. This was also why he had discovered Viola's little secret.

The sea beast they encountered earlier wasn't much; it was the Sea Kings who were the true rulers of the deep sea.

Although the Golden Dragon ship's hull was embedded with Sea-Prism Stones all over, as always, Sea Kings were very intelligent, and it wasn't so easy to deceive them.

If they really encountered a Sea King, Ian would have to step in personally.

Of course, it didn't really matter, because after using his abilities, Ian was completely unaffected by the sea water.

Without the advantage of terrain, even Sea Kings at the five-thousand-meter level wouldn't be a threat.

However, even after they had entered the massive cavern beneath the Red Line, no Sea Kings appeared.

Soon, ahead, the dark seabed suddenly illuminated, and as they got closer, the light grew more intense, until finally, an island bathed in light from above appeared before Ian and the others.

Fish-Man Island. They had arrived.

No matter what, Ian let out a small sigh of relief.

However, Ian, who didn't understand the voices of all things, couldn't hear the strange sounds echoing through the surrounding sea.

"Who is he? He holds an unimaginable power."

"Is he the new king?"

"He's going to find our king. Will the king be in danger?"

"He's a pirate, the heir of Joy Boy."

"If he's helping, then it won't be long."

It was very strange. The voice was enormous, yet no one in the vast deep sea could hear it.

Only within Fish-Man Island, inside the Ryugu Palace, did the large baby suddenly begin giggling, even though no one was playing with her.

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