HALF: Dead nor Alive

“What’s going on over there?!” Marlon asked as he walked to the right side of the ship and watched the whirlpool and tornado.

Prince and Resse just looked at each other and didn’t say anything. They didn’t want to tell Marlon about what they saw earlier since it would blow Archie’s identity.

Everyone watched the whirlpool that slowly getting bigger and fiercer. The clouds were circling around the whirlpool and it was something amazing to watch.

Their amazement turned into fear the moment they saw a massive parasite going to the surface with its gigantic mouth and long body. The waves that the parasite created pushed all the ships, and the moment its body hit the water, a giant wave was created.

“Everyone, hold onto something!” Marlon screamed as he looked at the deck.

They wrapped their hands on the railing and on the mast as they watched the tidal waves that could swallow the ship easily. They were closing their eyes and prayed that they would make it, if not they would die the moment the waves swallowed them.

Marlon looked at the tidal wave that was five times taller than the ship was only a hundred meters away from them. “God, please help us,” he said with his eyes trembling.

The ship slowly got pulled up by the wave and the ship was floating almost vertically and everyone was hanging onto whatever they were holding to. Screams could be heard as some of them fell down to the sea, they could do nothing but watch them get swallowed by the sea.

One by one, the ships were pulled into the wave but the ships were strong enough to handle it. As they rode the wave, the second wave was coming and they were almost floating in the air and landed on the sea as they free falling and got pulled into the second wave immediately.

Archie on the other hand was getting pulled down into the depth of the sea as he watched the king go to the surface. He watched its long body with no ends kept on coming up to the surface, he then swam toward it and stabbed his swords onto its scale.

Archie managed to go back to the surface, he saw the waves around him and the whirlpool that sucked all the water in. He climbed up and as he transformed himself into a parasite then used the swords to break the scales to reach the parasite’s skin.

Its slippery scales made Archie struggle to stay on its body, he had to use the liquid gel so he didn’t fall off. He spread the gel onto the king’s body that it would take forever to cover its whole body, but it wasn’t his goal, his goal was to put enough gel for him to stand on.

The king was circling around the whirlpool and then went back into the sea with Archie on its back. He felt as if he was the one who controlled the king and it felt somehow amazing but then the king used a deafening sonar sound. Archie almost fell unconscious but fortunately, he had time to cover his ears with the gel.

The king went back to the surface as Archie slowly but surely got closer to the king’s head. As he was trying to climb, he saw at the sea surface, he saw hundreds of parasites coming toward them. The king just called them and he didn’t what it was for until the parasites suddenly made a sudden turn and went toward where the ships were. Archie had no time to deal with those and let Ruby and the others handle them since they should be able to fight those parasites.

“Marshal Marlon!” An Axis Human screamed his name from on top of the mast.

Marlon stood up since they survived the last giant wave, he looked up and saw the Axis Human was pointing at something in the sea. He ran to the back of the ship and looked at what the guy was pointing at and saw something swimming under the sea.

“Man! Ready your weapons! We have got company!” Marlon screamed as he looked at Prince and Resse.

All the Axis Humans went to the cabin and grabbed their stuff while the ordinary humans went down to repair the damages.

Marlon watched the parasites that swam around his ship, they didn’t look like fish since they had very wide fins and legs. As he was watching them, a parasite went to the surface and flew high enough to board the ship. He grabbed his pistol and started shooting at it, but to his surprise, the scales were sturdy enough to deflect the bullets.

The parasite looked at Marlon and it screeched at him with its expended mouth that was big enough to swallow a human body. Marlon immediately grabbed his sword and jumped down to the deck and kept shooting at the parasite with his left hand while he was looking for a weak spot on its body.

Marlon found the weak spot which was around the parasite’s gill, he charged at it and dodged its sharp claws then stabbed his sword at the parasite’s gill then sliced its neck. The parasite struggled as it started to twitch and had a seizure, Marlon approached it and shot the parasite in the eye many times until it stopped moving.

The moment the parasite died, dozens of them boarded the ship and the Axis Humans came back at the right time. Marlon pointed at the parasite’s gill and told them its weaknesses, they all understood and charged at the parasites.

It wasn’t just Marlon’s ship, all the ships were invaded by the parasites and they were struggling to fight them. On the other hand, Ruby and Vincent took care of most of the parasites that boarded the ship since they had the meteorite sword on them. They cut the parasite’s scales, skin, and flesh like it was nothing,

“Colonel!” Ruby said as she ran to the middle of the deck and looked at Fanheim fighting the parasite near the helm.

Fanheim shot the parasite through its mouth and killed it, he then turned around and looked at Ruby. “What is it?”

“Can you get us close to the other ship? I want to board their ship and help them fight those parasites! Our situation is better than the others, so I can help them with this,” Ruby asked as she showed her sword.

“Alright! Just get up here and cover me!” Fanheim said as he grabbed the helm and looked at the nearest ship on his right.

Ruby climbed up and landed next to Fanheim, she helped the other Axis Humans and killed the parasites for them.

Fanheim’s ship slowly approached the nearest ship and he immediately rang the bell to give them a signal. The ship heard it and saw Fanheim’s ship was getting closer to them and they slowly approached him as they kept fighting the parasites that had no ends to it.

Ruby stood on top of the railing and waited for the ship to get close enough, then when the ship finally sailed next to each other she jumped and boarded the next ship. She immediately ran and decapitated the parasites from behind. Marlon saw those two ships and decided to join them as well since it would be easier for them to fight the parasites if they worked together.

All the ships were sailing next to each other and they put planks in between so they could cross the ships easily without having to jump and risking their lives.

Ruby and Vincent helped the other ships and they really made things easier for the rest of them. Prince and Resse with the experimented Axis Humans boarded the other ships as well since the parasites didn’t board their ship anymore.

An hour had passed since they fought the parasites, it finally ended, there were no more parasites. They did a great job and patted each other on the back since there were no casualties from the battle against them. Marlon decided to keep on sailing next to each other since it would be easier for them to communicate and deal with the parasites if it happen again.

On the other side of the sea, Archie finally reached the top of the king’s head, he looked at how fierce the mouth of the parasite was. He could tell that those sharp teeth could easily tear anything including the pillar. He looked at the ships and they looked safe and sound so he had no worries about them anymore.

Archie slid down with his swords cutting the skins on his path then stabbed all the eyes as he kept sliding down. The moment he was about to fall into the king’s mouth, he stopped for and took a deep breath. “Let’s see if you can deal with a threat from the inside,” he said as he jumped down right into the king’s mouth.