Chapter 330: The Choice of the King of the Deep Sea

Chapter 330: Chapter 330: The Choice of the King of the Deep Sea

Chapter 330: The Choice of the King of the Deep Sea

Axel looked directly into the enormous blue eye before him.

There was a trace of confusion in that gaze.

He answered it without hesitation.

"Don’t bother wondering."

"It was me."

Axel floated in front of the Sea King’s face, completely dwarfed by its size.

"You’re a Sea King. You should understand human speech, right?"

The colossal creature stared at the tiny figure before it.

This was not the first time it had encountered humans.

Ships entered these waters from time to time.

Usually, they were too small to count as proper meals.

At most, they were distractions.

Something to swallow when boredom struck.

But this human was different.

His voice had reached it clearly.

Not carried by the wind.

Not shouted loudly enough to cross the distance.

It had simply appeared beside its ear.

That alone was strange enough to make the Sea King pause.

After a moment, its deep voice rolled across the water.

"Why did you attack me?"

Far below, Vivi and the others went rigid.

Chopper’s face turned white.

"The monster talked..."

His eyes filled with despair.

For the first time since leaving Drum Island, he seriously wondered whether Dr. Hiriluk had exaggerated how wonderful the sea was.

So far, going out to sea felt less like an adventure and more like gambling his life every few minutes.

Vivi looked no better.

A creature this enormous was already terrifying.

The fact that it could think and speak made things worse.

It had intelligence.

Reason.

And Axel had just kicked it awake.

Would something like this really let them leave after being deliberately provoked?

Vivi knew Axel was powerful.

She had watched him tilt an entire island.

Even so, the creature in front of them was on another scale entirely.

If it simply threw its body forward, she felt like it could crush a small island beneath its weight.

Axel, meanwhile, answered calmly.

"That wasn’t an attack."

The Sea King stared at him.

"It was a greeting."

Silence.

The creature did not understand.

A greeting?

Such a concept had little meaning beneath the sea.

When creatures encountered one another, they either hunted, fought, or fled.

There was no need for meaningless rituals before deciding who would eat whom.

Finally, the Sea King spoke again.

"Whatever you call it, you struck me."

Its tone grew heavier.

"So you must pay the price."

There was no uncertainty in its words.

This was the sea.

Here, it was king.

Countless creatures had challenged it over the years.

None had injured it and simply walked away.

Axel gave a quiet laugh.

"A price?"

He looked amused.

"And if I don’t want to pay?"

The Sea King stopped talking.

There was no point.

Creatures of the deep did not waste time debating when strength could decide everything.

Its massive body began to shift.

Then Axel placed one hand against it.

The Sea King froze.

Something changed.

A pressure spread through its body.

For the first time, the creature felt the instinctive tension it normally experienced only when facing another monster powerful enough to threaten it.

Its blood seemed to surge faster.

Fear.

Excitement.

A violent anticipation of battle.

All of it rose at once.

But something else felt wrong.

Its body was not responding properly.

The Sea King stopped moving.

Its huge eye focused on Axel.

"You are strange."

Axel’s expression remained calm.

"You’re strong."

He pressed his palm against the creature.

"That’s why I want you."

The Sea King understood perfectly.

It had lived long enough to learn the language of humans.

A strange amusement entered its voice.

"You want me?"

The sea around them trembled as the creature gave a deep, rumbling laugh.

"You want to become my master?"

Its laughter shook the air.

Waves spread outward from its body.

The entire ship rocked violently in the distance.

Axel remained in place.

"Is it really that funny?"

The Sea King stopped laughing.

It believed in one rule above all others.

Strength.

"If you defeat me..."

Its enormous eye narrowed.

"Then I will accept it."

A hint of confidence entered its voice.

"But that possibility is almost nonexistent."

It was not empty arrogance.

This was the ocean.

Its territory.

Its natural battlefield.

It had fought countless enemies here.

Even strange humans with Devil Fruit powers became helpless once the sea turned against them.

As long as the battle happened in these waters, the Sea King had never believed anything could truly defeat it.

Then Axel smiled.

Not broadly.

Just enough for the creature to realize something was wrong.

"From the moment I touched you..."

Axel’s crimson eyes sharpened.

"And you decided to stand here talking to me..."

"You had already lost."

The Sea King’s expression became almost human.

Amused.

It tried to move.

Nothing happened.

Its body remained still.

The eye widened.

"What did you do?"

Axel kept his hand in place.

"Your body is still built like that of a fish."

The Sea King stared at him.

"The internal pathways that carry signals through your body are simpler than a human’s."

Axel continued calmly.

"I only changed their direction."

The creature tried again to move.

Still nothing.

Its own body refused to obey.

Axel glanced across its immense form.

"And being this large has disadvantages."

"Your reactions are slower."

He lifted one finger slightly.

"A person can notice a mosquito biting them."

"They can notice an ant crawling across their skin."

"But something far smaller can interfere with the body without being noticed until the damage is already done."

His gaze returned to the Sea King.

"The changes I made were too subtle for you to recognize in time."

"And now you can’t move."

Axel’s voice remained matter-of-fact.

"If you can’t move, you can’t fight."

"So you’ve already lost."

The Sea King did not accept that conclusion.

Its voice remained stubborn.

"I have not lost."

Axel said nothing.

"This is merely some devilish trick."

The creature continued.

"Even if I cannot move, what can you actually do?"

"You are tiny."

"Your body cannot harm mine."

The Sea King had already reached its own explanation.

A Devil Fruit.

Some strange ability that restricted movement.

Annoying, certainly.

But restraint was not the same as destruction.

If Axel could only immobilize it, then the Sea King still believed the battle had not truly been decided.

Then pain tore through its body.

"WOOOOOAAAAH!"

The Sea King screamed.

A section along the left side of its massive body ruptured from within.

Blood vessels burst under violently redirected flow.

The pain was sharp enough to force a cry from a creature that had survived countless battles beneath the sea.

Blood sprayed upward.

Then fell across the ocean like rain.

Far below, the ship was quickly stained red.

The Sea King’s breathing became heavier.

Its eye locked onto Axel.

"How..."

Another tremor ran through its body.

"How did you do that?"

Axel looked at it.

"You were too confident."

That was the real reason.

The Sea King’s body was far tougher than Garp’s.

And yet Axel could damage this creature more easily than he could break through Garp’s defenses.

The difference was not simple toughness.

It was behavior.

Axel’s ability depended heavily on Calculation Power.

The more the surrounding forces changed, the more he had to recalculate.

When Garp attacked, everything changed at once.

Force.

Direction.

Impact.

Movement.

The environment itself shifted under every punch.

Axel had to defend, redirect, and calculate through constant disruption.

That made penetrating Garp’s body directly far more difficult.

This Sea King had done the opposite.

It had stood still.

Confident.

Motionless.

Allowing Axel to touch it while barely considering him a threat.

That had given Axel all the time and stability he needed.

By the time the creature noticed something was wrong, the important work was already finished.

Axel withdrew his hand.

"So."

He looked into the enormous eye.

"What’s your answer?"

The Sea King remained silent.

Axel’s voice became quieter.

"Surrender."

"Or die."

For a long moment, only the sound of the sea remained.

Then the king of the deep slowly lowered its head.

It had made its choice.

....

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