The brilliant beam of light burned through the darkness of the night, almost instantaneously reaching down to the ocean surface, just ahead of the burning ship.
It covered a large circular area in an emerald hue.
For some reason, every drop of water the emerald hue of light touched started acting strangely. The entire illuminated area of the ocean surface started writhing and flowing in erratic ways.
Then the hovering eyeball moved its gaze, and the beam of light, along with the circular area it illuminated, moved too.
And like an illusory lighthouse, it scanned the sea to tear through the darkness and locate the intruders who hid within.
…
Light looked ahead, his face filled with horror.
The illusory pseudo-lighthouse illuminated a large area, over a few dozen meters in diameter.
It circled around the mother of blood, gaining more distance from the ship with each passing revolution.
Sooner or later, its orbit was going to be big enough to intersect with the pitch black ship's path.
The duo tensed up.
'What could happen if the light beam were to hit us? The water underneath its touch doesn't seem to evaporate as one would expect after coming into contact with a powerful beam of light. However, the water is still influenced in some way. Wherever the beam touches the ocean surface, that area begins to move erratically but gradually settles down once the light passes by.'
"Brat!" Scarn broke Light out of his reverie.
Light looked up and replied after half a second, "What?!"
"I should be askin' that! What do we do now? Any plans against that damn Terror's ability? He got a whole ass lighthouse now, still trust your painted ship will stay invisible?" Scarn screamed, his voice suppressed by the sound of his paddling and the gunshots a moderate distance away.
Light gritted his teeth and looked around. He had no real answer. The situation was growing more and more chaotic, and a new unforeseen variable of the lighthouse-like illusory eyeball was added in the mix.
He calculated countless possibilities in his head and couldn't come up with an acceptable solution.
He grimaced and spoke in a disheartening tone, "What if we just turn back and run aw-"
His words hung in the air as his eyes met Scarn's.
Scarn turned his neck to look forward, sweat trickling down his face. He said calmly, "No real captain floats when his ship sinks, and yet here I am…"
He lingered for a moment and sighed heavily while looking down. "Sorry to pull you into this lad, you got latched along with my syrupy ass."
"You have a future ahead, a family waiting for you somewhere. This ain't a fight you need to die for, along with me. If you wish to, I'll turn this ship around and let you sail away. But unfortunately, I must stay; if I can't reach that wretched Ter with this boat, I'll do so by swimming across the distance alone on my own without a ship. This ain't an attempt to pull on your heartstrings; don't think about it too much. Do what your heart says—you want to go, then go; you want to stay, then stay. No one will blame you either way."
There was silence for a moment, Scarn's breath deepened, and he closed his eyes for a moment. He knew what the answer would be. Ray was one of his own men; they might not have known each other too keenly before, but the last few days they had spent together were enough for him to predict his choice.
'Another youngin' who would foolishly sacrifice his life over something impossible for duty, all of them brave idiots cut from the same navy blue cloth after all.' Scarn thought.
Though hearing Light's reply made his ears perk up.
"I'll turn back then, bye-bye, lieutenant!" Said Light nonchalantly.
Scarn creased his eyebrows and looked back.
He saw his companion grinning with a stupid expression, "Kidding! Of course, I'll stay, I'm not going to abandon you just yet, Lieutenant Scarn, I still have that recommendation letter I need your signature on after all."
Scarn stared at his dumbfounded for a moment, but then instead of getting happy or sad, he just screamed out in anger, "YOU THINK THIS IS A JOKE LITTLE SHIT…"
He continued yapping while Light focused on thinking about a resolution. 'Our path will eventually intersect with that circle of light. But considering it's not exactly deadly on contact… I'm inclined not to fear it, but that may be a stupid move.
'Regardless, I have to take action now. Who knows what the emo would do if I were to abandon our plan?
'That would essentially be like cutting off his TV program at a cliffhanger, what kind of psychopath would do something like that?' Light Lampooned.
He still didn't panic, though, after all, he had two contingencies left.
He lingered for a moment and spoke while ignoring Scarn's screaming. "We can still do it. The circle of light is big but still not too big. We can just time our paddles just right so that we pass through the orbit of the revolving circle of light right before it hits us.
"We can't be too fast, nor too slow. The cricket of light is revolving at great speeds, so we have to perfectly time it so that we pass its orbit while the circle is on the other end. We can increase our chances by waiting for more revolutions so that the circle gets farther from the pirate ship and the orbit gets bigger. That will make the circle's revolution speed slower, increasing our window of undetected entrance."
Scarn heard his words quietly with attention, and then said one simple thing, "So we should slow down to let the orbit get bigger, right? So can I stop paddling for fucks sake?"
Light laughed, "Yes, sir!"
Scarn dropped the paddles and plopped onto the deck, utterly exhausted and drenched in sweat. "Working past retirement isn't the ideal, it ain't for sure."
"Working past retirement? How old is he really? Light looked at his companion with amusement, and then plopped on the floor himself. He had tired himself out with the paddling too, not as much as Scarn, but still quite a lot.
The two of them lay still for a while, catching their breaths and recuperating their bodies.
After a few moments, Light sighed, "Let's get that barrel out on the deck. In less than half a minute, we will pass the revolving circle of light's orbit. And after we do, we have to work quickly, hit fast, and escape undetected. That's the only way we survive this."
Scarn grimaced and turned around in his sleep, and then pushed himself off the deck and stood up, "As you say, genius."
He limped in his gait, but still walked to the storage below the deck. But as he was about to open the lid and slide into the crawl space, Light stopped him with a scream. "Wait!"
"What is it?" Scarn replied with concern.
Light pointed forward with his index finger, his hand shivering in the process. He said with a subdued tone,
"Why is the circle getting bigger?"
…