The spotlight, that terrifying green beam which should've obliterated him from the inside out, had passed him by. Not only had it missed him, but it hadn't even grazed the ship. It just… slipped around them like they weren't even there.
His blood-streaked face twisted with confusion as he looked at the glowing green column of light hurtling away into the mist. It was still nearby, still dangerous—but it was retreating, quickly losing proximity.
'Why wasn't I hit?' the thought echoed in his mind like a heartbeat.
'There's no way someone could miss such an obvious target. Not a pirate captain… and especially not that pirate captain.'
He narrowed his eyes. The thought scratched at the edge of a theory, a realisation forming beneath layers of adrenaline and pain. Then, like a door creaking open to the truth, the answer presented itself.
'Unless… he doesn't know where we are at all.'
The pieces fell into place all at once. He followed the arc of the retreating spotlight and saw where it paused—right in front of the pitch-black ship, hovering some distance away. That's where they'd first crossed paths. It was as if the light was trying to retrace its steps.
Now he understood.
A grin cracked through his pained expression, spreading wider with each breath. "Terror has no eyes," he whispered.
His gaze turned upward, and through the torn clouds, he saw the illusory glowing white orb hanging in the sky like a divine eye. The spotlight had carved through the cloud cover, revealing its true origin.
'So that's how it is… The beam falls from an illusory eyeball in the sky. That must be how Ter senses us—through that thing. But… he's blinded by the light of his own spotlight when he activates the ability.'
Light's thoughts raced, building a picture out of fragments. 'He can't actually see us. He senses us through disturbances in his light—like a sonar system…'
He turned toward Scarn, who was still barely recovering. His eyes remained dazed, but there was a flicker of awareness now, enough to understand.
"We have a chance to escape now. I would love nothing more than to drill that bastard with holes, but I'm still not sure what exactly Ter's ability is. It's almost like we got bounced back from the green light like a trampoline. Our plan can't work with this many variables, we need to escape for now and think about an attack later." Light said coldly.
Even in his discombobulated state, Scarn frowned heavily. But he didn't retort and seemed agreeable to Light's decision.
But even though Light said they could think about an attack later, he wasn't truly intending to do so, 'Because as soon as the sun rises, our biggest advantage of stealth would be stripped away from us. In fact, a pitch black ship would stand out in daylight, so in reality we would need to abandon our plans altogether, and escape to a navy base.'
Light didn't want to do this. Not finishing Ter would jeopardize his deal with Ryuk and also prevent him from reaping all the status benefits that come from being a Navy hero.
'This is a great battle to lose. But it's still just one battle. I still managed to put out an excellent show for the shinigami by blasting one of the most infamous ships in the world to oblivion.
'If he doesn't give me the death note after this, he at least wouldn't cook my soul for dinner. And even if I won't be a marine hero, I could at least escape this green hell alive.' Light thought to himself.
But he would soon realise that reality often doesn't go as planned.
He saw his luck running out with his own eyes.
Because the spotlight had reached the spot where it first met the pitch black ship.
It lingered there for a moment… then began to move again.
It spun, revolving like the spotlight was caught in a vortex—and each revolution flung it farther outwards into a bigger revolution.
But this time, it wasn't circling around the Mother of Blood.
Instead, it had a new epicentre: it was revolving around the spot where it had previously contacted the pitch-black ship for the first time.
Each orbit grew larger, expanding like a ripple on water.
Light's hair stood on end as he immediately understood what Ter was doing.
"That damn pirate…" Light realised.
'He's using the last point of contact as the epicentre. From there, he makes the spotlight revolve around the epicentre and then increases the radius of his revolving spotlight's orbit, sweeping wider and wider with each loop.
'With this method, he could spin his spotlight in the vicinity of where we previously were, which would lead to him not missing an inch of the area we could've possibly ricocheted to, and eventually find us.
'Even without being able to see us using the light directly. He could locate us just by making his light revolve around the last spot he found us at…'
Light gritted his teeth in frustration, "Devious bastard."
Even being blinded by his own light didn't stop the pirate devil from finding a way to locate his enemies.
Light shook his head for a moment and then realised the depth of Ter's plan even further.
'Those gunshots… Not only is he using his own Devil Fruit ability to attack, but also using his crew as support. At first, the bullets flew in random directions, but now they are landing near the area we intersected with the spotlights path…'
Light tried to stand up, 'he told them to shoot near the spotlight because His ability allows him to somehow redirect objects, meaning he knew that our ship would be redirected somewhere close to the point we interacted with the light.
'So by allowing his shooters to concentrate on the area he previously found us at, he is increasing the chances of our ship getting hit by a bullet.
Standing up straight, he began to pace around, seemingly unperturbed by his internal injuries. He can possibly also sense the size, shape, and form of the objects that interact with his spotlight, which is probably why he was so confident about allocating his entire crew to only focus on one area…
Light suddenly stopped his steps. 'On second thought, it's quite obvious that only a small ship can easily hide in the night like this and not some huge vessel. Unless, of course, devil fruit abilities are involved. Which would mean he had already thought of both possibilities, and sensing the small size of our ship when we crossed paths with his spotlight essentially confirmed his former theory.'
"Shit, shit, shit!" Light barked in frustration and anxiety.
Losing composure was not a trait he knew himself for, but tonight's trial had tested him to the very limit.
'So that bastard knows what we are, where we are, how to find us, and also how to stop us… permanently…in multiple ways.'
"Fuck! This is bad… really bad." Light tried to think of everything in his arsenal and got lost in thought.
Splash!
Suddenly, Scarn's paddling got even louder than it usually was and caused Light to break out of his reverie.
Splash!
Scarn did it again, but this time, it was obviously intentional.
Light turned to look at his companion and asked with frustration, "What!?"
Scarn jerked his head to the side, prompting Light in the direction he was trying to point at.
Light turned and looked at the place where he had lost his focus, and his eyes widened.
The spotlight was moving at astonishing speeds, faster than ever before. Yet it made no sound.
It had completed many revolutions and wasn't going to stop anytime soon. Its orbit had grown to a concerning degree and had gotten scarily close to the pitch-black ship before Light could even realise.
Looking at it flash by in circles at impossible speeds made Light speechless.
He gazed at the marvel for a few moments too long, but then gritted his teeth in desperation.
'That's it.'
He turned to look at Scarn and told him in a shaky tone.
"It's time to use the first contingency…"
…