Desharow Mermaid - Chap 40

Agares!

The voice from afar sounded chaotic in the seawater, but in my confused mind, it was like an explosion, making me struggle to kick away the arms that were trying to grab my ankle and waving my hands to separate the seawater, desperately swimming upstream.

As soon as I surfaced, I opened my mouth and took a deep breath, coughing violently and roughly pushing aside the hair stuck to my face. I saw a faint light shining above my head, mottled light spots falling on the water surface, and countless pairs of tiger-like eyes lurking in the shadows.

I splashed the water in panic and leaned against the rock wall behind me, not daring to breathe. However, the mermaids seemed to be wary of something and did not directly surround me. They made hungry and unbearable swallowing sounds and swam towards the entrance of the dark cave where I was dragged in, bowing their heads like pious servants, as if welcoming the arrival of a monarch.

Agares’ low growl was getting closer, and my heartbeat became more and more intense, like being tossed by the waves. I groped the rock wall next to me and began to climb up. The mermaids seemed to be attracted by Agares’ call and did not notice my actions. However, just as Agares’ voice gradually approached the entrance of the cave, I felt a sudden tightening around my ankle. When I looked down, I saw a dark red shadow passing by, and before I could scream, I fell back into the water. Then, a soft and powerful arm like a spider’s silk tightly wrapped around my waist and lifted me out of the water.

I gasped for breath because of the sudden change, and my nerves trembled as if suddenly pulled and relaxed. I noticed the pale webbed claws around my waist and knew that the guy who lifted me in mid-air must be the weird red-haired mermaid. I suddenly realized that not all mermaids made the gesture of fearing Agares. There were also a group of them around the red-haired mermaid who held me hostage, like stars surrounding the moon, and the number was comparable to the group that gathered at the entrance of the dark cave to welcome Agares.

“I suddenly realized that I might have been dragged into the leadership struggle of this beast tribe, and the reason this red-haired mermaid wants to seize me may not be because I piqued his interest, but because he somehow learned that I am a spoils of Ares, and he wants to challenge Ares’s status and authority by taking me.

“F**k! Let me go!” I struggled fiercely, using all my strength to pry the hand that was gripping my waist, but the mermaid’s fin-like claw was as strong as a steel clamp and seemed to be pressing down on my resistance. The sharp nails on the fin had already pierced through my clothes and skin, and it was imaginable that if I struggled harder, it might be my abdomen that would be cut.

“Damn it!” I gritted my teeth, and the sharp pain made me temporarily give up competing with the red-haired mermaid. However, as soon as I stopped struggling, my clothes were torn open by its claw, and it reached towards my crotch.

“No!” I yelled in horror, trying to block the attacking claw, but I immediately felt a sharp pain in my waist, and a thin line of blood flowed down my abdomen. I heard a string of curse-like whispers that I couldn’t understand in my ear.

I recognized it as a warning signal. The mermaid didn’t care about my life, and I had no doubt that he would cut me open and present me to Ares out of impatience. At this moment, I paid more attention to the terrible crack on the tail of the red-haired mermaid exposed above the water, a large piece of scales missing, exposing the white muscles underneath. It was imaginable that he was injured in a fierce battle with Ares and wanted revenge. He saw me as a flaw to defeat Ares.”

I gritted my teeth, which were chattering with fear and humiliation. Despite the threat of pain, I could only watch in horror as the red-haired mermaid pulled down my pants and her webbed claws roamed freely over my thighs. This repulsive scene was about to unfold before Ares, but then I saw a rush of seawater flood into the dark cave, and a huge figure appeared from the shadows.

I stared in terror and shame at the newcomer. My breathing became labored, as if I was being suffocated by the weight of both emotions. I couldn’t imagine how Ares would react, as I knew that in most animal groups, a leader’s status was much more important than that of a mate or prize. Mermaids didn’t hold the concept of love above all else like some humans did; after all, they were beasts. If his position were threatened, how could Ares care about my safety? If I died, he would simply find another suitable partner.

As I thought this, Ares emerged from the water, and I couldn’t help but gasp in shock. His upper body was covered in large and small wounds, even though they had already formed a layer of white scab. It was clear how deep these wounds were, and they had obviously been inflicted by mermaid claws. Maybe that was why he hadn’t shown up for the past few days, because he was fighting for his leader’s status, whether it was to reclaim it or to compete for it.

He stood tall in the water, surrounded by the red-haired mermaid’s followers, who were several meters away. He looked down on us from a high vantage point, his gaze first falling on my face and then lingering on the webbed claws playing with me. His narrow eyes narrowed even further, and there was no hint of a glimmer, only an unfathomable darkness. His gaze was so menacing and fierce that it was like a venomous scorpion.

I took a deep breath, and he made me feel cold all over. Ares’ state was completely different from when he faced those pirates’ violent emotions. I even had the illusion that he wasn’t the beast I had come into contact with, as if he had transformed into a grim reaper, a killing machine without desire, in these few days.

Was he here to save me, or was it just a coincidence that this was a place where leaders competed for territory?

I hesitated and panicked in my heart because I really couldn’t believe or hope that Agares would care about me, a foreigner, more than his own status. But when my throat was tightly gripped by the red-haired mermaid’s fin and my ear was licked by her wet and soft tongue, I instinctively squeezed out a few hoarse syllables from my teeth: ‘Ag… ares!’

The red-haired mermaid’s hand suddenly stiffened, and she suddenly burst out a few light and cold laughs. With a playful and mocking tone, she arched her fish tail forward, pushed my legs apart, and dragged out the last syllable, saying, ‘Agaras…’

It was only then that I realized I had made a huge mistake. I forgot the meaning of this string of syllables, and I actually shouted a cry that, to a mermaid, meant a cry for love, at this moment! Damn it!

The tongue sliding on my neck became even more presumptuous, and the fin under my body began to explore my crotch. My brain seemed to be about to burst with shame and anger. I struggled hysterically, no longer caring how deep the fin had pierced my waist. One hand blindly pulled and tugged at the fin that was running wild in my pants, while the other groped for the military dagger that hadn’t been used yet, but damn it, it was stuck in my boot!

!
Suddenly, a column of water surged up in front of me, and amidst the splashing water, I saw Ares’ body rise several meters high from the water. His long and sturdy fish tail swept like a deadly whip, fiercely attacking the dozens of mermaids who had rushed towards him. In almost the blink of an eye, he passed through the encirclement in front of him, but stopped just within reach, leaning down in a stance ready to attack at any moment, but not moving.

His gaze fell on my neck, which was being held, and quickly slid down to my already bloody waist. The line of his jaw was as sharp as a blade’s edge from clenching his teeth. His raised webbed claw hung in mid-air, tightly clenched into a fist. I could even hear the sound of his joints grinding together. Blue blood oozed out between his pale fingers, dripping into the water. Though it was only a slight sound, at that moment it made me feel incredibly frightened.

With my eyes wide open in confusion and contradiction, I watched his expression. A glimmer of hope rose in my heart, but it made me feel like I was being pierced by a thousand arrows. Besides the sense of guilt, there was another unknown emotion that was crazily gnawing at my nerves. I wanted to deceive myself that it was the professional ethics of a biologist at play, but I knew it wasn’t.

I clenched my fists and suddenly saw Ares reveal his sharp fangs. His eyes, like a poisoned tail, stabbed towards my back and he let out a roar that I couldn’t understand: “fa aren me sai miya…”

That must have been the language of the mermaids. The red-haired mermaid immediately responded, leaning in close to my ear and letting out a chilling laugh before quickly spitting out a series of syllables. The next moment, Ares’ remaining troops came rushing back, overwhelming his tail. Several webbed claws tore at his scales and deeply pierced into the small gaps in the black weapon-like skin, attempting to tear open his fish tail’s surface.

“Ares!”

I struggled to scream from my squeezed throat. I saw Aegales’ arm muscles twitching slightly from the pain, but his upper body remained motionless like a steel statue. I couldn’t imagine how painful it would be to have my scales peeled off, but I felt the webbed claws scratching at my heart, and the pain in my chest far exceeded the agony of my torn flesh. The heartache forced me to bend over suddenly, allowing the webbed claws around my waist to deeply pierce my muscles. I was able to pull out the knife stuck in my calf and fiercely stabbed behind me!

Suddenly, a scream erupted in my ear, and my body was suddenly released, and I fell into the water with a splash. Immediately, a huge wave hit me and slammed me into the rock wall. Through my blurred vision, I saw Aegales’ fish tail flipping up from the water’s surface, turning into a black lightning bolt and fiercely breaking the shackles of the webbed claws, heavily slapping the figure that was attempting to attack him into the water.

That red-haired mermaid was wounded by my stab in the left rib, but she was not willing to give up and tried to attack Aegales from behind. However, his sickle-like tail fin directly slashed down, and the fish tail that had just lifted out of the water had a large piece of scales cut off in an instant, and she immediately screamed and retreated to the shadowy corner, but her demonic eyes still stubbornly held on to Aegales.

But at this moment, I am more than clear that this mermaid is no longer Aegales’ match, or rather, he never was.

I held my waist, hiding in the darkness and looking at the black figure under the mottled light. Aegales is very strong, unbelievably strong. What kind of mermaid did I provoke? I actually encountered the leader of this group!

Heavens, Desaro, should I say your luck is good or bad?