Trash in the Apocalypse

Rofi swam back down and helped the other fishermen who were having troubles. After several trades, only four people were left behind, trying to stall the Giant Milkfish.

The Giant Milkfish had the usual appearance of its kind. Except for its humungous size, there was nothing else that appeared formidable. Until a harpoon successfully pierced through one of its front fins.

The Giant Milkfish turned wild and swam away.

Everyone became happy knowing that no one died, then the other captain signaled for all of them to go up. 

Pwuah! 

Four heads popped up and everyone started picking themselves up and finally standing stably on solid water. The slow downpour from earlier has now become a torrent. The spiral waves from earlier have disappeared but the water remained in turmoil. Waves after waves of water struck them, causing them to move with the water, but no one seemed to mind. 

Rofi said. "We still keep to our current hand signals; attack, defend, stall, retreat. To be honest, I don't think we can kill it. We don't have the proper gear and we don't specialize in underwater battles. Still, we can try to nick a few of this bastard's scales before help arrives."

The other captain spoke. "My crew just got on our boat and your crew must have already reached the docks and is already reporting about this matter. We just need to stall for some time until my crew gets halfway before we retreat. At that time, it doesn't matter if help arrives since we can escape on our own."

"So we stall?" Andok said.

Everyone agreed and they all plunged back into the water as if the previous solid water they were standing on disappeared. 

Rofi scanned the area but couldn't see through the dark water. The bad weather denied them the light that was crucial to seeing underwater.

All four of them were currently blind and can only see several meters around them. They were prone to an ambush that could result in death if they weren't paying attention. 

Their heartbeats started to quicken sensing the impending doom. The waves, the movements of the water, they could feel it. They know that the Giant Milkfish was circling around them but couldn't pinpoint its current location due to its speed.

Scared and anxious, Rofi suddenly started to scatter his energy on the area around him to further increase his visibility. He closed his eyes to get a better sense of which direction the waves were coming. 

The ripples of water were means that flapping of the Giant Milkfish's tail. With its current speed, It is not absurd to say that every flap would cause it to move a few meters forward. Every wave that hits the energy field further solidified his understanding.

Then, the understanding caused him to discern something. 

If waves hit his energy field with the same rhythm, then the enemy is keeping the same distance. When the waves reach him faster, then the enemy was closing in, and if the waves were taking longer to strike his energy field, then it should be retreating.

With this realization, a festive blare rung beside his ears, and a sudden notification appeared in front of him. 

[Sonar skill generated. Would you like to learn it?]

Rofi stared shocked at the notification, then rejoiced deeply inside him.

"I gained a skill!"

Though already old, Rofi regularly watches over the current trend and what's profitable in the town. One of the jobs that could earn an individual a hefty amount of money was through developing a skill and sharing it with Black Haven. 

Skill developers would get monthly allowances and various benefits and discounts on the whole territory facilities. This group of people would be treated as VIPs depending on how useful their skills were.

He used the skill to see its effect.

Sonar was activated and an invisible shockwave made of an imaginary white line spread out in all directions. The first objects struck were his teammates and they suddenly became enveloped with a white outline. In the distance, the Giant Milkfish was outlined in the same white lines, slowly creeping up to them. Every time they moved, their images would be updated like some low-budget animation.

Rofi couldn't see any of their features but their heights and width were enough to tell who was who. He smiled and thought, "This seems pretty useful! If I register this, I probably don't need to work ever again."

While feeling awesome about himself, he suddenly saw the Giant Milkfish dashing towards them. The three people next to him noticed the wild movements of the water, but couldn't pinpoint the exact location. Since he was the only one who could see, he pulled out the harpoon and shot at the incoming monster.

Though blinded, the three were still able to hear the familiar harpoon shot. They weren't promoted to their current positions because they knew someone from the top. They were standing on their spot because they worked hard for it!

The three simultaneously fired their harpoons in the general direction of the first harpoon. They have no guarantees that it will hit, but doing something was better than nothing.

Several seconds later, another set of wild waves struck them. Everyone formed a smile thinking they struck the Giant Milkfish successfully, but Rofi who can see everything wasn't happy.

The harpoons barely grazed the scales of the Giant Milkfish and only infuriated it. Now, it was charging at them with its mouth open. It was trying to suck all of them as food!

Rofi signaled for a retreat which confused everyone. Weren't they winning? Why retreat now? 

Their indecisiveness and inexperience about the matter allowed the threat to appear before them.

Andok stared at the monstrous eyes that appeared in front of him and felt an incredulously strong suction force from its open mouth. When the others were able to grab him, half of his legs was already sucked in and his legs were now getting nibbled on. 

He couldn't help but gasp from the extreme pain coming from his lower body. His bones were getting crushed as the Giant Milkfish continued to nibble his legs. A series of air bubbles appeared together with his gasp as a bit of water entered his throat.

No one was able to shout, but they all stared at the enormous black eyes of the Giant Milkfish. 

Rofi didn't waste any more time and loaded another harpoon. After reloading, he quickly fired at the Giant Milkfish's eyes in close proximity. 

Since it was closer and received less resistance, it managed to cause a red dot to appear on the monster's eye. Unfortunately, this action caused the Giant Milkfish to bite down and swim away.

Another set of air bubbles appeared after Andok got half of his legs chewed up. Blood seeped out from his thighs that had missing knees and feet.

Rofi shouted in anguish, causing water to enter his mouth, but only air bubbles appeared. He felt aggrieved after seeing someone became disabled due to his actions. Though no voice came out, everyone could see the meaning from the emotion in his eyes. "I'm sorry, I tried helping but things turned much worse."