Chapter 257: Tide Cutter Bane Defeated [Edited]
Trapped on the container roof, Tide-Cutter Bane panicked.
The calm, unblinking look in Nicholas’s dark blue eyes unnerved him far more than any blaring siren or squad of Association enforcers ever had. The kid hadn’t broken a sweat, hadn’t raised his voice, and had danced through high-pressure water jets like they were gentle summer rain.
"Get away from me!" Bane bellowed, his voice cracking against the damp limestone walls.
Instead of trying to swing his heavy left claw again, the brute jammed his right forearm forward, pointing the fleshy chitin nozzle straight at Nicholas’s chest from point-blank range.
The blue veins along Bane’s neck and shoulder bulged as his mutated arm swelled with pressure. Water rushed through the limb, drawn from the humid air and the pool beneath the dock, until the nozzle began to tremble. The whole arm groaned under the strain, the pressure building so violently that even Bane seemed unsure whether he could control it.
"Nicholas, he’s charging again! It’s stronger this time!" Selena’s sharp warning rang out from the floor of the dry dock.
Nicholas didn’t need to dodge. He had already seen the weakness in the mutated limb and knew exactly where to strike. He shifted his foot forward, lowered his stance, and drew a quick breath as a thin ribbon of refined Qi flowed from his core into his right palm. The energy didn’t erupt in a flashy explosion. Instead, it gathered tightly against his skin, humming with quiet pressure as he waited for the exact moment to move.
Right before the water jet could fire, Nicholas struck.
His open palm drove forward in a short, explosive thrust, slapping flat against the thick chitin plate right along Bane’s right elbow joint.
CRACK.
The impact sounded like a sledgehammer striking porcelain.
Nicholas channeled the pulse of Qi directly through the shell’s natural fault line, sending an internal shockwave rippling through the armor. The hardened, barnacle-encrusted carapace shattered instantly into a dozen jagged fragments, peeling off Bane’s arm in a rain of brittle debris.
The internal hydraulic pressure inside the brute’s arm had nowhere to go. Without the chitin armor to contain the force, the compressed water burst harmlessly out the sides in a wide, misty spray, completely neutralizing the attack before it could launch.
"My arm!" Bane screamed, clutching his limp, armorless right limb as he stumbled backward on the slick metal roof.
"He’s falling back on his right heel!" Selena called out.
Selena had already scaled the adjacent row of storage crates. Moving with clean, athletic grace, she unholstered her low-profile shock pistol and took aim.
PFT-PFT.
Two compressed-air darts hissed through the cavern air, striking the exposed, unarmored tendon crease behind Bane’s right knee.
High-voltage blue static crackled through the impure’s lower leg, seizing the nerves in his calf and thigh. Bane’s leg buckled instantly, his massive frame lurching forward as his balance collapsed completely.
"Now, Nicholas!" Selena called out.
Bane flailed, his left crustacean claw swinging wildly in a desperate attempt to keep Nicholas at bay.
Nicholas drew on his gravity ability, lightening his body just enough to carry him over the clumsy swing. He slipped cleanly past the claw, twisting in mid-air before landing on Bane’s blind side with barely a sound.
Nicholas could have ended the fight much more violently, but there was no reason to. The cave was old, the ceiling was fragile, and the terrified worker was still tied up below. There was no need to turn a simple capture into a disaster.
Nicholas brought his right hand down in a clean, perfectly placed palm strike against Bane’s neck.
THWIP.
A concentrated pulse of force traveled through his palm and struck the nerve cluster beneath the skin.
Bane’s eyes rolled back into his head instantly.
The violent scowl on his face smoothed into total blankness, and the massive brute collapsed onto the rusted metal container roof with a heavy, dull thud.
The cavern fell dead silent.
The only sounds remaining were the soft dripping of seawater from the broken pipes, the gentle lapping of the tide against the cavern pool, and the terrified, ragged breathing of the bound dockworker below.
Nicholas exhaled slowly, shaking out his right hand as the faint glow of Qi faded back into his skin.
He looked down at the unconscious brute, checking Bane’s pulse with two fingers against the neck. Steady, strong, and completely neutralized.
"We’ve got him," Nicholas said calmly, looking over at Selena.
Selena hopped down from the upper crate, landing lightly on the wooden deck beside the tied-up worker. She quickly drew a small utility pocketknife from her jacket and sliced through the coarse ropes binding the man’s wrists and ankles.
The dockworker scrambled backward, rubbing his bruised arms and staring up at Nicholas and Selena in complete, wide-eyed shock. "Y-You... who are you people? You took down Tide-Cutter in twenty seconds!"
"Just tourists who took a wrong turn along the hiking trail," Selena replied smoothly, not missing a beat as she offered the man a steadying hand. "There’s a clear path through the northern fissure. Head straight to the village and tell everyone the southern bluffs are clear."
The worker didn’t ask twice. He bowed three times in frantic gratitude, scrambled over the rocks, and bolted through the cave entrance toward the sunlight as fast as his legs could carry him.
Nicholas jumped down from the shipping container, landing softly beside Selena. He pulled a pair of heavy-duty, reinforced containment zip-cuffs from his cargo pocket.
Walking over to the unconscious Bane, he clamped the cuffs securely around the brute’s wrists and ankles, locking the mutated joints tight so he couldn’t generate leverage even if he woke up.
"Not bad, you did a great job," Selena said, crossing her arms with a satisfied smile. "Nobody got hurt, the cave is still standing, and you even managed to keep yourself in one piece."
"You were right," Nicholas said, looking down at her with a faint, amused smirk. "Your timing was good."
"Of course they were. I’m an A-rank supervisor," Selena said, tossing her ponytail over her shoulder with mock pride, though the pleased warmth in her dark eyes was impossible to hide.
She pulled out a burner comm-link, dialed the automated dispatch frequency for the Port Azure constabulary, and triggered a standard synthesized emergency alert:
Anonymous report: Tide-Cutter Bane has been apprehended in the southern sea cave. The stolen cargo has been secured, and the suspect is restrained and awaiting transport.
She ended the transmission and dropped the small device into the deep water of the cavern pool, letting it sink into the dark mud below.
"The constable will be here in fifteen minutes," Selena said, turning toward the fissure entrance. "Which gives us just enough time to walk back before anyone spots us."
"And the ice cream back at the villa is still in the freezer," Nicholas added, matching her stride as they stepped out of the damp shadows.
They emerged onto the sunny limestone ledge, the bright tropical sky opening up before them in brilliant blue. The ocean breeze was fresh and warm, carrying the faint sound of distant festival drums from the village harbor.
Nicholas walked beside Selena along the coastal trail, his hands casually tucked in his pockets, feeling the sun warm his shoulders.
The village was safe, the festival would go on without interruption, and his family would enjoy the rest of their afternoon by the sea.
𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎
A simple, quiet job, well done.