Bella slowed her swimming speed, keeping it only slightly faster than a normal swimmer, paddling with both arms as she swam toward the reef.
As the distance between them closed, she saw the woman cupping her hands around her mouth and shouting repeatedly, "Don't… come over… call… the police…"
The sound scattered in all directions, becoming somewhat muffled by the time it reached Bella's ears, but she roughly understood—the woman was telling her to call for help.
Bella glanced toward the distant beach. At the moment, the woman was only seven or eight hundred meters from shore. For Bella, covering that distance while carrying someone wouldn't be a problem at all.
"Don't worry! I'm coming over now! Don't be scared!"
Her vision, hearing, and perception had all been significantly enhanced by her psionic power—only her voice volume remained completely unchanged.
Shouting someone to death like Zhang Fei with a single roar was absolutely impossible for her.
Whether the woman heard her or not, Bella shouted once and continued swimming forward.
"There's… don't come over!! Don't—don't come over! …Shark!"
The woman's earlier words were hard to make out, but Bella clearly heard the final word—shark.
At the very same moment, Bella sensed an extreme danger.
A great white shark suddenly charged in from the side. Its speed was terrifying. It had previously stayed far away from Bella with cunning patience, but now its spindle-shaped body shot toward her like an arrow.
Its sharp teeth gleamed coldly beneath the water's surface, a bloodthirsty, vicious aura surging straight at her.
The great white closed in at full sprint and snapped its jaws toward Bella's calf.
You damn shark bastard dare to bite me?
Bella looked slim and graceful in her swimsuit, completely mismatched against the shark's massive, brutal frame, yet she twisted her body underwater with speed no less than its own, narrowly dodging the shark's deadly strike.
Missing its first attack, the clever and cautious predator prepared to withdraw. In its view, the ocean was its territory—it could simply wait for another chance to strike.
But Bella had no intention of letting it go.
She hadn't noticed it when the shark first appeared, but at the instant it attacked, she sensed a strangely familiar aura.
She had only felt that presence once before—in Florida, on that massive alligator that could shoot ice arrows.
It was the aura of the sea goddess Calypso.
As the great white passed by her, Bella advanced instead of retreating. She kicked hard, reached out, grabbed the shark's dorsal fin from the side, and used the momentum to flip herself onto its back.
Slippery—very slippery.
Sharks excrete urea through their skin, and the great white was no exception. Its back was coated in a thick layer of slick mucus. Bella lost her grip for an instant and was violently thrown off, her head even getting smacked by its tail fin.
Enraged by the prey's provocation, the great white whipped around, opening its massive jaws to tear Bella's head off.
Mind Blast!
At point-blank range, Bella went all out. She clenched her right hand, directing a massive surge of psychic energy straight into the shark's head.
The great white was already considered a high-level marine predator. While not as intelligent as dolphins, it did possess intelligence—and therefore, a mind.
The invisible psychic shock slammed into its consciousness. The shark froze in a daze.
Bella didn't hesitate. She condensed an ice spike rapier and thrust it straight into the shark's round eye.
Poor eyesight didn't matter. Eyes were a fatal weakness for most creatures, and the great white was no exception.
She didn't pull the blade out. Instead, she flipped again onto the shark's back. This time she was prepared—one hand gripping the dorsal fin, the other clutching the ice rapier, legs clamped tight like riding a horse. No matter how violently the shark rolled, she refused to let go.
"Fuck you!"
"You bastard!"
Amid a barrage of vulgar curses, Bella and the great white shark began a brutal contest between hunter and prey, above and below the waves.
The woman stranded on the reef stared in complete shock.
At first, she had been frantic, waving desperately, afraid Bella would fall into the shark's trap.
Now it seemed the trap had indeed been triggered—but this person… this person was terrifyingly strong!
The water churned into murky chaos, obscuring much of the fight. But when a figure riding atop the great white burst from the surface and drew closer, she finally saw the rescuer clearly.
Bella had washed off her makeup long before entering the water. Now bare-faced, her refined and striking features left the woman stunned for several seconds.
She wanted to help—but looking at her own legs, she could only feel powerless.
Bella clung to the shark's dorsal fin, stabbing its back and head repeatedly with the ice rapier. An unnatural vitality within the beast continuously repaired its wounds, leaving the two locked in a stalemate—neither able to finish the other.
The great white suddenly surged forward, bloodlust boiling over. Like a missile, it charged straight toward the woman on the reef.
"Get out of the way! Move!" Bella shouted.
You think I don't want to? I can't move!
The woman was on the verge of tears. Earlier, the shark had taken a savage bite out of her leg. Even after basic treatment, massive blood loss and prolonged circulation blockage had left her unable to move. Facing the shark charging directly at her, she could only claw sideways with both hands in miserable desperation.
But she was far too slow.
Just as she was about to be bitten clean in half, a gunshot rang out.
Bang!
From eight hundred meters away, Natasha lay prone on the car roof, sniper rifle braced. A single bullet punched straight through the great white's upper jaw.
A gunshot?
The woman looked toward the beach. Seawater sprayed over her face from the shark's charge, and she hadn't even noticed.
Weren't you two just here to swim? Why do you carry guns when you go out?
Her mind was filled with confusion. Is this world still the one I know?
"Left!" Bella shouted, forcibly controlling the great white.
She raised her right fist and slammed it into the shark's right eye.
Thud.
The shark instinctively tilted its head left. Realizing something was wrong, it tried to swing back—only to be met with another punch. Left fist. Right fist. Relentless blows.
"Swim to shore! Hurry! I'll hold this thing back—go!" Bella pointed toward the beach, urging the woman to escape.
The woman tried twice and failed. Her legs were completely numb. Lying on the reef in a swimsuit all day had left her freezing, dizzy, and barely conscious. With severe blood loss, even without the shark, there was no way she could swim seven or eight hundred meters.
"I can't… I can't make it… you—"
Seeing Bella locked in a life-and-death struggle with the great white, she didn't even know what she could say.
Fortunately, Bella wasn't fighting alone.
After firing her shot, Natasha judged that Bella could handle the shark by herself. She re-entered the water, swam back, grabbed the injured woman, and began towing her toward the shore.