CHAPTER 81

Meanwhile, Beast Boy and Superboy were working together to extinguish the flames.

Beast Boy, transformed into a giant elephant, was madly absorbing and spraying water, while Superboy was shuttling back and forth, carrying water.

"By the way, why did you want to use my X-ray vision?" Superboy asked.

"Cough, well, now there are only the two of us here, so I'll only tell you this secret," Beast Boy cleared his throat softly, his tone meaningful, "Starfire's uniform isn't made of lead..."

"Conner, Gar, the plan has changed, we've been tricked!"

Suddenly, a familiar voice came from behind them, and they turned around to look.

At some point, Robin was already standing behind the two of them...

On the other side.

Yuri flew higher into the sky, surveying the surroundings. As far as he could see, there was nothing above the sea surface.

"When Bart was shot, Deathstroke was still here. In that time frame, he couldn't have gotten far. The flames on the island are so intense, it wouldn't be safe for him either. The likelihood of him hiding on the island is not high..."

Yuri contemplated.

"If Deathstroke isn't on the island, then there's only one possibility."

Thinking this, Yuri made a strange move.

Stingfly suddenly plummeted toward the sea surface. Just as he was about to touch the water, Yuri quickly extended his hand and turned a dial on the of the omnitrix.

A burst of light flashed, and Yuri transformed from Stingfly into a gray-white Merman. He had the upper body of a human and the lower body of a fish, with sharp teeth and claws. His horrifying form of a head's skin was covered in scales, and he had a lantern on top of his head similar to a deep-sea anglerfish, but much larger.

Ripjaws.

In the instant he dived underwater, Ripjaws legs merged into a fish tail, and his speed underwater became astonishing.

If he wasn't on the surface, then naturally, he must be underwater!

Sure enough, as soon as Yuri submerged, he looked around and immediately spotted a figure with an oxygen tank on their back swimming toward the shore.

Ripjaws' vision underwater was even better than on land, making it easy to recognize the distant figure clad in black and orange armor, highly resembling Deathstroke.

It was safe to assume that this wasn't just some bored ordinary tourist going for a dive.

And beside Deathstroke, there was another figure, completely black. This person's build was slightly smaller than Deathstroke's, most likely the origin of all recent events.

Deathstroke was positioned about thirty meters underwater, and he was probably less than a kilometer away from Yuri.

From the moment Bart first landed on the island until now, it seemed like a long time had passed, but it had only been about three minutes.

For Deathstroke to cover this distance underwater in such a short time, especially while carrying someone else, his physical abilities were truly terrifying, probably exceeding that of a regular human by at least tenfold.

However, the sea was Ripjaws' territory. No matter how fast Deathstroke swam, he couldn't match his speed.

Yuri twisted his tail and shot out with a swift motion, surpassing even a sailfish in speed. The resistance of the water seemed unable to affect his velocity.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Ripjaws' swimming speed was so fast that it stirred up the water around him. A long trail of turbulence followed behind him.

Sound travels much faster in water than in air, so when Yuri began swimming, Deathstroke ahead noticed the anomaly behind him almost instantly.

"So, merely breaking someone's leg isn't enough to make them back down?"

Scoffing disdainfully in his mind, Deathstroke slightly turned his head, only to see a hideous and terrifying fish-man speeding toward him.

The distance between the two rapidly decreased before their eyes.

Deathstroke's pupils constricted, this situation was somewhat unexpected for him.

However, what caught him off guard wasn't the fact that someone caught up to him, but rather the peculiar creature pursuing him.

"It seems that not killing someone won't permanently shut down Titan Tower."

Deathstroke glanced at Raven floating unconscious beside him, bound by his ropes.

In a stroke of luck, due to his soul being empowered by Trigon, Deathstroke could sense Raven's presence within a certain range.

So, although Deathstroke was originally trailing behind Yuri and the others, when he approached the coast, he immediately sensed Raven on Demon Island. This led him to devise a plan to deceive the Teen Titans by taking advantage of the time gap when Demon Island was open for tours.

Yuri and his team, on the other hand, spent quite some time finding the lighthouse.

As for why Raven was unconscious, it wasn't Deathstroke's doing. She had collapsed in a corner of the island by the time he found her.

Several days of intense evasion, coupled with the recent battle against the three modified demons, had left Raven physically and mentally drained. Her magical powers were also nearly depleted.

Later on, feeling someone was tracking her, she summoned her last reserves of energy to teleport herself to Demon Island. Of course, she wasn't aware that Demon Island had been turned into a tourist attraction; she thought it was an abandoned wasteland.

Raven, on the brink of exhaustion, couldn't hold on any longer and fell into unconsciousness.

Deathstroke put an all-encompassing oxygen mask on Raven, preventing her from drowning in the sea. After all, she was the daughter of Trigon; if anything happened to her, he wouldn't escape the punishment of that higher being.

"While I don't mind personally killing a Titan, I have more important matters to attend to now, so..."

Beneath the oxygen mask, Deathstroke's face showed a confident smile. "Let them come and play with you!"

Gurgle, gurgle! Gurgle, gurgle!

Without warning, four demon-like creatures burst out from deeper waters. They looked identical to the three demons Raven had banished to hell!

The only difference was that they had an extra pair of gills for breathing underwater.

This was Deathstroke's final insurance. He knew the Teen Titans were a stubborn bunch. Disabling one of them probably wouldn't deter them; there was a good chance they would catch up.

So, he had convinced four fanatical followers of Trigon to transform them into demons and lie in ambush in the deeper waters.

This way, even if the Teen Titans saw through the island's fire deception and caught up, they would only notice Deathstroke. They wouldn't suspect the hidden ambush in the deep sea.

If the Teen Titans didn't see through the fire deception in a short time, or simply didn't dare to continue the pursuit, that would be exactly what Deathstroke was hoping for, though the chances were almost zero.

Caught off guard, Yuri was suddenly collided with by the four demons that emerged out of nowhere, disrupting his swimming rhythm instantly.

As for Deathstroke, he continued toward the coast with Raven in tow.

°°°

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