Fairy Tail: You said you were just acting, are you serious

Ten minutes later, Ron and Gildarts watched as the two sisters, supporting each other, walked towards the hotel with Uru, who had arrived at the scene.

They then followed the captain and his sailors onto the ship and slowly left the dock.

Because of Unikol's previous attack, only Ron and his boat are now sailing on the wide river.

The water was calmer than usual, but beneath the unfathomable riverbed, a huge dark shadow was moving with the current.

As the hull of the boat cast a dark silhouette on the water, countless eyes instantly opened within that shadow, densely packed together, and simultaneously fixed their gaze on the boat on the surface.

The dark shadow swayed its enormous body as it swam upstream with the dark current, finally revealing its entire body as it passed through the moonlit waters.

It was a giant, monstrous fish that was over ten meters long. A huge horn stood upright in the center of its head, and its body was covered with hundreds of constantly rotating eyes, which was enough to make anyone lose their sense of sanity.

This is the monster lurking in the river of Monnet Town, Unicol.

Unikol's figure drew closer and closer to the bottom of the ship, its countless eyes gleaming with greed as it stared intently at the vessel, fearing that if it missed this opportunity, it would never see humans again.

It swung its tail, aimed its single horn at the bottom of the boat, and prepared to ram it, throwing all the food on board into the water.

Pfft!

Just then, Unikol's large mouth suddenly bit into a sharp, hard object, slowing down its halfway-swimming body and causing it to feel a pulling sensation.

Its countless eyes looked in confusion toward the large mouth and spotted a fishhook.

And the fishhook seemed to be alive, piercing through the inner layer of scales around its mouth and moving deeper into its body.

At the same time, on the only boat on the water, a boy was pulling on his fishing rod, a triumphant smile on his face.

"They've taken the bait!"

[Beach Boys: From "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure", a Stand that can extract a fishing rod-type Stand. After casting the rod with magic power, the hook and line can ignore physical volume and pass through any non-magically shielded entity. The user can sense the target's vital signs and magic flow through the vibrations transmitted back by the hook. If the fishing line is attacked from the outside, the damage will be reflected back to the hooked target.]

Ron's fishing line tightened instantly, generating tremendous tension.

The Unikor, submerged in the water, opened its massive mouth and released huge bubbles as it began to struggle frantically, trying to break the fishing line.

But the fishing line didn't break. Instead, the more it struggled, the more the hook pierced through the flesh in its mouth and went straight towards its heart!

"How's it going? Can you pull it up?"

Gildarts and the captain looked at the taut fishing rod and couldn't help but feel worried for Ron.

"It's alright, I have another way!"

Ron then gripped the fishing rod tightly with his right hand and body, while his Zanpakuto, Hyōrinmaru, reappeared in his left hand.

He quickly pressed the blade against his fishing rod and line, his own magic surging, channeling the cold air from the blade towards the fishing line.

An amazing thing happened: Hyōrinmaru's cold air and blade did not cut the fishing line. Instead, the cold air followed the fishing line and rushed straight to the bottom of the water at a fast speed!

Ron continuously channeled the magic power within his body, pouring in a steady stream of cold energy.

The fishhook, which had reached deep into Unikol's heart, was being attacked by the cold air from the fishing line. It bounced back to Unikol's heart and instantly froze into a block of ice!

The ice block in the heart gradually grew larger, spreading wildly throughout Unikol's body with its chilling aura.

Its blood stopped flowing, congealed into clots, and its internal organs instantly froze. Unikol's struggles gradually slowed down and eventually froze.

Its countless terrified eyes were covered by a layer of ice, and eventually, the monster was frozen into a giant ice sculpture by Ron at the bottom of the river.

Ron breathed a sigh of relief after feeling the fishing line stop pulling.

"Alright, that's almost done."

The captain and sailors looked at Ron with puzzled expressions.

"Solved? You're not kidding...!"

Whoosh!

The ice sculpture named Unikol broke through the water due to buoyancy, interrupting the captain's questioning.

This ice sculpture, resembling an iceberg, stirred up quite a few waves, which then spread across the water's surface.

The wave caused Ron and his crew's only ship to rock violently from side to side, nearly causing the captain and sailors on deck to lose their footing.

After the captain and sailors regained their footing, their eyes widened in shock, their jaws nearly dropping to their sides.

So Unikol, who had been lurking at the bottom of the river for so long, was just dealt with like that?!

Even the well-traveled Gildarts was momentarily stunned when he saw the enormous ice sculpture.

He finally came to his senses and couldn't help but look at Ron and say words of praise.

"You've got a lot of magical gadgets, kid. Well done!"

I thought fighting on the water would be more troublesome, but I didn't expect you to solve it so easily.

Ron then put away the Hyōrinmaru and leisurely looked at Gildarts, saying:

"Alright, uncle, what are you waiting for? It's all up to you now."

"Okay, leave it to me!"

Gildarts laughed loudly and leaped onto the deck, instantly clearing the iceberg in front of him, causing the captain and sailors beside him to look up in shock.

Is this a height a human could jump to in one bound?!

Gildarts unleashed a shattering magic circle from his right fist, blasting it towards the massive block of ice before him!

"Dispelling Evil and Revealing Justice - One Day!"

boom!

Then, the huge iceberg, along with Unikol inside, instantly turned into countless flying ice crystal fragments, and the force of the punch also stirred up quite a few waves.

"See how powerful I am... Hey, how did the boat capsize!?"

Gildarts, suspended in mid-air, watched as the waves surged up again below, eventually capsizing the ship. His smug smile froze instantly, replaced by a look of shock.

Phew~!

Just as Gildarts was about to fall into the river, the giant ink-wash bird caught him in its beak.

Gildarts looked up and saw Ron sitting there, with the captain and sailors he had just rescued beside him.

The captain and sailors' angry stares forced Gildarts to give an awkward smile.

Ron looked helpless, closed his eyes in frustration, and slapped his forehead.

"I think you should just give me the whole commission fee. I'll apply for the compensation for the ship later with Chairman Makarov."