It's unknown as to how much time has passed since I first hit level 7, as trying to keep track of the days in the deep ocean in near impossible when I almost never return to the surface. But I'm sure as hell that it's been a long time. But even so, despite all the time that has passed, I'm only just under halfway to level 8. On the bright side, I managed to get enough biomatter for the Strong Venom mutation a while back and the burning sensation has practically disappeared, probably because of my Strong Heat Resist.
I'm pretty certain about this but I think that the sea monsters are actively avoiding me. I seldomly even see other monsters anymore. Ever since my raid on the lobsters and octopuses, I've only at most seen a handful of stray Green Narwhals. At least they give a decent amount of experience and biomatter, but I would really like it if the other monsters were as foolhardy as those Narwhals, since they pick a fight the moment we make eye contact.
But it's a new day and perhaps I'll get to fight something other than a suicidal narwhal. Or perhaps I'll get to fulfil my warmongering ambitions and get myself another big haul like before. Or maybe I'll get lucky and find a ship if I surface.
With a few hours of searching the dark ocean, I still haven't found anything, not even a narwhal. Giving up on searching the ocean I decided to check on the surface. For the past while, I've only briefly surfaced to make sure I wasn't anywhere near Eon and only ever looked up into the sky trying to see the spire, so I never paid much attention to what else was around. Poking just a small portion of my body out from the water, I see a large landmass in the distance, its shoreline covered with tropical plants. Turning around, I find a ship right behind me as well. Lucky right? would be if there was only one, but it's a whole damn fleet! And they're all warships, the sides are full of cannons and the bow is fitted with a sturdy looking naval ram. Just because I was hoping to find a ship didn't mean I wanted to run into twenty warships!
*Boom*
Volleys of cannon fire come flying my way before I can even decide if I want to fight this or not, but with how durable I am they only do about 200 damage per hit. Individually this isn't much but with so many ships this might be a problem. Thankfully only a few hit me that time since I only had my head and a few metres of my body out above the water, so only a single ship fired, probably deeming me as a small threat. I start to rise once more, bringing most of my body to the surface, towering over the many warships before me.
Looking down on the warships, I notice that the faces on the crew shift drastically as they begin to pale. Within moments some important looking people yell out some orders and all the ships begin to fire at me or turn so they can begin shooting. Ready for their response, I use my Water Wall to dampen the damage from the cannon shots and bring my tail up into the air, smashing it on the deck of one of the ships. This single swing completely shattered the deck and split the ship into two as my tail collides with the water. Upon impact a series of waves are created as my tail sinks back into the ocean, disrupting the movements of the ships that had yet to position themselves to fire their cannons.
In addition to the cannon barrage, several fireballs come flying at me from several of the ships, but between the Water Wall and Strong Heat Resist, the amount of damage I take is nearly zero. Seeing me completely brush off the fireballs, they switch to shooting ice elemental magic at me. Unlike the fireballs which I basically ignored, I actively ate the ice magic they shot at me. Not that eating there magic actually accomplishes anything, but it does work in intimidating them even further.
Within just three minutes, the once twenty ship fleet is down to ten ships, just half the starting amount, and the crewmen's morale has more than likely all been shattered. And despite their continued attacks on me, I still have 2,100 HP. Let'S see if I can make them feel worse.
"Foolish children of man, had you not stuck first your people would still be breathing and there would be no conflict. Now you pay for your transgressions!"
Many of the sailors are startled as I begin to speak. Likely having never encountered a talking sea monster before. They seemingly recall how they did indeed shoot at me first as their expressions darken even further than they already are, thinking how this may have been avoidable. Well, I was lying since I probably would have attacked them if they didn't do it first anyways, but why should I tell them that.
They finally have given up any hope of winning this fight as all the ships turn tail and start to flee, but I won't let them go so easily. Jumping out from the water and diving straight towards the closest ship. With my mouth open wide I crash into one of the ships, eating half of the whole thing upon collision. I rise up from the water once again to bring my wrath down onto the next ship, but suddenly a flash of light blinds me and I hear a loud soul-piercing shriek from afar.
"System Alert! System Alert! System Alert! An announcement for all of Grauntia, the end draws closer as a Herald awakens. The Celestial Dragon, Azi Dahaka the Land Ravager, has awoken and roams the world once more."
The light fades and my vision returns, but the ships are getting closer and closer to the landmass from before. But looking further away I see something so large that it reminds me of the spire of Eon, but instead of a pile of rocks, this is a living breathing creature. A gigantic Dragon that resembles those from Europe instead of the eastern Dragons that I look like. It's too far from me for an Analysis, but I don't need to use it to know what this monster is. And this monster's first action upon waking up, shooting a god damn laser from its mouth. Making contact with the ground, it moves its head around until eventually, the beam moves right by my face and towards the direction of the ships, destroying both the land itself and the ships in the water, and even the ocean floor, creating a burning canyon on the ground and a trench in the ocean. The water currents shift so as to fill the newly made trench and the canyon it now connects too. Not wanting to stick around here and be swept up by the currents I make my exit.
While I didn't get all the ships I still made a fair amount of experience, bringing me up to 3,034 EXP. The biomatter I got was pretty nonexistent, but I just barely escaped with my life so I can't really complain... but the damn Dragon got in the way of my fun. Wait, I thought the Dragons were extinct and that I was the only one left, so what's up with this guy?
"Authority level, cleared. Celestial Dragons, despite sharing the same namesake of Dragon are a separate order, different from the extinct Spirit Dragons."
Is that so? Why haven't I heard of this before, isn't that kind of important to know? Wh--
*whoosh*
Without warning, another beam shoots out right over my head destroying the nearby seafloor and vaporising the water that it comes into contact with. Shit! the guy is still shooting those things!? I pick up the pace and swim as fast as dragonly possible and get the fuck away from that trigger happy Herald. If anything, it lives up to its title as the Land Ravager.