"There's been a substantial increase in the number of our primary predator, the Spotted Shark. It's name might not sound daunting, but that's where it gets scary. The spots on it's body can be imbued with Illusion Magic to temporarily make it's body invisible. It's easy enough to get away from it, since the moment the shark begins to pounce, the magic wears off, and we have enough time to get away." The fish explains.
"Could you help us lower the population a bit miss? I don't mean kill them all and make them extinct, but I just want to live a few minutes of my life without having to worry about constantly be on alert." Another fish explains, this one having a antenna looking body part, that flickers constantly.
"Is that what the thing on your head is for, Mr. Fish?" Freia asks.
"That's right. Every school of fish like this one has at least one Sensory Angler, like me. It helps to have Sensory Magic to be able to spot the Mana Cores of the Sharks when they begin to get close."
"I see, I see. Don't worry then, I'll take a few out."
"Thanks a lot, miss. Wait a minute please. We have something to give us thanks." The fish trails off to a rock nearby. On top of if was a perfectly round pearl, shining brightly. The fish hands it over to Freia.
"Oh, this is too much. I'm just trying to help." (Freia)
"No, no. Please accept it. It's something we asked from Shelly over there. He says it's a symbol of gratitude."
The fish points with it's fin to an oyster hanging on top of the rock from earlier.
"I see. Thanks for the gift then. I'll be going now."
"No problem. Thanks again, miss."
Freia and Bert soon leave and begin to search for the Spotted Sharks.
"This is another problem. Although I myself don't know the reason as to the overpopulation of Spotted Sharks, it is still advised not to hunt them too much. That's why various species of animals have began to go extinct in the Gaia continent. Humans have been hunting them too much, sometimes for sport, sometimes as poachers." (Gaia)
Swimming through the water, Bert signals Freia about the existence of Spotted Sharks nearby through Sensory Magic.
As the fishes said, they are practically invisible and can barely be seen. As long as one squints their eyes enough though, one can see the magic power emanating from the sharks whenever they use their magic.
In front of Freia and Bert, there are 3 sharks feeding on the fishes. The blood in the water instantly alerts Bert and he prepares for battle immediately.
"Bert is asking you to be ready. You'll be charging towards the sharks."
"Got it. Let's go, Bert. I'm ready."
Unaware, the sharks kept on feasting on their meals.
One of the sharks, noticing a slight change in the water. The biggest one, most likely the leader of the group, stopped to see what was going on.
Realising something was charging at them, it called the other two, who were still busy feeding.
And he was right. In the distance was a whale almost 25 meters long, rapidly approaching them.
The other two meanwhile stopped eating as they also began to sense the irregularity in the flow of water. Too late though, as the whale was now only a few meters from them, and they had no chance of dodging it.
Slamming onto the second biggest shark, Bert began to use his Body Enhancement Magic to add more power to his attack. The single slam had knocked the shark at least 20 meters back.
Seeing his brethren hit, the biggest one began to counterattack, this one in a form of Ice shards that orbited it's body. The water somehow offered no resistance to the shards, allowing it to reach high speeds while moving despite being underwater.
Charging at Bert, the big shark latched on to him hard, using his razor sharp teeth. All while the shards kept on spinning, dealing more damage to the whale's skin.
The shark thrashed hard, rapidly moving it's tail sideways. The bite force from the shark was enough to leave behind multiple scars on Bert.
The other shark (the one Bert knocked away) was still majorly disordered from the slam and was having trouble adjusting himself.
Even in the middle of this, Freia was still on top of Bert, and was preparing to launch an attack to remove the shark, still thrashing wildly.
Taking out one of the seeds Freia picked up earlier, she inflicted a small hole on the shark's skin. Blood pouring out, Freia stuffed the seed directly into the wound.
"Overgrowth!"
Inside the shark's body.
The seed was rapidly moving through the shark's bloodstreams. It was small, yet light enough that it could be pushed throughout the body by the blood cells.
Finally, the seed reached the pivotal point of this attack, which was the shark's heart. The seed's red color and almost liquid texture allowed it to confuse the shark's body, thinking it was just a blood cell.
As Freia chanted the spell though, it began to rapidly grow in size. Soon spikes were growing on it's outer layers, and it kept on enlarging until the body couldn't contain it anymore.
The shark began to feel pain in it's heart. Only a few seconds later did the pain suddenly spike (hehe pun) in intensity. It's experience throughout this whole process was absolutely miserable. The seed, well it'd be more apt to call it plant, with it's elongated spikes, began to pierce the thin walls of the heart, until it impaled it completely, leaving the shark almost lifeless. But it didn't stop there.
It kept on growing, reaching his other vital organs, puncturing his lungs, liver, stomach and kidneys. Soon the shark's whole body exploded, leaving broken up shark bits in the water, and staining Bert's glorious skin with shark blood.
"For a nature lover, you fight very brutally." Gaia said, relaying Bert's message.
"It was a spur in the moment thing. I just stuffed my hand in my pockets and pulled out a random seed. What seed was that anyway?" (Freia)
"My, my. That was a Puff Plant. Taking the unique characteristics of a pufferfish, it grows to have very lengthy spikes all over it's body, as a way to protect the fruit inside it from predators. A very deadly one indeed." (Gaia)
"Ahaha.... I feel bad for Mr. Shark now."
"Don't be. You saved little Bert here and... sigh. The other two are coming. Be ready. Damn sharks, not even letting me finish my sentence."
Just as Gaia said, the two sharks, realising they lost their leader, were now back and raring to get a few bites in as revenge.
Fixing herself on the back of Bert, Freia gave the whale the signal to charge straight at them.
The small one, despitr having a small appearance and shy personality, was the fastest out of the three. Calling upon the nearby aquatic animals to help, Freia continued to ask for help until various types of fishes came over to help.
An orange skinned squid and even some Hardback turtles were joining in on the fight too. With their durable shells that can withstand powerful attacks, they would act as shields from the sharks' razor-sharp teeth, allowing the squids with spikes on their suckers to inflict damage.
Realizing the sharks were vastly outnumbered, they decided to make a hasty retreat. Aiming to get away from the party of fishes, they swam the opposite way, until more fishes came and obstructed their escape.
With nothing much left to do, the sharks could only tremble in fear as Freia and Bert began to kill them both, accompanied by the fishes.
And this was how it went on for the most part. Followed by their new (temporary) friends, Freia and Bert began to swim around and hunted down a good number of Spotted Sharks.
As soon as they finished with the job, they left the other fishes and began to head back on their way to their original route, onwards to Gaia, the human continent.
End Of First Side Story
"The Story Of The First Nature Apostle"
Author's Note: We'll be getting back to Kenneth now. We last left off on the day before the expedition, and the next chapter will feature that. Just a refresher. :)