The blue merman laughed again and crossed his arms. "You know, in the few seconds we've met I'm already entertained by you two. I think I'll allow you to impress me. I am Azul, and the man next to me is Raymond. You're Prince Dedrin, correct?" I gave him a nod, unsure of how he recognized me and May swam up next to me again. "And I'm CherryMay!" Azul then moved his arm out to point to a dark cave at the bottom of the sea floor. He had amusement on his face as he spoke. "If you want to impress me, go into that cave and meet us out the other end."
I looked to the cave for a second and turned back to Azul. "There's a monster in there, isn't there?" Azul folded his arms again and said nothing in response. I sighed and started to swim towards the cave. "Whatever." May followed me and I didn't hesitate to enter. After we were gone Ramond turned to Azul with a curious tone. "Think they'll survive?" Azul laughed again. "Come on. We might get to see their remains ripped apart." He swam away after he finished his sentence, and Raymond followed him shortly after.
The cave we went through was dark, but I could still faintly see where we were going. The cave wasn't very long, and a light could be seen to mark the end of it. It was silent as we swam through the seaweed that lined the floor, and I had my sword at the ready. Suddenly, one of the boulders in front of us moved, and I stopped to the realization that it wasn't a boulder at all. It was a large sea creature that looked to barely fit in the cave from its massive size.
It stood up on its six legs and turned around to reveal its eight glowing red eyes. It had large crab-like claws and a lobster tail that curled behind its rough shell. It had armor-plated skin that was black and covered in spikes, and had large teeth curling towards itself sharply. It roared as it saw us and raised its claw to cut both of us in half.
I quickly dodged, and May jumped out of the way. I used the low gravity to my advantage and jumped on the wall to push myself over the creature and land on its back. The monster then started to spin in circles, causing me to lose balance. I grabbed onto a fold of its armor to prevent myself from falling off and stabbed my sword under the fold and into its bare skin. Green blood gushed into the water around me and the monster screeched in pain.
It started to spin and shake in the other direction twice as fiercely and I lost my grip. I fell off of its back and my sword came loose, sending more of its blood out from the gash I created. I stopped myself from slamming against the wall and landed so my feet would hit first. I then pushed against the rock to send me back towards the creature as I raised my sword.
The monster turned to face me, but before it fully turned around I used all my strength to slice my sword through the crack of its armor where the head met the rest of the body. "I don't miss!" In one strong arm motion, the creature's head had come clean off. Gallons of blood filled the water around its decapitated parts, and I landed on the ground next to it. "Well, that was boring."
May then popped out of the seaweed she fell into and gasped when she saw the monster collapsed on the ground without a head. "Whoa! How did you do that so fast?!" I put my sword into my sheath and started to swim towards the end of the cave. "Obviously, because this thing wasn't even close to being on the same level as me. Let's go." May followed me and used her wings to swim faster so she could be at my side again.
After a few moments, we came out from the cave to see Azul and Raymond talking to each other. "Hey." They both froze when they heard my voice and their eyes widened as they saw me swimming towards them. "What?! How did you two slip away from that beast unharmed?!" Azul seemed genuinely shocked and Raymond held a look of surprise on his face.
I folded my arms across my chest and shrugged one shoulder. "I killed it." Both of their expressions increased with shock and they quickly swam over to the cave to see the creature's blood and head floating lifelessly through the dark. Azul held his head with both of his hands in frustration. "How?! That was the terror of the lake! No mermaid has ever come out of that cave alive!! How did you kill it in less than ten minutes?!"
Some other mermaids that were swimming around heard the commotion and came to investigate. A few approached the cave as well and gasped.
"The sea beast is dead?!"
"The human killed it?!"
"That's impossible!"
A few more then surrounded me with happy faces.
"Thank you so much!"
"That beast has been terrorizing us for years!"
"I was afraid to even let my children outside the reef! Thank you!"
I was stunned by receiving so much positive feedback and didn't know what to say. I turned to Azul after a moment and smirked when I caught his attention. "I believe you owe me a pearl." Some of the mermaids gasped in surprise after I said that, and one of them turned to speak to me. "Azul said he'd give you a pearl?! Azul's pearls are one of the most powerful objects in the ocean! He never hands them out!"
I raised an eyebrow. 'Wait, pearls have different power levels? That sneaky bastard. I knew that this test wouldn't be as easy as it seemed. If I get a weak pearl he could just turn me away and say that I had to get a specific kind. If that's the case then it's a good thing I found Azul first.' I thought. Azul then glared at me intensely as he raised his voice. "No! I am not impressed! I sent you down there to die! All you did was annoy me! If you want to impress me then you're going to have to do something else!"
I was irritated by him going back on his word, yet was still determined to get his pearl. "If that beast wasn't embarrassingly easy to take down then I would've been angry to hear that. I am not leaving without your pearl so you better tell me what I need to do." Azul glared at me for a moment longer before responding. "Beat me in a race. I would be truly impressed if you managed to do that." Another mermaid gasped. "But you're the fastest swimmer in the lake! How could a human beat you?!"
I stayed still as I answered him. "I accept." Azul then laughed a little and crossed his arms again as he approached me. "Prepare for the most pathetic and shortest failure of your life." Some of the other mermaids showed excitement on their faces and swam away, hurriedly. "Everybody! Azul's going to race a human!!"