CHAPTER 30: | THE TRIBE WITHIN THE DEPTHS
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All of them were crab-like beings, their chitinous bodies shimmering with a dark, oily glee, rode their towering orcas.
Their tridents, sharp and menacing, were leveled directly at us.
Liora, her face alight with delight, took a graceful stance, her sword a silver needle pointed in return.
My gaze locked onto their leader, a king-class humanoid crab, its immense stature radiating a formidable menace.
Its carapace pulsed with an intense, palpable heat, and I felt it instantly, this one was a martial artist, steeped in the realm of 'Solidified World Intent.'
Though the intent exuding from its body felt amateurish, almost unrefined, it was still dangerously potent for a martial artist, and a king-class at that.
Its raw stats far surpassed my meager 10.00 limits, and the two lord-class crabs flanking it were high lords.
Haaaa.
I couldn't help but sigh.
I'd have to handle three opponents simultaneously, Liora simply wasn't ready for them.
Liora glanced my way, then offered a confident smile, pointing her sword at the weaker ones.
"I'll take care of those, Master!"
I almost facepalmed myself.
Before I could even speak, she'd shamelessly claimed her opponents.
But well, it was already decided that I'd deal with the big ones.
I nodded at her suggestion, ruffling her hair.
"Yeah, take care of those small fries and leave these big fish to me."
Liora pouted, fixing her hair.
Then, taking a dramatic gulp of air, she shouted, pointing a defiant finger at the three leaders.
"You damned beasts! My master will deal with you weaklings!"
The king crabman merely shook its massive head at Liora's provocation.
It tapped its trident against the orca, and the water around them rippled uncontrollably, a silent tremor of power.
Thong!
Its sky-blue eyes, vast and ancient, flared with a threatening light, its gaze locking onto me.
Its long, sensitive whiskers swayed gently with the subtle currents as it pointed an index finger, sharp as a spear tip.
"Capture those fools."
The lord-class humanoid crabs, or crabmen, for short, leapt from their orcas, their armored forms cutting through the water as they charged toward us.
Liora instinctively stepped back, and my crimson irises, now tinted with a faint, lethal purple, gleamed with intense killing intent.
Crash!
The ground beneath us shook violently as I propelled myself forward with fury.
My blood boiled, my veins pumping with molten magma, and my hands began to glow with an eerie, golden radiance.
Sizzle!
A blinding, golden gauntlet manifested on my hand, 'Hellfire Golden Gauntlet' activated.
Their eyes, wide with surprise, flickered to agony in their sky-blue depths as my palm slammed against their faces, gripping their heads in an instant.
Hiss!
Their tough exoskeletons melted and hissed from the intense heat of my gauntlet.
They struggled, their powerful limbs flailing against my grip, but it was utterly useless.
Crash!
Blood exploded in front of me as I forcefully smashed their heads apart.
Their deaths were swift, perhaps even tasteless, but utterly inevitable the moment they charged.
Shook! Crash!
The very air and water convulsed as the king crabman's armored foot, now taking on a crystalline, razor-sharp sheen, smashed against my own armored head, sending me hurtling into the seabed with bone-jarring force.
Debris, sediments, dust, and torn kelp, billowed up, enveloping the area in a thick, murky fog.
The king crabman looked down, disdain visible in its blue gaze.
Liora, meanwhile, closed her eyes.
She watched the intertwining threads of intent of the charging crabmen, then exhaled.
Her sword moved, not with a flourish, but with the fluid, silent grace of a snake.
Shing!
A single, precise slash was all it took for her to sever all of their intent, isolating the flow, and with the same motion, sever the arteries in their hands, rendering them useless.
The crabmen could no longer use their hands.
Liora smiled, brandishing her sword, pointing it at them with an almost playful challenge.
"Come!"
Her voice echoed, sharp and clear through the water.
She leaped away from her position, dancing across the currents.
Reading their raw intent, she slashed her sword again and again.
Liora tore and sliced the crabmen's exoskeletons with ease, then into their flesh and arteries, as she was toying with them.
Their shrieks, high-pitched and gurgling, could be heard.
They couldn't speak, nor did they possess the intelligence to, they were nothing but ordinary beings, and none would care if they died.
The fog subsided, and I gazed up.
The king crabman looked down at me, its expression one of pure disdain.
"Insect."
it muttered, a low growl reverberating through the water.
Its body turned into a mere afterimage, a blur of crystalline chitin as it read my intent, then brandished its sword in a sweeping motion.
Splash!
Blood exploded, a crimson cloud unfurling through the water, as the currents convulsed violently from the king crabman's sheer firepower.
The thick stalks of kelp swayed wildly, then were violently uprooted as rocks and corals flew in all directions, pulverized by the concussive force.
Liora was swept away by the aftermath.
She tried to read the intent within the chaotic fog.
"Impossible."
Was all she could mutter.
The flow of intent she read within the swirling chaos was nothing like what she'd ever encountered.
It was a tangled, churning mess, chaotic strands of intent that pulsed and writhed as she gazed deeper.
"..."
A tint of blazing orange was all Liora could discern, then it expanded violently, a sudden, blinding flash that made the water shake, sending her flying again.
Crash! Shook!
"Cataclysmic Inferno Breath… or perhaps, now, Cataclysmic Inferno Sphere."
I mused aloud.
My lips curved into a smile as I gazed at the ruined being before me.
Its carapace had completely melted from the intense heat, its tender, steaming flesh now exposed.
I licked my lips, then took a massive bite.
Crash!
My 'Hellfire Golden Gauntlet' smashed its head apart.
My crimson irises shifted, then found Liora, who was now happily eating her own meal.
"Hmmm… this guy was quite an opponent, but sadly, far too dumb."
Munch! Munch! Munch!
My fangs tore through its flesh, and I crushed its exoskeleton, gulping it down with immense delight.
"Quite the delicacy you are."