The barrels sink a bit more and then explode, just as I was expecting, depth charges. They may be primitive, probably magical, but they would still do some damage if they hit me. Once they have all exploded I resume my charge and hit the exact same spot as before.

This time the cracked boards break fully and fold inwards creating a decent sized hole. As I swim away I can see the water rushing in, so I head to the surface to see how the humans respond. By the time I take a look the ship is already listing, and the sailors are rushing to lower boats.

Then I see two mages take flight, each one carrying a half dozen people with them. Instead of heading for the island, which is closer, they are headed away from it. That doesn't make much sense, so I decide to follow them and see where they are going.

Of course, the mages are slower than I am, especially since they are carrying extra people. So I decide to waste some time before chasing after them, so I circle the sinking ship. The boats the ship had have already been lowered and are full of sailors, but the boats can't hold them all.

So I start eating the sailors that are in the water, it is evil of me, but this body does need food. Besides, we are miles from land, they would have ended up drowning anyway. After having a bit of fun I turn and swim in the direction that the mages went.

Before long I find out why they went this way, there are more human ships. It is a small fleet of about twenty ships, but they are not as big as the warship. They look a lot more like the ships that were at the fort, transports and escorts.

While I could probably sink all of them, I am worried that might draw too much attention. A monster sinking a single warship is one thing, an entire fleet being sunk is another. So I turn and swim north, ignoring the human fleet for now, leaving the shallows.

Once I am back in deep waters I go back to searching for the legendary beast. For the rest of the day I swim the depths of the ocean, but I don't find any sign of the beast. Then just as I am thinking of calling it a day my senses suddenly scream that I am in danger.

Instantly, I dive as deep and as fast as I can, I trust my senses even if I can't control them. Shortly, a shadow passes overhead and looking up I find it is the beast I have been looking for. Except it is much larger than I was told, it is at least five hundred feet from nose to tail.

It is over three times the size of the warship I just sank, versus my meg form at a little over seventy feet. The beast just keeps swimming along, completely ignoring me as if I am no threat. Seeing that, I quickly reverse directions and start coming up directly below it.

Hopefully, it is like a crocodile and the scales on its belly will be the weakest. It ignores my charge until the last few seconds, then it tries to dodge, but it is too late. I open my mouth as wide as it will go right before I hit its underbelly and take a huge bite.

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I rip out a big chunk and swallow it as I swim away at top speed with the beast right behind me. It moves really fast, especially for its size, but I am still faster than it. It is a good thing too, it could easily tear me in half with just one bite.

As it chases me I start slowing down until it is right behind me, then when it tries to bite me I move. With a quick burst of speed I move out from within its mouth, then I quickly circle around to attack. By the time it finishes its failed bite attempt I have already turned around and taken another bite from its side.

Before I can swim away the beast twists sideways and almost manages to bite me. It is close enough that some of its teeth scrape my side, tearing gashes in my skin. Luckily, I find that my healing spells still work in this form and I don't have to stop to cast it.

Then I take off swimming as fast as I can, with the legendary beast in hot pursuit. It is slightly better at accelerating than I am and it can reverse directions faster than I can. My main advantage is that I can climb or dive faster and my top speed is higher.

So I have to change my tactics and turn it into more of a 3D battle to take advantage of my strengths. This is definitely going to be a long battle, the two bites I have inflicted so far are nothing to it. Since it is chasing me I start leading it towards the east side of the island.

That way, if I do manage to kill it, it will be easier to recover the thing's body. As it chases me I lure it deeper, then once we are deep enough I climb fast. This allows me to loop above it and while it is struggling to climb I attack.

This time I aim for one of its flippers, hoping that the damage will slow down its reactions. Due to my odd attack angle I don't do as much damage as I had hoped. This is where my inexperience comes into play, if I knew more I would have done more damage.

It still works out better than attacking the thicker scales on the beasts's back would have. After leading the beast a bit further I try the same move again, this time it works. My attack angle is better this time around and I am able to properly bite into one of the flippers.

While I don't manage to sever it, I do manage to take a good chunk out of it. As I continue diving past it, the beast tries to catch me by snapping a circle. However, this leaves its belly exposed, so I am able to come up under it and take another bite out of its belly.

Then I run again with it chasing me, it is now bleeding out of four wounds and has slowed down a little. Of course, that doesn't mean it is anywhere near dying, but so far I am winning. By this time the sun has completely set and the water is much darker, but I can still see just fine.

The beast also doesn't seem to be having any problems keeping track of me. This game of cat and mouse goes on and on for hours as I slowly do damage to the beast. By the time the sun comes up I am completely exhausted and the beast is still alive.

Although, it is certainly being affected by all the damage I have done over the past ten hours. Luckily, while my exhaustion has slowed me down, blood loss has slowed it down more. When I see how sluggish the beast is I turn and start leading it towards the shallows.

However, the beast doesn't turn to follow me, so I turn back and take another bite out of it. When I swim away after biting it, it finally turns and chases me towards the shallows. As I lead it towards shore I make two more successful attacks against the beast.