"You kids take care," Doris advised. "This creature is ancient and not stupid by any means. And it is a divine champion. Don't take many risks. if you have to flee and fail the quest, so be it."
"Will do, mom," Nenandil nodded and hugged the older water fairy.
"I won't expose Nenandil to the shark's debuffs," I said to comfort the worried mother. "And while I don't intend to die, dealing a blow to that mother-killer will be good."
Yznera sighed, "Losing a champion is indeed a heavy loss. But the most important thing is to get you strong enough to face what's coming. Nail that 'bag of Exp' as you Earthlings use to say."
The fairies gave the Nature Goddess disbelieving looks. Like they weren't buying her bullshit. If Yznera noticed, she didn't let it tell. I had a big hunch all of these Gods were human crawling over big 'old Gaia once. I mean, the cultural references, the Armani suit was a dead giveaway. I couldn't care less, though. Not at this stage of my lives. I honestly had no desire to get tangled in their inner politics more than I already was. All I wanted to do was to kick ass, gain Exp and Perks wherever they came. And live a meaningful life for once.
Be my own person, not the bearer of someone else's legacy. Arista wanted her independence but she was trapped in the memories and Status of the people I once were. It was hypocritical of me to claim to want independence but rely on this same Status and memories once some kind of conflict rose its head. But a hypocrite everyone was. My personal brand of it was just blatantly obvious to me.
But I couldn't fight back those feelings, born of this body and mind I currently inhabited. Only contain them. So long I had a task ahead that demanded my concentration, I'd be fine.
I snapped back to Yznera, "Wait, what is coming?"
Her face looked motherly contrite, "Sorry, I can't tell you. Good luck."
Then she vanished.
"We'll reset the cooldown on your summon Perk. Call us once you are back on your island," Nephele said.
Then the fairies vanished as well, leaving Nenandil and I floating in the deep oceanic trench, ethereal version.
"I figured out what we are seeing, Arista," the fairy said to break the silence. "What we see is magical power. The rocks have magic in them as part of the world, so they are clearly visible. The water and what's floating on it, almost none at all. The Carcinodon has just a bit of magic so he's a faint presence. I believe strong magical creatures will be quite visible here. Also, we are not made out of matter in here. We have our bodies, but they are made entirely of magical energy. Somehow crossing through converts us back and forth. Best yet, travel is not bound by your so-called 'laws of physics," she explained.
"Sweet," I said with half my attention on the shadow of the Carcinodon swimming a half-mile above us. No other creature cast a shadow over the ethereal, proof they didn't have as much magic. The Carcinodon must've invested a few points in Magic to get some MP.
I spent a few hours planning the spells I would use, adapting some from other elements to use Radiation instead. My intention was to catch a "big fish" today. But to lure him out, I needed a flashy show.
I leveled up and gained new Perks choices. One of them was particularly interesting.
> Grand Fermata (very rare): Sustain a note and charge a spell-song. Effects increase over time. The spell is cast at the end of the note.
I tested it and could achieve a multiplier of twenty times from a rested state. During combat, it would be less than that. That should be enough.
"Come, Nenandil. It is time for us to fight."
I returned to my normal form and stored all my items. Modesty be damned, I'd either win this fight naked or not at all. Besides, mermaids went around with their genital slits exposed anyway. Arista's breasts were very underdeveloped, maybe because of her condition or genetics, who knows?
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
"Use my MP and SP before yours," Nenandil said. "We'll need every iota of power to win this."
"Right. I'll make sure to keep the pools a bit empty so they keep regenerating. This will be a battle of attrition. Come, my love. Take your place by my heart so I don't go astray."
Nenandil blushed and dove into my chest, vanishing inside my soul.
My last thought before I went to battle was how stupid was the concept of a shark that weaponized cancer when on Earth they were used to treat it.
----------------------------------------
The Carcinodon wasn't as stupid as I thought. First, it had well-developed senses. As soon as I crossed over back to the real world, it was already coming my way. It was time for my magnum opus, my symphony of death.
It starts with a brisk and lively rhythm. My choice was a wordless song about the wonders of the ocean and the life on the reef. The {Sonata} started with the bass and drums resembling crashing waves and the beat of waves against rocks. The main melody followed dolphins as they played and frolicked with a counterpoint flute melody that reminded me of the water flowing around the coral reef.
The two melodies raced each other, rising and falling as the dead abyssal trench tasted the joy of the rays of sun filtering down from the surface and the warmth of being part of a dolphin pod. As the latter rose, I tossed beams of Radiation at the Carcinodon, and when the former rose to dominance I erected walls of mixed Force-Radiation barriers.
Used to swimming in the trench, the massive shark had no problem maneuvering its massive form around. The Carcinodon relied on its monstrous regeneration to ignore the bedrock walls, crashing and scraping against it as an afterthought.
My barriers might as well be rice paper before a sumo fighter. The monster crashed against them without losing momentum but shaving a tiny bit of its health with each one. As it aligned to charge at me, I fired a {Stacatto} with a score of [Radiation Beam] spells, ditching accuracy in favor of more hits.
> Radiation Bolt hits Carcinodon for 17,350 damage (Base 150 x1.5 Affinity x2 Sonata x1.4 Moon Magic x1.5 Favored Enemy x2.7 Mind x3.4 Skill x2 Vulnerability)
>
> Radiation Bolt...
>
> x19
Only three thousand more volleys like this one and this beast is in the bag! About ten full MP pools, after the passive expenses!
I obviously bit more than I could chew. Carcinodon's next move proved it. The shark was a little less than a quarter of a mile away from me when he just blurred out and chomped on me the next moment.
> Carcinodon bit you for 9M damage (base 78 x16 size x5 Skill x8 Strength x3 Flash Step x3 Arcane Strike x2.25 Dolphin Slayer x2 Wimp Crusher x1.5 Vulnerability x2 Bite Specialization x1.5 Home Ground)
>
> Divine Smite negated.
>
> You are bleeding...
>
> You are stunned for 0.4 seconds.
Pain flared over my entire body. A hundred teeth broke my skin and tore flesh, breaking off and lodging themselves in me. I was in a daze even after the stun wore off, bleeding a hundred thousand HP per second. Nenandil sent the broken teeth to the item box as I switched to the second melody and threw some barriers around me which were promptly crushed.
Without a choice, I turned intangible and fled through the monster's flesh. I found a pocket of space in one of its sack organs don't ask which and stopped to heal. What just happened? I reviewed the damage notification. The Carcinodon had a perfect 100 Skill with Bite and three hundred-fifty Strength. That's how he crossed half a mile in an instant, as {Flash Step} allows one to move Strength meters and attack. I paused a moment to roll my eyes at the stupidity of a thousands-ton shark the size of a super freighter moving more than a mile underneath the surface that fast.
I slapped my cheeks, "Eyes on the prize, Arista. You'll never have a better chance than this."
The shark ichors were definitely not breathable so I had to go out to sing. Better do that, I needed to be visible for my trap to work.
I restarted my {Spell-Song}, using {Coloratura} with a series of high-pitched trills to switch a [Fire Wall] to Radiation damage. The Carcinodon tried the {Flash Step} trick again but I just used mine on cooldown to dodge away from his.
In the depths of the abyss, we danced. The Carcinodon health didn't decrease as fast as my MP pool but it did decrease. Each time he managed to bite me for a couple million damage, I would slip inside its body and find a safe place to heal myself before coming out and repeating the whole thing.
It tried new tactics. Carcinodon feinted a bite and then body-slammed me to crush me against the cliff wall. I lost a couple million HP after a failed attempt to go through the stone using {Stone Burrowing}. Motes of soul-essence wafted out of the rock, proving the trench walls were, in fact, Dungeon walls. Corrupted ones.
That explained why the trench walls were clearly visible inside the ethereal world. A completely useless piece of information right now. I became ethereal and entered the Carcinodon's body for the umpteenth time. Coming out on the other side of the humongous shark body, I fired more [Radiation Bolts] at the shark, the best MP to damage ratio spell I had.
The monster's body had thousands of burnt and burst pockmarks. The water tasted awful from all the blood, bile, and pus the creature oozed. Its health, however, hovered at ninety-ish percent. I was in constant pain even though I'd healed all the damage its attacks caused. But I could kill it. His HP pool wasn't going up while I kept constantly regenerating and balancing the draw of resources from both mine and Nenandil's MP and SP pools. Victory was possible, it was a matter of time and endurance.
That's when shit hit the fan. My next [Radiation Bolt] volley was met with an unexpected setback.
> Radiation Bolt hits Carcinodon for 520 damage (Base 150 x1.5 Affinity x2 Sonata x1.4 Moon Magic x1.5 Favored Enemy x2.7 Mind x3.4 Skill x2 Vulnerability x0.03 Resistance)
The fucker burned five Perks to buy resistance to my new Element.