Stealth was useless due to its multiple types of secondary senses and long-ranged attacks from the air would just result in it diving deeper into the ocean. The only choice I really had was to attack it from close range while facing it on its home soil. I boosted my strength by draining health into an overhealth shield before activating Titan Transformation and converted a portion of it to the normally unused storm affinity. I stopped this transaction just as my muscles began to throb and I gained a mild headache. Unlike all or nothing this while uncomfortable was bearable and gave me enough courage to fight this creature underwater. For the first time, I was trying to use my abilities with finesse instead of just going full power and hoping for the best.

Diving down I cast a space-water spell to 'test the waters' only to see it deflected by a forcefield. Force magic was a great counter to space magic and I had hoped my opponent did not know enough about magic to use it effectively, but alas it must have already encountered space magic during its lifetime. Swapping gears, I decided to test its physical might. Crashing into the creature flung me back out of the ocean faster than I had entered it with lightning burns to boot while barley managing to slow it down.

I determined that its strength stat was lower than mine but the speed and mass more than made up for the difference. The lighting was powerful but being dispersed throughout the ocean weakened it to the point where it was more of an annoyance than a threat. The lord must have noticed this as well because while I was recovering from the impact it changed the lightning from a cloud to a net limiting it's range but vastly increasing its power.

Seeing as space magic was all but useless on the monster I used it on my own body instead. Slingshotting myself at the creature through a few warp gates hid my trajectory while giving me the time to prepare a storm enhanced wind blade. I reached peak acceleration at the top of my arc and once again spacially diverted my momentum forcing myself into the water. The giant looked at me like one would an annoying fly and charged. Expecting a straight and fair confrontation, I was taken off guard when the monster changed the water currents. The not so stupid giant monster ducked below me at the last second and managed to strike me with the water, force and lightning infused blade-fin. The momentum combined with magic to produce a devastating attack that shattered my overcharged wind blade and would have severed me in two if I didn't fling myself to the side. Despite how epically skilled this dodge sounds, in reality, it was only the result of me losing control of my spells due to the backlash from the broken mana sword and still resulted in horrible damage to my left arm.

Trying to retreat while regaining my grip on my space magic failed as the runes on the monster's shell began to light up. It became immediately apparent that this was a sealing formation using water and force to prevent creatures from escaping unless they could reach a certain distance from the Lord or the lord ran out of mana.

Many people freak out when trapped inside a seal but the truth is, there are always multiple ways out. Taking this barrier as an example, the natural runic pattern forms a rotating orb of violent water to prevent physical escape while also mitigating space, force, fire, earth, wind and lightning magic by either absorbing the element to strengthen itself or flooding the area with the opposite mana type to suppress it. However, all things in a formation need to be in balance so it compensates for its advantages by boosting water magic and tying its integrity to a physical medium. In short, disrupting the water sphere would destroy the formation.

Understanding the situation, I abused the small moments where the monster had to be stationary to activate the formation to restore my arm before positioning myself for the monsters impending charge. Taken back by its enemies ability to recover, the giant remained still so I took advantage and charged two spell rituals through medium-sized mana crystals. After regaining from the brief moment of distraction, the monster dashed towards me while reinforcing its speed with water vortexes. Both the monster and I unleashed our tricks at the same time. The giant flared it's pectoral fins instantly stopping, driving the water vortexes either side of me while unleashing a blast of lightning empowered force magic from its mouth. This all disappeared through my space gate that formed immediately after I shattered the containment formation in an attempt to send the charging monster into the air.

This fight was not a punching match, it was more akin to a chess deathmatch. The lord was used to fighting other large creatures and focused on empowered and targeted attacks designed to pierce through their large health shielding. This battle technique also worked for eliminating small targets like humans as they lacked the mass and physical armour to take a hit. Even in this fight, a single solid strike would be capable of cutting me in half while a strike from me would need to reach deep enough to hit a vital organ to be effective.

With my trick wasted and the creature knowing that its barrier plus charge combo was useless, it retreated and restored its defences before launching a deluge of water blades. Once again by the forcefield and thus safe from directed space magic, I withdrew some poisons before freezing them into icicles and launching them at the monstrosity from several directions. It blocked them with its shield as I had predicted and they, in turn, reverted to liquid upon contact. These quick-acting mana draining poisons dealt no damage but they did eat through the outer layers of the shield like an acid allowing me to physically attack through it.

I received a tail spear in retaliation the moment I appeared below the monster but this was the first chance I had to actually inflict some serious damage. While sacrificing one arm along with almost all my health to redirect the tail, I embedded my other arm through the acid eaten section of the shield to strike at the mutants healing core. Luckily I cancelled titan transformation just in time as to not stack the strength buff and piss off the system. The gamble was worth it as the core shattered leaving the behemoth unable to heal. Knowing it was not at a disadvantage the monster attempted to flee. These creatures lived for centuries and would not be stupid enough to fight to the bitter end.

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Not wanting to let it survive and lose the opportunity to claim its heart, I sacrificed two large mana crystals to create an underwater spherical cyclone similar to its earlier sealing formation to prevent the escape. The old wives tale 'that a trapped creature is dangerous' is true. The titan sacrificed the lightning core on its right pauldron to flood the entire area with electricity in an attempt at both retaliation and survival. Invalidating the magic with Proto-Dragon Skin, I charged at the giant while extracting a lance from my storage space. This large intimidating weapon and I smacked directly into a fully focused forcefield measuring around one meter as It was obvious I was aiming for the force magic core on it's left pauldron. The giant creature in its pain and confusion had fallen for the trap of focusing on the big spear and missed the lone remaining potion icicle darting towards it from a different direction. Even worse was the fact that its bust of lightning had rendered its own mana sense blind so by the time it realised anything was wrong it was too late.

I did not escape unharmed from this altercation as the behemoth chose to reposition the force shield behind me before detonating the core. It was a clear attempt to kill me before the poison rendered the core unusable. Despite the short period of engagement, the fight was tough. On one side I stood with a wounded shoulder, a shattered arm, several cracked ribs, almost no health shielding and down several mana crystals while my opponent had lost 3 mana cores and had injured both pectoral fins. The fight was already decided it was just a matter of ending it.

With the monster now limited to physical violence and water magic, I moved to break the core on its head. This placed the giant in a situation where it could either lose its last elemental orb or attack with its tail spear. Choosing the latter option it lashed out with all its might. unfortunately with only two options, I was prepared and severed the now unprotected tail with a space infused blade. Using such a physical medium prevented the monster hastily erected water shield from dampening the attack and although the cheap material of the sword could not stand the power coursing through it and shattered after use, it was no great loss. In a moment of what some would consider cruelty, I used its own spear to pierce through the water orb and straight into its brain. Dodging the blade fin, I moved to the side and began healing. With the battle over I began to study the environment only to realise the reason it didn't attack me with water magic was that it was too busy destroying my seal. Their powers exhausted the two crystals had become nothing more than dull grey rocks resting on the ocean floor.

I was pondering that it was a strange final act when, much to my surprise, the "corpse" released a blinding light and abused its regained water magic to catapult itself deeper into the ocean. Regaining my rationality took longer than I am happy to admit but luckily the creature was still visible when I managed to return to reality. I teleported right in front of it preventing it from dodging and used its own momentum to drive the spear deeper into the monsters head. It turns out that this escape attempt was the result of the spear not being driven into the brain as I had originally believed combined with the shell containing more than one runic formation. It was not that it had restored the water core to once again allow it to use magic, it was simply that it still had a water-based escape formation saved as a final means of escape. Avoiding its armoured shell, I slit its throat before running a few thousand volts through its body to make sure it was dead this time.

Storing the body, I began to wonder if killing it was really the right option and why it was hanging around the ocean pearl farm. Pearls would have been nothing special to the behemoth with them occurring naturally all throughout the ocean. Speaking of forming pearls, the basics are the same as in my world since they are produced by something irritating a clam and forcing it to coat the object in nacre. The only difference was that to form an "ocean pearl" the nacre had to incorporate weak elemental properties while a "heart of the sea" was a mutated ocean pearl containing superior elemental properties. Neither of which was really rare to oceanic creatures.

Exploring the now abandoned and very much destroyed farm, I was able to recover three "heart of the sea" and discover the reason for the monster's appearance. A water goddess tear was about to be born.

This item was a vastly superior mutation to the heart of the sea as it could only be developed on a lay line containing both incredibly strong water properties and world energy. Any item of this level would create a phenomenon during its creation. these natural magical events would get stronger as it approached completion eventually erupting into a grand display similar to what happened at the volcano. This treasure was about a week away from emerging based on the energy waves being released. While I was deciding on what to do with this object, a certain familiar decided to grace me with its presence. The dumb turtle appeared right in front of my face staring at me with puppy dog eyes. How it managed to do this despite lacking the correct physical anatomy I still do not know even to this day.

While I was choosing between letting it eat the item, hastening it's evolution and using it to craft something useful on the next layer the turtle appeared shocked and pointed behind me. I turned trying to find whatever spooked the turtle and by the time I turned back, the animal had consumed the clam. I nearly killed it out of rage. Sensing my emotions it ducked back into my soul space and refused to come out. Luckily, I calmed down before doing something stupid and realised that it only needed a few more 'super rare' items to attempt its first mutation. My last thought before warping to land was “I thought I would be king of the sea but I got outsmarted by a turtle. I was even forced to leave the creature in one piece!”