(Chapters' mood song: Skillet – Feel Invincible)
They arrived at the forest, some SharkSnakes still there having run back 'home' where they felt safe. Erik charged first, decapitating a car-sized snake, then the elders charged too, the Second Elder killing left and right, it was totally one-sided, they couldn't retaliate as the octopeople army got into motion, methodically slaughtering them, also armors like the Second Elders made her resistant to the snakes' bites, and the hunters harpooned any snake about to bite.
Erik charged at the forest and cut the trunks of the big kelp plants with his vibrosword, due to the floaters on the leaves, the entire algae trees floated to the surface, clearing the sight and the hiding places as the slaughtering continued, leaving the snakes with no place to hide. There were more big snakes inside the forest, some octopeople were injured, but none were too grave as they knew how to treat those poisons, the enormous numbers superiority and modern weaponry gave the snakes no choice to retaliate. They also found eggs inside the caves and Erik made the scouts carry them all back to base as battle spoils, they would have a feast after it all ended, they ate octopeople and now they would be eating the snakes.
After 3 days like this, they finally reached the other side of the forest, enormous amounts of big kelp floating around, Erik knew they would grow again but feeling it was a pity he ordered a lot to be collected since it was really tasty.
The Elders had tasted his cooking with kelp so they also relayed the order to collect a lot.
They also collected an enormous amount of snake meat, enough to keep the underground city fed, at least for a year or more as lots of octopeople seemed about to rank up from the bloodshed and feast.
He would also gorge himself in frozen and then defrozen mama snake sashimi at every opportunity too.
--- 2 weeks later ---
The forest was now a kelp, clams, and mussels farm, there were also some giant clams inside the forest when they cleaned it up, the filtering animals ate the algae spores and plankton that fed on them on the water, kelp also attached their spores to ropes so they grew around the ropes horizontally, immensely increasing the amount of kelp grown while using less space, Erik had taught the octopeople how to do the process, just patting the kelp dry and then cooling it a bit on the freezer and then throwing it on a bucket with water and ropes, the kelp would then release its spores onto the ropes and they would start growing all over them, it was the same process used back on earth in the enormous kelp farms on the Atlantic ocean.
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As for Erik he had gorged himself at snake sashimi at every opportunity his stomach allowed, he almost grew to hate it, but the effects were apparent too, he had small-scaled growing on some part of his skin, and also a bigger dick to plow Inkys insides, he had also grown a bit taller and more muscular.
all the octopeople grew more powerful too and lots more used the evolution pressure changer, increasing the number of warriors and with the Leader growing to the Second Elders previous level.
Erik as right now was enjoying a sunbath on a hammock on the third floor, trying to digest his food faster and also hearing some music, Inky was on another hammock beside him and doing the same but with a big parasol that gave a shadow big enough to comfortably cover her whole, some chickens also passed by nearby with curiosity.
he was planning to talk with the elders about his mission to the abyss and crab people this evening, he would also ask about the mysterious algae farm that the octopeople apparently left behind already if he got the chance.
He went to the octopeople city with Inky using a secret tunnel and got inside the city, the air was damp but he had no problem breathing.
Observing the octopeople around, he could see that the mood was cheerful as they felt way safer inside this city.
He stopped a warrior and Inky asked her for the elders, after some directions they arrived at a big room with a pool like an onsen with the elders all inside mating, with warriors and the Second and First Elder with each other, as only she could take the Second Elder.
Erik lightly coughed to get their attention, the elders stopped and looked at him, the Second Elder looked excited but calmed down after seeing his serious expression.
The Fourth Elder gave an order and the 2 warriors bowed and left, then she motioned for Erik and Inky to get inside and he complied, as he was wearing his basic diving suit most of the time now, it was really convenient to put on and off after all.