Chapter 143: Deep-Sea Giant Octopus, Bloodbath of the Injured Avatar (I)

As the Sword Armored Fiery Beast continued to grow, both its strength and its feeding demands had grown alongside it. Now reaching over seventeen meters in length, it was starting to more and more resemble a colossal beast.

That night, hundreds of meters below the sea surface, the Fiery Beast moved through the deep ocean like a black shadow. Apart from the disturbance caused by its movement through the water, its immense size went largely unnoticed, thanks to concealing its aura.

This underwater landscape was characterized by a small mountain range with varying terrain. Several kilometers ahead lay a deep-sea trench, descending to depths of over a thousand meters. Rising from the seabed on the other side was a mountain peak, its highest point barely a hundred meters below the surface.

In such a complex environment, even the Fiery Beast had to proceed with caution, maximizing its perception and attentiveness to the movements of the surrounding water. After all, the depths below could potentially harbor lurking deep-sea colossal beasts.

However, this environment also offered abundant resources in the form of mutated marine life. Today alone, the Fiery Beast had already consumed several level 4 and 5 mutated creatures.

It had just traversed over the sea trench, and started to glide past the peak....

Boom!

A sudden explosion ruptured the mountain below, unleashing massive tentacles that surged forth from the rolling mud and sand and swooped toward the Fiery Beast like a net from all directions.

The Fiery Beast responded swiftly to this abrupt assault. Its terrifying power surged forth instantaneously, propelling its massive form skyward.

Boom!

A thunderous boom echoed as the sea erupted and the Fiery Beast launched itself dozens of meters into the air. Beneath it, a multitude of colossal tentacles gave chase.

Bang!

The Fiery Beast carved an arc through the air over a hundred meters before plummeting back into the sea with a resounding crash. Then, in a flash, it dove back to depths of dozens of meters, its gaze cold and unwavering.

Perched atop the mountain peak was a giant octopus, standing nineteen meters tall and bearing twelve tentacles, the longest of which exceeded twenty meters.

While the Fiery Beast had encountered mutated octopuses before and even devoured a few, this particular specimen exuded an unparalleled aura of terror.

Its immense stature, towering six stories high, was encased in thick, black keratin, adorned with densely-packed spikes that gleamed like metal. Eight robust secondary tentacles, also coated in black keratin, sported suction cups lined with teeth, and were capable of stirring up fierce currents with the slightest movement.

Meanwhile, its four primary tentacles, each over twenty meters in length, had undergone a unique mutation. While the inner portions remained flexible and supple, the ends had completely keratinized, resembling gigantic sickles with serrated edges.

This mutated octopus had evolved toward a path of slaughter, akin to a demonic entity. Its black-tinged power emanated a dreadful aura even more potent than that of the Single-horned Orca.

As a level 7 mutated creature, it was formidable even among its peers. Its appearance alone betrayed its strength, though its specific abilities still remained a mystery. Additionally, the creature possessed formidable stealth capabilities. Until its sudden onslaught, the Fiery Beast had detected no signs of its presence, nor any sense of danger.

It had even slyly concealed itself beneath a layer of mud and sand, to better disguise itself as part of the mountain peak.

The octopus fixated its two pairs of crimson eyes upon the Fiery Beast, radiating an aura of savagery and greed.

Clearly, it had already marked the Fiery Beast's intrusion into its territory as an opportunity for sustenance.

Meanwhile, the Fiery Beast had also already made up its mind on eating this mutated creature. It contemplated the potential rewards, surmising that devouring such a formidable adversary would yield at least a hundred evolution points. Despite it currently hovering around the middle stage of level 6, the Fiery Beast remained undaunted in the face of this formidable level 7 mutated creature.

Just as the Fiery Beast was pondering whether to risk injury to eliminate this seemingly meaty octopus, the creature initiated its attack.

Bang!

Its eight secondary tentacles abruptly contracted, causing an explosion in the water behind the mutated octopus. The tremendous force of the backlash propelled it towards the Fiery Beast with astonishing speed. Simultaneously, two of its elongated primary tentacles swept toward the Fiery Beast, creating explosive waves and unleashing terrifying speed and power.

You struck first.

The Fiery Beast's gaze sharpened as crimson light erupted from its body, engulfing it in flames. It vanished from its original position with a thunderous shockwave.

Bang! Bang!

The two massive tentacles crashed onto the reef behind it, instantly shattering the iron-like rocks and causing hundreds, if not thousands, of tons of debris to cascade into the trench.

Meanwhile, flames engulfed the Fiery Beast as it swiftly reappeared at the octopus's side, its colossal claws poised...

Screech!

The octopus emitted a steam whistle-like screech, as black energy swirled around its tentacles. Sweeping in all directions, the tentacles caused the sea to churn violently within a hundred meters, sending waves crashing. The raging water, infused with the black energy, formed whirlpools, smashing everything in their path with terrifying force.

This was its ability, creating heavy water vortices filled with immense pulling power, possessing great offensive and defensive strength.

While reminiscent of the Single-horned Orca’s devouring whirlpool, this attack was even more formidable when combined with the dozen massive tentacles. As the water absorbed the black energy, it also grew thicker and heavier, ensuring any mutated creature trapped within would struggle to break free.

However, the Fiery Beast was no ordinary mutated creature.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The Fiery Beast maneuvered adeptly, its robust and domineering body directly smashing through the vortex currents as it skillfully dodged the sweeping tentacles.

Suddenly, the Fiery Beast's mighty right claw swung out.

Boom!

Upon contact with the swinging tentacle, a terrifying force surged, causing the Fiery Beast's massive body to tremble and falter.

Yet, the tentacle suffered as well. Under the SFiery Beast's blow, its protective energy and scales were torn apart, leaving behind deep wounds over a meter long.

Although this strike hadn’t been enhanced with the Fiery Beast’s strength ability, it did reveal the octopus's formidable defense.

Just as the claw almost tore completely through the tentacle, causing it to pause momentarily, the remaining eleven tentacles suddenly whipped up and swept toward the Fiery Beast with towering waves.

By then, the beast’s image became a black blur, tearing through the waves of the surface and soaring hundreds of meters into the air in the blink of an eye to evade the onslaught.

Bang!

The mountain peak that had been behind the Fiery Beast bore the brunt of the attack. The tentacles, each dozens of meters in diameter, pulverized the mountain summit, reducing it to rubble. The mountain’s height dropped by over twenty meters in an instant, and the surrounding seawater became murky, filled with countless fragments of rock and sand.

Boom!

The sea surface exploded again as the octopus pursued its prey like a deep sea monster. Each massive tentacle churned the sea, angrily smashing waves and creating towering water sprays.

This type of creature is really annoying.

𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Not far away on the surface, the Fiery Beast watched the octopus's swirling tentacles with some concern.

Compared to this octopus, hunting down mutated marine creatures with just fins, a mouth, and one innate ability at the most was much easier.

This kind of multi-limbed creature posed a far greater challenge once it mutated. They boasted attack capabilities, innate abilities, and agility, all bundled into one formidable package. In such encounters, what determined the victor boiled down to sheer robustness and strength.

Those tentacles needed to be dealt with.

A fierce glint of determination flashed in the Fiery Beast's eyes. In an instant, an endless torrent of terrifying power erupted from its body, causing the water behind it to explode.

Boom!