Chapter 147: Underworld, The Instinctual Urge to Devour (I)

A hundred meters beneath the surface of the sea, the Single-horned Orca, measuring thirty-one meters in length and covered entirely in heavy black and white scales, churned up powerful currents with each swing of its massive tail as it swiftly swam.

A ferocious mutated creature covered in black and red scales followed alongside it. While the Sword Armored Fiery Beast fell short not only in stature but also in heaviness compared to the Orca, the invisible pressure emanating from its body was equal to its companion’s.

In fact, compared to the Orca, which typically preyed on ordinary mutated creatures, the Fiery Beast, which specialized in hunting creatures of its own size or even larger, proved to be even more ferocious.

After long periods of hunting, an invisible aura of ferocity had gradually wrapped around it. Once this invisible aura was released, it would instantly scare the surrounding fish into fleeing, and cause even ordinary mutated fish to tremble and become unable to move.

Roar! How much farther do we have to go? We've been swimming for so long!

Squeak! We're almost there!

This time, the two had probably swum more than five hundred kilometers, venturing into the deep sea where the Fiery Beast wouldn't usually tread.

The seawater below had become even darker and heavier. Every once in a while, the Fiery Beast felt brief flickers of other creatures’ presences, sending a chill down its spine

Squeak! We’re here.

Accompanied by joyful calls, the guiding Orca suddenly dove underwater, with the Fiery Beast following closely behind.

Soon, the colossal beasts arrived at the depths of 800 meters in the deep sea, still rapidly descending, reaching 1000 meters, then 1500 meters... The water pressure around them grew stronger and stronger.

It was an underwater trench, where the water temperature basically remained at a freezing level, and the density of transcendent energy was nearly twice as high as on the surface.

The two colossal beasts continued their descent. Soon, they reached a depth of three thousand meters, where the water pressure surged once again. At this point, even the Fiery Beast felt a bit uncomfortable, finding it slightly harder to breathe.

However, it could also see a change ahead. The pitch-black underwater trench emitted a faint greenish glow, resembling the underworld as it stretched for kilometers ahead. Even the Fiery Beast found this scene somewhat eerie.

The Orca emitted a low, mournful cry.

Squeak! Brother, be careful. There are many of them, and you need to really watch out for those two big fellas.

As they got closer, the Fiery Beast also realized what had injured the orca.

In the depths of the green ore-littered trench, there were crustacean-like creatures with four pairs of long legs and a pair of huge pincers, resembling both crabs and spiders.

A multitude of these mutated creatures, their bodies each encased in a single, massive shell, populated the area. Even the smallest among them measured over ten meters in length and eight meters in width. When their four spider-like legs were fully extended, they spanned more than twenty meters in width.

The larger ones measured around twenty meters in length, with their four spider-like legs spreading out to over thirty meters in width. Their gray-black shells exuded an aura of heaviness and solidity.

Finally, two massive ones—the ones the Orca had warned about—measured up to thirty meters in length, with massive spider-like legs spreading out to cover an area of nearly fifty meters.

The sense of oppression they exuded was somewhat diminished by the slender nature of their spider-like legs. Nonetheless, they were still considered level 7 creatures.

The area surrounding the trench was littered with the enormous skeletons of other creatures, enough to densely cover the ground, a grim sign of just how ferocious these mutated Armored Spider Crabs were.

As the saying went, “Enemies meet with eyes ablaze with vengeance.” Now that its brother was here to help with its revenge, the Orca charged directly from the darkness.

Boom!

A terrifying suction force erupted from the Orca’s enormous gaping mouth, transforming into a devouring vortex that covered an area of over a hundred meters.

Boom! Boom!

The raging vortex swept up everything around it, stirring up muddy sediment and spinning ores, including four larger twenty-meter spider crabs.

Crack! Crack!

Under the Orca’s Deep Sea Strangling ability, the four spider crabs pulled into the depths of the vortex emitted continuous crackling sounds as their slender legs snapped, followed by their massive pincers.

In the blink of an eye, the four mutated beasts were turned into bare, conical shapes, the Orca even biting down on one of them.

Screech!

The spider crab’s body emitted a loud metallic tearing sound as it was torn apart, but the Orca couldn’t outright crush it. These creature’s physical structure appeared to be extremely sturdy.

The entire trench erupted into turmoil, with spider crabs emerging from the dark rocks and surging forward in great numbers.

Soon, more than thirty of them had shown up. Although most of them were the smaller ten-meter-long spider crabs, their gathering created an intimidating scene.

Seeing this, the Orca became even more ferocious, spitting out the spider crab it had bitten to death. A powerful burst of black and white energy erupted from its body, forming a huge whale-shaped shield several meters thick, especially on the front of its head. Evidently, this was the new ability the Orca had gained through its recent evolution.

Bang! Bang!

Bearing the heavy shield, the huge Orca was like a battle tank, roaring as it slammed into the group of spider crabs. The powerful impact force directly sent many of the smaller ones flying, their spider-like legs breaking as they slammed into the walls on both sides of the trench with a series of thuds. The seabed shook, and the water currents became violent.

However, the spider crabs quickly proved they weren’t to be trifled with. These mutated creatures' pincers were very sharp, with a strange black-blue energy circulating on them that emitted a sharp aura. They turned out to be capable of tearing through the Orca’s protective energy, firmly clamping down on its body.

The two largest among them were strong enough that their massive pincers produced a sonic boom as they clamped down on the Orca, tearing through its energy shield and thick scales and each leaving behind four huge wounds on its body as it passed by them.

The spider crabs were also extremely agile. After being sent flying by the impact, many of them swiftly moved their eight limbs in the water, controlling their descent to the ground.

Bam!

Just then, a huge black claw descended from above with a loud crash, landing squarely on the head of one of the smaller spider crabs.

Under the terrifying force, the water exploded instantly, and the spider crab’s back shell, thicker than tank armor, shattered and collapsed with a loud boom. Half of the body was pulverized by the Fiery Beast’s strike.

At the same time, a black bone spike pierced through the water, shooting out at almost supersonic speed to pierce through the head of the spider crab that had landed at the Fiery Beast’s side.

As its body density increased and its length approached twenty meters, the Fiery Beast’s strength became even more terrifying. Its muscles became stronger, its scales thicker and heavier, and its speed even more agile, far surpassing other mutated beasts of the same level many times over.

After the battle with the Deep Sea Octopus, the Fiery Beast had been focusing on refining its control over its explosive strength ability in the past few days.

By now, it could make the muscles of its right claw expand just enough to stabilize its strength at around ten times its normal level. With this, any of its strikes could unleash terrifying power. Only when it was unleashing its full, hundredfold strength did it need to store up energy.

Its power, multiplied by more than ten times, condensed within a range of two meters around the Fiery Beast's right claw. The instant eruption of this immense pressure reached a terrifying level, nearly destroying everything in its path.