Chapter 24 - The Power Of Imagination.
Sebastian felt vibrations go through his head, into his brain, into his muscles, into his anus, and his body as the vibrating impact sent him to cloud nine immediately.
His orientation of his surroundings became distorted; for a moment he felt like the god of this world snapped his fingers and the world was being destroyed.
As the shockwaves of the clash spread like wildfire, turning the surrounding water into a storm, Sebastian flinched despite still being protected by his green magic energy film as he felt like he was just stung by something sharp.
[You have hit your opponent with a skill- Battering Ram; you have dealt -3 damage.]
[You have been hit by your opponent; you have received -2 damage.]
[You have been hit with a skill by your opponent- Sting Tail Attack; you have received -8 damage.]
[You have been hit by a bolt of electricity; you have received -11 damage.]
[You have been poisoned- Mild: -1 HP for 10 seconds.]
Sebastian reeled back in horror on seeing the consecutive notifications from the system.
The damage dealt from one attack by the stingray horrified the hell out of him; poison, magic electricity, and physical damage were all stacked together. Even the casual slam from the stingray gave him -2 damage.
This brought him to the cruel realization that despite his superior species, a much higher-leveled Stingray was still stronger than him.
Despite feeling shocked by the damage dealt, he did not try to escape in panic as that was just courting death foolishly.
In just a little more than a second, a lot of thoughts went through his mind as he rapidly analyzed them. From the damage, the stingray was indeed stronger than him, but not to the extent of rendering him powerless yet.
Through his electroreceptor ability, he knew that a helping hand was coming and that it was coming fast. Almost by instinct, he made a move did he did not know of before now.
He made his magic organ pump out more mana into his muscles, then all of a sudden, his spikes grew longer and sharper.
With the sound of a sharp object cutting into flesh, he felt his spikes cutting into the startled stingray\'s flesh. It did not cut too deep though, his body stiffened as, through the spikes, the familiar surge of electricity zapped him.
He didn\'t mind the damage though; he already completed his objective of keeping the opponent in place. He retracted his spikes into his body before rapidly dashing to the side.
Bam!
The electricity around the stingray\'s head spiked before erupting outwards like it suddenly lost control of its magic as the one-handed hammer landed heavily on its head.
Sebastian flinched on seeing the fierce blow despite him not being the recipient at the receiving end of the attack, but this did not stop him from adding injury to the wound though.
Activating his dash skill again, he rapidly closed the distance before digging his teeth into the stingray\'s flesh. Perhaps, because it was not being protected by its magic again, but his bite dealt -7 damage to the stingray.
Leroy wanted to hammer the stingray\'s head again, but the Viper suddenly wrapped its evil body around him and tightened.
With another activation of its skill and a shake of his shell, the Viper had no choice but to release its grip. Almost immediately, it grouped up with its ally while Leroy grouped up with Sebastian.
Then both sides just hovered silently, calmly observing each other.
Leroy did not say a word, but he already communicated with Sebastian in a coded manner. He was surprised to see Sebastian, his strength after the evolution shocked him but he felt glad.
Of all the horrifying scenarios that he thought of, Sebastian became none. He was still the same clueless great white shark that he knew whose only love was dissecting new species of opponents, just that he became stronger.
As Sebastian observed, he checked his injuries also while rapidly trying to predict the outcome of the battle.
His clash with the stingray a moment ago added to the slam of the hammer left a part of its triangle body caving in a bit, showing that it received significant damage. But that was all.
For him, through his electroreceptors, he could see black red blood clearly tainted with poison slowly seeping out of where the stingray\'s tail stung him.
For Leroy, the turtle clan head was the most injured participant on their battlefield.
He rapidly came to a conclusion. If no new variable was added to the battlefield, he and Leroy would definitely lose. As his thoughts came to this, he remembered the sudden notification of the system.
"The Water Transmutation skill!"
This made him depressed a bit, as unlike the other skills that he got from his evolution, he didn\'t get a hang of this one immediately. It still seemed hidden, like he needed some catalyst to activate it.
He could not think much about it though, the battle was about to restart.
And something that he learned about this fantasy world was that, unlike other fantasy worlds that he knew, battles here were not dragged out and could end as quickly as seconds of one was strong enough.
Zap!
Almost at the same time that he heard the electricity crackling, he also heard the sound of Leroy\'s heavy hammers smashing forward. He reacted too, shifting his body back a bit before accelerating for a bite.
[You have activated skill: Shredding Bite.]
With a crunch sound, the Viper let out a hissing sound as its skin was penetrated by the sharp teeth of the shark. It angrily turned its head for a retaliatory bite, but Sebastian already dashed away in retreat.
Pu! Pu! Pu! Pu!
His teeth filled the water with white, shooting out rapidly one after the other. Despite his cautious take to the battle, the stingray still got him as a bolt of lightning fired at him at an extremely fast speed.
Unable to dodge in time, his skin was viciously zapped, making him vibrate in place as the damage was dealt to him.
At this time, both opponents abandoned him and focused on Leroy again. Their main priority was still clearly to finish off the turtle clan head, and Sebastian was not about to allow that.
He intended to rush back into the battlefield, but a thought suddenly struck him. He felt like he just fell into a trance. "You can turn water into anything you want, any weapon you want. All you need is your imagination…"
"Imagination!"
His already red eyes shone in enlightenment as he suddenly decided on something, he imagined turning the water into something, a weapon that he\'s seen in movies.
The surrounding water suddenly made a warping sound, they rapidly converged together before forming something. When the commotion cleared, what was left hovering in the water was a flaming sword.
Eyes shining excitedly and viciously like those of an ancient dragon, Sebastian willed the flaming sword to attack. And without hesitation, the sword rapidly flew at the closest opponent, the stingray again.
Without missing, it slashed at its magic-protected skin again and cut through.
Boom!