Chapter 16.
I tried to stop myself quicker this time, my instincts beginning to learn from the first failure, but I was moving far too fast.
I had committed too much momentum to the kill.
For right before me was a large, ancient coral reef that I hadn't expected to see.
From the looks of it, this had been their main target all along, a natural barrier they could maneuver around, but I could not.
Having been focused on nothing but my thirst for blood and the sight of their flickering blue tails, I had missed the landscape completely.
I had been blinded by the hunt, and now, as the colorful wall of the reef loomed large in my vision, I realized I would pay a heavy price for my lack of control.
The impact was inevitable. I tried to flare my pectoral fins to bank away, but the obsidian shark body was too heavy and my speed was too great.
My last conscious thought was the sight of Artria and Garin disappearing behind a safe corner of the reef, their eyes filled with a mixture of relief and pity as I hurtled toward the reef.
BAM!!!
The impact was nothing short of cataclysmic.
With a spine-chilling sound of collision that vibrated through the very bedrock of the sea, my massive, obsidian body slammed into the reef.
Rather than just hitting the coral, I tore through it.
My speeding frame became a wrecking ball of scales and muscle, leaving a path of absolute destruction in its wake as ancient, colorful coral structures shattered like brittle glass.
The sheer force of the momentum meant I couldn't even process the pain; my thoughts were instantly snuffed out by the jarring deceleration, the world turning into a blurred vision of colours and stones.
Eventually, after bulldozing through several more layers of the reef, my body finally came to a dragging stop in a cloud of debris.
By then, the crimson glow had faded from my eyes, replaced by the empty void of unconsciousness.
"Do you think... do you think we actually did it?" Artria whispered, her voice trembling as she stared at the trail of shattered coral from a safe distance.
Beside her, Gerin remained silent for a moment, his eyes fixed on the settling dust.
They were both still holding onto the seaweed net, though the school of fish had fortunately stopped struggling as much as before, likely stunned into a stupor by the sheer violence they had just witnessed.
Or perhaps the fact that they no longer sensed any immediate threats.
"I don't know," Gerin finally said, his voice tight with uncertainty. "We'll have to get closer and see for ourselves."
Hearing him, Artria's expression took a drastic turn toward pure disbelief. "Are you insane?! You actually want us to get close to that monster? What if he's still stuck in that form? and just waiting for us to drift into range so that he can kill us?"
"I don't know if he is," Gerin countered, his gaze softening as he looked at the wreckage.
"But would you really rather just leave him like that? Think about it, Artria. He helped us, didn't he? Even if it ended like this, we have what we wanted because of him. Shouldn't we at least try to see if he's okay?"
A conflicted, pained expression emerged on Artria's face.
She looked at the net, then back at the destruction, her fingers tightening on the seaweed strands. "Fine... but if he's still stuck like that, we're leaving immediately, do you understand? I'm not dying for a shark."
Gerin merely nodded in solemn affirmation, and the two of them began to steer the net of fish once more, moving cautiously back toward the point where the trail of coral destruction had finally ended.
Upon reaching the site, they saw nothing but a graveyard of shattered reef. Great chunks of brain coral were smashed into tiny pieces, and jagged limestone fans were piled atop one another in a chaotic mess.
The water was still hazy with sand, making it difficult to see clearly. But then, one particular pile of coral fragments began to tremble violently.
Artria's face turned pale with fright, her tail lashing back as she prepared to bolt, while Gerin's features darkened with a grim look.
Just when they thought the black beast they had barely survived was about to emerge and finish the hunt, a hand suddenly broke through the rubble.
It was followed by another, and then both hands shoved the heavy coral away with a desperate strength, revealing a figure before their eyes.
The figure was undoubtedly me, but the way they were looking at me, with eyes wide enough to pop and jaws hanging slack, would make any bystander think something was terribly wrong.
"Y-You... you're a human?!" both exclaimed in utter disbelief.
The net in their hands nearly slipped from their fingers as they were struck by a sudden, paralyzing dumbfoundment.
As for why they would react with such shock, the reason was obvious, right now, I didn't look like a shark, and I didn't even look like a merman.
My scales were gone, so we're my webbed fingers and powerful tail, which was now replaced by two human legs.
Fortunately for me, for some reason, my human clothes were back.
I had reverted entirely back to my original human form.
While it was true that powerful merfolk could take human shapes, they almost always reverted back to their aquatic forms when submerged in water.
Seeing a plain human standing perfectly fine at the bottom of the sea was a sight that defied every law of nature they knew.
As for why I was able to breathe down here without my gills or my tail, I could only believe it had something to do with that sea witch.
Her blood had likely altered my very essence, making me a hybrid that could survive the depths regardless of what shape I took.
"Hehehe... surprise?" I said, an incredibly awkward, pained look on my face as I tried seeming harmless as best I could while standing amidst the ruins.
"Human... what exactly are you doing here!"
Just then, a new voice, cold, melodic, yet dripping with a dangerous tone, stunned all of us into silence.
Artria and Gerin spun around so fast they nearly tangled themselves in their own net, looks of sheer, unadulterated terror emerging on their faces.
I didn't need to see their reaction to understand why; I was already paralyzed with my own brand of terror. That voice was unmistakable. For it belonged to none other than my...
Mistress.