World Ending Maelstrom

'Let's see how far I've come.' Bian charged forward with grim determination, willing to see how much damage he could do without activating the jadebody.

His body suddenly accelerated like a torpedo, in a second he was swimming under the blue crab. The golden blade of the vambrace left white marks when it struck the thick blue carapace of the crab.

"Constrict!"

Taking advantage of the brief second before Bian could move again, the water surrounding him suddenly came together to form a solid casing.

The golden trident of the spirit could control the water of the ocean with frightening competence. Even Bian found that he couldn't move an inch when trapped by it.

The Spirit approached him like a javelin, the three tips of the trident aimed for his chest. The blue crab stepped aside, as water began to condense on the trident, gradually turning it blue and then black.

Whithout hesitating for a moment, Bian activated the Jadebody. His body soon turned to that of a perfect sculpture. He no longer needed to breathe, and a terrifying power came from his complete structure.

The water capsule created by the golden trident which could trap super creatures cracked, it was about to break in a moment.

But the spirit was faster. Before Bian could break free he had reached him, his movement boosted by the water around him.

"Die for you arrogance, to fight me underwater is to choose death!" The spirit laughed maniacally while thrusting the black trident towards his heart.

Bang!

A huge shockwave spread across the underwater megacity. Several structures were crushed and misplaced.

The trident returned to its normal state while Bian had been sent flying by the attack. From the area on his body where the trident hit, a small crack was visible.

"What!" The spirit shouted in shock, surprised Bian was still in one piece. Bian was also surprised that his body which had gotten so much stronger was damaged by the attack.

He didn't dare hesitate and began some underwater manoeuvres, unwilling to stand still and become trapped by the water again.

'He's confident and also annoying to deal with. Once I get close to him, my movements become sluggish and his attacks can pile up to deal some real damage.' Bian used all his movements to avoid the chase of the blue crab and the spirit.

The restraining move of the trident was not severe as long as he kept his distance. The crab meanwhile was incredibly sturdy, and unfazed by slashing and piercing attacks.

"Gruu!"

The pincers of the crab tore through the water, nearly clipping Bian's head. He unsummoned the golden vambrace and delivered a punch straight to the crabs face.

The house sized blue crab was sent flying towards the spirt. Bian swam back, perplexed by the Spirit's new move.

He was mounted on the blue crab and the two moved as one. Once Bian got close to the golden trident, he would have hell to pay.

As the crab approached, Bian retreated away. When the blue crab fell backwards, Bian stormed towards it.

For some seconds the two went back and forth, none gaining the upper hand.

With no clear openings visible, he deactivated Jadebody and Emperical Aura, then continued the tug of war with the blue crab and sprit.

Mounting the crab was a good idea from the spirits perspective, but it also got rid of their advantage in numbers.

Most of Bian's offensive means turned out to be short ranged, which couldn't be used at the moment. Yin and Yang was severely suppressed by the high pressure water around them as were all projectiles.

Now only the eerie blue water dome and large octopus gave them light at this depth under the water.

"Stop, let's stop. We will call it even, because as it stands now, no one can win." The spirit rested his trident as he spoke, a gesture of goodwill.

Bian paused for a moment to hear him out, his vigilance never dropping.

"Take the life essences and leave, you have no more benefits to seek here."

"No more benefits? How about the two tasty meals in front of me." Bian laughed coldly.

The spirit spoke though gritted teeth, "It's not worth it anymore. The crab is an injured super creature, it's life essence will not satisfy you and I will never pledge alliegence to your kind."

"If you don't want to leave peacefully, then you will leave in pieces!" The spirit bellowed, his trident glowing and emitting a signal to the shelter.

Bian wasn't too worried about the changes happening around him. The Ink Sun Dragon, Inkus had plenty of time to recover and was ready to aid him in a moments notice.

Finding the situation uncomfortable, but not life threatening, Bian spoke up.

"What can you offer me for your lives? The super creatures I killed left no bodies behind. I need something more than their life essences which already belong to me."

"Bodies... of course. I think I can offer you something even better than the bodies if super creatures. There is a treasure groove not to far from here.

Three treasures reside there, this trident, the heart of the sea and the rite of passage."

"Hmm, the heart of the sea... rite of passage!" Bian took a moment to consider the perks.

The golden trident was was a very strong weapon. It could control water to a frightening degree, making fighting against the spirit so difficult even for him.

The spirit seemed unwilling to part with the blue crab, it was obviously more special than he let on but Bian wasn't too worried about it. He thought about it and reckoned that the treasures would be better than having to wait for super geno trees to bear fruit.

He agreed to the truce and both sides temporarily ceased fire. The spirit wanted nothing to do with him and immediately began leading him to the treasure groove.

"I would have loved to hear your screams. Too bad the trident didn't actually work on you." The spirit scoffed.

"Maybe you're not qualified enough to use it?" Bian laughed.

"Hmph! If only your pores were open, you wouldn't even know how you died in the battle."

The trident had secretly channeled some water to Bian's body during their fight but it was useless against him.

During his evolution to become a surpasser, jadeskin had fused with the body pillar to become jadebody. Even without running the pillar, Bian's body was as smooth as marble, his pores weren't open for external invasion.

The water which entered through his ears were destroyed by his brain waves. His brain was the most evolved part of his body and the boost from the soul pillar's current hyperactivity was no joke.

"Tell me more about this heart of the sea and rite of passage." Bian quietly raised his caution against this spirit called Atla.

Atla spoke about three ancient treasures which had resided in the ocean beds for thousands of years. A formation was put in place to conduct a trail on everyone who went there.

A thousand face die!

Depending on where the die would face, a trial and a treasure would accompany each other.

Some faces held only trails and certain death while others gave only the treasures. Atla himself had spinned a face which trapped him in an enormous maze that took five hundred years to find the center.

There he picked up the trident and learnt about the other two treasures, but he didn't dare to spin the die again.

After five days of travel, Atla led Bian to a strange zone at the depths of the ocean. Water hurricanes as big as mountains stretched from the ocean bed to its surface. Hundreds of such maelstrom were moving about haphazardly.

"Any creature trapped in those maelstrom never leave. Once there was an Emperor Spirit who ruled most of the ocean.

He came here searching for the treasures but was trapped by one of those maelstrom. His spirit stone immediately vanished and the spirit was never seen again.

Everyone forgot about him and I would have forgotten about him as well if not for the trident." The spirit spoke with a weird glint in his eyes.

"So avoid the water hurricanes, got it. Just lead the way and I'll follow." Bian wasn't foolish enough to brave the death zone without the spirit leading the way.

"Its not that easy. Once I get close, all the maelstroms will immediately lunge at me. They remember who leave the zone alive and harbour a grudge towards them. If I follow, it would be even more dangerous for you."

Now Bian was starting to have second thoughts about the death zone, maybe the treasure wasn't worth his life.

"Forget about the deal..." before Bian could finish speaking, he opened his eyes wide as he saw an extremely large wall made entirely of those deadly whirlpools cover their exit.

They had emerged from the depths of the ocean, utterly untraceable and unpredictable.

"You didn't mention this could happen!" He looked coldly towards Atla. The spirit was also stunned.

"I didn't know!" He said with a miserable smile, before he could say anything else a golden blade flew towards his neck.

The blue crab intercepted Bian's attack with its pincer, and immediately retreated towards the approaching maelstroms.

Atla raised his trident and the wall of whirlpools parted, before converging again. It seemed as though the world was closing in on Bian.

"Seems like I was too careless." Bian looked at the approaching maelstroms, a thousand kilometers wide and tens of thousands of kilometers high.

A grim look appeared on his face.