Chapter 14: Abyssal Deathmatch

Both monsters faced each other and roared.

*RAAAWWRRR!!!*

Arvinakon's roar was loud enough to render any human in the hundred meters permanently deaf, it shook the air and the sea, freezing the waves midair before their power and size doubled, and the stormy cloud became darker as the rain intensified. 

The Oceans and Sea were his to bend and play with.

His foe the Abyssal Lagiacrus was perturbed by this roar, having lost the first steps of the fight it roared back, Arvinakon similarly answered with another even more powerful roar. It was a male and it was furious about this fish trespassing and entering its territory. The Elder Crossing and the rise in bioenergy only make it more aggressive.

Right from here, he could feel how powerful Arvinakon was. It was young, however, from the smell it was easily discernible and the fish would not do any harm if it was in its stomach. It is the Devil of the Sea and as such will do what must be done. 

It was nearly comparable to some of the weaker Elder Dragons in power and bigger than most of them.

The lagiacrus body twisted on itself, back spikes flared with bioenergy and a ball of blue electricity was spewed out. Dodging the ball of Thunder elements with ease the fishron sensed something else, the spike crackled and glowed with energy, and a pulse of Thunder elements was shot omnidirectionally.

Electrocuting and stunning everything in a 60-meter radius.

Arvinakon is no exception to this. However it couldn't go past his scales, it was too weak to do so but it did stun him for a quarter of a second and surprised him while also pissing him off. Shaking his head, electromagnetic sense hurting like a bitch thanks to this he growled.

'That hurt and wasn't very nice. My turn.', he thought, the remnant of Thunder elements being purged by his bioenergy from his scales and the extremely sensitive ampullae of Lorenzini on his snout.

Jaws wide open he exhaled a chaotic and constant stream of bubbles each at least bigger than a human head and past water boiling temperature.

The lagiacrus with a mighty flick of its tail and a twist of the body swam to the depth, in hope of dodging the stream's bubbles. Escaping from them was not an option, however, as they were hiking and tagged right at home on the lagiacrus' head.

Eyes turning from glowing orange to bright red. Recoiling it roaring in pain and rage at the explosion of the scaldingly hot bubble, stunned, the lagiacrus couldn't immediately react as the young Elder aimed at its vulnerable neck. Barely dodging, it got a bloody gash on its lustrous scales from one of the fish's impressively sharp tusks. A small gash that will not stop bleeding.

Blood and adrenaline rushed through his veins by increasing heart, its spikes-covered back crackled with power and in righteous furry snapped at the fishron trying to bite one of his flippers off. 

Narrowly avoiding the giant maw, he grinned maniacally at that, a terrifying and monstrous grin full of teeth and his eyes filled with something inhuman. Blood boiling in excitement. 

He was having so much fun! Letting go of everything and letting himself like this was bordering on euphoria. He is an adrenalin junkie and that was putting it lightly.

However, he could feel a stinging sensation on his left pectoral flipper tip, or what remained of it. 

The lagiacrus still managed to bite a small piece of it and teeth marks were visible, a thin and dissipating trail of blue blood left behind. This type of injury will heal back up in a week at most. But it certainly set his heart ablaze and carving for retribution.

Testing and probing each other was over, the real battle was now beginning. And be damned the unlucky onlooker to suffer the consequences.

Far away lay a small island, originating from a four-kilometer high, now dead volcano that also served as a nesting area for rathalos, some already having fled, some strung to protect their eggs, and some of the curious, notably young ones, approached the strange storm.

Though the rathaloses weren't the only wildlife greatly unsettled and perturbed by what was ongoing.

This tropical island was not even fifty kilometers away from the Ancient Forest.

On the pearly white sand of this beautiful island lay a human fishing village, the elders of this village were originally merchants and travelers of the Kingdom of Schrade. 

The most powerful, richest, and technologically advanced nation in this world. Strong enough to even kill the beast of legends, Elder Dragon. Making them the most prideful of people, believing themselves above everyone else, and Nature.

They didn't stay here by choice, as hunters, adventurers, scholars, and merchants they traveled the world on a fleet of ships, a fleet that was later divided in two.

The first half stayed on an island with giant gray and recap mushrooms, gray grass, and strange cows, below this island thought multiple caves system that led to a gigantic cavern also filled with mushrooms but these were of glowing neon blue. This team by now should be back in the Kingdom of Schrade.

So the other half that continued to travel and explore the world arrived here and so were attacked by the same Abyssal Lagiacrus that attacked Arvinakon and caused their ships to sink to the bottom of the sea.

Out of the 659 passengers aboard, humans, felynes, and some wyverians, only less than 10% survived. Most of them are humans and humans did what humans do best. Discriminate against and blame minorities, which didn't help anyone and caused a shift in their community that lasted till those days.

They cannot go past the reef barrier that encircled the island as sea monsters and the giant lagiacrus variant lurked in those waters. A reef that was both their haven and prison.

One of the humans, a 14-year-old human male, born on this island, reported what he saw and the village entered a state of panic. The storm could be seen from here, a giant circle of dark clouds in the otherwise clear blue sky and tumultuous sea that cut the calm sea in two. 

From their point of view, it was a terrifying dark spot that was rapidly approaching the island as if the blade of a guillotine was looming over their nape and was only held by a flimsy, rotten rope.

It wouldn't be their first storm but this one was no normal storm. And the chance that the reef will slow it down was the only thing they could hope and pray for and that everything will be alright for in the face of something of this scale they were truly powerless.

Back into the sea where the fight between the two beasts was ongoing, ten kilometers away from where it started.

Glaring at the young Elder its back spike charged up another electric pulse, this one marginally stronger than the first. Sensing Arvinakon fired a precise beam of highly pressurized and scalding water bubble from his half-open jaws at one of the bigger spikes.

*crack*

The spike cracked, the stored energy instead of going inside went inside and the backlash of the out-of-control energy made some of the smaller and weaker spikes on its head and neck pop like LEDs when experiencing too much electrical stress.

'Obvious weak point… you can only blame evolution for this.', he thought, not that he didn't have areas where he was more vulnerable. It just wasn't that obvious.

Howling in agony the lagiacrus curled and turned on itself, the force of this movement caused powerful water vortexes to be hurled in four directions, one at every cardinal point, and they were filled with electricity.

Seeing this gave Arvinakon an idea, dodging the slow-moving vortexes and dispersing them with a snort and a lazy flick of his tail he concentrated, eyes glowing brighter than ever. 

Bioenergy shifting and concentrating around his jaws, he spread his flippers in an X-like shape. Circles of bubbles of different sizes concentrated in Dragon and Water started to spin in one another forming an armillary sphere. This process took a whole two seconds and when the fishron deemed it was enough, he spits it out 

The Abyssal Lagiacrus didn't stay idle at what Arvinakon was doing and thus as well prepared his own attack. Thunder elements concentrated and condescend in its throat making it glow and crackle. 

The innocent sphere of bubbles slowly moved while zigzagging in the lagiacrus general direction, the latter growled and a blindingly blue beam of electricity as thick as a tree exploded out of its maw, and its head reeled back just like a cannon had fired.

*BOOOM!*

The two projectiles exploded against one another, the beam pushing forward continued and missed Arvinakon by an air breath. The fishron dashed forward at the last second which was followed by a three shorter.

Vigilant, the lagiacrus studied its surroundings, looking for Arvinakon. But its head snapped to where the strange spheres of bubbles were when it felt something strange, current started to pick up in speed and force as they spun clockwise.

It felt itself, to its immense shock dragged by the forming vortex that was continuously getting bigger and stronger. Turning around it frantically looked around with anger and a hint of fear in its bright red eyes as it swam in the opposite direction with all of its might. Its speed is greatly decreased by the drag of the current.

Alas, the fishron didn't let this happen as two dashes later he was facing the bigger monster. Trapping it between the growing sharknado and him. His smile grew wider as playing magic caster was good and all but going physical was so much more blood-pumping and exciting.

From the fishing village, the dark cloud of the storm started spinning in the same way as the vortex below the sea and they formed a cyclone but that was just the start.

From the sea, a tornado of water could be seen defying gravity as it twisted and climbed the three kilometers that separated it from the cloud, a waterspout of gargantuan proportion that covered the eyes of the cyclone. 

The thin base connected to the sea and where the sphere of bubbles was popped grew larger with height, the seawater got sucked in by it and this suction force caused the formation of another vortex that spun anticlockwise just below it effectively creating a monster of water and wind capable of immense devastation.

Though this was not all in this tornado small shadows could be seen swimming alongside the crushing water, these were sharks of various species. Not real ones, all of them are bioenergy constructs made of pure Dragon elements. 

This was a random idea that Arvinakon had, they are as unstable as they can get and any contact with something not made with his bioenergy will cause them to release the Dragon elements within them and explode. He made shark missiles, normal missiles are boring, so why not make them look sharkier?

As the drain of the sharknado and the size of the storm increased the sea level surrounding them decreased in accordance. This didn't bother Arvinakon but for the leviathan class monster that was a different story.

Stopping right in front of the lagiacrus the fishron's flippers changed angle and he dashed aiming for the still-bleeding neck. The rich smell of blood only amplified his current state of bloodlust. His mind only focused on the big juicy piece of meat in front of his snout.

Mouth wide open showing his hundreds of sharp shark-like teeth, the red eyes of the lagiacrus widened in shock as it felt a sharp pain right above its chest that turned into white-hot pain as Arvinakon's teeth and tusk dug into its scales and flesh deep enough to scrap against the bone that on a human would be equivalent if the solar plexus.

'Oh! I missed… Still tastes pretty good. A bit on the electrifying side though. Wonder what the heart will feel on the tongue?', he thought, concentrating on the feeling and taste of the flesh he was biting like some sort of rabid animal.

Water elements exploded out of his dorsal fin and pectoral flippers in rapid bursts, almost like a stream, and in a way that made him spin like a spinning top, he instantly reached ten spins per second. 

Luckily he couldn't get motion sickness, a fact that he abused, and did aerial and aquatic tricks and maneuvers that would make any normal humans pass out.

His jaws still locked on the juicy and bloody piece of meat the force and speed of the spin resulted in him being proper away and leaving a big cookie cutter-like hole. His throat crushing the sizable piece of prime brisket he huffed and could only but want more.

The Abyssal Lagiacrus froze and looked down, it could see its bones and crimson blood profusely escaping the gaping wound and instantly got diluted and disappeared in the chaotic water current. 

Arvinakon's nose twitched in rage as it picked up the distinct scent of fear and it was disappointing… but he knew that his bite would have an effect and prolong the fight because even if he doesn't do anything it will bleed to death. 

The wound might be comparatively 'small' to its body but even a small knife wound could bleed out a human if for some reason it doesn't stop bleeding and forget potential infection after. Being wounded in the wild, even minor ones, are no laughing matter and should be taken seriously.

That is if you aren't a bloodthirsty fish-pig-dragon hybrid with a powerful immune system and regeneration that can regrow entire body parts with enough time and under the right conditions.

~Fight! Alloweth's dance until death sets Us apart! Followeth the design nature hast hath built us f'r and stop acting like a cowardly little wench!~, he said with fervor, each word was spoken getting louder and carried more anger. 

The storm got even stronger and approached the island faster in response to his emotions. If it was he who attacked he wouldn't have reacted this way but the lagiacrus was the one who started all of this.

And so for Arvinakon for it to start running away this way, was unacceptable and infuriated him to a point that could send any normal human into a state of self-destructive and suicidal fueled by anger.

On the surface, one woman with brown wavy hair and tanned skin on the far side of the reef could screaming in terror as an azure hammerhead flew right from the giant water vortex 

Her entire body betrayed her as it became incredibly heavy her bare feet refused to move from the used and damaged wood that made the small sampan, a type of boat. She froze.

It didn't stop the roughly shaped hammerhead, however. Her head in the next instant was in its wide open jaw, and her body was left headless blood spurting like a fountain from what remained of her neck, her mind shutting half a second after when the shark construct touched a stone and exploded with the power of a hand grenade.

The vibrations permeate the wall of a cave below, collapsing its only exit, her father and husband were inside searching for flat lobster-like creatures. A delicacy. Luckily her teenage son was on the island and didn't go with them.

The Abyssal Lagiacrus couldn't understand what the fishron just said, being able to somewhat vaguely hear the Elder Tongue and being able to decipher and comprehend its line that can only a select few can cross. But the raw emotions behind it were crystal clear. It was anger but more than anything, the contempt behind it.

It snapped back to reality, adrenalin started to flood its system causing the pain to stiffen until it could barely be felt anymore. Its eyes got blood red as its thoughts started to get clouded by a new unnatural anger whose sole purpose is the destruction of its foe.

*RAAWR!*

It roared and it was followed by Arvinakon pleasing growl and a roar of his own, overpowering the berserk Abyssal Lagiacrus. This sent the latter over the edge as it instantly rushed at the fishron who did the same thing, the excited golden light of his eyes trailing behind him.

*BAAAM!*

Both of their heads slammed together, the shock of the impact traversing through their spines. He might be a bit less than half its size but size isn't always the deciding factor especially when your opponent's raw strength is nearly equal to yours. 

Arvinakon is a brute at heart, his magic tricks with bioenergy are certainly impressive but his true strength lay in something more direct.

The scales, muscle, and blubber followed by the thick skull of the fishron protected him from potential brain trauma but it wasn't the case for his foe who got its brain rattled that didn't stop frit om immediately biting at the fishron with ferocity and abandon that pleased the latter.

Moving away with a new faint white mark the on scales of his belly he glared at the leviathan class monster and as if reading his mind the shark constructs in the tornado were shot in rapid succession at it.

He didn't have any real control over the storm for example, beyond that he could change the general direction, empower it, and dispel it with enough concentration. He lacked experience.

The lagiacrus didn't bother to dodge and shifted its right claw before slamming it at Arvinakon who welcomed it with wide flippers, he dashed biting two of the clawed draconic digits clean off, but both ignored them as they sank to the bottom of the sea.

He did not get out of the clash unscattered as he got two long white marks on the side of his body. Claws marks.

Both didn't stop at this as the lagiacrus' didn't even register its recent injury and attacked right after jaws crackling with electricity but was bombarded by five shark constructs aka mini sharkrons. Each of them is more or less two meters (6ft56) in length.

Their element let them diffuse the Thunder element for a brief second as they left a small bite mark on its scales and then all detonated at once, one too close to an already cracked spike in its back.

The crack expanded and the spike exploded in a powerful pulse that stunned the both of them, cracks formed on other spikes as if was the equivalent of a short circuit in the lagiacrus' body.

'Huh, it tingle… but fuck is it unpleasant on my snout. The equivalent of someone shoving a powerful flashlight in your eyes to wake you up…', he thought as the pulse that was strong enough to kill a blue whale three times and more was purged out of his body before it could even pass the layer of his scale.

And the clash continued on for half an hour, Arvinakon getting a plethora of injuries, all 'minor' in the form of scratches, gashes, burn marks, torn muscles, some internal bleeding, his right dorsal flipper broken, tail tips bitten off and the worst was his left pelvic flipper had the bone sticking out and half of it was gone. But none of them bothered him as he was having the time of his life! 

The Abyssal Lagiacrus how, however, not having it that way, broken ribs, a cracked skull, a part of its sits were freely hanging, its two front limbs and right forelimbs now three bloody shredded stumps, half of its tail attached by the bone, its right eye gouged out and eaten, hundreds of bite marks and pieces of its flesh missing all around its body.

Its heart was worn down, barely pumping what remained of its blood, its body unable to consciously move a single muscle, its anger-fueled mind started to become clear and its only good eye looked peaceful, even through the pain, at the one who defeated him. Having accepted its death. It took the risk of attacking something stronger than itself and lost.

~We thank thee f'r this enjoyable fight. May luck be on thy side in thy next life.~, the Elder Dragon said with a hint of exhaustion, an inhuman grin on his snout showing his teeth covered in red and blue blood, he swam closer to the lagiacrus' head and sunk his tusks into its skull. The remaining light in its eye vanished, and heart beating for the last time, it died. 

'Now, you were a good fight buddy but… also food! Let's start with your delectable brain that I hope melts in my mouth… hmm yessss it does...'