Wizard of the Abyss – Ch. 173

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 173 - Resident (9)

-Click.

This was the first time I had ever perceived something in the Abyssal Sea with my naked eyes.

Strictly speaking, seeing anything in here was impossible. Under normal circumstances, there was no light source at all, so there was no way for an image to form on the cornea. Whenever I “saw” something, it was almost always through my Tide Sense, or at best by faintly catching the vague outlines of things illuminated by the bioluminescent lure of passing anglerfish.

So if I couldn’t use my Tide Sense, I wouldn’t be able to see anything.

That was exactly the situation now.

"..."

I could clearly feel something swimming right in front of me.

Yet my Tide Sense, which served as my eyes, reported that there was nothing.

It insisted there was only empty water, but—

-Click.

The sound of sharp claws striking against each other echoed through the sea, announcing that my strongest ability had been completely sealed.

'So it comes out like this from the very start.’

I’d expected as much the moment I used my own blood as bait, but it seemed the Slow Fish had no intention of descending to a depth where my Tide Sense could catch it, the way it did during that other hunt.

In the Abyssal Sea, light was nearly useless, but desperate to identify my enemy even by sight, I generated a faint glow over the back of my hand.

Claws came into my view.

"..."

-Crack!

Thankfully, my head didn’t burst since I managed to barely pull it back at the last second.

Shocked silent, I quickly flung the dumbo octopus away and poured everything I had into forming a blade made of pressure.

But I was already too late. Those claws weren’t its only weapon.

"What…?!"

The moment I evaded the attack, thick, steel-like legs moved exactly as if they’d anticipated it, closing in around me.

They wrapped me up and began to crush my entire body with the force of an industrial press. My Water Partition existed solely to block the Abyssal Sea’s burdens, so it offered no protection against the pressure those legs exerted on me.

As my bones screamed under the pressure and my vision went white, a strange sense of relief surfaced.

‘...Fortunately, it just hit my body.’

If it had struck my Water Partition instead, it would’ve been an instant game over. Feeling dizzy, I swung my blade with everything I had, aiming straight for the joint of the claw flying toward me.

-Crrrrrrrrk...!!

"Tsk."

As expected, it didn’t work. This was the carapace that had endured even the whale’s pressure.

No matter how sharp I made it, a blade formed from the pressure I could exert wasn’t going to cut through it.

All I managed was to scatter a bit of carapace dust. The claw itself was unharmed.

But the Slow Fish reacted violently.

[??]

It recoiled as if it had seen a snake, immediately flinging me away, its claws clacking rapidly as it pulled back.

[...????]

-Click, click.

After a few collisions, the creature tilted its head, an almost human reaction, seeming puzzled.

It looked as though it couldn’t understand what had just happened to it.

“First time dealing with something like this?”

I forced the corners of my mouth to curl up and deliberately formed several pressure blades, letting them scrape against its carapace so it could clearly observe them.

[!]

Each time, the creature slowly backed away.

It must have never encountered a deep-sea creature that attacked using sharp pressure like I did, so it was showing a bit of caution.

Right, a bit.

'How long until it figures it out…?'

The current situation was nothing more than a narrow opening born of its ignorance.

Like a bear hunting a beehive for the first time, startled when stung, not because it hurt, but because something had pierced its skin, backing away in surprise.

In just a few minutes, or maybe not even one, the bear would realize why its hide existed in the first place.

I let my pounding heart run wild as I glanced sideways.

[...Khg, guhg...]

The dumbo octopus I had thrown aside was swelling.

Very slowly, but surely.

Fortunately, the Slow Fish paid it no attention at all. Which made sense. Why would a predator fear an octopus creature that small and harmless-looking?

I had to buy time until that dumbo octopus finished mutating.

A tense but brief standoff ensued. The Slow Fish circled me warily, constantly checking my blades, and every time it did, I continued grinding away at its shell.

-Crack.

[...]

It never recklessly closed the distance.

It would inch closer, and then the instant I poked it with a blade, it would leap backward.

'...What?'

Compared to how it hunted the whale, it was acting far more cautious. More than I expected. Still puzzled, I maintained this exchange.

If it wanted to keep this up, that was fine by me. Watching it actually retreat filled me with a faint sense of relief.

-Click!

Its shell scarred and worn, the creature suddenly snapped at empty space with quite some force.

Exactly where my pressure blade was being emitted.

"What—?”

I couldn’t even close my mouth as I watched my pressure blade unravel.

Of course, I had never underestimated the Slow Fish. After watching it hunt that whale, I’d stayed as cautious as humanly possible. Underestimating it would have been more than idiotic.

But even accounting for all that—this made no sense. 

'D-did it just grab it?'

That thought crossed my mind for a split second.

I created these pressure blades by condensing pressure into extremely narrow surfaces, forming a blade capable of slicing through steel in an instant.

But no matter how sharp a blade was, it was meaningless if it couldn’t actually pierce through its target.

In this realm, my ability was supposed to be unrivaled.

The eyes, the throat, any vital point at all.

Without warning, I could manifest a blade right there at any time as long as I could see it.

Yes, without warning.

I clenched my teeth and once again tried to slice through its body from every direction. Up, down. left, right.

-Click, clickclick!

"Ridiculous…"

And I stared in disbelief as the Slow Fish moved in a blur, snapping exactly along the surface where the pressure blade would begin, preventing them from even manifesting in the first place.

It wasn’t a coincidence either.

These blades had no tell. They would definitely manifest.

Which meant the Slow Fish was detecting the exact instant of creation and, with its inhuman reaction speed, severing the source with its claws, forcibly widening the surface area.

A pressure blade only worked because overwhelming pressure was applied on an extremely narrow plane. Widening that plane would make it no different from an ocean current.

"So what part of you is ‘slow’ exactly?”

Slow Fish. It wasn’t even a joke.

This thing was undoubtedly the ruler of this sea.

And I was prey.

-Click, click.

The encounter hadn’t lasted long, but for some reason, the sound of the Slow Fish’s claws felt like an expression of pleasure.

Despite the blood I had spilled, there was only one creature around me.

The entire region where my blood had spread was the Slow Fish’s territory. No other deep-sea creature dared approach.

How many had it hunted like this?

Even if its opponent was weak enough that it could outright kill them, it deliberately observed them fully before finishing them off.

There was only one reason.

'So that next time, it could kill them more easily…'

Enduring the whale’s pressure.

Doing so despite having no need for it.

All of it was just to measure what its prey could do.

To determine the easiest way to hunt them.

...But…

"I’m sorry, but you weren’t hunting."

[?]

No matter whether the Slow Fish understood or not, I muttered quietly as I stepped backward.

"Checking how much it hurts when a deer rams you, or how fast a leopard runs isn’t hunting. That’s closer to play. If you can kill something immediately but choose to delay it, that’s not survival hunting but hunting for amusement. I doubt you understand the difference.”

The Slow Fish, of course, had no idea what a deer or leopard even was, so it wouldn’t understand the analogy.

But it seemed to understand that I was mocking it, because it clacked its claws more threateningly.

-Click.

The claws drew inward. Legs compressed tight, coiled like a spring, declaring that in the next instant it would tear my throat out.

A declaration that would become reality—

—If it were a true hunter.

"Looks like you’ve gotten used to a life without rivals. A real hunter would’ve fired the arrow before the prey even noticed.”

-Click.

"You’ve played too much.”

I deliberately provoked this bastard more. Its claws swept sideways at that moment.

-Grrrrrrrgh...Pop!

[…??]

The Slow Fish only noticed after something burst beside it.

Startled by the sudden rupture, it skittered backward, finally turning its attention to something it had completely ignored until now.

The fist-sized dumbo octopus had swollen like a balloon, becoming something incredibly grotesque.

[Khg...Kugh...]

Its writhing body was studded with barnacle shells like a raging fever. Its tentacles were half translucent jellyfish-like tendrils and half octopus. Purple fluid leaked from its mouth. Its body was so bloated it looked like it would burst if pricked with a needle—

Altogether, it was horrific. The cutest creature in the deep sea had become the most grotesque balloon in the Abyssal Sea.

[...???]

Even for something that lived in this place, the form and pressure were clearly beyond anything the Slow Fish had ever seen. It clacked its claws restlessly.

I didn’t understand the language that perfectly, but that probably meant something like ‘K-kill it…’

The appearance was unexpected, but when I glanced sideways, everything that needed to be there was there.

'Success.'

Those creatures inherited deep-sea creature traits poorly. Which meant they could endure almost any trait one added to them.

To put it simply, they were a blank canvas.

What I painted on that canvas was a bomb.

"Go."

One of my threads was still connected to it, so it obeyed.

The dumbo octopus lifted its tentacles in agony and hurled them toward the Slow Fish.

[!]

Perhaps the countless fangs lining each tentacle looked threatening, so the Slow Fish dodged them all with ease.

To be honest, even I could’ve dodged them. They were incredibly slow. But there were too many of them. So the Slow Fish chose to counter by cutting them all down. 

"It won’t work."

[Kgh...Ugh...]

No matter how hard it tried, there were just too many. Realizing the endless amount of tentacle bundles drifting through the sea, the Slow Fish switched its tactics.

-Snap

It leapt lightly, severed every approaching tentacle, and went straight for the octopus’ body.

Blocking its path with that massive, grotesque body, it clearly judged that this had to be dealt with first before hunting me.

That even if something happened, it could endure it.

It could endure any amount of pressure, any current, and any form of Tide Sense.

That belief was the basis for how the Slow Fish always hunted.

And the reason it was never a true hunter.

"Thank you…”

I let out a breath of admiration and respect for a hunter who willingly placed its head into a trap.

Click!

[?]

The Slow Fish tilted its head slightly at how easily the body was cut.

And then in the next moment…

-Whooosh!

[!!!]

Realizing too late that the inside was packed with grotesque, viscous adhesive fluid and tentacles made of it, it tried to pull its claws back.

The massive dumbo octopus was dragged along with them.

Despite its appearance, it was incredibly light.

[Gururugh...]

And it wasn’t over. The jellyfish inside the dumbo octopus’ stomach—latched onto the Slow Fish’s entire body with their tentacle clusters, slowly, with all their strength.

-Click, click, click!

The Slow Fish shredded the octopus’ body faster than the eye could follow, but it clung to it to the very end.

And then—I began to perceive it with my Tide Sense.

The dumbo octopus’ sticky fluids coated the Slow Fish’s entire body, dragging it into my field of vision in this dark Abyssal Sea.

"Now I can see you."

I raised my hand, watching the creature panic as its outline became clear.

What filled the dumbo octopus’ belly weren’t just deep-sea creature balls.

I fed it traits that caused extreme expansion and traits that reinforced its skin so it wouldn’t actually burst. Traits necessary for a bomb.

But the essence was the jellyfish inside.

There was only one reason I put them in.

—To fight on equal terms.

"Now you live up to your name."

[...]

I swept the Slow Fish with a current.

Its soft underbelly was exposed.

The only part that wasn’t covered by its carapace.

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