“That one! NOW NOW NOW!” Jin, who saw the smaller replica of Lord Dagen, was extremely afraid. This was the first time he had seen such a huge monster appearing in his life. Even though Jin was far away from the docks, it was very obvious that the monstrosity was extremely huge.
“Take this Derpy one! Super Big Bang Bammmmmmm!! ” Peppers shouted as loud as she could as she aimed her magical staff at Replica Dagen and a complex magic circle filled with a rainbow of colours appeared in front of the magical staff. “Go!” Peppers shouted and from the magical circle appeared the silhouette of a muscular person, who pulled himself halfway out of the circle and held his hands back to throw a ball. A ball of energy.
With Peppers’ command, the silhouette threw the energy ball at Replica Dagen. The ball was thrown at such a high velocity that Replica Dagen did not see it coming at all. When it turned its head, the ball had already come into contact with Replica Dagen.
What ensued after that was… spectacular.
A sudden blinding flash of white light was followed by an intense muffled roar. A pillar of fire rose from the ground as if it wished to bloom like a flower beaming with life. The ‘Life’ of this particular flower could be seen changing from a burning red to a devilish violet and later through the entire colour spectrum as it soared into the skies, wanting to touch the semi-eclipse. The fire continued to rage as smoke and dust were expelled from the monolith pillar that was violently agitated from the bottom of the sea.
Both Jin and the Deep Ones stared in awe as they saw the Replica Dagen full of burns and scars fall from the burning monolith pillar and into the shallow waters of this unknown desolate port town. The fire on the giant serpent was so intense that the water itself started to heat up and evaporate.
“Uhhhhhh I feel terrible.” Peppers grumbled as she started to feel very nauseous and the next moment she vomited rainbows in front of Jin, which he did not dare to get close to in case any of the vomit stained his shirt.
It was there and then that Jin saw a white silhouette dashing on top of the sea waters. He squinted his eyes a little and realised that it was actually Zeru. This was the first time he had seen Zeru appear very serious and aggressive in his stance.
“….Technique. Red Lotus Bone Slicer.” Zeru whispered as he sped like a plane zooming close across the water. His wooden sword gradually changed its colour to bloody red and the wooden sword’s afterimages could be seen zooming past along with Zeru as he got closer to the dying Replica Dagen who had yet to inflict a single bit of damage on the party.
Although the Replica Dagen had a fragment of Lord Dagen, the Fish God himself, within it, when it saw Zeru coming for its life with immerse bloodlust, it too felt fright and fear for a moment as it struggled to move into deeper waters. For once, it felt as if it was not the true terror incarnate and that that title was reserved for the one racing towards it.
In a flash, Zeru sent thousands of cuts through the burnt serpent and when he reached the end of the tail, blood spewed wildly like water sprinklers in an enlarged hose, which caused the serpent to cry in agony before it drowned in its own pool of grey blood. Then, it began to slowly disappear as it was being captured by Jin’s new inscription.
The remaining Deep Ones fell to their knees to bark and growl in sadness while Jin placed Peppers down and let her rest on steady ground. Not long after, all the Deep Ones slowly returned to the sea. However, they did not just return to the sea. Each and every one of them purposely searched the docks for the broken pieces of the burning monolith pillar.
Some of the Deep ones even jumped onto the monolith in an attempt to stop the fire from burning the stone pillar but they were essentially jumping into their graves. Others gathered water in their mouths and shot beams of water to try and cool it down.
Seeing that they did not attack Jin anymore, Jin slowly descend back towards the docks to reunite with Milk and Zeru, only to see another weird scene taking place. Groups of Deep Ones were appearing out of the sea water while carrying nets of live fishes and walking towards Jin and the bellators.
“Urgh, the smell of fresh fish… I feel like vomiting again.” Peppers held onto Jin but the now conscious Milk walked towards Peppers and cast a calming spell, which helped with nausea as well. “You sure you’re okay, Milk?” Jin asked and Milk closed her eyes as she nodded her head with a smile. “I am all good, although I am not sure if I made things worse or better.”
“It’s fine, everything is now over and it looks like..the Deep Ones are offering us fish too…” Jin felt like it did not make sense until Peppers answered him. “Probably a contract with the township here. If I am not wrong, the reason they are giving you this bountiful amount of fish is because 1) they are fulfilling their contract or 2) they wished to break the contract….because I see Gold and ancient artefacts hidden within those fish too..” Peppers squeezed her nose as the Deep Ones brought a bountiful amount of large fat fish that were full of spiritual force to Jin.
Jin did not hesitate and wanted to keep them so he was about to put them in his storage watch before Yun suddenly spoke to him. “Jin, use your phone instead. Putting them in your storage watch will cause them to die and lose their spiritual force. Just face your phone towards them. I will initiate the transfer.”
Jin hurriedly proceeded to face his phone in the direction of the wondrous bounty and it all magically disappeared. The Deep Ones were startled for a while but returned back to the sea once they had completed their job. This procedure went on for half an hour as the Deep Ones kept bringing fish and golden artefacts to Jin.
“At this rate, I am beginning to think that they might actually be giving you such a large amount of fishes as a tribute since you…..We… killed their replica god.” Pepper deduced that it was not possible for the Deep Ones to be so generous, especially having seen what had happened to the Town’s people. All were gone except for a Deep One Hybrid masquerading as the only person living in this town. Even Peppers did not know where he had gone to during the fight.
“Look on the bright side, at least… we get monsters, fish and possibly gold that can be converted into dungeon dollars. Also, I believe I have learnt a new technique too.” Jin tried to reason.
“But it’s been a long time since I’ve vomited.” Peppers stared at Jin.
“It’s been a long time since I got serious.” Zeru nodded his head in agreement with Peppers.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve fainted due to overexertion.” Milk just had to chip in too.
“Okay okay…I get it. Let’s just call it a day and erm…eat Tonkatsu Curry Rice?” Jin tried to salvage the whole group’s opinion when Yun decided to suddenly appear in front of them and interrupted the whole group. “Do not be a cheapskate Jin.” Yun folded her arms and shook her head towards the portal.
“For a job well done, I had unlocked some delightful desserts, not because of you Jin, but because the Bellators worked hard.” Yun complimented the bellators, which made Peppers and Milk shout with joy and happiness. Even Zeru had a wide smile on his face, which left Jin speechless.
“Come on guys, let’s go. Except for you Jin.” Yun snapped her fingers at Jin and pointed her finger at the incoming Deep Ones while she gestured the rest to return.
“Finish collecting all the tribute before you come back, alright? I’ll leave the portal here for you until you are done.” Yun said as she walked into the portal. All Jin could do was groan as he stayed back to collect all the fish from the Deep Ones.
.
.
