Hunting Sharks

In the vast ocean, sunlight streamed down. In these waters, the light gradually dimmed as the depth increased.

Near the seabed, the light was faint, and the visible area had shrunk greatly. Beyond a dozen meters lay a stretch of profound darkness.

This was still a coastal area, not even at the edge of the shallows, yet the fish here had grown much larger in both length and size.

Many solitary fish were over a meter long, with sharp teeth and massive bodies.

Some schooling fish numbered more than fifty or sixty, even reaching one or two hundred.

Most of them were covered in sharp teeth. Even fish three or four meters long, once surrounded by them, would be reduced to nothing but bones in moments.

Splash.

The surrounding fish suddenly scattered, swimming away in panic.

Whoosh.

A figure shot forward and bit into a giant pomfret around a meter long. With a single bite, nearly half its body vanished.

It tore greedily at the pomfret, devouring its flesh.

It was a Galeocerdo Cuvier, better known as a tiger shark. Over three meters long, it had a spindle-shaped body and was immensely powerful.

As it gnawed at the pomfret, several layers of sharp teeth glinted within its open jaws, giving off a terrifying aura.

In mere moments, it had devoured more than half the pomfret, leaving only its massive head and broken bones.

The pomfret weighed around eleven kilograms, and the part it had eaten weighed roughly seven kilograms.

For a huge tiger shark nearly three and a half meters long and weighing close to four hundred kilograms, this pomfret was nowhere near enough.

It slowly rose, intending to continue hunting.

But at that moment, the pomfret's head slowly sank.

Plop.

The fish head landed on a huge black rock with a soft sound, then rolled off and fell onto the sand nearby.

But in that instant, the black rock moved. It transformed into a black shadow and shot upward.

Boom.

Its enormous body blasted through the water and lunged toward the shark.

"Hm?"

Sensing the disturbance in the water, the shark immediately spotted its opponent. Seeing that it was larger than itself by a full size, it showed no fear and charged forward instead.

It curved through the water, avoiding the Black Fish's head and circling toward its lower flank.

Following the tiger shark's movements, the Black Fish slowly turned its body. However, it was somewhat slow, allowing the tiger shark to reach its side less than five meters away.

Whoosh.

The next moment, the tiger shark became a sharp blade and shot toward the Black Fish, biting for its belly.

So what if it was bigger?

The tiger shark was not afraid. It had caught fish far larger than itself before. As long as it targeted a vital spot, it could easily kill its opponent.

The tiger shark rapidly closed in, instantly reaching the Black Fish's belly. It opened its bloody maw and was about to bite down.

But at that moment, the Black Fish's huge body suddenly twisted. Its powerful body swung, and its enormous tail lashed out.

Bang.

Before the tiger shark could react, the tail struck its upper jaw. The immense impact brought its body to a halt.

The instant it stalled, the Black Fish swung its body again and surged forward, slicing through the water as it charged toward the shark's side.

How could that speed possibly be like its previous sluggish movements?

The tiger shark had only just steadied itself when the Black Fish was already beside it. Opening its huge mouth, it bit into the shark's body.

Crack.

Its massive jaws closed directly on the tiger shark's side.

The tiger shark twisted instinctively after being bitten, but its movement, combined with the Black Fish's closing teeth and swinging body, tore a huge chunk from its side.

Bang.

A large piece of flesh vanished in an instant. The bitten area seemed to explode as a cloud of blood burst through the water and tiny chunks of meat drifted into the distance.

As the blood cloud rose, the tiger shark rolled over and lost all signs of life.

Gulp.

The Black Fish swallowed the meat it had bitten off, opened its jaws, and lunged forward again. It took another bite, tearing off another piece of flesh and swallowing it.

The tiger shark's corpse slowly sank toward the seabed, and the Black Fish followed after it, intending to seize it.

But the next moment, the Black Fish suddenly snapped awake. Its body abruptly recoiled, and it swam into the distance.

Splash.

After the Black Fish had retreated four or five meters, a school of deep-purple fish swarmed in, numbering two or three hundred. They instantly covered the shark's body.

Crunch, crunch.

The sounds of chewing rang out as the tiger shark's corpse vanished at a visible rate.

These fish were purple all over, most only twenty to thirty centimeters long, but they had sharp teeth and huge mouths.

The purple fish fed around the tiger shark's corpse, but some of them chased after the Black Fish—seventy or eighty in total.

The purple fish closed in on the Black Fish, surrounding it completely and beginning to bite at its body.

Scrape.

But when their teeth struck the Black Fish's scales, they could not break through at all.

Several fish attacked its belly, the joints of its tail fins, its eyes, and its barbels.

Clack.

The Black Fish's belly was still covered in scales. Its thick scales blocked the fish's bites.

The fish attacking its head were greeted by a bloody maw instead.

Crunch, crunch.

One purple fish after another was bitten apart and swallowed, vanishing before its eyes.

With every bite, the Black Fish swallowed five or six purple fish. In an instant, more than twenty purple fish had disappeared without a trace.

Splash.

The other purple fish that had been attacking the tiger shark in the distance had already devoured its body clean. They surged toward the Black Fish like a purple vortex.

Can't deal with them. Time to run.

Sensing their arrival, the Black Fish no longer lingered. It swam into the distance, turning into a black shadow and disappearing without a trace.

Some purple fish continued the pursuit, but after advancing a hundred meters, they were all left behind.

Whoosh.

The Black Fish kept swimming into the distance. Only when the water gradually grew brighter did it enter an underwater trench, sink into it, and hide itself within.

Those purple fish really are dangerous.

The Black Fish could not help thinking. It was Xia Qiu after evolving once more.

Xia Qiu was now nearly four meters long and weighed more than six hundred kilograms.

Its head was enormous, with a high, bulging forehead that was extremely hard.

Its upper and lower jaws protruded, and its mouth was huge. It had six layers of teeth, the front teeth sharp and the rear teeth flat.

Its six barbels, the longest nearly seventy centimeters, grew on both sides of its mouth. Its senses had become even sharper, and it could now control them slightly.

Xia Qiu's body had grown thicker. It was no longer laterally flattened and oval-shaped, but spindle-shaped, with black scales even covering its underside.

Its scales had transformed twice more. As the waters it entered became deeper and darker, they first changed from silvery white to dark gray, then completely turned black.

The scales were still ctenoid scales, but they had become larger. Every scale was as big as an adult's palm and extremely hard.

Xia Qiu's dorsal fin had become sturdier, its hard spines protruding and extremely tough, granting it offensive power.

Its pectoral fins were like sickles, while its tail fin was broom-shaped. Combined with its spindle-like body, they provided powerful propulsion.

Xia Qiu was now extremely strong. As long as a single fish was not so large that it completely overwhelmed Xia Qiu, there was no need to fear it.

Even a shark nearly five meters long could be killed by Xia Qiu.

But the one thing that troubled Xia Qiu was small fish in enormous schools.

If a school numbered fewer than a hundred, there was no need to worry. Even if Xia Qiu was injured, it could recover quickly.

But if it encountered a school of two or three hundred fish, it had no choice but to flee.

Just like those purple fish. They were unique to the world of One Piece and highly aggressive. Sixty or seventy could be handled, but against two or three hundred, Xia Qiu had to leave.

Although these waters contained many dangers, Xia Qiu would not face any threat to its life as long as it remained careful.

Yet Xia Qiu felt a trace of boredom.

It had been a month and a half since coming to this world. It had grown from a thirty-centimeter fish to four meters long.

Its rate of growth was unimaginable, even surpassing that of every other sea fish it had seen.

Xia Qiu had already stopped paying attention to its evolution speed and had adapted to being a fish.

But every day, the thing it did most was travel from shallower waters to deeper ones, hunt, return, digest its food, rest, and repeat the cycle endlessly.

It was simply too boring.

There was not the slightest hope in such a life. It was impossible to muster even the slightest interest in continuing to live.

Xia Qiu wanted to communicate with others. It wanted to see the world and witness more magnificent scenery.

The desire for adventure slowly arose within Xia Qiu, but its fear of danger extinguished those thoughts again.

Still not strong enough.

Xia Qiu moved its body, concealed itself in the trench, and began to rest.