This One Won't Do-She's Already Gone Silly

With a flick of his tail, Chaos turned his head toward Agatha beside him.

The big little girl must have fought the thing that killed him in the vision and escaped unscathed after tearing off one of its tentacles.

Strong. This big little girl was incredibly strong.

Naturally, someone that strong needed to be stationed at the channel entrance.

Catching his movement out of the corner of her eye, Agatha shifted her gaze from the water to Chaos before her.

"What is it?"

"The thorn vines I summoned can't stop the Kashi from biting through. Agatha, can you guard the channel entrance alone?"

The big little girl was certainly huge compared to them, but compared to the channel entrance...

Perhaps he should assign two more dragons to guard it with Agatha.

"How about having two more dragons guard it with you?" Chaos suggested.

"No need."

Agatha refused outright. Her voice was childish, yet carried absolute confidence.

All right, whatever you say, big girl.

Seeing how confident she was, Chaos decided not to say anything more.

He swept his gaze over the Dragon Group of hatchlings still watching him eagerly.

"Let's begin."

With that call, Chaos was the first to plunge headfirst into the pool.

Splash!

Once he entered the water, he saw that it had cleared after several hours of settling.

But that clarity soon vanished.

As the hatchlings entered one after another, the water quickly turned murky again.

The hatchlings each sought out a favored ambush spot and began digging with their claws.

Once their pits were dug, they lay down inside and stayed still, letting the muddy water gradually settle over them.

With a flick of his tail, Chaos swam straight to the very center of the pool.

His slit pupils narrowed. At a thought, an Emerald Casting Ring formed before his head.

As green light spilled down, tender green shoots broke through the mud on the bottom and grew into vines. A small orb formed at the tip of every emerald vine, opening to reveal an emerald eyeball.

Chaos chose not to connect to every Perceptive Vines.

There were too many. Perceptive Vines now densely covered the entire bottom of the pool, like aquatic weeds.

Summoning several hundred Perceptive Vines at once had depleted his newly recovered mana again, leaving only a tenth.

Everything underwater had gone still again.

The hatchlings were already hidden.

He glanced toward the channel entrance.

A pit had been dug to the left of the entrance, and a pair of crimson slit pupils gleamed inside its darkness.

Everyone's ready, then.

He willed it.

Just then, a plump white claw rose from an underwater pit and waved at him.

Seeing the empty space beside White Chubby, Chaos's Dragon Jaws split into a grin.

White Chubby even saved me a spot. Nice.

With a flick of his tail, he swam straight to the pit beside White Chubby and lay down.

He swished his tail, instantly stirring up the surrounding water.

As the water grew murkier, Chaos slowly closed his eyes.

The yellow mud stirred into the water also began settling slowly, covering the original color of his scales.

Switching his vision to two Perceptive Vines, Chaos began the tedious wait.

Splash!

A school of large fish, each at least three meters long, gathered before a channel entrance and lingered.

They seemed to be facing some difficult decision.

Their indecision lasted until a somewhat smaller Kashi appeared.

Seeing its kind gathered there, the other Kashi slowly approached as well.

But the moment it drew close, it felt an instinctive longing.

Something inside that opening was drawing it in.

Without resisting, the Kashi flicked its tail and charged straight toward the channel entrance.

Seeing a Kashi smaller than themselves charge in, the others threw caution aside! Flicking their tails, they entered through the broad channel entrance one after another.

The obstructing thorn vines were completely shredded within a few passes, their fragments floating up to the surface at the channel entrance.

Underwater, Chaos immediately spotted the Kashi entering the pool through the Perceptive Vines' vision.

The first, the second, the third...

Thump, thump.

His dragon heart began beating faster.

Chaos forcibly suppressed the powerful predatory urge rising within him.

The creatures swimming overhead hardly looked like Kashi anymore. They were little temptresses tormenting a dragon.

They even made him salivate faster.

Hold back. Hold back.

He repeated those words silently, over and over, yet tears of joy kept dripping uncontrollably from his Dragon Jaws.

Kashi were still entering through the channel entrance.

Every Kashi that entered the pool had a clear target, and they began biting off the Perceptive Vines' eyeballs one by one.

The Kashi ate quickly.

In his field of vision, a Kashi opened its mouth full of sharp teeth and bit down.

The last Perceptive Vines was bitten off as well.

Now!

His braced claws pushed off the bottom, and his Dragon Jaws opened to bite the Kashi before him.

That bite caught the Kashi's head.

Before the Kashi could react, Chaos's Dragon Jaws clamped shut.

Crunch!

With the crack of breaking fish bones, the Kashi lost half its head.

The Kashi died without ever realizing what had happened.

At almost the same instant, every hatchling hidden underwater launched an attack.

Blood spread through the water.

Smelling the blood around him, Chaos narrowed his slit pupils.

Thump, thump.

His dragon heart began racing, his hunting urge fully awakened.

I want to hunt more prey!

He locked onto the nearest prey and flicked his tail.

His target was a five-meter-long Kashi. Instead of fleeing, it flicked its tail and met Chaos head-on. Most of the Kashi reacted the same way.

The Kashi had always ruled these waters. Since when had it been their turn to become prey?

And so the battle began.

More and more blood spread underwater. Before long, the entire pool had turned crimson, and dead Kashi rose one after another to float on its surface.

Kashi were not intelligent. As low-tier magical beasts, they had only a little more awareness and instinct than ordinary beasts.

The remaining Kashi gradually caught on and tried to flee.

But death awaited them at the channel entrance as well.

A Kashi opened its savage maw and lunged at Agatha, who blocked its path.

Agatha did not move. Only when the Kashi drew near did she raise a claw and slam it squarely onto its head. The Kashi's entire head burst apart instantly, and blood spread through the water.

Splash!

The headless Kashi floated to the surface, its white belly turned upward.

With that, the hunt ended.

Not a single Kashi that entered the pool escaped.

Splash!

Chaos poked his head above the surface. His slit pupils widened slightly as he gazed at the Kashi corpses floating across the water.

It had truly been a satisfying hunt.

His Dragon Jaws opened and grabbed one Kashi corpse, then he scooped up another in each front claw.

Without any dragon giving orders, all the hatchlings got to work on their own.

Carrying their spoils in their jaws, they transported them to the riverbank one after another.

Before long, a small mountain of Kashi corpses had piled up on the riverbank.

The Dragon Group gathered around the mountain of spoils.

Now it was time to divide them.

So who would do the dividing?

The hatchlings turned their heads in perfect unison toward the Green Hatchling nearby, who was already hugging a pile of white magic cores and giggling foolishly.

This one won't do. She's already gone silly.

Their gazes shifted toward the largest of them, the Red Hatchling, Agatha.