Its round body convulsed wildly as though high-voltage electricity had coursed through it.
Its enormous mouth opened to an impossible degree, as if it would tear its own head apart.
Strangest of all, under its extreme terror, the luminous substance inside the glowing little orb atop its head, pressed against Kirishima's cheek, seemed to overload instantly...
"Boom!"
With a muffled bang, that little lightbulb-like organ actually burst apart.
Thick liquid giving off a faint fluorescent glow splashed over half of Kirishima Bupai's cheek and his collarbone.
The Lanternfish broke down completely. How could it dare stay any longer?
Its instinct to survive overrode everything!
Mustering every ounce of strength, it twisted violently and shot like an arrow from a bow in the direction away from Kirishima.
That was toward the waterfall's rock face beside them. It fled for its life, moving so fast that it trailed a blurry, dark-purple afterimage.
Yet its extreme fear had robbed it of its sense of direction and judgment.
"Bang!!!"
A deep, thunderous crash rang out...
The dark-purple lump of flesh slammed headfirst at astonishing speed, squarely and without any flourish, into the waterfall's rock face, covered in wet, slippery moss.
The impact was so powerful that even the rock face trembled slightly.
"Rumble-"
A rock the size of a millstone, shaken loose by the violent collision, came crashing down from a loosened section higher up the cliff.
It landed squarely and heavily on the unfortunate Lanternfish below, which had been knocked completely unconscious by the violent impact and had slid limply to the ground.
"Squelch..."
A sticky crushing sound rang out.
Strange dark-purple liquid mixed with indescribable fragments slowly seeped out from beneath the boulder's edges, staining the soil beside the stream black.
The Lanternfish was dead.
Dead silence fell over the scene once