Chapter 210: The Battle Between the Dragon and the Monster (1)

Bottom-dwelling demon fish can use their slimy tentacles to attack opponents, but they prefer to stay at a distance and use their illusions, hypnosis, and other abilities to fight.
These fish possess various spell-like mental powers, including hypnotic images, illusion walls, mirages, persistent phantoms, pre-created illusions, projection magic, and mist veils. The effects of their spells are on par with those cast by master illusionists like golden archmages.
Moreover, they have a powerful supernatural ability: enslavement. Once per day, they can attempt to enslave any creature around them, with the mental strength and willpower of the target being key factors determining the success of this ability. This ability is extremely terrifying for intelligent beings, akin to the rare fifth-level spell “Dominate Humans.” However, once enslaved by such a fish, there is no time limit—theoretically, the victim becomes a permanent slave.
Upon reaching land, this bottom-dwelling demon fish did not immediately attack Donald and the dragon. Instead, it stayed about a hundred feet away, observing its enemies with its cold, evil eyes.
Seeing its cautious behavior, Donald realized that defeating it would require considerable effort.
Ignoring Donald, who stood beside the bronze dragon, the fish turned to Nozdorm and demanded, “Dragon! Why slaughter my people? This sea is the domain of my ocean lord, Thue the Devourer, under the protection of the great lord of the Fallen Star Sea, Octepus. If you have no valid reason, you will surely face Octepus’s punishment!”
Although Nozdorm had suppressed most of his dragonly aura, he hadn’t changed his overall presence. With their keen senses, the bottom-dwelling demon fish could easily detect Nozdorm’s identity as a powerful golden bronze dragon, so they regarded him as the leader among their enemies.
Though evil, these fish knew when to adapt their tactics. Facing a formidable opponent like a golden dragon—even though they believed their own strength far surpassed that of ordinary golden dragons—they still felt cautious. They hoped to use Octepus’s fearsome reputation to drive the dragon away, making it easier to deal with the weaker humans left behind.

The bottom-dwelling demon fish possess both male and female reproductive organs, allowing them to reproduce asexually. They lay one to three eggs every five years, but few survive. Even if an egg is successfully fertilized, it takes about five years before it develops into a mature offspring. Juvenile bottom-dwelling demon fish are fully physiologically mature from an early age, yet they remain with their “parents” for up to ten years, absorbing the extensive knowledge passed down from the previous generation.

This Thuo? The Devourer never had any offspring until a few years ago when it finally managed to produce one. After serving as both parent, it waited patiently until its child reached the Silver rank and was nearly ready to leave, only to find that the mental connection was severed—the child had been killed by a human expert.

This caused the bottom-dwelling demon fish, which had remained restrained due to its awareness of the many powerful humans and its ambition for something greater, to explode in fury, leading to the attack by sea beasts.

Donald had also heard much about the Octopus mentioned by the other party. It is said to be a deep-sea monster that has existed for countless years, possessing immense strength but very low intelligence. A thousand years ago, it caused havoc along the continental coasts, resulting in heavy casualties, and thus accidentally acquired divine powers related to fear and disaster. However, it could only ignite divine flames, making it a semi-god. Still, even ten semi-gods might not be a match for this monster; it is likely one of the most powerful beings in the material world.

If not for its limited intelligence, it would have already unified the oceans and become the true ruler of the seas—there would be no need for the current Sea God, Bassetdo, to take charge. Even now, many humans along the coasts still use tales of sea monsters to scare disobedient children!

It is said that the Sea God Bassetdo is a recent addition among the human gods. He was originally a sailor from the southern coast of the continent who, by chance, acquired the divinity of a deceased ocean lord. With the support of other gods, he successfully ignited divine flames and became a god hundreds of years ago. He is like a nail driven by human gods into the vast oceans.

This new Sea God’s churches are mostly found along the coasts of the Southern Solon Commercial Alliance countries. Due to his background as a sailor, he is highly revered by sailors and coastal fishermen. However, in the northern regions, only rumors about this god exist.

It was only when the other party mentioned the name of the terrifying sea monster, Octopus, that Donald thought of its greatest rival: the Sea God Bassetdo.

Faced with Tuue? The Devourer’s challenge, Nozdorm certainly wouldn’t explain anything to it. Upon receiving his master’s orders, he immediately roared arrogantly, “Stop talking nonsense! I just can’t stand you, this stinky fish covered in mucus. If you want to fight, then fight! If not, get back to your nest right now!” Nozdorm’s words completely exposed the dragon’s pride, making it seem less like a kind bronze dragon and more like an irritable evil red dragon.

Due to the nature of a dragon’s power, it can resist most mental and illusion-based spells. Tuue? The Devourer’s greatest advantage was now lost in the face of this dragon, which was why it was so cautious around Nozdorm. If it were a human gold-tier warrior, they would have already used their innate abilities to launch a surprise attack.

“Stupid dragon, your provocation will bring you a terrible enemy!”

Humiliated to this extent, the already proud Tuue? The Devourer could no longer bear its anger. It immediately released a gray mist to cover its entire body, then swung its tentacles at the young dragons behind those two youths.

The sinister plan of this bottom-dwelling demon fish was to eliminate the smaller ones first before focusing all its efforts on the older ones.

Inside the mist surrounding the demon fish were countless thread-like substances, resembling flocculent matter within some kind of white, viscous substance ejected from it. These threads had a certain degree of stickiness, and once anyone came into contact with them, they would suffer terrible mutations.

This was a unique ability inherent to the bottom-dwelling demon fish, similar to a venomous snake’s venom—something evolved by the creature itself, not a spell-like or innate ability. Once hit by the fish’s tentacles or covered by this viscous mist, one would undergo horrible deformations. If the affected creature’s resistance wasn’t strong enough to avoid it, its body would start mutating within minutes. Its skin would gradually turn into a transparent mucous membrane like that of some aquatic invertebrates. The transformed being would need to stay moist with clean water to survive; otherwise, it would die just like a fish exposed to air.

In addition, any other creature that inhaled that mucus cloud would lose the ability to breathe air until it expelled it, forcing it to breathe oxygen from water through its skin and mucous membranes. If it left the water’s surface, it would die from suffocation within two to six minutes. Under such conditions, even silver-tier warriors without a solution could only die tragically.

So some mage scholars describe the ability of the bottom-dwelling demon fish as a curse, stemming from its terrifying hatred for all non-aquatic creatures, which gives rise to its attack effect of death upon leaving water.