Chapter 99: Battle in the sea

Shina instinctively held her breath when she sensed the presence of the massive creature too. She observed her surroundings and stayed alert for anything that might come.

By hyper focusing on the noises around her, she concluded that the creature was indeed following them. It was just several meters under the boat.

As all sounds got reduced and divided into three parts, their breathing, the waves against the small boat, and the howling wind, Shina was able to feel it faintly… The vibrations that it sent off to the surface, and the way it altered the waves.

Shina slowly and carefully pulled out another vial of arcanium. She and Remi still clung to the hope that this creature was just coincidentally going in the same direction as them, and the best thing they should do was be as unnoticeable as possible and let it pass.

But in this deserted ocean when only predators are awake, it was simply impossible to not notice this single boat rowing above the waters.

What predator in their right mind would pass an easy meal by?

Suddenly, the waves behaved unnaturally. Even though the ocean was calm, the surface that the boat was floating on would rise and fall in an alarming manner.

When Shina realized that she would in fact be in a fight, she immediately drank the arcanium and raised her forearm.

“Now, Remi!”

The low grumbling from the depths of the ocean intensified, sending vibrations to the water’s surface. The dragon flapped his wings and lifted himself up into the air with ease before straining its wings to lift a full grown woman with him.

And just in time, when Shina’s feet left the wooden boat, a terrifying giant maw of triangular teeth, each were the size of a human, emerged from under the water.

It was like an enormous vortex that had razors around it suddenly appeared, preparing to swallow the boat. Remi desperately flapped his wings to gain more altitude and surely enough, when the megalodon shark broke through the water’s surface to chomp on them, they were already high up.

When the shark violently closed its maw to capture its prey, the tip of Shina’s feet were a hair’s breadth away from being severed.

Her heart pounded rapidly against her chest. If she was standing, her knees would have given in. With widening eyes, she and Remi watched as the megalodon fell back to the water, causing a massive splash of wave to ripple across the ocean.

There was no longer anything to land on. The boat was gone. Now, it was all up to Remi to keep them high enough from the monster’s reach.

Circling on the water, they saw the fin at the top of the megalodon’s body slightly protruding from the surface. Judging by the speed at which it moved, even with a ship they wouldn’t be able to outrun it.

The only way to survive was to kill it.

It seemed like this overgrown fish have had nothing to eat for days, as it showed no signs of giving up on the two tiny targets. The megalodon knew that it would only be a matter of time before the dragon’s wings got tired and they would eventually fall right into its mouth.

“As if I’d let you eat us!” Shina exclaimed with a determined look on her face.

She used wind magic to summon an upward wind current, helping Remi to gain altitude. Once they were high enough, the dragon only had to glide in the air and rest his wings.

And since there won’t be enough mana to let her use a strong thunder magic that would be able to do the giant shark in, Shina carefully weighed her options.

Ice magic was one of them. If she could freeze the megalodon in place permanently, that would be able to save their lives. But for a creature this huge, she doubted that her magic power would even be enough.

Remi glided towards the south and the megalodon followed them. Its terrifying fin, visible on the water’s surface, was like a mark of death that filled Shina with fear. It continuously chased them under the cold moonlight, waiting for a chance to swallow them whole.

And it was fast, too. While Remi’s stamina was limited, the shark could stalk them for hours until the dragon grew exhausted.

Shina used the last of her mana to summon another current of wind to relieve Remi of the burden of flying.

Then, she resorted to her last plan.

“Let’s see if this works…”

Shina pulled out her crossbow. The Hemmethian technology was able to craft a kind of crossbow that could shoot consecutive shots automatically. And it can be operated using only one hand.

The arrows were coated with a lethal venom that would kill most of any living organism on earth. However, no one was able to test it on a gargantuan monster like the megalodon.

Aiming towards the water, Shina waited for the shark to emerge from the depths for the arrow to truly penetrate its skin. And once the space between the megalodon and the water’s surface was thin enough, Shina shot a barrage of arrows near the side of its belly where its skin was softest.

The shark noticeably slowed down!

Remi and Shina were gaining distance. She prayed that it would be enough to kill the monster.

Another thing that Shina noticed was that they were going down.

She grimaced while twisting her head to look at Remi.

“No… no, no.”

But no matter how Shina wished for Remi to fly a little longer, a small dragon like him could only fly so much while carrying the weight of another person.

After a couple of minutes, they completely fell into the water.

Shina trembled when the cold water swallowed her legs. Eventually, her whole body was in the water.

As she desperately tried to keep herself afloat, the dragon clung to her for dead life. Shina realized that she never taught Remi how to swim…

Dragons weren’t known for their swimming abilities in the first place. Moreover, they preferred a hotter environment. Remi was currently in the waters of the southern oceans where anyone could easily freeze to death.

But that was the least of their worries as the megalodon was accelerating towards them at terrifying speeds. It parted the waters with its sharp snout and drew closer and closer towards them.

Terror filled Shina’s whole system.

Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a gigantic hand from under the water held the shark in place. The hand was so enormous that the megalodon looked like a mere fish compared to it.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep