Chapter 212: The Birth of a Scary Race
Translator: Aristophaneso
Chu Xian did not know how great an impact his creation would have in the ocean.
After he had finished remolding the Dunkleosteus, they initially followed his ship to dock before turning and diving into the deep waters.
After the restructuring of the Dunkleosteus, both their speed and their combat power had fallen tremendously, but in return they had gained a sliver of wisdom.
The Dunkleosteus swam in a pack, with the oldest in from and the others following swiftly behind.
In just a few minutes, a yellow catfish appeared in their view, and as soon the the ten Dunkleosteus spotted it, they turned in its direction.
But, to their disappointment, with their reduced speed, before they could near the yellow catfish, it had already noticed them and escaped.
Two of the Dunkleosteus refused to give up the chase, but after chasing for a dozen meters or so, they realized that their speed was no match, and they helplessly returned to the group.
The ten little fish unhappily continued their hunter, but the same scene repeated itself. They would spot the prey, but could never complete the hunt before the fish escaped.
After a while of this, the ten Dunkleosteus paused in their hunt and gathered around in a tight circle deep in the water. They swam back and forth around each other, as if communicating.
Very quickly, the ten little fish fanned out forming a ball shape, with fish able to respond to every direction, as if in a battle formation.
The ten Dunkleosteus swam in this formation into the distance, and very quickly the discovered a herring. This time, they did not all pounce at once, but spread out, and swam in every direction around it.
After about a minute, a Dunkleosteus swam, quickly at the herring.
When it saw the terrifying and fierce Dunkleosteus, the herring immediately turned and fled, with a panicked speed as if it had met its natural enemy.
But to its terror, when it turned to flee, it only moved from one Dunkleosteus in the distance to another pouncing forward behind him. The same terrifying fish still filled its view.
The herring turned again, and darted leftward.
But with a sinking desperation, it saw the same monstrous fish rushing over, its huge and fierce mouth inspiring terror.
It was then that the herring realized that this horrifying fish had surrounded it in every direction.
The herring twisted in the same tight circle in terror, flipping its tail in panic.
It was then that one of the Dunkleosteus rushed over, and immediately every Dunkleosteus pounced from every direction.
In a blink of an eye, the herring was torn into pieces, and all ten of the Dunkleosteus joined in on the meal.
Very quickly, no trace of the herring remained, and the ten Dunkleosteus stretched their jaws and continued their hunt.
After ten minutes, a 1.5 meter long Largehead Hairtail appeared in view.
The Dunkleosteus spared a glance towards each other, and then spread out and surrounded in the fish with the same method, and after a pause, a Dunkleosteus rushed the fish.
The Largehead Hairtail is a fierce fish that preys on squid and shrimp, and occasionally would eat small fish as well.
At this time, the Dunkleosteus had shrunk to 30 cm and were far smaller than the Hairtail. The Hairtail saw the attacking Dunkleosteus and pounced as well, neither of the two fish showing a sliver of fear, each charging fiercely at the other.
The Dunkleosteus was somewhat surprised that the Hairtail had not turned and ran, but this only excited the prehistoric fish, and it readied its huge mouth as it darted forward.
The Hairtail did not back down an inch, directly opening its mouth, following its animal instincts, prepared to fight back.
But tragedy befell it, and although the Dunkleosteus were tiny in comparison, and although their combat power had fallen after the remolding, they were still stronger than the Hairtail, and possessed a natural superiority with their steel body.
The Hairtails bite could not even mark the Dunkleosteus armor, but the Dunkleosteus’ attack ripped off a chunk of flesh from the Hairtail body.
The sharp pain terrified the Hairtail, and it flailed its body and turned to escape, but just as it turned, a huge mouth bit at its head, and with a crunching snap, directly bit it off.
What followed after was a straightforward feeding, as the ten Dunkleosteus rushed over and devoured the Hairtail.
Using this method, the Dunkleosteus continued their hunt, surrounding and devouring fish, their cooperation ensuring them a continuous string of successful kills.
Very quickly, their bodies returned to their meter and a half length.
A half meter long fish was not considered large in the ocean, but with the Dunkleosteus’ naturally strong body and teeth, they were able to hunt meter long fish without a problem. They were like the oft depicted bloodthirsty piranha, and left no fish untouched in their wake.
After the Dunkleosteus were full, they would slow down to digest, stalling until they could eat again before beginning their hunt anew. With the ten Dunkleosteus hunting together, it only took two days for every single one of them to grow to a meter in length.
After reaching the milestone of one meter, the Dunkleosteus’ growth slowed down. Their situation was similar to how Chu Xian had leveled and evolved quickly in the early stages, but after reaching a certain level had been unable to gain as much from small fish.
The Dunkleosteus had the same problem, and they had grown through devouring the fish and the energy the fish contained, but now that their own energy had reached a certain point, small prey would only contribute little to their growth. They were like sharks, and the source behind their large size was related to the energy of the prey they devoured.
Sharks preyed on sea seals, large fish, turtles, and sea snakes – all high energy sea creatures.
If the Dunkleosteus wanted to continue their speedy growth, they would also need to begin to hunt these higher energy creatures.
The ten Dunkleosteus had clearly understood this necessity, and began hunting larger fish and the various creatures that lived at the bottom of the sea.
And so, an even more bloody hunt began.
The ten Dunkleosteus surrounded an over a meter long turtle. Their prey had finally been able to fight back somewhat successfully, and the main attacking Dunkleosteus had a wound from a moment of carelessness. The turtle’s beak was extremely sharp, and it had snapped forward at with incredible speed.
A piece of flesh had been snapped away before the Dunkleosteus could react.
Luckily, the turtle’s mouth was quite small, and the damage was not too serious.
The ten Dunkleosteus swam around the turtle and observed it for a long time, as if studying it for any weakness. Then the ten prehistoric fish began their rapid and orderly attack.
The surrounded turtle had no hope of escape, and every bite from the terrifying mouths of the Dunkleosteus crack the turtle’s shell. After four or five bites, the shell was crushed, and the turtle was prey.
Turtle’s are very nutritious creatures, and contain a large amount of energy.
The ten Dunkleosteus devoured the turtle and continued their hunt. Gradually, they began to encounter the hidden killers of the seabed, gigantic squids and poisonous jellyfish.
With their carefully honed survival instincts, they avoided these dangers. The wisdom of the Dunkleosteuses had grown very quickly as well, along with the development of their hunting skills and their size.
They had learnt baiting, hit and run, and could feint.
Five days later, a four meter long shark was surrounded by ten strange fish.
The cornered shark was a Saw Shark, and had a very unique appearance. Sawsharks have long mouths that protrude like a sword with serrated edges. The segmental venters in front of its nostrils are a pair of tentacles, and they only highlight the strangeness of the flat head of the small shark.
Even if it was considered a small shark, it still belonged to the fierce group of predators and possessed the strong combat ability of sharks and their natural ferocity. No normal fish would dare to mess with this fellow.
But at this moment, the Saw Shark was scanning its surroundings anxiously. The ten strange fish in front of him were each less than half his size, but the aura that they emanated terrified it.
Their bodies especially was worrisome, and looked as if they were covered with a plated layer of black iron, clearly an incredibly tough armor. That was without mentioning their weird mouths, with strange sharp teeth. They looked like monsters from unexplored depths of the deep sea.
If their bodies had worried the shark, then the actions of the group of weird fish terrified it.
The ten strange fish had surrounded it, their cold eyes staring motionlessly as the fish hung in the water without moving, silently pressuring the shark a great deal.
The Saw Shark could not bear the stalemate any longer, and unleashed its nervous energy in a burst of violence, darting forward at a Dunkleosteus that was closer than the others.
But to the Saw Shark’s great surprise, the weird fish immediately retreated out of its reach. The fierce fish’s actions stunned the shark.
But it was in that moment that the shark’s instincts felt a great danger coming from behind it, and from both sides of its body.
The shark hurriedly turned, saw the weird fish to its left attacking, and the shark immediately retaliated and pounced forward.
But to the shark’s great annoyance, the moment it had turned to fight this fish, the strange creature had backed away and escaped out of reach.
At that moment, the shark felt a sharp crunching bite land on its body.
The shark flailed, twisting its body and stabbing backward with its saw-like mouth.
But the weird fish that had bit it had already flicked away out of range, and now the fish on the shark’s right attacked.
Noticing this attack, the Saw Shark turned its head to fight, but the strange fish had already backed away.
After that quick interchange, the fish had gathered around and surrounded the shark again, and were once again staring at the shark with their cold, motionless eyes.
The Saw Shark was terrified, and sharp pain ran through its body. The smell of blood in the water fed its bloodlust, and the terror gave way to ferocious berserking, and the Saw Shark lashed out in random directions.
In that moment, the ten weird fish saw their opportunity, and two of the fish slipped through the Saw Shark’s flails and crunched down on its body.
The Saw Shark immediately reacted to fight, but as it turned, a sharp pain struck him again from out of his vision. Its body began to slow, and the shark flailed weakly in panci.
“Crunch!” Another crushing bit fell on its body again, and the Saw Shark felt its life leaking away. It could struggle less and less, and then a final sharp pain crushed its head, and its body was torn apart.
These ten werid fish were nothing less than the remolded Dunkleosteus that Chu Xian had unleashed on the ocean.
That initial sliver of wisdom had developed through their constant hunts over the past days, and at this point the murder of fish had become terrifying hunters.
Cooperation, misdirection, and strategy.
A horrifying group of hunters had been born into the world in less than a week.