Chapter 230 - The Enemy In The Dark.
Very early in the morning, the strongest sharks in Old Mak's Shark clan woke up from their slumber as they finally got ready to go on probably the most epic and most dangerous mission that the clan had ever taken on.
It was now just a week till the Sea King inheritance arrives and the effects could already be felt, the region was turning chaotic.
In Sebastian's plan, it was agreed that the 5 sharks who were to be the vanguard team would go to the seamount to engage the insertion stage of the plan before the arrival of the main team.
At this moment, the 5 sharks were already gathered outside the clan cave, and before them was a revolving vortex that indicated the teleportation portal.
Tonado was not in this group. Of course, the old toad insisted on following Sebastian but was stopped after a lot of persuasion on his part.
In this one week before the official arrival of the Sea King inheritance, Sebastian was confident of keeping his life.
And with powerful Great White Sharks like the ones currently going alongside him as companions, he had nothing to worry about.
Instead of Tonado following him and not being able to do anything throughout the whole week in the end, Sebastian preferred leaving Tonado behind to take care of some sharks that meant more than just sharks to him now.
After spending so much time in the clan, Sebastian already developed kind emotions over some of his shark companions.
Companions like Verni, Tosh, Tungsten, and Shanks, would be devastated if any of them perished in this battle.
Perhaps, this was his human side acting up again but, in this case, he was okay with letting it dominate since it resonated with who he was as a person.
At this moment, Elder Marble's enormous body hovered beside the group of 5 as he stood as the clan's representative to send the vanguard team off.
"Old Marble, I'm leaving the clan in your hands". Old Mak spoke without turning back as his eyes were fixated on the revolving teleportation portal.
"No worries, Old friend, the clan is in safe hands".
"I'm glad on hearing that".
With that, Old Mak took the first step as he swam inside the teleportation portal. Queen Heareth followed, the 2 elders followed, then Sebastian did also.
Bzzz!
The 5 sharks were gone in an instant.
…
When Sebastian's vision was restored, he was back in the familiar Seamount. Unlike the last time where they appeared at a certain distance away from the Draconic Lizard territory, this time, they directly appeared inside.
As soon as they appeared, they saw the familiar Lizard Lord hovering in the water just a few distances away from them. Due to his presence, the other Draconic Lizards refrained from doing anything against the intruders.
[You have activated skill: Advanced Electroreceptors.]
As the predators looked at each other, Sebastian keenly noticed a difference in the seamount compared to 2 days ago when he came with the clan head.
Though his electroreceptors were not OP enough to extend across the whole seamount yet, the little distance that it could cover paired with his knowledge of this seamount enabled him to notice the difference.
The seamount felt deserted compared to before.
Mutated beasts didn't necessarily roam every part of the seamount, but Sebastian's familiarity with this region helped him to notice the desertion.
Unlike before where mutated crabs would be crawling all over the place at every few meters, there was hardly any mutated beast on sight.
While Sebastian made his observation, Old Mak swam closer to his new ally. "Thanks for accepting our proposal, but what pushed you to decide now?"
Hearing the question that was posed, the Lizard Lord could only laugh bitterly. "The situation pushed me; I can already feel the formless pressure".
Immediately after Old Mak and Sebastian left his territory 2 days ago, he went into deep research to know more about monster inheritances.
Due to the rigidness of the system among beasts like them, the efficiency of information gathering was super slow but he still succeeded in getting some midgets of information about what he wanted.
The information that he got chilled his heart.
He didn't get details, but the dominant points of the different pieces of information that he got were the riches that accompanied each discovered inheritance and also the bloodbath that followed.
In history, the regions where monster inheritances were discovered almost always suffered disasters that left that region uninhabitable.
He wondered if this was going to be the case in his seamount. And considering that this was but a mere seamount, his heart leaned more to allying with the Great White Sharks under Old Mak's leadership.
He got all this information after searching for 2 days, but still, he didn't rush to contact the Great White Sharks, he still wanted to observe.
The results of his observation chilled his heart all the more.
Originally, apart from the predators that resided in this seamount, it was rare for stray predators to frequently take this seamount as a route to their destination since it was fairly backward compared to the other seamounts.
Though this was the case, in just these past 2 days, so many predators already swam across this seamount with some even deciding to settle down in it that the Lizard Lord's little hope for peace was ruthlessly crushed.
Among these predators that swam across were 8 purple tier predators, powerful beasts that were originally supposed to be rarely seen.
This was the last evidence that the Lizard Lord needed, he knew that he had to act immediately or he would definitely regret it and he didn't waste any time.
Now, the sharks were here.
After listening to the Lizard Lord's account, Old Mak remained calm since he already expected something like this.
Among powerful predators, there was this phenomenon called the 6th sense.
The 6th sense was mysterious, it could sometimes act as a danger warning sense when the said predator is in danger, while it could also act as a directional beacon to lead the said predator to a fortuitous encounter depending on their luck.
Apparently, these powerful predators that moved across the seamount were attracted here by their 6th sense who already discovered that something good would befall this region soon.
The Lizard Lord also understood this logic, which was how he was able to verify the claim that was made by this powerful Shark and the Shameless Lord.
The Lizard Lord faced Old Mak directly. "So, now what?"
Old Mak did not reply, he instead turned his enormous head towards Sebastian, sending the question towards him with his eyes.
"For now, we wait for the Atlantians".
…
"F*ck! How sneaky is this Megalodon exactly? It's been freaking 2 days already but we still haven't found any significant trail left behind by it!"
"At this rate, I'm gonna break down from frustration. Damn! I want to tear a beast apart at this moment!"
"Calm down, Bam, allow the Lieutenant to think".
"Humph!"
While the soldiers of this elite Atlantian team vented their anger about their inability to pinpoint the sneaky Megalodon's location, only 2 members of the team kept quiet and were deep in thought.
Sergeant Major Chloe sat on a rock surface as her right hand slowly caressed her magic sword while her brain was deep in thought, rapidly calculating.
Lieutenant Lookman was doing exactly the same thing; the only difference was that he was standing while Chloe was seated.
The Lieutenant thought for a few more minutes before his confused eyes started shining with clarity, he turned his head only for his eyes to clash with the equally shiny eyes of his female Sergeant Major.
"You arrived at the same conclusion?" He asked.
"Yes". Sergeant Major stood up while clenching her sword tightly as a grim expression already dominated her face.
This was when the other soldiers noticed something wrong. "What happened? Did you guys discover something?"
"Shut up!" Sergeant Major Chloe was not polite at all. "If my speculations are right, we probably swam right into a meticulously prepared ambush already".
"What do you mean?" Sergeant Major Bam frowned.
"Have you not noticed? The little inconclusive hints here and there that we've been discovering in our pursuit, and how it always leads to a dead-end only for us to discover another little hint there".
"Unknowingly to us, another enemy has been discreetly directing our movements for the past 2 days and we never noticed".
"This is definitely not the Megalodon, there's no reason for it to not escape and to stay behind and play with us. Besides, the Megalodon has a fast escape skill but its flaw is that it always leaves a clear trail behind".
"As for this new enemy, it doesn't even leave traces behind, it is like it simply disappears when we finally pinpoint its location. All the hints that we saw were meticulously arranged to deceive us".
"We are facing a formidable enemy, be prepared for battle".
On hearing this, a lightbulb finally seemed to light up in Sergeant Major Bam's head as the humiliation of being led by the nose without him even noticing caused anger to erupt inside his heart.
"Who is it? Who has the guts to toy with this man?"
"I am the one".
"What? Who is that?"
Bzzz!
The Atlantian soldiers already entered their battle formation on hearing the voice, so they were able to observe what followed next.
Just before them in the cave where they met their latest dead-end, what seemed like a metal door suddenly appeared in the water. The door opened, and out from within came an enormous predator.
The predator looked straight at them.
"I am the one that has been toying with you".