Chapter 707: Boiling!
For once, the blood octopus looked a little agitated. Bai Yunfei coming at it from twenty meters away must've fired off its danger senses.
This was something of a rare event for the blood octopus. Back in its 'hometown', the blood octopus had been practically uncontested in strength for many hundred years. Then a few several years ago, someone amazingly strong had taken it away from its hometown to a strange new place. What came after that was a feast of magnificent proportions, and the octopus never felt better. It was living a life far better than what it had the first few hundred years of its life. Eating and gorging on the things brought to it, the octopus didn't even bother to think of anything else. All it knew was to eat and get stronger.
It knew that the people that brought it here was 'stealing' a part of the energy it was creating, but the blood octopus didn't dare say or do anything about it. The remaining energy was more than enough for it to digest. The limit it was unable to break for so many years now, the octopus was close to breaking it.
The blood octopus was happy. Even when it seemed like all the prey in the area was already corralled up and taken, even more prey would stumble into the area every so often. The people who brought it here taught it of a 'method'. A method the octopus wasn't really sure how it worked, but knew that other people would try to 'save' another human. The octopus did as it was instructed though, and it was only a matter of time before those prey were corralled up without any other problems.
The people today seemed a lot stronger than the ones from yesterday. Attacking them from underground did nothing to them. In fact, it was the only one who lost out from that brief interaction. Having lost some tentacles, the octopus tried to rely on its 'last resort' and split up the group. Thankfully, two of the people in the group were led away and into its nest.
In the blood octopus' opinion, it was the strongest in this area. No enemy would be able to defeat it here.
Due to its cautious nature, the octopus decided it was best to focus completely on the battle here. The people in the main group on the surface could be ignored for the time being.
There was a completely terrifying factor in this current situation. This human in front of it was extremely powerful that could swim practically as fast as a fish inside of its blood pool. Even its attack with congealed blood didn't do a thing to the human. Aside from a burning sensation on its tentacles, the octopus also felt a 'tingling' feeling that it really hated.
"Wuu!!"
It gave a loud roar in indignation. Hundreds of tentacles came out from the blood octopus to try and tear the human in front of it into bits. Opening its mouth wide open, the octopus sent another torrent of blood water at Bai Yunfei!
"Again!" Bai Yunfei narrowed his eyes. He knew now just how annoying the blood water was and kicked off to ascend to higher levels of water.
The blood octopus let out another cry again. Its tentacles started to move even faster, and upon a closer look, Bai Yunfei could even see that the tentacles seemed to be....moving in a rhythmic dance for some reason!
Bai Yunfei swam several dozen meters up beyond the edge of the blood water to where the top of the blood octopus was. When he was about to turn direction and continue forward again, Bai Yunfei realized the area over his head was turning pitch-dark for some reason!
The abyss of the waters didn't have much light to begin with. The only sources of light throughout the battle were the explosions of elemental energy from either Bai Yunfei or the blood octopus. Even without a tangible source, the elemental energy was still bright enough to light up the entire area, but not enough to light up every corner of the water. The area where Bai Yunfei was at now was an impenetrable area of darkness where no amount of elemental energy was bright enough to shine up!
But that wasn't all. Bai Yunfei soon realized this new entire area of the water was like this!
It was like a cage of darkness, and he was at its center. This feeling was just like how it was when he was in the attack of congealed blood earlier!
From the outside, it looked like a small portion of the lake was summoning all the blood in it to get ready to attack Bai Yunfei. The area around the bubble of blood was exceedingly clear and without blood.
Caught this time in the darkness caused by the blood, Bai Yunfei could feel the blood octopus concentrating all of its soulforce to try and end the battle with one final move.
"Damn!! It's so difficult to try and defeat this monster underwater!" Bai Yunfei cursed to himself. This octopus wasn't even a class seven soulbeast yet, but it was giving him as much trouble as he expected from a Soul King. He couldn't even fight with all his strength due to being underwater, so Bai Yunfei was fighting with double the handicap.
"Water.....Water......" Bai Yunfei muttered to himself. "If that's the case, then here's a strong move myself!"
The Fire-tipped Spear was put away to free up his right hand. Clenching both hands and placing them by his side, Bai Yunfei gave up the idea to run away. Flipping through several hand seals, Bai Yunfei's strength began to spike tremendously!
Dual Flame Arts: Berserk Mode and the False Soul King realm!
Now in his strongest possible state for battle, Bai Yunfei could begin to fight in earnest. Flipping through another series of hand seals, Bai Yunfei began to glow in a bright red light. A bubble of red expanded outwards from Bai Yunfei's body to evaporate the nearby water around him before traveling to both his arms!
This was....the Dual Dragon Burst!
Was he really going to use the Dual Dragon Burst underwater?!
There was the possibility that the blood octopus would dodge the Dual Dragon Burst. And even if it did hit, the Dual Dragon Burst would zap away a significant portion of his strength. In a prolonged battle like this, losing that much energy was foolhardy to do so!
But Bai Yunfei didn't have any hesitation on what he was doing. Still spiking rapidly, his energy was getting ready to launch!
"Roarr!!!"
Two gigantic dragons flew forth from Bai Yunfei's arms. Sailing out into the waters with a loud roar, they flew for the blood octopus!
"Pcht!!"
The two dragons made contact with the blood water a short moment after. Even with how fast it was traveling before, the two dragons slowed down by a decent amount afterwards.
The flames from the Dual Dragon Burst weren't made from ordinary flames, so they could exist without much trouble underwater. But the properties of the blood water was different. When one hit another, it was no longer a question of 'fire' hitting 'water', but more like 'elemental fire' vying with 'elemental water' for supremacy.
In the system of elements, the only way elemental fire could ever hope to beat elemental water was to simply have more power put into it. Or else elemental water would win.
So even after traveling just ten meters, the size of the dragons was already half of what it was before and its strength even less!
By the time it reached the blood octopus, the two dragons were only as thick as a relatively muscular thigh for the octopus to knock aside!
But then something unexpected happened when the blood octopus' tentacle tried to knock aside the Dual Dragon Burst!
"Wuu!!"
There was a miserable cry from the blood octopus shortly after it batted away the Dual Dragon Burst. The tentacle that hit it was brought back in no time at all and shrunk as if it had lost all semblance of energy in it to flop in the water! At a detailed glance, the latter half of the tentacle was a strange red color that was definitely different in color than the earlier half of it.
It was a little strange to look at, but it seemed as though the latter half had been....fried?!
The wailing from the octopus kicked up several notches as it started to writhe around in the water as if it was being assailed by an known danger.
All around the octopus, the water in the lake started to change somehow. The red waters was starting to bubble, and there were even a few bubbles of air starting to make their way up to the surface.
The water was being....boiled!
That was right! The entirety of the lake seemed to be looking like it was being boiled!
Or actually, the lake was actually being boiled! There was no doubt about it!
Perhaps it was because of that fact that the blood water around Bai Yunfei was starting to dim in color. Floating up above Bai Yunfei's head, bubbles of red and wisps of crimson started to make for the surface of the water.
Bai Yunfei's eyes were shining with excitement as he watched all of this take place. "It worked!"
This was his plan all along!
Fire might not be able to burn things in the water, but it could at least bring up the temperature and boil it!
Unlike in the air, heat wouldn't dissipate and be reduced to nothing inside the water. As poor as it was as a conductor of heat, water could still be heated up! A few degrees might not do much, but crank up the temperature just enough and even water could boil!
This entire lake was now a lake filled with boiling blood water!