Chapter 51 - Locked-on.

Sebastian hovered, frozen in shock as he took a deep look of amazement at his surroundings. Compared to the water expanse that he was in before, this looked like a different world entirely.

He did not arrive in the middle of an active volcano, but the surroundings of this place told him that a volcano was nearby.

All around this place, tall seamounts like enormous domes filled the surrounding at various distances from each other. The only difference was that, unlike the normal ones, these had red lava flowing down their rocky bodies.

Smoke diffused the surrounding, painting a hot atmosphere of doom that left Sebastian both excited and afraid.

At some distance away, he saw the rocky seabed heaving up and down, boiling like it was already on the verge of erupting. The red lava and black rocks formed a scene that could only be described as breath-taking.

Hot boulders bubbling with boiling magma hovered in the water like they were being held by some mysterious power, the sight of them alone could induce goosebumps on anyone.

This was the periphery region of an oceanic volcano, and from the sight before him, Sebastian easily deduced that it was a sufficiently large volcano.

"I can't believe I'm living to see a sight like this".

These were things that he already watched in anime and movies, but getting to see them for real left him shaking in excitement like a little fanboy.

Despite his fascination at arriving at such a place under Oceania, Sebastian did not relish staying here as the extreme heat was already leaving him uncomfortable and fidgety.

Getting a little irritated already by the heat, he decided to continue moving forward in search of prey, also with the hope that he would find a way to leave this environment soon.

Clearly, this was not a place for great white sharks.

Using the logic that the direction that had more boiling seamounts led to the heart of the volcano, he started going in the opposite direction.

Swimming forward for 5 minutes, he was not surprised to see no prey appearing as in such an extreme environment, very few sea creatures could survive.

As he swam, he also observed his environment to look out for any predator that may be hiding in the dark. Pairing his sharp eyes with his electroreceptors, his perception was frightening.

Despite not feeling hungry yet, his instincts were already wrestling with him for him to go take that bite and tear prey apart. As he tried without many hopes to fight against his instincts, he was surprised as he noticed a sea creature.

3 pair of claw hands filled completely with hair, a shell covering its fragile body and protecting it from the attacks of predators, Sebastian recognized it immediately.

"Yeti Crabs!"

Fascinated by it, he tried to swim closer and observe but he immediately reeled back in astonishment as the Yeti Crab suddenly jerked before releasing 2 of its claw tips just like the way that he shot his teeth.

Whoosh!

The claw poked his side before he could dodge completely, and immediately Sebastian felt a hot searing sensation hit hard at his brain.

[You have been hit by a skill: Fire Claw.]

[You have been attacked by the Hairy Yeti Crab: You have been inflicted with -12 basic damage.]

[You have been inflicted with the Fire Poison: You will lose -3 damage every second until the fire attribute is purged.]

"What?" Sebastian was shocked.

This was the perfect example of a wolf in ship clothing. Never would he have expected the much smaller hairy crab to be such a dangerous predator, and it moved as docile as a dove.

Without hesitation, he retaliated angrily.

Pu! Pu! Pu! Pu!

As his teeth shot forward in a straight line at the Yeti crab, despite not having eyes, the crab reacted like it had. It moved its foremost pair of claws, then it relaxed as a blue shield covered its body.

Bam!

The shark teeth bounced off its shield like they were mere balls.

Seeing this, Sebastian's face darkened as he felt like he was being challenged. Without hesitation, he started rushing closer while activating a few more of his skills.

[You have activated skill: Advanced Dash.]

[You have activated skill: Battering Ram.]

[You have activated skill: Shredding Bite.]

As soon as both of them collided, Sebastian bȧrėd his rows of teeth as he bit down with all the force that he could muster immediately.

One bite from him and the Yeti Crab's shell revealed a crack. The Crab was clearly shocked as it immediately started struggling for its life and retaliating but its fate was already sealed.

Sebastian held it to his mouth as he shook his body roughly, enabling his razor-sharp teeth to shred all the tough skin of the crab away.

About a minute later, the struggling crab finally went limp.

[You have killed a Yeti Crab- Level 14: You have gained Experience.]

[You have gained 7 Skill points and 5 Adaptation points.]

After killing the crab, this was when Sebastian noticed that he was directly under one of the boiling boulders, which meant that his vision was partly blocked and he could not see everything.

As the range of his electroreceptors was limited also, he couldn't see what lay beyond the boiling boulder.

Slowly, he started swimming up to survey around the boulder.

What motivated him to do the survey was the texture of the meat that he just ate. Compared to all the meat that he had already eaten since coming to this world, the Yeti Crab's meat was undoubtedly the best.

The aftertaste left him smacking his mouth longing for more.

As this thought of home dominated his mind, he suddenly froze as he felt a cold gaze land on his body from afar.

Instinctively, Sebastian felt that his life was threatened. Focusing his eyes in the distance in shock, he found 3 apex predators of the ocean hovering with their eyes now locked on the great white shark prey.

Feeling the bloodlust directed at him, he shuddered.