"Ummm... sir?" A nervous brown-haired man called out.
"Speak your mind openly if your question or viewpoint is relevant." Kaze scoffed breathlessly, annoyed at the man's timidity, "While caution is always advisable, timidity has never provided value to this world."
"Okay...." The man swallowed, more nervous after the rebuke, "It's just... why are we just standing here? The boat is over there...."
"I'm also... confused about that." A brunette soldier with a full-sleeve tattoo said, "I'd feel a lot more comfortable on the boat."
They were all hovering 50 feet above slightly choppy waters in the middle of the ocean.
A few miles from them was a mid-sized commercial fishing boat used for catching cod and tuna. It was a white boat with an orange bottom, slightly rusted on the sides, floating aimlessly at sea.
The reason that they'd rather be on the boat--
"Hoh?" Kaze mused, turning to the woman and then the man, "You two would rather be on the boat than fly?"
Both winced and looked down at the swords they were standing on. It was hard for them to consider themselves [flying]!
--they stood on archaic weapons, using them to surf in the air, above the ocean, a weapon fifty miles from shore, and had no control over them.
The emperor chuckled, looking at their faces in amusement. He couldn't fault them for being skeptical or afraid. Still, he couldn't let the two down.
Under their watchful gaze, he flicked his finger above his palm.
Whooooooosh!
A dramatic gush of wind shot across the earth, ruffling everyone's hair. They looked down and saw the emperor had sent out an overpowered wind blade, and his hand barely got cut!
"W-What are you doing, sir?" The brown-haired man asked in confusion.
Kaze waved his hand over his palm, and the blood radiated with vivid golden light, making it look royal. "I've made our friends a snack."
"Our... friends...." The soldier said, watching the blood on his hand create a sphere and then fall to the ocean below them.
Splash.
The Immortals heard the strange splash from the blood, looking down at the water below in a trance.
FLASH!
Both shielded their eyes as the water illuminated for half a mile in all directions, radiating from the small blood sphere.
"Wh-Wh-What the fu-fuck is THAT!?" She gasped, grabbing onto the emperor's shoulder, "I-I MEAN THIS!?"
"This or that, which is it?" Kaze laughed breathlessly, hearing her bold lack of articulation.
"Those!" The female soldier trembled, "Take your pick on which!"
"Oooooh." He smiled playfully, "So multiple [that]s, making [those]. But you're also asking about the situation, making it [this]."
"Y-YES!" She cried, unamused. Her legs were trembling on the sword, as was the man, who was dead silent, trying his best not to move, fearful of falling.
When the ocean was illuminated with radiant light, they could see large black spots under the fishing boat rushing to the light sphere.
Meanwhile, dozens of small dots under the water grew in size.
And then kept growing.
"Those... are sharks." Kaze smiled in amusement.
As if his words were a cue, two bull sharks half the size of orca whales stopped swimming and attacked each other, turning the ocean red. [1]
The blood only aggravated the situation--a shiver of nurse sharks the size of tiger sharks swam into the area, eating the losing bull shark in a feeding frenzy, taking a chunk, and then swimming away. [2]
"Hmmm, looks like we should get higher." Kaze grinned, raising all of them abruptly and moving backward.
SPLASH!
A massive geyser shot into the air where they just were, following a great white shark, now the size of an orca whale, shot into the air, eating five of the sharks simultaneously.
During the confusion, the golden light from the sphere temporarily disappeared when a shark swallowed it. However--
Splash!
--water spurted when its body exploded, sending red water everywhere.
"SHARKS!?" The woman yelled aggressively, "THOSE THINGS ARE DINOSAURS!"
The great white ate the golden sphere, turning the golden water dark again, leaving nothing but red waters bubbling below. It was bone-chillingly eerie.
"It certainly seems that way." Kaze chuckled in amusement, "However, I assure you, those are regular sharks.
For the last month, the oceans have circulated Elemental Qi. Just as the earth has become a place where only the strong survive, the ocean also has.
However, animals tend to grow in size because they eat Soul Qi and do not have a body constitution blueprint to direct the energy.
So the marine life that adapted well grew exponentially and ate a lot of food. As you can see, the ocean is a lot less peaceful than it once was."
Eating Soul Qi-enhanced meat was the fastest and most effective way to heal and grow as cultivators, both in muscles and mental capacity.
However, Soul Qi-enhanced meat is rare, and its effect is exponential. While all meat has Soul Qi, the meat of predators that eat carnivores is exponentially higher for obvious reasons.
And the ocean became a breeding ground for such predators.
For a time, aggressive fish attacked each other, eating abundant meat. Countless smaller carnivores grew in size and then fought against other fish of the same size.
It immediately became a bloodbath of predators eating predators en masse, creating the scene playing out.
Both Immortals shuddered, with the woman clinging onto the emperor's white t-shirt without fail.
"Thank you for letting me satiate my curiosity." Kaze smiled derisively, "You still look uncomfortable on those swords; would you like to get on the boat now?"
"NO!" The woman cried, gripping him, "I didn't sign up f-for this."
"This job is classified as hazardous with an offer of 50 RP and 2,000 Skye." Kaze scoffed, rolling his eyes, "What does the word hazardous mean to you? A normal commercial fishing day pre-apocalypse?"
Both winced at his words, realizing their arrogance in doing the job was grossly misplaced.
"I-I wish that you didn't show me that...." The man swallowed nervously, "I don't think you'd let us die. So I'd rather be blissfully ignorant."
"You still are blissfully ignorant." The emperor chuckled mockingly, "While you've been living in mansions, the rest of the world has seen this first-hand.
That's why I felt it was best to remind you that you're privileged and not invincible. That way, you won't accept jobs haphazardly again."
They turned away in shame, feeling guilty and grateful simultaneously.
"Now come; I will not let you die." Kaze smiled, "So overcome your weakness, face the new world, and get paid lavishly."
Both gave their merciless emperor pleading eyes, begging him not to make them. Unfortunately, he didn't listen as he flew everyone above the boat.
Before he lowered onto the ship, he cut his hand and created another blood sphere, only ten times the size, making both Immortals watch in horror.
"I'm creating this to distract all of the marine life for ten miles." Kaze grinned with madness flickering in his eyes, "You know what will happen when I send this into the water, yes?"
The two dry-swallowed and nodded hesitantly.
"Then can I assume you'll listen to my instructions not to look back as you pilot the boat back to shore?" He mused.
They nodded with the fluidity of rusty cogs.
"Excellent." Kaze smiled ominously, "Well then. For your sake, I hope you can follow orders."
***
The emperor watched the ocean as the two removed the dead fishermen and clipped a massive chain he brought in his spatial ring to the ship.
Then he grabbed it with them on the boat, preparing to pull it back to shore.
Once he got the green light, the blood sphere in his hands radiated with vibrant golden light, and he threw it with surreal force into a spatial rift, shooting it out from a rift 2,000 feet above them into the distant ocean.
It landed in the water ten miles away from them, but he could still see the water below the boat clear as day.
Tens of thousands.
There were thousands of monster-sized under the water, jutting to the Soul Qi ball he sent out.
Thousands of monster-sized creatures in a small space looked like millions.
It was a terrifying sight.
Kaze gazed at the scene with a strange smile before turning and pulling the chain, moving the boat abruptly and scaring the Immortals. "I hope you don't look back. It is a century too soon for anyone to handle such a sight."
***
Kiera looked down the right hall of the third floor of the central mansion with a rapidly pounding heart. "This will be the first time... we're alone."
The thought took her breath away, and memories flashed into her mind of screaming women getting ravished by his pleasurable techniques.
"No... he wouldn't use those sex techniques on me...." She whispered to herself, trying to pump herself up.
"That's a rather presumptuous thing to say." A hypnotic voice called behind her, making her jump and turn around, "I will most certainly use those techniques on you; granted, of course, you wish me to."
Kiera's heart pulsed violently, seeing him climb the stairs with the charming smile she was obsessed with.
--
[A/N: [1] Orca whales are around 30 feet (9 m) long and 1.5x the height of great white sharks, which are ~23 feet (7 m) long. However! Remember volume! While they seem comparable, great white sharks are 1,500 - 2,400 lbs vs. 6,600 - 8,800 for orcas... ;). Bull sharks are usually 290 lbs, and nurse sharks are 130 lbs. #perspective
[2] A group of sharks is called a [shiver]. :D]
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