Shadows on the Ocean Floor [Underwater Adventure: Running Out Of Air] (Akeya/Solo)

The vast majority of jobs and missions occurred on dry land. Sometimes it was underground and sometimes it was high up in the air, but because humans lived on dry land and jobs were basically tasks assigned to mages to improve the lives of the humans that was were all the jobs originated from and focused on. However there were always exceptions: some jobs required you to travel far away, some of them even required the mages to travel to other worlds and dimensions (although this was exceedingly rare: there weren't many reasons for most people to have much interest in places so separated from their homes unless it was for resources or information).

A job which went underwater was also considered uncommon, although not impossible. It wasn't the first time for Akeya, who was walking at the edge of the water while looking outwards towards the sea. Humans didn't live underwater, and their interactions with the underwater world were minimal, despite it being so close by for some of them. There were fishers, sailors, pirates, traders, and various other people who had reason to either travel across or interact with the oceans which spanned the entirety of Earthland. However for most of them the water was only an obstacle to cross, and the others never went deeper than a dozen yards at most. Those few exceptions tended to live more interesting lives... and most humans actually didn't have as much desire for an interesting live as they themselves believed. Youngsters would dream of seeing the whole world, but when they grew up the majority would realize that they preferred a normal, safe, steady life where they knew that tomorrow was going to be similar to today.

In situations were someone had to go through interesting circumstances people tended to employ mages. More so, if people weren't content with leading mundane lives there would be little work left for mages, because their entire job was about experiencing interesting things that other people couldn't handle.

In this case the employer was actually a group of researchers, and rather than being interested in some lifeform which lived in the sea (Akeya had to deal with a Kraken before) they were interested in something located at the bottom of the ocean, which meant that it was far, far deeper than any place that most humans ever visited in their entire lives. In fact for most it would be impossible, since without magic or special equipment you couldn't get that far down without the water pressure or lack of air killing you.

The researchers had been so thoughtful to give Akeya some magic items that would help solve those issues, but Akeya had declined the offer since she didn't actually need them. True, her usual body wouldn't like going that far down. She had long ago made sure that she didn't have issues with lack of air, but even so her body wasn't built for deep sea pressures. The dragoness looked out across the ocean with narrowed eyes, trying to draw a mental map of the spot where she should dive in. The researchers had point out where they thought the artefact should roughly be, but there was a lot of room for error in there. Akeya would rather not spend too much time looking around down there, especially since the artefact they wanted her to find wasn't supposed to be very big.

In Akeya's case she had a way to deal with both the lack of air and the water pressure by herself, because she had the justified reputation of being crazy prepared. Before ever even hearing of this job or taking any job which included going to the depths she had already anticipated that it might one day happen and taken precautions just in case. She was the kind of person who would go to great lengths to maximize the chances of success in any mission she undertook even before she knew when she would actually be going on a mission of that nature. In her case she had done extensive research in the nature of magic and how it interacted with the body, and how one could enchant one's own body with magic tattoos. That extensive research had resulted in her crafting four sets of tattoos on her own body, and two of them were going to be of excellent use here. The first tattoo had removed her need to breathe as a land creature, allowing her to stay underwater for as long as she wished. As for the other...

Flapping her wings Akeya rose up into the air, flying over to the spot where she would begin her descend to the depths of the waters. Circling several times above it she gathered speed, then flew straight up only to then dive straight down, head first towards the endless blue-green expanse beneath her. While falling her body began to rapidly change: she became slimmer, her wings disappeared and her scales became smoother and shiny, turning from natural armour into a slippery layer covering her entire body. When she entered the water she already had fins and gills, although the gills were more as a safety net in case something managed to force her to breathe. With long hands and feet and thin membranes connecting her digits, together with the large fin on the end of her tail, Akeya had turned into a sea creature herself, making use of what was by far the most complicated and extensive tattoo she had managed to produce: a tattoo which allowed her to alter her body at a whim.

With her ability to see in the dark Akeya could actually see very far underwater, blatantly ignoring the fact that the sunlight rapidly diminished into nothing as she dove deeper and deeper. Using all five of her limbs to propel herself forwards she moved both quickly and smoothly, her dark scales helping her become nigh-invisible in the dark waters even without her magic abilities involved. Ignoring the creature swimming about Akeya headed straight for the bottom, even as she descended altering her body to slowly make it a body type suitable for moving about easily even with all the water of the ocean bearing down on her from all sides.

As an added benefit, this job meant she could do things at her own pace, because not only was she doing this on her own but there wasn't anybody nearby who she had to keep track of.

Even with her body being altered to suit the unique circumstances it still took quite some time to get all the way to the bottom of the ocean. This wasn't exactly surprising: even if this place was relatively close to land the bottom was still far, far down. Akeya couldn't make an accurate guess since she wasn't used to guessing distances underwater, but she was pretty sure that it was closer to a mile than half a mile. Even if Akeya's body was now suited for easy and fast movement underwater that kind of distance couldn't be bridged in the span of seconds unless you were either willing to burn a lot of energy or were a true specialist. Adaptive body or not, for Akeya the underwater world was still an unusual place, not something she visited every day just for the hell of it. She was confident in her ability to survive and deal with the underwater world, and she would get to the bottom without issue, but it'd take some time, and she'd have to be careful.

Thankfully Akeya was actually enjoying herself, swimming all the way to the depths while practising her ability to move about underwater. She believed in strict discipline and control, training day and night to refine her body and spirit so she would be able to deal with any situation. However she couldn't deny that she liked being able to use the skills she had acquired through training, taking satisfaction from success and feeling herself improve through action. The satisfaction of knowing that her shapeshifting tattoo was working, that she was capable of moving about in the underwater world without having to worry about drowning. She even used her gills, testing them out and feeling the oxygen get filtered out of the water. She only did it for a minute or so, switching back to relying on the magic tattoo on her chest so she wouldn't get too used to breathing again. That magic tattoo protected her from suffocation and poison spread through the atmosphere, but since it substituted her breathing rather than removing it entirely if she got too used to breathing she'd get affected by the poison regardless.

However she did really need the practice for moving underwater. Having the right body was already helping a lot, and Akeya had done her homework on what an aquatic body should be like. While most people never went that far underwater that didn't mean nobody ever did, and there were lots of books about underwater life, both near the surface and farther down below. She knew a good bit about the biology and the structure, how the fins helped you with pushing the water so you could propel yourself forward. However even so her experience with such a body, moving about for sustained periods of time, was limited. Akeya was proud of her ability to adapt and learn, but she couldn't just immediately get used to an entirely different form of movement. Moving overland was different, moving through the skies was different. Here underwater it was strange because unlike both of the other types every single part of your body played a vital part. On land you primarily just had to keep your legs moving and use your arms as counterbalance. Up in the air you tried to keep most of your body in a line to help reduce air friction and used your wings and tail for moving about. Down in the water though... Legs, arms, tail, everything was used. There wasn't a solid surface to launch yourself from, and the water was thick enough that every limb could be used.

As a stroke of fortune the only underwater creatures which had turned hostile were close to the artefact that she was supposed to retrieve, so as long as Akeya didn't attract attention from the more dangerous sea creatures she would be able to safely practise while making her way to the bottom of the ocean.

With no way to tell time except her internal clock Akeya had to guess at how long it took, but by her own estimates she had been swimming for at least ten minutes when she finally arrived at the bottom of the ocean. Putting aside the fact that she had been spending a lot of that time practising she still was somewhat disappointed in herself (if her guess of the time was correct), since she was quite sure that wasn't much faster than what an experienced human could achieve. Given the fact that she had above human physical prowess and could adapt her form to suit the water she should be capable of going much faster... The dragoness frowned as she resolved to spend more time training her ability to move about underwater, since she didn't want this to remain a weakness. It may not happen often but she was quite certain that at some point she'd have to be able to swim quickly, in which case she wasn't going to be satisfied with something achievable by a mundane human. So far it hadn't been an issue since she wasn't racing anyone, but if she wanted to be able to deal with the underwater creatures that were supposedly guarding the object she was meant to retrieve she couldn't get away with these results.

However for now she had reached the bottom, where she softly placed her webbed feet on the ground and immediately had quite some sand rise up into the water as a result before it softly settled again. All the way down here there was no sun, no source of light that would conveniently allow underwater visitors to see. Akeya had to rely on her ability to see in the darkness, even as her own dark form merged with the darkness of these deep waters so she became invisible even to those who shared her ability to see in the darkness. The land underneath the water looked quite different from its surface variant: the bottom was made out of rocks and sand, with nothing like dirt or clay. It also looked quite barren, since there were very few plants. Or rather, what plants Akeya could see were quite monotonous and small. There was seaweed, and sea moss, but other than that... It looked like if Akeya were to explore a bit more she might find more interesting sights, as in the direction of the island from which she dived she could see some more colours and tall shapes, most likely rocks and underwater cliffs. Further seawards it also looked like there would be more rocks and the like, although Akeya was pretty sure she wouldn't find what she was looking for over there. Looking upwards Akeya could see the occasional fish swimming by, but there wasn't even the faintest sign of the surface world so far into the depths.

Honestly this kind of place suited Akeya quite well. She still wasn't completely accustomed to the resistance she felt moving about, the heavy water pushing against her with every movement where the air would have moved aside without issue, but the promise of eternal darkness was certainly to her liking, and it was nice and quiet down here. That didn't mean there were no sounds at all, but it felt a lot calmer down here, and without there being any big civilizations or sentient creatures moving about it was more likely to stay calm down here... Although the dragoness wouldn't be surprised if she would find some underwater people if she kept searching for long enough. With the kind of miracles this world contained and the vastness of the oceans it was impossible that nothing that lived underwater had managed to create a semblance of intelligence and civilization. However that wasn't her objective right now, and honestly she would be happier for now to pretend those didn't exist as she made her way through the underwater world.

After watching for a bit longer she shook her head and pushed herself off, once again kicking up a cloud of sand. Looking down Akeya saw that while it was somewhat obscured she still had left footprints, so she ran across it a couple of times with her long tail to make the ground look smooth again before she swam onwards, towards the colourful coral reefs that surrounded the island of the researchers.

Now that she was getting closer to the actual objective Akeya became more serious, looking around carefully as she tried to also use her ears to hear any sounds of danger. She had read before that sound travelled faster underwater and thus also farther, so together with her already sharp ears she should have good odds of noticing approaching trouble before it reached her... Except that the more dangerous creatures that lived here probably were good at making as little noise as possible, sliding through the water without so much as a ripple. Akeya had made her own form as slippery and smooth as possible for that same goal, and she was trying to combine swimming fast with swimming soundlessly, disturbing nothing as she made her way forward. Which was actually harder than moving silently on land, since at least on land you mostly had to worry about the ground. Here Akeya had to worry about the very water she was moving about in, which added a fair bit to the challenge.

As she came closer the coral reef loomed before her, a lot taller than she had originally thought. This place hadn't been disturbed by anything major for millennia (so far as Akeya was aware), and it looked like the underwater life had taken full advantage of that fact. It wasn't very organized, but it still was quite the sight to see the large colourful corals covering the landscape, with all kinds of sea creatures making their home there. There were more weeds, anemones, sponges... Akeya slowed down when she saw a swarm of fish approaching her, surrounding her. They were all very small fish and she didn't see any way for them to harm her, but they still were more active towards her than she had anticipated. When they got closer she narrowed her eyes, but as they began to nibble at her it seemed like they couldn't actually get through her scales, leaving the dragoness watching with some curiosity as the fishes effectively cleaned her form before swimming away again.

Aside from the school of fish that had decided to visit her upon her entering the coral reef Akeya saw a lot of other sea creatures, but not a lot that showed much interest in her. Which was odd, since she would have thought that in a place like this, which was effectively its own independent ecosystem, any invader would get a reaction, regardless of the actual level of danger. The more isolated a location was the more resistant it should be towards any kind of change or interruption, and the fact that this place seemed to not obey that ruling given their lack of reaction towards Akeya made the dragoness wary. The only explanation she could think of was that either she just wasn't very easy to spot, since she was still doing her best to remain stealthy (although she was doubtful that she was that stealthy in this situation where she was out of her element that none of the creatures around her could pick up on her presence), or the magic of the artefact that she was here to retrieve was affecting the behaviour of the creatures living here. Which was interesting, since if it made them less hostile that could provide knowledge about the artefact in question, but on the other hand it made you wonder what would happen if you tried to take the artefact away from here. Would all the creatures living here all attack at once?

She spotted a spotted ray, swimming along above the coral reef. There was another one a bit further away, moving in the same direction, so most likely those two were actually paired up even if there was a distance between the two of them. Akeya's knowledge of the creatures was limited, but she assumed that since she remembered something about those kind of creatures being poisonous that it was better to keep her distance as she searched for the artefact. Staying hidden down below she waited for the spotted rays to disappear into the distance, far enough away that she would have found it suspicious if afterwards they still returned to her location to bother her. Then again, who knew what kind of sensory the creatures worked with. For all Akeya knew they could hear you from miles away, since all the way down here they didn't have much reason to invest energy into vision, if everything was dark anyway.

Well, that left the most important question: how was she going to find the artefact. The coral reef was like a maze, tall enough that Akeya couldn't just oversee it with her naked eyes, especially since she wanted to keep low and stealthy in case something more dangerous than a group of small fish or some spotted rays showed up. It might make her task take a bit longer, but Akeya would take being slow but careful over being hasty and potentially getting herself into trouble. Unless there was reason to believe that waiting would only make matters worse she'd remain careful, so if something happened she'd be capable of reacting quickly. Besides, even if it wasn't too precise she could still faintly sense the magic of the artefact, so she'd know if she'd moved too far away or not, and the closer she came the more accurately she'd be able to pinpoint it, shielded against magic detection or not.

It really was a good thing that the researchers had hired Akeya for this. Beyond her ability to change shape, her preference for subtlety and stealth over picking a fight with anything that looked hostile, and her overall professional attitude, there was one factor which made her personal skill set very useful...

It was dark here. Really, really dark. It was dark inside a closed room with no lights, but even that would probably still have felt relatively light in comparison to this place. Of course everyone knew that water did to some extent block and distort light given how you couldn't see the bottom of an ocean and things tended to look funny while underwater (at least if looked at from outside the water; they tended to look relatively normal if you were also underwater), but you didn't realize just how good water could be at blocking light until you'd been at the bottom of the sea, the origin of the term abyss. Akeya was so used to being able to see in the dark that the idea of not being able to see because of a lack of light rather than direct obstruction of her vision was becoming very foreign for her. However she figured that most people would be really bothered down here, as most people didn't have dark vision and thus would either need to produce a light or try and complete this job in darkness. Mages were usually made of sturdier stuff than most villagers and townsfolk, so they might be better at enduring it, but even so perpetual darkness was something that'd work on the nerves of anyone who didn't have a strong connection to the darkness.

For Akeya it was actually pretty relaxing, and if it wasn't for the fact that she was in the middle of a job she probably would have loitered for quite a while. As it was the main thing that kept her moving was the fact that if she made the researchers wait too long it'd affect her reputation as a professional mercenary, and mercenaries with bad reputations tended to lead more problematic lives than those who were respected as doing their job properly. Akeya had enough personal pride that she wasn't dependant on the opinions of others to feel good about herself, but it was just overall more practical to have people respect your expertise and skill instead of giving them reason to distrust you (especially since as a dragonkin most humans already had plenty of reason to distrust her. Even with Dragon Slayers being pretty popular actual dragonkin were another matter altogether, ironic as that was).

As Akeya made her way forward she could sense that she was getting closer to the source of the magic, which wasn't overwhelming but still felt very potent and... old. The sensation of ancient magic was strange to describe, although describing what magic felt like tended to be a complicated matter anyhow. It wasn't so much solid as... firm, in a way. Like mountains, sharing the impression that they'd been there forever and would remain like that. Words weren't really sufficient, but Akeya could tell if magic was from an ancient source, and this definitely felt old enough to belong to some powerful artefact which nobody had been able to find for a long time.

Speaking of the artefact, Akeya was somewhat suspicious that something that old and supposedly powerful would do something as simple as allowing one to breathe underwater. There were lots of ways to breathe underwater already even if most people didn't bother to invest into it, since for most people there was little reason to go underwater. She could understand it if the artefact allowed one to permanently breathe underwater if they were exposed to its magic once, but beyond that she had the suspicion that there was more to the artefact than just 'with this humans can breathe underwater'. It was her job to retrieve it, not to research it herself, but she wanted to know what the researchers exactly were planning to do with it once they got their hands on it. Mass produce it? Figure out how to make it do something else? Figure out what its actual purpose is? There were a lot of possibilities and some of them were quite worrisome. Akeya was mostly concerned about her own survival and well-being, but she still wouldn't be too pleased if she was accidentally giving a group of people a powerful weapon they could wreak havoc with. If for no other reason than if it got traced back to her it'd cause more trouble for her.

She'd have to carefully study the artefact herself before returning it to the scientists. If it turned out to be too dangerous to hand over... She wasn't exactly too sure what the right action would be. If she didn't hand over the artefact it would affect her reputation as a professional mercenary, but if it was too dangerous to hand over... It wasn't that she was concerned for others, but if it was traced back to her there would be trouble, and she vastly preferred a life with as little trouble as possible. Of course any interesting life had trouble in it in some way or another, but she'd rather choose what kind of trouble she got into more carefully.

She'd have to decide after she got her hands on the artefact and studied it more closely. The exact nature of the artefact was still uncertain, and what she discovered could be vastly different from what she expected. Being prepared was good, but one couldn't hope to predict everything so one also had to be capable of thinking quickly and adapting to new information. Those who tried to predict every little thing in advance would eventually get caught with their pants down when something they really didn't expect showed up, and they discovered that if you got too used to predicting you stopped thinking on your feet. Akeya herself was aware that she was somewhat guilty of thinking too much of what ifs, but since she was aware of it she could try to improve her ability to improvise.

Regardless, the artefact was pretty close now from what she could sense. The coral reef that surrounded her on all sides hid it from her sight, but she was pretty sure that if she decided to swim above the colourful forms she'd be able to see it. A tempting idea, but she refrained since she'd rather not ruin her attempts at getting to the artefact stealthily because she was too curious and couldn't control herself. It would be very embarrassing and indicate a strong lack of control, and for Akeya lack of control was an even worse form of weakness than straightforward lack of raw strength. You could compensate for lack of strength, but if you had no control you were doomed.

Unfortunately it looked like, even with her attempts at remaining stealthy, things wouldn't go as smoothly as Akeya had hoped. She only had little warning before suddenly something big swooped down from the waters above, forcing the dragoness to shadow step behind a big piece of coral as the assailant's sharp teeth closed on the spot where she had been a moment before. Her eyes narrowed as her blood immediately became colder, her thoughts all becoming more focused and intent as she switched all her mind towards the sudden fight that she had been pulled into. Her enemy seemed to be a shark, and a huge one at that. She wasn't an expert on sea creatures but she was pretty sure this was one of the biggest non-magical sea predators one could hope to find... if you really wanted to find it at all. A white shark, and one who had both spotted her and for some reason decided to attack her. Somewhat strange since she wasn't bleeding... Weren't sharks supposed to mainly focus on blood?

No time to worry about that in depth. Try to think of other explanations while getting ready for combat. Fortunately the white shark wasn't so reckless as to just mindlessly ram the coral reef, so now that Akeya wasn't in a spot where it could easily get at her she had time to plan, the great beast circling around her and occasionally trying to find an angle from which it could bite at her. Akeya on her part kept circling around the big piece of coral that she had decided to use as her hiding spot, keeping it between herself and the white shark as her thoughts flashed through her mind like bursts of lightning. How to get rid of this creature... Maybe she should just kill it?

Killing the shark was tempting, since it would be the easiest way to get rid of it. However a true killer knew caution: killing this shark might attract others. Even someone with as limited knowledge of the sea as Akeya knew that sharks were strongly attracted to the stench of blood. They were infamous for it. It would be difficult to kill the shark quickly without spilling its blood in the process, and if there were sharks in this area that might just act as a beacon. She'd have to chase it off with non-lethal means. Not the most fun task, but she didn't get where she was by only doing things she liked. Granted her current position was at the bottom of the ocean hiding from a shark behind a giant piece of coral, but she still wasn't going to change her mind on that.

Of course the issue was that sharks were tough creatures, and were very aggressive... if she got too close it could catch her with its teeth, and Akeya was pretty sure that as bad as it would be if the shark got wounded, it would be even worse if she did. It could be that sharks weren't too happy to spill each other's blood, but Akeya wasn't a shark and she'd definitely attract trouble if her blood began to spread through the water. Although she wasn't entirely sure what kind of creature she'd be classified as in her current body, which she had been customizing on the fly to be suitable for moving about in the abyss, but she was sure it wouldn't be any kind of shark.

So, how to do this... She'd rather not get too close, which might also not be necessary... she just had to scare the shark off, and if the shark behaved like a normal predator it would go away the moment she revealed herself to not be your average prey. Most predators in the wilds wouldn't attack prey unless they were desperate for food or they were certain they could take it down with minimal injuries. The shark might be malnourished, but it was better to try and be on guard than to assume it was hopeless and possibly miss out on an easy way to get rid of the threat.

She waited for the shark to try and circle around the coral once more, then suddenly stepped out and immediately shadow stepped, darting through the waters like a streak of darkness before appearing right above the shark. Without any hesitation or pause she brought one fist down to strike the shark's head, enough force behind her punch to make the shark's front move downwards in response to the blow, and with Akeya herself shadow stepping away before the predator could recover control over its momentum. This time however Akeya didn't hide behind one of the reefs, instead swimming out in the open where the shark could easily get to her. The shark didn't miss this opportunity and immediately lunged at her, a deadly mawed filled with countless sharp teeth heading for the dragoness at incredible speeds.

Just before the shark tore right into her Akeya turned into shadows, the teeth harmlessly passing through her as she whirled and shifted until she rematerialized behind her opponent. The shark reacted quickly, turning around to bite her regardless of her trickery. Holding one arm up defensively a barrier of shadow formed in front of her, Akeya gritting her own teeth as the shark crashed into the circular dark shield. It was meant to be a simple form of protection, not enough to be considered advanced defensive magic but enough that in the middle of a fight she could use it to quickly block a single attack without wasting any movement or requiring incantation. With the shark's momentum completely stopped by the sudden barrier Akeya grabbed its head with both hands while at the same time strings of shadow shot out from her hands and wrapped around its head, forcibly shutting its mouth when Akeya also used a knee to thrust its lower jaw against its upper jaw right as the shadow strings tightened.

With the shark's main weapon sealed off Akeya stared it straight into the eyes, her emerald draconic eyes boring into it with a fierce intensity which bordered on insanity, a cold and merciless focus which belonged on no creature other than one which saw every other creature as potential prey, which held no true mercy for the weak and which would never even consider being honourable in a fight. A glare of a true killer, who didn't consider playing fair as the only goal was to kill that which needed to be killed, regardless of what methods used. Akeya brought her full intimidating draconic nature into this as she tried to simply intimidate the shark into fleeing, around her the water darkening from her aura which took on the shape of a dragon as well, colder than the sea and willing to kill without hesitation.

The shark froze in front of that gaze and aura, staring straight back at Akeya as it didn't dare to not focus on her. It looked like her guess was paying off... until the shark wildly began to sway its head, forcing Akeya to let go and make some distance as the shadow strings were broken by the predator's relentless attempts at reopening its jaws, even going so far as to scrape its head against one of the big pieces of coral to help dislodge the strings. The dragoness frowned as she prepared herself for more trouble. If the shark wasn't willing to be intimidated into backing off that meant that either it was truly hungry... or there was something which convinced it to keep going despite the danger to itself. Either way, it looked like she'd be busy with this enemy for a while.

While studying the shark carefully was tempting it would be better to just beat it down as quickly as possible, before it gathered its bearings after removing the shadow strings so roughly. While the shark was still removing the last pieces of the string she shot forward, darting as a shadow and reppearing straight above the shark. In the water all physical attacks were hindered by the resistance of the liquid, but that didn't mean that someone trained like Akeya couldn't still smash the shark hard enough to once more make its body move backwards in response. The predator was briefly dazed, and instead of giving it the time it needed to recover Akeya kept striking, pulling one arm backwards even as she reached to punch the shark with the other, using her tail and legs to help propell her towards the beast as she kept hitting it again and again, the large sea creature trashing and squirming beneath her as she drove it down into the ground, her momentum from swimming downwards together with the force behind her punches enough to keep it buried in the sand, its tail and head throwing about plenty of sand to muddy the waters.

She didn't want to kill this shark if only to avoid attracting more trouble, but if it couldn't be intimidated away she'd at least have to deal enough damage that it wouldn't be able to keep attacking her... Which would be tricky if she couldn't draw blood. It looked like her best bet was to just keep punching away, her scaled hands formed into tough fists which smashed into the teeth-like scales of the shark's back, each punch resulting in more sand flying upwards into the water. If it wasn't for her own scales her hands would already be bloody, so she was very glad she'd taken a form with scales instead of something which would bleed easily. The same counted for the shark, although she could feel its body begin to submit to the force of her assault. The water was weakening her but she still had draconic strength, and more than that she had training and skill. Each punch hit the same spot, the strikes compact and precise to make sure each blow was felt in full without any waste, as the resistance of the water was already enough of an energy drain.

It was only when the shark's struggling began to weaken that Akeya considered stopping, punching another couple of times until the squirming had become so faint that it barely affected the sand that she finally stopped. Spinning in the water she delivered one last strike with both feet, smashing her heels against the focused spot and at the same time pushing herself away from the beast to minimize the chances of retaliation. Once she was at a safe distance she raised one hand towards the shark, once more forming shadow strings from the seabottom to wrap around the shark's tail and head to secure its position partially embedded into the sands. The shadow strings wouldn't last forever, but by the time the shark would have recovered enough to free itself she'd already be gone with the artefact (she hoped).

Finally having dealt with the shark she hastened herself towards the source of this journey underwater, not wishing to waste any more time. She enjoyed it here, where it was dark and quiet, a peaceful place for someone like her who had little need for companionship or sunlight. However there was still her reputation to maintain, and aside from that she didn't want to deal with more sharks. Even if she could deal with them it'd hold her up and expend her energy, and she didn't know what else might be waiting...

More sharks, apparently. Akeya was pretty sure that sharks were solitary creatures, and yet as she moved further into the reef she saw two more swimming overhead. They were far enough away that they hadn't picked up on the fight between the dragoness and the first shark, which made her very glad that she'd taken the precaution of taking the damn beast down without shedding its blood. One shark was bearable, three sharks would have been a massive pain. She didn't doubt her ability to take them down, but the moment she'd make any of them bleed the countdown to the mission would have begun.

Of course, that just meant that suddenly she had to deal with two sharks instead of three... an improvement, but still a nuisance. They were directly between her and the location of the artefact, and watching the way they moved it looked like they were patrolling the area, strange as that sounded.

Akeya liked to minimize the amount of force used on a mission, as those who could complete their objectives without smashing everything in their path showed themselves smart and skillful enough to keep the risk and energy expenditure to a minimum. However here she was, narrowing her eyes as she studied the sharks swimming above the coral labyrinth, using the darkness of the depths to hide even as she slowly made her way forwards. She'd try to sneak past them, but something told her that it wasn't going to be that easy. The forest of coral structures was a great hiding place, but the sharks gave the impression of being on high alert, swimming close to underwater forest and turning this way and that as if searching for intruders.

Coming to a halt when one of the sharks came dangerously close the dragoness quickly considered her options. Continue to try and evade, or take them down? So far they hadn't spotted her, but they weren't behaving like predators usually would. Leaving aside the fact that there were two of them when she would have bet a lot of jewels that sharks were almost always alone, they were lingering in an area where there didn't appear to be any prey worth hunting... Actually, that was strange in itself.

There was prey here. There was that school of fish, there were those spotted rays. They weren't in exactly the same location as the sharks, but they were definitely close enough that a predator would go after them if it was hunting.

No, the sharks were definitely not behaving like they should. In which case they were an unpredictable variable and a liability. She'd have to take care of them before she regretted not doing so later. Two instead of one would require her to act quickly. Use one to disable the other? They were too far away.

Immobilize one, then take care of the other when it arrived to help.

The shark that was swimming away from her position reacted quickly when it felt something grab its tail. It turned around with jaws wide open, prepared to bite. Akeya was faster, however, as she was already pulling with all her might. Her legs and tail were attached to the coral forest below. With her own position secured she could pull the shark back and around, spinning it before slamming it into the festively coloured mass below. Numerous stumps and bumps collided with the shark's tough scaled hide, the force of the dragoness's might enough to make parts of the coral break off. The shark itself was better off, but it still flailed at the sudden collision.

Before Akeya could work on finishing the job the other shark arrived with a vengeance, its jaws already around the intruder's arms. It was only fast reflexes that saved Akeya from losing her limbs, her form turning into shadows so when the shark's jaws snapped shut it only cut through the water.

Not waiting for a redo Akeya removed the shadow strings holding her down and swum after the shark, as a shadow dashing forward until she was right above it. Grabbing the shark's dorsal fin with one webbed hand she aimed her other hand at the coral reef below, more shadow strings shooting out to wrap themselves around the many-coloured forest. Securing her hold while the shark underneath her struggled Akeya pulled hard on the strings, calling them back in. With her hold on the shark firm the beast had no choice as it was pulled towards the reef, smashing into it just like its companion had. Its predecessor didn't have to deal with continuous pressure though, Akeya continuing to pull even as the struggling beneath her became more desperate.

Noticing something in the corner of her eye Akeya quickly let go and shadow dashed to the side, in time to watch the other shark crash into the one she had been tormenting. It had been aiming to sink its jaws into the intruder, but with the intruder suddenly disappearing its confusing and lack of forethought caused a collision. Before either beast could recover Akeya was right on top of them, her clawed hands together with the palms aimed towards the two guardians of the artefact.

No blood didn't mean no damage.

Gathering the energy rouring throughout her body and forcibly expelling it Akeya and the sharks were hidden behind an expanding wave of darkness, enveloping a chunk of the rigid forest for a second before disappearing. Once it was gone the two sharks were unconscious, their bodies hanging limp amidst shattered coral with portions of their scaled bodies looking darkened. Akeya herself was unchanged, quickly checking whether the sharks were really unmoving before she disappeared, moving towards the artefact with more haste than before.

She could keep knocking out sharks all day, but the more she knocked out the more she'd have to deal with if she didn't get the artefact before they woke up and recovered.

Where before she had thought of doing this slowly and securely now Akeya moved with purpose and speed, her dark figure flowing through the labyrinth of coral towards her objective. If it wasn't for the energy the ancient artefact was expelling she would have had difficulty finding her way, but as it was she found herself homing in as if attracted by a magnet. However even as she got closer she felt herself urged to move even faster. She didn't know why, but something was making her feel impatient. The sharks were one reason, but she still couldn't say that was all of it. A feeling like she couldn't afford to waste time getting her hands on the artefact? A frustration that this wasn't going as smoothly as she had hoped. The sharks hadn't been part of the plan. She had been expecting it to take time to locate the artefact, but sharks? She didn't like being surprised.

Thanks to her moving faster than before she didn't take much longer before reaching the artefact... and its last guardians. A huge tentacle, large enough that one could think it part of the coral reef before you realized that it was made of flesh. Another tentacle, and then more until you saw what it all belonged to: a giant octopus. Looking up at the humongous beast Akeya scoffed, although she didn't have much time to compare it to the kraken that she'd encountered another time. In her haste she hadn't been as sneaky as before, and the octopus didn't waste any time with assaulting the intruder. The closest tentacle moved with surprising speed even as a large wave of black ink washed over the dragoness. Given that the black ink was a physical obstruction instead of mere darkness she couldn't just see through it, forcing her to dodge backwards even as she also had to avoid the tentacle.

The large flexible appendage slammed into the ground with the sound of numerous pieces of coral being pulverized, the ground shaking as Akeya herself narrowly managed to avoid the same fate. However she had been forced to make a distance between herself and the octopus, and it was raising its other tentacles as well. Narrowing her eyes and slightly baring her teeth the dragoness spotted the artefact underneath the monster, a crystal orb emitting a scarlet light. Compared to the octopus it looked positively tiny, but Akeya could feel the pull.

Maybe she should have thought twice before accepting a job to retrieve something which turned everything non-human aggressive, she thought to herself even as she could feel a rage trying to influence her thoughts. She was a dragon, and thus while more resilient than most creatures she was still not human.

Nothing for it then. Beat the octopus, grab the artefact and run. And since the artefact was now close by she didn't have to worry about blood either: as long as she managed to beat the octopus quickly enough she could grab the sphere and get back to the surface before any sharks could arrive. Even better, the blood would make the sharks attack the octopus as soon as the artefact was no longer influencing their behaviour, so the octopus would be tied up and unable to chase her. She'd have to be fast though: the artefact had a very large radius.

Thoughts flashing through her head Akeya dodged to the side as another tentacle slammed down, stirring up a massive cloud of mud and shards of coral. She didn't have time to think about that as another tentacle tried to entangle her, the dragoness lashing out with her clawed and webbed hand. Dark energy glowed around her claw as she ripped into the tentacle, tearing through flesh and muscle to release a thick mist of blood which made Akeya's nostrils flare even as she dove straight towards the octopus, which was temporarily reeling as suddenly a large wound was opened in one of its prized tentacles.

Akeya couldn't help but let out a surprised growl when suddenly she felt something behind her, and as she turned around to look she was rammed by a ray, the strange creature dragging her straight towards the octopus even as the mage exhaled sharply. Breathing or not that still felt like she had all the air knocked out of her lungs. She didn't have time to reel from the pain, forced to quickly turn into shadows as another tentacle rapidly wrapped itself around herself and the ray. Her shadowy form slipped out even as the ray was crushed mercilessly by the tentacle, but she felt the strange sensation of being torn in two in her shadow form as another ray charged straight through her, looping around to try and get her on the second try.

Staying in her shadowy form for now Akeya let the rage the artefact was feeding her mind show itself in her aura, a large dark dragon forming around her even as she growled and dove straight towards the ray. She had been planning to do this sneakily, but right now she just wanted to get rid of anything that got in her way.

With the octopus having fully become aware of the intrusion Akeya would have to keep moving. While she could dodge physical attacks by turning into a shadow she could still be caught off guard, and now that the octopus was in full aggression its attacks came fast and without any hesitation. Shooting straight towards the ray Akeya let another tentacle slam straight through her shadowy form, harmlessly hitting the ocean floor while Akeya materialized underneath the ray. Reaching upwards she dug her claws into the creature's vulnerable underside and ripped it open, the ray twisting in pain even as Akeya quickly dodged to the side so the next tentacle would crush the ray against the sand down below.

With both of the rays out of the way Akeya could return her focus to the octopus alone, and she didn't waste any time with getting closer. While that made it easier for all the tentacles to reach her it also made it harder for the octopus to strike at her, as flexible though its limbs were it couldn't ignore its own mass in twisting its tentacles. Diving towards the sand of the sea bottom Akeya twisted and moved to the side to dodge another tentacle, then when a second one arrived in quick succession from the side she latched onto it with both hands and feet. Holding on and trying her best to resist the forces of essentially being pushed against the water the dragoness clawed her way over the tentacle, only turning into a shadow and slipping away when the octopus tried to slam her once more, resulting in the monster's limbs colliding with one another.

Circling around the tentacle in her shadow form Akeya hastened towards the octopus's main body, her vision becoming less reliable as the giant creature's flailing had thrown massive amounts of sand and pieces of coral upwards, filling the water with a mixture of colour and pale clouds. While the octopus itself was still discernible thanks to its sheer size and how every movement stirred the water the rest of her surroundings were becoming hard to spot. With how much of a mess the octopus was making she also couldn't hear much outside of the breaking of coral and giant flexible limbs hitting various objects, including the ground. While still not as impressive as the kraken she'd had to deal with once before the octopus's fury was surprising and problematic. Most animals wouldn't behave this recklessly, but it looked like her opponent was feeling the rage from the artefact as much as she did, or possibly even more.

Reaching the octopus's main body Akeya had to quickly decide, and feeling the killing urge flowing through her veins she went upwards. Turning back into a being of mass she immediately grabbed part of the octopus's tough skin and pulled her, claws drawing lines of blood as she managed to rip off a small piece. Immediately after she had to turn back into a shadow almost reflexively, two different tentacles trying to wrap around her and crush her. Slipping out from the fleshy and slimy bindings Akeya went underneath the octopus, where the artefact resided. The spherical, crystal-like sphere was glowing an ominous red, and Akeya had to suppress the urge to grab it. Instead she aimed upwards, relying on her position to keep her safe for a couple of seconds as she rapidly expelled dark energies and condensed them in a dozen small orbs. Releasing her Shadow Dragon's Scales they drilled themselves into the octopus's relatively soft underside, forcing the dragoness to cover her ears as it let loose an earsplitting screech.

And then she got slammed by one of the tentacles, distracted by the octopus's trashing and screeching.

Letting out a chocked gasp she hit the ground hard with the tentacle right on top of her, her draconic body managing to resist breaking but still ending up quite battered from the collision on both sides. Growling to herself Akeya once again flew forth as a shadow, the waters now becoming even messier as now sand and coral was joined by octopus blood.

She could grab the artefact and run right now, but Akeya had the feeling that it'd be easier if she kept her enemy busy for a bit longer...

Under normal circumstances Akeya would have retreated to safety at this point, waiting for the sharks to arrive in reaction to the spilled blood. While the sharks and the octopus fought it out she could then use the opportunity to flee with the orb, and even if both parties chased after her they'd probably delay one another long enough for her to get away. However right now she could feel her blood running hot through her veins, the call of the orb leaving her desiring to deal more damage to this oversized tentacle monster that was getting in her way. It had already struck a blow against her that made her head spin, and that just made her all the angrier.

Shooting forward she began to rapidly change shape, lengthening further and further until she'd gone from a humanoid scaled serpent to a full fledged sea dragon, her eyes narrow as she wrapped herself around one tentacle, then slithered onwards to avoid the incoming blow. Coiling around another tentacle she began to weave her way around the octopus, leaving it more and more frustrated as it began to strike faster and faster with less precision. Akeya began to concentrate her movements around one spot, sharpening all her senses to the fullest to dodge blow after blow so the octopus would start using more tentacles in an attempt to actually land a hit on her. While this form was larger its anatomy still allowed for proper dodging, and it had one advantage over her previous form...

Eventually the octopus was practically flailing away with all of its mighty tentacles, the ground trembling and shaking under the relentless onslaught as time and time again the sea dragon escaped the monstrous assault. Only when Akeya was as sure as possible that all the tentacles were in play did she suddenly change back into a shadow and surge forward, once she rematerialized immediately wrapping herself around as many of the tentacles as possible. Combined with that she breathed a swirl of darkness into the octopus's eyes, leaving it panicked as its vision was hindered while Akeya's shadowy form made it difficult to sense her through touch or vibrations.

Moving faster than she could ever remembering in a close combat scenario Akeya managed to accomplish her goal: her long body was now wrapped around all the tentacles, and she was using her draconic strength to keep the octopus from simply pulling itself free. While she couldn't keep this up forever the fact that her own strength was also above that of a human meant she at least could hold on for some time. Long enough for her to enact the next step of her plan. Revealing a maw full of razor sharp teeth the sea dragoness began to take bites out of the guardian of the artefact. Instead of eating it she dug her teeth in and then tore off pieces of flesh, letting go to let them drop to the bottom as she dug in again. She tried her best to ignore the squirming, the screeching and the flailing (or attempts to flail) as she added more and more wounds to the octopus's main body. In the end the octopus's bloody wounds covered as much of its head and body as it showed skin, at which point the sea dragoness could no longer muster the strength to keep its tentacles all wrapped up. Turning back into a shadow she dashed backwards, turning back into her humanoid shape as the octopus once again tried to strike out. However even in this muddy, bloody and cloudy water it was easy to see that it wasn't as strong in its assault as before.

Akeya would use this opportunity to try and get the artefact... but honestly holding those tentacles in her grip for so long had also done a number on her. Instead of immediately going in for the prize she retreated back into the coral reef (or what was left of it in this area). Noting that the octopus wasn't trying to chase her the mage sat down on the sand and concentrated, trying to regain as much energy as she could. Down here there was lots of darkness for her to eat so it wasn't too difficult, but she still had to wait for a good opportunity to wrap this entire job up and go back to the surface.

The octopus also appeared to be trying to recover at this point, moving very little at this point as little red clouds drifted from its body, blood mixing with muddy water. While Akeya's assault had been very aggressive the octopus was still huge, so while it had many wounds none of those wounds had gone very deep. By Akeya's own estimation the guardian's health was bad enough that it would have to spend quite some time recovering, but this wouldn't be fatal unless something else delivered the killing blow.

Maybe the sharks that were heading this way would do the trick.

It didn't take very long before Akeya's little helpers would make their presence known, three large sharks swimming straight towards the octopus with red eyes. The artefact may be controlling them to some extent, but the instinct of the predator to head straight for the bloodied prey wasn't completely suppressed. Which suited Akeya just fine, since after her rampage of ripping chunks from the giant octopus she just wanted to hurry up and finish the job. She'd had enough fun and enough opportunity to vent her frustrations.

The large tentacled guardian didn't need any help realizing that it now had a different enemy to deal with. While weakened from blood of loss it still raised its tentacles and used them to lash out at the sharks. The sharks in turn turned to avoid the assault, evading and then diving in to answer in kind. Sharp teeth dug into flesh before they were forced to dodge once more as the angry boss struck them without mercy. Two of the sharks got grabbed and crushed to death, but from her hiding spot Akeya could tell that more sharks were arriving. The octopus could deal with any one shark, even a bunch of them, but it'd be a challenge to get rid of all of them before it ran out of stamina.

Well, the dragoness would leave this fight to the inhabitants of the sea. Time for her to wrap this up. Turning into a shadow she slid over the ground towards the artefact, which was still glowing red underneath the octopus. Despite the fact that nearly everything around the guardian had been destroyed the artefact itself was still in perfect condition. Aside from being sturdy it was impressive how careful the beast had been not to strike too closely to its treasure, given that it hadn't even be moved from its original spot. The dragoness had to grudgingly respect how good this octopus was at protecting its hoard. Too bad that she'd be taking it anyway.

Avoiding the scaled assailants and the tentacled defender she materialized right underneath the octopus, standing right in front of the artefact. It was small enough that she didn't need a special container for it, but just to be safe she was going to be storing it away in the shadow pocket she always used for sensitive equipment. While ducking to avoid the squirming of the octopus she raised both hands, shadows exploding from her to wrap around the artefact, extinguishing its vibrant light before retreating back into Akeya, leaving no sign of the treasure.

She could feel the octopus stiffen above her, a warning that she couldn't loiter here any longer. Turning into a shadow she dashed as far upwards past the guardian as she could manage in one go, a streak of blackness escaping from the ravaged and torn bed of the sea. After all that time fighting it was nice to return to waters which weren't filled with floating particles.

Below her the sharks and the octopus gave chase, apparently smart enough to realize that she was the one responsible for the disappearance of the artefact. The dragoness materialized and began to swim as fast as she could, her dark form making its way further and further upwards while the sea creatures slowly gained on her. While she'd adapted quite nicely to the bottom of the sea she still wasn't as much of a natural as these guys, and while she might win in maneuvering on short distances she couldn't beat them on covering a long distance in a straight line. At least, the sharks. The octopus looked like it was too worn down to catch up, which was a blessing since Akeya really didn't want to deal with it all over again.

Blinding them with darkness wouldn't do. She'd have to delay them in a physical fashion. Which meant that she'd have to be a bit more rough than before... As she swam she began to gather her energy in her belly, then let it spread towards her hands for when the spellcasting would begin. Only when she felt the amount of magic she had gathered become positively uncomfortable did she spin to face the sharks, who were close enough that they were already opening their mouths to snap at her.

Raising both hands towards the sharks she expelled all the energy at once, seizing the darkness that filled this abyssal world to wrap itself around the sharks, tying them together until all the predators were caught in a web of darkness. Struggling and squirming they set upon freeing themselves. The dragoness wasn't going to wait around to see how long it would take for them to succeed, instead swimming towards the surface as quickly as she could. Far up in the distance she could see a light, and while she wasn't eager to return to a world where the light dominated the darkness currently it was better than the alternative.

The light far up above began to spread and brighten, the waters around Akeya turned from abyssal black to a deep dark blue instead. The sharks were still struggling in the dark web, fighting each other as their attempts at freeing themselves caused them to inconvenience each other. Akeya wasn't looking downwards to check though, she was just swimming as fast as she could manage as around her the abyss began to fade away and was replaced with the deep blue of the more commonly frequented areas of the sea. Of course even down here there weren't a lot of landdwellers who'd come under normal circumstances, but she could spot more signs of life around her if she deigned to give it more than a glance as her gaze was fixed onto the light above.

The idea of being saved by the light of day was something which annoyed her immensely, but in this situation she couldn't really deny that once she reached the skies the sharks would no longer be able to do anything to her. No matter how determined they were they couldn't fly. The dragoness wondered briefly if she would be able to fly after having been submerged for quite a while, but shook her head at the nonsensical thought. She wasn't some pitiful bird whose flight was lost the moment their feathers were soaked. The only challenge the water might add was some additional weight and that wasn't going to be enough to hold her down.

Down below the sharks freed themselves with some difficulty, but at that point they were more obsessed with fighting one another, at least briefly. The power of the artefact was quickly disappearing now that Akeya had shoved it in her shadowy bag of holding and was quickly swimming away, so the magical power which had been making them cooperate to defend the artefact was no longer winning out against their territorial and outright violent natures. The female dragon glanced down to see them fighting amongst one another before she returned her focus to moving upwards, the dark blue of the deep seas now being replaced by the lighter blue of the upper waters. The surface was getting closer and closer at a high speed as Akeya swum a lot faster than someone limited by landdweller biology would be able to... Well, unless they had magic to compensate.

Breaking the surface with her head first Akeya turned into a shadow and dashed into the air. For all her speed she couldn't just launch herself out of the water. She'd have to study how dolphins did it before she could imitate that. For now she had to rely on her shadow dash, quickly followed by her materializing and spreading her wings to stay up in the air. Looking down she watched as the ripples of her abrupt departure were lost in the calm waves. Once nothing was left to indicate that she had been there she flew over towards the island where she'd have to deliver the artefact, landing on the beach a good few meters away from the water. No sense in risking an attack of some surface aquatic creature.

She walked across the beach until she reached the vegetation line, where she fished around inside of her shadow to pull out the artefact and look at it. Holding it in both hands the red light painted everything in a bloody fashion, while at the same time Akeya could feel that same influence return to her mind. A desire to attack anything which came near the artefact, a lack of patience. Maybe she shouldn't have accepted a job which required a human mage to retrieve something which turned all non-humans aggressive. However now she knew that she had to train herself to become better defended against mental attacks, so as long as she resisted it for long enough to return the artefact she would call it a bonus.

Sighing she put the artefact back in the dark pocket dimension and headed over to where her clients were most likely impatiently waiting. Precisely because of the attractive pull of the artefact she couldn't wait to get rid of it. She didn't care for objects which tried to control her thoughts and actions.