“Those are the crabs you’re concerned about?” asked Naha.

  “I know they seemed insignificant and…”

  “I believe in your judgment,” interrupted the sorceress. “Allow me to end this in one blow.”

  A large ball of energy formed in Naha’s hands before she released it towards the crabs. Even after the ball left her palm, it continued to expand until it quadrupled its size. Upon impact, the blast incinerated everything it touched and left a large crater on the seafloor. Once the dust cleared, Dhaga estimated the crater to be roughly ten times the radius of the ball of energy. Most of the crabs were killed off while there were still small groups of crabs around the crater. Dhaga was formulating a plan to eliminate the surviving crabs when a series of explosions got his attention.

  Are those crabs….exploding?

  While the blast incinerated everything caught within it, there were still bits and pieces of crabs floating in the sea that attracted scavengers. From where he was, Dhaga watched as those scavengers blew up upon coming in contact with crab debris. The explosions were impressive considering the size of the debris. The naga could only imagine what would happen if all of the crabs managed to detonate near the Leviathan.

  “Seems like the entire body of the crab is a weapon,” said Naha. “We have to stop those crabs from getting too close or even their debris could become a problem.”

  “Damn! They are splitting up!”

  Dhaga felt frustrated upon seeing the groups of crab splitting up. He knew from experience that crabs were fairly intelligent creatures. However, he was certain that something else was coordinating the crab deployment. As much as he wanted to find out who was responsible, he had to address the issue at hand and turned to Naha.

  “Please wipe out all the groups in that section,” said Dhaga as he pointed in one direction. “I’ll take care of the crabs in the other section and we can rendezvous afterwards.”

  From his earlier observation, the naga noticed that there was a two second delay between when the scavengers made contact and when the explosion happened. If he could land his attacks swiftly and get outside the blast radius, then he would be safe. He could finally put to use the training he did under Cridror’s guidance. Once he and Naha agreed on where to meet, Dhaga went to work by summoning his aqua blades. He needed weapons he could abandon easily as the explosions wouldn’t be so kind to wait for him to get away. Against the crabs, the blades should be plenty, likely even overkill if they weren't such a big threat.

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  Now, let’s do a small test.

  Dhaga swam towards a group nearby and slashed a crab in half. He specifically picked one in the center of the group to see if the explosion affected other crabs. As he observed from a safe distance, one explosion was followed by multiple explosions. With a single attack, he eliminated the group, allowing him to proceed to the next group. After he eliminated half a dozen groups later with the method, the crabs split up into even smaller groups. They were clearly adapting to his strategy.

  The smaller the group, the less threat they become.

  Dhaga realized how fortunate he was with Naha’s earlier blast. Because it eliminated so many crabs, the resulting groups had so few crabs. If his enemies had more numbers, they could easily trap him and he would be killed by the explosions. While the sorceress didn’t end it in one blow as she claimed earlier, she did strike a decisive blow that the crabs couldn’t recover from. Without hesitation, Dhaga proceeded to eliminate the rest of the crabs in the area he was assigned. He used his current sense a few times to ensure that he left no stragglers.

  I’m sure Naha is nearly done with her area too.

  Dhaga swam towards the rendezvous when he stopped. He used his current sense but nothing showed up. Yet, he couldn’t deny that his instincts suggested otherwise. After he summoned a new pair of aqua blades, Dhaga stayed in position and closed his eyes. There were no currents where he was so his current sense wouldn’t aid him much. The nearest current was too far and he doubted he could reach there before he was struck down. He had to rely on senses other than sight because he couldn’t see the foe.

  Remember what Cridror said. One must be able to use all the senses to deal with foes that could appear out of nowhere. I must be ready for anyone and anything.

  After calming his nerves and closing his eyes, the naga felt a new sensation he never experienced before. Cridror did tell him that nagas, like many other sea creatures, have different ways of navigating in the ocean. For those skilled at concealment, standard senses like sight and smell weren’t effective. As he experienced personally, current sense was too situational to be reliable in all situations. Therefore, he needed a non-standard way of sensing things to best the masters of concealment.

  So that’s how it works…

  Dhaga was initially puzzled by what the orca taught him but, as he grew and trained with the orcas, a lot of their teachings made more sense. He sent out a breath out in a certain direction and then turned to a different direction. He did so until he did a complete circle. Then, he waited until a sound wave hit him. The naga quickly turned in that direction and repeated the process until he knew the enemy was merely a few meters from his position. Taking the initiative, he swung his blade at the target and felt a clean hit. Upon opening his eyes, he saw an electrical eel backing away slowly from him. The two of them played a short game of tag before the naga finished off the eel.

  Odd that it didn’t conceal itself again. Was the wound the cause? Or was there a cooldown before it could reuse the ability?

  Putting the questions aside, Dhaga rushed to the rendezvous point, fearing for Naha’s safety.