The galleon sailed through the waves of the West Ocean, crew on the lookout for any signs of sea monsters. On the main deck was the captain, searching for any indication that a creature had surfaced. So far, though, only the remains of ocean hunters and their bathyspheres, those who had tried and failed to claim the bounties on the beasts' heads.

Serves them right, interfering in naval business. This was a job for men commissioned by the government, not for some egomaniac hunters. All those who died trying to slay these creatures deserved their fates.

The shipwrecks in the water had the attention of the crew, who were already looking for signs of whatever had sunk the vessels around them. All of them failed, however, to notice the trail of bubbles that was making its way toward them. Nor did they notice the giant black vessel making its way toward them.

Their first sign that something was wrong was when something collided with their vessel, causing it to lurch to the side. Moments later, another impact followed, this time tilting their vessel in the other direction. Hastily, the crew tried to ready the weapons, but it was too late - as the crew scrambled to react, a colossal form burst out of the water. It vaguely resembled a sea turtle, but there was no shell, and the head was both too long and filled with sharp teeth - weapons of a hunter. The mighty beast fell upon the vessel, its mass splitting it in two. Several crew were crushed, while the rest were thrown into the sea. A few made it to the lifeboats, but the majority would be lost to the sea, either drowing or being devoured by those that followed this mighty predator.

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Being a monster felt so good.

...You have no idea what I am, do you?

Here's a look.

(see supplement story that will be posted tomorrow for details)

So, yeah, I was a beast that prowled the oceans. And a fairly big one - not supersized like the most famous beasts here (which included a giant worm in this very sea that could swallow me whole and still have room), but still noticable. I was happy that I'd ended up in the West Ocean, because that gave me the option of being something that was extinct and not looking too out of place. And thus, I'd chosen my form to be a pliosaur - you know, like predator X, Kronosaurus or Liopleurdon. Yes, I am a paleontology nerd. I don't care what you think, I like being a giant sea monster.

Now, normally, I'd be inclined to just ignore the humans here unless they attacked me, but I'd chosen to have the navy be a problem here. And beyond attacking me cause sea monsters ate people, they also attacked ocean hunters because they did not want the competition. I objected to this. Which was why I now had a bounty of 2500 G on me - lower than that of Kraken, though, because I didn't show that much aggression to anyone except the navy. And the few people who wanted the bounty on my head. Merchant ships and fishing vessels were ignored - beyond morals, they just didn't have enough on them to be worth attacking.

That didn't mean that I wasn't proactive in my actions, though - I didn't particularly take kindly to the navy wiping out hunters in my turf just to remove the competition. And whey you're a giant sea monster with a fair amount of minions to back you up, your word was usually law, at least in the ocean.

Speaking of minions, I'd taken a set of prehistoric beasties to back me up in this sea. My smallest followers were a hoard of ammonites, which were surprisingly useful due to a little boon that jumpchan had given me - not only had she made them venemous, but they also had the ability to produce ink clouds I could hide in. As for my larger followers, well, I'd taken a pod of smaller pliosaurs with me. They mostly hunted whales and other giant sea creatures whenever I wasn't being a scourge to the navy.

But despite having minions to aid me, I desired some human companionship - minions couldn't talk, for one, and I also had a hoard of treasure that I obviously couldn't use. So what to do?

Ironically, my hunting of the navy answered that question.

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I clamped my jaws around the sailor, and followed that up with a crocodilian death roll, snuffing the life out of her. Then I spit up the corpse - if I didn't have to eat humans, I wasn't doing so. I admit that I'd been a little unnerved when I had first killed a human in this universe, but after two years of fighting the navy and a few other sea beasts that my perks somehow didn't work on (I blame Jump-Chan), I'd become inured to killing other humans. This group in particular had earned my ire for attacking a pair of hunters out trying to take down a giant Edestus - the less competition for food I had to deal with, the better.

As I was about to turn away, though, my nostrils picked up a new scent in the water. Turning toward it, my eyes widened ever so much in surprise - the two hunters were alive, having hastily taken refuge atop a piece of wreckage that was still floating. They didn't produce much scent before they had climbed out of the water, but it was enough for me to notice.

...I had six spare companions available for this jump. Maybe I could fill in two here?

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Scanning the sea, Claire felt her heart sink. There was no land in sight, and the wreck she and Paul were using for flotation would not last much longer. If they couldn't find a way to get moving before the flotsam sank, then they'd have to contend with this sea beast and whatever followed it for snacks...dammit, why did things have to be so grim?!

"See anything?"

Claire glanced over at Paul, who was hastily reloading his harpoon gun. "No, not yet. House's the arm?"

Claire grimaced before glancing at her left arm. When the navy had shot down their bathysphere, she'd slammed said arm against the helm and at the very least fractured it. Being down a limb was not something you wanted to happen when you were surrounded by sea monsters, but here they were.

She knew that Paul would never leave her, even if she told him to. It made him...endearing. And he was kinda cute. But that was something to think about after they got out of this mess.

"It hurts, but I can manage. You loaded?"

"Yeah, but where do we go?"

Claire looked around. "Well, we could try to move to a bigger piece of wreckage or...I don't believe it."

Paul immediately turned to glance at his hunting partner. "What is it?"

"There's a lifeboat right over there," she said, pointing in the direction of her find. "I think we can make it if we're fast."

Glancing at what Claire saw, Paul couldn't believe his luck. There was indeed a spare lifeboat floating in the water. Evidently the sailrs who had tried to capitalize on it were probably dead, seeing how the flippered sea monsters were gorging themselves on quite a few corpses. IF they could time it right, they might be able to sneak onto it and row themselves...somewhere. Away from here would be a good step one.

Especially when it emerged.

Ascending from the depths was the leader of the beasts - the one called the Ship Breaker. The predator seemed to have come up for air, but it spent an unusually long time taking a breath. Its eyes darted around the wreckage, even momentarily glancing at them, but before they could react, it went back down into the depths.

The need to escape had become more urgent.

"You ready?" he asked Claire.

"As I'll ever be."

"Alright then. We'll jump into the water on three. One-"

Before Paul could say another word, the flotsam they were on started moving. For a moment, the two wondered why, until they saw the dark shape below them. It seemed that the giant beast had snuck underneath them. Suprised, the duo considered trying to attack the beast, only to realize that their attacks might not do anything to it. Seeing no other option, they decided to wait until the beast stopped before moving toward the lifeboat.

Much to their surprise, they stopped just beside the boat, for that was when the creature descended low enough to allow the flotsam to coast before coming to a stop. Hastily, the duo clambered over to the lifeboat and prepared to paddle away, only to stop when the beast resurfaced. This time, it swam toward another piece of wreckage - a medical kit, to be precise. With a fluidity (hah) that such a large creature seemed unlikely to possess, it snatched up the kit in its jaws, then changed course.

Now it was heading for them. But it was going really slowly. So slowly, in fact, that it seemed unlikely that this was an attack. And as it happened, the creature came to a halt just in front of them, releasing the medical kit. After a moment of caution, Claire scooped it up and started treating her arm.

Paul glanced at Claire, then at the beast, then at Claire again, before finally setting his sights on the beast once more. "I don't know if you can understand this, but thank you."

"You're welcome."

...What?!

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Thank you, aura.

So, yeah. I abused the power of aura to talk to the two hunters (there's names were Paul and Claire, before you ask). After the initial shock of meeting a monster capable of telepathic communicaiton, the two had put me under a microscope, scrutinizing everything I did. I answered to the best of their power, making sure to restrain myself from laughing at how frazzled they were (they'd outright punched each other to make sure they weren't dreaming).

When they'd finally established that I was friendly, they weren't really sure what to do. I offered them a chance to come with me. They, understandably, had been skeptical.

I summoned up my Flying Bathysphere and offered them some gold.

They were less skeptical. Though they also looked like they were a few wrong words/actions away from breaking down and either screaming or crying.

We ended up heading over to a nearby port where the two had friends living/working - an engineer by the name of Amalia and a marine biologist named Andre. They'd been...rather surprised by my flying bathysphere - Jump-Chan had added in a sort of carrying think like those used to transport dolphins so that I could go everywhere using the airship without looking too absurd. The improvements made to make this method of flight viable had hooked Amalia's attention to a level I couldn't describe. The minute Paul and Claire confirmed that I was offering to take others with me, she'd jumped on board. Andre had tried to dissuade her, and when that failed, joined up himself to make sure she was okay. I also got the feeling he wanted to make sure that Paul and Claire had an extra person to lean on.

Okay, four companions down, two to go, eight years left in the jump. I had a bunch of naval personnel hating me (including a pair of asian themed sailors named Takeshi and Li Xiu, who seemed to treat me like Moby Dick for some reason), but I could live with that.

Now all I had to do was figure out what Jump-Chan's challenge and reward was. Hopefully it wasn't too bad here.

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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!