Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Chapter 895: A Relentless Assault

The chaotic battlefield surrounding the coral fortress was a swirling nightmare of blood and fractured stone. The hidden rogue army swarmed over the loyal siren and eel troops while the three aquatic rulers clashed in the center of the carnage. Li Yu maintained his position within the shimmering sphere of his domain as the relentless pressure bore down on Gart the Tide Shark.Knowing that he would most likely win out over a long battle, Li Yu did his best to stay out of the attack range of Gart. He would never face him directly and did his best to just keep pressure on him so others could. Li Yu was counting on the other two rulers to do the work.

The gluttonous ruler was visibly weakening under the combined might of his enemies. However, a Tribulation expert was a creature forged in the crucible of heavenly wrath and Gart refused to fall without a brutal struggle. Not when all of his plans were about to bear fruit.

Gart roared as he pushed against the suffocating pressure generated by Muddy. The Tide Shark twisted his massive body and snapped his jagged jaws forward with terrifying speed. He bypassed the swirling ice vortexes of the Sentry clone and clamped his teeth directly onto Muddy's front right leg. The bite force of the oceanic predator sheared through the thick hide and crushed the bone before severing the limb entirely.

Muddy let out a deep and vibrating bellow of pain but the water buffalo did not retreat or break his focus. He operated on a fierce loyalty to his master and refused to let the shark escape. Muddy lunged forward and buried his own blunt teeth into the bleeding gills on Gart's flank. The beast pushed his manipulation to the extreme limit and caused the pressure around them to magnify. The immense weight and bite anchored the massive shark firmly to the seabed and restricted his movements.

Li Yu seized the hard fought opening and channeled his Void Qi and Destruction Qi. Dark energy coalesced rapidly around his arms and formed another dozen Abyssal Javelins. He hurled them downward in a relentless rain of destruction.

Gart’s defensive Qi was heavily frayed from the continuous fighting and the Abyssal Javelins pierced his thick blue scales with ease and punched deep bleeding holes into his muscular back. Dark blood clouded the water as Li Yu descended from the upper currents with Star Crusher raised high above his head. He swung the heavy staff and smashed it into Gart's skull and spine repeatedly to disrupt the shark's internal energy flow.

The water around the perimeter of the domain rippled violently as Zhan returned from the outer edges of the battlefield. The mantis and Ouros had successfully routed a large portion of the rogue army vanguard to alleviate the pressure on the surviving troops.

Zhan saw the Tide Shark locked down by the pressure and bleeding from multiple wounds. The Domain King mantis knew it was time to end the beast and channeled his ultimate technique. The dark green carapace of the insect glowed with a lethal metallic sheen as he activated the Third Step of the Three Step Slayer technique.

The slaughter intent condensed so tightly around his scythes that the surrounding water boiled away into steam. Zhan vanished into a streak of emerald light and reappeared directly behind Gart. The suicidal strike bypassed the physical resistance of his armor and punched a massive hole clean through the side of the Tribulation ruler.

Gart let out a genuine howl of agony as his internal organs ruptured. The pain sent the Tide Shark into a frenzied state of survival and he retaliated with blinding speed. A violent burst of compressed water erupted and expanded outward like a detonating bomb.

The shockwave caught Zhan before he could recover from the severe backlash of his own technique. The mantis was thrown backward with deep cracks spiderwebbing across his metallic carapace. Li Yu was also caught in the blast radius and the kinetic force blasted him away from the shark as well. Both the human and the mantis crashed heavily into the rocky seabed and formed deep impact craters in the stone.

Mire saw his most hated enemy bleeding from the massive hole Zhan had just created. The eel was heavily wounded himself and missing a large chunk of flesh from his own tail but his hatred fueled his final strike. He swam forward with reckless abandon and bypassed the lingering compressed water currents.

Mire clamped his massive jaws directly onto the gaping wound on Gart's side. The eel pumped every ounce of his core venom deep into the shark's bloodstream. The highly concentrated poison was a unique bloodline weapon designed to melt flesh from the inside out. He had gotten Gart a few times before already with it but the amount he was able to inject this time dwarfed all other attempts.

Gart screamed in agony as the corrosive venom spread through his veins and caused his massive muscles to spasm violently. The effort of injecting his core essence severely drained Mire and left the eel ruler hovering on the brink of unconsciousness. Mire drifted away from the shark while barely keeping his eyes open as the toxic exertion took its toll.

Thalassa did not waste the opportunity her allies had bought with their blood. The Abyssal Siren clutched the stump of her severed arm and channeled her vast mental energy. She unleashed another soul attack that materialized as a saber that went straight for his head. The strike crashed directly into Gart's mind and the Tide Shark staggered heavily as his glowing eyes rolled back once again but for much longer this time.

Li Yu climbed out of his impact crater and ignored the heavy bruising across his ribs. The nurturing Life pillar of his domain was already circulating healing energy through his meridians. He shot upward from the seabed and charged Gart with Star Crusher gripped tightly in both hands.

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He smashed the heavy staff into Gart's snout with bone shattering force. Talia, having somewhat recovered, slipped out of a spatial fold on the shark's blind flank and drove her void scales into his wounded gills to inflict further damage. Zhan pushed through the pain of his cracked carapace and launched a series of rapid sword strikes that deepened the cuts along the shark's tail.

The combined and relentless assault was finally too much for the gluttonous predator to endure. On any given day he would have beaten any of them on his own but not as a group. Gart groaned as his massive body went limp and the Tide Shark collapsed heavily onto the ruined coral seabed.

Li Yu did not wait for anyone to speak or celebrate the victory. He knew the resilience of a Tribulation beast could turn the tables in a heartbeat if given the chance to recover or perhaps some last ditch technique. He floated directly over Gart's massive head and channeled the forced subjugation technique he had used on Ouros and Talia.

He pulled a thick thread of his soul power and drove it violently into Gart's fractured mind.

The slave seal attempted to brand the consciousness of the Tide Shark but Gart was a sovereign ruler of the deep oceans. Even weakened to a great extent and poisoned, his soul still possessed an immense and primal pride. The soul fought back fiercely and pushed against Li Yu's mental intrusion with the crushing weight of the abyssal depths. The resistance was so strong it threatened to cause a severe mental backlash against Li Yu.

Deep within Li Yu's conceptual soul space, the Koi Spirit recognized the threat to its host. The massive ethereal fish swam upward through the mental sky and unleashed a roar of aquatic supremacy.

The roar echoed through the soul connection and crashed into Gart's struggling consciousness. The Tide Shark possessed an oceanic bloodline but the Koi Spirit represented the pinnacle of water aligned evolution. The terrifying mental shockwave overpowered Gart's soul and crushed his remaining resistance into dust.

The slave seal burned brightly and locked firmly into place deep within his mind. Gart the Tide Shark was officially a servant of Li Yu.

The domain slowly dissolved into the surrounding water as Li Yu recalled his conceptual laws. The chaotic battlefield around them was growing quiet and the traitorous rogue army had watched their invincible leader fall to a coordinated assault and their morale shattered instantly. The surviving rogue beasts turned and fled into the dark trenches while Ouros stood alongside the remaining siren and eel troops to ensure they did not regroup.

The battlefield needed to be cleaned up and the political lines needed to be redrawn.

Li Yu swam over to where Thalassa was hovering and Mire was resting against a broken stone pillar. The two rulers looked exhausted and battered but they had survived the betrayal of their peers.

"I am claiming Gart." Li Yu stated plainly as he looked between the siren and the eel. "He is bound to my soul and he leaves with me. The rogue army is broken and Vortos is dead. You two can split everything else including their abandoned territories and their hoarded resources."

Mire coughed up a thin cloud of yellow blood and nodded his massive head. "Take the glutton. I only care about recovering my surviving children from his holding pens and rebuilding my home."

Thalassa lowered her silver saber and offered a nod. "I have no objections to your terms. We need time to rest and stabilize our borders before we can discuss the future."

"We will meet back up at the neutral border marker in two weeks." Li Yu agreed as he finalized the temporary truce. "Take the time to recover your strength. There are things I want to discuss with you two."

The two aquatic rulers gathered their surviving troops and began the long retreat back to their respective strongholds. The three sided war had ended with a drastic shift in the balance of power but the immediate threat was neutralized.

Li Yu turned his attention back to his new prize. He swam down to the seabed and tossed a handful of healing pills directly into Gart's mouth. The pills dissolved quickly and worked to neutralize the lingering traces of Mire's poison while accelerating the natural regeneration of the shark's flesh.

"Transform into your humanoid state." Li Yu commanded as he prepared for the journey back. "You are too massive to drag through the trenches in this form and I do not want to attract too many beings."

Gart groaned as the slave seal compelled his body to obey. The massive dark blue shark began to shimmer and fold inward as his anatomy compressed. He transformed into a towering humanoid figure but he retained heavy characteristics of his original beast form. He possessed a terrifying shark head with rows of jagged teeth and a thick shark tail extended from his lower back. His hands ended in sharp claws and his feet were wide and webbed for swimming.

The Tide Shark looked down at his new master and his dark eyes burned with a mixture of resentment and forced submission.

"You fight like a coward, relying on others and not your own strength" Gart voiced his opinion directly as his deep voice grated against the water. "You might command me now but you do not have my respect."

Li Yu ignored the insult because he expected a Tribulation ruler to retain a bruised ego. He wasn’t wrong in what he said but the only result that mattered was that he was now serving Li Yu.

"My order is that you walk." Li Yu said as he grabbed the shark. "We are returning to your territory so you can heal properly and we can rest as well. I have plans for you though."

Gart was far too destroyed to move efficiently on his own despite the humanoid transformation and the healing pills. The deep wounds from the battle still bled sluggishly and his internal meridians were scrambled from the intense soul attacks. Li Yu had to physically drag the towering shark through the water as they began the journey toward Gart's domain.

The rest of the team fell into formation behind them. Zhan moved with a slight limp due to his cracked carapace and Ouros rubbed his bruised body from the attacks. Talia nursed her ribs from the tail strike and Muddy had long returned to Li Yu’s soul space to recover.

They had all suffered injuries during the brutal clash but they were manageable and not life threatening. The team needed time to rest and digest the gains of the battle. Li Yu swam steadily through the deep ocean trenches as he thought of his future plans.