Primordial Villain with a Slave Harem

Chapter 1949: A Shocking Number

Black Fang’s blade skidded across an armored scale. The serpent lunged at her before she could recover, and the water dragged against her twisting body.

Her first underwater fight was giving her few chances to learn.

Quinlan seized the seawater around his shoulders with his magic and stopped his tumble. His muscles swelled as he hauled his knees toward his chest, pushing Synchra’s thigh plates outward.

He packed the sea behind his boots into a foothold, and Synchra braced his spine, crimson seams blazing as he planted his feet against it.

He kicked hard enough to blow the compressed water apart. Bubbles erupted behind his heels as Quinlan hurtled back toward the serpent, his magic forcing a path through the sea until its gill was within sword reach.

Quinlan pushed against Black Fang’s hip with a current, carrying her through the turn. As its teeth snapped shut behind her, he thrust the Soul Reaper into the gill the monster had exposed to him.

The saber bit through cartilage. Quinlan shoved it deeper, then ripped it toward himself, opening the creature’s neck in a gush of blood.

"GRRROOOO!!"

Black Fang was returning. She planted a foot against its cheek and buried her poisoned blade beneath the plate above his cut.

The exposed flesh blackened around her steel. As the venom spread, the serpent shuddered violently as it tried to twist around, its muscles seizing along that side of its neck.

Quinlan swept the poisoned blood away from their bodies with a current aimed toward deeper water. He maintained the flow as he pulled the Soul Reaper free for another strike.

Black Fang bared her teeth at him and kicked off the beast to give him room.

Quinlan pressurized a narrow stream of seawater and fired it through the wound she’d opened. Scales erupted outward as the jet peeled the damaged plate from its neck, cutting deep into the flesh beneath.

The serpent whipped its tail toward him.

He hauled a wall of water into its path.

*BOOM!*

The collision buckled his barrier and hurled him backward. Synchra tightened around his ribs as the shock tore through his chest, the rocky shelf rushing closer behind him.

Quinlan seized the seawater against his back and pushed forward with it. The opposing force stopped his retreat, but the monster kept bearing down on his barrier, its tail grinding through the churning water.

"Ngh!"

He could feel the strength in that enormous body through every current it displaced. The creature was trying to crush him with the same water he commanded, and Quinlan bared his teeth inside his helmet.

He wanted to beat it at that.

Quinlan dragged more of the surrounding sea into his barrier, packing the flow against its tail until the armored length stopped advancing. Sand ripped off the seabed in streaming clouds as the water rushed past him.

The serpent strained against him, its coils knotting as it fought for another inch. Quinlan laughed into his helmet and increased the pressure until he began forcing it back.

Black Fang slipped beneath its head while it struggled against him. Her sword opened the flesh beside its gills, and the monster jerked toward her with its mouth spreading wide.

Quinlan reversed the current along its flank.

The water the serpent had pushed against to turn now threw its head in the opposite direction. Its teeth snapped shut on empty sea while Black Fang swept past its throat, her blade carving another bloody line.

"GRRRAAA!!"

The beast lashed its tail to dive after her. Quinlan hauled the water beneath its belly upward, rolling the huge body sideways over the shelf before it could descend.

He clamped opposing currents around its midsection, holding it over the shelf. While it fought the pressure pinning it there, his earth magic thrust a stone spike up through its exposed underside.

Its whole body convulsed.

Quinlan pulled himself aside with water magic while Black Fang slipped along the trapped coil. Her blade opened its belly as she passed, her skirt catching on a spine and tearing along her thigh.

"GRRRAAA!!"

Blackened blood poured after her. Quinlan dragged it down toward the seabed, keeping the water around her clear while he thrust the Soul Reaper through another gap in the armor.

His outer warning curtain tugged at his attention. He read the harmless fish passing through it and kept the boundary in place, his saber buried in the thrashing monster.

The serpent wrenched against Quinlan’s currents until the flesh around the stone spike tore, leaving a chunk of its body behind. Its head swung toward Black Fang, jaws spreading while its surviving gill swelled for another blast.

She met Quinlan’s gaze, then eyed the corner of that open mouth. She tucked her knees beneath her, ready to push off the water he was gathering behind her feet.

He wrenched the Soul Reaper free and surged toward the other side of its head.

*BOOM!*

Quinlan split the pressure wave around Black Fang with his water magic and launched her through the opening. At the same time, he forced a jet into the serpent’s torn gill and froze it inside the wound.

Ice ruptured its cheek, levering the mouth wider just as she reached it.

Black Fang caught the corner of its mouth and swung herself against its face. She drove her blade through the roof of its mouth while Quinlan rammed his saber through the breach in its cheek.

Both weapons punched into its skull.

The monster tried to bite down, scraping Black Fang’s forearm with its teeth. Quinlan forced its lower jaw away with a current as she planted her foot against it and tore her sword sideways.

He ripped the Soul Reaper in the opposite direction.

*CRUNCH!*

The head came apart between them. Broken fangs spun through the water with fragments of bone, and blood engulfed both killers as the enormous body thrashed through its final convulsions.

Quinlan trapped the tail with his water magic and shoved it down toward the seabed. He was laughing inside his helmet when Black Fang emerged from the red cloud, her blade still in her hand.

She looked at him with savage delight, black silk fluttering around her bare thigh.

Quinlan grinned back, exhilarated by their kill. She had committed to each dangerous opening with complete confidence that he would get her through it.

Seeing that they were becoming quite the synergistic duo made him smile from ear to ear, two proper psychos staring at each other deep underwater.

He swept the blood and venom away from them in an outward current, then caught the dead serpent in a separate flow before it could sink.

Quinlan pulled the carcass after him, already looking forward to bringing his wives a ridiculous amount of sashimi.

A window flashed across Black Fang’s vision.

Black Fang stared at the notification, her sword lowering until it hung beside her leg.

Quinlan’s own reward appeared in his vision. He left it unread, watching her. He was eager to see the expression this woman made after seeing a bigger number than one after such a long wait.

Instead she remained suspended in the water, so absorbed in the window that even the blood drifting past her face went ignored.

Concern drew him to her. He washed the blood away with a current and gathered her into his arms, one beneath her knees, the other supporting her back.

She let him, still staring ahead.

He drove a rising column of water beneath them and took her straight to the surface.

A separate current towed the serpent’s carcass up after them, keeping it away from their bodies as they rose.

Black Fang drew in a deep breath as they broke through. Synchra’s helmet flowed away from Quinlan’s face while he steadied the water beneath his feet, holding her above the swell.

"Are you alright?"

"...One million two hundred thousand."

Quinlan’s eyes widened.

So much XP for a monster below their level?