Giana was weighing her options. Her density was sending her toward the surface. Never had she thought that the most effective way to separate their party was by density. Giana couldn’t swim for the opposite reason as Noelle. She wasn’t dense enough. But she had a way around it. She looked at her recording crystal. She wasn’t ready for the world to know of this side of her. She would ask her party members to delete tis part of their footage.

  Giana was a hybrid. She was not only a nine tailed spirit fox but also a sapphire mermaid. She luckily knew how to switch but it took some effort. Her legs grew together and formed a tail covered in sapphire scales. She grew long frilly fins. Her density increased and she could breathe and talk underwater.

  She shot downward and enjoyed being fast for once. She sang to increase Yvonne’s wind magic potency. Yvonne finally managed to create a large and stable bubble.

  Giana fetched Io, Vinny and Toxic Donkey and dropped them off in the bubble.

  “Yv, do you mind deleting this part from the recording crystals? And also, from them? I’m not ready yet for the world to know this side of me.”

  “O…ok, be careful I hear strange sounds, probably sea creatures. You can’t use Elgards Eyes like this right?”

  “I can but I echolocation would work better. It will be fine. Worry about yourself. I will see what I can do about Noelle.” Giana sang another song for protection. The melodic tune strengthened the air bubble even more and granted it protection against sea creatures.

  She shot down and found Noelle walk over the ocean floor. She sang another song and bubbles gathered around Noelle.

  “Come on Noelle, I need your help. A bit more gravity manipulation please?”

  Noelle tried to respond but she took in water.

  “Oops. Noelle keep it together!” Giana had no idea what to do. She only knew the basic capabilities of the single tailed gemmed merfolk. She also couldn’t use her 1t mode. She assumed that it would give her absolute control over water but she had to do without that for now. Noelle finally became light enough for Giana and she pulled her up.

  Giana felt great freedom in the ocean. She had never felt this before. Noelle wasn’t weighing her down anymore but also had stopped becoming lighter. Had Giana awakened her 1t sense of swimming?

  It didn’t take long for her to locate the bubble and placed Noelle in it. Noelle coughed up water. “Ugh, this is rough. Are you ok with that form?”

  “S…she asked me to delete this part of the recording.”

  “Ok.” Noelle crushed her recording crystal.

  “You didn’t need to shatter it, Noelle. Just delete this part.”

  “Well at this point I think we will need everything we can do to just stay alive. But…” Noelle looked around. “I thought that 9t couldn’t swim, what business did he have in the ocean?”

  “I don’t know…”

  “D..do you think he went phoenix… n…never mind that’s a stupid suggestion. And Giana, you look gorgeous in that form.” Yvonne said as she admired Giana's saphire scales.

  “Oh, thank you.”

  “D…do you mind if I use some more scales for fashion?”

  “Go ahead Yv. So, what is the objective on this floor? I don’t suppose it’s to survive right?”

  The idols looked around but they knew for sure that something as ‘simple’ as surviving was to be expecting.

  Giana and Yvonne picked up a signal at the same time.

  “I will take care of this as I’m the only one that can move around freely.” Giana left the bubble and headed toward the approaching threat. She also noticed some electrical currents in the water. Her single tail notified her that this was an unnatural amount for normal aquatic life forms. Giana knew next to nothing about the ocean so she trusted her single tail.

  She found out what she would be fighting moments later as a large eel, charged with red lightning approached.

  “What in Hourai…” She got zapped but as usual it didn’t deal any damage. “Hmm…”

  She swam at the eel. Every water attack in her arsenal got shot at the eel. Their damage was slightly more than normal but still not enough to defeat this eel. What were her options? Frost magic? Charm it?

  The eel smacked her with its tail. She got moved from her spot but not by much.

  “Hey! How rude!” She returned the favor by smacking the eel with her tail. The eel writhed in pain and got sent flying, as much as that was possible underwater.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “Oh... yes! I can attack! Haha, I haven’t had eel for a while!” Giana and the eel exchanged tail smacks. Giana could grow sapphire scales on her body to protect herself. She only used it to get the hang of it because she didn’t need it. None of the red and later orange lightning attacks hurt her. The orange lightning stung a bit but it was nothing noteworthy.

  It was a long and inelegant fight but the eel passed out from exhaustion and a concussion. She tried to make her dimensional pocket and It ate a lot of mana as she wasn’t a 9t currently. But that was no problem for Giana, she had hardly expended any mana since entering the dungeon. She took a sapphire scale and used it to cut off the eel’s head and chucked the rest of the eel in her dimensional pocket.

  She made an [Ice Mirror] and inspected herself. She looked tired and was all bloodied but it wasn’t her blood. She cleaned up and fixed herself up with some simple water and charm magic.

  “Yup! I’m presentable now!” She went back to her party and got into the bubble.

  “The electric eel has been dealt with.”

  Noelle and Yvonne looked at her in shock. “Wait you defeated something?! This calls for celebration!”

  “Well, I smacked it around with my tail it passed out for exhaustion so I’m not sure if I really defeated it.”

  “That counts!” Yvonne made a crown of flowers. “So what’s next”

  Giana reacted and Yvonne perked her ears.

  “I guess there’s our answer.”

  A large bulky merman with a spear approached them. He was alone. Giana left the bubble and met up with this unknown merman.

  “I am Shidar Fishfingers the Third. The king of the mermen. To who do I have the honor of fighting?”

  Giana cocked her head. “Is your name really Shidar Fishfingers? Or did Agnis misremember?”

  “My name is Shidar Fishtail the Third.”

  “I guess it’s the latter. I’m Giana Kahlua and what happened to the first and second?”

  “Uhh, they got turned into fish paste.”

  “Haha that can’t be real right? Did he misremember this too?”

  “Shidar the second got pulled through a small opening by the nymphs and got turned into paste...”

  “Ohh that is a dark twist. I guess that sounds plausible.”

  “Get ready for battle! Here I come!” Shidar readied his spear and charged.

  Giana tried to make use of her newfound speed but Shidar was faster and his spear hit her. However as usual it did no damage. Giana countered with a tail slap.

  Shidar tried to evade but Giana flared some charm magic which slowed him down. The slap connected and Shidar got pushed back. She tried [Seduce] but it failed.

  Shidar backed off as he was wary of the [Seduce]. Giana started to realize that her charm magic might be so strong as both 9t and mermaids have strong charm affinities. She wondered if this was the reason why it was so hard to control.

  Giana got hit again and countered with a tail slap which missed. She used [Float] and landed a successful tail slap. it took a while but she noticed a cut on Shidar’s arm. Which confused her. Where did that cut come from?

  Shidar sent out [Water blades] at every evade. Most hit Giana but she used this as a learning experience. She started to copy Shidar and also send out [Water Blades] as she evaded.

  A sudden memory popped up of Agnis fighting and sending out [Water Blades] as he evaded. There was so much going on in the fight against the spirit stalkers but this must be where he picked that up.

  The battle area was filled with [Water Blades] flying left and right. It was not yet possible for Giana to become as fast as Shidar but she got better and better at swimming. She connected another tail slap and saw how one of her sapphire scales cut into Shidar’s arm and drew blood. Shidar had a lot of cuts on his body and Giana finally understood where they were coming from.

  “Why haven’t I thought of this earlier.” She pulled out 2 sapphire scales which instantly regrew. The 2 scales she was holding on to, lengthened and turned into makeshift daggers. Giana wasn’t skilled in using daggers, she had however seen Toxic Donkey use daggers so she could emulate him.

  Giana spent most of her life as a 9t so she had a good sense for timing and imitation so it didn’t take too long for her to become decent at using daggers. This whole dungeon had been an enormous learning experience for her.

  Another messy and long fight but Shidar was losing a lot of blood. His movements had slowed and his moves had become sloppy. Giana felt like a sadist for winning fights by driving her opponents to exhaustion or blood loss but this was all she could do with low offensive power. She did have more offensive options now than before she started this dungeon.

  She shot through the water and fired a large blast of charm magic at Shidar which immobilized him. She clutched the sapphire daggers drenched in blood and stabbed him in his chest. She put Shidar out of his misery and cut off his head after using [Numb].

  “Thank you for the educational experience.” Giana made a polite bow and cleaned herself up again as yet again she was covered in blood.

  “42 minutes… that was longer than I had hoped.” Giana was about to return to the bubble when it seemed as if the water was draining. She suddenly found herself on the surface of the ocean. She saw the bubble not too far from her. The water was rowdy but she didn’t care as a mermaid.

  “W…what is that!” Yvonne pointed behind Giana.

  “Wow we’re so fucked. How is Agnis even alive, don’t tell me we need to jump into that?”

  Giana turned around to see for herself what her friends were talking about. Her eyes opened wide as a wall of air was swirling and moving the ocean around. The wall of wind was called the Hurricane Path.

  “Haha this is a bit too crazy for me, so he also has been to the Hurricane Path!” Giana said that but a large smile appeared on her face and her eyes flashed magenta.