Rustle! Rustle!

  The leaves of the flowers gently swayed to the rhythm of the water flow; they flaunted their beautiful flower frames like female models back on earth.

  Leroy hovered in the water; eyes focused like those of an eagle's watching his prey as he watched his target with undivided attention. The rustling movements of the flowers did not affect him at all.

  From his vantage position at the top of his army's base, he had all the right angles to observe the evolving Sebastian thoroughly.

  It was already 40 minutes since the great white shark closed his eyes to start his evolution, and in these few minutes, Leroy was already detecting some significant changes in its body.

  It was not obvious, but as he's been looking at Sebastian since without blinking, he knew that the shark had gained some few pounds of flesh.

  He knew of evolutions; he's evolved 3 times so he knew how random the choices were. In a sense, evolving was just like gambling, you make choices but you don't have a definite idea of the end results.

  He didn't know the choices that Sebastian would take, but he somehow felt that the shark would make stupid choices.

  He was worried that Sebastian would change and go against him after waking up, and he was also worried that Sebastian would remain as his ally but would make stupid evolution options, making him weaker than expected.

  Well, as he's not seen Sebastian suddenly growing an extra pair of eyes or ears yet, or even the pee-pee thing, that meant that everything was still ok for now. He heaved a sigh of relief.

  As he looked on, he suddenly felt the water stir at the entrance to the base. Turning his head, he saw his most loyal companion, Big Group, swimming in leisurely.

  "Clan head". The Grouper fish greeted respectfully.

  Leroy nodded back with a smile before beckoning the fish closer. They became still and just hovered there, calmly watching the great white shark as it underwent its evolution.

  Big Group suddenly inclined his fishy head and asked a question. "Will he be stronger than me after he evolves?"

  Leroy was caught off guard by that question, turning to see the reaction on the Grouper fish's face he laughed. "I don't know, but even if he becomes as strong as you, he'll surely not be able to kill you yet".

  "Ok". The fish shook its tail, clearly contented with the answer.

  "I wonder what magic type he'll choose". Seeing the fish relax by his side contentedly, Leroy sighed and went into contemplation.

  This was not the only thought in his mind though. "I wonder what big plan Sting Tail is cooking up, I hope my preparations are enough. Sigh! In the end its never enough"

  Time slowly flowed as the both of them faithfully hovered there, waiting for the evolving shark. They didn't tell stories, they didn't even talk again, they just engaged in a silent observation like a spectator in a movie.

  As Leroy's eyelids slowly became heavy, he was jolted awake.

  Boom!

  His eyes suddenly opened wide, alert shining from its depths as the viciousness of a hunter shone in them for a moment before quickly calming down.

  Big Group was already awake too as he let out weird noises from its mouth that felt like growling. Both of them didn't talk, they just observed the weed that was slowly dropping from the roof of this base under the coral floor.

  They didn't have to wait long to hear another.

  Boom!

  "What's happening? Leroy finally frowned as its turtle hands curled and stretched tautly like it was tense.

  The next moment, one of the members of the Leroy clan soldiers swam into the base at a high speed. "Clan head, we're under attack".

  "Who?"

  "The Sting Tail clan".

  Leroy's expression became heavy. Having sudden attacks from their enemies was not a weird occurrence to them, but he felt that this one was different. Something was wrong.

  "Take me there". He muttered gravely.

  …

  Snap! Crunch!

  Blood flowed everywhere, dying the water in a shade of dark red as fishes and sea creatures clashed without a care of the world. Bites, cuts, magic attacks, every one of them could be seen on the battlefield.

  The Leroy clan lair was a scene of carnage. The attack came too fast for them to react properly, they vastly underestimated the force that their sworn enemies came with.

  Looking at the scene before him, Leroy felt his face burn with rage. Not only did Sting Tail violate their agreement, but he also violated it completely.

  In the ongoing battlefield, apart from the disproportionate number of stingrays on the attacker's side, they had an overwhelming amount of water snakes accompanying them also.

  Leroy laughed bitterly. "I should have known, he actually cooperated with the Viper clan".

  His clan was not too big in the first place, now that they were faced with such overwhelming odds, they crumbled completely. His soldier's death count was already climbing into the dozens, not to talk of his normal clan members.

  The beautiful scenery of the clan lair was already desecrated, now it was just a fragment of its former self.

  Big Group already left his side to join the battle since he was the commander of his army, only his personal guard of battle turtles was currently with him. They were 6 guards in total.

  At the back of the enemies' soldiers and clan members stood his most hated enemy, Sting Tail. The huge Stingray hovered at the back of his clan, enjoying the scene of his clan members dominating the battlefield.

  Beside the stingray slithered an enormous Viper, its tongue flickered incessantly, spreading mist as the evil venom in it made the water bubble energetically.

  This was the ruler of the Viper clan. This clan was not in this expanse, their lair was located at the other expanse deep inside the other narrow tunnels.

  Normally, clans from the 3 tunnels hardly communicated as they all hated each other, but Sting Tail and this vicious Viper clearly didn't give a damn to the unquoted rule.

  Seeing his clan members die while his most hated enemy enjoyed the scene, Leroy felt outraged. Taking a deep breath to calm his mind, he turned to his chief guard.

  "Get me my battle gear".

  "But clan head, you said that you'll wait for the shark before going out to battle". The chief guard hesitated.

  Leroy laughed. "Can't you see it?" He spread his frontmost pair of hands.

  "Our hopes of winning are as good as nil; we have no hope of surviving".

  He grinned. "But this does not mean that we can cower though, we have to bite them hard so that they can remember who we were".

  The ferocity in his face did not drop a bit, but he lowered his voice as he said this. "When Sebastian wakes up, tell him that our agreement is void. Tell him that he can look for a way to escape this predicament himself".

  "Ok, clan head". The chief guard answered solemnly before going to the armory to fetch his leader's battle gear.

  As Leroy waited, he felt his blood burn hot. He's lived years, and throughout his years his most precious thing in this world was his clan. He was not about to allow it to evaporate before him.

  If his clan was to die today, he had to die first.