George continued to hunt. He was on the lookout for big fish that he could fry. During the search, he evaluated his options.
Initially he had thought that he had to clear the surrounding waters from dangerous fish if he was to evolve in peace, but now, he had thought of a second option. He guessed that if he swam far away enough from the point where he had crossed the Magical Barrier, perhaps a kilometer, then he'd be left alone. He could certainly outswim most of the fish around him, so this did seem like a good option at first.
However, the system warned him that the chances of running into much bigger fish out there was greater. He could run into fish who were either native, or had earned their spot in the waters beyond the first Magical Barrier. Winston would have to fight absolute beasts in their own habitat, and that would be a losing battle. He wasn't strong enough, he couldn't push his luck.
For that matter, he stuck to his original plan, and kept hunting fish that he could actually kill. He needed more essence points anyway. He had to focus.
George ran into a school of fish again. The school consisted of three fish, so the school was smaller in comparison to those Fangtooth fish he fought before, but nevertheless, he got himself in trouble the second he crossed paths with this smaller school. There were three fish, yes, but each of them was bigger than him by body-mass!
"What the heck are those?" He asked, and hoped to get an answer from the system. "Are they anglerfish?"
[No. Kill first, ask questions later. They'll tear you apart if you don't pay attention.]
George was scared for once. He initially planned to just swim away, as he could use the darkness of the deep sea to escape them, but he quickly discovered that these bulky fish were a lot faster than him! One of them charged at him, and the burst of speed this fish performed was absolutely horrifying!
Its jaw had a large underbite, and it was paired with two large fangs! These fangs were bigger than George's head, and he didn't want to be bitten by them, so he backed away as quickly as he could.
"Freeze, chonky!" He shouted, and launched a ranged attack.
He launched the Toxic Bite ability, which was fairly his weakest one, but he launched it because he had a simple battle plan. When he launched the attack, the mouth of a half-transparent anglerfish shot forward, and clashed with the bulky fish!
This didn't cause a lot of damage, the opponent's thick skin was resistant to the bite, but he expected that. He just needed time.
George then charged forward, and launched the Toxic Bite ability again, then again. He slammed the enemy with this attack, because the Toxic Bite had a short, one-second paralyzing effect. This was his battle plan, he simply didn't want to get bitten.
"Hello!" He shouted, and then head-budded the opponent. He couldn't think of anything more offensive to say. "Haha!"
A split second before he head-budded the opponent, he had summoned the Electric Skull ability, and rammed into the opponent! A tiny, flashy electric explosion erupted.
The opponent stopped moving after that point, so he was successful. He killed it.
However, the two other fish from that school, equally as bulky, equally as terrifying, remained. They were already charging towards him, and since he hadn't yet calculated how to fight the two of them, he could only hope for the best. He couldn't outswim them, not a chance.
Instead, he shot at them as quickly as he could, with the two ranged attack abilities he had, and hoped that one of them would work!
One of them did work from the looks of it, because one of the fish rammed into him head-first, which wasn't quite effective. He had either paralyzed its mouth, or its body entirely, because he didn't get bitten in the clash. He was alright, but he ran out of mana now, so every second after this point could mark the end of his life!
Speaking of which, the second fish was a bit more athletic. It took a sharp turn, and bit George right through his flesh, somewhere around his lower back!
"Motherfucker!" He cussed out.
At the same time, he bit the fish in front of him that he had initially paralyzed, and quickly drained its essence, including thirty points of mana. Now, he had a fighting chance.
The remaining fish, the same one that bit him, let go of his spine, and tried to bite him again, but George abused this opportunity to the fullest. The system was already pouring plenty of bone, and blood essence towards the bite wounds, so a third of his wound healed already.
This was all he needed. He strained his body, and flung his tail left, smacking the opponent against its head, and at the same time, he used the Toxic Bite ability to paralyze the opponent!
A second later, he went for its throat, and bit a huge chunk off. The opponent was immobile now, and was going to die shortly.
"You wanted to act primal, right?" He shouted. "Suffocate, motherfucker!"
The remaining fish died a few seconds later. He could finally relax, coated with the blood of his enemies.
[-120 Blood Essence points]
[-20 Bone Essence points]
[Healing complete]
[I understand that you enjoy the comfort of full health, so I've taken all of your pain away. You're welcome.]
"Thanks, system." He said. "These fatties didn't play around with their bites."
Moments later, while he harvested their essences, he figured out why these fish had such a nasty bite. The system absorbed an ability from them.
[Fang Enhancer ability absorbed. It costs three mana points a minute to use.]
[This is interesting. These Rigid Bone Hound Fish were using magic to make their fangs three times bigger. An ability like this is primal, though quite effective.]
"Effective is underselling it. I heard my spine snap earlier." He added. "It's an awesome power to have, and I sure as hell am gonna use it when I can."
George was happy that he survived this battle. He was sure that he was going to die earlier on, as no amount of planning could've saved him from these dark-scaled, muscly and large fish. They were bigger than him by half, so it was only natural to fear them, but he survived.
Now, the system was counting the essence points he had to spend to win this battle, and the points he gained at the end. The results were good enough.
[Your total essence points, are as follows…]
[Blood Essence = 520 points]
[Bone Essence = 280 points]
[Mana Essence = 70 points]
"That's nice," He thought, "I'm happy that those fatties were worth the trouble."