Reborn as a DRAGON

'It was a great giant jellyfish, or perhaps a monster that looked similar but was different. It was hard to say for sure in the dark ocean, especially in that cursed weather. Yet let me tell you what I saw young sailor, I saw a divine miracle! For the tentacles of that deadly jellyfish became as a string and that string became a net that caught the evil four-eyed monster that lurked in the deep. I realize that it's a hard tale to believe, one that I have told in many taverns, yet I tell you, young sailor, it's a tale that happened.' — Unknown Drunken sailor

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Four crimson eyes that almost seemed to glow stared back at me. I was momentarily stunned at the sudden appearance of the underwater monster that my body froze for a second.

It had the body of what looked to be a black shark with four eyes red eyes, a giant set of dangerous razor-sharp teeth. Its size was easily twice my own.

'Why is there a shark in a lake? And aren't freshwater sharks supposed to be small?!' I wondered.

The shark eyes seemed to size me up, as it slowly circled me. It appeared to be hesitating on whether to attack me or not. By this point, I had finally regained my bearings and bared my teeth in hostility.

'I hate sharks,' they scared me, that was probably the one thing I really wanted to get over from my past life, being here with a monster shark in front of me just reminded me of how much I don't like them.

'It doesn't matter anymore, I'm a dragon now!' I glared at the monster with undisguised animosity, daring him to make a move.

I followed his body with my eyes, as both of us slowly began to circle one another. Finally, unable to take the standoff anymore, the monster shark made its move.

It opened its abnormally large jaw exposing rows upon rows of sharp teeth, as it rushed towards me. 'It's fast!' My eyes widened at its terrifying speed, I almost did not have any time to react before its mouth was already upon me.

With a mighty flap of my wings, I narrowly dodged his charge as I swam upwards. The monster shark ended up biting nothing as it turned to glare at me with its four eyes.

This time I did not let it take charge, it seemed like its turns were rather slow. With that in mind, I hastily rush towards him as I utilized both my wings and tail to further increase my speed.

A hint of surprise passed through his gaze for a second before his eyes flashed with delight, the monster shark opened its large jaw once again as it tried to bite my head off as I closed in on it.

As both of our bodies pulled closer, I used my wings to abruptly change the direction of my charge at the last second, dodging his bite. I didn't give him any time to turn around as I used my claws to tear away at his back fin, almost ripping it off completely.

Blood quickly filled the water making it harder to see. I was surprised at the effectiveness of my strike, I had thought that with the water pressure my attack would come off slow and didn't expect that much damage.

To my surprise, it seemed like the water mana was on my side, making swinging my claw underwater, as easy as doing it above it. I glanced at the monster shark, proud of my attack only to be alarmed by another attack.

I hastily moved my head to the side, yet still did not manage to fully dodge his strike as a small part of the scales on my neck got ripped off, mixing my blood with his in the water.

The sharp pain caused me to instinctively twist my body as I countered his attack with my spiky tail before he passed me. The tip of my tail ended up hitting him on the shark's side and opening a large wound as it was sent hurling in the water.

'Shit does it not feel any pain?!' I grumbled in annoyance as the monster turned around to face me, completely ignoring its injuries.

I somewhat remember reading somewhere that the real root of the idea that sharks are natural killing machines lies in the absence of pain. 'Who would have thought I'd get to confirm that by myself?'

As the shark made another attempt to cleave my head off, I managed to swerve out of its way once more. I was getting used to being in the water, and moving in it. My dodges became more graceful and refined.

I was also able to land a couple more hits staining the water red, yet nothing quite decisive. It was then that a sudden spark of inspiration jolted my brain.

'Why the heck am I not using magic?!'

I felt stupid at that question, I was literally in my element, the entire lake was mine to do my bidding! Thinking about that, a wide grin appeared in my mouth. It must have looked terrifying because it even managed to cause the monster shark to halt for a second.

But it was too late for him, I communicated with the mana in my surroundings and it answered. The shark that was swimming towards me suddenly came to an abrupt halt as if it had hit a wall.

I could see its body twitch as it tried to struggle and free itself, yet that was useless. My grin widened as I leisurely swam towards it, causing it to shudder as it struggled even harder.

Yet it was all futile, the water itself locked it into place as it slowly began to crush it. I watched on as the monster shark's struggles intensified, one of its eyeballs widened before it popped off, soon another one followed, and another, and another...

Seconds later, the monster that was twice my size was nothing but a husk of its previous form, it was crushed completely, its body flattened as all sorts of bodily fluids and organs escaped its pores.

Satisfied with the outcome, I closed my eyes for a second as I tried to remember the feeling I had before. A water bubble soon reappeared as it healed my neck injury, the pain fading away as if it was never there.

I glanced at the flattened corpse as a curious idea crossed my mind. 'I wonder what shark meat tastes like?' I thought as I licked my lips in anticipation.