When was the last time you had to wake up, while exhausted, without an alarm clock? Exactly. I tried my best to so, after taking a short nap to recover my mind, and failed. I woke up late, at most an hour before the sunset. Shit!

I ran outside. My brothers, the only two siblings still remaining were still sunbathing (“How nice to not have any worries”). One of them decided to climb on the holy site of drunken snout, due to low sun casting shade on his usual spot (“Preposterous!”)(“Blasphemous!”)(“I mean yeah, good for him, we are busy”)

(“The day of my wraith will come! He doesn’t know the difference between heaven and earth!”)

My siblings being there made it more difficult… as I had no time to waste getting stuck in someone else's mind, and it was the best place to pretend being an unimportant snake. It’s dangerous to get too close though, as they might water bullet me again…

(“Night is coming”)

I can’t risk waiting for tomorrow, they might leave by then! I have to do it now.

I slithered in a wide arc around the usual stone spot, and got in between my siblings and the reeds, searching for the best signal spot. It reminded me of the time my friend was trying to steal their neighbors wifi.

***

Guerorp was on the edge of the sea shelf. He could see the reef of blood, the seat of the greatest school of martial arts on the Selun, the Reflective Fin! There were those who disputed their position, but after he defeated the old geezer in the duel and became the rightful successor, all that doubted them were dealt with. Now, no one dares to challenge him.

“Honorable master! Honorable master! A wandering finmaster came, and took down the sign of our school! He demands a duel, claiming you are not the true successor of the sect!”

SsssSSssSsssss

“Master?”

“... It’s nothing. I see… another fool that doesn’t know their place. I shall show them my might, and crush them, like the shrimp they are!”

I went to the seagrass field at the front of the reef, half of it red, giving the whole reef its name. Over a thousand years of this place's history, and tens of thousands of duels of many powerful practitioners, the seaweeds started thirsting for blood. And my reign kept them well fed.

“So it was you.. you traitorous fool. How dare you show your face here?” - who else, but Bloplilob, my sworn enemy standing at the center of the field.

“You don’t deserve the spot of the grandmaster! It should be MINE! After all it was me who inherited the secret mana whisker technique!” 

“I earned my position in an honorable duel! Something you never had the gonads to do!” 

“Is that the way you talk to your fellow student? You never defeated me during sparing before, this time shall be no different, old friend!”

Many memories of our younger days resurfaced. Of training together under the old fart. Of fighting and bickering over foolish stuff. The shared laughter, the late night talks about our dreams and insecurities, of practicing until we floated belly up in exhaustion… I thought they would go on forever. But then the betrayal… for the sake of our knightly duties I had to be cordial to him, but I never forgot.

“After what you did you dare to call yourself my friend?!”

“It was my right!”
“Unrepenting until the end?! So be it! I shall forgive you after I spill as much of your blood as I shed tears! Prepare yourself!!

“You shall become the plankton that the shrimp feed on! DIE!”

The mana raged, raising their whiskers straight up. Water around them boiled, sea anemone retreated back to their trunks, and students cried in sadness watching the scene unfold. Apart from them only an ugly eel jester remained… 

...

“An eel?”

“I’m here to write down what I see, and then sing what I wrote down through the Selun, oh great grandmaster!”

“Ah I see” I said, and went back to charging my mana, my whiskers raging up again

But that cowardly, uncultured bastard didn’t wait for the transformation to complete! 

“It seems the master hasn't beaten into you hard enough to never take your eyes off your opponent! Now… DIE!” 

“Naive!” I said, tail tuckered in a counter attacking stance.

It took only a second. We passed each other, unbearable tension in the water. Too fast for everyone else to understand, they waited for the result.

The red seagrass rejoiced! It shall feast tonight! Another patch of red created on the seafloor.

Two of them. Yes, the two finmasters were equal! No, the Guerorp was slightly better, but Blopliobs honorless sneak attack made up for the difference!

“Noo!” Cried the students! Even the sea seemed to cry, a storm brewing on the surface, the ground seemed to crack… 

But Guerorp was smiling. Happy to have avenged his betrayal. Happy to die with his old enemy.. No, his old friend. His only regret, not having lived long enough to see his 500 children hatch.. Fishtanas crying face….

“Oh it would be such a shame if the world didn’t know the story of your life great grandmaster!”

“.. what? Oh, it’s you, the jesteel...”

“The epic of this duel will be sung for generations! But.. it would be an even greater tale, one that could spread even further and wider (possibly even Pyr!), if only I could learn more about the story of your rise, o greatest of all warriors!”

Reisinling

Next chapter: Tuesday. I promise, the next chapter is the last fish chapter.

Final vote between 2 options that were about equally popular (i assume votes were split between different versions of yellow/orange/red gradient). As you can see, I also decided to go with more standard font placement, and as per comment discussion made iris more pointy and red, like in the previous version. I will change the cover around midnight depending on the results (might change it again later if tons of people vote)