Chapter 415: The Captain Splits the Light?
Monsters and Humans.
While they were two completely different sets of beings, they were ultimately similar due to the fact that they followed the exact same rankings of power.
The monsters follow the path of Corruption, growing in power through devouring other creatures and being exposed to highly concentrated zones of Corruption.
While modern humans followed the path of ascension by challenging the Trials of the Jester.
But in the end, both—humans and monsters—were the same.
And yet...
If they were the same, how was it that Humanity still struggled to defeat them despite their ability to harness elements of various kinds and being able to summon weapons and defeated beasts?
Lillian shivered as she stared into the eyes of the humongous sea beast. She was but a mere Tier 2 mage, and yet she kept being pitted against countless enemies stronger than her.
But... She felt like this one definitely took the "cake".
After all, who would expect someone of the exact same Tier as her to suddenly encounter a monster double her rank and number of Mana Shells?
This sea beast was even stronger than the Alpha! By several folds!
Lillian flinched as the sounds of thunder rang aloud. She took a curious glance towards the sky and saw streaks of light and electricity flash through the heavens.
It was as if the world was setting up a dramatic stage for the inevitable battle to come.
And it was inevitable indeed, for monsters were known for one thing and one thing only that even the youngest of toddlers knew...
It was that monsters want nothing more than to devour other living creatures.
Lillian’s eyes shot wide open as she felt mana vibrate in the air. She looked towards the two-headed azure sea serpent and watched as bright blue veins slowly appeared over its scales.
The veins rapidly crawled up its neck like parasitic vines before reaching both heads of the sea serpent. And with each scale it covered, the light only grew more concentrated.
She then watched as the two-headed sea serpent reeled its heads back, as though they were taking in a deep breath, before opening its mouth and showing a bright light from deep within its throat.
The radiant light was like an incandescent, scorching blue that rapidly began to take shape.
Lillian felt the mana in the air scream at the vigorous display of its use. She then felt her body telling her to run away, dodge, and move far away from her.
That was because... No matter what...
She wasn’t going to survive a full-on energy beam, which could reduce her body to ashes in mere seconds.
Lillian unconsciously loosened her hold on her weapons. And the moment she did, the world turned slow as the light within the throats of the two-headed serpent began to swirl.
Could she... Could she win with a team like this?
Viesta was only at the first Tier along with Nearlo...
Lillian was at the second Tier along with Nearlo’s bodyguard.
And lastly, they had Captain Righthook, who was at the third Tier...
’I... Am I actually prepared to take on monsters of this level?’
Time quickly resumed as her thoughts ended. And the split second it resumed, the two-headed sea beast had already released the concentration of mana within their maw.
A beam of pure, scorching light rushed out from both of their mouths—merging to produce a singular, but much larger attack, which covered the entire ship.
As everyone on the deck watched as the light quickly crossed over several metres towards their small ship, their eyes—ironically—lost their light as hope of getting through the storm quickly faded.
...
However—
"ARR!"
—That was only for those on the deck.
In one-third of a second, the Captain leapt off from the stern of his ship and onto the deck before bolting past Lillian and leaping towards the blinding light falling towards them.
As the winds brushed against the edges of his coat, the Captain summoned his cutlass and raised it over his head. His eyes flashed with a stubborn light as he gritted his jaws.
And as mana flowed into the blade of his cutlass at a rapid rate, he roared out his technique:
"[5TH TECHNIQUE OF THE DEEP SEA HUNTER: LEVIATHAN’S DESCENT]!"
He swung his blade down in a mighty manner, striking the scorching beam, which resisted the force behind his strike. But then...
SWOOSH.
The beam faltered as an illusory sea monster appeared from deep within the Captain’s blade.
The illusion let out an earth-shaking roar as it bit down and split apart the combined attack of the two-headed sea serpent.
Then, in mere moments, like a shark travelling upstream, it tore through the scorching beam before making its way to their heads and knocking them back with a powerful bash.
This attack had managed to cease the monster’s beam attack, which—having been split apart—landed on both sides of the boat.
As a wall of water shot up out of the water from either side of the ship, everyone watched as the Captain landed back on the bow of the ship, who—for a split moment—looked tired.
And he wasn’t wrong for doing so, for the attack he had just made to repel the beam had taken out a lot of physical power to do, especially against a foe like this.
Lillian, who still stood at the mast, couldn’t help but gape in awe. Will she be able to do something like that in the future...?
She shook her head and cleared her thoughts. She looked towards the two-headed sea beast and found it to have disappeared.
Seeing this, everyone besides Lillian rushed over to the Captain, who breathed rather harshly.
"Are you okay, Captain Righthook?" Viesta asked, followed by Nearlo, who looked at the man silently.
Righthook nodded slowly as he took a look down at his cutlass and found the edges of his weapon to have become dull and hot to the touch. He grimaced before laying a hand on it.
And not a moment later, the dull edges of the cutlass rearranged themselves to become sharper.
"I’m fine, matey... To think the Azure Dragon would be testing our ship against such a powerful foe..."
As he was about to turn around, he found a rope made of water wrap itself around his waist. This happened to everyone around him as well.
Looking back, he found that the rope tied around everyone’s waist intertwined and led to one person, this being Lillian, who tightly clung to the mast of the ship.
Everyone raised an eyebrow.
What was Lillian up to?
But then, they watched as the sea serpent appeared from the left side of the ship. It’s two heads barred their sharp teeth at them threateningly before twisting its entire body around.
Everyone’s eyes then widened at what they saw next.
The waves rolled over and crashed into the side of their boat. However, that wasn’t what had caused them to give such an exaggerated reaction.
Instead, it was because of the giant tail that was swinging towards their ship, slamming into it and causing them to go flying...