Chapter 426: Where Beasts Fall, Hunters Rise
Time rapidly slowed down the closer Lillian got to the incoming plasma beam.
Her pupils, which were once blank from exhaustion, suddenly began to glow blue as the blood vessels around her eyes bulged.
With every fibre in her being, with every ounce of might she could wield at her disposal, with every ounce of mana she had left... Lillian swung down with only one thought in mind:
’I WILL WIN!’
The illusory black Leviathan that floated behind her gave a lively grin, as though it was amused by Lillian’s thought.
The Black Maw clutched in Lillian’s hands shook as it heard her roar the technique’s name with a booming voice that demanded respect:
"[FIFTH TECHNIQUE OF THE DEEP SEA HUNTER: LEVIATHAN’S DESCENT]!"
A split second after her roar, the illusory black Leviathan let out a heaven-shaking roar as it fell along with the Black Maw.
SWISH! BOOM!
It crashed against the Leviathan’s Wrath with the force of a dozen lightning bolts.
The illusory black Leviathan’s eyes then glowed an eerie light as it slowly opened its mouth and bit down on the beam before riding upstream.
Lillian’s black blade bit deep into the plasma beam, splitting it into two as she remained uninterrupted by the heavy force of the beam, allowing her to continue her rapid approach to the Seawater Leviathan, who found her speed towards it frightening.
Why wasn’t its beam working? Why hasn’t its plasma beam worked as it had intended since the start of this battle!!
Lillian, having crossed over 100 metres, continued to grit her teeth as she cut through the plasma beam.
By now, the heat from the beam was affecting her. Despite the rain, it did nothing to cool her down as the raindrops would only evaporate the moment they got even a few metres near the plasma beam.
She sweated profusely behind her mask. The gauntlets wrapped around her hand conducted the heat and transferred it into her hands, burning the upper layer of her skin like she had stuck two frying pans to her hands.
Lillian clenched her jaws and roared out once more, speeding up. She couldn’t let up now. She only had a limited amount of mana left! And time!
[49 Seconds left]
Once Lillian reached the 200 metres mark, her arms faltered for a split moment—causing a small surge of plasma to crash into her chestplate, momentarily causing the purple gem in the centre to dim and crack.
Not only had her now-melting chestplate begun to scar her body like molten lava—
’It hurts...’
—But also, the weight and crushing sensation around her arms were becoming too much...
She wasn’t sure if she would be able to last for long...
[37 seconds Left]
200 metres left.
Crack...!
Lillian winced, feeling fractures forming along the sides of the bones inside her arm. Tears appeared in the corners of her eyes at the pain.
But then...
She blinked them away.
She couldn’t cry now... She couldn’t fall now!
She sped up.
[18 seconds Left]
54 metres left.
The Leviathan, finding that she was only a several dozen metres away from it, increased its output. And because of that, the scales along its body began to blacken and burn... It was surpassing the limits set on its body!
C-Crack—SHATTER!
{A Shard has been Shattered}
Her gem in her chestplate cracked and shattered, causing the molten piece of armour to shatter into a cloud of rainbow glass dust.
With her nude body now bare and exposed to the world, Lillian now felt the heat around her more clearly—and more intensely.
The wave underneath her was also evaporating quicker than she could replenish it!
’I... Is this... Is this game over...?’
Lillian, feeling her own body failing her, felt a sense of melancholy as she tried to fight against a hopeless stream of plasma-infused water.
She was like a salmon trying to swim upstream, trying to escape a bear that was the incarnation of death itself...
"I..."
[10 Seconds Left]
33 metres left.
"I need help!"
The moment her hoarse and desperate words echoed out, something appeared from the sky.
It was long and had a deep azure colour to its scales, which shimmered as it fell through the air. It was another Leviathan! And this one was a real one! Not just an illusion!
And at the end of its tail...
"KAHAHAHA! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TO ORDER YOUR CAPTAIN TO KEEP OUT OF THIS!?"
Was Captain Righthook, who had a bright and excited grin on his bearded face.
With a roar of his technique, the [Leviathan’s Descent], he swung the Leviathan—he gripped at the tail—down.
The Seawater Leviathan, sensing another creature of a much larger size, quickly chose between two options.
Should it continue to attack Lillian? Or the entity in the sky? And hope it wasn’t some kind of illusion...
...
It had chosen.
The Leviathan tilted its head towards the sky and directed its beam to crash into the face of the Captain’s Leviathan, who only opened its maw and began to swallow it.
It then began to rapidly bloat and burn from the inside, but that...
That was enough...
[5 Seconds Left]
The Captain’s distraction was enough for what happened next.
Now, without obstruction, Lillian’s illusory black Leviathan surged towards the charred neck of the Leviathan with extreme speed as its yellow eyes flashed with a gluttonous and blood thirsty light.
This was it...
Its arms and legs ran across the surface of the water, causing large waves to appear as it dashed forward.
THIS WAS IT!
It then twisted sideways and opened its jaws before—
SWISH—CRUNCH!
—Snapping down shut on the neck of the Seawater Leviathan.
Just as easily as its jaws broke through the Seawater Leviathan’s scales, Lillian’s black odachi seamlessly cleaved through the flesh of the seabeast.
However, upon contact, Lillian’s arms exploded—her muscles, along with blood vessels, ruptured, and her bones fractured.
Her face winced for a split second before blanking...
Lillian’s grip on the Black Maw slowly relaxed... But then!
’No... NOT YET!’
Tightening her grip, she continued pushing forward.
From her arms to her shoulder, muscles and a mist of blood began to be expelled from her body in strips and litres—only to be put back together by a cast of water, which supported her arms.
She didn’t care about the pain...
She didn’t care if she would lose her arms after this...
She...
’I...’
She needed to...
’I needed to...’
SWISH—!
SHE NEEDED TO—
CRUNCH!
"—CUT DEEPER!"
Lillian roared out with the intensity of a cornered beast, and with one LAST final push, she sliced deeper into the thick neck of the Leviathan—cutting deep into its flesh.
The illusory black Leviathan, as though inspired by her roar to keep on moving, sank its teeth even deeper into the Seawater Leviathan’s neck and tore through the bone and muscles keeping it together—
Until eventually...
CRUNCH!
It was torn apart into two, and allowed Lillian to slowly glide by with a dazed look on her face...
Waves of the Seawater Leviathan’s blood crashed into her body, even slipping inside her mouth... But that didn’t matter...
{You have slain a Prime Husk, Twin-headed Seawater Leviathan}
For the exact moment when Lillian heard that system message, tiredness washed over her as she glided past the bisected neck of the Leviathan...
She was tired...
Lillian fell towards the water.
Oh, so tired...
The clouds above her gained their beautiful white shade and lost their chaotic and gloomy darkness as the rain disappeared along with the thunder.
Splash...
Lillian fell into the sun-kissed sea, which was now stained in both hers and the Leviathan’s blood.
She struggled to stay awake, but managed to grip onto her consciousness for what she heard next, which resounded heavenly in her ears...
...
{You have gained a Shard}
Lillian gave a weak smile and began to chuckle in a satisfied but quiet voice:
"Haha... Ha... I’m... I’m pretty strong, huh...?"
And after saying that, her eyes slowly closed.
Her tortured mind had now drifted away into the land of dreams—unable to enjoy the lovely weather that had now just appeared...
[Total Time of Battle: 24 Minutes and 49 Seconds]