I took a moment and surveyed the scene. Elizabeth was pinned to the wall across from what I assumed was the engine. Parts of the room were on fire while water rapidly poured in. To put the cherry on top I could feel the ship breaking apart. "It's alright. I am going to get you out. Can you tell me if you are pinned or impaled?"

"Pinned. My-my robes protected me from the metal." The pain in her voice made me grimace before I could control my facial expressions.

"Ok, I am going to move it. When I do I want you to drop down into the water. After that, I am going to carry you out of here. I am going to lift on three. One." I grabbed the piece of metal. I pushed spiritual energy into my hands and fingers. Metal groaned.

"Two." Elizabeth whimpered.

I took another breath as the water reached my knees and pulled the metal. "Three!" Instead of the metal barely moving, it was like I had shot it out of cannon. The shrapnel shot through the wall and disappeared into the ocean. I stared at the new whole in disbelief. Spiritual Energy was amazing. A groan of pain brought me back to the moment. I summoned a healing pill from my ring and pressed it to her lips. "Take this. It will heal any injuries. I apologize in advance but I am not going to be gentle." I lifted her into a bridal carry before sprinting through the new exit.

When we stepped out onto the deck of the ship it was like stepping into a different world. The ship had nearly split in two and both halves were dropping beneath the waves. The lifeboats had already left which left us with little in terms of options. I stared at the azure sea below us and an idea sprouted like a seed. Another explosion went off from somewhere behind me. "Fuck it. Hold on."

Before I could convince myself the idea was insane I sprinted for the railing. I leaped into the air a second later. Spiritual energy flooded into my feet while I said a silent prayer to anyone who might be listening. It was hard to explain what happened next as crashing but that's what happened. My feet hit the water and instead of falling through it was like the water became solid.

"How how did you do that?" Elizabeth asked. Her gaze fixated on the water as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"See, nothing to worry about." I smiled as my mind processed what had happened. I wasn't on the water at all. I was on spiritual energy. I was somehow using it to walk just above the surface of the water. I started to take a step only for the foot that was still on the water to start sinking.

"We-we are still good right?" Elizabeth asked this time not bothering to hide the fear in her voice.

"Ye-yeah this is just the first time. I think I am getting the hang of it."

Another five minutes of trial and error revealed the problem. The issue was the distribution of spiritual energy. I needed to spread it out a bit like snowshoes. The difficult part was maintaining the distribution as I moved. It was a bit like trying to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time. I need to maintain both the amount of spiritual energy and its distribution. At first, I was only able to take a step every second or so but it wasn't long until I was able to run.

"You are walking on water. I can't believe it. You are walking on water." I wasn't sure if Elizabeth was speaking to me or herself at this point and in truth it didn't matter. I was running on fucking water! My joy was short-lived as a scream of danger forced me to stop. A second later a tentacle the size of a tree shot out of the water.

I unleashed my aura at full blast. It felt like the world was instantly awash in blood. The water roiled and boiled but it worked. The tentacle retreated. My danger sense made it clear that the threat wasn't gone only waiting. My heart felt like it was going to rip its way out of my chest as I doubled my speed. I was less than ten feet away from the nearest lifeboat when a scream of mortal perils filled my mind. On instinct, I tossed Elizabeth with all the strength I could muster. I watched her sail through the air and into the arms of a soldier before something grabbed me around the waist. I took in a deep breath and shut my eyes as I slammed into the water.

I maintained just enough of my awareness to not open my mouth as I was dragged into the depths. Primordial fear gripped my heart like a vice as I fought against the waves. I wouldn't die. Not like this. Not drowning. I blasted my aura and my tao in every direction. Anything to get free. Anything to get back to the surface but nothing worked. Every failed attempt at swimming forced its way into my mind. Half-remembered lessons blurred together into an indescribable mess. Darkness began to creep in at the edge of my vision when I felt a familiar caress on the back of my mind.

The gentleness of it was a stark contrast to the fear and brought me back to the moment. I scanned the dark waters until I caught sight of the behemoth beneath me. It was a genuine kraken. I wasn't sure if the System had brought the beast from myth to our world or just mutated a squid and I didn't really care. I unleashed every one of my spells in rapid succession. Realm of Consciousness was barely large enough to block my view of the beast. It did nothing to get me free. The series of mental attacks had better success. The tentacle around my waist relaxed just enough for me to rip my way free.

Another scream of danger forced me to activate Psychic Aegis. The next second another tentacle slammed into my shield. I tried to turn to face the beast but moving in all three directions was dizzying. I formed two blades of psychic energy and imbued them both with my tao before launching them forward. The blades crossed half the distance before a wave of water surged up to meet it. Both attacks crashed into each other and I mentally swore. The damn thing could use a tao. It was even a Tao related to the water.

I tried to push my way to the surface in a poor rendition of a doggy paddle. I only managed to move a few inches when a tentacle slammed into my shield. Realization dawned on me as I came to terms with the truth. I couldn't swim on a good day let alone when being chased by a kraken. There was no way I could get out. An icy chill spread through my veins as I looked up at the surface. A part of me woke up at that realization. The part of me that had kept me alive until now.

A tentacle slammed into my aegis. This time causing a spider web of cracks to spread outward. A flame of fury woke up in my chest and I reached for it. I refuse. I refuse to die like this. I refuse to lose to an overgrown squid. I looked in the direction of the squid and conjured mental blade after blade. Each one is imbued with my tao. I didn't bother to shape them into proper weapons.

My anger gave birth to a storm of unrelenting violence. The Kraken surged the ocean to resist but how could that compare to me? Waves crashed into the shield but I ignored it. Psionic Rain and Psychic Blast joined the onslaught just as my shield collapsed. The ocean water consumed but I ignored it. I didn't need my body to fight. I just needed energy, energy, and my mind.

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Darkness clawed in at the edge of my vision. Just a little longer. Just a little bit more. It felt like I was pouring my spiritual energy down a literal drain. My vision had gone almost completely black when something slammed into my chest with the force of a Mack truck. The air was forced out of my lungs only to be replaced with ocean water. I pushed as much spiritual energy as I could into Psychic Blast. I felt a beam of utter mental destruction shoot forward. A tsunami of kill energy slammed into my dantian. The darkness claimed me before I could relish in my victory.

When I came to I was on my back and staring up at the blue sky. I passed my mental gaze over my body and was thrilled to see that I was mostly fine. I had two broken ribs and my right wrist was either sprained or broken. I wasn't sure what the difference between those was. Either way, all of those problems could be handled by a healing pill.

"He woke up"

I groaned and tried to sit up. The pain in my ribs made it clear that I was better off staying still. I willed a healing pill out of my ring and mentally prepared myself for the pain. When I was ready I placed the pill into my mouth and swallowed. I whimpered as the bones started to repair themselves.

"Hey, you alright?" The voice from earlier called out and then a bottle was placed against my lips. I greedily sucked the water down before slowly sitting up. I looked around and found the boat had most of my group along with four known people. Two men and two women, all middle-aged.

"Yeah. Thanks for the save. I am assuming that you four got separated from your group?"

"Uh actually no. We were supposed to stay on the ship while you all went exploring. My name is Alfred. Alfred Williams" The man who had done all the speaking up till now introduced himself and offered me his hand.

"I am Amari but I am guessing that you all had a decent idea of my identity already?" I raised an eyebrow toward the unconscious Elizabeth, Paul, and James.

"Did you kill it? The monster I mean." Paul asked. "We saw you get pulled down and most of us thought you were a goner. We saw you get launched out of the water and made a detour."

I flashed him a cocky grin and nodded my head. "No problem. Even the mythical Kraken pales when compared to me." I gave my best impression of a movie voice which earned me a mix of stares and eye rolls. "Can you give me a status update? Do we have any information on what caused the ship to go down?"

"No, outside of the explosion and resulting panic we haven't learned much of anything. I was hoping you might know more."

"Alright, in that case, are we able to get to shore in this thing? I am not exactly a strong swimmer nor do I want to run a second match with Cthulhu's nephews."

"Uh, I think we will be fine. Especially if you can keep the smaller beasts off us." Alfred offered as he steered the boast toward a sandy section of the coast. "Not sure if any of them have a way to damage the boat but it would be best to not take any risks."

I nodded my agreement and let some of my aura go. I watched the faces of everyone go pale, but there wasn't much I could do about it. Scaring the monsters was much better than fighting them all.

"How are you doing that? And what are you doing?"

"It's an aura or rather my aura. It's mostly my killing intent though my tao contributes."

"How do you get one? It's pretty convenient. Especially for crowd control."

"I got it for killing a lot of things and through my class. I am not sure if it's based on killing done after the System or not though." The others visibly blanched at that but Paul managed to hold my gaze.

"It works for monsters, right? Not just people?" He asked though there was a solemnity in his voice that wasn't there before.

I nodded. "Yeah. I have mostly fought monsters until now. I don't know if there is a difference in power or impact if you do one or the other though." Before he could ask any more questions the boat shook so violently that Alfred was nearly thrown overboard. A warning flashed through my mind and I reactivated Psychic Aegis. The wall of mental energy formed just as a blade of water shot out of the water. The blade was the size of a bastard sword and moved with the speed of a bullet. The blade slammed into my shield before the others had processed the attack.

"Stay down," I called while I got to my feet. I pushed spiritual energy into my feet and stepped back onto the waves.

"Wait take this" I turned as one of the unknown women tossed me a rope. "Tie it around your waist. You know just in case."

I flashed her grateful smile before tying it. When I was ready I turned to face the water just as another water blade shot for me. This time I dodged it and unleashed a blade of mental energy. The attack tore through the water like a specter before finding its mark. The beast looked a bit like a shark only skinnier and its mouth was nearly half again as big with twice as many teeth.

The whole thing looked like something a psycho horror writer would come up with. Despite its appearance, it wasn't much of a threat to me. It lacked any attack that could get to me outside of the water blade and it couldn't launch those whenever it wanted. If I had to guess it was some sort of aquatic ambush hunter. Now that it had blown its load there wasn't much more it could do. The battle took less than two minutes.

"Do you have to shape that energy like swords?" Paul asked as I climbed back into the boat.

"Not really. I just started doing so and haven't stopped."

"Does the shape matter? Like do you need to use a bigger shape to unleash more energy or is it aesthetic only?"

"It's a bit of both. There is a way to make the attacks more dense for lack of a better word but I haven't mastered it."

"You should get on that. Avoiding a sword is relatively easy but if you could condense the energy to the size of a bullet or even smaller..."

I nodded and peered over the edge of the boat. Once I confirmed that there were no more nasty surprises I turned back to everyone. "I am going to cultivate for a bit. Wake me up if something happens or when we reach the shore."

I took a breath and took a seat with my hands steepled in front of me. Once I had calmed down enough to practice the Ethereal Codex I let energy pour into me. Even with the Kraken's death, I would need to cultivate for several days before I would reach the next level. That assumed I kept my energy usage to a minimum. Something I seriously doubted based on how things were already going.

I wasn't sure how long it had been when I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. I slowly came out of my cultivation session to find that not only had we arrived but they had already pulled the boat out of the water. I quickly climbed out and looked around. I wasn't a botanist by any means but this forest made me think of the Amazon and maybe the massive forests of Africa.

"Do you all think that this continent is Africa or...?"

"No, the current dominant theory is that the world has been divided horizontally in thirds," Alfred replied.

"So our continent is North America, Europe, and Russia?" I asked before shrugging. "I need to explore it more."

"That is correct though we aren't sure if the North and South poles still exist."

"So I don't assume that any of you have the equipment we would need to set up a camp do you?" When no one bothered to reply I sighed. I moved over to Elizabeth and placed her on my back with Paul's help. "Alright from this point forward we assume that the rest of the expedition has fallen. Paul, you bring up the rear along with Alfred. Keep your eyes open for any threats. The rest of you hold tight in the middle. If you come across a monster your goal is survival. I will deal with anything that comes."

"And what if you can't?" Alfred asked.

"Then and only then would I suggest you haul ass out of there. Not sure if the boat will get you back across the ocean or not but you might as well try." I had everyone double-check their healing pills before passing out a few of mine. The government hadn't held back but it was clear it didn't have access to a proper shop and everything was pricy for them. I once again said I silent thank you to whoever was responsible for my rewards. Once we were all ready I flashed them all a reassuring smile and stepped toward the forest. It was time for the expedition to officially get a move on.