The golden-scaled siren unfolded his left palm, revealing thin skin layers between his fingers like an amphibian. The palm was dripping with murky green liquid. The siren swung its hand horizontally, causing liquid droplets to be shot at Lorian at high velocity.

Lorian's split-second reaction was to jump up with a force step. Random sidestepping wouldn't be fast enough.

 - Ice thread: Cocoon!

He didn't forget to chant while in mid-air, because he was almost defenseless in the air.

The thin white-silver ice threads wrapped around his body, giving out chilliness. 

As expected, while in mid-air, another wave of liquid droplets came shooting at him at breakneck speed.

*Pew, Pew, Pew~

*Puff~

His armor he was so proud of was pierced through while his body was catapulted several meters backward. He felt pain in his abdomen as tiny holes appeared on it, where blood sprouted out. Lorian coughed as he crashed on the ice floor, then quickly stabilized his body. His innards felt like burning and had to be suppressed by coldness.

The air whistled as more poisonous tiny liquid droplets were shot at him.

Lorian bent down and stood on four. His perception was barely enough to keep up with incoming attacks. He activated force step over and over, while barely dodging the incoming projectiles. He quickly shortened the distance between them this way. The golden-scaled siren also stopped shooting long ranged attacks and lifted up the trident, preparing for the close combat.

The golden-scaled siren's lower body moved left and right fast and moved in Lorian's direction while slithering at astonishing speed. It gave a disturbing screech and lifted up the trident, ready to pierce down through Lorian's brain.

 - Chilling fury!

Lorian growled in a low voice. His eyes glowed with a silver sheen. 

Lorian made a split-second decision. He even accelerated his momentum, ready to collide with the enemy upfront.

After equipping the low-grade sword artifact and activating chilling fury, his attack power was barely reaching up to 30 points, while the enemy's casual attack was at least half times more powerful, according to system's estimation, but life isn't all about numbers. Even if his life force was about 230, while the enemy had more than 3 times as much, Lorian didn't feel it was beyond manageable to beat such an opponent. 

However, in order to do so, he had to make the right decisions in the fight. Being hesitant would cost him his life.

Lorian withdrew the low-grade sword and shield artifacts from inventory.

*CLANK!!!

The deafening sound of metals colliding rang. Lorian's shield was angled in a way, the trident slid past the shield while making heavy metallic noise. Meanwhile, Lorian used the momentum gathered before the collision and made a piercing motion with the sword.

 - KEEEEK!

The golden-scaled siren shrieked painfully.

The scales were pierced through and the sword slid halfway through the enemy's flesh, causing blood to overflow. 

Lorian grinned as he channeled frostbite through the sword artifact.

However, the enemy swatted down with its bulky hand. Lorian had no choice, but to let go of the sword and step back, but not until he caused the chill invading in the enemy's body to explode.

*Splash

The golden-scaled siren grabbed the sword pierced in his chest and mercilessly took it out, causing the blood to splash on the ice.

Lorian didn't let the enemy have a rest and bombarded it with the ice bullets, but to his dismay, they were all deflected by its scales.

It was okay, though. The enemy was injured and would lose more energy as it fought. Meanwhile, he was still fine, except for the numbness in his body the collision had brought. As for his previously received wound, he quickly froze it and wouldn't hinder him too much.

Lorian took the initiative and neared the enemy, which was panting. He lifted up his leg and swept it, aiming at the enemy's face.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

The golden-scaled siren lifted its hand and met the sweeping leg with an arm, trying to defend.

Lorian grinned. His leg got covered in a layer of frost, which exploded right upon collision. The enemy was once again injured, especially as the ice exploded very close to its face. Its body slid back for about a meter.

Lorian once again closed the distance, but the sub-elite siren pierced the ice with a trident, grabbed it and lifted up its body, then swept with its tail.

Lorian had no choice, but to retreat. Sidestepping or ducking wouldn't be enough to dodge the vertical sweeping attack.

The sub-elite siren seemed to have gone berserk as it grabbed the trident and started madly pursuing him, while smashing down with the trident, causing cracks to appear on the ice floor. Lorian was having a hard time keeping up with its speed. He could only respond with minimal movement in order to not get pierced in the following attack.

He also supported himself with the shield quite often, but at a glance, it was easy to see, he was having a hard time, but wouldn't lose any time soon, lest his concentration lapsed.

Instead, the sub-elite siren was losing more blood and its attacks were getting weaker. Frostbite invading through its flesh also hindered its speed.

*Hua

The air was torn as the sub-elite siren swept with a trident, which Lorian easily dodged by falling back with force step.

The siren once again screeched, but this sound was a bit different.

Soon, the flopping noises came from the sea and sirens started encircling the fighting duo.

''Shit!''

Lorian wouldn't be able to fight so many at once. He would be screwed. 

And that wasn't the worst part. The sub-elite siren started fleeing. 

Lorian turned anxious, but then grew determined. There was nobody else here, so there was no need to hold back. 

*Bang

The ice below his feet exploded as he shot through the air through force step. His figure grew blurry as he used ghostly glide at the same time, which reduced his weight. 

*Kshh~

Another glass shattering sound rang as he created a small ice platform in the air. He once again shot up and forward in the air for about 5 meters.

*Bang

He used the falling Harpie's body as a stepping stone and once again flew up. 

The silver card was withdrawn, which glowed, then his whole body turned into a gigantic silver wolf - Farax.

''Chilling fury!''

His eyes glowed dangerously as his body started shooting down, his shadow covering the fleeing sub-elite siren.

Suddenly, the siren stopped fleeing and turned around, lifted up its bulging arm and threw the trident at him.

The trident was quickly approaching like death scythe.

 - Growl!

Lorian in Farax's form gave a growl as his silhouette grew blurry.

The blood red eyes of the golden-scaled siren bulged as it felt its life under threat.

''Slash flurry''

Coupled with descending pace and 30% bonus agility from chilling fury, along with short time speed buff, his body sped up by about 10 times!

The sub-elite siren couldn't even react as its body was slashed by 5 deadly claws and catapulted backward while spitting blood.

 - 292

But...it wasn't over.

The silver shadow approached from behind.

*Slash

 - 120

The blood overflowed as its back was also slashed open.

*Slash, slash, slash!

 - 46

 - 22

 - 21

The claw marks painted the sub-elite siren's body. Though Lorian lost his momentum on the following slashes, they dealt quite a heavy damage overall, especially the first slash with many stacked boosts.

Meanwhile, tens of sirens were approaching from all sides. There was no time left to lose. He didn't let the sub-elite siren recover and caught it with fangs and chewed down.

The golden scales weren't enough to resist Farax's sharp teeth. The poor golden-scaled siren was ground to death.

The sirens stopped midtrack, feeling terrified as they watched their leader being chewed down.

Lorian transmitted the force on his hind legs and flew through the air, but force step didn't activate.

''Seems I can't use my other skills in morphed mode.'' He thought silently.

His body glowed and returned to human form prematurely. 

Lifting his hand, ice bullets materialized in the air and bombarded the sirens, that started fleeing into the sea like headless chickens.

Meanwhile, the system notification rang in his mind.

+1234 (Doubled) Battle Exp for killing 1 rank higher enemy  

Requirements for level up met.

Commencing rank up.

Lorian's whole body felt agitated and full of bursting energy. Bone crackling sounds rang. The muscle fibers contracted. The blood was pumping through his veins at an accelerated speed.

 - Roar!

He couldn't help but give out a beastly roar.

''Finally, 1-star warrior!''

Lorian excitedly clenched his fists. His strength grew by at least 100 pounds while his other attributes also had a significant upgrade.

But it wasn't over. Another melodious system sound rang in his mind.

6th floor of the instances has been constructed.

The monster choice for ascension - Golden-scaled Siren (Sub-elite)

Skills extracted: (Please choose one of the following)

Poison secretion, golden scales, water manipulation

- Water manipulation.

Lorian chose without hesitation.

Ding!

You have learned Water manipulation (Passive)

Underwater breathing time extended.

Underwater vision extended.

Increased affinity with water.

Increased attunement with water.

Water elemental spells deal +5% damage.

Water elemental skills deal +5% damage.

Water elemental damage resistance +5%

- Well, the ice is also a type of water.

Lorian grinned. The effects of his passive would also apply on his ice spells and skills.

 - Ah, I've ditched them for too long. I have to go back.

Lorian looked up worriedly. The sound of thunder would occasionally ring, but the number of Harpies above was overwhelming. The situation wasn't reassuring at all. He was worried about Elaine.

When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter. The sirens were already gone. His job was done here.