'Mimicry - Troll!'

A hunchbacked humanoid creature that stood 3 feet tall, the troll was a being of supreme regeneration, yet still physically on par with a chief ranked warrior.

Submerged under waves that roared with the fury of the lord of the seas, any other form that wasn't the lich would be also instantly obliterated. Despite being fully aware of this, Noah had no other option but to change form. If the rope snapped, he would be reduced to fish in a barrel. Or rather, fish in a storm. He had to take action to prevent it from breaking.

As a troll, even if he were to be torn apart, he would be able to regenerate. However, unlike the lich, its regeneration was not infinite, and it also cost mana. But, the troll was significantly faster than the lich. Which was to say, the troll was the fastest monster he could have adopted to escape the waters without dying immediately to the fury of the storm.

With a few powerful kicks of his feet, the troll built up momentum and shot out of the water, and arrived at the scene of the impending disaster where the rope was breaking. This was happening smack dab in the middle of the part of the rope that bound the head and the tail of the serpent like a bow.

The rope was fraying. With the tension in the rope holding the weight of the leviathan, every string in its weave that snapped would release all that tension in a loud 'twang', audible even over the leviathan's rampage.

'Mimicry - Ogre!'

It happened right after his transformation was completed. With a shockwave that ruptured his eardrums, the final string of the rope snapped, its frayed ends almost about to rapidly accelerate in either direction, before it was caught by large, red, rough hands.

With a firm grip on either end of the rope, Noah tried to shake himself out of his daze. The shockwave that ruptured his ears had disoriented him, and the blood trickling out of his ears was proof. His head hung low, while his arms began to strain, trying to keep the rope from slipping from his grasp.

'Mmgth!'

Noah firmly bit his tongue, inviting the taste of copper into his mouth. The pain woke him up instantly. Without wasting a moment, Noah twirled his hands around the frayed ends of the rope, wrapping his hands around the rope to ensure that they wouldn't slip away. Then, he began to pull. Or at least he tried to. Soon, he began to let out a yell, which soon turned into a visceral scream that came from the depths of his soul.

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The rope was theoretically capable of lifting a weight equivalent to a few palaces. Which meant that Noah was currently lifting that much weight. Lifting all that weight had been a foolish notion from its conception, but it wasn't like he had other option. The leviathan was simply in a different league of strength to him. Trying to fight it without the rope was suicide. It wasn't looking good for Noah

Forget pulling the rope, the rope was pulling him. Apart. Noah pumped all his mana into his bones. He could feel his tendons and muscles tearing under the weight of the leviathan, but that was not his priority.

Right now, he absolutely had to keep this rope in place. If the rope fell apart, he could forget about fighting it; he would be simply melted. Even running was not possible. The leviathan that had felt more humiliation than it had ever felt before in its life today would chase him down, and finish him off. It would definitely go after Ariel as well. All he could do was to hope the physical body of the ogre reinforced with his mana could withstand the weight of the ogre.

The leviathan only continued to rampage. As Noah emerged out of the water and submerged again and again in rapid succession, his lungs began to fill up with water. Yet, Noah did not try to use mana to preserve himself. The water torture was accompanied by the g-force of the leviathan as it rapidly twisted, turned and swam around. Despite only making a ruckus within an area a few times larger than the beast itself, to Noah, it felt like it had accelerated around the continent several times over.

'...fuck…a minute only?...'

Yet, Noah was circulating his already low mana at full capacity, and could not understand how only a minute had passed. He would not be able to continue holding on for much longer, and tiring the leviathan would definitely take much longer. Noah shakily grit his teeth while dipping in and out of consciousness.

'If...if I'm here to get stronger…why am I doing it the safe way anyway…and all this pain is making me a little suicidal too.'

He steeled his resolve, and made his move.

"Fuck it, we ball!"

He twirled his wrists, letting go of the ropes.

'Mimicry - Merman!'

Noah in his merman form plummeted to the sea. In the sea, the mermen were at home, and being in it was no different to being in the warm embrace of a mother to them. After a minute of dodging the most turbulent of waves, Noah was fully healed, depleting his mana to zero.

Meanwhile, the leviathan unfurled to its full length, no longer tied up by the ropes of the impudent human that had been annoying it.

'Mimicry - Wyrm!'

The leviathan was now familiar with the human's ability to change form. Upon laying eyes on the beast that looked like a smaller and red airborne version of itself, almost a quarter of its own size now rocketing towards it, the dark green deity of the sea let out a thunderous roar, as if declaring the same thing Noah was currently thinking.

'Round two, fucker!'