Chapter 104
Lykan
Battle of the Deep
Lykan felt the calming effects of the vibrating currents wash over him as he was sucked down deep into the depths of the water. He felt a deep connection to the water that he never had been able to with his mana senses. Part of his mind realized this was likely due to the different way that he viewed mana from everyone else. He could never create or use his mana to generate an element like everyone else could. Instead, he could only manipulate latent mana, mana that had already been put in place by others. Once again, the term vampire came to mind, though this time rather than blood he absorbed and reused mana. Mana that by all accounts should be under the direct control of others. Did this mean that his mana affinity was in fact mana? If that was the case, then did he have a Qi affinity? Could he take control of an element or multiple elements through his use and manipulation of Qi? These thoughts and more flashed through his mind in an instant.
The dreams of a drowning man. This was what Lykan attributed his rapidly shifting consciousness to. He heard tales of how people who were drowning saw their lives flash before their eyes. For Lykan in this moment as he was being pulled in towards the overgrown maw of a giant shark-topus he only saw potentials. He saw ways his mind could force his body to adapt to Qi, to force elemental changes to occur on a deeper level.
He knew he already had a basic understanding of flames, but did his affinities stop there? Or could he focus other or even opposite reactions. With flames he knew he was just energizing the energy around him to be in an agitated state, but could he do the opposite?
Maybe trying something new during the middle of combat was a bad thing, but Lykan was on the verge of an epiphany. He could feel his mind spiraling out with new ideas and methods for utilizing his Qi. The most obvious path would be to take all the ambient heat that was in the water around him. At this thought, he envisioned the rune for heat around that was placed at multiple different parts around the room. Then he imagined the inverse of that rune. Not only did he imagine the inverse, but he imagined his whole body being the inverse of that rune.
At the start of that thought, wild Qi in his body began filling the mental rune he had generated.
“SKREECH!” A high-pitched cry of pain cried out from the depths. Due to Lykan being in the water, the sound of a monster crying out in pain was easy to hear. Lykan forced his mind to focus as he was onto something, at least he felt that he was nearing an epiphany. He drew in the ambient energy; a warm glowing sensation filled his mind and body. There was something oddly familiar about the ambient energy, but Lykan couldn’t put a finger on why.
Suddenly his rapid decent forward through the depths stopped, Lykan tensed up readying himself for his first attack.
With a start he realized he was right in front of the maw of the giant beast, though rather than its mouth being opened to eat Lykan, as had been Lykan’s original plan. The beast looked to be trying to get away from him. The whole situation was so odd that Lykan had to pause as he looked on in confusion. Lykan took a second to stare down to see that not one, but three different tentacles all reached out to grab Lykan. Lykan of course hadn’t noticed this, as he had been too busy drawing in the ambient heat energy around him. Energy that he realized much to his shock was Qi. Finally, that odd tickling sensation in his brain made sense.
He finally understood what had been so odd about the energy he was absorbing from the water. It was Qi. Not only was it Qi, but it was the Qi that had, up until a few moments ago been floating around the Shark-Topus’ body. Lykan for his part could move about freely, as the ice that engulfed not one, but three different tentacles was not him but rather an extension of him. At this moment he was the rune of frost. He was a rune that was able to draw in enough ambient energy to power itself.
Lykan was of course used to using and generating runes on the fly, such was the gift of his Master Craftsman skill, but he never thought it would use Qi. All the other runes he had generated to this point were to be fueled by mana, or his own psionic energy. Yet, he knew the runes were just hollow voids that could be filled with any form of power, thus was their benefit. Anyone with even minor mana affinities could be used to fill and replenish expertly crafted runes. At about this time he noticed that his comprehension of crafting had increased.
Skill Name Base Plus Increase Rating (4) Master Crafting Expert + (Unknown) Sage
He was now a Sage level Master Crafter, while Crafting implied, he could create nearly anything most people with a generalized crafting skill often focused on one specialty. In Lykan’s case he had focused almost entirely on the crafting and study of runes.
Shaking his head Lykan realized that he was still drawing in Qi, though he felt the strain of pulling energy from further and further away. Still Lykan looked on at the monster that was now dragging him through the waters, as it tried desperately to get away from the ever-growing ball of ice that was Lykan. The scene would almost be comical if it wasn’t for the fact that Lykan was still stuck to the beast, the frozen appendage that was now well and truly stuck to his leg was proof of that. Then there was also the fact that as he was being pulled about more and more shark-topus’ were visible in the water. Even one that appeared to be missing half a tentacle. Seeing the one with the broken tentacle made Lykan give a sigh of relief as it implied multiple things.
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The first thing the missing half tentacle implied was that damage to the tentacles could not be healed, or at least would require time before they could be regenerated. The second thing the missing tentacle implied was that these monsters could be damaged and likely even killed. While he had assumed as much from the shrieks, the unhealed tentacle was a rallying thought for Lykan.
Swoosh.
Water currents rippled towards Lykan. Unfortunately, Lykan was encased in a proverbial ball of ice and unable to move. For this point Lykan was cocooned in a ball of Ice, while it protected him from other attacks, it also meant that he was unable to avoid any incoming attacks. Thus, when a second shark-topus lashed out and tried to steal the dangling ball of food away from the first fleeing shark-topus’ frozen tentacles madness ensued.
The first tentacle wrapped around the frozen ball in a second, followed quickly by a second and then a third. Each tentacle had Qi. Qi that was quickly siphoned off and used to fuel the rune of freezing that Lykan’s mind was still generating. The moment the second body came into the picture, the first fleeing shark-topus’ momentum was stopped, or at least forced to slow down.
Within seconds the second shark-topus’ tentacles had the qi drained from them and quickly froze in place. This caused the second shark-topus to also pull and try to get away. This was fine, and likely would have been a great way for Lykan to slowly suck away the Qi from each monster as they both slowly froze to death in the waves. The only problem was that by this point Lykan had been under the water for over two minutes, while his staggeringly high attributes meant that he was able to hold his breath and require far less to survive than was normal, he still needed to breath. With that in mind he decided to try to ascend.
Circulating mana throughout his body was a process he had mastered early on. The feeling and exhilaration of flight was a sensation he would always cherish. In this case he was flying, albeit inside a frozen capsule of his own design that would suck out the ambient Qi of anyone or thing that touched it. Lykan’s focus on the frost rune was so complete that currently, the ice barrier around him was also absorbing the ambient Qi from the waves of the water.
Lykan arose from the depths, his flight more than enough to pull up the two shark-topuses that were still trying to adapt to the changes that were happening to them. It didn’t help that both shark-topuses used tentacles that were facing towards Lykan, thus, to get away they would have to flee backwards. With that, Lykan was able to rise easily or more easily than if the monsters were able to turn themselves about. As soon as his head emerged from the waters, he felt his body taking in a deep breath of air. Then he felt the weight and pull of a third set of tentacles. Lykan also noticed how one of the new tentacles was torn off or missing half.
The third shark-topus was too much for Lykan to lift or resist against. While he might have been able to fight off two shark-topuses to rise to grab a breath of air, he was not able to lift three and himself. Especially not when all three seemed to now be working together to pull him down to his death.
It was a small consolation prize that the third shark-topus’ tentacles also froze to his ever-enlarging shell. Still Lykan didn’t panic, instead, he focused on what he knew. Reaching into his torn pockets he found the cores of the birds he had slain in this very biome not hours before. Had it been only a matter of hours? It felt like so much time, and no time at all had passed since he first entered this facility that he was losing track of time itself.
Still Lykan held out the cores, he held one up to his mouth. Not wanting to open his mouth in the water, but realizing there was little he could do, as he needed more energy for what he wanted to do next. He held up the core to his lips, only to be amazed that part of the core’s energy was already missing. Looking at this in shock Lykan paused.
He was quickly drawn back from his musings about the missing qi, when he felt his body begin to be pulled ever deeper by the three-warring shark-topuses. He wondered if they always hunted together, or if he was a special case due to his being an unknown predator of some kind. Still, he dismissed those thoughts in favor of his new revelation. He didn’t need to eat the core to absorb the ambient qi, or at least he no longer needed to eat the cores. Instead, he could siphon off the energy of the cores he was near. This made sense in a small way to Lykan’s mind, for how else could he absorb the qi that was held in the limbs of the monsters attacking him.
With that new revelation in place, he closed his eyes and began to focus on what he wanted to accomplish next. Rather than just freezing the limbs of the monsters, he needed to do one bigger. With his eyes closed and his mind focused he began to meditate. By now Lykan was so used to drawing in ambient qi that it could be done from any position or movement. This was perfect for at this very moment Lykan was stuck inside a protective barrier of his own making. While he could easily break free if he wanted, he knew this would likely be his only chance to catch all three shark-topuses off-guard. If he broke his shell and rose to the surface his chance to get all three monsters at once would be nearly impossible. As it was, he had them all trying to get away from him, while also pulling him to the bottom of the aquarium. Fortunately for Lykan, the bottom wasn’t that far down, only thirty meters at most, but still that was a long way away when one was swimming for their lives.
Calming his mind Lykan entered a deep meditative state and thought of ice bergs. He thought of cold and frost so deep that ocean currents wouldn’t be able to move the ice. As he thought this, the image of the rune his mind created expanded. Slowly the rune grew larger and larger as he drew in more and more of the ambient qi of his cores.
Slowly he began to register the fact that he was rising, but he focused away from such minor thoughts. Instead, he only pushed further, trying to make the rune of frost he imagined grow larger and larger. Finally, he stopped rising. His body seeming to bob up and down on ocean waves. After a second, Lykan realized that fresh air was around him and he took in air, as the water around him slowly poured away only to be frozen nearby.
Only after he had fully risen did he realize he had a message from the gods awaiting him.
[Arctic Terraform]
There was the word again, terraform. The only difference was this time Lykan felt he had a better understanding of what the word truly meant. Terraforming was the process of changing the environmental settings of one place to mimic another. Terraforming was also likely used due to his use of Qi throughout the entire process. He also knew that arctic was one of the coldest places known to have been explored from well before the fall.
All this was to say that Lykan found himself exhausted, on a floating platform of ice that while it should be cold was not cold to Lykan. At least his body wasn’t registering the cold temperatures. Instead, all Lykan could feel was exhaustion, his reserves of qi were completely depleted. The cores he had on his personage were now completely drained.
Lykan didn’t feel the resistance of the monsters, and only saw a thick layer of ice around him. Ice that was thick enough to pull him to the surface of the water. Seeing this Lykan looked around and quickly spotted the safe confines of land nearby. Before he even realized what he was doing, mana cycled throughout his body lifting him into the air and pulling him towards safety.
Thump.
He landed with a dull thumping sound, where he immediately collapsed onto the ground and passed out.