Question marks? Liam thought as he stared at the information he acquired. He then stared at the massive creature that was just staring at them. It didn’t move to strike but still kept pace with the ship. I don’t think I remember a time I’ve come across this. Could it the monster’s level is too high for me to see?
Before Liam could think more about it he heard someone hiss, “Holy shit! A hundred thousand five hundred and seventy eight health?!”
Liam turned to see it came from Roman. His jaw was slack, and he had a look of confusion and worry. He wasn’t the only one. Artem, Ariyana, and Omira had worried looks while Gimmel, Blair, and Avery frowned while staring at the grotesque looking monster. When he looked at Mercer he noticed he was staring at him. He had a worried look, but a mix of confusion and curiosity was there as well.
Liam believed he knew why and asked, “Question marks for you as well?”
Mercer nodded in reply. He was about to say something, but stopped as Omira cut in and said, “If you’re seeing question marks after assessing the monster then that means its level is way too high for you to see it.”
Liam and the others turned their focus on her. She looked a bit uncomfortable when they did so, but she didn’t avert eyes. Seeing that she knew what they were talking about he asked, “Are you able to see its level?”
Omira shook her head as she answered, “No. My level is still low, so I see question marks as well. I just heard you say the words and thought I’d explain away any confusion.”
Liam eyed her for a moment. However, before anyone could say anything else, Key shouted out, gathering everyone’s attention, “Eyes forwards and ears open!”
Liam, the others, and even the crewmembers on the deck snapped their attention on the shorter woman who had made her way in front of them all by the edge of the ship. No one said a thing as they listened to what she had to say next. “This creature’s level is well above a good portion of many of you can handle. That being said, you New Arrivals, and my other guests won’t be participating in this fight. The same with all of my crew. Those with high levels in the Field of the Barrier, your job is to make sure to keep a barrier up at all times. Rotate amongst each other so no issues happen. Healers, take this time to heal those who need it.”
Murmurs started to spread amongst everyone. Liam could understand why even Key’s crew seemed worried. If she was telling everyone that they were to just stay here and do nothing then it meant that she was going to take on this creature without any help. While Liam knew she was stronger than he was, he wasn’t entirely sure how strong she really was. The whispers started to grow but were stopped as she ordered them to quiet down.
Key was about to start back up but stopped as Uncle Naro appeared next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. The shorter woman turned her head enough to look up at the taller man and saw the look on his face. She gave him a wicked grin as she stated, “I know that look. If you think I am going to…”
“Give me five minutes,” Uncle Naro started, interrupting the woman.
Key frowned at his words. “Just five minutes? Why? What are you planning on doing?”
Without moving his head, Uncle Naro glanced at Liam for a brief moment before looking back at her and replying, “I am simply giving my student a better look at the fighting style he will be aiming for.”
Key’s right brow raised a bit as she let his words sink in. Her head looked back at Liam for a brief moment as she started to understand what he meant. A feral grin appeared on her face as she said, “Okay. I’ll provide foot holds for you, so you have places to land. However, you better not finish it off quickly. I want to show a bit off to my own. You hear me?”
Uncle Naro gave her one of his own wicked smirks as he nodded his head. He then turned around to face the creature while cracking his neck. Then he shouted out, “Liam! Pay attention!”
Liam’s focus was on the man shortly after that. As he watched, he felt power start to build up all around the man. Curious, Liam activated Mana Sight. His eyes widened instantly as he saw a multitude of colors coat over the man. He could hear gasps around him as he continued to stare telling him that the others in his group probably were doing the same as he.
However, Liam didn’t want to waste a single moment taking his eyes off of Uncle Naro at the moment. What he was seeing wasn’t a mana type he knew or heard of before. Not only that but he could feel it. He could feel the mana building up around Uncle Naro.
It wasn’t like he could feel it like a physical object, but rather like breeze that washed over him. The hairs on his arms and the back of his neck started to rise as a shiver ran down his body. Although, as the breeze of mana washed over him he came to understand something else. The mana Uncle Naro was channeling and building up wasn’t one, but several different types.
Liam tried to focus on what he could feel, but he wasn’t able to fully pinpoint them all. While some felt familiar, like Air, Fire, and Water they were just faint hints almost like they were completely different from those mana types at the same time. There were also other types and colored mixtures he had never seen before. Except for one.
There was one type of mana that felt and looked very familiar. However, no matter how hard he tried to think about it, he couldn’t figure it out. It was starting to annoy him why he couldn’t place a finger on it. Alas, before he could continue something happened that took his focus off of his thoughts. Uncle Naro formed seven different Mana Type Hands.
There was a Mana Hand that looked greyish and cloudy, yet at the same time it also looked like heat vapors were wafting off of it. Another was made out of pure water, except instead of the calm solid blue color, the hand was full of bubbles violently moving around the entire hand. Another was a wispy like hand that resembled an Air Hand, except pink dots and green herb like objects floated around within the hand. A fourth hand lit up like fire before turning completely black almost like smoke was covering the entire hand.
The fifth Mana Hand that formed was completely silver. This Mana Hand had that strange familiar feeling that Liam was trying to remember where he had seen before. As he stared at this one, the silver within the hand flashed several times darkening and deepening the color. The last two Hands were strange as well and took Liam by surprise.
Both of them were similar in color. These two Hands looked like a metallic reddish green. However, it wasn’t the color that caught Liam off guard or had his full attention. It was the feeling he got when he stared at it. These two hands felt…hungry. Like they wanted to and could eat anything and everything they touched.
After all the Mana Hands had finished taking form, Uncle Naro did something Liam was starting to get more familiar with doing. He started pulling out his tool weapons and handed them off to his Mana Type Hands. He passed off both of his excellent looking crafted Meat Cleavers to the steamy looking Mana Hand and the bubbling water Mana Hand. A massive hammer was passed to the smoky looking Mana Hand. A metallic needle much bigger than the one Liam used and with a much more intricate design was passed to the wispy Mana Hand.
The next tool weapon that Uncle Naro pulled out was something Liam hadn’t seen yet. He believed he understood what the tool was, but the way it was shaped took him by surprise. It was a saw that was shaped like a sword. It had a hilt like a sword would have, but when it came up to the blade, the entire thing resembled a saw one would use to take down a tree. The last two hands were given tool weapons Liam was expecting to see either.
One of them was shaped like a four pronged harpoon. However, the more Liam stared at it the more it looked like an over grown dangerous fork. Believing that this tool weapon was a fork made the other tool weapon more believable with what he thought it was. A giant knife. Much like the saw blade, this one had almost a similar design, except the blade portion was longer and the teeth that ran up it were much shorter than the saw blade.
What the hell type of tool weapons are those? Liam thought to himself. Are they really tool weapons or are they cutlery? He didn’t have much time to ponder more on this as he witnessed the Mana Type Hands start to blend together with the tool weapons. Steam vapors rose off of one. Another started to bubble as water dripped from the edge of the blade. Thick black smoke came off of the hammer as sparks of fire ran across the head. The Needle didn’t look like it had any changes until wisps of air wrapped around it every few seconds. A silverish sheen flashed around the saw while the Fork and Knife looking tool weapons gave off a dangerous feeling.
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“Ready?” Key questioned as she stared out at the massive beast staring down at them.
Uncle Naro slammed a fist against his open palm and stated with a grin, “Yup.”
Key smiled as several Aqua Spheres the size of student desks formed all around her. She pointed a finger out towards the sea and the spheres of water swiftly flew out and surrounded the creature. The Aqua Spheres didn’t collide with the creature, but instead stopped in random locations. As soon as the last one stopped, she said as she snapped her fingers, “Frigid Step.”
With those two words every Aqua Sphere that was sent out suddenly froze. She then looked at Uncle Naro and nodded. He then sucked in a big breath of air before letting out an ear piercing roar. The creature snarled as the roar started to die down. Uncle Naro’s facial feature then took on a feral like look as his teeth grew sharper. His muscles suddenly tightened as his nails grew longer and sharper almost like they were turning into claws. His posture slumped a bit as his back hunched down and his arms dangled.
Then before Liam knew it, he suddenly disappeared. He had moved so quickly Liam didn’t know where he went. He was shocked, but didn’t have the time to remain like that as he heard the sounds of ice breaking fill the air.
Several different frozen Aqua Spheres had shattered out of nowhere. Liam had followed the direction the ones that shattered were in. New one replaced the shattered ones, but he didn’t pay much attention to that as his eyes fell upon where Uncle Naro was now at. He was right above the gigantic aquatic creature upside down with a frozen Aqua Sphere under his feet. His knees where bent like he was getting ready to pounce.
The Creature turned its massive head, sharp thin teeth baring at him. With a grinning snarl of his own, Uncle Naro pushed off of the foot hold he had, shattering it, and reappeared on another frozen Aqua Sphere located on the other side of the creature closer to the water.
The Deep Sea Angular Lotan Spawn let out a pained filled scream as several long gashes suddenly formed running along the direction the Bear-folk had shot himself. Liam took him in and noticed that not only didn’t his tool weapons have blood coated along the blades, but his claws had blood on them and a chunk of skin was hanging out of his mouth.
Liam’s faced turned into a concerned expression as he watched the chunk of skin slip into his mouth and was swallowed in one gulp. Did he just… Before Liam could finish that thought Uncle Naro jumped again from his spot and reappeared on a frozen Aqua Sphere directly above him around eye height with the creature. The monster let out another painfilled scream as it turned its head away from Uncle Naro.
“You’re moving too damn fast for him to see what you’re doing ya stupid bear!” Key yelled out. “Did ya forget that you’re much faster when ya have Bestial Takeover activated?” She then turned her head and said in Liam’s direction, “Not sure if he can slow down enough for ya to properly see, but try to keep up the best ya can alright?”
Liam slowly nodded as he tried to keep his eyes on Uncle Naro. She was right that he was moving way too fast to get a proper intake of his movements and attacks. However, seeing where the result of each strike had landed and seeing the state of his weapons after each attack were in. He was getting ideas how he was attacking.
The length of each gash, while long as they ended up, weren’t as long as they could be. They started and ended in certain areas that made Liam believe there was a reason for it. Not only that, but from what he was able to see with his heightened sight, the depth of the gashes weren’t as deep as they could be. He believed this was because his attacks weren’t meant to dig into the body as deep as he could get them, but instead were meant to create openings were blood could start leaking out.
This was a good strategy for a much bigger creature, Liam had contemplated. If he were to try and rake his tool weapons as deep as he could there was a chance they would get caught and stuck. No, shallow cuts could be just as dangerous as deep ones. The more one bled the more health would drop over time. These were what he was starting to think Uncle Naro was doing, but there was something that he wasn’t entirely sure about. Each time he attacked, he had a decent amount of flesh he ate. He couldn’t understand the point or strategy behind that. Was that just his Bear-folk nature since this was an aquatic creature? Was he treating this monster as a fish?
Not entirely sure about this, Liam decided to take another look at the gashes Uncle Naro was making and noticed something else. Along two or three of them there were signs of the creatures skin being pounded in along the edges of the lined gashes. These areas were also different to the gashes that didn’t have the signs of the flesh being struck by a blunt object. The opened wounds were opened up more than the others.
He wasn’t sure, since he couldn’t keep up with the man’s attacks, but he thought maybe the man was pounding the flesh to make it easier to cut. That thought made Liam think about something else. He felt like he was onto something as he continued his line of thought. Uncle Naro loved to cook. A few of his tool weapons resembled cooking tools. Meat Cleaver, Fork, Knife…what if the hammer wasn’t really a hammer but rather a meat tenderizer?
If that was true then the man eating the flesh made a bit more sense. Uncle Naro used the hammer to tenderize the flesh which allowed his sharper tool weapons to cut easier. The Mana Types that looked like steam and smoke and even the one that resembled boiling water probably cooked the flesh as it cut then he would use his claws or even the fork and knife like tools to grab the pieces of flesh so he could eat it. But then…why did he need to eat it? That part really made no sense to him.
His thoughts were interrupted as his Danger Sense suddenly sparked around his eyes. He wasn’t sure why, but he suddenly shouted, “Close your eyes!” He didn’t wait to see if anyone heard him as he closed his eyes. As soon as he did, he saw a flash appear and disappear on the other side of his eye lids.
Before he opened them to see if it was safe, he heard a louder and much deeper screech fill the air before a loud splash followed right after. Liam quickly opened his eyes, worried that the splash he heard was Uncle Naro falling into the water. However, instead of finding his mentor struggling in the water he was standing victoriously in the air with a wicked grin on his face.
Liam was confused as to what had happened and what it was that had fell into the water but then noticed something different about the monster. The long flesh rod that connected the orb to its head was missing half of its form. The half with the orb was nowhere to be seen. Uncle Naro had cut through the flesh rod. Blood gushed out from the open wound and was flying around as it shook its head around in pain.
Massive Rain droplets fell onto the deck and covered most of the barriers’ surfaces. Liam was thankful they were up for it they weren’t then everyone would have been covered in the monster’s blood. Key, on the other hand, wasn’t so happy as she spewed out some colorful words while staring at the spots where the blood had covered.
“Alright, that’s enough. It’s my turn to play!” Key shouted. Her voice was tinged with annoyance as she turned around to face the monster. Uncle Naro frowned as he turned to look at her and was about to protest, but was interrupted as Key stated, “Oh no! If I let you continue like you are then I won’t be able to pay this monster back for giving my beautiful ship a fresh coat of color that I did not approve.”
Once again Uncle Naro was going to protest, but stopped as the monster made a move. However, instead of moving forward, the Deep Sea Angular Lotan Spawn dipped backwards. Its massive head went under water before shooting up into the air, revealing more of its body and its true form. While the head resembled a mixture of angular fish and a blender, its body was long like a snake or an eel.
With the movement of its body, the water around it followed into the air before moving forward towards the ship. The massive wave reached higher than the ship and was coming closer to fall onto it. Key looked back at them and said with a wicked grin to Avery, “Pay attention rookie. If ya follow the path I am trying to lay down for ya, ya’ll be able to pull off something like this one day.”
Avery and everyone else watched as Key pulled out both of her rapiers and jumped straight ahead onto the frozen Aqua Spheres that led her to the bottom of the incoming tidal wave. After reaching the final frozen Aqua Sphere, she bents both of her knees and waited for the wall of water to engulf her entire body.
Liam felt his body twitch, unsure what the woman was thinking, but then stopped as he watched her body spiraling up towards the top of the massive wave. After she pierced through the surface of the tidal wave her spinning form stopped, her back still facing them, crossed her two weapons across her chest and then with a sharp motion flung her arms open wide.
At first, Liam wasn’t sure what she was doing. Before anyone could voice a question, the tidal wave split wide open, sending the two halves in opposite directions, missing the ship entirely. However, she wasn’t done there. Dozens of Aqua spheres suddenly appeared all around her. As they formed, they started to change their shapes. The final product of their form was a rapier. Dozens and dozens of water shaped rapiers floated around the woman. After the last one took form they froze over.
Key gave a smirk as she shouted out, “Hundred Frigid Press!” Then all of the frozen rapiers raced towards the creature. Upon contact the frozen weapons skewered through the monster and into the water. The water surrounding the monster froze over, trapping the monster in place.
As the creature flailed around in pain, Key looked at Uncle Naro and asked, “Shall we finish this?”
“I think we have let it suffered enough,” Uncle Naro agreed as they both raced towards it.
Liam, Avery, and the others watched wide eyed and amazed as the two people used the next few minutes to finally slay the creature. Liam felt kind of sorry for it as he realized the monster didn’t really have a chance at all. Even though he felt sorry for the monster he also came to another conclusion. Uncle Naro and Key were monsters in their own rights and if this is what power looked at, at their level…he couldn’t wait to get that strong and see what he would be able to do.