Talia’s idea was fairly simple, perhaps too simple.

During her fight with the average-size Abyssal Scuttlers on her way to the top of the island, she had found out that [Blood Syphon] didn’t just work after the monster’s death.

In fact, as soon as they started bleeding, she could activate the skill and suck their vitality out in the middle of the battle.

Granted, it was way less effective and potent than using it on a corpse.

But it was also the only resource she could think of to tackle the giant monstrous Boss she and Lani were now facing.

“I need you to draw blood from the Boss so I can use a skill to slowly drain him! Can you do that?!” Talia shouted.

“I don’t have a weapon!” Lani said nervously, looking around, trying to see if there was anything that she could use.

Talia looked down at her mother’s glaive and gritted her teeth, knowing what she had to do.

“Take it!” Talia threw her weapon to Lani and eyed the monster.

The giant Abyssal Scuttler had been unfazed by Akua running past it and onto her vessel, but it was now summoning another attack to take her and Lani down.

It seemed that it didn’t have any reserves about killing humans other than the merchant.

The Abyssal creature clearly wanted them dead and it wasn’t sparing its Mana to achieve that goal.

But as Talia threw herself to the side to dodge yet another magical attack, Lani stood her ground and slashed with the glaive.

The giant flux of summoned water was stopped dead in its tracks.

Instead, a humongous blade had appeared after Lani’s attack and had taken the shape of a shark.

Soon, another one followed it and impacted the claw the monster had raised to shield itself from Lani’s vicious counter.

The Boss screeched, but as Talia looked expectantly at the point of impact, she found no blood emerging.

And that was just the beginning of their troubles.

Talia turned around to find that two more Abyssal Scuttlers were barreling at Lani at full speed.

She knew she couldn’t allow these monsters to interfere with the woman’s attacks until the Boss was bleeding.

Even at her level, Lani needed all her focus to be on the giant Boss.

So, there was only one option left.

She had to kill the Abyssal Scuttlers without the glaive.

Talia drew a knife she had kept in her belt and slashed both her palms in quick succession, putting herself between the two Abyssal Scuttlers and the woman.

She activated [Crimson Wisdom] alongside [Eyes of the Abyss].

With [Crimson Wisdom] and [Eyes of the Abyss] active, she could see the vibrations in her blood more clearly than before.

As the two Abyssal Scuttlers charged at her, Talia focused on the blood dripping from her palms.

She willed the blood to coalesce into razor-sharp blades through her [Hemomancy], extending from her hands like crimson daggers.

She prayed they would be strong enough to resist the attacks of the monsters.

Within seconds, she put the blades to the test.

The first Abyssal Scuttler lunged at her, its pincers snapping at her neck.

Talia ducked and slashed upward with her blood blade.

The creature screeched as the makeshift weapon sliced through its softer underbelly.

Green ichor spilled onto the ground as the Abyssal Scuttler stumbled back.

One down, she told herself, clenching her teeth.

And while the first screeched in pain, momentarily stunned, the second changed its approach.

Talia spun to face it, ready to use the same tactic as before.

But this Scuttler was more cautious, circling her warily.

She knew more monsters would appear soon and she couldn't wait for it to strike first.

I hope this works, Talia prayed in silence.

She flicked her wrist, sending a spray of blood droplets toward the creature.

Mid-flight, the droplets elongated into needle-like projectiles, piercing the Scuttler's eyes and sensitive areas around its mouth.

As both creatures writhed in pain, Talia activated [Blood Syphon].

She felt a rush of energy as she absorbed their vitality, immediately restoring her stamina and slowing down both her heartbeat and breath.

Contrastingly, the Scuttlers' movements grew sluggish, then ceased altogether as they quickly collapsed.

[You have slain Abyssal Scuttler Level 4!]

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[You have slain Abyssal Scuttler Level 5!]

She paid no heed to the other notifications and barked at Lani.

“You have to hurry up!” She said, “There’s more of them coming! I can’t kill them all!”

Lani, however, had gotten into a melee range with the Boss to prevent it from using its ranged Mana attacks.

And it wasn’t going well at all.

The glaive whistled through the air as she swung it in wide arcs, keeping the massive creature at bay. Her water constructs – sharks, eels, and other predatory sea creatures – harried the Boss from all angles. Yet, despite Lani's skill and the power behind her attacks, the Boss's shell remained unbroken.

Its carapace seemed to shimmer with Mana, deflecting even the sharpest blows.

“I can’t use my strongest Skill with a glaive!”

Talia realized that Lani must have been a swordsman, just like her infamous husband.

Lani’s husband, who was still at large, was one of the most well-known swordsmen in the four seas. Even though the woman was clearly much weaker than him, Talia had imagined that her skills lay in the same domain. And since, while leveling up, the strongest skills one would acquire were weapon-specific, Lani's best skills were meant to be used with a sword.

Sadly for both women, there was no sword in sight.

Or was there?

“Keep the Boss away from the warehouse!” Talia shouted, running toward the ripped-open building.

If there was a sword, which Talia had just realized, it could only be in Akua’s warehouse. Nowhere else could they find a weapon. Not in the middle of the forest, for sure.

And so, Talia ran inside the building through the same hole the monster had made to get in.

Unsurprisingly, the inside of the building was a complete disaster.

The boss had trashed the entire place to find the crates of herbs, most of which lay on the ground half chewed-up, or in the case of the lesser ones, stomped.

That made looking for a weapon, well, looking for anything really, extremely hard.

But Talia didn't have time to hesitate.

If she didn't find a sword in the midst of all this chaos, both her and Lani would die.

She walked to a collapsed shelf where several fragments of metal rested on the ground.

She started pawing at the debris, looking for any glimmer in the dark.

She hoped that seeing metal catching the light would guide her to a sword.

And so she dug and dug, each second feeling like an eternity.

Finally, after what couldn't have been more than a minute, she pulled out a sword from a scrambled mess of broken blades and various other weapons.

Talia held up the blade in front of her.

Luckily enough, the blade's edge was still intact.

Most importantly, the sword also had the faintest coating of Mana that Talia could see with her [Eyes of the Abyss].

That was fantastic news.

She had just found an enchanted weapon.

Enchanted weapons could only be made by Initiated people who had either received or later chosen a crafting-based class.

These weapons were absolutely essential for anyone hoping to clear a dungeon or fight abyssal creatures at high levels.

They were fundamental to kill all the stronger monsters in the Deep that, like the Boss Lani was fighting, had Mana or Skills protecting them.

Enchanted weapons were so important that it wasn't unusual for even the weakest team going on a mission to be outfitted with – at the very least – all enchanted weapons, if not enchanted armor or other artifacts.

In fact, Talia was certain that her glaive was also enchanted, as it had appeared in her hand twice already.

And she suspected that there might be even more enchantments on it that she wasn't privy to just yet.

Looking knowingly at the sword in her hand, she ran out, ready to toss it to Lani.

But the scene she saw outside made her heart skip a beat.

Lani was on her knees.

One of her arms was bent unnaturally, snapped into two floppy ends.

Whatever had happened in that minute had clearly been enough for the boss to gain the upper hand.

Talia's glaive was on the ground.

Several paces from Lani.

Now, the boss stood over the woman with a claw raised and Mana gathering into a globe of water in front of him.

The monster clearly hadn't taken Lani lightly and, with a spark of a malicious intelligence in its eyes, prepared for a devastating attack that would kill her in a single blow.

Even though Talia had managed to find the sword that Lani could have used to kill the monster, the woman was at the end of her rope, and the weapon was now useless.

The plan of using [Blood Siphon] to slowly whittle down the vitality of the monster seemed completely foolish now.

She didn’t even know if by using [Blood Siphon] she could have actually killed the monster or gained enough time for Lani to land a killing blow.

And now, all had been for naught.

All had been for naught.

Talia realized that she had made the wrong decision.

She had chosen to fight the Boss when really, the best alternative would have been to just try and run.

She knew that the giant, crab-like monster would have probably outrun them both.

But given the current outcome, trying to run would have been better than witnessing Lani's impending death.

A part of her immediately recognized that she had taken this choice because the idea of defeating a giant Boss monster on her own would have made her a hero in the eyes of the villagers.

Even the most bigoted villagers would have had to acknowledge that she had accomplished an immense feat and saved all their lives in the process.

The truth was that her arrogance had gotten the best of her.

And it was also true that she couldn't have predicted this situation.

But once again…

Her deep-seated desire to be like her mother had led her astray, period.

And now, all Talia could do was watch as the monster finished casting the spell, with the jet of water soon to take Lani's life.

She could do nothing else – just stand helplessly with the useless sword in her hands.