Born in apocalypse

Realizing that direct confrontation wouldn’t work, Alaric decided to rely on his affinity more. Melding with the nearby shadows, he entered the realm of shadow and moved toward the monster from there.

Moving swiftly and silently, Alaric positioned himself behind the monster. Without even getting out of the shadow, he began launching attacks one after another.

Launching one tentacle after another, Alaric tried to drag the monster back into his shadow. Unfortunately, it did nothing but anger the monster.

Shreeeeeekkkkk!

The serpent roared in anger, as its voice echoed in the water, breaking every tentacle Alaric had created. Getting out of his grip, the monster began storing mana in its mouth...

Booooooommm!

A blue light escaped the serpent’s mouth, aiming directly at its own shadow below. The light moved at incredible speed as it entered the realm of shadow through the gate Alaric had created...

Before it could do any damage, though, the ray of light was disintegrated by the shadow itself. The shadow didn’t like when something attacked its domain, even more so when it was of a different affinity.

’What was that... A high concentration of water magic... or something entirely different?’ Remembering to take note of attacks like this, Alaric focused on his shadow manipulation and summoned ethereal, mana-infused blades.

The monster, covered with the scales of Neptune, deflected most of the blades while suffering minor injuries here and there. In response to Alaric’s attack, the serpent countered with a Tsunami Strike.

Looking at the massive waves coming in his direction, Alaric quickly turned ethereal and dived into the shadow. Being in his own realm, he understood this wouldn’t do...

The serpent seemed perfect in almost every way. It had perfect physical might, and the same was true for its magic. Its defense was nothing to scoff at either.

Looking at it with a smirk, Alaric got out of the shadow and finalized his next plan. Manipulating his mana to the fullest, he began transforming the shadow around the creature into weapons.

The monster focused on the weapons while Alaric manipulated his mana once again. Looking at the monster, he whispered,

"The Gate of Death..."

Suddenly a small circle of shadow appeared on the seabed as it began to increase abruptly. Within moments of its creation, the circle was already the size of the sea serpent.

"Now... dodge these... chains of death..."

Instead of hundreds of tentacles like last time, five extremely hardened chains of shadow emerged from the circle and began to move toward the monster. As the number of chains was lesser Alaric was finding it easy to control them as well.

Looking at the emerging chains, the sea serpent began charging its breath. The chains bound its body as it fired a powerful Hydro Breath to break them apart.

’Knew you wouldn’t dodge the attack...’

Having anticipated this move, Alaric turned the chains the monster aimed at into shadows for a split second. The monster tried to escape within this time frame, but the other four chains kept it bound in the location.

Hydro Breath...

The monster fired its breath once again, but the same thing happened.

Hydro Breath...

Nothing changed again...

Hydro Breath...

The same thing happened.

Hydro Breath...

....

....

....

After the continuous firing of Hydro breath, the monster began to feel tired. This powerful attack was taking a toll on his stamina.

’Tired already...’ Alaric whispered as he got to the part he was waiting for.

Knowing the difference in size, Alaric knew that if he were to drag the monster into the shadow directly, it would be totally impossible. But now... now that the monster was tired, this was a totally different situation.

The chains strengthened their grip on the monster as they began to drag it into the gate below. The monster tried to resist the dragging, but having expended most of its stamina, there was nothing it could do but look at the approaching death with its own eyes.

Slowly... slowly, the monstrous body moved toward the gate, and within the end of the minute, the gate closed.

Knowing how strong the instinct of higher-tier monsters is, Alaric knew that the sea serpent would not open its eyes in the shadow realm. It would eventually die from the shadow corrosion, but Alaric wanted to kill it with his own hands.

Entering the shadow, he chugged mana bottles and lifted his hand. The shadows around him moved according to his will.

The formless shapeless shadow moved as they began to get hardened. Within a few seconds, hundreds of pitch-black spears appeared as they arranged themself around the serpent.

Listening to the command the spears launched themselves toward the monster from all directions... all at once.

The monster tried to protect itself somehow, but it couldn’t even understand what was going on. Neither its physical senses nor its mana senses were working in this realm.

Shreeeekkkk!

The monster cried for the last time as multiple spears lodged themselves in its body. With so many spears attacking at the same time its scale didn’t stand a chance.

The spears continued to attack it until one of them hit the core...

[You have killed a tier IV monster: Abyssal Sea Serpent]

[You have earned EXP.]

[You have earned 55,000 CC.]

[You have leveled up.]

[....]

[....]

[....]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have reached the maximum level of your species. Do you want to evolve?]

[Yes/No]

Looking at the notification for a second Alaric shook his head and declined the offer for now.

Leaving the corpse there, Alaric moved out of the shadow realm and then the ocean altogether. Reaching the border of the island, he decided to evolve before doing anything else.

There were still monsters left in the ocean, but... evolving was the priority here.

Remembering how his master had told him to talk with Aurora before the evolution, Alaric accessed the mark and connected with her...

[I have reached the maximum level... any suggestions?]

[Hmm! Yes, I have some... come to master’s house...] Replying with these words, Aurora cut the connection.

Nodding his head Alaric dived in the shadows and appeared in the master’s house next second.