The sky, which only moments earlier had bathed the clearing in a soothing light, had now turned into an oppressive canopy of dark gray.
The once beautiful, crystal-clear lake was gone. In its place, a massive watery chasm continued to fill, swallowing everything beneath its ever-rising level. All across the surface, uprooted tree trunks drifted like abandoned wreckage in this makeshift ocean.
Perched on one of these floating trunks, Logan and Aria stood face to face with their colossal foe.
The Sea Serpent dominated the waters, its massive body undulating with a terrifying grace. Its immense size dwarfed all sense of scale. Its black-and-red eyes pierced through the pounding rain, glowing in the darkness like two menacing beacons.
The only sound that echoed was the relentless patter of rain striking the water's surface and streaming down their drenched bodies. Aria's and Logan's hair clung to their faces, their soaked clothes weighed down by the icy water.
Then, suddenly, the silence shattered.
A powerful, almost otherworldly roar thundered through this hellscape. The serpent opened its massive jaws wide, revealing multiple rows of razor-sharp teeth. With a brutal lunge, it propelled itself straight toward them, creating colossal waves that splashed violently in every direction.
"Aria, let's go!" shouted Logan.
Aria crossed her arms before her, and with a shrill screech, ice claws burst forth, coating her hands in a thick, gleaming layer of frozen blades. Even at her feet, the sudden frost spread, cracking through the tree trunk beneath her, splintering it in places from the sheer cold.
Then, perfectly synchronized, they both launched themselves at full speed toward the beast.
Aria created a frozen path under her feet, literally running across the water, each stride instantly freezing the surface beneath her. Her feline agility allowed her to dodge the chaotic surges created by the monster's movements.
Logan leapt from trunk to trunk with increasing speed, his vector control propelling his body like an arrow, multiplying his velocity with each impulse.
In seconds, they had closed the distance, streaking forward like twin arrows aimed at their prey.
The serpent's massive maw opened abruptly and, with a feral roar, it unleashed a barrage of massive water spheres at blistering speed.
Aria and Logan, sprinting at full tilt, deployed all their agility to evade the deadly projectiles.
Each sphere, heavy and dense, smashed into the water's surface, creating devastating aquatic explosions that sent towering columns of water surging upward.
Aria bounded deftly across her frozen platforms, generating new patches of ice beneath each step as she navigated between every impact. The area resounded with deafening crashes as the water exploded around her.
Logan, meanwhile, bounded with surgical precision from one floating trunk to another, adjusting his trajectory with millisecond-perfect vector corrections, each jump narrowly evading the detonations around him.
At last, they reached striking distance. In a brutal sweep, the serpent halted its barrage and swung its gargantuan tail toward them.
Logan jumped at just the right moment, evading the scaly mass as it smashed violently into the water's surface. While airborne, he struck the creature's tail with all his might.
But his blow, though powerful, bounced harmlessly without leaving a mark.
"Damn it!" he cursed as he landed.
Aria, however, hadn't wasted a second.
Taking advantage of the tail's movement, she plunged her ice claws deep into the monster's thick scales. The freezing cold instantly spread through its flesh, weakening its protective layers.
With methodical violence, she shredded the flesh in a flurry of rapid, precise strikes. Long gashes spilled dark crimson blood, stark against the pale blue-white glow of her claws.
The serpent howled in pain, thrashing its tail frantically to shake her off. But Aria clung on, continuing her bloody work, her claws tearing through meters of its flesh.
"Good, Aria!" Logan exclaimed, seeing the first real wound inflicted on the beast.
Without wasting another second, he seized two of the broken tree trunks he had just shattered barehanded.
Logan gritted his teeth.
"No time to play it safe. Time to go all in."
Focusing his calculation ability to its maximum, he amplified the motion vectors of the two makeshift projectiles and hurled them at blinding speed.
The chunks of wood turned into literal shells, cutting through the air with an ear-splitting whistle.
The serpent, focused entirely on Aria clawing through its flesh, never saw Logan's attack coming.
The two super-accelerated projectiles slammed into its flank. The first impact tore up a patch of scales, while the second struck with a booming explosion. Two deep craters formed in the monster's body, blood pouring heavily down its sides.
But its scales, thick and resilient, still prevented full penetration.
"It didn't pierce through…!" Logan growled in frustration, seeing he still hadn't broken its defense.
Blinded by pain, the serpent abruptly shifted its focus toward Logan. Aria was momentarily ignored, still clinging to its tail.
The colossus opened its maw once more. But this time, the water sphere forming in its throat vibrated unnaturally, unstable, overcharged.
A beam of water then shot out at unimaginable speed, distorting the air and the water's surface alike.
"Logan!" Aria screamed as she saw the shot racing straight for him.
"Shit!"
Logan used his vectors to push his speed to the absolute limit to evade.
In a desperate move, he barely avoided the center of the blast. But the explosion from the impact still partially caught him, launching him dozens of meters before he crashed hard into a floating trunk.
The shock left Logan struggling to regain his senses. Water streamed across his face, his clothes torn, his breath ragged.
As he forced himself up, his blurry vision was met with another unstable water sphere screaming straight toward him.
This time, there was no escape. The projectile hit him head-on.
The explosion was titanic. A massive geyser erupted skyward, shaking the entire area.
An alert flared violently:
Logan was hurled meters back by the impact, his body crashing violently against the water's surface before slamming heavily into the rocky crater wall. The muffled sound of the impact echoed through his entire body.
His vision flickered; his breath nearly stopped. His body trembled—no mana, no calculations, no vectors left.
He floated now on the water's surface, battered, bleeding, his pale face washed by rain and blood mingling together.
Faint, wavering flashes of awareness reached him through the overwhelming pain.
And then, from the depths of his torpor, buried memories resurfaced. Voices from the past.
"How could you do this to me, Shawn? I thought we were friends!" Logan's voice echoed in his mind.
Shawn's scornful voice answered, cold and merciless:
"Me? Friends with you? Don't make me laugh."
"But we've known each other since we were kids!"
"So what? Just because you hang around someone doesn't make you friends."
"We ate, played, slept together. We were like brothers!"
"Maybe to you. To me, you were just dead weight."
"Fine, but did I deserve this? Everything happened because of your family! Otherwise, we wouldn't have lived like that!"
"Are you trying to make me cry?"
"Cry? My sister died because of you, because of your family!"
"Ha! I think that bitch's death was the best thing that ever happened."
"You filthy piece of shit!"
BOOM!
In reality, the Sea Serpent advanced inexorably toward Logan, its immense body undulating through the water, creating massive swells. Its yellow eyes locked onto its unconscious prey.
Floating, Logan was utterly at its mercy.
But Aria would never allow it.
Seeing the imminent danger, she doubled her ferocity. Her claws ripped again and again into the monster's thick flesh, splattering blood across her fur. Yet despite her efforts, the serpent pressed on, determined to crush its defenseless victim.
A visceral, bestial rage ignited within her. She would not let him die.
Her muscles tensed; her fur bristled violently as freezing vapors began to gather around her. Her teeth lengthened; her pupils narrowed into razor-like slits.
The air around her turned so cold that even raindrops crystallized before touching the surface.
"You think I'll let you hurt him?!" she roared, her voice guttural. "Never!"
Aria unleashed every ounce of power within her. Her mana flared violently, saturating the air with frost and rime.
An explosion of glacial energy erupted outward, instantly freezing the water across dozens of meters around her, creating a massive ice block that engulfed and trapped the serpent's massive body.
The monster's scales cracked under the sudden extreme cold, some splintering under the brutal thermal shock. It was momentarily immobilized, its movements paralyzed.
Without hesitation, Aria seized the brief respite and rushed to Logan.
He was still floating semi-conscious, his face bloodied, crimson dripping from his head and arms.
She grabbed him carefully, hauling him out of the water and placing him onto the ice platform she had just created.
"Logan! Wake up, please! Logan!"
Her voice trembled. Her bloodied hands tapped his face gently, desperate for a reaction.
But behind them, the ice block was already beginning to crack, sinister fractures echoing as the serpent thrashed to free itself.
"Logan! Wake up! I can't do this without you!"
Finally, her cries pierced the darkness shrouding Logan's mind.
His eyes fluttered open painfully; his vision was still blurred. He felt sharp pain in his ribs and arms, the metallic taste of blood in his mouth.
Aria's soaked, worried face appeared above him.
"Aria…"
She quickly rummaged through their item bag and pulled out several potions, applying them frantically to his wounds.
The healing liquid ran over his torn arms and bloodied head. Slowly, the wounds began to close.
Then, with a deafening crack, an explosion erupted behind them. The serpent had shattered the ice that held it.
Logan, barely back on his feet, took in the scene briefly.
"Sorry… you had to waste so much of your mana because of me…" he rasped, still breathless.
Aria shook her head fiercely.
"It doesn't matter! As long as you're okay!"
A faint, tired smile tugged at Logan's lips.
"Thank you…"
He barely finished the words before a new attack came.
The serpent opened its jaws and released an immense pressurized water jet a terrifying column of liquid that ripped across the surface. Logan and Aria scrambled to move, the beam chasing them and carving a destructive trench, forcing them to leap and dodge over drifting debris.
At the same time, the monster activated another skill.
Aria, trapped by the massive wave, desperately tried to freeze it. The first ice layer formed instantly under her will, but as soon as she crystallized the surface, another even bigger wave surged and obliterated the frozen barrier.
The wall of water slammed into her brutally, sweeping her back several meters.
Meanwhile, Logan kept frantically leaping across the remaining trunks. But the pressurized jet pursued him relentlessly, pulverizing everything in its path. Each log he used as footing was shattered, shrinking his escape route with each second.
In the chaos, Logan coldly analyzed the situation:
"I'm limited. Right now, I can't use water offensively. I can't stop the monster's liquid attacks either. And soon… there won't be any trunks left to move on."
He cast a quick glance at Aria, still being tossed about by the waves.
"Aria's already spent far too much mana because of me. Her Beast Fury won't last much longer. And when she collapses… I won't be able to protect her."
His thoughts raced.
"Escape isn't even an option. From the very start, I understood: this monster perfectly prepared its trap. It reshaped the terrain, cutting off all escape. It won't let us leave…"
His jaw clenched.
"There's only one option left. I have to try it."
Aria, meanwhile, regained her footing despite the onslaught of waves. Multiple ice spikes shot from her arms, impaling the serpent in several places, tearing its flanks and gouging bloody gashes.
But the monster endured. It always endured.
Logan, still moving, seized every opening to hurl more shattered log debris, compressing his vectors each time to try and weaken the beast.
Scales chipped away. Several impacts made the serpent roar. But despite the mounting injuries, the creature refused to fall.
The battle raged on in a frenzied dance of crossed attacks for several more minutes.
Finally, the serpent briefly ceased its pressurized jet, pulling back to readjust.
This pause allowed Logan to reach Aria, exhausted and panting on an unstable ice islet.
He crouched in front of her, reading the fatigue on her face.
"How much time do you have left?"
Aria tried to steady her breathing, sweat and rain streaming down her temples.
"I'd say… at most five minutes. No more."
"Then it's now or never! Aria, run for the wall!" Logan yelled.
Without a second's hesitation, despite her crushing fatigue, Aria sprinted as fast as her worn-out legs could carry her, Logan right behind. The Sea Serpent, seeing its prey attempt to flee, dove immediately in pursuit, undulating with terrifying speed.
They finally reached the sheer wall of the massive flooded crater. The serpent's shadow loomed massive behind them, closing in at breakneck speed.
Logan immediately placed his hand on the rock.
Instantly, massive stone spikes erupted from the wall, lancing straight toward the serpent. The monster, agile despite its size, dodged the first salvo with sinuous movements. But that was exactly what Logan anticipated.
"It's not the first strike that matters."
The spikes suddenly extended further, stretching like flexible lances under compressed vectors, before whipping back at full speed.
With a monstrous whistle, the projectiles struck with surgical precision, piercing the two cavities already weakened by Logan's earlier blows.
A spray of thick blood splattered across the turbulent waters.
"It would only work once… but it's done. Now it'll hesitate to approach me or the walls," Logan thought.
The serpent roared violently, wracked by uncontrollable spasms, its muscles trembling with pain.
But Logan immediately sensed the danger.
"Aria, dodge!"
A shrill whistle split the air. The serpent's gaping maw unleashed a devastating water ray of unimaginable destructive power.
The energy column obliterated everything in its path, piercing the rock for dozens of meters and leaving behind a smoking tunnel as water immediately flooded into it, forming a terrifying vortex.
As soon as the shot ended, the serpent dove beneath the surface, vanishing into the dark depths.
Clinging to the wall, Logan instantly activated his magical radar, every sense on high alert, scanning the water's surface.
"Aria!"
The beast erupted again from the water in an apocalyptic crash, jaws wide. Aria, with inhuman reflexes, leapt aside just in time to avoid the snapping fangs that clamped shut inches from her. Then the monster plunged back down, disappearing once again.
Logan gritted his teeth.
"It's completely changing tactics. Now it's using the depths to launch lightning-fast ambushes and avoid further injury."
His gaze turned to Aria, panting, her mana flickering.
"My radar only picks it up at the last second. And Aria's Beast Fury is about to burn out. Three minutes… no more."
"Aria, come to me!" he shouted suddenly.
She obeyed without hesitation, panting, breath ragged but determined. She joined Logan, who stood waiting, feet planted on a broad stone platform he had raised from the wall.
The plan was simple. Desperate. But there was no other choice left.
"I'm going to launch you… and you're going to kill that bastard," Logan declared, his eyes burning with resolve.
"Okay!" Aria replied firmly, despite the exhaustion etched on her face.
Aria's ice element dealt the most damage, her cutting claws and chilling frost weakening the beast's scales. They had no margin for error.
Seconds ticked by in a deathly silence.
Finally, the water churned faintly below the surface the serpent prepping its next strike.
Then Logan's radar lit up, but it wasn't yet the serpent breaching.
Logan seized Aria in his arms and leapt instantly into the air using his vectors.
Barely had they left their platform when another colossal beam erupted from the waters, splitting the air with an aquatic roar and obliterating the stone slab beneath their feet. The explosion's shockwave blasted them higher, spinning them wildly in midair.
BOOM!
Then the serpent, believing its prey vulnerable, erupted from the water with feral savagery, maw gaping, ready to devour them mid-leap.
But this was exactly what Logan was waiting for.
He gripped Aria tightly by the arms and, using everything he had left, spun her at a vertiginous speed.
The air around them became razor-sharp. Aria's ice claws intertwined under the centrifugal force, forming a spinning lance of lethal frost.
"Go, Aria!"
With a final primal roar, he hurled her at blinding speed straight into the monster's gaping jaws.
Time itself seemed to freeze for an instant—then the impact came.
CHHHHAAAAAAKKK!!!
The living lance Aria had become literally pierced through the serpent's skull, bursting out the other side in a geyser of black, viscous blood.
The monster's massive body convulsed before collapsing heavily. Its immense bulk crashed into the water with a monstrous splash, sending a colossal wave surging across the basin.
Moments later, Logan reached Aria, now standing weakly atop a small ice platform she'd barely managed to summon.
She was covered in blood. Her ice claws disintegrated like glass under the toll of exhaustion. Her Beast Fury flickered out, her fur and teeth returning to normal.
She trembled slightly, but a faint, relieved smile spread across her face.
"We… we got it…" she murmured.
But just as they barely began to catch their breath, a loud crash resounded.
Their heads snapped around sharply.
Logan, stunned, swore:
"Tell me this is a fucking joke…"
The right side of the serpent's skull was literally perforated. A gaping hole spilled thick, dark blood in streams into the murky water. Yet it still stood. Its muscles convulsed, its breathing ragged… but its predator's resolve remained unbroken.
It refused to die!
The monster opened its maw wide in one final, furious roar.
At the center of its gaping jaws, another unstable water sphere formed, trembling and overloaded with energy, far more violent than all the previous ones.
Logan barely had time to react. With a desperate reflex, he grabbed Aria and leapt aside, propelling them both with his vectors.
The sphere was launched with uncontrollable violence.
BOOM!
The explosion was cataclysmic. The shockwave hit them violently even midair, slamming them at full speed into the rocky wall.
The impact was brutal; Aria cried out in pain as she struck. Her breath came short; several ribs were broken.
A thick stream of blood ran down her temple, staining her already bloodied and soaked white fur.
Logan fared no better. His right arm was completely shattered.
Every breath made him ache, several ribs also broken. His tattered clothes clung to his torn, drenched skin.
But in front of them, the serpent still refused to die.
Still jaws agape, its convulsing body charged its Water Blaster again, ready to deliver one final shot to finish them off.
Battered, breathless, on the verge of collapse… Logan lifted his gaze to Aria.
"Aria… our story has barely begun… and it can't end like this."
He held out his one good arm, trembling but firm:
"So please… get up with me. Together… let's kill this son of a bitch once and for all!"
Breath ragged, Aria raised her eyes to his. Her wavering pupils locked with his gaze.
Then she grasped his hand firmly.
They rose together, staggering, their bodies broken by the battle, but their wills fused.
Hand in hand.
"Because it's when we're at the edge of the abyss… that we have to show who we really are," Logan murmured with a grin full of rage.
They charged. Their last strength. Their last reserves.
The serpent unleashed its beam. A monstrous column of water ripped through the air with an infernal roar.
At full speed, Logan micro-corrected their trajectory with perfectly calculated vectors, skimming them just above the deadly ray.
Then, at the climax of this epic battle, Logan propelled Aria one final time.
With an ultimate war cry, Aria once again materialized her ice claws despite the searing pain wracking her broken body.
Her trajectory was precise. Her claws pierced with supernatural violence into one of the serpent's eyes, making it shriek in agony.
Logan, in the same motion, drew Aria's sword he'd kept and, using one final impulse, crossed the remaining space at impossible speed.
The blade sank with precision into the serpent's other eye, piercing clean through before emerging on the other side, his body cutting through the air.
The massive creature convulsed one final time before collapsing heavily into the crater waters.
The sea serpent, master of these lands, had finally been slain.
< Title Acquired! >
< Acquisition complete! Your profession has been defined! >
Gladiator:
Throughout your life, fate has struck you relentlessly, throwing you into the heart of the worst ordeals. You have known pain, loss, and trials capable of breaking even the strongest. But every fall, every scar, every tear shed has shaped what you have become. You stood back up. Again. Again. Until nothing could bend you anymore. Now, you are a raw and unyielding fighter. Forged in blood and suffering, carried by an indomitable will. Your enemies falter under your relentless onslaught. Where others hesitate, you strike. Where others fall, you march forward, breaking your chains.
You are a Gladiator.
Name: Aria | Race: Beastkin | Age: 18 | Profession: Gladiator | Level: 65
Vitality: 210 | Magic Power: 165 | Attack: 160 | Defense: 132 | Speed: 170 | Endurance: 150 | Agility: 185 | Intelligence: 162 | Physical Strength: 170 | Willpower: 275
Skills: Ice Wall, Water Bullet, Ice Spike, Water Blade, Ice Blade
Unique Skills: Will to Grow, Will to Survive, Ice Claws, Ice Explosion
Legendary Skills: Bestial Fury
Elements: Ice, Water
Acquired Titles:
Frost HuntressAt the Edge of the Abyss
Name: Logan | Race: Human | Age: 18 | Profession: Avenger – ??? | Level: 95
Vitality: 476 | Magic Power: 270 | Attack: 231 | Defense: 210 | Speed: 205 | Endurance: 245 | Agility: 217 | Intelligence: 330 | Physical Strength: 249 | Willpower: 400 | Calculation: 370
Skills: Analysis, Concealment, High Fashion
Unique Skills: (None)
Legendary Skills: (None)
Exclusive Skills: Vector Control, Ultra-Fast Learning, Encyclopedia
Elements: (None)
Acquired Titles:
Goblin ExterminatorMercilessClay Pigeon ShooterInsatiableFriend of BeastsChief of the Garonne BearsButcherAt the Edge of the Abyss
< Title Acquired: At the Edge of the Abyss >
You fought when everything seemed lost. Crushed by adversity, broken by blows, swallowed by despair, yet you still stood tall. Even face-to-face with the abyss where most would give up your will continued to burn.
Death did not claim you. You stared it in the eyes and defied it. For it is when one falters on the brink of the void that one reveals their true strength.
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Thanks to Cadméa for her subscription to level 4.
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This chapter has been very long and difficult to translate, there must be some mistakes, do not hesitate to report them.