The location of the monster is on an island that has a big hill at the center.
In order to trade with the inhabitants from the other islands, they had to take a long route that may take several months of voyage.
The most direct route that will take less than a month is to directly cross the island.
Finally, our ship docked at the island in which the pack gathered around Lion and Bahar as they began to make plans.
Good thing that Lion placed the chair near the side of the ship as I can see the island better in my current location.
All I can see are sands and a big hill at the center. Numerous pointed reeds are on the sands. It looks empty.
Maybe the hill has a cave? I can't see the monster everywhere on the island.
That reminds me, which of the legendary monster are we facing now?
The Kraken and Charybdis are already destroyed so all that's left is the Leviathan, Ahuizotl, Karkinos and Midgardsormr.
Leviathan and Midgardsormr are found in the sea so I crossed them out of my list.
So it's only Ahuizotl and Karkinos left.
I heard Lion approaching and I glanced around to see him kneeling in front of my body.
He seemed like a knight kneeling in front of his lover.
He grasped my waist with both of his arms and looked towards my face, promising that he'll do everything just to have me back.
Then he stood up and leaned towards my face, held it with both of his hands and kissed me.
I want to cry.
Lion, I missed you so much.
It seems that spirits can also cry as I felt tears falling down on my cheeks.
....
Lion placed a magic spell around the ship as everyone went down on the island.
I watched them glancing around as there is no sign of the monster.
That's weird.
Where IS the monster?
Then I remembered that I read about Ahuizotl from a mythology book in which it mentioned that Ahuizotl was also known as the guardian of lakes.
But there's no lake here, which means there's only one name remai....
Oh no.
So the hill is THE monster's back?!!
The monster they are facing are no other than Karkinos!
As they went towards the hill, the ground began to shake with tremendous force in which the pointed reeds that I saw turned out to be the horns of several gigantic serpents with large fangs.
I forgot about Cerastes, a type of mythical serpent that buries itself in the sand with only its horns exposed as it uses them as lures to catch prey.
Now the pack are becoming the prey as they were surrounded by at least 30 something serpents, give or take.
Each of the pack would kill at least 5 serpents each.
Then to make it worse, the hill suddenly moved upwards, revealing the humongous body of Karkinos.
I think now would be a great time for them to transform themselves into their ultimate form.
Lion seemed to be thinking the same thing as he placed his katana back to its sheath.
He gave a signal then everyone transformed to their ultimate form, except for Bahar.
Instead, Bahar floated himself up high in the air as he closed his eyes and spread his arms wide as several lightning strikes hit some of the serpents.
But it didn't kill them.
He made them more aggressive instead.
That was a mistake. Or was it intentional?
I remembered reading about how the Cerastes monster is weak against fire and how the Karkinos is weak against explosive damage.
Now would be a really good time to use my rocket lightning launcher, replacing the lightning with fire.
But I'm dead so I can't do anything about it.
The pack seems to be a bit stronger as their ultimate forms have changed appearances.
Lion's ultimate form looks the same except that it's much bigger than how it was before.
Ghost's ultimate form has certainly improved as he looks more like a lich god because of his size. And it looks like there's some kind of magic fire on his hands that has the color green.
Wait, Ghost can now use magic?!!
Hmm. I think his magic is more combat type as he still can't use it in his regular form.
Meanwhile, Sly must have changed his mind about transforming into his ultimate form as he changed himself into his dragon form instead.
But his dragon form is no joke. It is much bigger than it was before and he has a tail now.
Very helpful in their situation now.
Orm's ultimate form surprised me as he looks similar to a basilisk in one of the fantasy movies that I watched but his ultimate form has arms with claws.
And Alpha? His Lycan form is much taller and bigger than before. His claws looked more sharper than before.
Good.
I think they will do well.
As for the menace, Bahar didn't transformed to his ultimate form. His sea serpent form is useless at this point.
Instead, a trident appeared by his side.
Now, why does it feel like I've seen his trident before?
....
It was a one-sided massacre.
In which I am proud of.
The battle didn't take long as they fought swiftly and ferociously.
They transformed back to their regular self in which they grinned each other as they panted.
I wanted to shower them with confetti.
I floated around my body in excitement when suddenly I saw Bahar looking at me with ravenous look in his eyes again.
Sigh.
Not again.
Lion flew towards my body and carried it in his arms, excitedly talking towards it about the battle.
Yes Lion, I saw everything and I think you are amazing in what you do.
I wished I could tell him that.
In my frustration, I started to cry in which Lion suddenly glanced around.
He heard me?
Slowly, he shake his head in disbelief as he nuzzled my face, speaking words of comfort, telling me that he will do whatever it takes for us to be together again.
He kissed my forehead then he whispered into my ear, telling me to wait for a little while.
Yes Lion, I'm waiting for you.
....
Lion carried my body towards the center of the island in which the shard is floating on top of a stone slab.
He didn't want to take me here but after everyone tried to go near it in which a force prevented them from approaching, he had no choice but to bring my body here.
I noticed that his hands were shaking as we are nearing the altar.
The rest of the pack are behind him while Bahar is watching from a distance.
He must have felt the force as he suddenly stopped walking.
Tears fell down on his cheeks as he held my body tightly towards his chest.
Bahar then approached him and took my body away from him in which the pack tried to prevent Lion from getting my body back.
The pack struggled to hold him and I noticed them crying also.
Bahar then placed the magic stone on top of my chest and made my body float towards the altar.
I followed my body in which it was slowly enveloped in a soft glow of light.
Then in a flash, everyone disappeared before my eyes.
I am still in the same place but it looks different as the place is covered with flowers, not sand.
The sea looks peaceful and to my surprise, I can somehow approach the sea without my body.
I saw my body lying on the slab in which I decided to look around the place.
This place is beautiful and the sea is peaceful.
Is this the afterlife?
I continued to approach the sea in which I saw my reflection.
My entire body is white, softly glowing like the moonlight. Only the color has changed as my face and body still looks the same.
Except for the fact that I'm not wearing any clothes. But it is understandable as I am on my spirit form.
I don't know how long I spent in this place but somehow, I took my time here as it is so peaceful that I'm tempted to stay here.
Then I heard the same voice before, calling my name.
I answered as I tried to look whoever is calling me.
I went back to my body and the voice called me again.
This time, I told the voice to tell me whatever it wanted me to know since it is getting a bit irritating.
The voice seems to laugh as it told me that somehow a bad energy seems to surround me as I can't hear the voice calling me all the time.
It asked me if I wanted to go back.
What a stupid question.
Of course, I wanted to go back. Or I might be the cause of everyone's deaths.
Except for Bahar in which I wanted to be the cause of his death.
Ha.
His list of transgressions against me seems to be getting longer.
Then the voice warned me that I should be careful around my surroundings. Also, that I might experience something terrible soon.
Like what?
What is it?!!
I tried to yell at the voice but somehow it didn't talk anymore.
Then in a flash, I'm back in the sands.
The shard fell on my chest as I saw everyone approaching my body.
I'm still a spirit though.
Sigh.
Bahar told everyone that they must hurry to go back to the Ariki in which they hurriedly went back to the ship.
As usual, my spirit was pulled near my body as Lion carried it while he flew towards our ship.
To my regret, I glanced back and saw Bahar looking at me while licking his lips.
He's hungry.