Present Day
East Antarctica
The lake was enveloping the young man, pulling him deeper and deeper into its maw.
Ascended Dell slowly opened his eyes, oblivious to his current situation.
Soft light pierced the cracks of the ice sheets on the surface, providing the only light from above.
He sank deeper.
The water beneath him stirred once more, and an eerie light of turquoise emerged from its depths, threatening to engulf him.
Dell, who was sinking on his back, slowly turned around to face the light.
Where am I?
His gaze reached the source of the emanating light.
The source of the light came from a Nightmare Creature.
It was some abomination between a hammerhead shark and sea snake, possessing the head of the former but the body of the latter.
Most notable though was that it was translucent, as if it was a… ghost.
The leviathan drew closer to Dell, its eerie gaze unnerving.
A translucent crown appeared hovering above Dell's head, a feature of his awakened ability. The centre gem on it glowing a dark blue.
What rank is this creature?
Dell urged forward.
His legs kicked off the water as if they were solid ground. He dashed side to side, gaining momentum toward the creature.
The creature opened its maw.
Time for a surprise.
Dell's gaze intensified. He had stolen many abilities over the years, but few were as dangerous as what he was about to unleash.
His dark blue gemstone rotated to the right of his crown. Now replaced with a soft turquoise gemstone having materialized and replaced its previous position.
Let's see how you handle your own power.
The creature's maw burned with turquoise light, and shot it at Dell.
A stream of flame shot towards Dell, but that wasn't the most worrying thing.
The stream was made of souls. Tormented souls that the leviathan had consumed.
The faces and bodies of both nightmare creatures and humans washed over him.
The beam lit up the entire lake, it passed the ice surface but did no damage to it, simply phasing past it and clearing into the high skies far above.
The whole world lit up turquoise.
The creature then closed its maw to witness its handiwork.
It swam forward to consume the body of the Ascended, only to find something wrong with it.
Its eyes were open. That was normal regarding deaths dealt with soul damage. The trauma of such a blast would be instant.
What triggered the Leviathan's instinct, was that those eyes still held a piercing vigour.
Soul damage, huh?
Dell opened his mouth.
And the same turquoise glow began to roar from it.
Now, having stolen half the leviathan's power, Dell returned his own soul blast right back.
The leviathan froze and took the beam head on. The soul beam was much smaller than the leviathan's and did not cause it any damage as it washed over it.
If anything it seemed confused.
But that was Dell's aim.
As he closed his mouth, his crown rotated left, returning the dark blue gem to the forefront of his crown again.
Dell's feint worked, and he began to swim towards the leviathan once more, veering to its right.
The leviathan had finally come to its senses.
Instead of confusion an aura of rage seemed to engulf it.
The turquoise luminescence of its body grew brighter.
It surged forward to meet Dell and roared, beaming another blast at him.
Dell used his step to dodge it. And dodge it again. And again.
The leviathan was pissed. Beaming souls at him wantonly. It would stop momentarily to readjust and let at Dell again.
Dell burned through his already heavily diminished essence, jumping side to side under and over the beams.
He was outmanoeuvring the beast's attacks but only for now. Soon his essence would run dry and he would be subject to the beast's will.
This time when Dell dodged he found himself right next to the enraged leviathan's body.
With its superior size and mobility Dell could have never hoped to have scaled the distance against it.
But with it in the throes of fury, it would be forced to remain almost stationary, buying Dell precious time.
How else but with wit could Dell keep up with a Fallen Titan.
His crown rotated once again. This time to his left, materializing a green gemstone.
Dell raised his hand and sunk it into the weak spot of the creature's gills.
The creature jerked, and Dell yanked his arm back out to see its light blue blood shoot out.
At the same time, Dell felt soul essence pouring into his soul core.
He had pissed it off now.
The creature whipped its tail at him, and Dell only dodged it within a hair's breadth, his crown switching back to the dark blue gem.
Its movements were much more violent now.
Where before it had been content with maintaining range, now it was actively chasing Dell.
A frightening combination of soul beam, tail whips and jaw bites all relentlessly pursued Dell as he once again began to burn through his essence manoeuvring around the creature.
Now that it was truly enraged, Dell found a little less trouble navigating to the Leviathan's eye on the far side of its hammerhead.
It too received the same treatment.
Pulling his hand out once again, Dell recouped his lost soul essence, grateful for his dormant ability.
This went on for some time, with the leviathan only falling into a more deranged fury with each and every minute.
Weak points in its scales, its underbelly, head and gills were all valid points of attack for Dell.
And with each successful attack, Dell recuperated the essence he burned jumping around it.
Eventually he realized that the creature was leaking blood all around it, its turquoise aura now tainted by a cloak of its blood.
The leviathan's movements were becoming more erratic, more desperate. Dell could sense its growing exhaustion mirroring his own calculated strikes.
Dell shot deeper and deeper into the lake.
The creature followed.
He shot directly in front of its maw, pushing to gain distance further and further.
When the gap reached an approximate 50m, Dell turned around and faced it.
The creature opened its maws.
So did he.
Both parties shot their soul beams at each other.
Whilst Dell's was small in scope, the Leviathan's was much larger, the entirety of the lake floor glowing a majestic turquoise.
But then a change occurred.
The leviathan's soul beam began to falter and the number of souls began to diminish rapidly.
The nightmare creature, in its mad fury, had run out of soul essence.
By the time the leviathan had already finished its beam, the last of its essence burned away,
Dell began to shoot toward its maw.
Now came the hard part.
He pushed harder and harder, aiming for the most speed as he could.
Now that the creature's essence had been spent and stolen it no longer had any ranged attacks to keep Dell at bay.
It would resort to biting or tail-whipping. And in this position he knew what would come first.
He was counting on it.
The leviathan opened its maw, looking to finish the human with its 5 lines of serrated teeth.
Just as he was about to meet its maw, Dell stepped against the water again, this time shooting straight into the creature's mouth.
The creature having mistimed its bite, chomped on nothing as Dell was already into the throat.
His crown turned to the green gem once more, and he began to dig.
His hand cut up the creature's soft insides, drowning himself in more blood and soul essence.
The creature desperately shook, in attempt to dissuade its attacker but failed.
It was out of essence and out of energy.
Its fury could only take it so far, and now it too was spent.
Dell made his way to its brain, hacking and slashing into soft tissue and giving the drowned leviathan a slow and painful death.