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Chapter 92 – Abyssal Jaws
🕑 Added 2024-10-28 21:10:15 +0000 UTCThe second Talia dove into the swamp, she understood why the Abyssal Jaws wanted to bring the battle there. The water was extremely muddy, and she could barely see an inch from her nose. She knew that Charisma was an ability that, among other things, also enhanced one's senses. Therefore, she suspected the monsters would have a great time hunting anyone who tried to reach them deep in the sandy layer of the swamp's waters. However, this wasn't something she worried about in the least.
She activated two Skills: [Eyes of the Abyss] to locate the closest silhouette and [Missile Swimming], the very first Skill she'd ever gained by killing the Abyssal Cuda right outside Solara's waters, propelling her forward. She swam quickly, gripping her glaive and smiling. The Skill allowed her to move with incredible speed and precision as she darted between submerged trees and mounds of sand. [Missile Swimming] formed a layer of Mana around her that allowed her to glide effortlessly in the waters.
However, as she closed in on the first Abyssal Jaw, she sensed movement by her side. She turned and saw a slender silhouette barreling towards her through [Eyes of the Abyss]. Talia raised her glaive in the waters and braced for impact. As soon as it was in range, she saw a tag.
[Mud Water Sprite - Level 25]
Talia frowned and slashed at the Mana construct. However, the Mud Water Sprite was extremely nimble and floated above her blade, trying to put a hole in her with its spiky limbs.
Talia simply retracted one hand from the glaive and punched the sprite. Too close for its good, the Mud Water Sprite had no way of avoiding the blow. Talia's hand went through the brightest concentration of Mana in the sprite's body, destroying it in an instant. She smiled to herself, satisfied with that outcome. Forty Attributes in Strength were nothing to sneeze at. Even though she couldn't perhaps swing her glaive as effectively underwater as she could above water, that didn't mean she was any less strong against a creature like a Mud Water Sprite.
She immediately resumed her hunt, knowing that the Abyssal Jaw would summon more of the annoying monsters to block her if given the opportunity. Seconds later, the waters cleared a little, and she saw a lurking shadow inside the roots of a giant tree. It was four times her size, with a long armored body and a massive jaw filled with razor teeth. So that's an Abyssal Jaw, Talia thought.
The monster noticed her and immediately barreled at full speed towards her. It wasn't as nimble as the sprite it had summoned to attack her, nor was it as stealthy, but it was faster. Talia didn't wait for the monster to arrive. She shot forward with [Missile Swimming], her glaive extended before her. She covered the glaive with a thick layer of Mana, crystallizing it immediately. She raised her eyes and saw the monster's tag.
[Abyssal Jaw - Level 25]
Talia's crystallized glaive met the Abyssal Jaw's open maw with a resounding crack. The monster's teeth shattered against the hardened Mana, but its momentum carried it forward. Talia twisted, barely avoiding the beast's armored body as it shot past.
She spun, using [Missile Swimming] to whip around and face the creature. The Abyssal Jaw thrashed, disoriented by the blow. Talia didn't hesitate. She surged forward, aiming for its softer underbelly.
The monster sensed her approach and rolled, its powerful tail lashing out. Talia deflected it with her glaive but was pushed back by the force. She gritted her teeth, tasting blood – she'd bitten her cheek on impact.
Two more Mud Water Sprites materialized, darting towards her. Talia cursed internally. She needed to end this quickly before being overwhelmed. She punched the two monsters out of existence as soon as they came, but not before one of them managed to open a wound on her shoulder.
Then, the Abyssal Jaw lunged again, jaws agape. This time, Talia was ready. She braced her glaive against the murky bottom and angled it upward. The monster impaled itself on the crystallized weapon, its own momentum driving the blade deep.
But it wasn't finished. The Abyssal Jaw thrashed violently, nearly wrenching the glaive from Talia's grip. She held on, mostly thanks to the newly gained Strength, feeling her arms strain against the creature's raw power.
I could have never faced a monster this big without my Strength points, Talia thought.
She understood why Professor Iakopo had reprimanded her for being so careless with Attributes, but, as her Skills finally started taking effect, she prepared for the last blow.
[Auxiliary Skill #4: Bloodbath Lv. 11]
[Auxiliary Skill #5: Bloody Tracks Lv. 11]
[Auxiliary Skill #6: Blood Fortress Lv. 11]
The three Skills hadn’t somehow worked while Talia had used the Dark Water against the Mutated Torpedo Snappers and the Abyssal Torpedo Drake Boss.
Professor Iakopo had said that the most likely explanation was that Dark Water required her Blood Water channeled into it to work. That meant that her Blood magic was all being consumed to fuel Dark Water, essentially rendering her Skills, even the passive ones like [Bloodbath], [Bloody Tracks], and [Blood Fortress] useless on the spot.
However, whenever she wasn’t using Dark Water, which she wanted to avoid as much as possible since it destroyed the vitality of the monsters she hit with it, meaning she couldn’t absorb it through [Blood Siphon] and [Ravenous Wounds], she got stronger, faster, and sturdier for each piece of damage she delivered onto her enemies.
Therefore, as the Abyssal Jaw attacked again, Talia went for a strategy that none other than the madman of her new mentor had suggested.
Talia changed the grip on the Star Glaive, holding it upside down as the Abyssal Jaw charged.
She let the monster bite down on her outstretched arm, feeling its teeth immediately tearing through her flesh. However, as soon as that happened, she almost emptied her lungs of air by laughing underwater.
Professor Iakopo had suggested she focuses on trading as much damage as possible since he had assured her that her reserve of vitality meant she would be able to regenerate any non-mortal wound.
So, she plunged the glaive with the new Strength right through the dumb monster’s head, killing it on the spot. More importantly, she grabbed it by the jaw’s teeth and, still underwater, used [Blood Siphon].
[You have slain Abyssal Jaw Level 25!]
She hadn’t gotten any notification since the sprites were just Mana constructs, but she was pleased by the notification of the Abyssal Jaw’s death. But not as pleased as when she heard the notification from [Blood Siphon], draining the remaining vitality inside the monster’s body.
[You have absorbed Lv. 25 Abyssal Jaw Life Force.]
[+3 to your Primary Mana Channel (47/200 to Level Five)]
[+3 to your Charisma (1/1 to 1 Charisma)]
[(2/2 to 1 Charisma)]
[You have gained 2 Charisma]
[Missile Swimming reaches Level 9!]
[Bloodbath reaches Level 12!]
[Bloody Tracks reaches Level 12!]
[Blood Fortress reaches Level 12!]
Talia felt the energy from [Blood Siphon] restoring her Stamina and, most importantly, knitting back the flash of her arm as if the monster had never bitten on it.
Plus, she felt her three support Skills empower her as she reemerged to the surface to Keanu’s evident relief.
“Done?” He shouted from his Mana Board.
“One down!” Talia nodded, spitting some of the muddy water out of her mouth.
Talia had gotten completely past her hesitation in using [Blood Siphon] after the events of Placid City.
Before, she had been afraid of using the Skill, of literally sucking out vitality out of monsters as if she had been the Kraken itself. However, as time passed, she now felt her Skill was an essential part of her toolset, an essential part of her.
When she looked back on how she used to behave about her Class when she had just gotten it almost a year ago, she cringed.
She had been obsessed with others seeing her as a monster, going so far as to deny her greatest strength, [Blood Siphon], and be afraid of using it as the cornerstone of her fighting style.
However, when she had fully explained to Professor Iakopo how the Skill worked, the man had almost slapped her.
He had told her she had been nothing short of a fool.
Her Skill would make her a powerhouse like no one had seen in the Great Archipelago of Nā Moku Kai.
One benefit of [Blood Siphon] she had discovered thanks to Professor Iakopo’s relentless will to study and experiment was that she could use the vitality she absorbed to keep breathing underwater.
After killing the Abyssal Jaw, she could have easily kept underwater, but she had to tell Keanu that she had eliminated the first threat. If she had wanted to, however, she could have stayed down for another good ten minutes, give or take. She had conducted several experiments with her training with Professor Iakopo after the graduation and she had gotten a rough sense of how much she could fight underwater after using the Skill.
Several Water Riders had Skills that allowed them to fight underwater, but they were ultimately humans, meaning they could only fight for so long and so well under the surface of the Deep before having to reemerge.
Talia?
She could perhaps break new grounds in underwater battles against Abyssal Creatures.
Professor Iakopo had said that if he had the Skill for himself, he’d probably spend entire months underwater just to fight Abyssal Creatures non-stop and accrue power.
That had made Talia’s stomach lurch.
She really didn’t enjoy the idea of spending months alone in near-complete darkness while fighting scary creatures in their natural habitat.
She loved fighting and adventuring, sure, but she wasn’t as crazily obsessed as her mentor.
“We go for more of them?” Keanu asked.
“Of course,” Talia nodded, still swimming and not climbing atop a Mana Board since she’d have to dive again.
“There’s two close to each other in that direction,” she nodded with her head toward East. “Get on solid ground and wait there. I’ll use [Ravenous Wounds] this time and as soon as you see me get out of the waters, restrain me. Don’t wait for me to say anything, don’t hesitate.”
“I know,” Keanu sighed. “Let’s go.”
Then, however, Talia heard a notification in her head.
“Wait,” she said, focusing on it.
[Your Skills are resonating.]
[Your Skills are about to undergo a Fusion Evolution.]
Comments
TheMartinalfa
Damn i hoped to see her last skill from talent tree :x
