Chapter 97

Lykan

Battle of the Deep

Strong tentacles grabbed onto Lykan, grabbing his body, and pulling him forward at amazing speeds. He could feel the pull and tug of Qi infused strength. He thought about grabbing his pocketknife from its sheath but realized such a small trinket would be nearly useless against such a large and imposing beast. In fact, other than minor tasks the knife was almost laughably inconsequential.

The tentacle grabbed, pulled, and twisted, causing Lykan to get disoriented from his plight. Then with a surge of understanding of who he was and where he was, he began spinning his cores in a vortex pattern. The idea was that while he might not be able to fly, he could at least offer some token resistance.

It took four full rotations before his body and cores settled into a familiar pattern, one that instantly caused his flailing body to stop with a jerk and then begin to rise upwards. Or at least away from the massive Qi infused beast that was now visible to Lykan’s Qi Senses. He could feel the power and strength of the being. Realizing that such a beast was outside of his comfort zone, especially as he would have to fight the beast in an untested environment Lykan tried to get away.

Thinking quickly, he infused Qi into his free-floating right foot and kicked hard at the tentacle. He half expected nothing to happen, his movements were muted from being underwater. But there was a spark, as a portion of Qi left his body and went directly into the beast’s tentacle.

“SHRIEEEKK!”

A deafening high-pitched screech left the beast’s giant maw. The tentacle released its hold on Lykan’s foot, then a cloud of black Qi infused ink shot out into the surrounding area. The ink induced smoke screen was playing havoc on Lykan’s senses.

He had read about such attacks, how squids would use such attacks to avoid predators or hostile situations. While he was not certain that he warranted such a defensive response, he accepted the short reprieve. Rather than chasing the beast through the ink cloud, Lykan raced upwards.

His body rose higher. There was a slight resistance as his body forced its way through the surface of the water, then he shot up like a firework into the sky.

“HUUGHGHHH!” Lykan breathed in deeply as his lungs fought for air. While it hadn’t been that long, the entire event taking a few seconds, it had still caught him while he was unprepared. He rose to where he was easily three meters over the surface of the water.

Panting, he watched the water below him. Circling around to see if there were any more monsters that wished to attack him. Unfortunately, everything looked to be calm and serene. From this vantage point there were no signs of giant squids with exceptionally long tentacles roaming about.

If he strained, he thought he could see the dark Qi infused area where the squid had run away.

After a few moments Lykan managed to calm his ever-racing heart. Then he looked down at his leg to see what damage if any had still not been healed from his Regeneration skill. To his surprise, he saw the tentacle. Or at least part of it still wrapped about his left ankle. He looked on to see that the sharp barbs of the tentacle were stuck deep within his skin. Then the tentacle wrapped around his ankle one time before going a few inches below his foot where it just stopped in an abrupt char filled stump.

He looked at the stump for a second, a note of confusion filled his mind before he realized the stump was severed from his kick. Honestly, he didn’t think such a thing was possible. Now all he wanted to do was break free. He hadn’t even expected that the kick would be able to do much. Yet looking at the wound, it was clear that his Qi infused strike was powerful. He remembered parts of his reserves of Qi going down from the strike but didn’t realize that the Qi could be used to make such a strike.

In a way the exchange made sense, he had known that similar exchanges were the case for mana for different effects from spells. Yet, he had never used Qi in that way. He made a note that he would have to try out more things he could do with Qi. He wanted to go back to the safe confines of the koi pond, but a quick look around showed him that he was now in a massive tropical area. At least the ambient heat of the area was higher here than it had been at the koi pond room. It almost felt like there was an underground heat vent nearby to allow for such ambient temperatures to be so high.

Also, this room had more Qi arrays on the surface of the roof. One seemed to attract Qi in to be used as a makeshift light source. While others seemed to create the same Qi flakes, he noted in the koi pond room. But these Qi flakes were much larger.

Idly he wondered what the Qi flakes tasted like to his Qi senses. He made his way over to one, when he heard a bird cry angrily.

“CAWW-REECCHH!” Hearing the giant creature, Lykan realized he was once again in an alien territory with unknown predators around. He looked to see a flock of large birds heading his way. Not wanting to get caught up in another conflict, he quickly dove away. He could try to go back to the room he had just come from, but there were multiple open rooms nearby, some with their openings above the surface of the water. Mentally he knew the direction he had just come from, but that was going to be tougher to get through due to the entire entrance being underwater.

Finally, he decided to try to go to the land that was in the middle of the lake, like a makeshift island. There was sand, trees, and creatures that were easily visible moving about on the island even from here. But his mind felt more comfortable fighting on the land, or at least over land than water. He still imagined large tentacles jumping up for him out of the water. That thought alone made him want to seek shelter on the land.

While his going to land didn’t make the threat from the birds any less real. He just felt more confident with land beneath him, than the water. He made his way to the land, circling out and wide around the flock. As he moved, he was surprised to see that he was faster. His speed and graceful movements gaining him valuable distance as he moved around.

It took Lykan a second to realize that his maxed out aerial movement and aerial combat skills would likely give him a key advantage in a fight with these large birds.

With that in mind he spun around and did a long circle. Trying to see if any of the birds would break away from the pack. Seeing his movements and twists that pack soon spread out, trying to encircle him. This was perfect, as Lykan felt he could take on one or maybe two of the beasts at a time, but not all seven.

There was also a clear leader. Lykan knew that if he wanted to get all the birds at one time, he had to leave the leader for last. He didn’t know why, just some base instinct that told him the flock would break apart and regroup should he go after the leader first.

Idly he thought about taking out the leader just to get a moment of rest, but soon thought against that. Better to get rid of this entire flock in one go than to deal with them time and time again.

So Lykan dashed out, to the far-left wing of the encircling formation.

QI was infusing Lykan’s fist before he made contact. Then there was a slight resistance at first, before his stone first met soft flexible skin and bones. Bones that had been hollowed out to make flight much easier for such a large frame.

Squish. Slurp.

His hand made sickening sounds as it easily punched into and through the hide of the unsuspecting beast. The claws and beak of the beast were the only parts that Lykan had to worry about, but fortunately the beast was stunned by the sudden attack. Seemingly blindsided by his speed and the fact he would target the weakest link versus the leader.

As his hand entered the body of the strange beast, he felt the flow of Qi beginning to tingle his senses almost immediately. Following the flow, he felt something solid like a rock grace his hand. Then with a quick reflex he grabbed the rock instantly feeling it for the Qi stone it was. Then as quickly as his fist had entered, he yanked his hand free to reveal a glowing core in his hand.

With the sudden strike and stolen core in his hand the bird that had been so hostile a second ago collapsed from shock. Lykan watched as it dropped down below. They were still out in the water, as he had not made it to land yet.

The giant bird began falling. Its feathers and wings spinning end over end in a death spiral all the way down. Then the beast landed with a deep splash.

Lykan would have watched this, but he was already moving and weaving. With deft movements he began flying directly towards the next nearest bird, while his hand placed the glowing core away in his pocket.

“CA-CAW!” The birds cried out in anger at the sight of their falling comrade. The nearest one was too distracted, watching the death spiral of its fellow flock member to notice the danger that was Lykan. This was perfect as Lykan used this moment to infuse Qi once again into his hand, then knife hand jabs the bird.

Slurp.

A wet slurping sound was all that could be heard as his hand easily entered the bird’s body. Then just like before his hand moved until it felt a floating core stone of the beast. He reached out grabbed one, and then removed his gore covered hand. The movement out causing more blood and bone to break as a bigger hole had to be made on the removal of the hand, than the entry.

He turned, then realizing too many of the birds were getting close he swung around wide. Drawing the birds out once more, the faster ones trying to race to catch him. He struck wildly at any beast that drew near. These were weak beasts, though they had grown complacent from never having to deal with another competitor of the skies. They had become the apex predators who had nothing to push them to newer and greater heights.

Now Lykan came and within a few moments asserted dominance over the situation. Even the leader of the group proved no use against his strength and speed. While the leader had managed to land in a few scratches to Lykan’s chest and face, they were minor inconveniences. Also given that Lykan took the glancing blows to deliver a true death blow to the leader he gladly accepted such a tradeoff. This was a tactic that he had implemented against the chamelovores and had won. Though he had to admit his attempts against the chamelovores was a lot closer than he would have liked.

“Phew.” Lykan said, trying to wipe his forehead, only to realize he covered his forehead with blood and viscera of the multiple birds he had killed. In his hand sat the largest of the stones, one that was much larger and more powerful than the ones he had seen in all his training. He wondered what the level of the heart would be. He thought about consuming the core right then and there, but then decided against such an action.

He needed to rest. He had been through a lot and wanted a moment to collect himself and his thoughts.

Part of him wanted to turn back. He had been lucky so far. Pulled by an unknown monster of the deep, only to break free. Remembering the encounter, he looked down at his foot to see that the tentacle was still there, though it was now only hanging on by a spike or two. All his evasive maneuvers and flight attacks caused the embedded tentacle to break free, mostly.

Before landing he wondered about possibly gaining one of the birds for a meal. He looked down to see that he was still out over the water. The bodies of the giant birds he had dropped earlier were still floating, but some had already drawn the attention of other predators of the deep.

With horror he saw that two had large tentacles wrapped around them. He looked at the tentacles to see that they were the same shape and color as the one wrapped around his own leg. Had the beast followed him? He mentally shuddered at the thought, as he wondered if he would ever see that creature again. He had been lucky, but he didn’t know if his luck would last.

For the moment he was safe. King of the air, at least until the next group of challengers came to dethrone him. Sighing at the thought, he went towards the land, only to see that even more Qi monsters filled the ground. Not wanting to deal with another fight so quickly, Lykan found a large tree like organism and decided to rest against the structure for a moment while he tried to take in as much as he could from his surroundings.

His mind was alight with endless possibilities of the new creatures and wildlife he was seeing, but he also knew he needed to rest if only for a moment. Why did I leave the training area? Lykan wondered.

He also wondered why this place was here. What purpose did such a large area of water and land offer the Titans? There were so many questions about this strange and bizarre part of his world that he needed a moment to process everything. He wanted to wipe off his crust filled hands, but with the feeding frenzy that was happening not far away, he decided against such an action, at least for now. Instead, he would rest, collect his thoughts, and try to figure out what to do next.

Logically he should go back, but he just wanted to see what would be in the next room over.