The beast moved like a predator in the middle of the blue ocean. Its every movement was swift and deliberate. To it, its prey was already dead before it had even gotten there.
Atticus watched as a large appendage shot up from the depths of the water, engulfing and dragging one of the darkness beasts downwards, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.
Atticus reacted instantly and manipulated the water molecules around him.
He shot downwards like a torpedo, keeping up with the beast. The surroundings kept getting darker, but Atticus’s mastery of the darkness element made that fact obsolete.
Soon enough, Atticus saw the beast swerve and enter a cave by the side. However, he paused at the entrance of the cave instead of immediately following it in.
Atticus waited for a minute before covering himself with the darkness molecules and entered the cave.
The cave was so narrow and filled with water that Atticus couldn’t move his limbs around; he had to keep his body straight and control the water to move him forward.
After some seconds, Atticus found himself out of the narrow cave and into a large body of water. He could see some light coming from above and he immediately swam quietly towards it, reaching the surface in a few seconds.
Bringing his head slowly out of the water, Atticus swept his gaze around and immediately saw that he was inside a small cavern. In its middle was a rocky platform, illuminated by the faint glow of bioluminescent fungi.
The sound of flesh tearing followed by loud chewing permeated the space. Atticus watched silently as the beast dismantled and devoured the darkness beast effortlessly.
The beast was humongous, so big that it was impossible to fit inside the narrow space Atticus had used to get into the cavern.
‘That’s a very long tail,’ Atticus thought as his gaze landed on the cause of everything. The beast had a spherical torso with two fins by its sides and multiple tiny legs.
Its mouth was as wide as its whole body and had black, pointy teeth. However, the highlight of its appearance was its tail. It was long.
Atticus failed to figure how long its tail was. It wrapped around the rocky platform consecutively, and he could see its end.
The tail tip was round and seemed to have a hole covered with sharp appendages. It was currently shaking around above the beast.
‘That must be what it used to capture the darkness beasts,’ Atticus surmised.
‘Now how do I go about this?’
With the few seconds Atticus had spent inside the cavern, he was convinced that he needed to have this all to himself.
The outside was too open, and he couldn’t move around freely lest he run into something he couldn’t handle. More importantly, he needed a place to rest and train just in case he ran out of energy fighting. This cavern fit all the criteria.
‘I have to kill it,’ Atticus’s gaze turned cold, and he immediately formulated a plan in his head. The beast was unfortunately a Master+ rank, and Atticus had seen how fast that tail could go. He couldn’t risk it.
Afterwards, Atticus moved nearer to the rocky platform, covered himself in darkness, and waited. Patience was key.
The beast finished feasting on the darkness beast, its massive jaws crunching the last of the bones with ease.
Then, with a swift movement, its tail shot into the water and through the hole again, seeking another prey to feast on.
This was Atticus’s moment. He focused on the water molecules, a multitude of water spears forming before shooting towards the beast, piercing the air with speed.
The beast immediately acted as soon as the water shook, but the attack had already reached it, each spear landing on the beast with force.
However, Atticus’s eyes widened as each spear failed to pierce its tough skin. The water spears seemed to deform as they touched its hide.
‘Of course it has an affinity to the water element!’
Atticus realized and immediately switched tactics. He had to end this fast. Atticus shot out of the water, his body a blur of motion.
“Transcendent Slash: Godspeed Grace.”
Atticus exploded in a radiant blue and rocketed forward, appearing behind the beast in an instant.
The beast, which was about to scream, split into two and fell down lifeless.
The precision and speed of Atticus’s strike were so unparalleled that the beast hadn’t gotten the chance to scream.
Atticus sheathed his katana and sent a glance over to the body of the beast. He immediately acted before the blood could ruin the whole space.
The water swirled around the beast and its blood, and Atticus moved it to the ceiling along with its insanely long tail before using the ice element to freeze it until it became solid ice.
Then, before resting, Atticus jumped into the water and swam around the cavern, using the earth element to seal the small hole he had used to enter.
Afterward, Atticus checked to see if there were any other openings in the water and outside.
After a few minutes, he was done and sat down on the rocky platform.
Atticus sighed. He had spent less than an hour in this place and he was already so tired. Utilizing the katana’s art had drained a significant amount of energy from him; this was why he hadn’t used it since.
His energy finishing in this place without a secure place was basically a death sentence.
‘What is this feeling?’ Atticus pondered.
Ever since he had come out of that cave, he had been feeling a strange pull. The reason he had ignored it was because Atticus could feel that what was calling him was deep inside the chasm.
At this point, especially when he had no information, Atticus couldn’t afford to be reckless.
Despite being deep underwater, Atticus could still feel the pull.
Atticus inhaled deeply and decided to focus on the matter at hand. The main reason Magnus had sent Atticus into the chasm was the intense amount of mana in the air.
It was time to focus on increasing his rank.
