Plop. Plop. Plop.
"That outta do it."
Max sat down on the damp, black sand of the beach, his eyes locked onto the dark ocean that was already starting to churn. Fishing in the Second God's Sanctuary for 'big game' as Max called it, was never about patience or a simple rod and line. As far as he was concerned, it was all about that raw dominance and overwhelming fitness.
Deep below the waves, a massive shadow circled. The sea-dwelling creature had been drawn in by the bloody scraps Zephyr left behind after the assault on the shelter earlier that day.
It was a prehistoric-looking, shark-like beast, its scales a deep crimson red. Its jagged fins sliced through the undercurrents with a terrifying speed that undoubtedly belonged to a Sacred-Blood rank creature.
'That thing is pretty big. Perfect... We do have a few extra mouths to feed tonight, might as well get 'theft target' out of the way for a week or so, I'm going to spend around two or three days in the Alliance before I go to the Third God's Sanctuary and it would be super shitty to cause a scene there...'
Max scratched Zephyr under the chin and smiled, his wild blue hair whipping across his face in the salty sea breeze. The bait he tossed out into the ocean wasn't just for catching dinner, it was initially to attract some creatures to try and get them to steal his food, satisfying the drawback 'theft target' for a couple of weeks.
When he had used [Destiny] to see what manner of creature would try rob him, however, he was given a small surprise at what would actually turn up for his fish-fry.
With a thought, he summoned his God Dust and his custom-made copy of 'Leviathan's Breath'.
"Alright buddy, you're going to want to cover your ears for this one..."
Max only said this out of consideration for his companion; Zephyr had seen Leviathan's Breath in action several times before, and already had shifted some of the clouds hovering around it into makeshift earplugs.
Extending his hand, Max unleashed a localized surge of control into the floating God Dust. The particles shifted and compressed into a massive, heavy rod, which he expertly notched into the savage-looking bow. Max gripped the heavy chain that functioned as the bowstring, anchored his feet into the black sand, and pulled back with his immense strength.
He took a deep breath, locked onto his target, and let the bolt loose.
CRACK! BOOM!
The heavy alloy chain snapped forward, and Max channeled his [Electromagnetism] directly into the shot, violently accelerating the projectile to hypersonic speeds. As the arrow ripped through the air, the remaining trailing God Dust stretched out behind it, transforming into an ultra-thin, unbreakable fishing line.
The sonic boom was deafening. By the time the city-bus-sized fish even reacted to the noise, the projectile had already blasted completely through its torso.
The moment the rod exited the far side of the shark, the tip rapidly shifted shape. It bloomed into a foot-wide, three-pronged harpoon anchor—resembling a massive, brutal version of an old-school grappling hook.
Max yanked the cable back, locking the barbs into place, and began hauling the massive fish toward the beach. Beside him, Zephyr bounced and danced around in pure, excited anticipation of another meal, the Kirin loved all meat but was especially fond of seafood.
Realizing it couldn't break the tether, the crimson shark stopped fighting the pull. It pivoted sharply in the surf, locked its pissed-off eyes on Max, and accelerated. It launched itself out of the water, hurtling through the air toward the beach in a desperate, final counter-attack.
"Ah ha! Take this!"
Max dismissed his Beast Souls, laughed and leapt forward to meet the shark mid-air, shooting sand behind him up into in a large wave.
"Alley-op!" Max called out as the massive maw full of serrated teeth opened and then tried to slam down on him.
Max pulled himself sharply upwards and out of harm's way by using his [Electromagnetism] and planted a large mitt on what could be considered the shark's upper lip.
As he rocketed upwards, he shoved the hand holding onto the lip down hard, causing the now confused fish to rotate through the air.
Max timed the spin so that he had just enough time to summon a Beast Soul he had earned from killing a Super Creature called 'Obsidian Scarab Sovereign' four months ago.
A beautiful, sleek, jet-black gauntlet appeared on his left arm, there were several seams on the wrist and the pointed, almost claw-like finger sections, which were a dark gold.
Near the very base of the forearm section was a raised, inch-wide, disc-like section of the dark alloy, which expanded to form a 12-inch-wide plate.
When the shark finished the flip it had been sent into, it was backhanded right between its rolling eyeballs.
Pong!
The gauntlet-turned-buckler made a cartoony sound, very reminiscent of someone getting whacked by their wife while armed with a frying pan.
The blow sent the monster hurtling towards the ground where it slammed onto the shore. It was dead before it even stopped sliding across the sand.
'Riptide Fin killed. Beast Soul of Riptide Fin gained. Eat its meat to gain 0 to 10 Sacred-Blood geno points.'
"Oooo... an 'aura' type Beast Soul! Happy Day!"
Max wiped a spray of saltwater from his forehead while quickly checking his sea of soul for the details on his newly acquired Beast Soul, looking down at his other prize with absolute satisfaction.
On his shoulder, the tiny white-and-gold Kirin gave an excited chirp, its jade scales shimmering as it nuzzled his neck. "Yeah, I know," Max chuckled, patting the little creature with a massive, calloused finger. "We're gonna need a bigger fire for this one."
Striding over to a towering pile of driftwood and shattered timbers he'd scavenged from the nearby spirit shelter, Max snapped his fingers. Several bolts of purple and pink electricity ignited the wood, instantly blowing it up into a roaring, towering bonfire. He stripped down to his underwear, entirely unbothered by the coastal chill, and began wrestling the massive shark beast onto a makeshift spit.
...
Originally skirting the chain of islands by a few miles, a ship full of humans had heard an insanely loud, scary, cracking sound and then noticed a glow start in the direction of the place they were initially avoiding.
The steady creak of the hull and the snapping of heavy canvas offered a fragile sense of security against this vast, unpredictable expanse of sea in the Second God's Sanctuary. Crafted from the reinforced timber and strange, resilient metals harvested from the sanctuary itself, the sailing vessel cut cleanly through the dark waves.
On deck, the passengers kept their distance from the railing, their eyes instinctively drawn toward the jagged silhouettes of a famous chain of islands that they were much closer to than they normally would ever want to be.
Everyone knew the stories.
Past the beach and jungle, the cliffs housed a Royal spirit shelter, teeming with powerful creatures and controlled by a spirit of immense, terrifying authority. To steer any closer was to court absolute destruction, and the crew worked the rigging in tense silence, eager to keep their approach as stealthy as possible.
The atmosphere grew more and more tense as the ship adjusted course bit by bit and slipped closer towards the islands. An Evolver that went by the name 'Master Varley'—a man whose anxiety usually manifested in him aggressively polishing his rings and dropping the volume of his speech if speaking—frantically waved down a pair of paid underlings. "Douse the torches, you fools!" Varley hissed, his voice cracking under the strain of a whisper. "Smother every damn spark. If the spirit shelter catches so much as a stray glint of light off this deck, we'll all be nothing but a footnote in the sanctuary's history..."
The crew moved with practiced urgency, throwing heavy, wet canvas sacks over oil lanterns built into the sanctuary-wood railings. They plunged the vessel into an eerie, suffocating darkness, desperately trying to blend into the black open ocean.
At the bow stood Mo Ye, the ship's security chief. She wasn't an Evolver who relied on heavy armor to get where she was, instead, she possessed an unnerving calmness and ability to command. Her fingers were lightly tapping a rhythmic, restless beat against the hilt of her freshly summoned Sacred-Blood class bone dagger.
'Master Varley' was the money behind this creature hunting venture and the muscle was actually all managed by Mo Ye. They were escorting him on a hunting trip and he had just insisted on checking out the thunder-like crack instead of sailing towards their original destination - a smaller island 10 miles away from here with much easier to deal with creatures than this tropical hell hole they were now headed towards.
Despite the fact that he would normally never head towards a spirit shelter like this one especially at night, Master Varley couldn't help but feel a sudden surge of curiosity and longing, totally overriding his common sense and making him disregard Mo Ye's hesitance to head that way.
Mo Ye's sharp eyes were fixed on a bizarre anomaly cutting through the pitch-black horizon ahead.
Down on the shoreline, far below where the shelter's imposing silhouette usually loomed, a massive orange fire was blazing openly against the black sands.
She turned sharply and nudged a scrawny looking man who was hyperventilating five feet away from the ships guardrail. "Xu Kang. Stop shaking and make use of that eye of yours," Mo Ye commanded, her tone dropping to a fierce whisper. "Direct your gaze to that bonfire on the beach. Tell me what you can see with your 'Silver Cloud Eagle' Beast Soul."
Xu Kang swallowed hard, his throat dry as sandpaper. Closing his eyes for a split second, soft, ethereal soul sparks flared in his palm as a brass-framed monocle materialized. He pressed the cold metal and glass to his eye, and peered towards the direction of the roaring flames.
This was not his first time sailing past these parts, just never at night. Xu Kang was expecting to spy the usual oppressive outline of the shelter's outer wards up on the heights. Instead, the image that greeted him through the glass made him freeze.
The proud, formidable spirit shelter near the beach looked... different than it had in the past, that was for certain.
Looking past the fire on the coastline, he could see it had become a sprawling field of smoking ruins.
Mid-way through being shocked, he remembered that he was supposed to be scouting out the fire and shifted his gaze.
Down below, directly on the black sands of the island's beach, sat a man of monstrous proportions.
He had wild, vibrant blue hair that fell over broad, basketball-sized shoulders, and he wore nothing but a pair of underwear.
Perched comfortably on one of those massive shoulders was a tiny, cute Kirin, its fur a pristine white and gold, accented by shimmering jade scales that caught the ambient light.
The giant sat cross-legged before a massive, roaring bonfire, casually turning a telephone pole-sized spit that held a colossal, fish-shaped behemoth. The creature's jagged teeth glinted as grease dripped into the flames, sending up thick plumes of sweet, searing smoke.
A delicious scent of cooking meat hit his nostrils at that exact same moment too and Xu Kang gasped as his fingers tightened around the monocle. He adjusted the focus, trying to make sense of the absurdity, when the blue-haired man suddenly stopped turning the spit.
Through the remaining mile of open ocean and the magnification of the Beast Soul lens, Xu Kang watched in horror as the giant turned his head directly towards him.
His eyes caught the glare of the bonfire, gleaming with a sharp light as they locked instantly and unerringly onto Xu Kang's position. A heavy shock of pure adrenaline shot down Xu Kang's spine.
The giant smiled, a flash of white teeth against the firelight, and slowly raised a single, massive hand. He extended a finger and crooked it twice, beckoning the ship to shore.