Chương 101: Chapter 99: Hunting (2)

When night arrived, Thalion stopped the ship at a safe distance from any crystals. Even though most survivors didn't need much sleep, after such an eventful day, it was just safer to give them time to rest. Thalion took the night shift, mostly meditating and switching between his forms to observe where the soul core he had created was located. The creation of the soul core had twisted the spirit veins in his other forms a bit, and he worked tirelessly to bring them all back to their former positions.

"Didn't you need to sleep?" Kaldrek asked after the third shift change.

"Not at the moment. A bit of meditation is enough," Thalion shrugged; he definitely didn't want to reveal that sleep was no longer necessary for him. Kaldrek looked as though he wanted to ask more but just nodded and moved back to his place on the other side of the ship. Three people were enough to scout the area and warn the others if any crazed bird attempted to attack. The rest were below deck, sleeping in their cabins.

Thanks to the spatial manipulation within the ship, they had more than enough room for everyone. It took Thalion the whole night to untangle his spirit body in all forms. He had feared that it would take much longer in the form of the Tidecaller Serpent because he couldn't breathe air in that shape. To his surprise, however, he discovered he could breathe air and had no trouble fixing his spirit body in his serpent form.

The spirit body of the Tidecaller Serpent was even the easiest to repair and only took about an hour. This would be a very interesting day; he planned to try killing the stronger beasts at the top, maybe even the jellyfish, not just for their crystals but also for any valuable skills they might possess. Another reason was that he wanted his crew to be exhausted when he demanded all their credits. It was time to push everyone to their limits. After the battles yesterday, he had a good sense of how far he could go.

"It's time to hunt some bigshots," Thalion announced when everyone had gathered on deck.

"Today, we're going after the stronger beasts in this area," Thalion continued, his voice amplified with mana.

"Our real enemies are the undead on the upcoming stages. If you aren't strong enough to defeat a few birds, what do you think Ankhet will do to you when he wakes up—not to mention the many vampires in this tutorial." Thalion planted his first seed of doubt. This was all part of his grand plan to make them willingly hand over their credits to him. He intended to claim that he might have a fighting chance against Ankhet if he could purchase a certain very expensive item.

Thalion hoped that the fear of Ankhet, the vampires, and his current reputation would be enough to get what he wanted. Thalion saw the fighters nod in agreement, determination in their expressions. Soon after his little speech, they were on their way to one of the larger crystals. Flying around it were two giant serpents with backward-curved horns growing out of their heads. The horns radiated power and electricity through the entire serpent.

Watching the serpents as they drew closer, Thalion realized the horns might even be their power source. Their high affinity for lightning was the reason he had chosen the over-twenty-meter snakes first. Those horns might even be worth adding to his eagle form, even though he'd look rather odd with them. The horns would adjust in size to his eagle form, making them a bit more practical when he used his skill. Though they would still look extremely large and misplaced on his head, but what could he do?

He wasn't here to win a beauty contest.

"Kaldrek, take the steering wheel," Thalion said, readying himself to unleash everything he had at the serpents. Thalion transformed into eagly and sped toward the serpents. When the ship was close enough to be seen as a threat, the fight erupted. Lightning crackled along the serpents' bodies, and shortly after, massive lightning beams were unleashed toward the ship. Thalion activated feather glide and tempest shroud and practically surfed on the lightning.

This was perfect for body tempering, and the beam attack looked very promising. Thalion had mainly transformed into eagly to temper himself and to serve as a distraction. He shouldn't be able to inflict any real damage to the serpents, as they were most likely immune to lightning attacks. Ten mages charged one of the large mana shields on the ship with mana, completely blocking the powerful lightning beams. Arrows and spells rained down on the giant serpents.

Their bodies were massive, so the crew's attacks didn't affect them too much. Now, the serpents began to move quickly to the side, charging up for another attack. Thalion fired a charged lightning bolt at one of the snakes, but it was completely absorbed by the scales. After the second round of lightning beams, the serpents looked quite tired, with wounds accumulating on their bodies. Then, the first serpent died as Michael fired a lance made of flames at its head.

The second serpent roared defiantly and attempted to ram the ship, but Thalion couldn't allow that. He had no clue how to repair the ship if it was damaged, so he transformed back into his human form just above the snake and unleashed a red slash with his sword. The already injured serpent noticed the attack too late, and the red slash cut deeply into its head, killing it instantly. Thalion dove down, touched the serpent to take its form, then placed the giant beast into his spatial ring.

As he shot upward with telekinetic dash, he checked out the skills of the Thunder Serpent. There were two in particular that he was especially eager to obtain. Storm Horns (Ancient) The Thunder Serpent's horns serve as natural conduits for the raw power of lightning. All lightning-based attacks are amplified by the energy coursing through them, intensifying their destructive force.

With each lightning strike, residual energy builds within the horns, empowering the serpent's next attack to unleash even greater devastation. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Lighting Beam (Ancient) The Thunder Serpent gathers an immense charge of lightning in its throat, channeling it into a devastating beam of pure electrical fury. The beam is unleashed from its maw, cutting through the air with terrifying precision and obliterating anything in its path.

Enemies caught in its wake are not only scorched but may also be left paralyzed by the surge of energy. He had known that the serpents were high variants, but he hadn't expected an ancient race and two ancient skills. The first was a passive skill which empowered all his lightning attacks, and the second was similar to his aqua lance as a tidecaller serpent. He had to take the horns first, or the passive skill wouldn't work even when he transferred it.

Thalion made one quick dash to the side, placing himself under the ship so no one could see him. He didn't want everyone to know what he was capable of as he transformed into eagly. Morphic adaptation was likely a skill most shapeshifters had, but there was still no reason to show off. Thalion felt the horns grow out of his head and discarded the form of the Thunder Serpent after transferring the two skills to eagly. It had a few more skills, but he couldn't use them in any of his forms.

Thalion arrived as a human back on deck, thinking back. It was probably a waste to hide his adaptation since the moment he would use eagly again, everyone on this ship would know anyway. Well, whatever. It didn't take long until they arrived at the next crystal. They slaughtered their way through the beasts guarding the crystals. The beasts were now all around level 70, but against over a hundred fighters plus the giant battleship, they had no chance.

They killed a Fire Raven, two Sky Turtles, a big flying fish, five big hornets, and one worm. Sadly, none of those beasts had any useful skills for him, and he didn't get a level-up. All others on his crew were on their way to level 70 right now, while he hadn't even gained one level-up. He did, however, have two upgrades: eagly was now an ancient beast, most likely due to the body-tempering in combination with the new horns, and his human race was at legendary rarity.

This must have happened when the sanguine thorn got its power-up a while ago; he just hadn't noticed until now. It was time for the final boss—the big jellyfish on top of the giant crystal. They had just skipped a few crystals since they wouldn't have enough time to fight them all today. The jellyfish was definitely on the brink of stepping into E-grade, and every one of its tentacles was filled with power.

Thalion and a few mages jumped off the ship to attack the jellyfish from different directions, while the rest stayed on the boat. This beast definitely had a lot of wind affinity, but that couldn't be everything. Jellyfish back on Earth were known for their extremely potent toxins, and this big boy should have something similar in its repertoire. Thalion transformed into eagly and shot around the jellyfish, keeping his safe distance since it was not a creature of lightning meant he could test his new skills.

He could already feel how the horns shot lightning through his body, empowering it to new heights. It was a wonder that the long horns didn't pierce his wings while he was flying. The survivors on the ship started the fight and fired many different skills at the jellyfish. The jellyfish responded by blocking the attacks with multiple tentacles. Next, it started to hum with power, slowly glowing with violet light.

Many of the innumerable tentacles that were ripped apart by the first attack regenerated with speed visible to the eye. Thalion, meanwhile, channeled a lightning beam and shot it at the jellyfish. The power was close to the water lance he had in his water form, with less cutting power; however, lightning had the ability to enter the body and grill the beast from the inside. The jellyfish had high recovery but almost no protection against attacks except its tentacles.

When Thalion's lightning hit the umbrella-shaped top of the jellyfish, the beast was completely shocked, its whole body freezing for a short amount of time. Steam rose from the jellyfish's skin, and it started attacking with stingers and wind blades. As additional protection, it summoned wind barriers between itself, the ship, Michael, and Thalion. The ship continued its assault, with most fighters on board safe behind strong defensive shields. Michael's fighters weren't as lucky, as some were hit by the stingers.

They died within moments, the poison almost instantly killing them before a healer could save them. The jellyfish was very powerful, but against armored creatures, it was at a disadvantage, and the ship was such an armored creature. The poison was powerful like its defense, but it couldn't break through the protective barrier surrounding the giant battleship. The continuous attacks against the jellyfish, along with the occasional lightning beam that hit it from behind, were enough to kill the beast.

Thalion quickly dove down and acquired the form of the jellyfish, putting its body in his spatial ring. Those wind barriers should be pretty useful, and maybe he could add the poison to eagly's talons or to the claws of the umbral predator. Sadly, the jellyfish had no skill that could conjure something like the wind barrier. Most other skills required him to have tentacles, and the poison had to slowly build up inside the stingers while the skill was not activated.

In conclusion, the legendary jellyfish was useless for him. He thought for a moment about adding the tentacles to one of his forms, but that would just be odd. Overloading a beast with body parts from other beasts could potentially even make it worse. Still, Thalion gathered the big wind crystal and, soon after, jumped back on board, now a human again. It was time to return. <--"What have you done?" Josh exclaimed on seeing the monstrosity before him.

"I'm doing it like Thalion! Did you see those elegant fins and the tail of his snake form?" Jack eagerly explained.

"It must be from a different beast, so I'm doing the same here." Josh was too shocked to answer; he stood in front of a giant squid that had the horns of a gazelle and giant grasshopper wings attached a few meters behind its eyes.

"I can even breathe now!" Jack cheered very happy with his decision.

"Dude, you're just a bag of flesh lying on the ground," Josh exclaimed in horror.

"I probably need to add more wings," Jack thought out loud.

"Although I'm not lying on the ground, I'm standing on my four legs," Jack countered, slightly offended.

"I don't see any legs," Josh sighed in disbelief.

"Well, the legs of the gazelle—even though they are now a bit bigger and stronger. I still can't really move the body with them," Jack said, still deep in thought.

"You didn't," Josh sighed, close to losing it.

"You'll see! I'll be the strongest creature there is, attuned to water, air, and the ground," Jack cheered with confidence.

"So, I need more wings. Can you go and bring me something like a bee or wasp?" Jack asked earnestly.

"AAAAHHH, I can't take it anymore!" Josh yelled in frustration before going to search for something with wings for his buddy, even when he doubted that it would help much. But what else were friends for? Jack would help him too if he had trouble in the future.