Chapter 39: | Embodiment of Fear
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The currents had stilled, eerily calm, just before the storm.
Then, from all sides, Lord-class monsters emerged.
A half-circle of power and arrogance.
Predators of the deep, brimming with confidence, oblivious to what they were walking into.
Ignorant fools.
They dared an ambush.
Thought I wouldn't notice?
That I hadn't devoured greater?
I didn't move.
Not at first.
Then, as one of them lunged, I danced.
Their attacks swept through water like falling blades, wild, precise, but utterly useless.
My form blurred between strikes, weaving through tendrils, fangs, and claws.
Every twitch of my body was a taunt, an invitation they couldn't decline and would never survive.
Then I found my first prey.
A floating monstrosity, jellyfish at first glance, but armored in draconic exoskeleton, its crown pulsing with mana.
I smiled.
So that's what you are.
Our tendrils clashed, a battle of pressure and instinct.
I let it wrap around mine… then with a savage twist and pull, I heard the beautiful sound of shell shattering.
Exoskeleton cracked like dried husk.
Its flesh unraveled, ripped apart into long, trailing ribbons.
It screamed.
But then.
PAIN.
My tail jerked.
Something had bitten down, a great white shark, larger than any I'd seen, its serrated fangs tearing through my exoskeleton and embedding into the flesh below.
Blood pulsed.
My nerves flared.
Impressive bite, I admitted silently, even as the shark thrashed with mechanical fury.
But not enough.
Not even close.
With a roar of force, my tail flexed, then slammed into the beast with the weight of a collapsing abyss.
Bones cracked.
The water vibrated.
Seagrass blades twisted in spirals from the shockwave.
Then came another, an obsidian turtle, aiming its jagged beak at my gills.
A coward's move.
But its attack bounced, harmless, off my armored hide.
I laughed.
A raw, gurgling sound that echoed through the waters like a predator's song.
Is this all you've got?
They surrounded me with numbers, not realizing they had already become corpses.
Their movements are predictable.
Their strength were laughable.
Their presence was nothing more than background noise.
My tendrils vanished into a blur.
Then.
Etchings.
Across their bodies, invisible lines shimmered into existence, marks of death carved by pressure alone.
They paused.
Eyes widened.
And then.
BOOM.
One by one, they detonated their bodies, rupturing under crushing internal force.
Flesh.
Exoskeleton.
Tendrils.
All of it shredded and scattered, floating grotesquely like oceanic offal.
A macabre painting of carnage.
And at the center was me gazing down.
At the tip of my tendrils, my stinger opened, a grotesque mockery of a mouth-split in two like jagged mandibles.
It devoured them.
Not just their bodies, but their essence.
Chunks of viscera and drifting souls disappeared into my bloom.
Power pulsed within.
I sighed, deeply satisfied.
These bastards were hopeless.
Boom!
Pain.
Like the crack of a whip through my nerves, my senses flared, something fast.
Something was wrong.
Another presence, sleek, arrogant, crackling with volatile energy.
An eel.
But not just any eel.
This one radiated danger like a second skin, its very pressure slicing through the currents like a blade.
I smirked.
Blooming Wrath.
My body flushed crimson as adrenaline surged, each pulse sharpening my awareness, igniting the core of my power.
Then, the currents trembled.
Blur-Lance Execution Drive.
My form vanished, reduced to velocity and instinct.
I reappeared a breath from the eel's throat, but it was already gone.
A streak of blue lightning erupted past me, and then.
AGONY.
Dozens, no, hundreds, of glowing blue dots shimmered into existence behind me.
Then they struck.
Lances of lightning.
Each one a spear to my spine, each one frying my nerves and burning my flesh.
My body convulsed as smoke curled from my exoskeleton.
Before I could retaliate, it vanished again, a storm cloaked in speed, its form trailing a thousand afterimages through the water.
Then.
More blue dots.
Each one igniting against my hide, setting my nerves ablaze, unmaking my transformation.
I collapsed out of my adrenaline, numb and exposed.
My thoughts raced.
Shit.
It's too fast.
Too damn fast.
I winced, another arc crashing against my ribs.
Damn it… I hissed.
What could I do?
Then, clarity.
I shut my eyes.
Just like I had in the breeding ground.
Just like when I'd killed that slippery bastard who thought himself untouchable.
The eel struck again, but my tendrils moved, not guided by sight, but by rhythm.
Pressure.
Instinct.
Strike after strike, my tentacles lashed through the water, trying to ensnare a shadow.
Miss.
Miss.
Tangle.
Tangle again.
It thought it saw weakness.
It mistook a mess for chaos.
Perfect.
The eel surged forward, cocky, predictable.
Checkmate.
My tangled mass unfurled in an instant, a net of writhing limbs, snapping open around the lightning streak like a predator's maw.
It shrieked.
A high-pitched, crackling screech as it realized, too late, what was happening.
Blue lightning flared, sizzling through my tendrils.
Pain danced across my limbs.
My flesh burned.
My scales battered
But my grip never loosened.
It wasn't enough.
My tendrils constricted, twisting around its elongated form, crushing inch by inch.
The eel spasmed, unleashing bursts of energy in a panic, but I held firm.
Then.
CRACK.
Blood burst from the seams of the net.
A grotesque sound of internal collapse followed as its frame gave way to pressure.
Its body still twitched.
But it was over.
I tightened further, pulling its sparking corpse close.
One tendril rose above its head, my stinger opening like a monstrous bloom, a mouth not meant for mercy.
The eel's eyes fluttered.
It saw what waited.
Its body thrashed in primal terror.
A shriek of horror clawed its way from its throat.
Then, as if refusing to bear the sight, it passed out, consciousness devoured by despair before the stinger ever touched its flesh.
Perhaps this can be called mercy in the form of insanity.
Then it was over.
My tendrils devoured it, cell by cell, essence, and all.
Power flooded within me.
And then.
A hologram shimmered into being.
My glorious victory was confirmed.
I stared at it, then chuckled.
Not out of joy.
But because their desperation had become entertaining.
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[You have slain the Overseer of this floor.]
• [Draconic Lighning King Eel 5★.]
[Flawless Victory achieved.]
[You have let the Overseer feel despair.]
[You've killed the Overseer using sheer fear.]
[You have gained 20 levels.]
[You have gained the title.]
• [Embodiment of Fear]
[Access to the next floor unlocked.]
[You can now ascend to the next tier.]
[Yes] / [No]
---
[You have successfully devoured]
• [Abyss-Wake Dreadshark 4★]
• [Crestborn Abyss Emperor 4★]
• [Draconic Lighning King Eel 5★]
• [Obsidian-Back Deep Turtle 4★]
• [Scalebloom Halo Jelly 4★]
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[New Skills Acquired:]
• Abyssal Hide
• Abyssal Throne Physiology
• Bloodhowl Surge
• Buried Presence
• Draconic Lightning Core
• Dual Lightning Rod Horns
• Draconic Membrane Layering
• Imperial Crestbone
• Jaws of Recall
• Neurotoxin Lattice
• Obsidian Plating
• Royal Blood Resonance
• Royal Remnant Revival
• Scalebloom Filaments
• Seismic Weight
• Tectonic Lungs
• Wing-Fin Undulation
• Voltage-Threaded Scales
---
[Your grotesque physique would like to devour.]
• Abyssal Hide
• Abyssal Throne Physiology
• Bloodhowl Surge
• Buried Presence
• Draconic Lightning Core
• Dual Lightning Rod Horns
• Draconic Membrane Layering
• Imperial Crestbone
• Jaws of Recall
• Neurotoxin Lattice
• Obsidian Plating
• Royal Blood Resonance
• Royal Remnant Revival
• Scalebloom Filaments
• Seismic Weight
• Tectonic Lungs
• Wing-Fin Undulation
• Voltage-Threaded Scales
[Would you allow it]
[Yes] / [No]
---
[You may now ascend.]
[Yes] / [No]
---
I couldn't help but chuckle.
So that bastard really did die from fear?
It was questionable, how could a King-class monster, a classed being, just collapse from terror?
It was a first for me.
A kill by fear alone, and it gave me five levels.
Intriguing, but not important.
Not now.
My gaze returned to the options, and it was still the same.
---
[Choose one:]
• Obtain a New Skill
• Fuse Existing Skills
• Ascend a Skill
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I sighed.
It would've been amazing if there were a direct way to enhance Blooming Colossus Bastion.
But Ascend a Skill?
That required two True Skills, and mine were all still False.
Which meant only one path was viable.
Fusion.
I selected Fuse Existing Skills, and a new hologram flickered into life before me.
---
Main skill
•
Sub skills
•
[Would you proceed.]
[Yes] / [No]
---
This fusion table… it was unlike the one granted by my Grotesque Physique.
How intriguing.
Without hesitation, I pulled Blooming Colossus Bastion forward, along with seven other skills.
I paused, just for a moment.
Was this truly the path I wanted?
Then I nodded.
Yes. This was the best possible outcome.
---
Main skill
• Verdant Bloom Colossus
Sub skills
• † Bloom-Drift Specter Frame
• † Inferno lighning grove Crystal Core
• † Multi-Core Convergence
• † Bloomstorm Core Resonance
• † Crystallized Brood Core Array
• † Instinctive Flow
• † Predator's Multisense
[Would you proceed.]
[Yes] / [No]
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My tendrils moved, and the fusion was initiated.