Birth of the Demonic Sword

Noah collected three corpses of creatures in the middle tier of the sixth rank in little more than a few months. His hunts had gone far better than he expected, but he found some trouble searching for his fourth target.

The vastness of the sea was his enemy, and the hunting areas of the marine rank 6 creatures were far bigger than those on the landmass.

The seabed was irregular too. It had deep trenches filled with countless magical beasts and a high density of "Breath".

That made Noah's exploration slower, especially since many marine creatures had good hiding capabilities. His target was an octopus-like beast at that time, but he didn't seem able to find it.

Noah searched in every trench and underwater structure that he found inside the hunting area recorded on God's Left Hand's map. He even dug inside submarine mountains and volcanos.

However, he found no trace of his target. Even the fauna in that area didn't act like it had a rank 6 creature hiding somewhere.

'It might have moved,' Noah considered that option, but the hunting area recorded on the map wasn't close to the piece of Immortal Lands.

The creature didn't have any reason to move, and it had no threatening opponents nearby. The Mosasaurs weren't close to its hunting area.

Noah had to spend months to find the first traces of his target. He had to use his knowledge in the magical beasts' field to imagine what the octopus would do if it wanted to expand its hunting area.

That was the only explanation that he could find for the lack of traces, and his guess ended up being on point.

In one of the deepest trenches at a few kilometers outside of the hunting area marked on his map, Noah found a large patch of polished rocks that spread till the ditch's bottom.

The water in the area was dense, and a slimy green substance hovered near the trench's entrance. Noah found that oily liquid more often as he descended deeper in the ditch, and the water almost disappeared when he reached the bottom.

It was as if a different sea had formed right above the seabed at the trench's bottom.

Noah knew that only a creature in the sixth rank could create such changes in the environment. The influence of its aura had changed the entire zone, modifying it so that it suited its natural gifts.

The atmosphere became tense as Noah continued his descent. The creature hiding in the depths had noticed his presence, and its aura naturally expressed its battle intent.

Noah felt a dangerous sensation forming inside his mind. He had yet to see the beast, but he felt sure that his opponent was at the peak of the middle tier.

Everything fell into chaos in an instant. Tens of thick tentacles shot from under the oily substance and converged in Noah's position.

Noah didn't even evaluate the threat. The dark matter came out of his black hole, and the dark world enveloped the area. Snore took form around his figure, and a fuming armor covered him, transforming him in his fiendish form.

The tentacles pierced the dense dark matter that had appeared in their way and clashed with the Blood Companion. Snore endured the blows, but large chunks of its body shattered during the impact.

The limbs of the creature didn't stop there. They had flat tips with the shape of an arrowhead, which allowed them to dig deeper into the dark matter that made Snore.

The creature knew that the Blood Companion was only a puppet. Its attacks pointed directly at Noah.

Snore didn't remain still. The damages to its body didn't affect it in the slightest.

The dark world resonated with its intentions, and dark matter amassed around its figure while a layer of hard rocks covered its skin. The higher energy also transformed, and Snore soon became a massive statue that stopped the tentacles inside its body.

A shadow ran through the dark world and severed the restrained tentacles. Night had attacked as soon as it found an opportunity, and it took down seven limbs in one charge.

A wave of large bubbles containing the green liquid surged from the bottom of the trench, but Noah didn't wait for the creature to unleash its angry counterattack.

The defensive layer around Snore broke and turned into smoke as Noah stepped outside of his Blood Companion. He held the Demonic Sword high above his head, and dark matter converged around its figure.

A massive head came out of the oily substance. Two dark-green eyes shone among the trench's darkness, and hundreds of tentacles became visible around it.

'What octopus!' Noah shouted in his mind as his sword descended. 'This is a Kraken!'

The Demonic Sword carried a large amount of dark matter in its descent. The higher energy had transformed the weapon into a three hundred meters long blade that slashed at the creature emerging from the depths.

Countless arrow-headed tentacles rose from the oily substance's surface, but Noah's slash fell on the head of the Kraken before it could launch an attack.

The whole trench began to tremble as Noah's sharpness, and that wave of dark matter crashed on the beast. Large boulders fell from the polished walls, and cracks opened on their surface.

The dark world moved so that the corrosive smoke released by Noah could flow on the spot where his slash had fallen. The Demonic Form's corrosive properties followed the tunnels that the dark matter had created inside the cloud.

That was Noah's strongest attack. It surpassed both Sword Saint's techniques, and it was the best that Noah could do with his current expertise.

Sword Saint had shown him his final slash in the past, but Noah had yet to understand its forms. His knowledge of the sword arts was too poor even to see that attack correctly.

The seabed continued to tremble, but Noah remained still. The boulders falling in his direction crumbled under the pressure of the dark world, but they amassed freely on the spot where the Kraken had appeared.

Noah didn't believe that his attack had killed the creature. He knew exactly how strong he was, so he was aware that only one slash wasn't enough to defeat a magical beast at the peak of the middle tier.

Just as he had predicted, a series of pointy tentacles shot out of the debris and converged toward Noah. The slimy green substance covered their tips and part of their surface as they cut through the dark world.

Noah launched a few slashes, and the dark world resonated with his sword. The thick black lines that came out of his blade enlarged as dark matter joined their assault and copied their properties.

One black line was big enough to clash with multiple tentacles, but the latter pierced right through Noah's attacks before continuing their charge toward him.

Black sparks gathered between Snore's horns before a thick array of sword-shaped lightning bolts shot toward the tentacles. The dark world enhanced those elemental attacks too, and crackling sparks amassed around them.

The simple elemental attacks had turned into small lightning storms that flew toward the tentacles. The impact with the Kraken's limbs deviated them from their original trajectory, but they remained intact even after such amass of energy had exploded on them.

'What is this substance?' Noah thought before a copy of the Demonic Sword formed in his free hand.

Both swords began to vibrate before Noah slashed toward the array of tentacles. Two attacks that expressed all the sword arts he had learnt in his life came out of them, and they stopped the tentacles when they crashed on them.

However, not even Sword Saint's technique managed to cut them. It seemed that the green substance improved their defensive properties in ways that Noah still didn't understand.

Clean cuts appeared on the tentacles once they stopped, and their severed ends fell toward the bottom of the trench. Night became visible for an instant before its figure mixed with the dark world again.

The oily liquid countered Noah's sharpness, but it couldn't stop the strongest predator inside the darkness.