CHAPTER 90: ISLAND ORCA

"Just where is that guy hiding?" soaring through the skies as he used his naked eye to scout for the existence of an abnormally large island that could possibly be his target, the Island Orca, Azrael complains all while feeling a little irritated, having travelled across the ocean for days now yet failing to find any trace of what he expected is an easily discoverable monster.

And yet despite feeling irritated already, he still decided to push forward and try searching for it even more as he knows that this is one of the monsters that is truly barricading his path towards the higher floors, and he won’t reach the higher floors just by complaining about the difficulties of finding his target.

All while he is searching for the Island Orca though, the young man still isn’t forgetting his task to improve on his skills, as well as techniques even more, often finding his time to practice all his techniques whenever he enters the Immortal Realm, and gaining even more experience in combat every time he is exploring outside.

Through this exploration though, he managed to experience what has become a long-lost dream to him, a period of rest, even despite the fact that he still has a task for roaming around, just not having to fight monsters continuously for some days allows him to calm his nerve a whole lot, which is extremely useful when fighting against stronger opponents such as the boss of this floor, not to mention the treasure guardian as well.

’Yeah, perhaps I should take a couple of days of rest after taking the Island Orca down...’ Azrael starts to consider as he continues to fly above the ocean, marveling at the deep blue that is the water filling it, taking in the faint scent of salt in the air making him feel like he is living the life, although he is right in the middle of one of the most dangerous places within the Ethereal Tower’s second floor.

As he continues on entertaining such thoughts though, his senses start telling him that there’s something wrong, a thing that he just realized as he noticed the fact that there’s hardly any life force around the vicinity, even his skills not sensing anything peculiar as if everything around him just moved out of the place, a suspicious behavior that guarantees one thing, and only one thing.

’Danger!!’ with his mind screaming nothing but a single word, the young man immediately drives the flying sword upwards with an explosive speed, his figure shooting through the clouds within just a few moments, the distance he covered becoming more than enough for him to witness the form of this obscured danger in its complete glory catching him off guard as his eyes fails to take the complete figure of this monster.

With its titanic body casting vast shadow across the once calm water of the ocean, this monstrosity sporting a black colored top and white bottom, said black colored top being completely covered by a massive island that sustains its own peculiar ecosystem by itself, Azrael couldn’t help but feel marveled by such creature, the grandeur of this pinnacle predator making it seem like it is a merciful, life granting god rather than a demon of slaughter, further pushing such falsehood being the fact that it allows an entire world to exist above itself, benefitting from its protection.

Anyone shouldn’t be deceived by its appearance though, as this monstrosity is the main cause of the upset in balance within this vast ocean of the second floor, an apex predator capable of devouring everything in its path without qualms, a monster that isn’t supposed to be living within the lower floors of the tower.

[Detected the existence of an invasive species: Island Orca, it is imperative that the ascender subjugate the monster in order to complete the main quest: The Lord of the Oceans.]

Reading through the floating azure screen in front of him, the young man then starts taking things seriously, the air around him drastically changing as the temperature drops a few degrees, the surging crimson intent forming a whirlwind around him as numerous weapons start forming, floating above him without moving a single bit as if soldiers waiting for the general’s command to commence the attack.

What is even more impressive though is that along with the Murderous Aura materializing into numerous weapons around its user, said weapon’s destructive power is enhanced even more as black fog starts surrounding the sharp edges of the weapon, turning said edges black as the aura absorbs it hungrily, showing just how compatible these two skills are.

[Murderous Aura (Active)]

[Fog of Decay (Active)]

"Mhm, that’s great..." scanning through the plethora of weapons floating around him, the two active skills’ properties properly melding into each other, Azrael nods in satisfaction as he reaches one of his hands out, prompting a single on from the floating weapons to rush towards his hand, catching it effortlessly making him smile as he feels the handle perfectly fitting his hand.

"I spent quite a lot of time preparing a lot of good things for you, please die before I ran through all of them..." the young man muttered to himself as he clenches the weapon in his hand even harder, the spear made from Murderous Aura shaking under the might of his fist almost as if it is about to shatter, fortunately for the spear though, it will soon be freed from the grip as it will shoot through the air whistling with an extreme speed, piercing through everything in its path as it rushes through its intended target.

As soon as the spear rushes towards the ginormous target right in front of Azrael, as if serving as some sort of homing device marking the subject of the attack, the rest of the weapons behind him seems to find their target as well, each one of them forming a streak of crimson light as it follows the spear towards the Island Orca.