Without a moment's hesitation, Aaron shot forward, pulling his blade from the hardwood deck that lay beneath his feet.
His legs trembled as he ran, fear and despair still coursing through his veins, reminding him of that thing that defied the laws of the world.
The blond boy's hand tightened around the weapon as he leaped into the air, concentrating all his energy around his body.
Like the shattering of a mirror, the illusory turquoise veil that covered the Ghostship collapsed inward.
Each piece vanished from reality for an instant before forming a protective shield around the soaring boy.
I can take one direct hit with what's left…
Curling his lip, he watched as the spiked creature stared up at him in a daze, calculating his movements.
Its sharp teeth oozed with blood and saliva while it pushed its limits to the utmost extremes, allowing it to overcome its damage.
The monster's pupils became nothing but slits as every muscle that arched across its limbs tensed.
Then, with a roar that slammed through Aaron's ears like a wall of pressure, it dove under the water.
One second passed, then another, and another.
The blond boy's eyes darted around as he began to fall back towards the sea, where he could vividly see what awaited him.
Below the ocean's tide, two black beady eyes stared up at him, mouth agape, waiting to send him to an early grave.
Teeth as sharp as razors pointed at him, and a whirlpool of waves formed between them as the terror sucked in anything that entered its mouth.
DAMMIT!
Twisting his body around midair, attempting to dodge what lurked beneath the surface, he felt a vertebra in his lower back snap.
Pain shot through him, dulling his senses and preventing him from escaping his entanglement.
This, however, did not frighten him in the slightest; his blade moving swiftly through the air, slashing at the waves below.
His blade met the white-capped sea, parting it like a god who looked down upon his world.
The sheer force sent flurries of agony throughout his body, yet his momentum had slowed, allowing him more time to think.
His eyes burned as air blew into the sockets, drying out the lenses into a texture similar to dried cloth.
Vision half gone, eardrums numb and ringing, and bones dislocated, he steadied himself.
Aaron Grimstall was not the same boy who would run from a manticore.
He would not allow himself to be decimated by the backlash of a cannonball beyond the power of man.
And most importantly, he would never allow anyone close to him to die, even if it cost him his own sanity.
In the space of less than three seconds, a plan surfaced within this young boy's head, forcing him to act quickly.
His heartbeat was practically beating outside his chest, while his breathing was nearly completely gone.
Yet his arms moved in a majestic arch, one that rang with the feeling of pure power that surged through him.
Then, as he prepared his blow, he ran out of time.
SPLAAASH!
Aaron's body was instantly submerged in the sea, falling straight into the maws of the horrifying creature he had nearly killed.
Silence echoed across the empty ocean, the only sound audible being the solemn waves lapping against the wooden hull of the Ghostship.
The Tarasque growled viciously as it beamed with pride.
It had gotten its prey one way or another, and now it could digest all that delicious energy that dwelled within the puny human.
KRRRACK!
Scales cracked and bones crunched from inside the creature's maw as it batted its eyes around cautiously.
Something was happening, and it was hurting; however, it couldn't find anything close that could damage it.
It waited for a moment, seeing if another painful burst would ring out.
As it held its place, another sting of agony slammed through the terror's jaw, a feeling that burned to no end.
Stillness echoed out across the ocean—even the small crab that gazed upon the fight from the Ghostship held his breath.
SKR-CRRACK!
A wet crack broke the silence, erupting from the monster's head as a fissure tore through its armored jaw.
Blood as hot as burning oil, spilled in every direction, dyeing the water crimson as the creature's body slackened, split cleanly in two.
Around the sea, there weren't any terrors within a kilometer's radius, so the sudden death certainly seemed strange.
That was, of course, until a sticky blob appeared on the terror's severed tongue, clinging to the surface with his blade embedded in the pinkish flesh.
"Hkkk!"
Coughing up a pool of seawater, Aaron looked upward at the bright sunlight that broke through the clouds, illuminating his face.
His nice new clothing had been stained with blood, guts, and saliva as he had dissected the creature from the inside.
Each strike of his sword was merely a fraction of the damage, yet when placed together, it allowed one final blow to sever its spinal cord and take it down..
Aaron's legs were wobbly while his back felt like it had been run over by a carriage, crimson streaks stretching down from his nose.
I'm in worse shape than I thought… Dammit… This thing was only a magnitude 5, and it damaged me this much…
Feeling his eyesight blur, he carefully lay himself against the deceased terror's tongue, relaxing while listening to the ocean waves lap against the corpse.
The sea was silent again; only the sound of swelling water could be heard as the tides mourned what was once a terror.
I still need to get a piece of a high-level terror, but…
His mind instantly darkened as he thought about the watchman of the Abyss, the thing that had gazed back at him as he approached.
If I enter that place, I'll die. I need to find another way…
Underneath his bottom, he felt a strange spherical sensation brush against him.
"Eh?"
Shifting his body slightly to the side, he looked down at the muscular tongue that was covered in small taste buds.
Below them, however, was a strange bulge in the skin, one of a familiar shape that made Aaron's heart skip a beat.
Maybe my luck isn't cursed!
With a smile cracking across his face, he picked up his sword, cutting through the skin and into the underside of the mouth.
"Is this thing a relative of an oyster?"
Peeling away the skin, he watched as the object most useful to him appeared in a pulsating light that brightened his day to the fullest extent.
The core of the terror, and the strongest one he had found as of yet.
Oooooo, I wonder what I'll get from it!
Like a child on King's Day, the boy reached outward, feeling the ball's surface collide with his hand.
SHIIING!
With a blinding light, the orb disappeared into nothingness, fading away like a ghost.
"Huh…? Am I imagining things or—"
His words instantly stopped as a surging wave of agony shot through his entire body, driving him to his knees, where he writhed in pain.
The air grew heavy with the world itself blurring into a blob of colors and shapes in front of his eyes.
His dry eyesockets filled with blood as his throat constricted into a tightly wound knot that halted his breathing.
Barely conscious and croaking profusely on the ground, Aaron felt his face melt and shift as if the Iktomi's core was reacting.
He gazed upward, only to witness the sky shatter into pieces, dropping shards upon shards of magenta glass down towards the sea.
He watched as a sight that reached the very depths of his human heart appeared before him, a side effect of the Ningyo's core.
Branches of mystical energy flowed beyond the cosmos, curling out to form a massive tree-like network that consumed world after world.
He had never seen anything like this before, and tears slipped down his face as he withered in suffering.
It was as if he were staring at the entrance to a place far past his own plane of existence, one that made him less than an insignificant drop in the barrel compared to the universe itself.
For the first time, he felt small—not from fear, but from wonder.
The Gates of Heaven, a mystical border between each dimension and the World Between, safeguarded the integrity of each world.
This moment stretched on, along with the sheer torment that stabbed through every inch of his body, veins bulging and muscles twitching.
Aaron's eyes glistened with the reflection, an emotion he had never felt before, stirring deep within him.
"Beautiful…"