A bellowing roar exploded from the creature's mouth as it lunged in for the attack.
From this distance, he could finally get a good look at what it was.
To call it gross would be an egregious understatement.
From afar, he could grasp that it had the rough shape of a decaying great white shark, but up close, it was where it truly became nightmare fuel.
Its body looked ragged and torn apart, glowing a radioactive green. Where its eyes would normally be was instead replaced by two miniature mouths, all lined with crooked, jagged canines. The place where its mouth lay, it had rows upon rows of gnarled molars, each with several pupil-less eyes attached to them. Its fins could barely be called fins; they had several pieces of flesh missing all throughout, letting bone peek through. It looked straight out of some kind of horror novel.
Sang Pianyi quickly maneuvered to the left using his wings, dodging its gnawing move with a few moments left. Before spinning around and delivering a harsh slash to its right side, while its momentum was still strong. Dealing a decent amount of harm and a corroding wound to the creature.
The creature let out a frail shriek before turning towards Sang Pianyi and inhaling. The suction effect produced by it managed to pull its target close before it took a big bite at them.
"Arrghh!"
However, as it tried to slam its jaw down, it was forcefully stopped. Sang Pianyi used his enhanced physical strength as a Reader to pry its jaw open and leap into its mouth.
The stench emanating from the creature was foul, as if it were a reanimated corpse. Sang Pianyi didn't know this, though, thanks to the deal he had made earlier, and breathed normally.
Now that he was inside the creature's maw, he had the advantage. He plunged his crow blade into the roof of its mouth, piercing through the hard bone that guarded it.
Dark ichor began to pour out from its wounds, alongside a gushing stream of shadow liquid. It wailed, and Sang Pianyi took the opportunity to widen the wound it had made from the inside. Hacking and Slashing at the roof of the creature's mouth, until a sizable wound was formed.
Then, he carefully swam out of the creature's mouth through the wound, and the creature began to sink to the bottom of the lake, weighed down by the extra liquid pouring into its body.
He continued to struggle to the top, against the manipulation of the shadows from the Lord. Though with the creature out of the way, he managed to claw his way to the surface once again.
The Lord of Shadows kept his smirk while continuing to stare at Sang Pianyi.
"Here we go again~" He chuckled.
Sang Pianyi envisioned Ingenuity into a coating around his crow blade, extending it and increasing its size and potency. Turning the ordinary-shaped longsword into a massive greatsword, which he promptly threw towards the surface.
The blade, with the Ingenuity coating, cut through all the shadowy liquid in its way. Before accelerating straight into the surface barrier of hardened shadows.
The Lord of Shadows quickly manipulated some shadows under his feet to float up into the air, stepping aside mid-air to avoid...
Krsssh!
The crow greatsword flew out of the shadow lake with a boom, destroying the surface barrier along the way.
At first, the barrier cracked as it began to stretch under the force of the greatsword, then it continued to bend and crack under the Lord of Shadows' resistance before finally giving way and crumbling apart into an uncountable number of fragments.
The shadows writhed in agony as they dissipated back into the sea, as Sang Pianyi emerged from the sea, finally able to get some fresh air.
He casually fumbled around on the surface of the shadowy lake before flying into the air to meet the Lord of Shadows face to face.
Panting slightly while regaining his breath, he stared into the vibrant purple eyes of the man beneath the hood.
In fact, he hadn't seen the man's face up until now, but now that he was close, Sang Pianyi was able to get a grasp on who exactly he was up against here.
He looked around his mid-twenties, with sleek black hair in a rather dignified style, like some kind of royal prince out of a TV show. Although his hood still obscured some parts of his head, he could easily see the rather defined aspects of his face. By society's standards, he was rather good-looking, with sharp features, a high nose bridge, and a well-proportioned face. Not to mention the ethereal purple eyes he had already noticed.
'The world really isn't fair, huh...' Sang Pianyi bitterly remarked.
The Lord of Shadows stared at this unruly challenger that he had allowed to escape the shadow sea he conjured. "Hah...I must say, someone as tenacious as you has no reason to be under someone like 'him'. What say you to joining my ranks?" He offered.
Sang Pianyi scoffed while staring him dead in the eyes. "Who says I'm under him? I quit a while back. We're only both here because we have the same objective. And like hell I'd work for you! You kidnapped my subordinates. And I'm not one to forgive very easily." He stated matter-of-factly.
The Lord of Shadows smiled. "What a shame."
Suddenly, the shadows underneath them began to rise, as a single purplish-black angel-like wing appeared attached to the right side of his back. As the black katana began to transmutate...into a large purple and black scythe.
Then, he made sure to rise a couple of centimeters into the air, to loom over Sang Pianyi. Given the angle he was positioned at, from Sang Pianyi's position, it looked as if he was directly overshadowed by the full, silvery moon. In fact, it only enhanced his shadowy features by disilluminating his body.
"Guess I'll have to start trying now." The Lord of Shadows mockingly declared.
Seeing this occur, Sang Pianyi used a portion of the stored up Ingenuity inside of his Anecdote of Self to summon a ghastly-looking crow on his right shoulder.
He stared at the crow momentarily. "A year." He offered, and the sigil accepted.
This crow had blood-red eyes and began to melt into sticky black flesh and coagulate into Sang Pianyi's right hand, transforming it into a crow-feather gauntlet with the emblem of a crow etched onto it in the place where the back of his hand would be.
With it, the crow longsword was retrieved and appeared in his hand once more. Brandishing his weapon, he readied himself for the real fight to begin.
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A group of people seemed to be struggling with something.
"Ughhh...Someone hold her back!" A woman yelled out anxiously.
A man followed up. "She's too strong! We can't!"
"You're all useless! Keep her here! That's what the leader would've wanted!"
The woman they were holding back pushed them aside with extreme force, charging straight towards the valley again.
"I'm sorry! But I'm going to save him!" She cried out.
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In a deep part of the woods, William's eyes groggily opened. His expression solemn.
'Haah...Sang Pianyi is definitely more suited for this kind of job than I am...Though that crow sigil, I've never seen anything like it before...I'll ask the company if I see them again.'
The first thing he saw when awakening was Lian staring down at him with a mischievous grin. She had waited precisely for the moment after he had woken up for this.
Splash! A small ball of drinkable water she had received from her gacha ability was tossed straight at William's face, as she stuck her tounge out slightly at him.
He sighed, before looking around at his surroundings, they seemed to be at the edge of the forest, near the city they had crossed to get to the valley area. Leaning on some tall trees nearby, was Li Jiaojie and Fei Kangzhen.
Upon seeing his return to consciousness, the two walked over hurriedly.
The three then cried out in unison. "Welcome back boss!"