Ink-black darkness gradually swallowed the entire Wizard Ship. The red carpet seemed to lose its color, fading to gray, then black.
As the startlingly pervasive, living darkness crept over the red wooden door...
Inside the Captain's Quarters, the candle flames dimmed further.
The figure on the sofa had sat there so long that dust had gathered on him.
Pfft!
The candles went out one by one. Wizard Tuta finally opened his clouded eyes and stared at a silhouette in the darkness before him.
A mighty aura erupted. His robes billowed, and his slightly hunched figure seemed greater than a mountain.
Invisible pressure ground everything to dust: the sofa, the walls, the ceiling, and the viscous, ink-like darkness trying to coil around him.
The particle energy coursing through his body manifested in the physical world. An immense Dark Aura Light Wave surged outward, announcing his presence.
Wizard Tuta was impossible to ignore. Even in a crowd, he would have been the first person anyone noticed.
It was as if he were the center of the world.
With every step he took, the specially modified Supernatural Lifeforms frozen in the darkness—each dozens of times stronger than a Thorn Sea Beast—crumbled to dust and vanished.
He passed through the red-carpeted corridor and stepped onto the deck.
The darkness could not come within ten meters of Wizard Tuta. Dark particle energy bloomed around him like eerie flames, forming a strangely beautiful lotus.
His right hand, all skin and bone, emerged from his robe and gripped a stark white Bone Staff.
As he poured Particle Energy Injection into it, the Bone Staff grew from a few dozen centimeters to a length of 150 centimeters, long enough to touch the deck.
He threw back his hood. Though scarred and wrinkled, his face showed no trace of age-weary decline. Instead, he radiated a fierce power that seemed ready to tear the world apart.
He burned with the fervor of youth at its most passionate.
More darkness surged from the deep sea around the Wizard Ship. A figure emerged from the shadows, flickering in and out of sight, and gathered it all into a Darkness Vortex twenty meters across.
A tremendous pull erupted from it. The entire Wizard Ship seemed on the verge of being dragged inside and shattered.
Wizard Tuta recognized the spell at last. His pupils contracted, and surprise crossed his face. "Heart of Darkness Sorcery. I see."
The other figure did not answer. He hurled the Darkness Vortex straight at Wizard Tuta.
Unless it was stopped, the immense particle energy within it would swallow the entire Wizard Ship and everything within fifty meters. Its power was terrifying.
If a full-fledged Wizard had cast it, the affected area would have stretched roughly one to two hundred meters.
Wizard Tuta's gaze darkened. He struck the deck hard with his stark white Bone Staff. Spiritual Power and particle energy poured from him as countless Wizard Runes stirred in his mind.
Dark Element Particles gathered around him. In the blink of an eye, the formless particle energy took on substance, becoming a blooming dark lotus fifty meters wide.
Every petal looked real. The lotus enclosed the entire Wizard Ship, then wrapped around the Darkness Vortex. The vortex's tremendous pull had no effect on it.
Wizard Tuta vanished. When he reappeared, he stood before the figure hovering in midair.
Powerful sorcery flared in his hand and formed a dark Sorcery Longsword. Its densely concentrated Dark Element Particles carried corrosion, erosion, and poison.
The figure's pupils contracted, and alarm showed on his face. Clearly, he had not expected Wizard Tuta to still possess such fighting strength.
"They said you were at death's door. I didn't expect—"
"Being at death's door doesn't mean I can't walk."
Wizard Tuta sneered and swung his Sorcery Longsword without hesitation. Then he unleashed Low-level Wizardry and Mid-level Wizardry as if they cost him nothing.
His opponent fought back. Their battle raged fiercely, every exchange aimed to kill.
The particle energy and concentrated radiation they released spread through the surrounding waters. Marine creatures floated to the surface in droves, stone dead.
If you were a mortal, or a Wizard too weak to withstand such power, you had no business even watching a battle between powerful Wizards.
Simply watching could expose you to enough Energy Radiation to kill large areas of tissue and leave you dead.
Fortunately, the Wizard Ship had a Radiation Isolation Device.
Ryan had yet to notice the terrifying battle outside. He was holding his breath because of the Eye of Truth's analysis results.
It did him no good. The thing in the corridor was no zombie. It sensed its prey by smell, not heat.
The dagger in his hand gleamed blue and was clearly coated in deadly poison.
Under his mental command, Harak stood on the other side of the door, still as a statue.
Bang!
The door burst open. With its limited intelligence, this Thorn Sea Beast knew nothing of stealth or ambush. It would simply drag the Wizard Freshman out of the room and bite him to death before eating him.
The blue-gleaming dagger plunged into its almond-colored eye socket.
The Eye of Truth's analysis and calculations could project everything within five meters outside as a three-dimensional image.
That was why Ryan's stab struck true.
Agony and the loss of its sight sent the beast howling and thrashing across the room.
Harak beat her wings. Her iron-hard feathers feared none of the Thorn Sea Beast's bony spines, and her talons seized its spine.
Crack!
Without its spine to support it, the Thorn Sea Beast could only twitch now and then, like a lobster on a chopping board.
The outcome was certain. Harak crushed its head with her iron talons, and the Thorn Sea Beast fell silent.
The vicious bony spines along its spine were the Thorn Sea Beast's strongest weapon, but they also marked its deadliest weakness.
Ryan breathed a sigh of relief and shut the splintered door, though a gaping hole remained in its middle.
"Isn't this Thorn Sea Beast a bit too big?"
Its scales should not have been that color, either, nor should it have been that size.
Notice: The Thorn Sea Beast's heart contains Supernatural Matter capable of inducing Benign Metamorphosis in Supernatural Lifeforms and ordinary creatures.
Ryan's eyes lit up.
Before you continue