Chapter 45

  Hammer Time!

  Evolution Unlocked:

  Genitalman: D

  An ancient and well-established path among the Kangarookin, this Evolution is focused on the age-old practice of showing a civil face but fighting dirty.

  New Class Trait Unlocked!

  New Class Trait unlocked:

  Punch Him in the Balls: D

  100% bonus damage for crotch shots.

  You have reached Level 1 in G???e???n???i???t???a???l???m???a???n???!???

  +4 Strength

  New Threshold Met!

  You have reached 25 in Stregnth! Having reached the second Threshold, you are now stronger; things that once seemed heavy can be lifted with ease. Strength can no longer drop below 25.

  Drowning sucks! It has been said that drowning, of all the ways to die, is perhaps the most peaceful. Whoever said that is either a fool or has never felt what it’s like for one’s body to hunger for air; the absolute need mixed with the absolute impossibility of breathing is interminable, until it isn’t, and you’re terminated.

  Perhaps only burning alive could compare to the pain Elijah felt as his vision whitened around the edges, his lungs beat like a drum at the gates of his throat, and his mouth strained to stay shut.

  He had spawned underwater, so deep that all he could see was the murky green liquid that enveloped him, illuminated only by a stray ray of light that had managed to plunge down this deep. Without his Perception of 20, he wouldn't have been able to see a thing.

  His Strength increase, although nice, didn’t help either. All it did was bolster his muscles, giving him a body that says he works out… sometimes. But no amount of Strength could help him climb his way from these bottomless depths.

  The Trial of Evolution 1: Hammerhead

  You have reached Lv 25 as a Hammerhead! Welcome to The Trial of Evolution: Defeat the evolved Hammerhead to prove your right to undergo the first Evolution. A better performance in this trial will lead to a more powerful Evolution with stronger monster Skills and Traits.

  Elijah had been swimming upwards for more than twenty minutes, though it felt like hours, and he didn’t think he could last much longer. Frankly, he was surprised he had lasted this long; an Endurance of 17 was no joke, but even that wasn’t enough.

  His deoxygenated mind couldn’t do much more than panic; the idea that he would be stuck, drowning for all eternity, was horrifying! The sixteen-year-old tried to calm himself with reason, though reason was scarce, and the few ideas he was able to muster didn’t help.

  Perhaps this was an illusion, and by dying he’d break it. Perhaps he had gained enough stats that he didn’t need oxygen, and his body just didn’t know it yet. Perhaps, if he died over and over, he could slowly train his Endurance until he could make it to the surface. Knowing his Luck, there was no surface in this accursed Trial.

  Only when the world was beginning to fade and death began to seep in did the monster of this Trial make an appearance. Something grey flashed by, but Elijah was too busy stopping his mouth from heaving open to notice.

  It passed by again, at a blistering speed. When it came by, the teen was shaken about, and his mouth was knocked open, spilling bubbles into the sea.

  Desperation and anger drove him as his instinct screamed for him to kill whatever had done that; although he had forced his jaw, in the less than a second it was open, he had inhaled maybe a teaspoon of water. His body fought to cough it up, but he battled the impulse. His health had started to drop at a worrying rate, far too fast for Blood Regeneration to help.

  The blurry grey mass rocketed towards him, and he strained to ready himself. If he was going to die, he’d be sure to take whatever this Hammerhead was with him. As the speeding bullet resolved itself from the dark murk, Elijah finally saw what he was up against.

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  A Hammerhead was, as the name suggested, a hammer. It was the size of three people. Its head was made of iron, and its body of wood. Two eyes, as big as splayed hands and angled fiercely, stared at the teen from each side of the lump hammer’s head. A wicked grin, filled with nail-like teeth, spread menacingly across the top of the hammer. It gnashed in anticipation as it shot towards Elijah.

  To the teen, who had assumed that his foe would be something more like a hammerhead shark, the monster’s appearance was shocking.

  As soon as it was within range, the teen blasted it with a blood blade… or he tried to. The attack moved much slower this deep underwater, and it slammed into more than cut the beast. Still, there was enough force behind the attack that Elijah thought it should have done some damage.

  It did not. The monster ploughed through the spell, turning the blood into a red mist that it then absorbed. As soon as it did, its speed increased, its eyes became bloodshot, and it started to glow red. The thing had consumed his blood and grown stronger!

  The next moments were filled with flashes of red, gurgled screams, and pain. In his present state, Elijah could barely fight back and was torn apart without much effort.

  You have DIED

  Potential rewards will suffer as a result of dying whilst undergoing the Trial.

  At least something good came of all that pain and suffering.

  Vitality +1

  New Threshold Met!

  You have reached 25 in Vitality! Having reached the second Threshold, your life force is bolstered; it is more difficult for you to contract diseases, and your Health regenerates slowly. Vitality can no longer drop below 25.

  Elijah returned to the world of water, his thirst for air reset and his mind focused. Instead of blindly swimming up, hoping to escape this watery grave, he took a good few moments to scan his surroundings.

  Nothing. The dark waters were as still as a miscarried child. Particles of muck floated in beams of sinister green light and didn’t move. There was no current; the water was stagnant. Even so, Elijah knew there was a predator out there, somewhere in the gloom, just waiting for him to grow weak.

  That being the case, he was left with but one choice: to try and bait it out.

  Elijah began pretending to drown. It wasn’t hard; he had almost done it only seconds ago, before the monster killed him. The teen flailed around as if he couldn’t swim, grasped at his neck frantically, and even let out a little bit of air for effect. His supply was limited to what was in his lungs at the start of the Trial, but if his ploy worked, it would be worth the investment.

  His ploy worked.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something stir in the darkness. Elijah didn’t let on that he had noticed anything and continued his act, thrashing desperately and mixing up the muddy waters.

  The Hammerhead, a predator and much used to hunting in muddied waters, charged. Elijah caught sight of the hammer monster almost too late; he barely had a second to react.

  A second was all he needed.

  Professor Tawny may have disapproved of his water blade technique, and sure, it was usually slow and painful, but when surrounded by this much water and thus this much water mana…

  Half a second. That’s all it took for the teen to fight the blood’s now negligible resistance, fill his arm with water mana motes, squeeze them out again, and shape them into the biggest water blade he had ever made. Elijah’s body was sent backwards as an edge thrice the size of him exploded out towards the unsuspecting Hammerhead.

  The Hammerhead was not so unsuspecting as he had assumed.

  The colossal attack that had taken more than half of Elijah’s 150 Mana to form sped through the water; like a snowball down a hill, it gathered more and more water mana motes into it as it went, causing the attack to expand rapidly, severing the ocean in two.

  The Hammerhead dodged.

  It swam around the vertical line horizontally, sparing very little effort in doing so. It looked at him with something that may have been amusement before renewing its charge, nail-teeth gnashing.

  Elijah wasn’t bested so easily, however. Yes, he was disoriented, and yes, he was tired after releasing such a large attack, and yes, he had been sent tumbling backwards through the water, arse over teakettle, but that wouldn’t stop him.

  Although the teen was a great swimmer and took to the water as if it were his second home, he wasn’t a native and was severely limited by the water’s resistance; he couldn’t swim around the monster’s attack, as it had done to him, so he used the General Skill, Dodge, which he had picked up for… dodging.

  The Skill had already shown its versatility in the fight with Master Toad, allowing him to dodge his opponent’s deflection and land an attack. It was just as useful in this instance; it had a 70% success rate, and today was his lucky day… apart from everything else that was happening…

  The Skill threw his body through the water, making the rolling worse and adding a new battle to the existing three: a fight to keep the contents of his stomach down.

  The fight with the monster wasn’t over, however. It didn’t halt its charge, continuing through the merk until it had disappeared once again. The fight with the oxygen was beginning to ramp up thanks to the teen’s frantic movements, and the fight against panic wasn’t doing so well either.

  He had set a trap, and it had failed.

  Now, he had changed back from the hunter to the hunted. He felt like prey as his eyes flicked from shadow to shadow. The water had been churned up by the exchange, and he couldn’t tell where the monster was going to strike next.

  Reason finally won out, and he withdrew his swordfish sword, scolding himself for not thinking of it sooner. The weapon seemed to thrum to life when submerged, and he could feel its need to stab something.

  Using his familiarity with bloodlust, thanks to the blood, Elijah was able to feel, through his sword, the direction of the monster.

  Letting the weapons tip point the way, he saw glimpses of metal and wood as the surreal monster flashed around him, all the while gaining speed.

  When the monster finally broke cover and shot towards him once more, it was surprised to find Elijah was ready and waiting, the tip of a sharpened swordfish’s snout pointed right at it.

  The monster chomped down. The teen trust. The weapon entered its mouth, empowered by all the speed the monster had; Elijah expected the beast to impale itself.

  A wet crack filled the water. Elijah’s weapon, a gift from the Toad Master, snapped in two. The monster’s metal mouth proved unyielding, and the teen was devoured alive for a second time.

  At least it was better than drowning.

  Probably…

  You have DIED

  Potential rewards will suffer as a result of dying whilst undergoing the Trial.

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