Chapter 156: I Knew I Was Gonna Love This... A Little Too Much

I stared down at the coils breaking the surface, massive loops of scaled flesh churning through the water. The storm seemed to rise with them — our ship trapped in a gourd of dark wind and rain while the creature’s body blocked the current, holding us in place.

I gritted my teeth and focused on the beast. Then I grabbed the chains and willed them around my waist. They obeyed, forming a strong circle without my hands. I glanced at Kassie, who watched me with no particular expression, then turned to the ocean and smirked.

"See you at the bottom."

I leaped.

Simple, but it took more calculation than I’d admit. Too much power and I’d overshoot into the water. Too little and I’d fall short. I had to land on the body, not beside it.

But ultimately, it was fun.

For a moment, I felt a different kind of freedom in the air before slamming down onto the coiled body of the leviathan eel. My feet slipped on the slick scales. I staggered, nearly sliding off, but a hand caught my shoulder and steadied me.

Kassie... just as she landed.

She looked at me intensely and gave me a short nod.

That nod felt like everything. Permission to be shamelessly reckless.

I grinned, locked eyes forward, tightened my grip on the frostfang sword — and ran forward. As I sprinted across the creature’s spine, I lifted the blade, drove it into the scale, and dragged it forward with every ounce of devastating force I could muster.

The skin tore open. Purple blood eerily splashed across my arm, my chest, the scales beneath my feet.

But the wound didn’t even wrench a cry from the eel. The damn thing probably didn’t know it had been injured — too long a body to feel one gash.

"Rot," I commanded to the wound.

Nothing, not even after five seconds.

’Tsk.’

I couldn’t wait around. I leaped to another coil protruding from the waters. Stabbed. Tore. Stabbed again. Stab, stab, stab, stab.

The creature didn’t react.

’This bastard must feel like someone is poking it with needles.’

The insult was getting to me. I was getting impatient.

With my body perpetually enhanced, I had to be mindful of my essence expenditure — I’d stopped using [Emperor’s Presence] to conserve. But now I cast the buff over myself again and opened my hands, pouring more essence into it until the air itself grew heavy around me.

The threatening wind of the storm vanished. I stood like a pillar amidst chaos, untouched by wind or spray.

Then I called forth the [Sanctified Immolation].

The fire that answered was not white.

It burned red — as red as Kassie’s hair.

I blinked. Shocked for a moment. But I didn’t bother questioning it. Had to be an effect of [Emperor’s Presence]. I lined the flames along my blade, twirled the sword in one hand, and plunged it into the creature’s flesh until it sank to the hilt. At the same time, I pressed my burning palm against the bastard’s hide and commanded:

"Spread like a plague. Unstoppable by water."

The red flames exploded outward so fast they staggered even me.

In a heartbeat, fire rolled across the creature’s body like maddened dogs, spreading with the speed of lightning. The flames sank into the water and kept burning — I watched them race across the surface, catching other parts of the coiled body, igniting flesh that should have been too wet to burn.

It went on for what seemed like a dozen seconds.

And then, when I least expected it—

A terrible cry tore through the storm, the sound of something massive finally feeling pain. And me... finally feeling joy.

I raised my face toward the sky and let the rain pelt my skin.

’Refreshing...’

Then the body trembled. I righted my stance and braced. The coils began to move, sweeping into and out of the water in massive arcs — I couldn’t just stand there, so I leaped.

I launched off one coil and crashed onto another, touched it with the flame and grinned as the fires instantly ran amok. Then I ran, racing alongside the horses of red fire, and exploded off the creature’s back with a burst of flame-assisted force. I grabbed the rope just as Kassie had, swung around the ship where the rest of the monster’s body thrashed, and heard another disturbing screech as the flames continued to spread — barely hindered by the water.

The sea should have been doing its part. But the command I’d given to the flames with [Emperor’s Presence] felt so much more potent now, potent enough to drain more essence from me with each second.

As I swung, I rolled in the air to kill my momentum, then commanded myself a heavy fall. I plummeted toward another coil, sword pointed down, and crashed into it in a collision of steel and fire.

Red flames exploded upward like wings at my back. I sent another wave rolling into the flesh of the damned abomination. The moment I struck, it thrashed violently, wrenching out a cry so loud it threatened to tear apart my eardrums.

I grinned like a wicked bastard and shouted into the rain.

"Did I finally get you where it hurts, you long bastard! Come on! Come out and rip me apart like you did to that little brother last time!!"

My voice echoed through the storm and thunder cracked beneath it.

From the ship, Tristan and the others stared at me with disturbed expressions.

"I don’t know whether to be concerned or worried..." Derry said, looking truly concerned, or worried... or both.

Nisha chuckled joylessly. "Aren’t those the same thing?" Her eyes stayed glued to the scene.

As if the beast could actually understand me, a needle-point snout tore out of the sea, sending a flood of water crashing onto the airship. People braced themselves against the rails.

I fixed it with a scathing grimace and tightened my grip on the flaming sword. The fire in my other hand climbed toward my shoulder, burning viciously, releasing red wisps into the storm.

Then I grinned at the monster and leaned forward, ready to charge — just as its needle-point jaws ripped apart, revealing rows of grinding teeth.

I laughed and shouted, "Don’t tell me you’re actually ready to have a conversation now! Now of all times! When I happen to not be in the mood!!"

Po stared at me from the deck, face pale.

"He’s crazy. He’s certainly crazy."

Granted, I was too focused on the beast to care what anyone on the ship thought.

The leviathan eel came at me.

And I charged to meet it.