'Imperial Dragon Body: Open!'
Astoria stopped holding back her full potential. A bright golden aura surrounded her body as a layer of scales surfaced on her skin. Wings, horns, and a thick draconic tail followed soon after, leaving Astoria in a half-dragon form.
'Golden Heavenly Sun!'
She pulled her fist back and concentrated her raging aura into it, causing the aura around her body to slowly subdue itself.
Her body flashed forward at amazing speeds, though not quite teleporting. She swerved through the Kraken's dozens of tentacles and narrowly dodged each and every terrifying water attack it threw at her, approaching its body in an instant.
Once again, the Kraken released a massive pulse of mana that slammed into Astoria's body, but before it could make contact…
She disappeared!
Astoria appeared not even 10 meters to the right, standing on the Kraken's body where its tentacles connected to its head.
"Feel my wrath, old beast!"
Astoria slammed her fist down, releasing all of the built-up golden aura into the Kraken.
BOOOOM!
For the first time, the Kraken took serious damage.
Its flesh exploded as its internal mana protection was shattered thoroughly by the golden energy.
And to make matters worse, Astoria immediately utilized Vector Control to severely multiply the amount of internal damage that was being dealt.
"Girl, I will kill you today!" The Kraken roared.
Up to this point, he'd been treating Astoria lightly because he couldn't feel any threat from her. There was no need for him to go all out.
However, he wasn't a young and arrogant beast. Now that he's been injured, why would he show the same ignorance?
"Waves, rise!"
His voice caused the seas to churn. Towering waves rose into the sky, several tens of kilometers high, threatening to swallow Astoria whole.
She immediately teleported into the air above the tsunamis and used Vector Control to shield herself from the mana fluctuations.
'I need to take this opportunity! He should've lost some mobility from that—'
"…!"
Astoria's senses suddenly rang major alarm bells in her head. She instinctually teleported before even realizing what had happened, however, as soon as she reappeared, she felt something clasping around her neck.
"Girl, you've pushed the limits today. I was going to be generous, but you've forced me!"
A naked man with wild red hair with a large bloody hole in his side held her throat and tightened his grip, crushing her neck in his grasp.
Hak…!
Hak…!
Hak…!
Astoria took short breaths as she tried to salvage as much air as she could and stay breathing. She tried to teleport, but the Kraken's tightening grip didn't give her the mental stability she needed to do so.
'Escape! I need to escape!'
Her eyes widened. Her focus heightened to the absolute maximum as she surveyed the surroundings and tried to find a way out, but they were currently high in the sky, away from anything she could use to help herself.
'I need to…master…'
She glanced around, looking for Damien, but he was nowhere to be found.
'Master…where are…'
The Kraken's voracious gaze was piercing holes through her body as he slowly killed her, enjoying every second of her pain.
He wasn't someone who enjoyed bullying the weak, but after Astoria managed to wound him, he needed to save face.
They were alone, but the ocean had eyes. If he didn't exert his authority here, rumors were bound to spread.
Astoria also realized the gravity of the situation.
Damien wasn't here.
He wasn't coming to save her.
He—
'Master thinks…I can…!'
Her mind suddenly cleared.
Damien might've seemed indifferent, but he wasn't someone who'd let her die like this.
'Pain…is…power…!'
Astoria gritted her teeth and revolved her mana, scavenging oxygen from any source she could find. Her eyes blazed with fiery determination as her mind spun in search of the solution Damien saw for her.
"Girl, you still haven't given up?!"
The Kraken's eyes sharpened when he saw Astoria's defiance. He slammed his leg down on her knee, snapping her right leg in the opposite direction.
"Hak…!"
Astoria wanted to scream in pain, but there was no air in her throat to produce the sound.
The pain was immense.
But it was this immensity that forced Astoria to face reality and face death, to face herself and to face her power,
And under that circumstance…
'Damage…transfer!'
…she found her solution.
"Heuk…!"
A strange sound exited the Kraken's throat.
Crack!
A strange sound was emitted from the Kraken's body.
Suddenly, he violently jerked backward, inadvertently letting go of Astoria's neck.
"What did you…!"
Astoria didn't wait for him to finish. She teleported directly behind him and sunk her claws into his head.
'Burst!'
The Kraken was a powerful foe, but how could he react in time?
In that instant, Astoria used Vector Control to transfer all the damage she'd taken back to the Kraken, severely wounding him in an instant.
Now, that didn't mean Astoria's wounds were gone. She was still struggling to catch her breath as she moved.
But she had time to acclimate to her pain.
The Kraken, on the other hand, received the sensation of all that pain in a single instant, which severely amplified the effect.
Now that he was stunned, how could Astoria let something like pain stop her?
That wasn't the sort of coward her master was raising her to be!
Her grip tightened without hesitation. The golden scales on her fingers extended into several claws that stabbed into the Kraken's skull.
"You…!" He tried to exclaim, but it was already too late.
BANG!
A golden burst of energy slammed into the Kraken through the holes in his head, directly exploding his head into meatpaste that flew everywhere.
The Kraken's limp headless body collapsed into the sea.
Astoria stood silently for a second, processing what just happened.
'I…did it…?'
Her body immediately relaxed. A relieved smile surfaced on her face.
"Master…I…did it…"
A warm embrace enveloped her. A soothing energy entered her body and began repairing it.
Her heavy eyelids slightly pushed open, allowing her to see the smiling face of the man who was holding her.
"Congratulations, on your first kill across ranks! For now, get some rest. I'll handle it from here."
Damien's voice was like a fairy's melody in her ears. The second she heard it, the fatigue that had accumulated in her body immediately took over.
She fell asleep within seconds.
Damien smiled as he looked down at her.
'You nailed the execution, but I can't say the same about the ending.' He thought to himself.
He kicked his foot lightly, sending a bullet of mana into the sea below.
Within seconds, the blue seas were dyed red for kilometers on end.
Under the waves, a massive black hole was tearing apart a horde of beasts that had gathered.
The corpse of a territory lord and his injured and weakened killer were both extremely enticing meals for these beasts. It was only natural for them to gather.
"But you don't need to know that for now," Damien muttered.
Astoria was fast asleep with a wide smile on her face.
That sense of victory that she was currently feeling, the sensation of overcoming adversity and triumphing…
Damien simply couldn't bring himself to take that away from her.
'Next time, I won't be so nice.'
If it happened again, he would allow her to properly experience the consequences of her actions.
But for today…
He teleported away with Astoria in his arms.
In this vast place with endless challenges and endless secrets, it was utterly wasteful to spend the whole time training in the ocean.
After all, this place was only open to the world every hundred thousand or so years!
But now…
Damien and Astoria had the whole Celestial Realm to themselves, free and open for conquest.
