Chapter 157: Dancing With Two Heads

When I thought about my state, it was pitiful. I had no combat training worth the name — Kassie hadn’t begun teaching me anything in particular. All I could do was wield a sword without cutting myself.

Strangely enough, that felt like more than enough. I had an unreasonably violent fire, I also had chains that could pass judgment.

Before now, I’d only used those chains to grab onto things and fly around, but that wasn’t their real function, you know?

The creature tore a scream from its throat as it raised that macabre snout toward the sky, water streaming off scales the color of deep-sea darkness. Rows of vicious teeth ground through the storm, visible even through the rain and spray, each fang longer than my forearm.

On the ship, even Tristan, Derry, and Nisha had frozen.

Derry gripped the rail hard. “Holy Tyrant! That’s a… a Maelstrom Serpent!” His voice cracked on the name. “Tristan, that thing is too dangerous to let that kid handle alone.”

Tristan watched with something caught between concern and belief. The wind whipped his coat, but he didn’t move. A moment passed before he answered.

“He is not… alone.”

Kassie sprinted along the coils of the beast’s body, boots finding purchase on scales slick with rain and blood, launching herself from one segment to another on the far side of the ship. She leaped, extended her hand, and something rolled out of the water with a deep, thunderous sound before slamming into her grip — her weapon, recalled from wherever she’d forgotten it. The next instant she dropped like a guillotine and cleaved through the leviathan eel’s body, the blade meeting almost no resistance as it tore through water and flesh, cleanly severing that entire segment.

Green blood gushed in arterial sprays. The creature tore another scream — guttural, cracking apart like shattering glass.

I was too busy staying out of the snout’s direct line of sight to appreciate the artistry. With [Emperor’s Presence] announcing me like a beacon of pressure, the creature seemed more focused on hunting me down, that massive head swinging toward me with jaws wide enough to swallow a car. Or maybe the bastard was just irritated.

Could be either. Honestly, I didn’t care.

Five chains shot from my back, dancing in the air like white serpents hungry for something to bite. Three lashed toward different coils along the body, seeking anchor points. Two shot straight for the head.

Three chains coiled tight around its body, links biting into scale and flesh. One caught its head, wrapping around the base of that massive skull. The creature’s jaws snapped sideways and hooked the last chain between its teeth, trying to tear it free.

It was enough.

’Judgment time, you overgrown bastard.’

The chains blazed white-hot.

The leviathan eel let out an agonizing shriek that split the air. Its massive body became a demented whip, thrashing and lashing against the water in torment, sending waves crashing against the ship’s hull.

The long body and red-finned segment whipped toward the ship like a rolling blanket of scales and muscle, but Kassie cut into view and severed through the flesh as if carving mist.

The stranger in ragged clothes shielded her face with her hat as blood sprayed across the deck, splattering the wood near her feet. She lowered the brim and stared at Kassie with open admiration, then turned to watch the strange boy somehow running across the beast’s thrashing body.

The boy rode the monster like it was nothing — like the coils bucking beneath him were solid ground. She had never seen someone move with that kind of reckless certainty. Her pulse quickened and her eyes stayed fixed on the chaos, unable to look away.

The thrashing of the leviathan eel intensified. The bastard wasn’t just flailing anymore — the water around us had started to rotate.

I squinted at the churning surface.

Then my eyes went wide.

“Oh hell no!”

What had looked like wild pain-thrashing was deliberate. The overgrown bastard was trying to sink the ship.

The rotating water tightened into whirlpools. The ship trembled, and began to list.

’Tch.’ I gritted my teeth. This thing had to die. Now.

I drew my sword back and slashed forward—red flames sprayed across in an arc as I drove the strike downward and carved through armored scales. I repeated from different angles, hacked and slashed, then leaped onto another coil and kept going.

My muscles burned. I could feel my window for wielding the sword closing fast, the strain eating through whatever reserves I had left.

I didn’t stop.

With [Warlord’s Command] active, I channeled [Emperor’s Presence] to weaken the beast while strengthening myself. No idea if weakening it actually worked, but the surge of willpower flooding into physical strength — that I could feel.

A red blur cut through my peripheral vision. And immediately the creature’s head snapped back like it had been struck by a battering ram. Kassie rolled clear, landed on the coiled body, and launched forward with a blast of cutting wind.

She twisted mid-air, sword poised behind her, and as she neared the monster she carved across in one clean arc.

The head separated from the body. Purple blood sprayed as it rose into the air.

But before it could fall, another agonizing screech split the storm — the second head, the one that had been serving as the tail, tore free of the ocean. Water exploded upward around it.

The ship listed harder now, caught in the whirlpool’s pull. Ice spread beneath the hull — someone on deck fighting to break the rotation, the ice cracking and reforming, buying time.

Not my problem. Kassie needed backup.

I dropped to one knee on the eel’s scaled body, pressed my palm against its hide, and closed my eyes. Every scrap of essence I had left, I poured into the contact point.

I pictured the creature’s entire body beneath the churning water. Raised [Emperor’s Presence] with everything I had until the fire burned red again.

“Spread… endlessly.”

The command drained me like someone had pulled a plug. Red flames exploded from my palm and arced through the coils — diving in and out of the water, detonating so fiercely the ocean itself blasted upward in columns of steam and spray.

The eel convulsed in agony. The head that had been aiming for Kassie was consumed in less than a second, wreathed in fire, writhing against the sky.

Kassie saw it. A sharp smile crossed her face.

“Good.”

She launched. One red arc — clean and lethal — and she severed the second head.

The massive body went slack. The whirlpool began to lose coherence.

[Congratulations, you have killed a Primal (Tier 4+++) Spirit Beast: Maelstrom Serpent]

[You have gained Leviathan Spine Segments]

[Your proficiency with Emperor’s Presence has increased]

[Your attribute: Emperor’s Presence has reached Level 10]

[Your proficiency with Warlord’s Command has increased]

[Your attrubure: Warlord’s Command has reached Level 10

[Your proficiency with Chains of Confession has increased]

[Your attribute: Chains of Confession has reached level 7]

[Your proficiency with Sanctified Immolation has increased]

[Your attribute: Sanctified Immolation has reached level 10]

[Your proficiency with Strategic Apex has increased]

[Your attribute: Strategic Apex has reached level 6]

[Your proficiency with Conqueror’s Will has increased]

[Your attribute: Conqueror’s Will has reached level 2]

[Your proficiency with Martyr’s Endurance has increased]

[Your attribute: Martyr’s Endurance has reached level 2]

The notifications scrolled past. I barely registered them. My legs gave out and I sat down hard on the dead eel’s scales, breathing heavy, steam rising off my skin.

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