Chapter 101. Chase
Aiden found himself falling towards an ocean.
Quickly, he flapped his wings and stabilised himself mid air.
He scanned the place.
For as far as his eyes could travel, there was only water.
"I’m in the middle of some sort of ocean," Aiden muttered.
His gaze peered through the ocean depths below.
There were rank 1 chaotic beasts just below the surface. However, as his gaze went deeper, he saw rank 2 creatures lurking deeper in the ocean.
There were an uncountable number of them.
They were all fish looking colossal creatures.
Aiden scanned above him.
His gaze peered through the humid mist.
"Dangerous creatures are also high up in the skies"
The creatures up in the sky were bird looking creatures.
All of them were rank 2 creatures. Not even one was a rank 1 creature.
"If I fly too high, I will die. If I get too near to the ocean surface, the rank 2 creatures lurking deeper may notice me. They might come to the surface to finish me off. I need to maintain my current altitude. Not too high to attract the attention of the creatures up there, and not too close to the ocean surface to attract the attention of the behemoths lurking deeper. I can use arrows to kill the rank 1 creatures and absorb their blood essence to grow stronger as I advance across the ocean. This will increase my chances of survival," Aiden thought.
His blood appeared before him and turned into crimson arrows.
The Crimson arrows shot towards the ocean.
Slicing sounds rang out as several rank 1 chaotic beasts fell. Aiden absorbed their blood essence.
He made sure not to kill too many at a particular place. He didn’t want to draw the attention of those lurking deeper to the surface.
He kept moving across the ocean as he killed rank 1 chaotic beasts lurking on the surface and absorbed their blood essence. At the same time, he kept scanning across the ocean, deep into the ocean and in the sky above for any unforeseen threats.
Aiden didn’t know how long had passed. He knew it had been more than a day or two though. But the skies still remained bright.
Aiden kept moving, killed rank 1 chaotic beasts in the ocean and absorbed their blood essence.
Days turned into what he deemed weeks and weeks turned into what he deemed months.
However, he had not come across any land.
Eventually, Aiden had killed so many rank 1 sea creatures that he could not even keep count.
The accumulated blood essence within his being finally reached the threshold required for a breakthrough and resonated. He felt a great surge of strength.
His movements across the ocean became faster. His range of vision increased. And he felt like he had entered a different realm of strength.
"My power is now at the level of a beginner rank 2 warrior."
Aiden absorbed the blood essence of several rank 1 creatures he had killed.
"My range of absorbing blood essence is now 100 meters" Aiden smiled
"But, I’ve been journeying across this ocean for what I presume should be several months in this pocket world. I’ve still not come across any land. There’s a high possibility that this pocket world is the ocean. So far, I have not discovered anything above or in the ocean that hints at the fact that this pocket world is a special pocket world"
Aiden thought as he flapped his wings and turned into a streak of crimson light, flying across the ocean.
"Perhaps I need to just focus on killing chaotic beasts now. When my strength is at the level of a legendary rank 2 warrior, it will be safe for me to head into the ocean depths to figure out how to close the gate and leave this pocket world"
Aiden thought.
He focused on killing beginner rank 2 chaotic beasts and rank 1 chaotic beasts.
After that he absorbed their blood essence.
However, things were not too easy for him this time, unlike earlier.
Because he had to launch his crimson arrows deeper into the ocean to kill beginner rank 2 creatures this time, he drew the attention of a lot of beginner rank 2 chaotic beasts.
Soon, a horde of beginner rank 2 sea creatures were chasing after him.
The creatures chasing after him were large eels. Each of them was as large as a mountain. When they rose, tides formed. They gallivanted in and out of the ocean. Lightning flickered across their bodies as they chased Aiden.
Aiden utilised his enhanced vision to his advantage. Now that his power was at the level of a beginner rank 2 warrior, he could see farther than he previously could.
Because of this, he was able to anticipate the direction the attacks of the creatures were coming from and evade them.
He didn’t even think of striking them back. There were too many for him to take on. He just wanted to lose them.
Blobs of his blood turned into crimson armor which looked no different from a battlesuit and graced his figure.
Some of the blobs of blood moved towards the crimson wings on his back and melded into the crimson wings.
The crimson wings grew larger.
Aiden flapped the crimson wings with extreme speed.
Trails of wind were left in his wake as he traversed several distances in seconds.
The ginormous beginner rank 2 eels kept launching lightning attacks towards him. However, Aiden kept evading their attacks as he grew further and further away from them. However, the eels hastened their speed. They were catching up with him.
Aiden was calm, but he was a bit frustrated. What the fuck was up with these eels?
Was he that delicious or what? Could they not just eat each other?
"This is not the time to lose my cool. That can actually get me killed" Aiden calmed down. He started thinking of a way out of his current predicament as he kept evading the lightning attacks of the eels with uncanny and dexterous precision that left them frustrated.
He scanned above him.
"The skies above me now are less dangerous compared to the previous regions I was at. There are about 500 beginner rank 2 thunderbirds above. I can kill them, absorb their blood essence to grow stronger, then deal with these eels from where the thunderbirds are. The eels may be very powerful, but they are aquatic creatures. I should use the sky to my advantage"
Aiden thought. His figure arced above as he soared upwards towards the skies.
An eel swung its tail, launching a wheel of lightning towards him.
Another launched another attack..
Then another..
Thousands of eels launched attacks towards him.
"I can’t evade these attacks. Even if I reinforce my crimson armor with a lot of blood, it won’t hold if the attacks land on me. Also, not even my regeneration can kick in before I die. But I can do something buy myself some time for them to lose me"
A glint flashed through Aiden’s eyes.
Aiden flapped his wings further and propelled himself upwards.
Blobs of his blood appeared before him, combined together and formed a very large crimson cloth that blotted out the sky beneath him.
The eels only saw some strange substance blotting out the skies.
Their attacks managed to pierce through it. But, because their vision was compromised and they could no longer see Aiden, they were unable to locate him and launch any attacks against him.
Aiden propelled himself upwards with that split second. Some of the attacks of the eels pierced through the crimson cloth below him and crashed into him. But he managed to buy himself enough time to evade some of them.
He gritted his teeth as pain shot through him. Several parts of his body were scorched. He almost died. His natural regeneration kicked in as he flapped his wings upwards.
A few moments later, he was completely healed.
The mountainous looking eels were no longer in sight. All he saw when he looked below were clouds.
The crimson cloth transformed into a crimson sword and shot towards him.
Below in the ocean, the mountain sized eels looked up for a while. The strange substance covering the skies had disappeared. But their prey was no longer in sight.
They could only wait for the prey that killed their kin down here.
Perhaps, it would return, perhaps it won’t. However, they decided to wait.
As for Aiden, he sighed in relief and looked up.
"That was a close call. But this is no time to relax" He looked towards the 500 beginner rank 2 thunderbirds gliding a few distances above him.