Chapter 359: The Champion

As the time continued to pass, the seemingly mindless slaughter was finally starting to show some changes. 

What was a seemingly endless encirclement of hundreds of these hideous fish-men, now was thinned to a considerable degree. 

Still, the vicious little creatures didn't seem to show any signs of retreat, as if they were maddened, crazed by something, they violently thrashed and threw themselves onto the humans, only for the mutilated bodies to fall on the ground and adding more to the ever-growing bloodied sight that now blanketed the previously calm field.

Scarlet, who was still in her state of frenzy, deep behind the enemy lines. Every strike of hers created yet another corpse. Her bloodbath created a gruesome path of carcasses. Her face was stretched into a wide, satisfied grin, she was truly enjoying herself, living the moment, oblivious to her surroundings.

Her brother, Drake was still keeping the steady pace, but the wear and tear of the continuous exercise were showing its effects: His clothing was torn, his cloak ragged, his silver hair messed up, bathed in vermilion.

Still, despite his growing weariness, he was keeping an eye on his sister, wondering what he should do about her strange state. 

Unfortunately, he didn't have nor the energy, neither the time and opportunity to leave his spot. His weapon, Mort was singing a deadly tune, he couldn't stop now, that they finally had an end in sight after an hour of the continuous massacre.

Not too far away from him, Lily and his canine guardians were still showing relative calmness despite the situation. While she kept up the steady pace of strikes, chops, and strikes, her speed was considerably slower than an hour ago. However, she was still in the safest place she could be, as her ferocious guardians were forming a natural barrier, a small ring of space allowing her to maneuver better.

What surprised Aiden the most, was the cooperation she showed with her partners; they seemed to be consciously working together. Lily kept disarming the enemies, while Sam and Biggy finished them off.

Aiden kept his stance mostly still, only assisting when it was needed, but not actively taking part in this makeshift war between monsters and them.

Suddenly, his eyes snapped forward, towards the surface of the water. He felt a strong presence, an ominous aura emerging from below the depths, a power much more potent than any of what he felt before.

In the next moment, the surface of the river turned turbulent, foams began to spread rippling waves, violently crashing against the sandy land as a creature from below began to emerge.

First only a pair of dark gray fins popped up, soon followed by a shark-like head with large bead-like vibrant deep-yellow eyes. 

A huge, broad-shouldered, fish scale covered slime and grime-covered bulky upper torso followed, with four monstrous, bulky hands. Just like the other fish-men, this one also had a layer of membrane between each of his heavy, meaty fingers. Black, sharp nails protruded from the tip of each of its fingers. Still not the same as real claws, but it wasn't as simple as what the weaker and smaller-looking sahuagins had.

As the creature's strong legs stomped on the sandy land, a thin cloud of dust was kicked off, before it raised its head to the sky and howled a guttural, deeper-toned cry in the sky. Just like his kin, his voice was also mostly a collection of strange clicking noises, albeit with much more power than the others.

The bulky beast's appearance on the battlefield was like a drug to the other sahuagin, they all joined its howl, before going into a frenzy. Their strikes turned wilder, unpredictable and much more dangerous.

The previous calm that dominated Aiden's expression faded, replaced by a stern outlook, he fixed his gaze on the huge monster ahead.

Just like him, all the others turned towards the source of the terrifying sound, only to look with heavy expressions.

Scarlet, who managed to calm down a bit, threw a question towards his brother.

"Brother, is this the one we were waiting for?"

"Yeah… Though this one seems stronger than what the quest was describing…" Drake sighed as he looked at the shark-headed sahuagin boss. He was thinking of the best course of action, as just the eerie feeling he had when it emerged, he was now doubting that if they should keep their assault or if they should turn tails and escape.

However, before he could think about it more, and come up with a decision, suddenly a streak of black flashed through above him, jumping above the ring of fish-men, and landing behind the enemy lines.

Aiden's voice filled with excitement thundered in their ears.

"Leave the big one to me, you guys finish up the rest."

Although their sight was blocked with the still more than a couple dozen fish heads leering at them, they could hear a sneer behind the boy's tone of voice. 

Confirming their conjectures about his eagerness for the upcoming fight, in the next moment, a huge shock wave of energy could be felt as it explosively expanded with Aiden at its source and center. A loud, distorted sound warped, pulling the surrounding noises into itself for a brief moment leaving only an eerie silence in the battlefield before just like the shock wave earlier was abruptly released. 

An ear-shattering reverberation twisted the very air itself, throwing several of the small monsters on the ground. Looking behind them, a faint golden glow could be seen at the moment behind the enemy lines, facing the twisted, mutated shark-headed sahuagin champion.

Since the system was still down due to the maintenance being underway, Aiden couldn't rely on it to proficiently control his own power, causing the current phenomena. Using only his own gathered experiences and feelings, he released the shackles around his powers and released his complete Draconic Aura along with the Goblin Lord's Primal powers. At the same time, his own energy, the [Soul Power] coursed through his body madly, lighting up his entire body.

Behind the golden luster, a Golden Scaled, draconoid figure emerged. The shape of his exotic eyes morphing into lizard-like narrow slits, only added to the light show. Two huge, scaled, spiky sets of leathery wings stretched at the black-haired figure's back with a thick, more than a meter-long tail excitedly tapping the ground below.

He raised his thicker-than-before arms in front of him, equipping a battle-ready martial stance. His curved, ebony claws reflecting the golden shine, creating a terrifying contrast to the holy appearance. 

"Come you oversized dinner! Show me what you got!" His changed, deep voice thundered loudly across the entire battlefield, bringing the attention of the others still deep in their own fights.

"Oh-oh…" Lily looked in his brother's direction with a worried face, before looking at his canine friends. "You guys! Stay here and keep these uglies busy! I need to get to my brother!"

As her trance-like state already ended, Scarlet managed to calm down and regain some of her senses. She looked with a mixture of fright and worry towards Aiden's direction, twisting her head towards Lily when she heard her exclamation.

"What do you mean Lily? What is going on? What did he do?"

However, Lily didn't have the time to explain, she immediately dashed towards the river, joining Drake's frontline, pushing it forward ever-so-slightly.

"Scarlet! Come and help us! We need to get to my brother before it gets worse!" She yelled out with a dire tone. The royal siblings although still befuddled, nodded and joined up to assist the blonde-haired half-elf. Her tone was serious, grave even.

Whatever Aiden was doing, clearly made her deeply worried…

—

Behind the frontline, suddenly the two large figures charged forward, rushing towards each other with slightly similar, but at the same time, vastly different snarling expressions.

Whilst the beast's look was filled with rage, and mindless bloodlust, Aiden's face was contorted into a twisted grin, he was clearly looking forward to this upcoming battle. His blood was boiling, he was waiting for this moment.

Suddenly, as they entered into each other's melee distance, both sides attacked at the same time, not worried about the other's attempt at all. The shark-headed creature raised both of his upper limbs above his head, striking downwards, trying to crush this strange opponent of his into meat paste. 

As for Aiden, his right arm was traversing a fast and short right-winded swiping motion, his hand twisted into a clawing posture, whilst her left hand was already cocked back behind his frame, ready to be shot forward, thrusting towards the beast's torso and plunge deeply below its fish-scaled armored skin as a follow-up.

Still, as he saw the beast's arm closing in from above, Aiden's mind quickly processed the incoming danger and changed the course of both of his arms, shooting them upward creating a barrier with his forearms, attempting to absorb the incoming most likely brutal blow.

Although the movements were rich, the elapsed time was barely a second, as the two sides collided, releasing yet another shock wave of sound and kicking off a sizable amount of dust in the process, engulfing themselves in a cloud of doubt.