Chapter 114: The Defying

Swimming in here took ten times the effort—there was no way that a sea should be this suffocating and dense for something living to see as home.

Some of that nasty water caught my lungs, but thankfully my all-healing blood ended up removing them after a solid five seconds after deeming them too harmful for my body.

"Pwuah!" My head was above the raging sea, and it was as hard as it sounded to maintain my nose above the surface. Though, after I got a single calm tide, I could just pull myself up from the depth like I was in a pool. "This is the worst day ever since yesterday."

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The fight was no longer confined to the ship. We were in the unnatural depths now, fighting amidst the cursed waves that seemed eager to swallow me whole. I gasped for breath, but I refused to let the despair seep in.

I still have my killing-pain as my pain-killer, afterall. Sure, it was an oxymoron, but it works.

And I started to be able to read that bastard's nearly unavoidable attack.

I charged at him, water sloshing around me as I swung my Stormhooks in wide arcs, aiming for his head, his chest—anywhere that I could land a blow.

But he was faster than I anticipated. His anchor moved like a battering ram, smashing through the water with devastating force.

Each blow sent shockwaves through the cursed sea, and I was forced to dive, twist, and lunge in desperate attempts to avoid the world-ending strikes.

I managed to land a glancing blow, my hook slicing through the Revenant's arm. Black ichor seeped from the wound, sizzling as it hit the water, but the Revenant barely noticed. His void-filled eyes gleamed with cold fury, and he swung his anchor once more, aiming to crush me beneath its weight.

I parried the strike with both of my hooks, but the force of the blow sent me careening through the water.

"Guh!!"

The spell of buoyancy finally gave out after twenty meters, and I began to sink, the cursed sea dragging me deeper into its oily depths. I worked twice as hard to recover myself to the turmoiling surface.

And there, the Drowned Revenant towered over me, his grotesque form seething with an unnatural, overwhelming aura. His otherwordly face seemed to warp with each step, barnacles shifting and seaweed constricting like living chains around his bloated flesh. His voice echoed across the deck, a guttural, wet hiss that seemed to crawl under my skin.

"You persist, even in the face of oblivion," he rasped, his tone dripping with amusement. "But you will learn, as they all have, that the sea takes everything in time."

He raised one decayed arm, and the very sea seemed to respond to his command. Massive octopus-like tendrils erupted from the oily waters, writhing and thrashing as they crashed onto the deck, each impact shaking the cursed ship like it was made of brittle bones.

And then I saw it, an unholy army of sailors catching up to me from every direction of the sea.

The crew—undead, soulless wretches—now moved with renewed purpose, as if the Drowned Revenant's presence fueled them. Their eyes gleamed with a savage hunger, limbs moving with unnatural speed as they surged toward me once again, this time accompanied by the writhing, undulating mass of tendrils and the ship itself bending to his will.

I leapt forward, my Stormhooks slicing through the air, but it didn't matter. No matter how many times I cut them down, no matter how many wounds I inflicted, the Revenant's forces rose again, endless and unyielding.

And yet, I smiled.

It was a cold, manic grin that spread across my face despite the mounting chaos around me. My attacks didn't matter, my strikes didn't land the way I wanted them to—but I didn't care. Not anymore. Sёarᴄh the Novelƒire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

The pain coursing through my body was enough to keep me grounded, to keep me sane. Each new wound was a reminder that I was still here, still alive, and still capable of defiance. My golden blood continued to flow like a river of torment, but it was a torment I embraced.

It was a hell that I chose to face because I want to show that bastard what I was made of, after all.

The Drowned Revenant's tendrils lashed out, striking with terrifying precision. One wrapped around my waist, pulling me off from my turmoiling foothold and hoisting me into the air. My bones creaked under the pressure, and the sailor's chants grew louder in my ears, a cacophony of madness that threatened to drown me.

But even as I felt the crushing force of the tendril tightening around me, I laughed.

"Hahahaha… Come on! Is this all you've got!?"

With a sharp twist of my wrist, I slammed one of my Stormhooks into the fleshy tendril, golden blood splattering across its surface.

The reaction was immediate—the tendril recoiled as if burned, releasing me from its grasp. I fell back onto the deck with a satisfying thud, barely sparing a moment before I was on my feet again, charging forward.

The Revenant's gaze followed my every move, his monstrous form shifting with the sea itself. His many void-like eyes gleamed as he spoke, his voice now laced with something more than amusement—rage.

"You dare defy the will of the sea? You think you can stand against me, mortal?"

I grinned, wiping the blood from my face, my mind buzzing with the euphoria of combat.

"I don't just defy you," I snarled, "I'm going to enjoy breaking you."

The Revenant howled, his form growing more monstrous by the second. More tendrils, more undead, more madness. The sea around us churned violently, dark and bottomless. It was as if the entire realm was collapsing, spiraling into oblivion with the Drowned Revenant as its center.

But I wasn't afraid.

The world could burn around me, and I would still laugh.

I charged again, my Stormhooks gleaming with the golden blood that now coated them, anointing them with the essence of unrelenting life to the undead.

Each swing was wild, brutal, and unrelenting. Every impact sent ripples through the mass of tendrils and undead, each cut laced with the divine, venomous liquid that kept me sane in this hellish fight.

I care nary of the wound inflicted to my by the worthless minions, so I only focused on that big ugly bastard's attack. This saved me a lot of brain power with how little Consciousness that I currently possessed.

And all the while, the Revenant's twisted laughter echoed through the storm.

"All paths lead to death," he hissed, his army of tentacles lashing out again. "Just like all road to hell was paved with good intention."

I threw myself headlong into the fray, laughing maniacally through the blood and the chaos.