4 The Battle Maniac Capricorn

In an ocean hundreds of miles away from the Land of Dawn, a great battle was being waged amid raging waves.

The location seemed as if it had once been a shrine, but what remained at that moment were nothing but a few sturdy pillars with mysterious inscriptions which rose from beneath the ocean bed.

A great roar was heard, and a gigantic creature appeared atop the ocean. It was a blue turtle who had multicolored glowing runes emanating from its body. With a single glance one would realize that this was not another mere giant turtle which were known to inhabit the oceans.

This behemoth's body spanned for over five hundred meters and it's ancient presence was one which would cause anyone to tremble.

It was none other than the legendary God Beast said to exist since the beginning of time in the Land of Dawn.

At that moment, it was in an enraged state and it had countless scars on its shell as well as its head. But it was still unyieldingly blowing spheres of energy from its jaws at a humanoid silhouette standing upon one of the pillars. All the while it was recovering from its injuries at a pace visible to the naked eye.

That figure had a mighty presence about him despite being covered in blood, that which only belongs to gods of war who had survived countless epic battles against mythical beings.

As another sphere of energy closed in on him, the figure used his famed double swords, Ashura's Teeth, to perform a downward slash and redirect it into the ocean. Then he jumped from his position, lunging straight at the gigantic left eye of the turtle with a mad roar.

'Finally! Now you have one more blind side to you hahahaha!' thought the battle crazed Martis. He had been exploiting the turtle's limited vision and battlefield awareness all this time to outmaneuver it in an attempt to defeat it. Now he inwardly celebrated his success of creating one such weakness in the behemoth before him.

But his ecstasy was short lived. With a piercing scream sounding out from its mouth, the turtle suddenly gathered and compressed millions of runes around itself. Sensing immense danger unlike ever before and aware that this was not a fight he could win yet, Martis used his final trump card.

'It's too bad that this thing isn't very sentient or this would have been an even greater catalyst for me to improve', sighed Martis. He had known that he had yet to reach a level to defeat a mythical being such as the one before him, but he had still wanted to test his limits. And he was not disappointed.

Martis suddenly gave a loud roar at the skies. Along with that roar, the skies suddenly turned bright and starlight descended upon him. The zodiac sign of the Capricorn appeared in the sky and the armor on Martis changed and miniature versions of star alignments appeared around him.

He condensed his power in his awakened form just in time to receive the wrath of the turtle. The already gathered runes were further compressed at its mouth, and as if spitting out all its accumulated rage, the condensed sphere of immense energy which could decimate an entire continent was unleashed right at Martis.

The impact made all the starlit patterns and alignments around Martis' body shatter and blasted him for hundreds of miles into the distance. He could barely hold himself conscious as he thought that this was the most life threatening danger he had been in since he gained his title as the Ashura King.

He finally crashed into a distant piece of land, creating a deep crater in the ground for hundreds of meters around him. As he lay there about to let himself fade into unconsciousness, he felt a tingle within himself. He immediately opened his eyes wide and stood up despite his critical injuries.

Martis turned his head to look towards the distant land he had been traveling towards before he came across the shrine of the Turtle. He could vaguely see a starlit pattern in the sky in that direction.

His tired expression immediately faded and was replaced with exhilaration. He could feel it, a kindred warrior blessed by the Zodiac has appeared! This was the first time he had ever felt such excitement, for he knew that anyone who could receive the blessings of the Zodiac was worthy of being his opponent.

As he calmed himself down and laid down to recover his strength, Martis roared at the sky, 'I knew it was the correct decision to visit this plane. This plane is clearly different from the three thousand worlds.. the legends of Mythical warriors existing in the Land of Dawn are true after all! Just wait for me! I will come battle you all!'