Titan

'What is that thing?' Aster thought in exasperation.

As he was currently extremely close to the shore, the ocean was not that deep, around 15 meters or so. The forest of 3 meter tall pointy rocks on the seabed combined with skeletal remains of deceased sea monsters gave it an eerie vibe.

And the thing in front of him floated on top of this stone forest like its guardian.

The thing looked like an angler fish mixed with a shark and a giant octopus. It looked like something from a nightmare.

Its main body looked like an angler's but its fin was like a shark's body. It had the signature rod of an angler fish but a giant transparent eye rested on its face, it had no mouth. 3 big octopus tentacles were protruding from the sideways of its head, the place where the gills usually are on fishes. On top of that, dozens if not hundreds of smaller tendrils were spread on its body, constantly moving, trying to latch onto its prey.

It wasn't covered in scales like a fish but rather a tough looking black stuff. Its tentacles were red and had a strange texture on them… like exposed flesh.

But that wasn't even the weirdest part. The weird part was that it had no trace of mana nor aura which was simply impossible yet here it was.

The fact that it did not have aura means it's an undead, but it would have had miasma reanimating it if that was the case. It didn't have mana which means it's not an undead revived by a necromancer or a creation like flesh golem or something like that.

Aster was not an expert but he could see that the abomination defied common sense.

Defied common sense…

Aster's eyes widened even more at this realization.

'A Titan, Is this a Titan?'

He used [True Sight] to confirm his suspicions but something unexpected happened.

[Analysis of the soul membrane is impossible]

He was dazed. This was different from Blake or the demons. He could see some stuff from the demons but not the details due to their different soul structure and Blake who made his soul literally unobservable.

'How?'

He was scared yet intrigued.

'The water… It's awfully calm. Shouldn't I be getting swept by the current? Is this thing making the water like this? Was the water under its control this whole time and that's why it didn't accept my mana?'

'How powerful is its control over water? Can it use water in combat? Is it even sentient enough to do that?;

He was broken out of his daze when he saw a light a bit away from the abomination.

A silver feathered bird, desperately struggling to run away from the thing, sunray reflecting from its feathers.

The abomination was slowly drifting towards it, using its tendrils to grapple onto any rock, shells and skeletons to get closer to the bird.

It also moved weirdly, despite having an eye and a 'face', it didn't face towards it but rather kept going backwards.

His eyes once again changed colors into fiery crimson and glowed with determination.

'Titan or not, I will kill you. I owe too much to that bird to let it die like that.'

He controlled his mana and fused it with the elemental particles of the ground and willed it to go upwards and a perfect square with 3 meter side lengths rose up with moderate speed.

The stone tower stood 20 meters above the ocean, out of the abomination's reach.

A fleshy tentacles stretched towards the place where the bird was a second ago and collided with a rock. Then it suddenly shot towards Aster who had his mobility sealed by the aquatic environment. He dodge the upcoming attack by a hair's breadth and hugged a stone pillar to keep himself steady.

The fleshy abomination stopped, its hollow eye staring at Aster. Then it took a small step towards him, followed by another and another.

Aster didn't move even though he needed to breathe. He had a sneaking suspicion that it was waiting for him to go up for air and then pull him back.

They stared at each other, the distance between them slowly reducing but not by much.

Eventually though, Aster had to give up. He slowly ascended up without letting his eyes leave the target. He had hoped that his magic aura sense wouldn't fail him twice in case something else tried to ambush him.

He got closer and closer to the water surface. With one last kick, he broke through it and got a taste of the fresh cold air.

Without further ado, he made a stone platform for himself, 3 meters above the sea with a 20 meter radius.

"Can't fight you in the sea, can't fight you in the sea." He said to himself, and stood in the middle of the platform.

[Mana: 101/1000]

[Energy: 872/1470]

"This should be enough or I'm dead."

'I wonder if its meat is edible. Both me and the bird could use a snack right now.'

Aster held his breath and waited for the Titan to come out.

It never came.

He waited and waited for a solid 10 minutes but nothing.

He glanced towards the pillar of the bird and sighed in relief. He could sense its mana and aura so he knew it was still alive.

'What a tenacious bastard. I wish I was like that too.'

He sighed. He was sighing a lot these days.

He screamed internally 'WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?'

He turned around, expecting a stealth attack but nothing.

He closed his eyes for a bit and opened them again, nothing.

He paced around the platform. He thought that the monstrosity left at first but he changed his mind once he saw the ocean. Normally there would be fierce waves but it was as calm as a pond without the smallest wave.

He thought about going into the ocean and then jumping back up after getting its aggro again but quickly dismissed the idea.

'Bad idea, bad idea! You don't even know how strong it is or what skills it has!'

Hours passed, the thirst and the hunger were becoming unbearable.

He went to the bird repeatedly to check up on it and built a small stone cave for it to rest. He used [True sight] on it to appraise its condition.

[Race: Juvenile Silverwing Eagle]

[Lv: 16]

[Rank: Advanced, Standard]

[Core: Stage 3/13]

[Hp: 120/520] [Energy: 0/2700] [Mana: 700/700]

[Strength: 43] [Agility: 111]

[Endurance:135] [Vitality:26]

[Mana:28] [Intelligence: 20]

[Dexterity: 46] [Perception: 27]

[Elemental affinity: Ice]

[Unique skills: Lunar guidance Lv 2]

[Passive skills: Enhanced endurance Lv 2, Enhanced Vision Lv 3]

[Active skills: Poke Lv 1, Dash Lv 1]

[Status: Exhausted]

'Not bad I guess. It's a different race than its mother though. Come to think of it, can I-'

He scanned its soul and found what he was looking for.

[Age: 63 days(2 months and 2 days)]

[Gender: Male]

Aster nodded in satisfaction. 'Ahh, so you're a male then. That answers one of my questions. And barely 2 months old? Damn.'

After satisfying his curiosity, he got back to his platform and waited. He just couldn't get rid of his paranoia.

Hours passed and the sun became blazing hot.

Aster's legs gave up and he laid down to rest.

'So this is your plan? To wear me down? You sly fucker.'

In the end Aster gave up once again and stepped closer to the edge.

"Come and get me." He says before the calm water surface bursts open.

SPLOOOSH

A giant 7 meter wide dark red monster jumped out.

The disgusting flesh tendrils flailed around frantically which was a direct contrast to its previous behavior.

PLOP

The fish landed on top of the platform with a wet plop sound.

Aster grinned "Finally. I thought you ran away."

"SCRAAAAA"

'Huh!?'

Right before Aster's very eyes, 6 big humanoid legs grew on its sides.

Aster facepalmed "Wait, weren't you supposed to be a sea creature?"

Then he remembered. Titans have great adaptability so changing the environment to give oneself an advantage when fighting a Titan is useless.

"And here I thought my comprehension was high enough." He lamented.

"No use crying now. [Gale cutter]!"