Chapter 14 - Second Encounter

Three days had passed since Spencer's battle in the lake and his discovery that he was still too weak compared to the real monsters of the Earth. His inevitable defeat was driven into his mind and continued to be replayed constantly.

But unlike before when he was defeated with the same amount of ease by the humongous sea monster, he was not filled with the same rage as before, instead, he was calm to the point it was scary to witness.

For the past two days, he has been cultivating, focusing on all the essence he has absorbed up to this point and fusing them all into one while expressing the traits of all. The process has been going smoothly since the beginning, but now it was becoming harder as some traits didn't mesh well with each other and resisted the fusion.

The essences that he managed to fuse thus far became one with his body, further strengthening it in the process. He could feel his body growing in power, his cells strengthening even more than before, his skin hardened and his bones changed into a more dense material.

Spencer could be seen in a lotus position sitting on top of a rock with his eyes closed, his body releasing steam into the area around him, his cultivation was about to come to an end.

*EXHALE*

Spencer exhaled, discharging a cloud of steam from his body. He opened his eyes and focused his senses, releasing a pulse in the surroundings that gathered information from the vibrations in the atmosphere and relayed it back to Spencer. This pulse was also known as echolocation.

He gained this ability by enhancing the traits of the underwater fish he had absorbed by fusing it with the traits of various land animals, allowing his body to generate a pulse that bounces back and relays an image of his surroundings back to him.

Retracting the pulse, Spencer then began working on a way to have his traits express themselves without his physical appearance changing. This was proving difficult as Spencer's body couldn't achieve this without the aid of supernatural means.

Closing his eyes he continued to focus on his essence, continuing to fuse as many traits as he could until he reached a dead end shortly after. All of his traits have been effectively fused, but he couldn't express them in his human form properly without changing.

*Sigh*

"I suppose that is all I can do at my current level of strength…"

Sitting up from the rock, Spencer jumped down from the top and faced against it. Looking at the rock Spencer squatted down into a horse stance and reared his right arm back with a clenched fist.

The sound of hissing could be heard as Spencer exhaled through his teeth.

Spencer punched forward, his arm becoming a blur as it flew forward.

*BOOM!*

As it came in contact with the rock, the shockwave released from his fist splintered it and sent the tiny sharp fragment flying back into the forest.

"Fusion complete..."

Spencer began making his way back to the same lake he was killed at by that monstrosity, taking his time to not lose his concentration as he walked.

Half an hour later, Spencer was already in the water and he could be seen swimming to the bottom of the lake in his human form at immense speeds. To Spencer, this speed was relatively moderate compared to what he was capable of in his demi-human form.

Reaching the bottom of the lake, he didn't see the creature that had killed him, he could only find the weaker lifeforms at its base. Spencer decided to attract the creature by killing a collection of these smaller animals, painting the sea red with their blood.

Forming his claws, he attacked all the creatures he could find within his range, making sure to absorb all that he could to fuse the traits gained to further strengthen himself and to further increase his advantages in the water with the wide variety of fishes available.

As time continued to pass the lake was turning red from the number of creatures he was killing.

Spencer decided to take a break and wait for the blood to attract the creature to his current position.

Returning to a lotus position floating in the water, Spencer decided to begin fusing his newly gathered traits while waiting for the beast to appear.

Not long after, he sensed something massive enter his sensory zone, flinging his eyes open to observe the newcomer. Finally meeting his expectations, the creature that he was waiting for had appeared, heading towards his location, attracted to the blood scattered in the water.

Watching as the creature drew closer, he came out of the lotus position and immediately went into his improved demi-human form. His body doubled in size and his evolved traits began expressing themselves.

The creature spotted Spencer as well, they both began observing each other as they floated in the water, still several hundred meters away from each other. The massive fish grew excited from the blood in the water and rushed at Spencer in a drive opening its jaws to swallow him whole.

Despite its size being double that of a whale, this creature swam incredibly fast and covered the distance between it and Spencer in an instant. Spencer reacted by swimming out of the creature's charge with moderate difficulty as the beast was massive and adding its speed, fighting it would pose to be a pain in the ass.

Swimming to the right of the creature, Spencer extended his claws and rotated in the water, cutting into the side of it. This didn't affect it much as the creature was too massive causing the wound he inflicted to be minuscule compared to its actual size.

Ignoring Spencer's attack the creature followed up with an assault of its own, swinging its tail into him at high speed as if it was immune to the resistance of water. Colliding with his body Spencer was flung back as he had nothing to brace himself on.

Summoning his wings, he used them to resist the momentum against him flinging him back. The force behind the hit sent him flying into the bottom of the lake imprinting him into the bedrock. Picking himself up, he began to grin.

"Nice, this wouldn't be fun otherwise…"

As he muttered to himself, Spencer planted his feet into the lake's bedrock and launched himself at the creature, resuming the trial for dominance once again.