Second Encounter

Another week had gone by since Aziel's battle in the bottom of the seabed and his gruesome discovery that he was still too weak compared to the true lords of this world.

His inevitable defeat was driven deep into his mind, he carried it like a battle scar: a constant reminder to quell his rising arrogance.

Still, unlike before when he met his first few deaths, he wasn't filled with the same rage as before. Instead, he was calm to the point it would have been scary to bore witness to.

Realizing his mistakes in losing himself with the newfound pleasure of unleashing his inner beast, Aziel finally shifted his mindset and has been cultivating. He was focused on trying to analyze all this newfound essence he had absorbed, alongside this energy he had named as [Aether].

He has also been focusing on the hundreds of traits, abilities he had picked up he has absorbed up to this point and began fusing them all together, whilst expressing their dominant traits.

Carried by his past life's experiences, the process has been going smoothly most of the time, however, reaching the present the process has become harder and harder.

Through the hundreds of traits, some that were smaller just didn't mesh well with others and kept on resisting 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.

On top of a lonesome rock sat Aziel in a lotus position. His eyes closed, his body was releasing steam into the area around him. His cultivation session that had taken his last week almost completely was about to come to an end.

*EXHALE!*

Aziel suddenly exhaled, discharging a large cloud of steam from his body. Opening his eyes and focusing his senses, he released an invisible pulse of energy into his surroundings. This ripple of [Aether], one of the new abilities he picked up after modifying a pretty simple skill [Mana Sense] from Nova rippled across the space around, gathering information from the miniature vibration in the atmosphere and proceeded to relay it back to its caster.

He realized this ability after gaining a similar ability, echolocation from the underwater fish he had absorbed. After fusing it with some other traits with similar functionality from the various land dwellers, his body was now capable of generating these energy pulses, more accommodating to this new source instead of mana.

In functionality it wasn't too overly complicated, after a pulse bounced back, it relayed an image of his surroundings back to him, gradually drawing a map in his mind.

Thankfully to his experience dealing with a similar ability that drew from his now non-existent pool of mana, Aziel had a fairly deep experience with the ability. He could ignore the slight increase in burden that it weighed on his mind.

Retracting the pulse, Aziel then began working on a way to have his traits express themselves without his physical appearance changing. This was proving difficult as his 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 current form properly without changing.

*Sigh*

"I suppose that is all I can do at my current level of strength… Still seems to be missing something…"

He lamented, feeling that whilst he did gain a considerable boost in terms of strength and power, something was still missing.

He felt as if he was on the brink of achieving something monumental. He was on the brink of a major breakthrough, he was just missing that invisible push…

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

The sound of hissing could be heard as Aziel exhaled through his gritted teeth. He punched forward, his arm becoming a blur as it flew across the air.

*BOOM!*

As his hand 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.

"Hmm… This has to do for now… Let's just hope it's enough."

With a stern look on his face, Aziel nodded at the sight before him before he turned around and began making his way back to the same lake he was killed at by that titanic monstrosity, taking his time to not lose his concentration as he walked.

Half an hour later, Aziel 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 him, 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. Aziel 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 store the surplus energy and be just a bit more prepared for the hardest fight of his new life. Every bit of advantage further increased his chances of surpassing this gigantic hurdle.

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

Aziel 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, Aziel decided to begin fusing his newly gathered traits while waiting for the beast to appear.

He didn't need to wait for too long, not long after he began cultivating he suddenly sensed something massive entering his sensory zone.

Flinging his eyes open to observe the newcomer, a small smile appeared across his face. Finally meeting his expectations, the creature that he was waiting for had decided to show itself!

It headed towards his location attracted to the blood scattered in the water.

Watching as the creature drew closer, Aziel stood up and without wasting a single moment, instantly transformed into his demi-human battle form. His body swelled up, doubling in size, his evolved traits began expressing themselves.

Spotting its opponent as well, both sides began observing each other as they floated in the water, still several hundred meters away from each other.

The massive aquatic predator growing more and more excited from the smell of blood floating around them, it couldn't hold itself back any longer and rushed at Aziel in a drive. Opening its jaws, it tried to swallow him in whole.

Despite its size being double that of a whale, the creature swam incredibly fast and covered the distance between it and Aziel in an instant.

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

Ignoring Aziel'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 Aziel 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, Aziel planted his feet into the lake's bedrock and launched himself at the creature, resuming the trial for dominance once again.

Cutting through the water, Aziel was like a modern-day missile as he charged in the direction of the beast

Gritting his teeth from the water resistance against him, Aziel made his mouth into a beak to help him rip through the water, picking up speed as he advanced towards the creature. The massive beast observed his advance and noticed his rapid increment in speed.

*SWISH!*

The creature quickly evaded his attack and watched as Aziel shot past it. Retracting his beak, he spun around to charge at the creature once more.

But before he could initiate his second charge, the beast was already en route, reaching directly in front of Aziel.

Before he had any chance to react, -let alone evade-, it slammed its jaws shut on Aziel, swallowing him whole.

However, before it had the chance to completely consume him and end the battle, Aziel clenched his fists and punched the roof of the creature's mouth.

This forced the creature's mouth to swing open with tremendous force, allowing Aziel to escape its jaws and swim away from it.

'WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TO THINK YOU CAN SWALLOW ME?!' He screamed with rage inside his head.

He was angered by the fact that the creature had almost swallowed him in that instant. He began to think, trying to come up with a plan so he could quickly defeat it in the most brutal manner possible.

His body began to heat up once more, but upon realizing this, Aziel calmed himself to not lose his ability to think rationally in this fight.

Right now he needed to be in his top form if he wants to survive this fight.

Swimming in the direction of the creature, Aziel extended his claws and concentrated on making them stronger. This caused his body to react by enhancing them further, causing his claws to glint with an unnatural aura of sharpness.

Arriving at his intended target, he swung his claws at the creature.

The creature seeing this decided not to charge headfirst, as it could sense the danger radiating from Aziel's claws. Instead, it decided to swing its tail back at him, aiming to knock him away.

This did not work as Aziel sunk his claws into the creature's tail causing it to shriek in pain.

Taking this opportunity, Aziel used his claws to climb onto the creature's back from the tail, stabbing his way forward with each step of the way.

This placed the body of the creature in complete agony as his claws were constantly digging into its back.

Trying to shake its pesky opponent off, the creature began thrashing around erratically in a frantic attempt to take him off of its back.

Not letting go, Aziel held on and continued to stab the beast deep in its flesh.

Driven reckless by the constant pain, the creature grew desperate and swam to a nearby underwater hill and slammed itself into it.

Aziel was forced off from the collision and was now embedded deep into the wall of the hill the creature slammed into.

"Argh…"

He released a painful grunt that was enhanced by him being under the water. The collision had shaken him and forced him to let go of the creature's back.

No longer feeling its enemy on its back, the beast felt relieved. However, this relief was soon replaced by rage; the creature turned around and looked at Aziel. Seeing him implanted in the wall, pure hatred emanated from its sinister eyes.

Aziel was still disoriented, he stood motionless as he was not prepared for the collision. The creature drew back and rammed into Aziel with a large force, further imprinting him into the hill.

The creature's charge had him with full force, due to the hill being stationary behind him.

Trying to move to escape, the beast rammed itself into him a second time. The collision had broken several of Aziel's ribs, causing him a great deal of pain in the process.

The beast had rammed into him several more times before retreating to observe Aziel's current condition.

His body was almost completely broken, his ribs were shattered, his spine fractured and all the other bones in his body were greatly damaged.

He was rendered immobile.

Falling from his hole in the hill, Aziel's body descended to the bottom of the lake.

The creature wasn't finished with him though, it backed up and rammed into Aziel for the final time with all of its strength, creating a second crater at the bottom of the hill.

Aziel's mind was in turmoil from the pain he was under. His body was utterly broken and he could not move at all. It was a miracle that he was still conscious at all, the assault he had just endured by the hands or the fins of the creature was brutal beyond anything he had experienced in even his previous life.

The creature observed him, watching as Aziel's body lifelessly rested on the ocean floor.

Seeing this, the beast concluded that he was dead.

He wasn't that far off, Aziel was on the very edge of dying, he was barely conscious at this point, his body was screaming with pain.

*THUMP!*

Suddenly, the resonance of a heartbeat could be felt vibrating through the lake, growing stronger with each passing beat.

*THUMP!!*

The vibrations grew stronger as the heartbeat increased exponentially, beating with the rhythm of a drum.

...

The source of these vibrations is pinpointed to the broken, battered, and bruised body laying on the lake's floor.

The rate of the heartbeat expanded out of control, Aziel's body was beginning to pulse in response to this heartbeat. He began to emit a golden glow followed by intense heat as his body began to self-repair itself with uncanny efficiency.

His shattered ribs reformed and all the bones in his body fused back together, reversing all the damage he had suffered. His body also gained a benefit from this experience as well.

[Essence Restitute] once again growing stronger, more efficient, it shifted into a higher gear as it reformed, reconstructed Aziel once more, whilst also enhancing it based on all that suffering he had just gone through.

The lights emanated from his body had attracted the attention of the creature to his recovery. Observing Aziel, the beast was confused as to what was happening.

It had never experienced something like this before.

Fully recovered, the light from his body faded. Aziel was completely healed, his mind was now clear, his body surged with a new realm of strength within him. Picking himself up from the lake floor, not fully understanding what had just transpired within his body.

Aziel had no time to think further on the matter as the creature that almost caused yet another one of his deaths attacked him once again.

Swinging its massive tail at his body as it did at the beginning of the fight, it was sure that a few slaps would put this pesky being in its place.

Aziel who wasn't paying attention didn't react to the incoming attack.

The creature slammed its massive tail into him, expecting to knock him back into the hill.

Contrary to its belief, Aziel was still in the same spot as he was before, his body only slightly shifted from the impact.

'Huh?'

Snapping out of his thoughts when he felt something hit his side, Aziel turned to see the tail of the creature. He remembered that he was in a battle of life and death to determine who was the strongest just a moment ago, he angrily punched the creature's tail.

*SHRIEK!*

Aziel's punch had blown a hole into the tail of the beast, causing immense pain to it. The punch was followed by a burst of water pressure, sending a shockwave through the seabed.

Aziel didn't know what to say or think about this change, he was perplexed by how his body grew suddenly so strong.

"What is all this power? Why is it so… different?"

While he returned to his thoughts, the creature regained some of its composure and attacked Aziel once again.

Sensing it approaching, he looked in its direction, noticing he no longer felt threatened by its existence, unlike a few moments ago when he was mercilessly crushed by it.

As the creature approached him, it opened its jaws and clamped down on Aziel.

This action caused the creature to wince even more, as its teeth shattered when it came into contact with Aziel's new body.

His upper torso was inside the mouth of the creature, unharmed, barely feeling anything from the attack as he already evolved past this creature.

Seeing its struggle, Aziel decided to put the beast out of its misery, he clenched his fist and punched the creature's upper jaw.

This time, the punch badly blew the creature's face completely off, killing it instantly.

Not surprised by the slightest of how easily he ended the beast at this point, he silently absorbed its huge carcass into himself and fused its traits with the others.

With the large carcass vanishing in the blink of an eye and fusing into him, Aziel turned towards the surface yet again. His eyes carried an unnatural calm, unperturbed by the climactic fight he was just baptized with.