Named Monster: - 'Karpil'

'That damn octopus is here again!'

Rio looked back and saw the monster standing right in front of the ship, as if trying to block its way forward.

Seeing this octopus, everyone's mood became gloomy again. Not to mention that they had just suffered heavy casualties a few days ago, and now this S-rank monster appeared at a time like this.

Just like the last time it was here with its huge army, the only change is that now there's no monster above C rank in its army.

It's because they got killed in the last fight.

Unlike low-rank monsters, high-rank monsters are rare; they can't be found so easily.

But still, other than Anna, no one on the ship can fight that octopus.

Just when Rio was thinking all this, suddenly he felt pain in his head. The pain was like an instant killing attack; it directly attacked his consciousness. Rio instantly fainted from the pain and collapsed directly onto the ship floor.

Unknown to others, a creepy smile appeared on the octopus, as if it had accomplished its greatest goal. It started to wave its tentacles in victory. Seeing the octopus so happy, Anna sneered in her heart.

'The heck is this monster so happy about? Does it think that it can win easily just because I am injured?' 

In the last fight against those A-rank monsters, Anna got injured and hasn't recovered fully yet. But she can see that this monster also hasn't recovered from its last wounds yet either.

Yet this guy is celebrating as if it's already victorious. Thinking about this, Anna's face instantly became cold; the anger of losing her perfect record flared up now; her eyes became bloodied, and a crazy smile appeared on her face.

"It's been so long since someone dared to look down on me! Today either you will leave alive or me! I will chase you to the depths of hell today! A mere monster dared look down on this honorable mage! If my colleagues knew of this! Where will my face as a Fire Wizard go!" 

She immediately released her immense aura towards the monster. Yet the monster just ignored her and started to leave instead of fighting. Seeing the monster leave, the expression on Anna's face became even more crazy.

She immediately cast a fly spell on herself and a shield spell on the ship, then she immediately flew in the monster's direction.

Just as the octopus thought it had left the range of the mage's attack, it was immediately greeted by a fire arrow bombardment of a terrifying scale. It was as if the whole sky had been covered by the fire. This is the true might of an S-rank mage.

The octopus became wounded by that sudden attack; it got enraged by this sneak attack and stopped fleeing. It used its huge tentacles, strengthened them with mana, and launched towards the mage. Yet it yielded no result.

Anna just flicked her wand, and a huge hand made of pure blue flames appeared out of nowhere. The hand directly caught the tentacles and burned them to ashes.

Although the octopus monster can regenerate its tentacles, it takes time and energy. If all of its tentacles were destroyed, it would be killed very easily.

The monster applied water affinity to its tentacles this time, giving itself a cover of flames, thus protecting itself from the burn of Anna's fire.

Both of them fought just like this, and their fight continued with one launching a powerful spell as easily as breathing and the other trying to defend itself by covering its body with water.

The monster and Anna were both in a stalemate now; Anna knew that if this continued, she would run out of her mana eventually, and the monster also knew that it couldn't protect itself for long by using water.

The water was being turned into steam by Anna's fire magic, which was hurting the monster itself.

Although it was a little slow, it was hurting it, and the octopus knew it wouldn't be long before it lost its defense.

The stalemate continued for a while, and the unavoidable happened: the monster, not being a mage, exhausted its mana source, which was small in comparison to Anna.

Anna has also used about half of her mana just to exhaust this octopus. But it still has its huge body, which can endure several spell attacks.

The monster, now desperate, began to wave its tentacles wildly towards her. The biggest disadvantage of a monster now showed itself.

Generally, monsters have skills when they evolve, but since almost every monster only depends on their body for everything, they never really train their skills.

Only a few monsters like dragons or phoenixes do train their skills. Another monster just fights with their body.

This causes them to lose the advantage of their huge body when they run out of mana. Without mana, they cannot strengthen their bodies anymore, thus making them vulnerable to the skills of their enemies.

In desperation, the monster used its own body to tank Anna's spells and started to get wounded and exhausted, but Anna was not doing much well either. If this remained the same, both the octopus and Anna would die together here in the battle today.

Even though they knew this, they continued to fight for each other's lives because there was no going back now; this was already a life-or-death battle.

None of them would step back now. Only the death of one party can stop this battle now.

But all of a sudden, the octopus, which was still fighting aggressively until now, went limp.

Its tentacles dropped into the water, lifeless. Its body became pale. Its gigantic body started to sink in water lifelessly, and any sign of life was already absent in its body.

Seeing the monster die so suddenly left Anna confused, but she was already too exhausted to care much, so she immediately left the scene and headed to the ship.

After she landed on the ship, she immediately collapsed on the deck. In the end, the students carried her back to the healer's office.

Everyone thought that Anna was the one who ultimately killed the octopus' monster. The ship continued its way towards the academy, and everything returned to peace. Except for one person.

...

A few hours ago:

Just when Rio collapsed, Lia walked out of the room. She had already recovered from her state of exhaustion, and when she wanted to take a stroll in the fresh air, she found that the ship was under attack.

But due to her still not being fully recovered, she was not able to take part in the battle.

But then she suddenly noticed that Rio couldn't be seen fighting among the students. She knew that Rio had always fought together with other students in every battle, so he couldn't hide somewhere from the battle.

She got worried in her heart and started to look for him, and eventually she found him. He collapsed on the backside of the ship. No one was around here, due to which he was not yet taken to the healer's office. She checked his heartbeat, and he seemed fine to her.

She thought that he had collapsed from exhaustion just like her. So she took him to the healer's office.

The healer said that he was just unconscious and would wake up when he had recovered. So, in the meantime, she just started to take care of him.

...

When he lost consciousness, Rio suddenly felt someone calling him.

He looked towards the direction from which the voice was coming from, and a familiar gigantic octopus appeared in his vision. It was looking down on him as it has always been doing, just like in that strange dream:

"IT'S BEEN SO LONG!!! LAST TIME YOU GOT AWAY DUE TO THAT MAGE'S INTERFERENCE!!! BUT NOW I WON'T LET YOU GO AWAY!!! TODAY YOU WILL DIE!!!"

"Who are you? What do you want from me?" 

"A RAT LIKE YOU!!! YOU DON'T NEED TO KNOW!!! ABOUT THE GREAT FRAGMENTS!!!"

"What fragment?" 

"YOU JUST DIE!!!"

Suddenly, an immense pain assaulted Rio; he felt as if his soul and will were being attacked. He had a feeling that he would die today if he did nothing now.

If his soul collapses, his body will just become a living corpse, which will just continue to breathe and exist without any will of its own, like a rock on the side of a road.

[Ding! Your soul and will are being attacked by the 'Named' monster 'Karpil'!]

[Warning! Defend your will and soul or you will be dead!]

Seeing this message, he became desperate now; all the memories of this world started to flash in his mind.

'Tsk, I didn't expect to encounter a named monster.' 

'A named monster', as it is suggesting, when a monster gains its true name, it becomes a named monster. 'Karpil' is just a single letter of that octopus monster's name.

Generally, when a monster awakens its true name, it is 20 letters long, and in species like dragons and phoenixes, this name can even be as long as 50 words!

Yeah! They have such long names, so they use a letter from their name to use as the representing letter of their name.

A true name gives the power to understand the laws of the world to the monster. Monsters who have accomplished their true name are extremely rare, and they are just like the child of the heavens and are protected by the heavens.

You are thinking, Why would the heavens protect a monster? It's rather simple: humans are not the only species in this world, and all living creatures are creations of the heavenly will.

Every race is equal in its eyes. So, they enjoy their benefits equally. The same goes for monsters. They can achieve the power to understand the law of the world by awakening their true name, but this is extremely rare.

And very few named monsters can live to their prime because they are targeted by several forces all over the world.

The power to understand the laws gives you great help in understanding unusual-type skills, which can be used during battles with your opponents. They have several restrictions on these skills. They generally have a long cooldown time too.

Just as Rio was getting desperate due to the pain, suddenly the pain disappeared as if blocked by an impenetrable wall. All the energy of the attack was absorbed by this wall. It defended his soul and will perfectly.

[An unusual skill has been used on you!]

[True immunity has been activated!]

[The attack has been blocked!]

[The energy of the attack is being absorbed…..Complete!]

[Counter-attacking with the absorbed energy of the unusual skill!]

[Counter-attack successful!]

[The opponent's 'soul' and 'will' have been destroyed due to the counter-attack!]

Just as Rio thought that messages would now stop, he was surprised again by a mysterious notification:

[You have killed the holder of the 'unknown fragment', Karpil; the fragment is being transferred to you now, as a reward!]

'What?'