CHAPTER 132: | THE TRUE OVERSEER OF THE FOREST

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  "How much longer do we need to walk, Samantha?"

  I asked the question not out of curiosity, as I've already knew the exact location, but purely in a way to irritate, a specific hobby that I adopted in order to annoy her, and it worked perfectly.

  Samantha, who had been humming gently like a nightingale amidst the vastness of the forest, stopped, her brow lifted, she turned her head toward me, thoroughly irritated that I kept pestering her with these pointless inquiries.

  She glared with the ferocity of a warrioress ready to beat the living hell out of me, but she bit her lip in reluctance before muttering sharply.

  "For the Abyss’ sake, how many times have you asked me these pointless questions, Alister? For the fifth time?! Please shut up and just follow me like a mute puppy, since you're such an all-knowing, all-powerful man!"

  I raised an eyebrow at her description of me as a puppy, but then I just laughed it off, I had noticed her annoyance, perhaps it was genuine, but I could also tell that she was madly in love with me, enough to want to tear me apart with just a glare.

  "Huhuhu. This is getting interesting. Should I stop? But... huhuhu!"

  Hearing me laughers along with my dread comments she clenched her teeth, but then she heard him cackling again like a shoddy, third-rate villain, Samantha couldn't help but be enraged.

  She clenched her fist, then relaxed it, likely deciding it wasn't ladylike to punch me, instead, she smiled in a twisted manner, softly laughing with the chilling voice of a death god ready to reap a soul.

  "Hehee... are you annoying me on purpose? If so, then congratulations, you have succeeded in thinning out my last bit of patience... now what? Why are you silent?"

  Huhuhu, just hearing her mutter those words sent a thrill running through my nonexistent spine, I guessed it was time to stop teasing her, I knew something truly bad would happen if I pushed this for a final time.

  While it was interesting to poke a hornet's nest, I knew the consequences jumping into one was pure stupid, I had my fun share at teasing her, to see a variety of vivid emotions paint her usually stiff face, so I decided to retreat.

  I took a step forward, placing my hand on her hip as I whispered softly in her ear.

  "Alright, I'll stop teasing you... it's just that I love seeing you show your emotions without restraint. It shows me how beautiful you truly are."

  Her expression, which had been sour enough to curdle milk, slowly brightened at my masterfully crafted compliment,

  I looked away, eyeing the forest of kelp that towered over the enormous mountain peaks around us.

  It stretched for miles, covered in lush, verdant vegetation, kelp, vines, and aquatic herbs unknown to common men, I smiled, turning my attention to the south.

  I felt something lurking there, it was a school of mortal fish that swam across the kelp forest, while sharks and whales drifted through the water above eyeing at them.

  Though there were too many lifeforms to account for, I still smiled, I knew where the true overseer of this place was, and exactly how I could draw the other three in.

  Ten miles to the south, a dashing figure appeared, it was a serpentine creature traveling at a speed invisible to the naked eye.

  Its fins majestically cut through the water, the translucent blue scales covering its body crackling with latent power, it's horns glowed with a bluish light, and its eyes, resembling the eye of a storm, crackled with wisdom.

  It smiled with confidence founded in its acute vision that could see for miles, in hearing that perceived the whispers of the tiniest frequency, in speed that allowed it to cross a hundred meters in less than a second, and in the destructive power to obliterate an entire mountain with a single breath.

  It charged at the two invaders daring to sully its territory, moving like a spear cutting through the waters, faster than any being that didn't wield the power of thunder, but then, it heard a sound.

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  Snap!

  The sound of a finger flicking, then the towering mountain peaks all around the dragon began to dissolve into fine powder, sliding down to create artificial dunes.

  The dragon was angered, it charged with renewed ferocity until it arrived a mile away from the mongrels, but suddenly, a female sand sculpture intercepted it.

  The dragon mercilessly crushed the figure with a single sweep of its tail, but before it could bask in its glory, tens of thousands of female sculptures rose from the silt, surrounding it.

  Then, it heard the a soothing melody playing from a distance, it turned it's head and saw them, its prey weren't fleeing in it's great pressence, instead they were leisurely dancing.

  "Huhuhu."

  I grabbed Samantha's hand, bending my knees in a curt bow that only nobles of the olden times performed, lowering my head to press my lips against the back of her hand, I stared into her eyes seductively.

  "Then, let us dance."

  It was a sudden invitation, Samantha was caught off guard, but she joined me nonetheless, she took her steps in grace, swirling while watching the sky around her flicker with thunder as hundreds of Valkyries were destroyed every passing second.

  Samantha glanced at me, I didn't speak much, preoccupied with controlling the ten thousand Valkyries in the sky while battling an enormous Sea Dragon that stretched for more than a hundred meters.

  "I find it interesting that you're able to control those things in the sky in intricate detail without even forfeiting your ability to move," she remarked, following my lead. "While my Master could freeze time itself, it is a different matter to masterfully control ten thousand sculptures of these Valkyries created by fine grains of sand, a difficulty that I admire."

  I smiled at her compliment but remained focused, because losing control over these puppets would meant that I’d have to trouble myself to utilize mercy to cut this snake in half, which in essence was unnecessary.

  So, I smiled and Marionetted the dolls to move with a dexterity none could replicate, the water was filled with human-like sand sculptures, thousands in number.

  These sculptures moved in synchronization, yet each seemed to possess its own thought, its own unique flair, their spears moved in unison, but the essence of their movements varied, creating a chaotic harmony as they fought the towering beast that wielded lightning, turning the landscape into a hellscape.

  The dragon's breath melted tens of Valkyries into pure molten glass with a single swipe of its tail, it shattered the glass, sending shards flying toward us as we danced in the open.

  But the dragon was shocked, as a pair of giant hands rose from the ground to intercept the shards, while the clay dolls moved in sync, tearing at its flesh again and again.

  It felt like it was fighting a never-ending battle of pure pain and grit, but before it could think of a solution, the Valkyries had already lifted their spears.

  With one particular Valkyrie, spear taking on a more solid appearance, shouted with zeal.

  "THE FIRST ZEN OF DISTORTION: VALKYRIE STYLE: SPEAR OF THE HIGH HEAVENS."

  Without hesitation, all the Valkyries took off, in the next instant, their forms vanished from reality, reappearing tens of meters away from the Sea Dragon in a single step, then, they vanished altogether and appeared right next to it.

  But the Sea Dragon, with wisdom palpable in its ancient eyes, merely snorted at their slowness, it moved in the speed of lightning, a velocity these clay dolls could only dream of, then with a single sweep of its tail, all the dolls broke into pieces.

  It smirked at its victory, lurching upward in impatience, knowing they would regenerate at any second, then it calmed it's excitement that is distractingits preparation, as it was preparing to unleash ultimate attack.

  Its gills flared intensely while its fins crackled with blue lightning, the energy arcing across its body in a menacing display.

  It opened its mouth, then gathered all the lightning mana scattered in the atmosphere toward the center of its maw, creating a small sphere of compressed lightning, as it rapidly expanded.

  I could detect a thousand units of mana compacted into it, no, I was mistaken, I could now faintly detect more than five thousand units of mana inside that small ball, which had now swelled to over a meter in diameter.

  The Sea Dragon stared at us for the last time, then unleashed it with a deafening howl.

  Rooooar!

  In an instant, the thunder ball, pale blue and crackling, launched from its maw, its head was pushed back from the recoil as the ball of compressed thunder zipped through the water, its form turning into a blur of pure electricity.

  It reappeared tens of meters away from my defense, but before it could touch us, time seemed to stop, a pair of hands appeared from the walls.

  In the next second, that very hand swirled around the energy, and in the next, moment the ball of pure thunder launched backwards with more ferocity than before, phasing through the Sea Dragon in an instant.

  The dragon, witnessing this, was in pure disbelief, it couldn't believe that its strongest attack had been turned against it, the spell it had honed for a lifetime was futile against a monster it couldn't comprehend, but amidst the of the pain, of its form being severed in an instant, the Water Dragon heard an arrogant voice in its final moments.

  "THE FIRST ZEN OF DISTORTION: IRIECE STYLE: RETURN OF THE VAST RIPPLES."

  Then time seemed to flow back, the Sea Dragon lost its consciousness in the next moment consumed by the dark embrace of death, as it's severed form slowly fell to the seabed.

  A mile behind it, a loud explosion erupted as the thunder ball expanded outwardly, a catastrophe that turned the dunes into glass before compressing into nothingness.

  KRA-KOOM!

  This was a fight hardly worthy of my attention, but I guessed it would suffice, Samantha needed the levels to reach the realm of the Emperors.

  I sighed, pressing my chest against her as I guided her waist one last time, then, with a step, we vanished from the ballroom and appeared next to the fallen carcass of the Sea Dragon, I kicked its head until the skull cracked open, peering inside before muttering coldly.

  "I guess you're reaching Tier Six this instance, right?"

  Hearing my words, Samantha hummed a melancholy tune, finishing her graceful steps, she pulled a revolver strapped to her leg and pointed it mercilessly at the cracks within the dragon's skull.

  She coldly pulled the trigger.

  "Mana Bullet."