Evan took a deep breath, balancing himself on a floating monster's corpse as he stared out over the ocean.
Around him, the sea creatures seethed in the waves, an endless tide of scales, fangs, and tentacles that rose and fell in against the demons.
"Alright, Evan."
He muttered to himself, rolling his shoulders to loosen up.
"You've done this before. You're the genius gamer. First guy to beat Aidos Online. You know what to do. Just think about it like farming…just in reality this time."
Taking deep breaths and relaxing his tense muscles, he wiped the blood from his face, wincing slightly as he grazed a cut.
"Farming for materials. Farming for EXP. Same process as levelling up those side characters, right?"
He summoned his sword and began infusing his energy into it.
"What's the most efficient way to farm?"
He dashed forward and sliced through a serpent-like creature, feeling the resistance of scales give way to flesh as he continued.
"Simple. Gather them all in one place, and cut them down in a single blow."
A vortex of energy began to swirl around his blade, the air around him thickening as he poured his power into it.
The whirling mass of energy created a whirlwind, pulling every creature around him into its grasp. He moved his sword horizontally and the Vortex dragged in more monsters into its path.
Then he pulled his blade out of the centre of the Vortex, and spun around, using Hell Unleashed.
His slash of flames made the vortex erupt in a hellish blaze, incinerating the writhing mass of monsters caught within. Charred remains fell into the sea, and black smoke rose in the aftermath.
"No…that's not enough.
I need to be more efficient. And faster."
Before he could continue, a strange shimmer caught his attention. Three figures suddenly spawned in his field of view.
Beautiful women, their features alluring, with each one more captivating than the last.
However, all Evan could feel was confusion at the sight.
"Huh? Where did they come from?"
He hadn't sensed anything until his eyes caught sight of them, and that instantly made him wary.
But rather than attack him, the women opened their mouths, and the most enchanting melody poured forth, filling the air around him.
It was undisputedly the best singing he had ever heard in his life.
But the boy knew that this song was NOT something he wanted to hear. He didn't even need to hear Danger Sense's alarm.
It was a song that seemed to reach deep into his soul, trying to make him fall under its spell.
The song also told him everything he needed to know about these three.
The beautiful sea monsters that sang sailors to their doom. Sirens.
Their beautiful voices were not the only reason why they were so successful at drawing in their prey. It was because they were shapeshifters who took on the appearance of someone from the memories of their targets.
They used this to draw in their prey, enchanting them with both song and familiarity.
For them to be able to find out appearances from their memories, they needed to read their targets' memories and their songs were meant to lull their targets and allow them to read their memories.
But Evan was someone who had just recently acquired Memory Reading resistance.
And the Sirens realised this in mere seconds, they couldn't read his mind.
So, they immediately switched their approach.
Their harmonious voices instantly grew harsh, and the melody transformed into a brutal cacophony, sending powerful sonic waves directly at him.
But Evan wasn't caught off guard. He'd fought Sirens in games before and Sonic attacks were a staple among them, so his ears were already stuffed with magic power from the moment he realised what they were.
The knockback also didn't affect him as his feet were frozen to the ocean surface and he had vertical void steps behind him to prevent his body from being blown away.
Without hesitation, he sent his Everlasting Chains toward the Sirens. They twisted through the air, binding each of the Sirens tightly and preventing them from diving beneath the waves to escape when they saw he was unfazed by the sonic attacks.
Evan dashed past them in a burst of speed, then he flicked the blood off his sword.
The Sirens' eyes widened in shock, but it was too late. The three Sirens' heads fell off their necks, and Evan returned his focus to his Exp farming plan.
'Oh, I have a new Skill Slot. I'm at 625 so it's not surprising.'
His gaze left the Available Skill Slots and landed on a particular skill. Elemental Gale.
"Time to put it to good use."
Raising his gaze, he caught sight of a ship where the demons had fallen, their bodies being tossed off the deck by Fish and Mermen.
Many other sea monsters prowled over the vessel, using the cannons to fire at other Demon Ships.
"That's not good."
Evan spoke as he activated Tempest Avatar. Then he remembered the idea he had earlier and decided to implement it now.
"Frostborne Colossus. Stout Guardian."
The air around him began chilling, coalescing into the sword-wielding construct of ice and then the shield-bearing knight construct rose beside it.
"Fu—sion! Ha! Pftt…hahaha!!!"
Evan held his stomach and laughed, but his commands were carried out and the three constructs fused.
Tempest Avatar wore the armour and wielded the shield of the Stout Guardian while brandishing the sword of Frostborne Colossus, crackling with frozen lightning and frosty mist.
"Tempest Avatar, Frostborne Colossus and Stout Guardian…what am I gonna call this combo?"
Deciding to leave that to the readers, Evan commanded the fused construct and it raised its blade, swinging it down and cleaving the ship in two.
**BOOMM!!!
The lightning reacted with the engines and the fuel exploded upon contact with it. The monsters aboard had only moments to react before they were swallowed by the sea, the ship sinking in two jagged halves that rapidly began to disappear beneath the waves.
But even as the ship fell into ruin, not all the creatures died.
Powerful sea monsters charged from the ruins, lunging at Evan with rage. He made the construct block their ferocious attacks with the Stout Guardian's shield.
Then, with a grin under his mask, he infused more power into both Mesarthim and Harbinger of Ice which was responsible for creating the Frostborne Colossus.
Then he swung it down, cleaving the sea monsters from the sky in a torrent of shattering ice and prismatic flames.
They fell like comets, their bodies scorched by prismatic flames, shattered by the frozen lightning, or torn apart by the sheer, overwhelming force of the strike.
'I should also give that slash a name. Mesarthim's flames + Frozen lightning.'
While thinking this, Evan surveyed the area, trying to find a perfect cluster of monsters that he could use for his plan.
He spotted a new wave of them emerging from the depths of the ocean in the distance and immediately dashed in that direction, his sword glowing in his hands.
Evan tore through any sea monsters in his path, sending aura slashes of ice, flames and lightning that burned and froze the creatures to ash and shards.
'Elemental Gale.'
The number of times Evan had used this skill was enough to be counted on one hand, but he never removed it.
"Vortex."
He activated his first Unique Skill, but instead of spiralling the energy around his sword like usual, he wrapped the whirling mass of energy around his body.
'Elemental Gale: Fire, Ice, Lightning.'
Setting the elements, the spiralling force of the vertical vortex swirling around him as he moved began to draw in both his elemental energy and the ambient elemental energy.
Within seconds, the combination of the two skills formed a raging cyclone of elemental energy, and Evan decided it was best to add a touch of Destruction Essence.
Fierce winds surged and the Vortex swirled wider, pulling in everything it touched.
He dove towards his target sea monsters and they were immediately caught in its powerful grasp, their bodies lifted from the ocean and hurled into the chaotic maelstrom.
They were torn apart by blades of wind electrified with lightning, frozen by jagged shards of ice, and seared by fire laced with the essence of destruction.
Even their souls couldn't escape, as the destructive essence within the storm ripped them apart.
Stronger monsters withstood the onslaught without dying, but they couldn't escape the fierce winds of the Elemental Gale skill that sucked them in.
Evan ran across the ocean, moving with such speed that he didn't need to form platforms beneath his feet.
His feet barely touched the surface, yet the force of his movements left waves trailing in his wake.
He blitzed forward, leaving multiple sonic booms behind him and gathering more and more sea monsters into the expanding vortex, hurling them into the merciless whirlwind.
The demons on nearby ships watched in awe, eyes wide with disbelief as the vortex grew, stretching higher and higher until it became a massive tornado, stretching up to the sky and visible for kilometres.
The monstrous tornado dominated the horizon, filled with the bodies of sea monsters—some weaker, some stronger than Evan himself—all swirling in a chaotic spiral of elemental energy.
From the Triton's Ark, the Demon Generals who were watching Arthur's battle also spotted the spectacle, turning their gazes to take in the scene.
Using Farsight spells to zoom their vision, they saw Evan at the centre of the devastating cyclone that ravaged the ocean surface, pulling in some of their own soldiers as well!
When the tornado reached its zenith, Evan leapt into the air, soaring above the vortex. He infused power into Harbinger of Ice and unleashed a massive wave of energy that froze the ocean beneath him in a radius of kilometres, grinding ships to a halt as the water solidified.
"I'm supposed to roar right now but that feels cringe so I'd just go ahead and toss 'em."
Saying that, Evan let go of his sword and gestured with his hands, turning the tornado he had created, hauling the monster-filled Vortex forward and slamming it down onto the frozen ocean.
The creatures within were flung against the ice, with many bodies shattering and breaking apart on impact.
Evan breathed heavily, looking at the frozen ocean and seeing his handiwork, but he wasn't done yet.
"Unforged!"
The sword flew into his palm and he grasped it tightly, infusing his power into it and enveloping it in a fusion of ice, destruction essence and prismatic flames.
The swirling energies crackled and pulsed along the blade in a volatile manner, radiating waves of raw magic through the air like a newborn star, teetering on the edge of life and destruction.
The notion of a star flickered through Evan's mind unbidden, accompanied by a soft, instinctive chant that surfaced from somewhere deep within him:
'My flames, born of a star, aid my sword to cleave the world, to burn even the divine.'
[IMPORTANT AUTHOR NOTE]