Chapter 17: Ultimate Power

A furious crimson wave of flame erupted, shattering the confined space and unleashing an explosion of scorching fire. The visible shockwave swept outward, propelling the figure falling from the lighthouse away from the jagged rocks below, tracing an arc as he plunged toward the sea.

Li Nanke’s vision dimmed, a metallic taste rising in his throat, the blast leaving him feeling like a rag doll flung violently through the air. Amidst the haze of his senses, he knew he must not fall unchecked. Dropping fifty meters into the ocean, a poor entry would be no better than crashing onto concrete; even with the protection of the Sea’s Scale, such a fall could cause severe injury or unconsciousness.

Wind screamed past his ears, his sight blurred. Li Nanke forced his body taut and vertical, pointed his toes, pinched his nose with one hand, and shielded his groin with the other, striving for the smallest entry profile into the water. All of this happened in the span of three seconds.

A splash echoed as he hit the surface, quickly swallowed by a surging wave. Fortunately, his entry was safe, and the Sea’s Scale shielded him from serious harm.

The seawater was cold and dark, its depths oppressive and visibility low. The force of his fall carried him deep beneath the surface. Holding his breath, he shook his head to clear his mind, only to glimpse several blurred figures swimming rapidly toward him—alarmingly fast.

A jolt of fear struck his heart; despite the commotion above, not all the monsters had been drawn away. Some aberrant creatures still lurked beneath the waves. He was nearly out of ammunition, left with a small rifle barrel capable of firing twenty rounds, but even a powerful rifle was pitifully ineffective underwater. The resistance of water reduced the effective range to barely a meter, with lethal range under seventy centimeters; unless the muzzle pressed against the target, killing was difficult.

His mind raced in an instant. He poured all the source energy he’d harvested from slaying the monsters into the “Breath of the Lake.” The accumulated source energy within him flooded into the rune, causing it to blaze with light and flicker intensely.

With the infusion of energy, his lungs felt a chilling, eerie transformation. Tiny, dense gill filaments rapidly and temporarily grew at the ends of his bronchial branches, constructed from capillaries and covered in a thin membrane, efficiently absorbing oxygen from the water. A special mucus layer coated the filaments, protecting against invasive microorganisms and providing immune resistance.

[Trait: Breath of the Lake]
[Level: 5 (7%) → 10 (MAX)]
[You have activated the ultimate ability of this trait—Underwater Breathing!]

Suppressing the instinct to avoid breathing underwater, Li Nanke drew a deep breath, flooding his nose and lungs with seawater. He nearly coughed violently, but abruptly realized that, with his lungs filled, breathing was unexpectedly smooth.

Advancing from level nine to ten had consumed a vast amount of source energy, but after filling the Breath of the Lake, he still had some surplus. This alone hinted at how many aberrant monsters had gathered in the lighthouse.

He promptly funneled the remaining energy into the “Sea’s Scale” trait.

[Trait: Sea’s Scale]
[Level: 6 (81%) → 7 (9%)]

By now, several aberrant monsters had reached him, some wielding weapons, others sporting sharp claws at their fingertips and toes. Facing the incoming claws, Li Nanke gripped his serrated blade and slashed forward. The water’s resistance dulled the swing, causing the blade to jam halfway into the creature’s webbed hand.

His heart skipped—there was no time to turn. Pain seared his back as a native monster slipped behind him and raked its claws, tearing skin and drawing blood, though the claws scraped against something hard, producing a grating metallic screech.

He lashed out, kicking the attacker, leveraging the force to push himself into the arms of the enemy ahead. Raising his left hand, he pressed the rifle muzzle against the monster’s chest and fired.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bubbles exploded, blood burst forth and stained the water, and the enemy sank limply into the darkness below.

Li Nanke seized the moment to wrench free his jammed blade, twisting his waist and slashing across the neck of the assailant, then slicing open its chest and abdomen.

As he dispatched the immediate threat, three more monsters closed in. Underwater, their domain, his abilities were sharply limited. Gritting his teeth, he abandoned defense and attacked recklessly, trading wounds for wounds and life for life.

...

Li Nanke broke the surface, blood rising with him—his own and that of his foes.

Waves surged across the storm-lashed sea. Raising his eyes, he saw the lighthouse on the shore aflame, now a burning beacon, with monsters still massed around its base.

He dove under again, swimming swiftly beneath the pier.

Luckily, that damned steam wagon had finally finished preheating.

Li Nanke crept aboard, the shriek of high-pressure steam echoing across the docks, stirring the distant monsters into renewed frenzy.

With a cold smile, he cranked the piston valves to maximum, the armored wagon surging forward with a roar!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

With the force of high-pressure steam and thick steel armor, the steam wagon became a rampaging iron beast, smashing enemies aside like rag dolls! Flesh and bone scattered, tires crushed limbs, leaving trails of viscous blood in their wake.

Chunks of meat, hair, and blood splattered the armored hull and windshield, only to be washed away by the pouring rain.

Pistons at full throttle, scalding steam shot from the boiler, screaming as it fed the engine’s ferocity. No monster could withstand the onslaught of this mad iron beast.

The clash of steel armor and flesh, the crunch of shattered bones, the spray of blood—all combined in a symphony of slaughter, as the flower of carnage bloomed.

Seizing the moment before the monsters could regroup, Li Nanke turned the wagon, blasting a path through the encirclement with brute force.

Harpoons and spears flew, embedding in the armor but failing to halt the wagon, which accelerated away at breakneck speed.

Only a string of wild, triumphant laughter lingered in the rain.

Blood dripped from his brow, staining his vision, yet his eyes shone with exhilaration and joy.

A soul numbed by the darkness of reality and a nature long suppressed by terminal illness found rebirth and transcendence in this moment.

Li Nanke even felt that, compared to the sickening, rotten world he’d left behind, here was the only place he truly felt alive.

Alive so vividly, so completely, so... real!