Birth of the Demonic Sword

'Three Hammerhead sharks, all in the fourth rank, no pack.'

Noah judged the situation from his position over the shell.

'One of them seems stronger than the others, this might be troublesome.'

Noah was a rank 3 mage but his techniques and spells weren't that effective in that environment.

The Mental tremor spell was extremely useful against cultivators but magical beasts didn't have a sea of consciousness, the spell could make them stagger at best.

The complete Demonic form was effective but it was too powerful for him to safely use it on the shell of the turtle, it would surely damage his foothold as he fought.

'My dantian is halfway refilled, I don't know if it's worth to fight this time.'

Noah took back the "Breath" blessing and stared at the incoming sharks with a pensive expression.

'Is the leader in the middle tier?'

The strongest shark was two meters longer than the other two beasts, it seemed far stronger than them.

The fourth rank had tiers too, Noah had fought only beasts that were in the lower one alone and didn't know the actual battle prowess of the stronger ones.

'I would love to fight it if we were on the ground but here it doesn't feel like the right thing to do.'

He was still escaping after all, he could completely relax only after he reached the Coral archipelago.

'I'll take the weakest one with me and then resume my travel.'

Noah quickly decided and deployed his wings as he took the twelve meters large shell into his space-ring.

Then, he warped.

The three sharks seemed enraged by the sudden disappearance of the Sea turtle and began to swim circularly to see if they could pick some remaining traces of its corpse.

A black figure appeared over them at that moment, its two pairs of wings coupled with its fiendish form created the image of a demon descending on the surface of the sea.

'Demonic form! Second Form of the Ashura!'

Noah slashed with his most powerful attack at one of the weaker sharks, severing its hammerhead in one neat blow.

His hands moved quickly, the head of the beast was immediately stored in his space-ring and he was about to fly away when a dangerous feeling hit his mind.

Noah warped away, turning his head to look at what had caused that sensation.

A blade made of water cut where he was previously flying and continued to cross the sea for a few meters, Noah knew that the power behind that attack would have broken through the defenses of his spell.

His gaze went on the biggest shark, its eyes radiated anger as it redirected its attention to the black figure hovering in the distance.

'That beast reacted faster than I thought… The fourth rank is indeed vast.'

Magical beasts were similar to humans, they had different power levels according to their species and the tier they were in.

The leader of the sharks was stronger than its followers but Noah didn't imagine that it could react as soon as he attacked.

'The Sea turtle and the head of the shark should be enough to make some quick trade in the archipelago, I should just resume my travel.'

It was with those thoughts that he turned and flew toward the direction pointed in his map.

Behind him, the two sharks noticed that Noah was leaving and began to eat the drowning corpse of their companion.

.

.

.

Another month passed.

Noah had flown for the entire time without taking resting.

That time, however, his situation wasn't that bad: He had rested over the shell of the Sea turtle and his flight depleted only a small portion of his "Breath", his complexion was far better than before.

'Traces of life.'

His mental energy sensed some lifeform in the distance, that was the first change in his travel after he left the shell of the turtle.

Noah carefully changed his direction and flew toward those lifeforms.

Little by little, the shape of a ship became visible in the distance, Noah could see how its veils and hull had inscriptions all over their bodies.

'Humans!'

Noah neared the ship, the sailors on it were mostly cultivators in the first rank and they stared with wide eyes at his figure slowly descending on the main deck.

"Is there a captain?"

Noah asked in a loud voice, his manners were quite overbearing and resolute and his aura radiated part of his coldness.

"Who is asking!?"

A fat man with black curly hair came out from one of the lodgings below the deck, he was shirtless and held a golden cup as he walked on the deck.

Noah performed a simple bow before raising his head to speak some simple lies.

"I'm Zach, I come from the Shandal Empire and I'm on a journey to hone my skills. I wanted to reach the Coral archipelago with the help of my puppet but it seems that I've lost track of the right path. I wonder if you could help me."

Noah's attitude was straightforward and domineering, just like a soldier of the Empire.

Impersonating someone else had never been a problem for Noah, especially after living in the Odrea country for so long.

"My ship will return there in two weeks but we first have to finish our fishing route. Also, no one stays for free on my ship, I might give you a room if you help my sailors!"

The captain laughed as he spoke those words, he didn't seem to have much respect for his fake status.

'Are things different here? Maybe the society here has developed in ways that I'm unaware of.'

Noah took a few thousand Credits from his space-ring and handed them to the captain.

"Are these enough for your trouble?"

The captain looked at the crystals with wide eyes, the cup in his hand almost fell on the floor due to his astonishment.

"Y-yes yes, for sure, my Lord!"

That sudden change of attitude was unexpected, Noah couldn't help but think that he had misjudged the financial situation of those sailors.