It seemed dipping its hands into the water was enough to arouse a reaction from its kin.

Fourteen grotesque fish-monsters poked their heads out of the water.

A squad of them had been woken up from their slumber when they sensed one of their own was in trouble. Bloodlust flashed in their unblinking eyes when they saw the faint bloodstain a few steps away from Kai and Matilda.

Bloodstain from one of their own.

One by one, the fish-monsters jumped out of the water and landed on the mud.

Kai lowered his stance and clenched the scimitar in his right hand harder, and the black blade gleamed with mana. The air stills as the fish-monsters encircle them from all sides, spinning their tridents like a martial artist.

It was a worrying sight.

"Are you confident we can take out this many?" Matilda asked.

Her question made her seem doubtful, but her tone sounded like this would be a breeze.

"Maybe," Kai nodded and eyed her sharply. "As long as we cover each other’s backs."

"Then we’ll fight," Matilda nodded, and her shield also shimmered. "Attack on my signal."

Kai braced himself to fight, but his eyes slid to a particular fish-monster that was the last one to come out of the murk. It was way bigger. Its frame corded with muscle, and the trident it carried radiated a biting edge similar to an enchanted weapon.

And unlike the others, it simply climbed out of the water without any kind of theatrics.

A deliberate slowness which was proof of its confidence in its strength.

It was the Awakened Monster that could properly test out his scimitar, without a doubt.

Just the thought made his heart pound in excitement.

Before the fist-monsters made their moves, Matilda had made the signal.

She raised her glowing shield up and then brought it back down hard, stabbing the pointy edge into the mud. The impact detonated outward in a concussive blast of golden energy. And the fish-monsters’ bodies visibly locked.

Stunned by the blast.

Kai was surprised to see this, as she had never used this ability before.

And that can only mean Athena has blessed her with another imprint.

"Now!"

Her roar snapped him back to reality.

Kai slid right, boots gripping the slick terrain firmly, making the slippery terrain almost utterly irrelevant. His scimitar flashed in a wide arc—two heads severed clean, tumbling from their shoulders before the bodies even staggered.

The blade hummed in his hand while the red sheen pulsed in the rhythm of his heart.

Blood splattered onto his hand as the scimitar stabbed into the body of the third fish-monster right when it regained motoric control over its body. He sliced sideways, opening a big wound for its intestines to spill out.

He could hear the painful squeal that came out of the fish-monster’s mouth.

Saw it reaching for its intestines, trying to keep them from coming out.

Another slash ended its agony as its head rolled.

Before he could recover, the fourth fish-monster was already on him. The trident hammered into his side with a sickening crack. Blood climbed to his mouth, assaulting his taste buds with a coppery tang.

He forced it back down, clenched his jaw, and drove his hand into the mud.

Clawing for grip, to halt his slide before he got himself cornered.

His eyes stole a glance at Matilda.

She was tackling the fish-monsters on the left side.

Despite only having a shield as her weapon, it doesn’t make her less dangerous.

A swing from the shield cracked the skull of a fish-monster with a thunderous crack, snapping its head sideways. Its senses short-circuited as it stumbled and spun, suffering a severe sensory mismatch that left it open for a finishing strike.

Matilda seized the chance.

Her fist drilled into its head and pushed, slamming it to the ground.

Its head exploded like a watermelon on impact, splattering the mud—and the body bounced off the swamp floor like it was made of rubber. Even though Kai knew that her strength was monstrous, it seemed she had gotten stronger again.

Both of them are winning.

Kai’s lips curled a little as he pushed forward.

His scimitar flashed with dark energy as he swung.

Seeing how lethal the scimitar was, capable of slicing through skin and bone easily, the fish-monster blocked it with its trident. The force was strong, but it was nothing that its monstrous body couldn’t handle.

A rush of dark energy blasted the moment it was trying to counterattack.

Its world shifted suddenly.

Something was wrong.

The fist-monster tried to move, but its legs wouldn’t answer. An odd numbness had replaced everything below its waist. Then its torso slid, toppling backward into the mud, eyes fixed on the swamp’s canopy above.

Only then did it understand—the dark energy had already cut it into two.

Even though it blocked Kai’s swipe, the Dark Discharge got it.

Five remaining fish-monsters around them.

Realizing that they couldn’t beat Kai and Matilda if they attacked one by one, the fish-monsters changed their approach. They shifted and paired up. Matilda caught a brutal swing with her shield, but the second attack already swept her legs from under her, dropping her to the mud hard.

She cursed under her breath, and her golden eyes widened when she saw the fish-monster.

It was already coming down from above, pointing its trident down to impale her.

In the nick of time, she rolled, avoiding the trident and climbed back to her feet expertly.

On the side, Kai was already fighting on two fronts. He parried a trident and caught another attack sweeping in, forcing him to lift his leg to avoid it. A vicious kick struck his ribs from his exposed side, forcing a grunt out of his mouth.

His body curled involuntarily.

Before he could draw breath, a trident was already airborne, hurtling toward him with speed.

It only gave him a second to react, but he managed to lift his scimitar to block it.

But he didn’t put enough strength.

The trident raked across his shoulders, and his back slammed against something.

It was Matilda’s back—she was also being pushed back.

"Aren’t they supposed to be monsters?! They could adapt and work together!"

"I don’t know! But it’ll be stupid to separate again!"

Kai and Matilda made the decision to become a single creature on the killing floor.

Both pressed their backs together without a word, and suddenly the chaos of five foes moving in paired waves became a pattern they could read. Matilda’s shield snapped up to catch a fast-swinging trident, and her bare hand shot sideways and seized a second weapon by the shaft.

Kai was already moving through the opening she’d made.

A blade slipped under her arm to stab deep into one belly, then withdrew in a tight arc with speed before slashing across the other before the fish-monster could wrench free. Each move was precise, and now, two were sent staggering back in pain.

Another pair surged in.

Matilda ducked low and rapped her knuckles hard against the face of her shield.

It was a signal for Kai to strike it, and he did.

His scimitar struck the metal, and the concussive blast rang outward like a thunderclap.

Both fish-monsters were stunned by the wave mid-charge, but still tried to attack.

In the ringing silence that followed, they moved.

Back-to-back, spine kissing spine, they rotated. Kai ducked, and Matilda’s shield swept over him to intercept a blow aimed at his blind side. A trident thrust at her hip from an unnatural angle, and Kai’s boot hooked her leg, pulling her into a half-turn that let his scimitar take the fish-monster’s throat.

They flowed around each other like two currents in the same river.

Despite their quick movements, their limbs never tangled. And never hesitated.

As though each knew the other’s body better than their own.

Perhaps it has something to do with them already fighting to the death once, and now, their bodies could synchronize perfectly. The last fish-monster lunged for Kai’s exposed flank, but he didn’t turn.

He simply dropped a hand to his waist and bent his knee.

Matilda, seeing the gesture, immediately stepped onto his bent knee and launched herself at the fish-monster, slamming a shield into its face with the weight of their shared momentum. Its head cracked open against the shield as it dropped to the mud with a wet splash.

Both straightened their spines, but when they turned, they saw a trident.

Its head was coated with water.

The biggest fish-monster already threw itself straight at them.

On guard against all kinds of attack, Kai and Matilda leaned away, avoiding the trident.

However, the water clinging to the trident’s head suddenly surged forward, solidifying into a spinning disk that stopped the fish-monster’s momentum. It stopped right beside them. Kai and Matilda faltered, not expecting this to happen.

And the big fish-monster took that chance.

It pivoted mid-air into a vicious circular kick that cracked against both their faces in a single sweeping arc.

Kai stumbled to the side and fell into the mud.

His world was spinning.

Blood forced its way out of his mouth through a cough as he reached for his face, feeling the spot that got struck by the kick stinging, not throbbing. Kai hissed, realizing his skin swelled. "Acid water? What in the underworld?"

He pivoted and saw the fish-monster was standing like a statue.

A stream of water coiled around its trident like a serpent, signifying that it has water affinity.

Not a regular water affinity.

"Its water affinity has an origin," Matilda’s shout cut through the air—pulling Kai’s gaze to her. An angry red patch spread across her cheek where the kick had landed. Worse than Kai’s, as he has the Inner Strength of Stone to weaken the acid. "We need to be careful."

Kai nodded his head and rose.

Even the Permafrost Gloves that he had used were already really strong despite only having an ice property with no origin. He could only imagine how strong this fish-monster’s water affinity was if it had an origin.

Good. Really good.

Kai’s lips curled as he squatted down and then blasted forward.

Swoosh—!

He swiped his scimitar, but missed.

The big fish-monster leaned back a little, avoiding the blade narrowly without much difficulty.

But Kai wasn’t aiming for it.

Clang—!

Kai’s scimitar struck Matilda’s shield, and the golden concussive blast detonated again. It has a worse effect on the big fish-monster compared to the normal ones, but enough for Kai to dash back and sneak in a slash that raked across its chest.

A cut that seemed to stun the big fish-monster.

It underestimated Kai, and now, the Fatal Whispering Wound has affected it from the cut.

"Oh, I love that imprint of yours," Kai howled as he stopped and turned, taking pleasure in seeing the fish-monsters stumble and spin. And now, it even affects the big fish-monster. "That was really good, give me another!"