Biohuman

Chapter 554 Feral Cave

Keng held one of the Hydrosphere daggers out to light the way as he stepped into the underwater cave. The ceilings were fairly high that anything that swam would easily pass through without any struggle. Marine life grew along the entire cave as Keng slowly made his way down. Because he had Hydrosphere, he had an easier time adjusting to the waters. Hydrosphere gave him the ability to breathe, traverse and fight underwater while Lily had to get a necklace blessed by the water Goddess to do any of those things.

'I wonder how she's doing.' Keng thought as he jumped off the edge without any hesitation. He slowly sunk down with the help of the water onto an uneven surface. The glowing light seemed to grow brighter down here. Was he getting close to it?

"Graaaa!" A Feral croaked. Keng killed the lights and lowered the dagger, slightly. His eyes adjusted to the dark fairly quickly, seeing the outlines of the cave in front of him. More Ferals cried out. The noises of something swimming in front of Keng made him tighten his grip on his daggers.

'It's coming towards me.' Keng thought.

"Graaaa…?" A Feral clicked.

'3… 2… 1…'

The Feral stopped short of being anywhere near him. It clicked and groaned, slowly looking around with its milky eyes.

'That's right…' Keng remembered. 'There's blind ones. This one isn't like the ones guarding the cave.' The Feral slowly turned, tentacles pushing it back towards where it came from. 'So what tipped them off if it wasn't the light?'

Keng pressed forward, slowly paying attention to the Feral nearby. It was aimlessly wandering. He had gotten a rundown on Ferals in the briefing, but Merfolk Leader Zax always told them to "not ever fight against a Feral if you don't have to." He wanted to learn more about Ferals. Maybe it was Lee Seng's habit with creatures rubbing off of him.

He followed the Feral for quite awhile, heading in the same direction of the strange light. It sang to him like a siren coaxing the unfortunate to their death.

"Graa!" Another Feral shrieked. Keng quickly stopped as a Feral swam out in front of him. The two Ferals stopped and began to talk to each other in the strange groaning, screeching, clicking noise. Keng carefully moved into the opening to his left, avoiding the Ferals as they talked.

'They're blocking the way forward…' Keng thought, turning to look down the new cave opening. It seemed to be a large opening that went on for awhile. 'I don't think I can go that way.' He turned to look at the Ferals. 'Are there more?' He listened for awhile, only hearing these two in front of him talk.

'I can just mark the spot I want to go to!' Keng smiled, moving closer to the Ferals. He glanced to his left and noticed an open spot thirty feet away. 'There. Mark.' A silver dagger appeared and with that came the Ferals disrupted conversation.

"GRAA!" The Ferals shrieked, turning towards the mark.

'Shit. They can detect energy?' Keng watched the Ferals move over to the spot that was marked. They flung their tentacles at the spot, slamming the rocks. Keng gulped. 'If that's the case…' He turned and randomly put another Mark down. The Ferals screeched, turning around and rushing to the next spot.

'I'm good at this!' Keng smiled, starting to go left when clicking noises came at his ear.

"GRAAA!" A Feral swung their tentacle at Keng, slamming into the cavern wall as he jumped out of the way.

'Crap! The shrieking from those two alerted more!' Keng spun and lit the area up. The three Ferals were coming at him, all shrieking. The closest on lifted its tentacles up and pointed it at Keng. An ink-like substance flew out at Keng, splattering across his arm as he jumped out of the way.

The Ferals shrieked, their heads turning to face him. Keng tried to remove the ink-like substance from him.

'Ah! Why won't it—'

"GRAA!" Tentacles shot out, wrapping around him. One of the Ferals had gotten him! The Feral began to reel Keng in as the others turned, seemingly knowing where he is.

'Displacement 1!' Keng flashed out of the hold of the Feral, appearing at his mark behind him. The Ferals turned to look at him.

'It's this ink! It's like some sort of detector for enemies!' The blindness from these Ferals were their natural weakness and they seemed to create some sort of ink to compensate for that. And what's more scary, they could detect Keng's energy use! Keng flexed his arm and watched as the ink flew off of him. Spots of skin were still stained with the ink as the Feral rushed forward.

"GRAAA!" Tentacles flew out at Keng as he dodged them. They slammed into the ground and walls as Hydrosphere's aura shimmered brighter.

"I guess we're fighting!" Keng told Hydrosphere.

[Hydrosphere's Blessing is on.]

[Notice: Your Gravity ability has evolved!]

'What? Why didn't you say that to me when I evolved?!?' Keng asked, jumping and dodging out of the way without regard to being submerged in high pressured waters.

[You never asked.]

Keng clicked his tongue as tentacles shot out and landed an attack. The other two Ferals fired their tentacles out as Keng sliced off the tentacles holding him.

"GRAA!" The first Feral shrieked, reeling its cut tentacles back. It wasted no time, instantly healing it. Keng jumped out of the way, narrowly dodging the quickening tentacles. The second Feral clicked and swam forward.

[Notice: Gravity has evolved into Cosmos. Would you like a breakdown?]

'Gimme the summary!' Keng thought. 'Energy Siphon Slash!' Three silver energy slashes flew out. The two flew past the second Feral while the third one hit it directly on.

[Cosmos allows the user to bend the cosmos to their will. Just like gravity, you have access to the space and stars in the sky.]

'Interesting! Let's see what we can do with it!' Keng slid backwards, his aura igniting in Silver light as stars and black space began to twinkle into existence around him.

"Whoa!" Keng gasped. His senses kicked in, telling him to dodge. He jumped away, dodging the first strike as the second strike of tentacles slammed against him, sending him flying.

[Twin Sun Form has combined with your Cosmic energy, strengthening it! Altered form: Starry Sun has been unlocked!]

Keng slid twirling the daggers in his hand.

[Notice: Cosmic energy is building…]

"What does that mean?" Keng whispered. The Ferals flew at him. The second one led the way, a mere scratch on it. Keng clicked his tongue and pulled energy into his Hydrosphere daggers. "Altered God Weapon Art: Waves of Fury!" Keng flew forward, leaving a Mark at his spot as he slashed at the second Feral. The altered weapon art turned offensive, pulling the water around it as a fury of slashes flew out from a single strike. Keng striked four more times, before slashing two strikes at the first and third Ferals.

"Mark 2!" Keng appeared fifty feet behind them, noticing more Ferals were on their way.

[Feral has been slain! 12 souls have been gained!]

'These have more soul value?!?' Keng thought. He quickly lifted his right hand up and pointed it at the Ferals nearest to him. Cosmic energy bubbled as it fused with Keng's Devouring. It blasted forward in arced bolts, slamming and covering the area in smoke.

"Gra!" The fourth Feral lashed its tentacle out. Keng threw up a barrier, watching as a strange purple energy flew out of it, sapping the shield.

[2 Ferals have been slain! 24 souls have been gained for a total of 36/10,000 souls!]

"God Weapon Art: Waves of Mercy!" Water wrapped around the starry shield, reinforcing it as Keng watched Ferals surround him. He was a sitting duck amongst predators. A smile grew on Keng's face. If any of his training taught him anything, he liked stacked odds.

"I've been wanting to try this on someone!" Keng shouted as tentacles slammed against the starry-water barrier. He pulled his right hand in, twirling his dagger downward as he stuck out two fingers. "Let's see if it actually works!"

Energy began to billow out of him as it swirled. The water and cosmic sea of stars were spinning around him as Keng closed his eyes. The Starry Sun form began to flicker like flames.

"Resonance." Keng whispered. The energy pulled into his Fox core. The fiery feeling of the core began to burn Keng. He gritted his teeth and tried his best to steady his breathing. The fire built and built, suddenly bursting outwards. His fox tails turned from a silver furry-energy form to a cosmic blanket of stars. In each tail, two suns hung high in the sky of the tails, one silver and one gold.

[Resonance state has been achieved.]

Keng opened his eyes, a smile growing on his face. He spun the dagger in his right hand and held it at his side.

"Now, it's time to test out some new tricks."