Blinding light filled the shrine ruin interior, forcing Theo and Tizmilly to protect their eyes with their hands.
Slowly, from the Magic Circle, tentacles were creeping out. Like a revived being, a massive octopus pushed its bluish body up. Its height reached the ceiling of the shine, almost 6 meters tall, with its tentacles spanning over the length of 10 meters.
The sudden appearance of the massive entity interrupted the stillness of water, creating a wave that forced Theo and Tizmilly to take some steps backward.
Once the light from the Magic Circle subsided, both parties locked eyes.
Tizmilly's face lost all color as she realized the height difference between them and the monster.
"What in the world is... That?" She muttered with a tired voice, she hadn't recovered her stamina spent fighting monsters when she was fighting monsters before.
"The Underwater King," Theo replied. He shrugged and placed his spear on his shoulder. "We need to defeat it first before we get the Aqua Rune."
Tizmilly's eyes became empty. "I see," she muttered, before looking at Theo like he had just deceived her into this hell.
Theo could only scratch his cheek and laughed awkwardly.
"S-sorry..."
The Underwater King slammed its tentacles down to the mossy floor of the shrine, showing its fury to the two humans.
It didn't give them time to breathe. Two tentacles whipped through the water, carried with it an overwhelming strength of a Boss-level monster and a big wave that could banish any weak beings.
Theo lunged to the left, grabbing Tizmilly's wrist just in time to pull her behind a thick stone pillar.
*CRASH!*
The pillar shuddered, cracks spider-webbing across its surface.
"Listen," Theo hissed, his casual demeanor finally sharpening into a warrior's focus. "I draw its attention to the north side, out of this shrine ruin. You see that glowing crown symbol on its head? That was its weakness. Focus your magic to attack it, and it will soon die in no time."
Tizmilly leaned against the vibrating stone, her breath coming on ragged gasps. "You know I didn't have much mana left, right? How can I launch any magic now?"
Theo flashed a quick, confident grin. "Don't worry. Even among other Irregular Monsters, Underwater King are special. Its presence alone fills the water surrounding it with abundant mana. You can recover your mana if you absorb it."
Before she could argue, Theo cast Levitation on himself and rocketed straight to the Underwater King, his spear glowed for a moment and synthesized a 1-meter stone on the tip.
"Eat this, big guy!"
The Underwater King was preparing its next attack when Theo swung his spear down to its body, shot out like a mini meteor.
That synthesized stone crashed with the rubbery shoulder of the Underwater King. That massive body was slightly pushed back, but the effect was not more than a bug's bite for an entity that big. The Underwater King roared—a low voice that shook the water and Tizmilly's lungs.
Tizmilly stunned briefly seeing Theo's recklessness. However, she realized something. The surrounding water now felt different; it felt warmer and was pulsating when making a contact with her skin. Theo was right. That monster's presence triggered an unbelievable mana anomaly that filled the surrounding area.
"Always making crazy plans... Mister Roost... You are really..." Whispered Tizmilly. She closed her eyes, spead her arms, and started taking a deep breath. She imagined her body as a sponge that was absorbing the overflowing blue enegies in that place.
Meanwhile, Theo was dancing all over the place.
"Come on, you cephalopod!" Theo shouted while maneuvering from crumbles walls, pillars, and rubbles, evading tentacle strikes that were enough to flattened steel. He purposedly leading it toward the north side, out of the brittle shrine ruin and away from the pillar where Tizmilly was hiding.
One tentacle came at Theo like a thunder. Theo twirled and shifted his weight, evading the tentacle and piercing its skin with his spear.
The wound enraged The Underwater King. It chased Theo, letting out a roar and swinging its tentacles even faster.
Theo jumping around, evading its tentacles while swinging and thrusting his spear when he got chances to counterattack.
He could deal more damage to the Underwater King if he used his powerful move, like Boulder Fall, as an example. But Theo refrained himself. He wanted use this chance to train Tizmilly.
'You can do this, Tizmilly. You just need to tweak your Magic a little.'
Tizmilly opened her eyes, her pupils vaguely glowed—a sign that her mana was recovered forcefully. She stepped out of the shrine and extended her palm toward the Underwater King.
"Ice Rose: Bust Prison!" She chanted.
Her mana reserve depleted once again in a worrying pace, all poured into a big Magic move—To grew tens of red ice rose vines that were thick and long enough to put a strain on The Underwater King's movement.
Ice Rose vines erupted out of the ground, straining The Underwater King's body and all of its eight tentacles. Thorns on the stalks made sure that it couldn't easily escape. However, even that was not enough, since cracks were speading everytime it struggle.
"Now, Mister Roost!" Yelled Tizmilly amidst ragged gasps. Casting such a big spell was a first for her. Her body overwhelmed and crying for rest. She would've been sleeping already if she was not currently in front of a giant octopus monster.
Theo responded with a thumb-up.
'Still not enough, but I'll give you a pass.' Inwardly, he evaluated Tizmilly's spell.
Kicked the ground, he launched himself up like a rocket. With Levitation casted on himself, he reached the height of 200 meters in no time.
He stopped there and cancelled the Levitation. Slowly, his body plummeted from the height. The speed of falling getting faster and faster. With the power of gravity, he became a meteor and pierced The Underwater King's body perfectly at the crown symbol glowing on its forehead.
With a loud, suppressed last roar, The Underwater King lost its life. After it became completely still, its body started to crumble into mana particles.
Tizmilly sighed relievedly and collapsed on her knees.
After waiting for a while, The Underwater King was finally disappeared, leaving behind it a deep blue, triangle transparent stone Theo collected afterward, which was the Agua Rune. The reason they even fight the Underwater King in the first place.
Standing at the place where the Underwater King was dead, Theo turned around and raised the stone to show it to Tizmilly.
"We got it, Tizmilly!" Said Theo, waving his hand with a smile on his face.
"Y-yes..." Tizmilly replied with a tired, but contended smile.
Theo walked toward Tizmilly while playing the Aqua Rune between his fingers and learning his spear on his shoulder.
"By the way, you spell just now was a new spell... Right? Did you create it on the spot?" He asked once he reached Tizmilly, looking at her curiously.
Tizmilly nodded in response.
"That's right. I realized that my normal spell wouldn't be able to affect a massive monster like The Underwater King, so I poured all of my mana on it and also attempted to make the vines as hard as I can."
"Hmm, indeed. That spell was strong. It was able to strained a giant monster like The Underwater King, after all. However..." Theo leaned on the wall of the shrine ruin and pocketed the Aqua Rune. "... I think you can do better, Tizmilly. As I had once said to you before, be creative is essential. Why didn't you try to attack it with your Magic instead of restraining it?"
"Attack it?" Tizmilly frowned and pondered over Theo's words, but she still looked uncertain. "But my Magic was not an offensive Magic."
Theo grinned.
"If that is so, then using the same logic, my Magic is also not an offensive Magic."
Tizmilly pursed her lips, clearly disagreed with his statement.
"How can that be true? You could kill your enemy in that overwhelming manner, attacking them like a comet."
Theo waved his index finger. "That was manageable only after I obtained Boulder Thrust. However, even without it, I could also use Levitation to throw my evemies to the air and let them fell to the death. And even then, what killed them was not my Magic, but gravity."
Tizmilly was never a slow-witted person, so after Theo said it all, she immediately got what he wanted to say.
"Do you mean that Ice Rose can also be used as an offensive Magic?"
His grin widened as Theo pointed his index finger toward Tizmilly. "Of course!"
Tizmilly looked at her palms. She cupped and uncupped her fists, feeling how weak she was feeling after she depleted her mana for that single spell previously.
What if I decrease the consumption? Or compacted the Ice more? Or even decreased the temperature? Ideas filled her mind. She suddenly able to see her Magic in a new perspective that was completely different than what she learned until now. That felt scary, but also free.
Tizmilly looked up at Theo's smiling face. A smile also slowly formed on her face. Warmth filled her chest.
After she saw Theo's battle back then when they were rescuing Timmy, she had tried to get stronger and started to train with her magic and sword harder than before. However, she always felt like she was stuck in place, lost and completely clueless how to improve herself.
Now she knew that she could really get stronger, and Theo himself had showed a path for her, she could finally resolved one of her biggest concerns.
"After we took a rest, let's summon another Underwater King. Since we were together, we need two Aqua Runes!"
At that time, suddenly, Theo threw a bomb to her front.
In that instant, the warmth she felt disappeared, replaced by deadly coldness.