Shadow Monarch: Heroines Could Hear My Thoughts?!

Chapter 93- Soul Eater Awakening (Part 2)

Elise's body was submerged in the deep water. She had never thought the predator was actually inside the lake and that it had long arms that could pull her in.

The more worrisome is the fact that she wasn't able to take a long breath before she was pulled into the water. Luckily, Elise's lungs were strong so even with the small breath she was able to take, it could easily hold on for a few minutes.

But, that few minutes will turn into one minute or one minute and a half when including the fact that she will have to fight whatever abomination was hiding under the water.

As she tried to resist the huge hand that grabbed her, her body was already tens of feet deep in the lake. The situation was getting worse and worse and Elise was still unable to get out of the firm grasp of the creature.

As she was like that, her eyes finally fell on the monster and her eyes widened for a moment.

'What in the hell... is that?'

The monster's head was massive, bigger than Elise's whole body by a lot. The creature had smooth white skin that looked almost like flour. Its body was glossy and shiny like a white mirror. From the form of its body and face, Elise could predict its body appearance.

All she can say is that it was eerily similar to the body structure of a human being with some creepy distortion around the waist, and the thighs. Its eyes were as deep as the abyss and as dark as the midnight sky. They were akin to two black holes of emptiness that could freeze the blood in anyone who look at them and its mouth was extremely wide, almost splitting its mouth into halves. Other than that, it had nothing else on its face, no nose, no eyebrows, and no ears. Just a mouth and eyes just like a scary mask. (A//N: for reference, search 'Ningen creature' it looks similar to it slightly. Be careful though, it looks scary for those with weak hearts :) )

[Man of The Lake]

[Rank: E]

[The man of the lake is a huge monster, known for its great strength and tough skin. The Man of The Lake can secrete a type of mucus that can increase the water level of lakes they live in and make it rise to the surface.]

Reading the description of the monster, Elise was even more disturbed by it. This creature was simply a nightmare in reality. Its appearance was simply too horrific and scary especially when half of its body is hidden in the darkness of the water.

As the hand got closer to the monster's face, it started opening its mouth ready to swallow Elise whole. The inside of its mouth was filled with teeth placed in rows of circles akin to the blades of a chainsaw.

'No, you don't.' With a calm face, she nudged her left arm a little bit as she clenched her sword. Then, with the tip of the sword, she pierced the monster's arm. Even though The Man of The Lake's skin is extremely tough, Soul Eater wasn't a normal sword at all. Its sharp blade could easily cut through that tough skin like butter.

The monster's blood oozed out of its arm and dissolved in the water. Luckily, that made the monster open its hand and allow Elise to quickly swim away.

'I need some air quickly!' She thought as she swam up at top speed. She barely had enough air in her lungs to reach the top. The lake was simply too deep and she was near the bottom of it so the journey to the top would take at least 30 seconds at top speed.

But, sadly for her, the hand of the monster extended again and tried to pull her down again.

'Screw off!'

*Swish*

With a swing of her sword, she made a deep cut in the creature's hand and made it retract it again from the pain. The eerie thing about all of this is that The Man of The Lake didn't make a single sound during all of this time. It was so quiet that if Elise couldn't clearly see its hand, she would've thought this was a normal deep lake with no monster hiding it.

*Swish*

Without waiting, she continued her journey to the lake's surface. Her lungs were already screaming for air and the pain of suffocation was starting to well up in her chest and throat. Luckily, water still didn't enter her body so she was still not threatened with drowning, for now at least.

*Swish*

A few meters before she could reach the top, she noticed something.

'The water surface… it's getting higher?' She asked herself as the realization dawned on her.

'It's increasing the water level so I can't reach the surface!' Clenching her teeth, Elise continued swimming up with all of her strength. She barely had 20 seconds at most before she was officially drowning. Yet, no matter how much she tried to close the distance, the water level kept rising and rising.

'This bastard. Tsk! Don't think I will fall easily.' Unleashing all of her aura, she used all of her mana to increase her speed. Now, Elise was swimming at the speed of a fish in the water even though she was a human. But, she didn't stop at that.

*BRRRR*

She also activated her new skill *Blink*. Instantly, she traveled a good distance in a second.

'I am close! Come on! Just one single breath.'

She just needed one single deep breath and she was sure she can fight the monster underwater in that period of time she had.

*BOOOM*

Her head finally appeared again on the surface and she quickly took a deep breath before she felt her body getting pulled down again by the monster.

The monster wasn't going to give up that easily even though it got hurt by Elise twice. The Man of The Lake was a very tenacious predator that wouldn't allow its prey to run away at all. It was a prideful creature by nature and losing its prey was akin to an insult to its pride.

*Swish*

Elise's eyes turned sharp as she brandished her sword and cut its hand again before swimming directly toward the monster.

'Take this.'

Slashing with her sword, a water wave quickly traveled toward the monster hitting it right in the face.

The monster's hollow eyes looked directly at the incoming attack and simply opened its mouth. From inside, Elise could clearly see a transparent liquid, very similar to the water around her oozing out violently splashing the sword slash.

'Tsk.' Clenching her teeth, Elise slashed successively as quickly as possible. She made sure to keep a good distance between her and the monster to be able to dodge any attack.

But, each slash was stopped by the mucus that the monster secreted endlessly. Meanwhile, it kept swinging its hand left and right trying to catch Elise. Luckily, it was quite slow so she was able to evade them fairly easily.

'I need to get close to it. This won't work.'

She had no other choice but to hit it up close or the monster will simply keep secreting its liquid.

So, with that in mind, she quickly swam down to the creature's level. Facing its deep and hollow eyes.

As she swam down, she opened her system panel on the side of her view while focusing on the monster.

[System Profile]

[Name: Elise Aviresion.]

[Class: Gravity Bender (First Phase)]

[Race: Human/ ???]

[Stats]

[Strength: F]

[Agility: F-]

[Dexterity: G-]

[Intelligence: E+]

[Charm: A+]

[Magic: F]

[Action Points: 6250]

[Skills: Gravity manipulation, Appraisal, Plot Detector, Blink]

'Put 2000 points into agility, system.' Elise ordered coldly.

[Understood.]

[2000 Action Points have been converted to agility stat.]

[Agility has increased from F- to E-]

[Due to the drastic increase in agility, the strength stat has been affected greatly.]

[Strength has increased from F to F+]

The moment that notification appeared, she felt a strong surge of unknown energy fills every pore of her body. Instantly, her speed increase drastically and she felt her muscles getting pumped with the power she had never felt before.

*Swish*

The sudden change in speed surprised the monster as it quickly tried to stop Elise. It brought its two hands and tried to crush Elise between them like a bug.

*Swish*

Elise quickly passed through the tight hole between the hands at the last moment before they smashed against each other and sent a strong airwave after her.

Her sword moved along with her as she slashed down with all of her strength. As she was about to hit the creature, it quickly opened its mouth to secrete the mucus and stop Elise.

But, before it could even do anything, Elise suddenly vanished and reappeared behind the monster.

'Predictable.'

*Swish*

A huge sword slash cut the monster's body as blood gushed out violently, dying the water in a crimson red color.

(A//N: the discord server is almost ready so I will probably share it tomorrow. Do please join it.)

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Thanks for reading. Any support you give me is always appreciated no matter how small it was. Let's all keep it up :)