Chapter 438: Wind VS Water Part 2

The Leviathan had stopped treating Talon like prey.

Ethan realised it when the enormous water dragon’s movements changed. The curiosity that had coloured its earlier attacks vanished from its giant eyes, replaced by a cold, calculating focus. Its colossal body rolled beneath the waves, dark-blue scales glimmering as it turned to face the Griffin hovering above the ocean.

The creature had finally acknowledged the threat in front of it.

An A Rank beast with vibrant green feathers and a body that seemed almost delicate beside the Leviathan’s immense frame.

The Griffin might have looked like an inexperienced fledgling next to the ancient-looking water dragon, but its speed, its vision, and the cutting force of its wind had already proven that appearances were deceiving.

The Leviathan wasn’t going to make that mistake again.

It sank beneath the surface, its enormous body disappearing into the depths. Around Talon, the waves gradually settled. The ocean grew unnaturally still, stretching toward the horizon like a sheet of glass.

Talon hovered above it, its wings barely moving as it studied the water below.

Then the sea erupted.

The Leviathan surged upward, its colossal head bursting through the surface with enough force to launch a mountain into the sky. Its jaws snapped shut where Talon had been a fraction of a second earlier, while its enormous tail swept through the air behind it.

Talon accelerated.

The Griffin shot upward in a streak of emerald feathers, narrowly clearing the Leviathan’s teeth. The shockwave from the monster’s ascent struck it a heartbeat later, sending it tumbling sideways.

Yet Talon recovered almost immediately.

The Griffin’s wings snapped open, catching a current that redirected its momentum. It twisted through the air and shot past the Leviathan’s head before the water dragon could bring its jaws around.

Its claws raked across the monster’s neck.

SHRAK!

A handful of scales shifted, leaving pale scratches across the dark armour.

That was all.

The Leviathan barely reacted. It simply turned its enormous head toward Talon, its slitted eyes following the Griffin with unsettling precision.

Then the ocean answered its gaze.

A torrent erupted from the surface, racing toward Talon with enough force to pulverise stone.

Talon twisted sideways.

The water missed by a hair.

Before the Griffin could escape, another wave rose behind it, followed by a third from below. The Leviathan wasn’t merely throwing water in Talon’s direction. It was anticipating where the Griffin would move and attacking those positions before it arrived.

‘That’s one smart overgrown water snake.’

Ethan’s stomach tightened.

The Leviathan had recognised that raw power alone wouldn’t guarantee victory. It was combining its intelligence with its mastery of water, turning the entire ocean into a weapon designed to counter Talon’s greatest advantage.

But Talon wasn’t an ordinary A Rank beast either, and it wasn’t going to be defeated as easily as Storm and Wolfy.

Its eyes tracked every movement of the surrounding water, catching ripples and shifts in pressure that Ethan could barely perceive. Even when the Leviathan vanished beneath the surface, Talon seemed to know where it would emerge.

The Griffin folded its wings and dropped between two converging torrents.

It passed through the narrow gap before the water could close, then shot upward so quickly that the air cracked in its wake.

‘Damn son.’

Ethan could barely follow it.

Talon had always been fast, but its evolution had transformed that speed into something absurd. Its movements were no longer simply quick. They were precise, almost impossible to predict, with every turn flowing into the next as though the Griffin could see the battlefield a heartbeat ahead of everyone else.

And its vision made that speed even more dangerous.

Talon wasn’t blindly dodging.

It was reading the battlefield, spotting the smallest openings and reacting before the Leviathan’s attacks could fully develop. This was all while it was gauging the limits of its body after evolving.

The Griffin swept past the water dragon’s crown and struck again.

SHING!

One scale cracked.

Talon immediately angled away, escaping a snapping jaw that could have swallowed its entire body.

The Leviathan’s eyes narrowed.

Its enormous body began to coil beneath the water, drawing the ocean into a widening spiral. The current dragged against Talon’s wings, disrupting the airflow and pulling the Griffin off course.

For the first time, Talon’s acceleration faltered.

The Leviathan rose.

Its head emerged first, followed by its immense neck and a section of its body so enormous that the Griffin looked insignificant beside it. Water poured from its scales in cascading sheets.

Talon attempted to climb.

The Leviathan was already moving.

Its head slammed into the Griffin’s underside.

BOOOOM!

The impact sent Talon hurtling skyward.

Its wings folded involuntarily, and its body spun through the air before crashing into the ocean. The surface split beneath the Griffin’s weight, carving a trench through the water.

Ethan’s heart lurched.

‘Talon!’

A moment later, the Griffin burst back into the sky.

Its feathers were torn, its breathing came in heavy bursts, and one wing trembled as it fought to maintain altitude. Even the wind surrounding its body flickered whenever it attempted to accelerate.

But thankfully it was still alive, and it definitely hadn’t given up.

The Leviathan, meanwhile, looked almost untouched and far from being tired.

‘That bastard is ridiculously durable.’

But Ethan could see that it had also suffered some injuries, and the lingering damage from his ultimate attack couldn’t just be ignored. Not that he could help in any way, with his body destroyed and his mana drained, leaving him struggling to keep afloat.

All he could do was watch two A Rank beasts tear apart the surrounding ocean.

‘This still isn’t looking good.’

Talon’s attacks were powerful enough to crack the Leviathan’s armour, but not enough to penetrate it. Meanwhile, the Leviathan could attack from beneath the water, manipulate the currents, and use its immense body to deliver blows that Talon couldn’t afford to take.

The Griffin needed an opening, something it could exploit before the Leviathan overwhelmed it.

However, before it could find it, the Leviathan found one first.

The ocean suddenly rose.

But instead of striking the Griffin with torrents of the ocean, it gathered immense amounts of water and surrounded Talon. It gathered and formed a compressed sphere that enclosed the Griffin from every direction. The currents began rotating, faster and faster, until the giant water prison became a churning mass of crushing pressure.

Talon spread its wings and unleashed furious gusts of wind, trying to break free.

The sphere distorted slightly.

An opening appeared.

The Griffin shot straight towards it, but the Leviathan quickly reacted. A torrent of water slammed into Talon’s back, throwing it into the centre of the sphere.

Ethan felt his blood run cold.

The Leviathan was taking away the Griffin’s greatest advantage.

Its freedom to move.

And if Talon couldn’t escape, its speed wouldn’t matter…